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“Lovie, I don’t know about this,” whispered Lavender blindly, head turning frantically as she let Parvati drag her through the dark hallway by the hand.
“Lav, come on,” Parvati whispered. “You’ll love this, I swear.”
“I’m sure I will, but if the Carrows catch us-”
“Well, they definitely will if we keep talking, just hush! Let me deal with everything,” Parvati shot back, pulling Lavender around a corner after making sure the coast is clear.
The two girls made their way through the silent castle hurriedly, robes whipping at their pajama clad ankles. Their closest call is near the Ravenclaw common room, when the Grey Lady emerges from one of the walls, but she drifts eerily past them, either not knowing or not caring that there are students out of bounds after dark. Soon, Parvati is guiding Lavender up the winding steps of the Astronomy Tower, their footfalls echoing in the enclosed space.
At the top of the tower, Parvati paused, squeezing Lavender’s hand with one of hers, and drawing out her wand with the other.
“Alohomora,” she whispered, directing her wand at the mahogany door’s lock, which sprung open with a satisfying click. They moved into the space softly, letting the door close behind them as they surveyed their surroundings. Apart from several telescopes, they were alone.
Parvati guided Lavender to the nearest telescope and conjured a velvety blue cushion before it, big enough for both of them to sit on. Lavender’s eyebrows knit together on her forehead as she looked around at Parvati, taking a tentative perch on the cushion. Parvati sat next to her, a soft smile playing on her features, illuminated by the stars above them.
“Been a bit stressful lately, huh?” said Parvati. The chances that anyone could hear them at this point were slim, but her voice was still hushed, almost reverent as she watched Lavender.
“Definitely,” Lavender said.
“I thought we could have some time for ourselves,” said Parvati. “Snape and the Carrows and the war and...everything. We’re still young.”
Lavender made a small noise of assent, frown dissipating into a sweeter expression.
“And many a Hogwarts couple have snuck up here,” said Parvati righteously. “I couldn’t let us be any different, could I?”
“No, you probably couldn’t,” said Lavender, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth as she leaned in to kiss Parvati. “Thank you,” she whispered softly against her lips.
Parvati took a moment to move a piece of Lavender’s hair behind her ear, then turned to the stars. The sky above them was a great expanse of billowing navy, bright white stars peppering its surface, the crescent moon nestled in its upper left quarter. Lavender burrowed into Parvati’s shoulder, who slipped an arm around the other girl, and pointed up at a star directly above them.
“The North Star,” she said into Lavender’s hair.
Lavender nodded, and pulled an arm up to motion at a cluster of stars across from it.
“Cassiopeia,” she said, aiming a kiss onto Parvati’s shoulder. They continue like this for a long time; naming stars and constellations, recounting the stories they’ve read about and heard from Firenze and Trelawny, and for a while they forget; they forget that there is a war, they forget that Hogwarts is different, they forget about the headlines and the hauntings of daytime. In these moments, they are the only people who matter - maybe the only people at all - and it is enough.