Let's Talk About You and Me ((Jude))

[Eevie Bloch G6]

Eevie twirled her brown hair around her finger as she kicked her right leg up and down. She was sitting in a chair in the Gryffindor common room, reading The Quibbler with a curious eye, waiting for the clock to strike so she knew it would be time to meet up with Jude. She really did miss him. He was off in Herbology and since Eevie didn’t take Herbology she couldn’t be with him. It was alright, though, because he did have to wait an hour for her while she was taking Potions. She didn’t have potions today, though, so after Jude’s Herbology class they could spend the whole day together. Eevie turned the page of the magazine and started to read an article about some odd creature or another like the Quibbler always seemed to have written, when the bells tolled outside the window and she threw the magazine up in the air and dashed off the armchair she was lounging in. Eevie didn’t even bother to grab anything, she was wearing jeans a t-shirt, and one of Jude’s jackets and she was fine. She didn’t need anything else. Well, technically, she needed Jude, but she would be with him in a few moments. Eevie hurried down the seven flights of stairs, nearly growing agitated with the evil staircases that seemed to find it amusing to move when she was about to step onto them, and then hurried out the front double doors to the brisk afternoon. Eevie hurried down the front steps and onto the grass, quickly making her way toward the Greenhouses.

She didn’t know which Greenhouse Jude would be in, but she was certain he’d be dashing out of there just as quickly as she had dashed out of the castle to meet him so she didn’t think she would have to look terribly hard to find the love of her life. And she was right. Eevie caught him coming out of one of the Greenhouses and immediately picked up her pace, skipping over to him and wrapping her arms around his neck – immediately planting a kiss on his lips with a smile on her face. It was her standard way of greeting him, and she knew he never grew tired of it. It was just Eevie, it was an Eevie thing to do. She stepped away and took his hand, linking their fingers with ease as they started the walk toward the castle. Eevie smiled at Jude, “I missed you, you know. A whole lot. I was up in the Gryff tower reading the Quibbler, that’s how much I missed you.” She leaned up and kissed Jude’s cheek lightly before turning their destination toward their tree by the lake. It was so odd to think that sometimes their tree was someone else’s tree, too. That it wasn’t just theirs. That sometime during the day there was bound to be another couple there, talking about couple things like Jude and Eevie did. Eevie loved their tree, though, and for the moment – the tree by the lake was their tree.

“Are you hungry? We can go to the Great Hall if you’re hungry, but I really just want to chill under our tree. That sound alright?” Eevie looked at Jude with another bright smile as they reached the tree. She sank down onto the grass and pulled Jude down beside her and then his head into her lap, immediately starting to play with his hair. She just looked down at him lovingly, letting her mind wander. How had she gone her life without him in it? Jude was everything to her. He was her guiding light, her strength, her everything. How had she survived without him before? How would she survive without him in Hogwarts next year? Eevie looked away a moment, biting her lip in thought. She didn’t want to think about that. Jude leaving was something that Eevie knew she wouldn’t be able to deal with.

[Jude Esben H7]

Jude had, as usual, finished his herbology work ahead of time, about forty minutes ahead of time. Jude had a knack with plants, he had since he was a little kid. He could remember starting his own gardens behind the house, gardens which his mother would trample without meaning to, or his father would mow without realizing. Jude could remember the first time he saw the lawn mower run over his favorite wild sunflower. He had cried, yes, cried. Cried for the loss of life and beauty. He had cried and cried and cried and his mother had been forced to take him into town to the local hardware store to get him all he’d need to have a proper garden, one that his parents wouldn’t destroy. Jude’s parents never had really taken much care to find out what kinds of things Jude enjoyed, they had always been so busy finding out what they enjoyed. But no matter, Jude had started his first real, unmowable, garden when he had been five. Everything had grown, it had grown so much in fact, that the couple who lived in that house now had a full sized garden. Complete with rose bushes, a fountain, a fish pond, and a large weeping willow right in the center. It was one magnificent garden that was for sure. In Jude’s mother’s house, the closest thing he had to a garden was the window box he kept maintained during the holidays, full of winter sprouting plants. And at his father’s house the closest thing he had was the guest bathroom. His father really didn’t like gardens, they ‘weren’t manly’ and so he’d refused Jude’s request to start one. It had been rather funny when one of Jude’s father’s clients had come over and told him “Wow man, your yard looks so...dead...you should get some sort of garden, you know, get in touch with the life of nature all around you. It’d be pretty sweet.” Jude had laughed. A lot.

