Brilliant Liar. ((Lynne))

[Adrina De Luca]

Danny

“No!” Danny crumbled another letter and threw it to the floor. All wrong. They were all wrong. How could he even put his feelings for Adrina in words? It was impossible really. Danny didn’t know how to explain it. But, he had to find a way to tell her. Danny couldn’t leave her, not again. She had to let him back in her life. She had to! Danny wouldn’t let go until she did. Adrina couldn’t be with Kael. She just couldn’t. Kael couldn’t be Gia’s father. Danny couldn’t tolerate that. Gia. Danny had been thinking about her a lot really. What did she look like? Did she even look like him? Danny asked himself the same questions over and over. But, he didn’t get any answers from that. He only got more questions. He had to do something. Danny couldn’t hide at the Leaky Cauldron forever and he couldn’t go back to Russia. His parents didn’t want him back. They basically kicked out their sixteen year old son. Danny’s only hope was Adrina. He needed her. He needed her so that he could feel whole again.

Danny couldn’t just sit anymore. He couldn’t just think and write. He was so tired of that. He had to go somewhere, do something. Danny wasn’t going to go see Drina. Not yet anyway. He had to work up to that. He had to find a way to make her love him again. He had to! She couldn’t be with Kael. No! Danny finally left the room and slammed the door behind him. Hogsmeade. Yea, maybe he could clear his head there. He would have to stay clear of Drina though. It wouldn’t be that hard. He knew where her cottage was and her favorite shops and such. Danny could avoid her easily. Danny couldn’t talk to her yet, but in time she would love him again. In time, Danny would be his old self. He could forget things that happened in Russia and move on. But, he needed Drina for this. He couldn’t move on and be happy without her.

Danny moved about Hogsmeade slyly. He couldn’t be seen by Drina, Kael, and Aria. Really, Danny couldn’t be seen by anyone that knew him. Really, he hadn’t spent too much time in Hogsmeade as a student so not many shop keepers knew him. After a visit to the Hogs Head for some Firewhisky, Danny was about again. Something had to be around that could help clear his mind. His thoughts were all jumbled. He couldn’t think straight really. Adrina did this to him. She made him like this, but maybe that was why he loved her. Really, this made no sense, but Danny didn’t notice. He had been like this for months. He couldn’t explain it; he didn’t know what was wrong with him nor did he admit that he had a problem. But, his parents did. No one really knew why Danny was this way now, but one thing was for sure. He wasn’t that way before he moved to Russia.

Danny wasn’t completely drunk. Which was better than being drunk. He was more like buzzed. Yea, that was it. Well, it was better that than being drunk and walking about the village trying to avoid people. That would have to be complicated. Danny sighed a bit as he pulled his jacket toward him. He was about ready to head back to The Leaky Cauldron. He had nothing left to do in Hogsmeade. He was about to leave, when he saw a familiar face. Danny immediately went back to the old Danny. One thing about Danny post-Russia. He was an excellent liar. “Lynnette Collins in the flesh. Wow, I haven’t seen you in over a year.” Danny smiled somewhat brightly. Yep, he was a brilliant liar. “You look more beautiful than usual, my dear.” He told his old friend.

[Lynne Collins]

Kael just annoyed her lately. He was never around anymore – too concerned with his new girlfriend to pay attention to his twin, Lynne supposed. Even Gia came before her it seemed, and the child wasn’t even his! Saturday was meant to be their day, when they could catch up with each other and it was a sort of unofficial therapy session for her if Kael sensed that something about her synaesthesia was bothering her, which it usually was. He wasn’t the same brother that he had been at the beginning of the summer and Lynne simply didn’t know who to blame anymore. She had tried blaming Adrina, but it was too much like judging someone before she had met them and that didn’t settle well within her heart. Then she had blamed Kael, which actually she hadn’t had a problem with. But blaming him hadn’t lasted long because when had she ever been able to hold something against her twin? It felt too much like a betrayal of the twin-bond. Besides, he had been smiling a lot more lately and the sight had settled her possessive jealousy a lot more successfully than anything else could have.

Hmph. Lynne bit into her cookie viciously, staring around the café but not really registering anything her eyes landed on. Maybe she could set Kael’s clothes on fire when she got back from Hogsmeade, she mused vindictively. Surely one of her Hufflepuff friends would consent to sneaking her into the common room. Oh, it was times like these when she really missed Danny more than ever. Danny Lowell. Lynne smiled somewhat bitterly. She had tried so hard not to think about her friend ever since he had left. He had been her closest and favourite friend and she had more than once contemplated telling him about her secret. But then again, when it came to him – she had more than one secret. Because after all, how could she admit to her best friend – her girlfriend-having best friend – that she had had a crush on him for almost as long as she had known him. He had never noticed, nor had she expected him to. Not only was he too wrapped up in his girlfriend to notice but Lynne was too good of a liar. She had felt content in just having him as a friend because she had always believed that they would always be friends.

