Full Circle
Marissa stared at Jennifer waiting to hear what she had to say. She had just explained to her new friend what happened between her and Brian two days ago, after trying to ignore questions about why she was an hour later than she said she would be. But, Jennifer was persistent if nothing else and finally moving through the guilt that Jennifer would know this piece of news before Janet, Marissa had just blurted out that she and Brian had sex for the first time, totally unplanned.
"Well…I hope I find someone as special as Brian," Jennifer said honestly, then smiled, pushing the last of her clothes into her trunk that was sitting on Marissa's bed. A small sigh of relief escaped Marissa as she felt a wave of liberation wash over her. Jennifer wasn't judging her, she wasn't giving her a speech like Devon had the night she lost her virginity.
He knew something was up from the way Marissa seemed distracted and not really paying attention to the Muggle game of Monopoly they all had been playing. Marissa remembered her mother and father exchanging glances over the board, before her father announced he had some work to do to get ready for school.
`Crap! He knows,' was Marissa's thought as she moved her hat around the board, but watching her father out of the corner of her eye at the same time.
Her father knew at that moment. Marissa remembered her heart jumping in her throat as Devon stared straight at her. No matter how hard she tried to block her thoughts, he was able to read her body language and if he could do it, so could her mother and father.
Jennifer had seen the whole non-verbal scene take place but continued to play and argue about rent with Dixon, pretending nothing was wrong.
"Thanks for not giving me a speech," Marissa said thankfully, helping Jennifer close the last latch on her trunk. She was leaving in two hours. Draco, Devon and Marissa were taking her as far as the International Floo Center in New York to make sure her parents met her there before returning back to England. That's as far as Marissa wanted to go into America at this point in her life.
"What did your mom say to you?" Jennifer perched on the edge of Marissa's bed, her dark blue eyes meeting Marissa's bright ones.
"Well," Marissa sighed and sat next to her, "the usual talk. She said she could tell something important happened and I just out and told her. I knew dad knew from the way he up and left to his office. I don't think he really knew how to deal with it. I know mum talked to him last night after we were in bed because he actually hugged me at breakfast the next morning."
"A hug? I missed that," Jennifer mused, smiling at that image. She had quickly learned the dynamic of the Malfoys and the close but still physically distant relationship that Draco had with his children.
"Yeah…Devon didn't though. Before you woke up he cornered me in the laundry room and demanded to know if I did what he thought I did. Typical over protective brother."
"Be glad you have one…I think it's nice he wants to look out for you." Jennifer's eyes darted to the hall as Erin poked her head in.
"Dixon has my new school robes from Grandma Malfoy…have you see him?"
"I saw him outside with dad and mum helping them plant some new tree or something," Marissa answered watching Erin duck back out of the door.
"I think it's nice Devon looks at you! Keeps some of his focus off of me." Marissa winked at Jennifer. Her friend rolled her eyes, but Marissa saw her dark eyes light up betraying her ambivalence about Devon Charles Malfoy. Marissa's questions about the feelings Jennifer developed for Devon were answered in that one moment, but she didn't press the issue. She knew it was uncertain when Jennifer would visit again and how the next year would go for all of them at school.
The mood suddenly changed as Marissa picked up on Jennifer's quietness. Her thoughts quickly ran through her first
semester of school as she glanced at the calendar above her bed.
"Our Christmas holiday starts two days before Christmas, but we don't go back til mid January. It'd be great if you would come visit. We won't have a lot of snow like Maine, but we still find fun things to do." Marissa carefully studied her friend, watching her fiddle with a sliver ring on her pinky.
"That'd be nice. We might be able to plan something closer to December…but yeah…that'd be nice. I'd invite you over, but I know you aren't ready for that yet, coming to America and all."
"Maybe by then, who knows?" Marissa shuddered a bit thinking, inadvertently, about Nott then quickly changed the subject by jumping off the bed and proclaiming they needed to go find Devon.
"So, what did your brother say when he cornered you?" Jennifer asked as they left the house and walked around to the side, looking for Devon who was supposed to be cleaning off the patio.
"He knew what happened, said he wanted me to be careful. Same thing my dad whispered in my ear when he hugged me. Then, he looked at me strangely as if realizing I was a girl for the first time." Marissa laughed along with Jennifer but stopped short as they came across Devon who was sweeping the patio humming something to himself, but stopped as he heard footsteps behind him.