He should have asked to leave, but instead he was assigned to more work. Professor Sprout always had something for Jude to do. It was almost like being her aide. He was taken to a nearby green house. On one side, where work areas, and on the other, were various piles of stumps. Or at least, they looked like stumps. They were really Snargaluff plants, and Jude had been given the task of placing one at each of the work stations on the opposite side of the room. Jude had let his jaw drop when Professor Sprout had told him this, but she assured him he’d do just fine and then gone back to her class. And so Jude had begun to pick each stump up, one by one, being attacked by vines all the while, and move it to the other side, and then disentangle himself from the plant. When the bell finally rang, Jude collapsed against a nearby wall and looked at what he’d done. He had successfully placed one at each station and so he smiled to himself as he dusted off his vest and grabbed his cloak from a hanger by the door, pulling his gloves out of the pocket and putting them on before leaving the greenhouse in a rush. Jude grinned when he saw Eevie coming his way, having missed her quite terribly the whole time he was being smacked over the head by frightened plants. Jude walked quickly towards Eevie as she skipped up to him and he happily wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back. Then he squeezed her hand when she linked their fingers and began to lead him towards the castle. “Wow darling, that’s quite a lot of missing you had going on, but then again, at least you weren’t being mauled by plants. Then again, it’s not all the plants fault, I did present myself as a threat to it, and so they were only defending themselves in actuality. Fight or flight, and since snargaluff’s don’t have wings, they obviously can’t fly...you know?”

He looked at Eevie with a bright smile on his face as she turned their walk towards their tree. Jude much preferred the peace of their tree rather than the hectic castle. Jude shook his head as Eevie asked if he was hungry, and reached into his bag hanging from his shoulder. He pulled out a pomegranate and held it up to her, grinning. Jude had no problems when Eevie pulled him down next to her and then pulled him to lay his head in her lap. He did so easily and then looked up at Eevie just as lovingly as she was looking at him while she played with his hair. He rolled his pomegranate in his hands for a bit before setting it on the ground next to him and moving a hand to tug on the jacket Eevie was wearing. He grinned at her, knowing she knew what it was about it that made him so happy. He loved when Eevie wore his jackets. But then when Eevie looked away and bit her lip Jude looked up at her concerned. He took her hand from his hair and kissed her palm. “What’s on your mind lovely?

[Eevie Bloch G6]

Eevie had only laughed when Jude spoke about snargaluff plants not being able to fly. Sometimes he took things so literally and that made Eevie laugh. She never took things literal. She always took them figuratively. It’s one thing that balanced them out. They were alike in many ways, odd in their own personalities, but they had their differences, too. Once they were settled on the ground with his head in her lap and she was playing with his hair, looking away. Jude caught onto her mood easily, though, and pulled her hand from his hair and kissed the palm of it before asking her what was on her mind. Eevie looked down at Jude again and tried to keep a happy face still, but to no prevail. She linked their fingers again as she tried to think of how to word her thoughts in a way that Jude wouldn’t get upset with her for thinking them. That was something he tended to do if she was thinking depressing thoughts. It wasn’t something bad, it just meant he cared, but Eevie really would have much rather kept her thoughts to herself when she knew it would upset him. Eevie hated upsetting Jude. He looked so sad when he was upset. Nothing like the happy go lucky Jude that she loved so dearly. Not that she didn’t love him when he was upset, but she didn’t like to see him unhappy. Jude’s happiness was everything to Eevie. Everything.

“I dunno…” Eevie shrugged and looked at Jude’s hair instead as she moved her free hand to run her fingers through them, “I’ve just always seemed to pick the most inopportune moment to think about the saddest of things, sweets.” Eevie’s voice was quiet as she played with his hair and kept her eyes adverted from his, “I think about the silliest of things sometimes, Jude. You know, like…how I’ll be able to stand it when you aren’t here anymore, or how I’ll be able to go each day without seeing your face.” She chewed on her lip and took a deep breath before continuing, “Do you ever wonder how we’re going to be able to continue on after Hogwarts for you? Do you ever wonder what’s going to happen to our relationship? I mean, I know we like to live in this fantasy land where nothing ever will separate us, but we honestly know that we will have to be separated when you leave after this year. We aren’t going to see each other every day like we do now, Jude.” Eevie looked down at him now, sadness definitely in her eyes, “Jude, I can’t go on without you.” She looked away again, not being able to keep her gaze on Jude for too long or else she’d start crying.

