Work Text:
Melinda put the finishing touches on her Charms essay, nibbling on her lower lip as she re-read the final paragraph. Satisfied with her work, she rolled up the parchment and put it back in her bag. She nudged Phil, who was reading a book on the whereabouts of various magical creatures. He looked up, glancing at her and then the librarian and grinning at her silently, before he leaned in slightly and whispered,
“Lucius Malfoy is staring at you like he doesn’t know whether he wants to hex you or make out with you.”
Melinda snorted softly and rolled her eyes without looking over her shoulder at the blonde idiot.
“He’s just mad because his ass is still sore after the dragon bit him,” she replied equally as quietly with a smirk on her face.
Phil’s grin widened and he chuckled silently. Melinda admired the way his eyes crinkled slightly in corners, and she found herself getting slightly lost in the way that his blue eyes sparkled up at her. She swallowed and shook her head to clear her thoughts. Phil was her best friend. Granted, he’s her insanely good looking best friend who knows her better than most people do, but he’s still her best friend.
“The best part is that Clint caught it on camera and has been sharing the pictures throughout the other houses,” he told her.
“Serves him right,” she told him as she rolled her eyes.
Lucius Malfoy was a pain in her ass if she ever met one. From day one he’d been horrible, jeering at her ability as a witch, or making lewd comments about her appearance when they’d gotten older. Of course, Melinda had repaid him with more than a few well-planned pranks. No one had known where the miniature Chinese Fireball had come from anyway, and there was no proof that she’d been the one to release it in Malfoy’s room. Melinda grinned, before smirking wickedly at Phil.
“Watch this,” she murmured.
She stood and walked over to the book case behind Phil, glancing over at the table of Lucius Malfoy and his friends who were now in her direct line of vision. She smirked as she picked up a book and opened it, pretending to be skimming it for information. She pointed one finger discreetly at Malfoy, murmuring a silent spell. She closed the book and took it back to her table, sitting in front of Phil once more with a large grin on her face.
“Oh my god,” he whispered, and she could visibly tell that he was holding back laughter.
“What colour?” she asked with a smirk.
“Neon pink, Mel,” he murmured between silent chuckles, “ this is some of your best work yet.”
Melinda grinned in satisfaction as she heard the sudden gasps and frantic speaking and then a loud scream as Malfoy discovered that his precious hair was turned pink. By now a lot of people were looking over in confusion. Some even began to laugh, despite the angry glares that the librarian was throwing at everyone. She forced Malfoy out of the library to deal with his new hairdo, and then angrily threw out anyone who was still laughing.
She and Phil left shortly after that, cracking up once they were outside the library.
“Oh god, wait till we tell Peggy and Nat and Clint,” Phil said as he laughed loudly.
Melinda grinned.
“What can I say; he had it coming.”
XXX
Melinda dodged yet another bludger as she nimbly sped by with the Quaffle, easily scoring another goal on the Slytherin keepers. She heard the students in the stands going wild, and she allowed herself a small smirk. A Slytherin Chaser grabbed up the Quaffle, and he sped off towards where their Keeper was guarding their three rings. Melinda sped towards him, pulling up short as a bludger nearly took her head off. Lower down, she watched as their Keeper easily defended the middle ring, catching the Quaffle and preventing the Slytherins from scoring. The crowd went wild again, and Melinda allowed herself another smile. Melinda loved the game. The wind in her hair, the soft leather of her gloves and the smooth running of her broom beneath her. It was freezing out, and the snow made it that much more difficult to see, but Melinda didn’t mind. She was brought out of her reverie when the Quaffle was passed to her and she sped off again, heading for the goal and scoring once more. She must have scored another three or four times before the Slytherin Seeker caught the snitch and the match ended with a win for them. As they landed and shook hands, Melinda felt many of her teammates clap her on her back for a job well done. The stands were going wild. The other houses had begun booing at the turn the match had taken. She spotted Phil rushing onto the field towards her.
He grabbed her up in a hug. “You were so awesome, May!” he said, the adrenaline from the match still running through him. Snowflakes clung to his lashes, and the stark white of their surroundings somehow made his blue eyes stand out even more.
Melinda sighed. “Not awesome enough. They won, not us,” she told him with a small frown.
“Doesn’t matter, I know that you’re the most awesome person in this entire school. Now come on, I still have some butterbeer left after our last Hogsmeade trip,” he told her. Melinda smiled and nodded, allowing him to sling an arm around her and lead her to the locker rooms to get showered and changed.
She had just exited the girl’s locker room and spotted Phil waiting for her a little down the corridor. Melinda grinned slightly and surprised him by jumping up onto his back and circling her arms around his neck, her legs around his waist.
“Jesus Christ, Melinda!” he huffed, grabbing her legs tightly so they wouldn’t fall over. “Some warning would have been nice.”
Melinda rolled her eyes. “I’m tired, Phil, carry me back to the castle,” she said instead. Phil rolled his eyes and huffed again, but he shifted her slightly before walking down the corridor and back out into the cold. Melinda admired the frozen landscape as Phil puffed and walked up the slight incline. She sighed and buried her face against his shoulder blade. Damn, he smelled amazing. She was just about to say something to him when something cold and wet hit her in the back of her head. She twisted to see who it was, but only ended up loosening Phil’s grip on both her and messing up his balance.
