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Cissa was moving about in their little kitchen nook making breakfast and talking gently to Bramble who was slithering in between her feet while waiting for her food.
She didn’t hear him enter until he snaked his arms around her waist and pulling her in for a hug.
Narcissa didn’t even flinch. Just leaned into him. Savouring the embrace.
“Good morning, love”
His deep voice sounded rough with sleep.
She turned in his arms and pulled him into a lazy kiss before answering,
“Good morning”
He leant his forehead to hers and nudged her nose with his.
A giggle escaped her. She had loved this kind of quiet show of affection from the first time he did it.
She bit her bottom lip and looked up at him with a coy smile.
“I made us breakfast”
“The smell woke me up”, he said with a smirk on his face, “porridge, if I’m not very much mistaken.”
“Scandalous, I know”
She really tried not to grin, but to no avail. Charlie answered with a deep chuckle and kissed her cheek.
“I’m slowly turning you into a Weasley.”
“There are worse faiths.”
His eyes met hers, sparkling with something she had come to learn meant either mischief or she was seconds away from being ravished.
She barely had that thought before he practically tackled her to the floor and all thoughts of breakfast forgotten amongst kisses and closeness.
After they managed to get through breakfast without any more distractions, they went out to continue work on the garden as they always did on their days of work. When she moved here there had been nothing but wilderness enveloping the space outside. Now you could se the beginnings of a carefully structured garden, designed to both be a source of food and blend into the wilderness of Romania.
Cissa clambered to her feet and whipped her face with the back of her hand leaving faint traces of dirt in its wake. She stretched awkwardly, her body acing after being hunched over a border beside the door.
Charlie came around the corner of their cottage, no shirt on and glistening with sweat from working in the summer sun. Cissa looked at him, enjoying every second of it. His eyes met hers and a boyish grin settled on his face.
“Let’s do something else, it’s too hot to work right now anyway. And there is something I want to show you.”
They packed a small lunch basket before Charlie took her hand and apparated them.
When her feet touched forest floor she looked around. Taking in the environment. It looked similar to the nature around the dragon reserve, but there was no tell tail sign of dragons nearby. She closed her eyes and reached for her magic. Charlie had taught her how to listen both with her senses and her magic. No dragons around. She searched a bit more. Some magical creatures to… She opened her eyes and looked up to the skies to figure out witch way it came from before she spoke.
“No dragons, but a can feel faint magical signatures coming from north.”
He smiled proudly at her and nodded.
“You are correct,” he said and reached out his hand.
She took it and they stated to walk towards where she had. Her curiosity bubbling inside. But she didn’t ask any questions. He was about to show her and getting to feel anticipation was still something valuable to her. She was never bored around Charlie.
They walked through a thick forest, hands laced. She could see the forest thinning out.
“Close your eyes”
His voice came as a whisper and she obeyed immediately. He guided her slowly forward. With her eyes closed she could focus more on her other senses.
She could hear a faint sound of water. A steady rush of moving water. The air felt more humid here. Like walking in fog. Only that the fog was warmer and more inviting than the fog of English countryside.
She could hear gentle chirping sounds. Birds. Not like any birds she had hear before. Cissa halted to shift all her attention to the sound. Charlie stopped beside her. Giving her time.
There had to be hundreds of the same species of birds, chirping and singing in a soft and playful melodies. It was beautiful.
She also noticed that the rushing of water sounded different then the sounds of a running brook. It was like it fell from a hight. A waterfall perhaps.
Cissa’s whole face lit up, and she took a step forward, signalling to Charlie to keep moving.
The sounds got louder the closer she got, and her whole body responded to the thrill of walking into something that was bound to be beyond her imagination.
Charli halted and shifted so he was standing behind her. She could feel his breath on her neck as he whispered.
“Open your eyes”
The moment she opened them she gasped. She hadn’t been wrong. She had never seen anything like this or ever imagen a place like this.
The waterfall wasn’t large. A narrow stream of clear water spilled over dark rock into a pool below, rippling where the water fell. The surface shimmered in shades of blue, green and silver. The sunlight refractured in the mist of the waterfall, creating a local rainbow. It was so beautiful. She felt her eyes tear up.
A flock of brightly coloured birds flew across. Their turquoise, blue, yellow and red plumage made them look unreal.
On the waters surface she could see movement that didn’t correspond to the falling water, as if something just beneath the surface was watching the bird’s flight.
Merlin, what a place!
“What are those birds?”
Her voice barely audible.
Charlie leaned in closer before answering.
“The muggles known them as European bee-eaters, and think they are ordinary, yet exceptionally pretty, birds that migrate in the wintertime.”
“But they are magical,” breath Cissa. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes. They are known as “Aves Tutelae”, roughly translated to “birds of protection”. Their colonies are always located close to a water source that is home to naiads. There is usually a tree full of Bowtruckles as well as other magical creatures seeking refuge. Their song makes one of the most powerful protective enchantments known. You can only pass through if you have good intentions. That’s why they, nor water spirits, are not hunted for their magical potency.”
“And they let us pass.”
She turned to look at him. Her heart filled with awe and love.
His hand came up to cup her cheek.
“Yes, Cissa. As I said before. Creatures don’t care who you were. Only of who you are.”
He kissed her. Slow and thorough. Her toes curling in her shoes.
When they broke a part, he looked at her with a wicked grin.
“Let’s go swimming with naiads”