“I know!” Eevie suddenly said with a bright, but still weak as well, smile, “I’ll drop out after this year! I hate magic anyway, you know that. It’s not like I’m going to go into a magical career and I don’t ever use magic at home anyway. Oh, come on Jude, it’s the perfect solution to our problem, honey. It really is!” Even as she spoke about her plan to Jude, she knew that he wouldn’t like it and he would argue with her about it. But still, it was there and she wouldn’t completely cross it out. She really thought it was the only solution to their problem.

[Jude Esben H7]

Jude could always tell if something was bothering Eevie. Always. There had never been a single time in all his life that he couldn’t tell when something was wrong. Surely there had been times when he’d thought something was wrong and nothing at all was, but when something was in fact wrong, he always spotted it. Jude just understood Eevie. They’d had a long time to get so close that nothing got between them. Or...well..everything got between them, in the sense that they talked about everything and everyone of their thoughts and feelings were shared between the two. They knew how important it was for there to be a great deal of communication for a relationship to work, and Jude had, surprisingly, never had a problem with talking to Eevie. He had been shy at first, but within the first week of their friendship he opened up to Eevie quite nicely, and since then she was really the only one he talked to. He didn’t like to talk to other people because other people didn’t get him. Had he told anyone else some of the things that he told Eevie, they might laugh at him or make fun of him, and Jude tried to avoid those situations as much as possible.

And so as he sat with Eevie, well more like laid on Eevie, he watched her facial expressions and knew that there was something serious on her mind. Eevie was far more capable of thinking logically then Jude was. Jude liked to think about things that weren’t logical because they were always much more fun. Eevie on the other hand was able to recognize how important logical thinking could be. Jude frowned slightly as Eevie told him that she had been thinking about something sad, he always hated when she thought about sad things, because thinking about sad things tends to make people sad, and he did hate to see his Eevie sad. Jude shook his head slightly when Eevie said that she thought about silly things, because nothing Eevie ever thought about was silly to Jude. It always had a purpose. If it was good enough for Eevie to put in her brain, it was good enough for him to hear and think about too. Then again, sometimes silly thoughts weren’t always good and they were actually rather bad, but in that case they were bad enough for Jude to think about too. Eevie was never alone in her thoughts; Jude tried to let her know that. He was always there for her to talk to and think with. It was his job. Though not one of those jobs that you wake up every morning hating, but one of the jobs that you wake up every morning adoring. Jude loved his job. He absolutely loved loving Eevie. It was the best thing that had ever happen to him; falling in love with her that is.

Jude looked up at Eevie as she told him what was wrong. It was strange for Jude, because it wasn’t something they had ever talked about before. Of course Jude had considered the fact that he would be away from her, but he had always just pushed it aside, telling himself that it was too early to think like that. They still had all year. But it was nearly winter now and that meant the year was going by fast, and so it made sense that Jude should have given it some thought. Jude waited as Eevie spoke, and then frowned even more when she looked down at him so sad. He began to shake his head, vehemently, but Eevie turned away again and Jude knew she was just trying not to cry. Jude sat up and turned so that he was facing Eevie, taking her other hand in his too. He linked those fingers and slid his thumbs on hers, smiling lovingly at her all the way up until she looked at him with a slightly brighter smile. Jude once again began to shake his head at the idea she had brought up. “Eeeeeeeviiiiiiie, nooooooooooo.” Jude shook his head some more before moving around and pulling Eevie into his lap, wrapping his arms around her. “That would be silly honey and you know it. You should finish school. But I have an idea? I’ll just stay here. I’m sure I can manage to fail my classes somewhere along the line...and getting an extra year of school is far better than losing one don’t you think?” Jude smiled lovingly at Eevie, proud of his well thought out plan. “And then we can both graduate together and spend forever together, right princess?”

