Sharing Memories. ((Lynne))

[Adrina De Luca]

Danny

Danny stared out the window of his small Hogsmeade cottage. Hogsmeade was blazing hot this summer’s day. There wasn’t a single cloud in the sky and the sun shown brightly on everyone out in the summer’s heat. But Danny was only watching two people. He didn’t see anything else. They were the only ones that captured his attention. Adrina and Gia De Luca were supposed to be his world. They were supposed to be everything to him and they were never supposed to leave him. But they weren’t his. Danny had to change that. He was sick of living every day without them. He had to get them back. He had to regain their trust. But it seemed Adrina only had a place for one guy in heart and it wasn’t Danny. He had to gain her trust back. He had to get her back. Lately, he had stayed in his cottage. He had to stay far away from Aria and Adrina so that they didn’t spot him. Danny did keep a close eye on his daughter. He loved watching her smile and laugh, but Aria and Adrina had to think he was gone for good. He would make a move in time, a slow one. But for now he had to stay away and wait for the perfect time to approach Adrina. Good thing Lynne was the perfect distraction for Danny. She was just the thing he needed to wait and be calm about the whole situation. She always had been the one to help him clear his mind and this would never change.

Danny pulled on a dark green tee-shirt and then reached to close the blinds. His cottage was now pitch black. He shook his hair out lightly and then headed out the back door not wanted to be spotted by Adrina. Adrina’s cottage was five streets over so he made sure not to head over there unless he knew that he wasn’t going to be seen. However, there was a park across the street where Adrina liked to bring Gia. So Danny did get to watch his daughter from a safe distance but he couldn’t dare leave at those times. Danny winced as his spotted his neighbor. “Hi Bri.” He faked a friendly smile. She waved as Danny headed behind the cottage to the tool shed. When he was in safe distance he popped away. Really, Danny wasn’t supposed to have his apparition license. After all, he hadn’t graduated, but he had his ways after all. And there really wasn’t anything the ministry could do about it.

Danny arrived at Lynne’s house and knocked on her front door. “Hi.” He said reaching for her hand. When he first returned, Lynne acted like she wanted him dead. And maybe for awhile there she did, but Danny had been working his own little magic on her. They were just friends. Of course, but they had to be more than that for this to work. And they would be. Danny just had to convince Lynne was all. Yep, he was devious, but his was also glad to have her back. After all, Danny’s head was spinning in fifty different directions, but Lynne was the only thing that stayed the same. He left her and she still accepted him when he came back. It took awhile yes and maybe he still didn’t have her full confidence but he would. Danny could make this work and he had to. He smiled at her before popping them off to their destination for the day. He held her hand tightly even when the arrived in a back alley in London. “Okay so I know it’s just London, nothing fancy, but this is where the best pub ever is I promise.” He stand guiding her down the alley and over a few streets to the Finnely Pub.

“Danny boy!” The owner yell. “Danny!” Different people screamed. “Haven’t seen you in months young lad.” Danny chuckled and smiled at Lynne. “Hey Johnny.” Danny spoke to the owner. Johnny smiled and then looked over to Lynne. “And who is this beautiful young lady?” He asked. “Look everyone, Danny’s got himself a girlfriend.” Danny's face got a little hot and he looked to Lynne. So they weren’t really together. But that would be? Danny would convince her, he had to. Even though he cared about her, he knew what he had to do. “Okay so maybe it was a bad idea to bring you here.” “Nonsense!” Johnny screeched as he rushed the over to a table in the back room. It was a little more quiet than in the main room. Danny pulled out Lynne’s chair and then sat down. “So I know it isn’t much, but this was my favorite place as a kid. I know a kid in a pub is kinda weird, but Johnny’s son, Hal and I were best-friends for years. We used to clean tables.” He chuckled remembering it. Danny then shook his head and smiled at Lynne. “I’m glad you came with me here.” He smiled. Yep, he was good. That was for sure. He smiled and then waited for Lynne to respond.

[Lynne Collins]

“You’re acting weird,” Kael accused her heatedly. Lynne lifted her eyes to glance at his reflection in the mirror, offering a calm smile. Her brother was determined to think that she was hiding some huge conspiracy from him and he only proceeded to make her feel guilty. Certainly, it wasn’t a conspiracy but she had never told him anything about Danny – not when they became friends or when he left or when he returned. She had always been too afraid that Kael would see right through her facade and realise that she was in love. “I’m not acting weird at all. I’m just the same as I always have been,” Lynne assured him placidly, rising to her feet and brushing her hands over her skirt compulsively. Immediately, Kael pointed a condemning finger at her as if she had given away some great secret. “See! You’re acting weird. W-e-i-r-d. You’re acting like you have a date but you don’t have a boyfriend. Are you keeping secrets from me, Lynne?” Lynne laughed and kissed her brothers cheek, treating the idea as an absurd notion that shouldn’t even be considered for a second. “Why would I keep secrets? We’re twins. We share everything. And yet,” Lynne slanted a sly glance toward her brother before leaving her bedroom, “you refuse to let me meet your girlfriend. Now then. Which one of the two of us is keeping secrets?”

There was a knock at the front door and Lynne hurried to the door before Kael or her parents could open it. Her skirt would have been a sign to her mother that she wasn’t just going out with friends; her mother was just that good at reading her daughter. “Hi” Lynne accepted Danny’s hand without hesitation, holding onto him tightly as he apparated them away. She hadn’t taken her test yet but she and Kael had plans to do so before the end of the summer. “You look great,” Lynne complimented sincerely, her eyes warm and love-struck as she gazed at Danny appreciatively. Maybe a stronger girl wouldn’t have accepted him back into her life – after all, Lynne had been quite sure to believe that Danny had used her and abandoned her and only returned because he wanted to hunt down an old girlfriend, that she meant nothing to him. But love and affection had always been Lynne’s weak spot. She could never have turned away the first and only guy she had ever fallen in love with, no matter what he did. Her capacity for forgiveness was tremendous, just as long as she loved the person who had wronged her.

Lynne lifted one shoulder in an elegant shrug, shooting a coy glance at Danny through her lashes. Her more flirtatious side – which Danny had often seen in action but rarely directed towards himself unless she was in a joking mood – was consistently more prominent when she was in Danny’s presence, Lynne had found. It could possibly be due to a fear of him leaving again or maybe a sign that she was finally nearly ready to tell him how she really felt about him and simply face the consequences. “We don’t need to go anywhere fancy. After all, it’s not like we’re dating. Just best friends, right?” She was bitter, but Lynne had too much practice at being merely friends with Danny to let it show. Besides he was and would always be her best friend. Nothing could change that, even if he rejected her as a girlfriend. Lynne had experienced that heartbreak many, many times in her imagination and she was rather sure that reality could not possibly be worse than her vivid imaginings.

“I’m getting the idea that people here know you well. Are you secretly an alcoholic?” Lynne asked, smiling at him to assure that she was just joking. One of the men made a joke about her being Danny’s girlfriend and Lynne flushed darkly before she could stop herself. It would most likely be interpreted as embarrassment that her friendship with Danny had been confused with a proper relationship to anyone who didn’t know how she felt about him. “I’m always happy to spend time with you; you know that. Okay, so you’re not one of the girls so we can’t flirt with the guys, but you’re my best friend so you’re my first choice for company. Especially when Kael is acting so strangely,” Lynne laughed and shook her head in bemusement before pointing a finger at Danny in mock-warning. “And no trying to get me drunk, Danny Lowell. I’m embarrassing when I’ve had too much to drink and you know it.”