Of all the times to think about her departed best friend. Lynne smiled angrily, pretending to herself that she hadn’t just brushed a tear away before it could fall. “Why was he the one person I couldn’t have?” Lynne asked her hot chocolate miserably, jumping when a voice spoke from behind her. “Because that’s the way it always is, sweetie. It wouldn’t be life if you got what you wanted without fighting for it,” the waitress smiled at her companionably, hurrying away when the chef called to her but not before bending and whispering in Lynne’s ear. “I had to wait three years before I got the guy I thought I wanted. Turns out, he was only using me to make his girlfriend jealous. Some guys just aren’t worth it, dearie.”

It was nice advice, and a nice gesture but it had absolutely nothing to do with her. Lynne wasn’t involved, not at all. It was too hard when he had walked away from her and her friendship without even a trace of unhappiness in his manner. He had left her in such a state that she hadn’t even been able to send any of the letters she wrote – endless letters with betrayed accusations and fierce feelings of hurt but a wish for him to return because she would forgive her best friend anything if only he returned – because she was ashamed of them. “Danny?” Lynne whispered to herself disbelievingly, staring at him like he was a ghost. She stepped toward him slowly, ideas of slapping him fading as she drew closer. After a moment of utter stillness, Lynne wrapped her arms around him and hugged him tightly, swallowing back an overwhelmed sob as she buried her head against his shoulder.

When Lynne felt able to pull away from the hug, she was as cool and composed as ever, showing a stronger resemblance to her brother than she had before. “You came back,” her voice was still barely louder than a whisper. Somehow she feared that if she spoke any louder, the illusion would shatter and her best friend would be gone. Again. But this time, Lynne wondered if she’d be able to recover. Losing her best friend once had been hard enough, but twice? She wasn’t that strong. “I missed you, you jerk.” Her voice trembled and Lynne took a deep breath, fighting to compose herself again. How odd. She had never had to do that around Danny before. She had felt free to let herself go and just be herself around him. “Why did you come back? Somehow I doubt that it was to compliment my wonderful looks because I haven’t changed that much. Have you changed any, Danny?” Lynne asked softly, looking up at him and smiling brilliantly. He was back. Her best friend was back so what did it matter if Kael had Adrina? She had her other source of strength back again and, for the first time since he had left, Lynne felt like everything was normal again.

[Adrina De Luca]

Danny

Danny smiled as Lynne hugged him tightly. He could see just by his emotions how much she had missed him. Danny never thought that his leaving would affect her so much. After all, Lynne and Danny had only ever been friends. Besides, Danny had always seen Lynne as a strong girl, sort of like Adrina in that way really. Danny had missed Lynne. Well, a lot of things had happened in Russia that made him forget her really. For one moment, Danny wanted to tell her the things that had happened. No! You fool. He told himself. Can’t tell her. She’ll turn you in. You can trust her, but not about this. No! Can’t trust her. Not at all! His psychotic side was taking over his mind even if Danny didn’t realize it himself. None of this showed on his face. No, Danny’s crazy inner-thoughts were only his own. No one else knew of this. No one else could know. Danny continued to hug Lynne as neither of them wanted to pull away. Maybe he couldn’t trust her, but he still missed her. That non-crazy voice in his head told him so.

Danny nodded. “Yea, I did.” He confirmed the obvious. Danny smiled at Lynne. She was right. She hadn’t changed much. She was still Lynne. Adorable and strong Lynne Collins with the quiet and slightly odd twin-brother. Huh? Wait! Right. Danny hadn’t connected it until he got a good look at Lynne. Lynne was Kael’s sister! Twin! Wait! Lynne was Danny’s connection to Adrina. Lynne was his only hope. Danny’s psychotic-side was kicking in. He wasn’t thinking about his some-what real emotions or any true feelings for Lynne at all. It was almost like this other side of him was taking those feelings away. Danny couldn’t help it really. He could only formulate plans in his head. Well, he was a brilliant liar. And good thing. Lynne was his ticket. Lynne was his ticket to Adrina. Without Adrina, Danny couldn’t be normal again. He wanted to be. He needed to be! Adrina would make him whole. He needed her. And, he needed Lynne.