[Eevie Bloch G6]

Eevie thought her idea was pretty good. She hated magic. Ever since her mother had killed her father in front of her with it, Eevie had come to hate her wand. She had come to loathe the idea that the stick of wood could kill somebody. She rarely ever used it unless she had to or unless the spell she was casting was small. She hardly ever took classes that required wand work now that she was in her 6th year and could choose her own classes. Her favourite class was Potions because it didn’t take any wand work, in fact, if Snape could he would confiscate wands before anyone entered his class – that’s how little importance wand work held in Potions. She could have taken Herbology with Jude, but the fact remained that Eevie didn’t like the idea that a plant could eat her alive if it really wanted to. So, she took Potions, History of Magic, Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Astronomy, and Care of Magical Creatures. Those classes were the ones that used no wand or very little wand at all. They were classes that made Eevie feel comfortable and when she was comfortable, she was happy. She was extremely happy. However, right now, she wasn’t that happy. She was quite sad. Of course, wouldn’t you be if you were thinking about losing the love of your life?

Jude and Eevie hadn’t been separated for more than a couple of months at a time. She knew there was no way she could go a whole year without Jude by her side constantly. Jude was the only constant in her life and she needed him with her all the time. She needed to see him everyday in order for her life to be good, in order for her smile to remain on her face. What was Eevie without Jude? She was nothing. She was this shell that she had been years prior to meeting him. Jude and Eevie were a package, they came together. They were not sold separately. Though, technically, they weren’t sold at all. Eevie looked at Jude now as he sat up and took her other hand, linking those fingers as well, and smiled at her lovingly. When she spoke of dropping out next year, his smile seemed to fade, though, and he immediately started protesting. He pulled her into his lap, without any protest from Eevie, and told her that she should finish school. Eevie started to shake her head, ready to argue her point – the fact that she didn’t need any magic at all. That magic to her was completely pointless, but he kept talking. Eevie listened to him and when he said he could always fail some of his classes to stay back a year with her, Eevie frowned deeply; “If I can’t drop out what makes you think I’m going to let you fail, Jude Esben?”

She tried to continue to look angry at him, but his last sentence just made her smile and she buried her face in his neck, snuggling against him, “I want to be together forever, Jude, I really really do. But…I don’t want you failing a year so we can stay together. It’d be silly. It’d be much easier for me to drop out at the end of this year. Think about it, sweetheart, I’m not too keen on magic. I loathe my wand. I run from it because it scares me. I don’t need to finish my years here because I don’t plan on going into a magical field of work and if I did it wouldn’t involve any wand use. It’s more practical for me to drop out than for you to fail because you’ve come this far, Jude. I know, I’m in my 6th year, but like I said – magic isn’t big for me. It’s not this thing I’m going to base my life on.”

[Jude Esben H7]

Jude wrapped his arms tight around Eevie as he pulled her into his arms and he smiled at her as he spoke and told her his plan, knowing full well that she wasn’t going to like it at all. Why would she? Eevie would never want Jude to do something like fail classes. Eevie would find that idea to be just silly, but Jude really had no problems with it. For starters, he’d be with Eevie, and there’s nothing better than that. And secondly, Jude had already been through and learned everything from the classes once, so it couldn’t be too hard to do them again could it? Nope, not at all. Jude had a good memory that way. He’d remember every lecture he ever got in class, which is what made him a good student. He could remember everything the teacher said, word for word. Kind of like he could remember everything he read out of books, word for word. The only problem Jude had in school was understanding concepts. Jude could easily parrot back anything anyone had ever said to him, but what he couldn’t do was tell you what you might have meant by that. Jude had trouble working things over in his head sometimes. He had never had any trouble understanding Eevie what-so-ever though. So if Eevie was a class Jude was sure to pass. Then again, he did that every day didn’t he? If she was a class...is Eevie a class? No of course Eevie’s not a class, that’s silly. But Jude still passed on the ‘good boyfriend grade’ scale.

