The Keeper

Chapter 53

I listened to Young Girls by Bruno Mars, Kindergarten Boyfriend from Heathers and Morph by Twenty One Pilots.

Ops on Trench?

And sorry for the late update - I was travelling so didn't have much time to write. But here we go!

Please vote and comment <3

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Life at Hogwarts slowly dwindled to a steady pace as the summer approached. It was a very welcome relief from the bucketloads of work I had become accustomed to. The professors even became more lenient, which is what surprised me the most. They were as tired as we were, especially after the incident with Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

As such, Professor Sprout let us have the last ten minutes of the lesson to do whatever we wanted (within reason). She wouldn't hesitate to scream at us if we messed with one of her plants.

Sasha had decided to spend some time with Felix, something I was not going to protest against. So I found Oliver and asked him to stroll around the greenhouses with me.

"Looking back, the year has completely flown by," Oliver remarked as he took my hand.

"I know what you mean," I said. I swung our hands comically, making him smile. "When Gillian and all that was happening, it felt like it was never going to end. But here we are."

"Here we are," he echoed. "And I'm so happy with the way everything turned out. Gillian is out of the picture, Aleeza and Louise are finally a couple, Sasha and Felix might as well be a couple... and then there's us."

"I love you, Oliver," I said, resting my head on his shoulder.

"I love you."

I couldn't keep the smile off my face as we continued meandering around the greenhouses. Occasionally, we pressed our faces to the glass to have a quick look inside. Some plants looked rather intimidating while others I recognised from earlier years.

Herbology was the last lesson of the day so once it and dinner finished, I returned to the Ravenclaw common room with my friends to unwind a bit. I was curled up against Oliver's side on the loveseat, tracing patterns on his palm. The heat from the fire tickled my bare feet.

"Are you going anywhere cool for the holiday?" Sasha asked. She was sitting next to Felix.

"It's my parents' anniversary so we're going to Norway where they got married," Louise answered, a brightness in her eyes. "I've never been before so I'm really looking forward to it."

While the others started describing their holiday plans, my mind drifted to thoughts of the following school year. I wondered how different, and hopefully less dramatic, things would be. I suppose we'd all be too preoccupied with the terrifying prospect of graduation to stir up some drama.

Then this led me to think about what my life would be post-Hogwarts. It was a scary thought - I had no idea what to expect. Of course, I had my dream of becoming a healer which could be on the cards thanks to my exam results. I knew Oliver wanted to play for Puddlemere United more than anything. Would our careers spread us apart? Would we even be together?

"Y/N," Oliver whispered, snapping me from my train of thought. "You're lost in your thoughts again."

"I am."

"What were you thinking about?" he asked, fiddling with strands of my hair.

"The future," I said. "Our future."

"How you're going to be the best healer the world's even seen?" Oliver said. I swatted his hand. "I'm being honest."

"Maybe I'll end up treating the bruised egos of the people you demolish in quidditch," I replied in an attempt to turn to conversation. "Nobody can convince me that you're not going to play for Puddlemere. Keep your self-deprecation to yourself because I'm right."

Biting back a response, Oliver raised his hands in mock surrender. I was happy he was finally starting to see his true potential.

"Hey guys, do you think we'll still be friends after Hogwarts?" I said, addressing the group.

"Of course!" Louise stated immediately. "We're all so close now. Unless one of us suddenly changes to some dark alter-ego, I don't see why we would ever stop being friends."

The others chimed in with their agreements and I beamed. It was touching to see how much faith we all had in our friendship.

After the excessively deep conversation about our futures, we decided it was best to go to bed. We had been talking so long that the moon was already high in the night sky.

Oliver wrapped me in a hug and kissed the top of my head.

"Good night," I said, my voice slightly muffled by his maroon jumper.

"Good night, Y/N."

He kissed me softly before leaving the common room, a light blush on his cheeks.

My head was still buzzing with dreams, plans and aspirations as I slid under my duvet. The others were trying to sleep but there was still something on my mind.

"Do you think Oliver and I will be together for the rest of our time at Hogwarts?" I asked tentatively.

Aleeza scoffed. "Well, yeah."

Sasha started to make out with her pillow. She pulled away to say, "Call me naïve, call me stupid, but I genuinely think you might've found the one, Y/N. Genuinely."

Sasha's sentence was swirling through my thoughts when I fell asleep, a smile on my face.