“I came back for you.” Brilliant liar. That was the only way to describe it. Danny needed Lynne. She was his ticket to Adrina. And with Adrina, Danny could have the perfect life he always wanted with her and their child. Danny had always cared for Lynne, but those feelings were gone. It was as if he had never known their existence. They disappeared into thin air. “And I missed you, but isn’t jerk a harsh term Lynnette?” Danny had always been a charmer. Even his delusional ways couldn’t hide it. He had always been able to slip from being serious back to being a charmer. It was a gift really. Danny faked a brilliant smile. This would work. Lynne would help him. Besides, Danny had always been attracted to Lynne. She was beautiful. Maybe he could actually fall for her in the process of getting what he wanted. Through Lynne, Adrina was only a couple of steps away. Once Adrina learned that Danny and Lynne were an item, which they would surely become, Adrina would surely confront him as she always did and they would be together again. They had to be!

“I really missed you Lynne.” He told her as he smiled while looking into her eyes. He sighed when she asked why he had come back. Well, the truth wouldn’t suffice obviously. “Russia wasn’t working out. My parents and I weren’t seeing eye to eye. So, I’m back. I’m staying in the Leaky Cauldron. I’m not sure what I will do, but I’ll figure something out.” He nodded. Well, all of that was truthful, but half-truths of course. “You have changed. For one thing, I don’t see any giggling girls following you around and watching your every move wanting to be you.” He eyed her and smiled. “Please say that they finally gave up. They will never been Lynne Collins.” Danny eyed her again. He could do this. This was going to work. “No, I’m still Danny.” Well, that was true. “Let’s just say that Russia kicked Danny’s butt, but it doesn’t matter. I’m back now and I’m here with you.” He smiled. “Russia is in my past. You aren’t.”

[Lynne Collins]

How could she have possibly missed Danny this much? Lynne questioned herself, determined to unearth an answer that would fix everything for her. Then again, didn’t she already have one, even if it wasn’t one she had ever made public? As far as Kael was concerned, she had been quieter than usual because she had lost her best friend, not someone she had also loved. If she was able to fool him so easily, one of the two people who could see right through her whenever she tried to lie, then what chance did anyone else have of uncovering her true feelings. Even Danny, who had been so sure that he had known her so well, hadn’t realised that she loved him as more than a friend. She must be a better actress than anyone had ever given her credit for. “I thought you’d forgotten about me,” Lynne forced the words out through chapped lips, the wind whipping around her cruelly and making her shiver. “You never wrote, not once.” A quick flash of angry bitterness showed in her eyes. “Did I ever matter?” Of course she hadn’t, Lynne thought bitterly. What was a friend – even a best friend – when compared to Danny’s wonderful Gryffindor girlfriend?

Lynne studied Danny through lowered eyelashes, sadness appearing as she noticed something about him that hadn’t been there before. And not just the whiff of Firewhiskey that had caught her attention when she had hugged him so tightly. Her best friend was plotting something, and not just the innocent jokes that they had discussed in a warm common room, at a time that seemed so long ago that it hurt to think about it. Nonsense, her mind laughed it off chirpily, burying the idea at the very back of her mind. When has Danny ever been plotting something bad enough to make anyone worry? It just isn’t possible. Danny isn’t like that – he couldn’t be because he never has been before. That was right, Lynne nodded to herself firmly, obviously lost in thought. For all of his faults – which was mainly being oblivious, both to her annoyance and relief – Danny wasn’t manipulative or cunning and especially not with her.

“Liar,” Lynne smiled wryly, hiding the brief flash of hurt that had shot through her with practised ease. “I know you, Danny Lowell, and I never came that high in your list of priorities. You came back to visit your girlfriend, right? I bet she’s missing you. Either that or she’s moved on. That’s it, right? She has, hasn’t she?” It was so vindictive and so unlike her normal self, but Lynne couldn’t stop the vicious hope that Danny had come back in an attempt to reclaim a girlfriend that no longer wanted him. Well, why shouldn’t she be at least a little mean? She had been tossed to the sidelines by both of her favourite people, one right after the other, and she was hurting. Lashing out at Danny wasn’t helping much, but at least a very small amount of betrayed hurt felt satisfied. “No, it’s not too harsh, Danny.” Lynne exploded furiously, dashing away the few tears that rose to her eyes again before they could fall. “If you had felt anything for me other than dislike then you would have written to me or flooed me or...anything. For all I knew, you were dead.” She was shaking slightly, but she jutted her chin out, pretending to a strength that she didn’t feel. “Any love – any liking,” Lynne corrected instantly, not ready to give away her secret just yet, “that I felt for you, you kinda lost the chance of still having it when you forgot about me.”