“But Eevie, getting more education is always better then getting less.” Jude smiled and nodded a lot, despite Eevie’s frown. Of course by this time he was also moving on to talk about how they would be together forever, and Eevie had buried her face in his neck. Jude smiled brightly and wrapped his arms around her tighter. Jude listened to Eevie and then shook his head. “I won’t have it Eevie, there’s more to school then just wand work and you know it. You could find out in your seventh year that one night during astronowhatsitcalled there’s a new constelatamabob and then you’d be the greatest astronomyer ever!” Jude smiled brightly and nodded enthusiastically, completely serious. Jude had never understood some of the classes Eevie took. Like astronomy or arithmancy. They just didn’t do well in Jude’s head, but then again that might have been because all those dots in the sky got all mixed up in his mind, or because numbers always got tangled up around each other. It was just so complicated, but Eevie understood it just fine. She did so well in her classes; it shocked Jude slightly that she would consider leaving early. But then again, Jude knew that nothing could keep them from each other, no matter what. Nothing at all. Not school or anything. They were stuck together and they always would be. Jude knew that.

“What if you stay in school and I stay at a cottage in Hogsmeade honey?” Jude looked at Eevie before kissing the side of her head. Then you can visit me all the time and maybe I can talk Professor Sprout into letting me come in, kind of like an assistant or something, then we could see each other. Maybe we could even still eat meals together you know?” Even as Jude said it, he knew Eevie wouldn’t go for it. The two of them needed to be together twenty four seven; all the time. Weekends and meal times wouldn’t cut it. Jude closed his eyes and leaned his head back against their tree, thinking. Eevie was right, school was almost over for him. He of course didn’t want it to be. School always had good memories. School was where he had met his love. His one and only. Jude wasn’t sure what he’d do without Eevie or Hogwarts. Sure, he’d still have Eevie, but not seeing her every day was going to be very, very, very hard. “Eevie, what’re we gonna do when we’re out in the real world?” Jude’s mind was on fast-forward. He had been wanting to talk to Eevie about it for forever, they just never had the time for a serious conversation like the one Jude wanted to have. “We’re going to be together forever right?” Jude looked down at Eevie. “Are we going to get married and have a family too?”

[Eevie Bloch G6]

“You could find out in your seventh year that one night during astronowhatsitcalled-“

“Astronomy.”

“there’s a new constelatamabob-“

“Constellation.”

“and then you’d be the greatest astronomyer ever!”

“Astronomer.” Eevie, as she corrected him (though she wasn’t really correcting him, just reminding him – in all honesty she thought it was adorable when he did things like that, but she couldn’t help but interject every now and then), held a smile on her face. Jude hardly took any of the same classes she did, and that bothered Eevie but she found it so adorable when he made up names for the classes when talking to her. She knew he knew what classes she took, he had her schedule memorized, and he could tell anyone where she was at a specific hour of the day. Jude was intelligent, crazy intelligent actually, but he still did these cute little things that Eevie loved. Sometimes she wondered if he did them for her. Jude did a lot of things for Eevie as she did a lot of things for him. Their relationship was completely…mutual. Not one sided on either side. And again, Eevie loved it. She shook her head now, “Jude, I really…that won’t happen. If I have to drop out to be with you, Jude, I’m going to. Easy as that. I’m not going to let you fail, no matter what you think about more education being better than less education, I won’t let you fail. I’ll do your work if I have to.” She looked at him seriously and then snuggled again.

They had avoided this topic for so long, but now it was time to face it – to work it out. Eevie knew where it was going to head, though, and she wasn’t sure how she was going to talk about where Jude was going to head with this. She would have to wait and see. Jude spoke about living in Hogsmeade and then becoming an assistant to Sprout, and again Eevie shook her head; “Better than the first idea of you failing, I’ll give you that, but it’s not enough. We’d only see each other during meal times and on weekends. It’s…it’s not enough.” It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough to only see him during those times. She snuggled again and breathed in deeply, trying to calm her racing mind. She didn’t want to be alone without Jude at all, she knew she would feel completely empty if she was without Jude in the least. Jude…Jude was just..her everything. She needed him. And she would keep him with her no matter where she was. They had been together for so long that she just couldn’t be without him. And now as they sat, Eevie in Jude’s lap, he brought up the topic that she had been avoiding for awhile now.

