"If 'I love you' was a promise
would you break it if you're honest?"

Serena and Edmund had made themselves comfortable on the blanket they had brought with them. The local lake lay quietly and peacefully in front of them and the idyllic forest behind them gave no hint of what was going on in the wizarding world.

As agreed, they were just chatting about trivial things and completely ignoring the events of the war. It felt normal, as if Serena really was a normal sixteen-year-old, unengaged and a little smitten.

"Are you looking forward to your exam results yet?" she asked after a short silence, hoping that she wouldn't sound like Hermione a few hours earlier.

To her surprise, Edmund grimaced as if he had just bitten into a lemon. "Snape has already let slip that things aren't looking so rosy for me," he admitted and Serena frowned. She had always believed that the Slytherin was one of the best in his year, but it looked like she had been wrong.

Silence enveloped them once more, apparently it wasn't so easy to limit the topics of conversation to school and other less important things. The Gryffindor casually ran her fingers over the soft fabric of the blanket and only saw out of the corner of her eye that the blond had moved closer to her. She thought nothing of it, but the next moment he had one arm around her and his other hand resting on her thigh.

Serena swallowed, she didn't know what that was about. As her heartbeat quickened a little, she gave Edmund a questioning look. For a moment, she harboured the hope that he had changed his mind and was no longer averse to a relationship. After all, they were engaged. There it was again, the unpleasant thought of what was to come. But she really wanted to give it a try, because if she couldn't find a way out, she wanted to marry someone she really liked.

He returned her gaze for a split second, his finger running over the fabric of her jeans and leaving goose bumps underneath. "What are you doing?" she asked in a broken voice and pulled her leg out of his grasp. He didn't answer and he used his now free hand to pull her into a kiss on the back of her head.

Serena was too perplexed to react. Only when she felt the hand that was still resting on her hip slowly slip under her top did she detach herself from him, "What are you doing?" she asked again, but now more clearly and visibly heated.

With an innocent look, as if he didn't even know what she meant, he looked at her. "Kissing you?"

"Yes, I noticed that too," she replied, perhaps a little too harshly, staring back uncomprehendingly. "You said that you wanted us to stay friends."

"Yes, and?"

She continued to stare at him in bewilderment. No, friends didn't kiss, at least not in her world. The times she had kissed Edmund before had been an exception and with completely different intentions. Slowly, she shook her head. "Then I guess I'm not like your other girlfriends."

"At least I assumed you were less narrow-minded," he returned grudgingly and gave her a reproachful look, as if she was the one to blame for something.

Serena replied with a scowl. She might have expected an argument like this from him in fourth year, but they had experienced a lot in the meantime and had grown older. "And I assumed that we would have put such a discussion behind us long ago."

Edmund chastised her with a cynical smile. "Your pride is going to get you killed, Black."

"If it means keeping guys like you off my back, I'm happy to accept that," she remarked dryly and stood up. They had reverted to old patterns and she didn't like that at all, because this wasn't the boy she had given her friendship to. She brushed last year's leaves off her trousers, but a hand stopped her before she could make her way back.

"Wait." The Slytherin looked up at her pleadingly with his turquoise eyes, "I'm sorry, okay? Please don't go."

Serena bravely held his gaze for a few seconds before sighing and sitting down next to him again, expecting an explanation from him. He looked just as disgruntled as she did though, which was why the Gryffindor finally spoke up, "I guess I just thought we could try. The two of us. So that if we do get married, it won't be quite so... Well... forced."

Her cheeks were flushed pink and her hands were clasped nervously behind her back as Edmund smiled slightly. "But don't you think we'll get tired of each other eventually anyway? Maybe it's better if we start getting sick of each other as late as possible."

Serena rolled her eyes, realising that he had a completely different view to hers. After all, the Slytherin wasn't known for sticking it out with a girl for long, and certainly not for his fidelity. "So you don't think we have a future?" she then asked in a hollow voice.

"I... shit, Serena, do you have to ask?" He faltered and seemed to realise what a dangerous question that was, for which Serena would have liked to slap herself again at that moment. She couldn't back him into a corner, because then it wouldn't end any better for her than it had for many before her. "Forget it," she interjected hastily to save the situation. "We'll stay friends. Just friends. But without kissing or any other nonsense."

"But it will be damn hard for me to just sit next to you without... being able to do more," Edmund admitted and looked at her with that look that could melt ice, while that familiar insinuating grin played around the corners of his mouth. But Serena knew better, which is why she merely turned away, unimpressed. She wondered what had happened. He behaved so differently to the person she'd got to know over the last few months. Or had she completely ignored this side of him? Because she had seen it more often, when she thought about it. It had been the reason why she had once wanted nothing to do with him.

The Gryffindor felt a lump in her throat, which by now felt like sandpaper, when she thought of how he carried on as before in front of her eyes. It gave her a stab in the heart. Because by now she knew how she felt about the youngest of the Halls. These feelings had suddenly flared up inside her, like iron held in an open fire. She had never realised how she felt before. It was unfair to be jealous, she knew. Edmund knew nothing of her feelings and so it was not surprising or even forbidden for him to meet other girls. But would it continue like this when they were married?

"Are you crying?" he suddenly asked in a soft voice and Serena hadn't even realised that her eyes had suddenly glazed over. She hastily jumped up again and turned away from him, hastily wiping her face. She hated herself for being an open book, her emotions were written all over her face as usual and on top of that she was to weep easily. Not such a good combination, as she realised once again. Edmund had also stood up and put a hand on her shoulder to reassure her, "Is it because I want to do more? I shouldn't have said that, you just said yourself that..."

"It's not that," she said quietly and admitted meekly, "I'd like to do more too and that's why it hurts... It hurts so much. I don't want to end up like Daphne Greengrass."

Part of her felt relieved that they could finally talk it out, but another part of her wished she could take it back.

"Daphne was..."

"A friend," Serena finished his sentence heatedly and realised that she was no longer the only one who was offended by something. Edmund glared at her angrily now. "I don't need to justify myself to you. That's exactly why a relationship would be far too stressful for me."

"Fine," Serena hissed. "Then I can go and find a way to end all this shit."

Just as the Gryffindor was about to grab her blanket and actually make her way home, a sharp cry suddenly rang out, straight from the heart of the forest. Serena stood rooted to the spot, trying to recognise something among the trees on the far bank, when a plop right behind her made her flinch.

Leaves and branches cracked under the soles of the man who emerged from the thicket. The red-brown hair looked almost copper-coloured in the sun's rays as Alaric Avery's gaze flicked back and forth between Serena and Edmund. It was the man who had been following her all summer.

"Elijah has noticed your absence, Edmund," said the Death Eater with a warning undertone in his voice, which only made the blond snort. "Don't tell me he decided to visit me in my room today."

Avery didn't respond, but looked directly at Serena, who stared back with wide eyes. "You'd better go now," he instructed. "Because it's about to get uncomfortable here."

The Gryffindor opened her mouth anxiously to enquire when another cry rang out. A flock of birds took flight from between the trees before the sky darkened as if night had just fallen over them as the dark mark appeared high above the treetops.