She didn’t run away from confrontations, that was the only reason she was still here, still listening to Danny. Or at least that was what she tried to tell herself. He talked about how Russia wasn’t working out and she just shook her head, not bothering to explain her reaction further. It was time to see if Danny was still himself enough to know that she was disgusted with his excuse for coming back – which she thought was more of a lie than him missing her - and the fact that he had left in the first place. “Try jumping off a cliff, if you want something to do,” she suggested bitingly, forcing her anger to the top of her bubbling emotions. If she didn’t, she’d forgive Danny far too easily for something that had upset her far too much. There was too much hurt and anger between them for them to be friends again for longer than a few months. “Well I was certainly in your past when you were in Russia. You can’t turn over a page and then try to flip back to it later, when you suddenly decide you miss it, Danny! I might not be in your past, but I don’t see myself being in your present either. You hurt me, Danny; you hurt me really badly.” Her voice cracked slightly as Lynne revealed one of her best-hidden secrets, leaving only the fact that she loved him out of her reasoning. She was making it too obvious already.

[Adrina De Luca]

Danny

Danny’s mind as skipping paces. It went back and forth to the old Danny that love Adrina and his friends to the new Danny the one who’s life had been taken over by lies and terrible acts. A part of Danny wished to be who he used to be, but it wasn’t easy. It probably wasn’t even possible. Danny had changed and even if he wanted to turn things back around, he couldn’t and he didn’t know how to. He couldn’t go back to how he used to be. He could only seem to go forward. Danny smiled. He remembered that Lynne was his friend. And he couldn’t take that back, but she was worth so much more to him now. He needed her, but he couldn’t tell her. Lynne was too good and she didn’t even know it. Danny couldn’t trust her with the truth. He had to use her to get what he wanted. The old Danny would have cringed at the thought of this, but the old Danny was gone and replaced by the new. And the new cared for Lynne, but he cared more about Adrina and Gia. He needed a family. And needed to get himself back and Adrina was the only person that could do this for him. Danny was troubled but he couldn’t admit it. And he couldn’t tell anyone. However, people were sure to find out in time just as they did in Russia.

Danny shook his head. Lynne was upset and Danny understood. He flopped back to the caring side again. He had left her and he barely told her before he left. Lynne had always been there for Danny even when Danny started to date Drina. He had known Drina for years and he always wanted her. He had also known Lynne for a long while and she was his best-friend, his pal. He knew that he was going to loose her through all of this and that hurt, but he couldn’t stop it. “I didn’t forget Lynne. I had a new life. I had to try and move on, but it wasn’t easy. And it didn’t work at all.” He shook his head. All of this was true but really, Danny could have stayed for Lynne and Adrina if he really wanted to, but he was scared. He was scared of Adrina having a baby and that over-shadowed everything really. Danny’s selfishness was more important to him than Lynne and he knew it. Danny sighed. “Lynne, I didn’t write anyone, but not writing to you was the hardest.” Lie. Not writing to Drina was the hardest, but he couldn’t tell Lynne this. “I wanted you to move on and find new friends. I wanted you to forget about me. Is that so bad?” Okay so this was a weird statement but it made sense. Lynne needed to get new friends and yes Danny did think this way when he moved to Russia. He hadn’t changed until he had been there five months. Before that time, Danny wanted to write Lynne, but he knew that if he did, she wouldn’t let go. And she needed to.

“Of course you mattered!” This wasn’t a lie, but Danny knew he was only saying it to keep her calm. “You mattered enough that I had to give you up to keep you happy. You needed a new life Lynne. Maybe you still do.” Well, the last sentence was just to jerk her heart. He knew she wouldn’t leave him. Danny knew that Lynne cared for him maybe more than she should. She wasn’t about to leave him now. Danny shook his head. Lynne knew him well. “Yes you did.” He said playfully like in the old days. “Hey I knew that I never had to worry about you. Not until I left. So yes maybe sometimes you weren’t at the top but you didn’t need to be.” True. Danny shook his head again. She was good. He blushed slightly like he used to. “Okay so yes I came to see her and yes she moved on and shot me down. But I’m not staying for her.” Lie. “I want to be back here near all my friends, yes including you Miss Collins.”