“I…” Eevie looked down at her hands as she tried to work through her thoughts. Marriage and a family? Those were two things that scared Eevie out of her mind. Relationships in general had scared Eevie, but when Jude had asked her to be his girlfriend she hadn’t hesitated in saying yes and she’s never regretted it. But marriage and a family…that was a big step. She took a deep breath and looked up at Jude with a sincere smile, “Jude, I love you and I…I want nothing more than to marry you and have a family with you. My fears, though, they’re really strong. I mean, you’d be marrying a wreck. You know about my parents, about their marriage, you heard about how my family was when I was younger.” Eevie reached and took Jude’s hand, playing with it as she spoke in a soft tone; “It’s always a scary thought that…that we might be that way…that I might have inherited something from my father or even my mother or something equally scary. I…” she shrugged here and looked up at him with sad eyes, “I’m just scared. I’ve seen marriage start out great and then end terribly and I don’t want that to happen with us at all. That’s…that’s one thing that…that…I….” she shook her head and hid her face in his neck, shaking slightly.

[Jude Esben H7]

Jude’s smile only got brighter as Eevie corrected him about her class. Jude could say all of those words with ease if he chose to, but sometimes in the cases where he was trying to be funny, he would mispronounce things in an attempted to get Eevie to laugh. He loved making her laugh. He loved it so completely much. To see a smile on her face was the greatest thing in Jude’s world,. Well, of course, besides all the other wonderful things that involved Eevie. Like kisses and hugs and smiles and laughs and hand holding and tickle fights and cuddling and snuggling and just plain talking. Anything that Involved Eevie was wonderful. Blissful. Amazing. Spectacular, and just about any other possible synonym you could find for great. That’s how their relationship always had been. It had always been mind-blowingly wonderful. It had always knocked Jude off his feet. Jude could think back to some of the first memories he had with her. Their first kiss, the first time they held hands, the first time she’d sat in his lap, the first time they’d gotten anywhere near serious. All of them were amazing memories, and Jude wouldn’t trade them for the world. If Jude could go back, he’d do them all over again exactly like he’d done them the first time, because everything about their past made their relationship as strong as it was today.

Jude nodded slightly as Eevie told him that what he had said wouldn’t happen, but at the same time he shook it at her. “You never really Know Eevie. It couuuuld happen!” He smiled and wrapped his arms around her tightly as Eevie snuggled, knowing there was no arguing with her on the subject. She wouldn’t let him fail and that was that. But Jude really didn’t want Eevie to drop out just for him. Jude mentioned that maybe he could ask to come back as an assistant, but Eevie wouldn’t have that either. Of course she was right. Meal times and weekends would never do. The just wouldn’t. Eevie and Jude needed each other constantly. The only reason they could tolerate going to class was on the knowledge that they’d be together again before too long. But whole weeks only seeing each other three times a day wouldn’t do. They wouldn’t manage.

As Jude and Eevie sat debating one problem, Jude mind had already moved on to another, future problem. Marriage. Jude knew about Eevie’s family, and he knew about what had happened to her mother and father, and he had suspected that the idea of being married might scare Eevie. But you could assume that Jude had hoped that over time, Eevie would lessen her fears when it came to their relationship. And he had been right. They had grown quite a lot the whole time they were together. But Jude knew that the time was coming for them to decide what kind of future together they wanted. Jude knew what he wanted. Jude wanted to marry Eevie and live with her forever. And Jude wanted a family with her. This was slightly strange, because Jude was afraid of young children, and especially babies. All his life he had been told that babies were fragile and he ahd been told to stay away from them. Of course this had always been the fault of adults for mistaking Jude’s personality as a mental disorder, but still, Jude had been taught that he would break a young child and so he had stayed away. He had developed a fear therefore, which made it insanely odd that Jude wanted kids with Eevie. But he knew Eevie would make a great mom, and that she could help him make a great dad. He knew it. He just did.