They went sprawling into the snow, Melinda’s back ending up against Phil’s front, probably because he’d twisted to catch her when she begun falling. Her head hurt as a result of the fall, and Melinda growled as she sat up, spotting Malfoy and his cronies guffawing a few feet away. They each had snowballs levitating around them. Melinda reached into the pocket of her coat and pulled out Bo, her lovely miniature Chinese Fireball. Usually she kept him in her coat for warmth, but Malfoy would be lucky to escape without another bite to the ass this time. Melinda murmured something to the little dragon before he took off towards the group of boys. Melinda watched as Bo released small streams of fire as he flapped around them, screeching loudly. Their coats, hair and scarves quickly caught on fire. Malfoy screamed girlishly, frantically patting at his hair and making Melinda laugh.
On the ground Phil groaned, and Melinda dropped to her knees again, inspecting the damage. His nose was bleeding, probably because her head had collided with his face when they fell. Crap. Melinda quickly pulled out her wand and set about casting a few healing spells. Phil sniffed once, and satisfied, he grinned at her while he sat up.
“Did you sic Bo on Malfoy again?” he laughed with a chuckle.
“Maybe,” she replied with a grin.
Phil rolled his eyes slightly. “They’re going to get suspicious, you know, they'll realise that someone in the school keeps him,” he told her with a small smile. Melinda opened her mouth to reply when she suddenly felt herself being tugged. She landed on her back in the snow with a soft thump.
“That’s for making me carry you all the way up the hill!” Phil laughed, and then, grabbing handfuls of snow and rubbing the cold substance in her face, he continued, “And that’s for the bloody nose!”
Melinda squealed and tried to push him off but he didn’t budge. She laughed loudly as she tried to swat away his hands. Finally, when he paused a second, Melinda flipped their position and sat up on his stomach. She grabbed snow and pushed it in his own face, grinning as he laughed loudly.
“Okay, okay. Uncle! I give!” he laughed, grabbing both her hands so she could no longer push the snow in his face. Melinda lost her balance and thumped onto his chest with a chuckle, feeling his whole body shake as he laughed too. She looked up at him, seeing his blue eyes once more sparkling at her. Her smile slipped from her face as she saw his look change, no longer playful as he stared up at her. His gaze slid from her eyes to her mouth, and she felt her eyes widen slightly. Her own gaze crept down to his mouth; his lips looked soft and she wondered what it might be like to kiss him. She didn’t need to wonder, however, as she soon felt his hand tipping her face up, and he hunched down to meet her mouth with his own. Melinda felt her eyes slip shut as his hand cradled her face, his thumb absently brushing her cheekbone. Damn, Phil gave some of the very best kisses. After quite some time, Phil eased back to catch his breath, and Melinda flicked her eyes open slowly. He was gazing at her a little apprehensively.
She sighed. He probably regretted it. Besides, she saw how he looked at Rosalind Price. He most definitely had a thing for her. Melinda pursed her lips and slid off of him, smoothly getting to her feet. She heard him shuffling around, most likely standing up as well. She felt cold, now that she thought about it. Melted snow clung to her hair and dripped down her face.
“Melinda,” he said softly, and she turned to him, keeping her eyes trained on the ground. She didn’t want to look at him when he tried to ‘let her down easy’.
“I…I’m sorry if I overstepped your boundaries,” he murmured.
That was most definitely not what she’d been expecting. She’d thought he’d tell her something like ‘I don’t feel like that about you’ or ‘I don’t want to ruin our friendship’ or any of the other million and one ‘let’s just be friends’ responses she could think of. She looked up at him in surprise. He was blushing, one hand rubbing at the back of his neck awkwardly.
“I just…You’re really, really beautiful, you know? And I couldn’t resist and I…I’m sorry, if I made you uncomfortable,” he said, his shoulders slumping slightly.
Melinda felt relief surge through her. She threw her arms around his neck, kissing him again, one, twice, three times. “You didn’t make me uncomfortable,” she told him.
“Really? So you…? I think I love you,” he blurted out.
Melinda grinned. “I think I love you too,” she said with a smile. He kissed her again, long and slow and sweet. His hands tangled in her hair and Melinda pressed herself against him tightly, completely uncaring about their soaked clothes.
They were suddenly interrupted by a loud wolf whistle. Clint, Natasha, Steve and Peggy were standing a few feet away. Peggy was grinning and holding her hand out to Clint, who looked like someone had just hexed his puppy while he forked over a handful of coins. Natasha looked bored, with just a hint of amusement in her eyes, while Steve looked downright uncomfortable.
“Bout bloody time, you two,” Peggy grumbled as they approached.
Melinda rolled her eyes at her friend. “Are we exchanging roles here? I believe I said the same thing when you and Steve got together at the beginning of the year,” Melinda replied.
Peggy grinned and punched her in the arm.
“Anyway, sorry to break up the tonguefest, love birds, but McGonagall caught a certain miniature Chinese Fireball. Again,” Clint told them.
“I hope you guys have a pretty damn good alibi,” Steve said with a small frown.
Melinda tapped her finger against her chin in thought. “Don’t worry, if she comes asking, Phil and I were in the infirmary. He sprained his ankle when we fell,” Melinda replied.
“What? But I didn’t-,”
Melinda jabbed him in the knee and twisted him as he fell. Phil swore into the snow once more. Their friends stared for a few seconds before cracking up in laughter. Phil frowned at them from where he sat in the snow.
“Melinda!! That friggin’ hurt,” he said with a pout.
“Don’t worry, Phil, I’ll get you to the infirmary,” she said in a faux sympathetic voice as she bent to help him up, slinging one of his arms around her shoulders. “Bye guys!” she said as she waved to their friends and they hobbled along the corridors.
“That really hurt, Mel,” he whined.
“Quit being a baby, Phil,” she said to him as she rolled her eyes. “Besides, I’ll kiss it better later.”
Phil blushed slightly before grinning.
“Sounds good.”
Melinda smirked at him, leaning up and kissing him softly again.
“Butterbeer later?” she asked him.
“Definitely.”