Lynne then started getting mad. More mad than she already was. “If I was dead you would know!” He stepped toward her. He was getting angry now. Lynne was so..Lynne. He couldn’t calm her. She was hard to fool, but he would. He had to. Love? She said it. He heard it! That was it. Lynne had been trying to hide it all these years, but it was right in front of him now and he knew. But she couldn’t know that he did. But, he could use her little secret for his own use. “I didn’t forget Lynne. You know I didn’t.” He hadn’t forgotten her until he had kicked out of his new school for..and then his life changed and he nearly died. So many things happened and Lynne would never understand. “Lynne..” He muttered when she kept getting angry. He couldn’t calm her now. He sighed. It was going to be hard to win her back. “I’m sorry.” He wasn’t, but he was a good liar now. He was good at pretending he did. “I’ve told you the truth. I’ve explained everything to you. You know everything.” Lies. “So what can I do to fix this?” He asked finally. His green eyes full of emotion. He had to have Lynne back on his side. He needed her in so many ways.

[Lynne Collins]

Oh, she just didn’t know what to think anymore. On one hand, Danny was there, right in front of her no less, and he was definitely back, definitely not a hallucination brought on by too many months of separation from her closest friend. She wanted nothing more than to hug him, cry into his shoulder and let the past few months be erased from her memory so that everything would be like it always had. They could laugh together and slip back into the same, familiar relationship that they had always had. On occasion, Lynne had felt so sure that they walked the thin line between friendship and...something more, but nothing had ever come of it. Nothing ever would, Lynne told herself sternly, hardening her heart against the sweet words that Danny seemed intent on making her believe. Maybe he was telling the truth and he had also come back for her, but Lynne was too bitter, too hurt, to overlook his betrayal of their friendship.

“I know that you wanted to try and move on. I know that.” Her voice faded into silence and Lynne’s eyes flashed unhappily as she struggled to contain her emotions. Danny had been one of the most important people in her life for so many years that she had found it ridiculously hard to adjust to a life without him around. “I know that you tried to move on after you left. I know because I had to do the same.” Her voice failed her for a moment as Lynne pushed the next few words out of her mouth. They would be a lie but Danny didn’t have to know that. She had lied to him for years about important matters, what would one more lie hurt? It was only her heart breaking after all, and that had obviously never been considered something important since it had been slowly happening ever since she had first been told that Danny was dating someone who wasn’t her. “I moved on.” Lynne lied to him, her eyes veiled coolly and her voice firm. “I did just what you wanted, Danny Lowell. I moved on, I found new friends and I nearly forgot about you. So why did you have to come back?” Her voice nearly rose into a furious yell but Lynne curbed her emotions just in time to keep her voice level. “You abandoned me. Even worse than that, you didn’t even explain properly. Was ten minutes to explain the situation to a girl who considered you her closest friend really too much to ask?” Lynne sighed, merely looking at him with a mixture of sadness and disgust shining dully in her eyes. “When you left, you weren’t the boy I thought I knew so well. Maybe you never were.”

Lynne shook her head slowly, forcing herself to keep calm as she slowly shut off all of her emotions. She had never done anything like that before, had never had to. She was an open, emotional girl and had been ever since she was a young child. To close herself off in such a way – and from Danny! – seemed so cold and impersonal but she justified it by reasoning that he deserved so much more malice and anger than she could ever give him. “How can I believe anything that you say anymore? Last year, you could’ve told me that the sky had turned green and I wouldn’t have even thought to look out the window and check because I would’ve believed you.” Lynne’s mouth tilted upward in a small, reluctant smile. Okay, so that was an over exaggeration but it got her point across well enough to satisfy her. Besides, Danny knew she was a bit dramatic when she got upset. “Well then, I guess you lost everything.” Her laugh was bitter as she gazed at Danny. “What do you have left for you now, Danny? No girlfriend, no best friend. Even your old friends aren’t likely to be very receptive to you because they were friends with me too and they saw what you weren’t around to see.” Lynne closed her eyes slowly, blocking Danny from her sight. Standing like that, with a small embarrassed blush spread across his cheeks...he looked so much like the person she remembered with love and affection. If she ignored the situation, it would appear so much like none of this had ever happened and it was just her teasing Danny until he blushed and then him extracting his revenge. It was those thoughts, those memories of the past, that made Lynne’s eyes soften from the hard glare she had been aiming at him until the look she was giving him became almost love-struck.