"What're you girls laughing about now?" he asked tossing his broom to the side to take a drink of water. Pulling up the bottom of his t-shirt he wiped his face and looked from his sister to Jennifer.
"Damn, it's hot out here," Marissa mumbled waving to her mother who walked back inside where it was cooler.
"Tell me about it," Devon grumbled, taking another drink. His face red from working outside; Marissa could feel herself sweating from just the two minutes she had been standing outside.
"We just came to see what you were doing. Jennifer's all packed," Marissa hedged watching her brothers gaze shift from her to Jennifer who stood quietly at her side.
"Marissa!" All three of them jumped and three pairs of eyes turned to the front of the house.
Ginny beckoned from the door, "Come here please."
"Be right back," Marissa said quickly and trotted back into the cool house finding her mum staring up at a dish on the very top of a shelf.
"What mum?" Marissa asked watching her mum stare at the dish. Ginny's hand absentmindedly rubbed a small circle around her stomach before dropping it to her side.
"Can you stand on that ladder and get that dish down? I can't stand on anything and my wand is still upstairs. You know how I am with wandless spells," she laughed and Marissa nodded. Her mother knew only a handful and levitating wasn't one of her best ones. Stealing a glance at her mother's growing stomach she pulled over the small ladder, climbed up and pulled down the brilliantly white bowl her mother used to make huge salads in.
"What're you going to do with it?"
"We're going to my parents for dinner. Thought I'd make a salad and that's the only one big enough to hold it all. Especially with Uncle Ron being there." Ginny reached out and gently took the bowl from Marissa, setting it down on the counter.
"Is Jennifer all ready to leave?" Ginny fished through the fridge and found a few heads of lettuce and some vegetables.
"All packed. We'll leave in a few hours."
"She seemed to have fun while staying here."
"I think she did…especially with Devon," Marissa hinted and saw her mother's head bob in agreement. She set to work chopping vegetables by hand and dumping them into the bowl.
"I noticed that…strange since she is almost two years older than him."
"I know…but you know Devon. He doesn't act like the normal fourteen year old."
"Most of the time," Ginny replied a smile apparent in her voice.
Marissa went to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water.
"Do you need anything else?"
"No, thank you. Just trying to stay cool. Go back and do whatever it was you were doing…oh, and your new robe came in today. Please try it on before you go back to see if it's long enough."
"Okay…thanks." Marissa disappeared through the door and back out to the side yard where Jennifer and Devon were sitting in the shade, chatting and sharing Devon's bottle of water.
"Hey…you want to go get cleaned up? Jennifer needs to leave soon if you're still coming with us to take her back," Marissa told Devon. He nodded and stood up from the bench, waving off his bottle of water telling Jennifer to keep it. "Can you tell Dad too?"
"Yeah." Devon pulled his shirt off, wiping his face with it and walked down the hill to where Draco was yelling at Derek and Dixon about something that had to do with the "blasted tree".
Marissa watched Jennifer sneak one last glace at Devon's retreating back then stand up only to find Marissa staring at her.
"What?" she asked crossing her arms defiantly over her chest.
"Oh, nothing. Just watching you watching my brother," Marissa challenged wondering what Jennifer would say. They fell into step with one another as they made their way to the front door.
"Well…he does look good without his shirt."
"Jennifer, you are crazy," Marissa said seriously leading the way up to her bedroom once inside.
"I don't expect you to notice as he's your brother and all," Jennifer responded and Marissa gave a slight shrug then suddenly stopped inside her room a thought taking root in her head.
"You know, I know you can't really commit to anything…being two years older than Devon and so far away, but write him when you get back." Marissa moved towards her bed, untying the wrapping of her new black and blue trimmed school robes.
"He's a guy…he won't write," Jennifer argued taking one last walk through around Marissa's room looking for anything items that might be hers.
"He might. He wrote me twice while I was at camp. Try it…just a nice kind of surface type letter. Asking about Quidditch. You could wait until you were both in school then you'll have more to say. If he writes back, he is definitely interested."
""Why not? I'll write you too you know," Jennifer said from the bathroom, returning empty handed.
"You better. And if you do come back at Christmas, you can finally meet Janet."
"I'd like that," Jennifer said hearing all about Janet but not yet having the chance to meet her just
heightened her curiosity about Marissa's friend.
"Do you have everything?"
"I do."