Jude looked at Eevie lovingly as she spoke to him and when she finished he kissed the side of her head and let his lips linger. He wrapped his arms around her tight and rocked slowly for a bit, thinking. Finally he whispered to her. “I’m pretty sure, that the only reason children grow up to be like their parents is because they let themselves.” Jude nodded thoughtfully and looked at the love of his life. “I know for a fact I won’t be like my parents. Because I’m going to make sure I don’t become like them. And I have faith that you’ll be nothing like yours, because you won’t let yourself. And that’s a very, very good thing honey.” Jude moved a hand up to run his fingers through Eevie’s hair, thinking still. “I also think, that whether we get married or not I’m going to be with you forever Eevie. And so, it makes me wonder if it’s just getting married that makes people crazy? Your parents had their thing, and mine are divorced...but at the same time I know some people who have really happy married lives.” Jude smiled softly. “That old lady that calls me Judey? She runs the gardening shop back in my dad’s town. And her husband and her have been married for a very, very long time. He’s very sick now of course, but she tells me that she loves him more than ever and that no matter what happens to him, they’re completely in love and they have been since he played her favorite song on a juke box in town.” He rocked again, getting lost in thought. “Know what a juke box is? It’s this old fashioned muggle thing that plays music, and you used to put in a dime or so, and then push the number of the song you wanted it to play, and it would play that song. The flower shop lady, her name is Mrs. Prudle, I told her she had a funny name once and she laughed. Proo-dul. Funny. But anyways, she told me once, when I was watering some radishes, she told me that she looked at her husband, his name’s Tom. She said, ‘And I looked over at Tom, and said, hey boy, play me a song. And then he put in a dime, and he pushed a few buttons, and the next thing I knew the room was spinning; he had played my favorite song.’” Here Jude paused and smiled brightly at Eevie. “You should see her face light up when she talks about him princess. I wanna be old and in love like that with you. I think it’d be brilliant. Like a big bright sunflower.”

[Eevie Bloch G6]

Only Jude could compare love to a sunflower. And that was one of the things that Eevie loved about him the most. He compared love to the things that most people wouldn’t even think of comparing love to. It made her smile and sometimes she would just stop and stare at Jude with this look on her face. The look that made him realise that she really did love him as much as she said. Eevie and Jude were something else, they were something completely different than other people or other couples and Eevie loved that. She loved the fact that they couldn’t put a label on their relationship. They were Eevie and Jude, and they were in love and they always would be in love. Nothing would change that. The things that Eevie might have been afraid of changing their relationship were things that she wouldn’t allow to happen. She wouldn’t become like her parents, most of all her mother, and Jude wasn’t going to be like his parents, so why was she so worried about what would happen with them once they were married? Eevie didn’t know, but she shook at the thought of something going so wrong that they fell out of love with each other. Could they fall out of love with each other? Was that possible? Eevie shrunk visibly at the idea and hid her face in Jude’s neck, wrapping her arms around him and clinging to him loosely. She wouldn’t let anything bad happen to them and he wouldn’t let anything bad happen to them; that was the way it was going to be. Finally, after a moment of silence, a silence so grand Eevie could have sworn it ate up the rest of the world; she whispered, her lips brushing against his neck, “I’m not going to let us become like our parents, Jude.” Her voice grew steadily louder as she pulled away, her face close enough to his to feel his breath on her cheek.

She kissed his ear and smiled softly before pulling away completely to look him in the eye, “Jude Esben, when we get married, because we will, we’re going to be so happy that you aren’t going to know what hit you.” Eevie smiled brightly and reached her hand up to run her fingers through his hair lovingly; it was something she did often, something she enjoyed to do because no one else could do it. Eevie was the only one who could show any type of affection toward Jude, and she was the only one Jude would allow her to show any type of affection toward him. Anyone else who went to run their fingers through his hair he would shrink away from. Not Eevie. She stroked his cheek and then kissed his forehead, “I have a lot of issues when it comes to marriage, because I don’t want to end up like my parents. I don’t want to be like my dad, and I don’t want to be like my mum. I suppose, since Bethany raised me I could turn out like her – but I don’t want to be like her either. I want to be Eevie and I don’t know if marriage will change that. If it does change me, if I’m not long Eevie, who’s to say you won’t fall out of love with me? Who’s to say you won’t stop feeling the way you feel for me now?” Jude went to speak, but Eevie shook her head and placed a finger on his lips, continuing; “I know, it’s stupid and illogical, but it’s possible and it’s something that I’m really afraid of. More afraid of anything else. What if we get married and we live together, and you find out that I’m not the person you really thought I was? What if I’m not the person I really think I am?” Eevie’s blue eyes turned slightly gloomy as she dropped her hand and looked down.