Danny stepped toward her and Lynne resisted the instinctive urge to step back immediately; instead she moved one step closer to him defiantly. “Intimidation tactics won’t work on me, Danny.” She snapped at him furiously, pushing him away from her with all the strength she could muster to use against him. He was foolish, part of her mind muttered to her darkly; trying to intimidate her? Did Danny have no sense anymore? Lynne bristled indignantly, never one to back down from a challenge, before her facade of anger broke under Danny’s gaze. “You can’t do anything to fix this,” Lynne answered sadly, a tear slowly tracking down her face as she finally tried to come to terms with the loss of the closest friend she’d ever had and the only guy she’d ever loved. “Maybe if you’d come back sooner,” Lynne admitted, “then I might not have so much hate inside me. I need you with me so much because everything is changing and I don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t know who I am anymore and you’re not there.” Lynne struck out at him weakly as another stifled sob escaped her throat. “You’re not there for me and I don’t know who else to turn to. Because there is no one else.” Lynne finally broke down into the tears she had held back since the day she had realised that Danny was truly gone and she automatically turned toward him, clinging to him and burying her head in his shoulder as she revealed to him just how broken she had become because of his disappearance. Lynne had always needed someone there beside her, someone to support her when she needed it, and both Kael and Danny had fulfilled that role. But then both of them had disappeared – Danny to Russia and Kael involved with his own life and girlfriend – and Lynne had fallen while neither of them had been there to catch her or help her back up again.

[Adrina De Luca]

Danny

Danny understood now. He understood why she was so upset. Lynne cared about him in a way Danny didn’t understand until now. She maybe even loved him. Danny could use this. He could use it to get Adrina and Gia back. He needed them. He needed them more than anything. There was a time when Danny cared for Lynne, but not like he cared for Adrina. Danny had been obsessed with Adrina ever since they met when they were ten. She was perfect. She wasn’t like any other girl Danny knew. Adrina smart and sarcastic even as a kid. She knew what she wanted and she went after it head-first. She looked at life differently and she wasn’t easy to deal with. Adrina was unique and Danny loved her for it. It took years for Adrina to see Danny as anything more than a friend. So, while she was off flirting with other boys, Danny was hanging out with his good friend Lynne. She wasn’t like Adrina, but she was a cool girl. Still, Danny only had eyes for Miss De Luca. One day Adrina finally saw Danny as more than a cute, shy boy who loved to follow her every move and loved to take part in her schemes. They both fell hard for each other and the rest..Well, it’s safe to say that Adrina got pregnant and Danny moved away. That is where Danny made a decision. He made the decision to leave and that was really where their lives changed forever. But Danny wasn’t satisfied with the change. He had to get her back. He had to.

She moved on? Danny didn’t buy to. One thing that he learned in Russia was to read between the lines. Danny wasn’t that annoying boy who was head-over-heals for Adrina anymore. Okay, yes he still loved her, but he wasn’t the same old Danny-boy any longer. He was smarter and defiantly wittier. Danny could work himself around any situation and that was what he would have to do here. Danny eyed Lynne with his big green eyes. He needed her. Yes, he needed her company and he needed to feel some normalcy, but Danny also had a plan brewing in his brain. He needed Lynne. “Lynne.: How could he explain this to her? “Look, I’m glad that you have new friends and I’m glad that you are moving on in your life and yes that is what I wanted.” He paused. “But I miss you and that’s why I came back. I mean really Lynne, think. I have nothing else here but you. I gave up on Hogwarts so that’s done. My whole life is in Russia, but I gave that up too for you. I mean really Lynne, think of one other reason.” He eyed her. “There isn’t one.” He was a good liar that was for sure. Now Lynne knew that Danny had a girlfriend when he left. But she didn’t know who it was or that she had Danny’s baby or that she was now dating none other that Lynne’s twin, Kael. “Lynne I am still the same guy. Maybe I grew up a little more but I’m still that guy. I’m that guy who regrets leaving and not thinking of you more than I did. I just had to get out of here. I have to leave before..” He shook his head. “I had to go.”

Lynne was always dramatic when she was upset. And usually Danny could calm her and she would believe anything he said. But what about now? How was he to get her by his side now? It wouldn’t be easy. “Okay so I have nothing now. But I do have one thing that I can fight for.” Lies. He had about twenty things. “You.” Danny smiled slightly. “I miss you and I came back for you. Come on Lynne, we were friends for years. We used to know everything about each other. Can we get that back? If we can, we can be better than before. No more secrets.” Liar. He couldn’t tell her everything and he wouldn’t. Danny let his die down. He had to. It had a way of getting back to him like in Russia..Danny couldn’t hurt Lynne. He used to care for her and he remembered this even in his clogged brain. Danny was messed up. He wasn’t the same, but Lynne didn’t know how much he wasn’t the same. “Please you know that you were always the intimidating one.” Danny was that sweet kid back then. He was totally obsessed with Adrina and totally over-whelmed with Lynne. Lynne was the type of girl anyone would kill for and Danny knew that, but she wasn’t a challenge. Adrina was. Danny could get Lynne in heart-beat if he really tried and he would.