"Then let's take this all downstairs and wait for dad and Devon," Marissa offered, pulling off her robes which fit perfectly.
"Sounds good," Jennifer agreed, reaching out and giving Marissa a quick hug, thanking her again for showing her England and Malfoy Estate.
----
It was three quarters of the way into September that Jennifer wrote a note to both Marissa and Devon at Hogwarts. And Devon did respond. Marissa found out not from her brother but from a quick note two days later from Jennifer, whom Marissa had yet to write, excitedly telling her that Devon wrote her back. Mainly about Quidditch and his studies but he actually had added it was nice to meet her.
"This could be the start of a very interesting relationship," Brian had told her after hearing Marissa's story about Jennifer's letter.
"Who knows? Nothing might happen…we're so far away from her and if she doesn't come up for Christmas, then it'll be next summer by the time we see her," Marissa replied hiking up her very heavy book bag as they walked to Potions together.
They had been back to school for what already seemed like an unending number of days and neither of them had been able to secure a moment alone with the other one. Classes started off with loads of homework, Quidditch kept both of them busy and Marissa was making time each evening to study and try to refine her flu potion. A few times Brian worked with her, but more often than not she was by herself either reading in the library or locked in the Potions classroom working hard and cursing each time her new concoction didn't work.
Janet had heard all about Marissa's summer and squealed with delight after hearing about Marissa and Brian's moment in the clearing behind his house. She wanted details but Marissa wasn't ready to give away too many. Mainly, she talked about Jennifer and Janet had to agree she sounded like someone who would fit right into their tight friendship.
"Your father knows doesn't he?" Brian asked quietly as they walked behind some second years on their way to the dungeons. Marissa nodded and looked up at Brian feeling a mixture of shyness and awkwardness about bringing up their first time. They hadn't had much of a chance to discuss what happened with school starting and not being alone on the train. Brian had Prefect duties and was in and out of the car every hour checking on the younger students.
"I figured he did. When I got to class before you the first day of Potions he stopped me on my way to my seat and said "Be careful". At first, I thought he meant in Potions, then Arnold came in apologizing up one side and down the other and I totally forgot about it until now."
"He said the same to me. At least we aren't getting a huge speech," Marissa said quietly touching his arm to stop him from going into the classroom. She tugged him back towards the bottom of the stairs, letting other students pass by on their way in and out of the dungeon.
"Are you okay with what happened back at your house?" she asked him her eyes not wavering from his face. He looked at her in surprise then leaned down and kissed her solidly on the mouth.
"I'm very okay with it," he whispered against her ear as his hand gently held hers between them. Marissa smiled and stifled a squeal as he nuzzled her neck then straightened back up again.
"Me too. We just haven't talked and since my father said something to you, I wasn't sure…," she let her voice trail off as he put a finger against her lips and stepped closer to her, pressing her back against the wall so they both fell into a shadow.
"Be sure, Marissa. We talked about this and knew each others feelings and it happened when we were both ready," he whispered his hands snaking around her back and pulling her to him. She just blinked at him, surprised by his body pushing into hers and the seriousness of his tone. Her heart and breathing quickened unbidden and she had to make a concerted effort to not just reach up and pull off his robe.
"I know," she whispered back feeling a surge of desire run through her as his hand ran up her back. Closing her eyes she swallowed, trying to control herself. She could NOT go into her father's classroom feeling like this or he'd pick up on it. "Stop, Brian. You're…," she began not quite sure how to say what she was feeling.
"I know. We have some catching up to do after class I'd say," he grinned at her stepping back a bit. "Go grab a drink of water and I'll meet you in class." He leaned over and brushed his lips across hers and was gone before she could open her eyes.
"Bastard!" she mumbled to herself, walking quickly towards the water fountain at the end of the hall. That combined with Arnold's greeting was enough to calm down her nerves and flipping stomach so could walk into the classroom looking, acting and feeling normal. Her father only briefly glanced up from his position at the desk then back at Claudia who was talking to him. Relieved, Marissa slipped into a chair against the wall, feeling Arnold drop down next to her. Brian was engaged in conversation across the aisle until Professor Malfoy told them to take out their books and begin reading about Amortentia. Inwardly, Marissa groaned hoping that her father wouldn't ask her what her potion ended up smelling like. All she knew was if hers smelled like a combination of pine, salty air and a bit of spice then she'd be happy to know that Brian was the one for her.