“I’m just afraid of how things are going to turn out, Jude, and I wonder if you are, too. I mean, you say that we won’t be like our parents, but what happens if we don’t be like ourselves either? What happens if things change? I don’t do well with change…you know I don’t do well with change. Sometimes that fear makes me wish we could stay this age forever. There aren’t any worries at this age besides passing our exams and lessons.” Eevie looked up at Jude, trying not to cry, “But that can really all change…fast.”

[Jude Esben H7]

Jude frowned as he watched Eevie shrink before she hid her face in his neck and wrapped her arms around him. Jude did so as well, well, he wrapped his arms around her I mean. But not as loosely as she did, much, much, more tight then she had done. So tight that she would know that he would never ever let her go. Jude closed his eyes and rocked slowly as he simply held Eevie tight to him, and he even began to hum before Eevie spoke again. He shivered in a good way when her lips brushed against his skin, a smile spreading across his face. Jude knew for a fact he wouldn’t become like his parents. Jude’s parents had been much less of parents and far more of just a bunch of kids. Perhaps that was why Jude had developed into such a childish seventeen year old. He’d never really had a good example at home of what and adult should be like, and so he had easily just...not developed at all. Socially of course. Mentally and physically he had developed just like any other growing boy would. But socially the only development he had made was the fall in love with Eevie. As far as becoming an adult and thinking about his future and actually caring about money and things like that Jude had never learned how to do. As much however, as Jude had not developed into an adult very well, he had most definitely learned how a parent was not supposed to act. Jude had a pretty good understanding of what kind of father he wished he had had, and so therefore he knew exactly what kind of father he wanted to be. And that man was nothing like Jude’s father.

Jude looked at Eevie lovingly after she kissed his ear and pulled away, and his smile continued to grow when she said that they were going to get married someday. Jude relaxed as Eevie began to run her fingers through his hair, always having loved that. He really did love any time Eevie touched him. No one ever really touched Jude. Jude was quite afraid of human contact, including hugs. He could remember quite well the first time Eevie had held his hand, because you could bet it would have been her who would have initiated hand holding. Jude had been probably the shyest boyfriend ever when he and Eevie had first started dating. She had just simply grabbed his hand one afternoon and Jude had not argued at all. And from then on hand holding had been just one of those things that they did. The first couple times of course Jude had still been afraid to take her hand, but after a while he had gotten over it and now hand holding was one of his favorite things. The more their relationship had developed and the more comfortable they had become with each other, the easier it had been for Jude to initiate such things. For instance, he had been the first one to pull her into his lap. She had been upset over something, though he couldn’t quite remember what (he liked to forget about the times when she was upset, it made him sad) and she had been sitting on the arm of his chair. He hadn’t liked that very much and so pulling her into his lap and wrapping his arms around you was the best fix to the problem. And it had worked out quite well indeed.

Jude’s smile slowly melted away as Eevie continued talking, and when it seemed like she had paused he moved his mouth to speak, only to be stopped by her finger on his lips, forced to listen to her continue on with silly, silly thoughts. Finally she dropped her hand, but her lips kept moving. Jude’s hands moved and he cradled her face in his hands when she looked up at him, before kissing her forehead softly and resting his on hers. He sat there for a few moments before moving his hands to take hers, linking their fingers and sliding his thumbs on hers. “You know Eevie? You’re a silly lady.” Jude kissed her nose and then both her cheeks before wrapping his arms around her again and pulling her tight to him, so he could whisper in her ear when her head rested on his shoulder. “You know how much I love you? I love you more then pomegranates and sunflowers and herbology and all those other silly things that I say I love. I love you more than them because I only love them and I’m not in love with them. But I’m in love with you...and when you’re in love with someone...you know them.” Jude paused and looked down at Eevie, smiling lovingly at her. “Eevie if you weren’t who you thought you were? Then you wouldn’t be who I thought you were, and since I know who you are, then that means that there’s no thinking involved and so...” Jude stopped and thought over what he said, realizing that there really was no sense in it at all. “Eevie you don’t have to be afraid of this. You can be afraid of other things like Snape and heights and stuff, but not of this. This is our future, and there’s no reason to be afraid of our future because our future is something that’s meant to be. We’re meant to be in love forever, and nothing is going to change that. You’re my soul mate and I know it. I knew it from the first moment I saw you.”