Lynne told him that he couldn’t do anything to fix this. He could. Danny could do anything now and he would. He was a new man. Danny wasn’t afraid anymore and he could certainly handle Lynne and he would. He moved back a few steps when he pushed her. He kept the rising anger to himself. He had to. He couldn’t get angry with her. That would never work. “I will do whatever it takes Lynne.” He told her and he would. “I’m not letting you go that easy.” Actually he would. He would let her go when he didn’t need her anymore. Danny would screwed in the head. He used to value what he had with Lynne. But Danny didn’t know the difference between right and wrong anymore. He didn’t realize that what he was doing was wrong. He needed help, but he wasn’t about to ask for it. No one else? Now he was seeing the real Lynne and he knew it. He remembered her and how amazing she was back then and this was starting to show again. Lynne finally broke down in tears and clung to Danny. He smiled slightly but she couldn’t see it. He had her now. “I’m here now. You have me okay. I’m back.” He said as he tried to calm her. This was something the old Danny did time and time again. He remembered and he almost missed those times, but not enough. “I won’t leave you again, okay?” He wanted her to stop crying. He hated to see her cry. He always had. “I won’t leave again.” He repeated. If only he had meant it.

[Lynne Collins]

She was a fool. Lynne knew that and accepted it. She had been a fool to fall in love with Danny and she had been a fool to keep loving him even after she realised that he was in love with someone else. Lynne had never once tried to find out about the girl that she knew Danny was in love with. Not only would it have been painful to compare herself to Danny’s dream-girl and see herself come up woefully lacking but she would have been opening herself up to temptation. If she knew who Danny loved then she could sabotage her in any way possible. It had been safer, simpler and less painful to keep herself firmly in the dark. After so long, Lynne couldn’t even remember what had pushed her into falling in love with Danny. He had been her best friend and she had trusted him with almost everything. Then she had been foolish enough to fall in love with him and everything had been ruined. She started lying to him, pretending that he was nothing more than a friend, going out with other boys and flirting with them right in front of him as if to prove that she wasn’t interested in him. Even then, even when she hadn’t known for sure that he loved someone else, Lynne had known better than to tell him outright that she was utterly, irreversibly in love with him. Lynne was many things, including foolish, but she wasn’t a complete idiot.

It was hard to stand opposite Danny and lie straight to his face. It wasn’t something she particularly wanted to do. But Lynne had been forced to see a therapist ever since she was six. She was used to doing things that were hard and that she didn’t want to do. “You can’t just come back,” Lynne protested weakly, her ire decreasing as she realised the logic in his words. After dropping out, Hogwarts wouldn’t accept him back. His family were still in Russia and his girlfriend didn’t want him. Maybe he had returned to England for his girlfriend – now ex-girlfriend, Lynne thought, somewhat satisfied by the idea – but she would ensure that he stayed for her. He was all that she had ever wanted but never been able to actually have. Had her luck finally changed? She glanced at him sharply but didn’t press the matter, even if her curiousity cried out to be sated. Had to leave before what? She wondered silently. “You might be the same person, Danny, but I’m not. You left everything behind, not just me and our friendship but questions about your disappearance. People came up to me every day for over two months, asking where you were and assuming that I would know because, hey, we were best friends. No life-changing secrets between us, right Danny?” Lynne shook her head slowly, shuffling back a few steps, distancing herself from him emotionally as well as physically. “You’re despicable, Danny Lowell.”

Danny’s words were sweet and the words she had always wanted to hear. That was why, against her better judgement, Lynne chose to believe them and to smile at Danny warmly even if she did feel a small pang of guilt at his words. They used to know everything about each other. Yeah, sure, of course. But how was she supposed to correct him now? Oh, by the way, there’s something you don’t know? Not likely. “No more secrets? Promise?” Lynne asked, sounding annoyingly childish to her own ears. Other people found it cute and endearing; she wanted to smack herself every time she sounded so infantile. “Yeah, you were too cute and shy to intimidate anyone. But no one wanted to bully you.” Lynne smiled gently, losing herself in thoughts of the past for a few moments. There had been good times for them and there would be again, she hoped. But to get to the good times, she had to let him back into her life and trust him again. It was a foolish idea but...Danny had always made her foolish. “You’re despicable,” Lynne repeated softly, “but you were my closest friend and I can never forget you.”

