497. Chapter 497
“I’ll be seventeen, Maggie, I could do it, I’ll be old enough by the time they put the Goblet out.”
Their legs are intertwined in their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, chocolate frogs leaping off the windows and, occasionally, off of their shoulders, because I don’t like eating them, Danvers, I like setting them free instead.
Maggie shifts so their bodies are closer. She shifts so she can stroke Alex’s hair easier.
“And I support you, Danvers. All the way, you know I do. Ride or die doesn’t end with the Triwizard Tournament. I just… people have died, Danvers.”
“Oh come on, Maggie, don’t try to tell me you wouldn’t put your name in if you were old enough – “
“Of course I would, Alex, but… But people have died, and I know you won’t, because if you died, I’d kill you, but – “
“Says the Hufflepuff who wants to set the chocolate frogs free – “
“Retorts the Slytherin dating that exact Hufflepuff,” Maggie doesn’t miss a beat, and they devolve into a soft series of giggles.
Kara passes by their compartment door and waves enthusiastically.
“I’m going to find Lena!” she mouths, and Maggie gives her an over-enthusiastic thumbs up.
“Does Kara know? That you want to put your name in?”
Alex sighs. “She’s less happy about it than you. But I mean, you’re both assuming I’ll get chosen – “
“Well, who the hell else would from our school, Danvers? Lord? Hell no. Maybe Dig or West, and is Allen old enough? Queen? Olsen? But no, good as they all are? Please. You put your name in, you’ll be chosen. Guaranteed.”
Alex blushes. “You… you really think so?”
Maggie bites her lip at her suddenly timid Slytherin, and she checks outside the compartment window before leaning in for a kiss that Alex meets eagerly. Maggie sighs into their kiss, into the way Alex’s hands rise to tangle in her hair.
When they finally part, when they finally bring their foreheads together to breathe, Maggie speaks soft, and slow, and genuine, right into Alex’s eyes.
“I know so. You’re brilliant and you’re brave and you’re kind and you’re cunning. You’re the best of all the Houses, Alex. The best of all of us. The Goblet would be stupid not to spit your name out.”
Alex grins lopsidedly. “Don’t go telling anyone about the kind thing. I have a reputation to uphold, Sawyer.”
They both jump as the compartment door slides open with a slight bang.
“Don’t bother disentangling, you two, it’s only me.”
“Hey Sara,” they say in unison, Maggie getting up to hug the Gryffindor fifth year and Alex staying down and offering a friendly nod, a friendly – and extremely elaborate – handshake they’d devised last year. Sara giggles and Alex’s lopsided grin grows.
“So you’ve heard, I take it. About the Triwizard Tournament?”
Alex nods and Maggie bites the inside of her cheek.
“Oliver gonna enter? Dig?”
Sara shakes her head. “Ollie’s not gonna be old enough in time, and Dig’s still thinking about it. Wish I was old enough, damn. You’re putting your name in, right, Danvers?”
Alex glances at Maggie, and Sara hums.
“Trouble in inter-House paradise?” she asks with raised eyebrows.
“No, not at all. You know I’m ride or die for this one, and if she puts her name in, I’ll train with her until I can’t anymore. And I’ll be her date for the Yule Ball, take her mind off her heroics for a night.”
She’s talking more to Alex than to Sara, and Alex’s heart swells at the same time as her stomach flips at the image of Maggie being her date for the Ball. “I just love her too much to be terribly over-eager about seeing her fight dragons and stuff.”
Alex blushes and Sara leans in. “You trying to tell me you wouldn’t be turned on by seeing your woman overcome a dragon in front of the entire school?”
“Don’t worry, babe, I’d figure out a way to do it without hexing the poor guy.”
“Danvers, a single person can’t hex a – well, you know what, if anyone could do it, you could. If anyone can win this safely, you could. My Alex Danvers.”
“Yours. No Triwizard Tournament will ever change that, Mags.”
Sara’s eyes flicker between theirs as they steal each other’s breath, and she grins, slaps her hands on her thighs, and stands.
“Alright, well. I’m clearly the pygmy puff here, so I’m gonna go find that Smoak girl. She’s probably with Schott and Ramon, you think?”
“Oh, definitely.”
Sara grins at them, leaning on the compartment door on her way out.
“You’re both still cute,” she winks before sauntering off, letting the door shut behind her.
“We are, aren’t we?” Alex scrunches her nose in a way she doesn’t let anyone see except her sister and her girlfriend.
Maggie giggles and kisses it.
“Yeah, we are. And when we get to the castle, we’re gonna get working on your Patronus charm. I know your depression makes it pretty hard, but if we keep working on it, I know you’ll be the best at it in no time.”
Alex grins, tears shining in her eyes.
“So you’ll really help me train? If I get chosen?”
“When you get chosen. And yeah. Yeah, I will. Always, Alex. Always.”
Alex beams, and Maggie smiles, and they barely stop kissing until Kara bangs on their compartment door with screwed-shut eyes to tell them to get changed.
Because they’re almost at the castle.
And it’s going to be a very exciting year.