“I won’t make it easy for you,” Lynne informed him coolly, keeping her emotions under control for as long as she could. “You were my best friend but I don’t trust you anymore. I’ve changed and you’ll have to adapt to that because it was partially your fault.” How she wished that she could blame everything on him but she had to take her share of the blame too. If she had been stronger, if she hadn’t relied on him so much, then she would have recovered quicker after he left. This routine, of her crying and him trying desperately to comfort her because he hated to see her cry and she knew it, was familiar and she smiled through her tears even though she knew he couldn’t see it. I love you Danny Lowell, Lynne thought towards him fiercely. I love you but I won’t tell you. Because you’re still in love with her, that girlfriend who didn’t want you anymore. But that’s fine. One day, you’ll move on. And I’ll be right here waiting, just like always. Just like always. Danny would realise one day that he didn’t have to look far to find someone who would love him. Because Lynne had loved him before she had even realised it herself.

[Adrina De Luca]

Danny

It was amazing how much Russia has changed Danny. There he shed his quiet and sweet persona. Danny was a completely different person and he barely recognized himself, but he liked that. Still, Danny was obsessed with the past. He was obsessed with Adrina and getting her back and he probably always would be. But the difference between the old Danny and the new was that the new would fight for her. The new would do anything it took to get his girl and his baby back. He was going to fight and he was going to win. Danny wasn’t about to back down or walk away now. He even felt a little remorse for the fact that he had to use Lynne. She was always there for him when he needed her, but now he really needed her. And she was the best to help him with this. He could persuade her or even manipulate and Danny knew this. Plus it was the last thing that she would expect from little Danny so that would throw her off guard. She could be the very one to get Danny what he wanted and he wouldn’t stop at anything to get his way. He new it was wrong and he was going something crazy, but that little voice in his head was nearly mute. That little voice had died down months before when Danny was learning the trials and tribulations of growing up. Now that voice was at a bare minimum and Danny wasn’t about to make it regain its voice.

Lynne was growing weaker by his presence. He could tell. She wanted to be tough, but it was getting harder. Over the past year, Danny learned to read people better than before. He understood their actions and even took a sense of what they were thinking away from that. The only person he couldn’t really read actions for was Adrina. She was too strong for him. She couldn’t be read especially by Danny. And while Lynne was tough at least Danny thought so, it was easy for him to tell that this was difficult for her and that she could be easily persuaded if Danny used the right words. “I’m sorry.” He confessed and he actually meant it. He hated seeing the pain in her eyes. The old Danny still remained at least parts of him did and the old Danny hated to see Lynne upset. “No more secrets. I promise.” Lie. He had to keep secrets. After all, a plan was forming in his head and if he didn’t keep some then it wouldn’t work, would it? Lynne would have to be let in the dark on some things even if Danny was slowly thinking of her as less of a friend and more of a girlfriend. But that would come with time. As delusional as Danny was, he still cared for Lynne and he still felt something when he looked at her. He just did.

“I know.” He admitted when she said he was despicable. “But I really wanna change that okay. I wanna fix it all.” Well he would fix some of it. He couldn’t change back now. He had come too far and been through too much. “I promise.” Liar. Secrets were necessary for him and Lynne. They always had been but before he kept secrets to protect her. Now he kept secrets to get what he wanted. Danny had changed and even Lynne couldn’t change him back. He nodded at her statement. Yep, no one wanted to bully Danny back then because he wasn’t one to get in fight, but now well that had changed. “Cute and shy? I prefer handsome and sensitive.” Danny always said things that no other guy would dare say, but only because he had always been pretty caring. And he still was. Sort of. But then again, he had a plan in his mind and it was to get Adrina back. He had to keep moving forward instead of taking big steps back.

He smiled lightly when she said that she never forgot him. “I’m glad.” He smiled. Danny nodded when she said that it wouldn’t be easy to gain her trust back. “I know and I’m always willing for a challenge, okay. Especially a challenge proposed by you.” He smiled handsomely. He kept nodding as she spoke. “I won’t let you down okay. I won’t screw up again.” Well, he would. He would and he knew it. But he also knew that he cared about her, but his twisted side took over those emotions. It was almost as if they didn’t even exist anyone. Oh well. Danny eyed her and the look she was giving him. Lynne was the only girl that had ever looked at him that way and a part of him liked her simply for that. But a plan was a plan. He smiled lightly. “I’m staying here. I’m not going anywhere.” He told her calmly. Danny looked to the sky. “It’s getting dark. You should head back to the castle.” He gave her a hug. “You know where to find me anytime and I promise I won’t let you down this time.” He gave her another look and a smile and turned to walk away. He would have to find a cottage in Hogsmeade. He would have to leave that small little room in the leaky cauldron. But it didn’t matter. He had the money after all. He had to be close to Lynne. That was the only way that this was going to work. The only way.

((And finished! Finally!))