But she sure didn't want to say that aloud to her father…not yet anyway.
-----
Marissa felt Brian trail his hand down her hip as he looked at her in the dim light. It was Saturday night; they had just come back from a birthday party for Hermione and before Marissa could turn towards her tower, Brian gabbed her hand and pulled her towards the Gryffindor tower. No one was in his room…either out enjoying the warm night, taking part in a huge chess game in the dining hall or at someone else's tower doing just what they had done in Brian's bed with the curtains pulled and silencing charms up to the fullest extent. Marissa tugged the sheet a bit higher, covering her chest before curling into Brian's side as he laid down.
"In class earlier this week, when we did the Amortentia potion, what did you smell?" Brian asked smoothing back her hair from Marissa's forehead.
"You. Pine, a spiciness and a bit of what saltwater air smells like," she replied caressing his shoulder feeling his smooth skin under the pad of her fingers.
"That's what I smell like?"
"Yes…it is…a good smell too." Marissa inhaled deeply as if to prove her point then kissed his neck. "You?"
"A bit of lavender mixed with strawberry and the soap we use to clean the cauldrons when we have to do it by hand."
"Yuck."
"No, not "yuck" but quite nice when it's actually all mixed together. And even better when laying here with me," he replied tightening his arms around her.
"Mmmm," Marissa's reply was stopped as he kissed her softly. She pressed into him again, amazed at how her energy seemed to increase the more he kissed her. This time, their second time had been much more controlled and much better timed than their first. Her body began responding all over again surprising her so much she pulled away trying to catch her breath.
"How do you manage to make me feel like we just did nothing only a half hour ago?" she gasped as his hands shifted her weight to rest on him.
"I was going to ask you the same thing," he whispered, enjoying the way she kissed his neck from one side to the other. Her body was relaxing, flowing into him perfectly like her curves were meant to fit into his, seamlessly. He slid his hands down her back, enjoying the way she pushed into him. He reached for her hips and slid her down a bit, communicating what he wanted. Her mouth opened up against his, her hands now running through his hair and she responded in lifting her hips, searching for him and when she did swiftly pushed against him, feeling him arch into her at this new position. For a moment she froze not quite sure how to move until he slid his hands to her hips, pulled her towards him, then pushed up into her. He whispered something that sounded like "move" and she obeyed, pulling her hips up then pushing down slowly…shuddering as a wave of pleasure moved through her straight into Brian. Kissing was forgotten. Hands gripped where there was a place to grip as Marissa moved against him, picking up her rhythm; finding if she brought her knees up a bit more she could feel him better, inside her.
She tried to hold back, waiting for Brian, trying to time their release to happen together but as he half breathed-half moaned her name, while tangling his hands in her hair she gave up, letting the friction turn into streaks of pleasure that filled her body, her eyes, her ears. His arms wrapped around her waist as she actually yelled his name feeling her body explode, her hands gripping the pillow by his head, cramping her hands. Quickly his hands moved to her hips, holding her tightly keeping her still as he groaned and spilled everything into her, his breathing ragged…matching Marissa's. Her fingers grabbed his shoulders, steadying herself as the pounding receded from her body and Brian's hands relaxed their steely grip from her hips. Lowering herself, she rested as a dead weight against his chest and he made no motion to move her.
"Do you know I don't even have the words to say how much I love you," Brian said a moment later as speech crept back into his consciousness. She nodded and nuzzled his neck in response, feeling the exact same way. Wondering how, in the course of eight months she could love someone so honestly and completely and not be totally scared by it.
"Remember back during the summer when I said I'd love you forever?"
Marissa detected a note of nervousness in his voice and wanted to pull away, look at him, see his face. But she
didn't. It would be easier for him if her face stayed tucked in to his neck, so she just breathed in and whispered,
"Yes".
"I meant it, you know."
"I know," Marissa replied feeling as if they were on the cusp of a huge cliff, getting ready to jump into the unknown.
"I don't want to leave school without you by my side. I don't think I can even fathom what that would be like." Brian's voice was thick with emotion and Marissa thought maybe, if she pushed up and looked at him, she might see tears in his eyes. But, she couldn't. Knowing if she DID see them, she would just get teary too. And at the moment, she couldn't handle anymore emotion.
His hands rubbed her back and pulled up the sheet as she moved off of him, keeping her face against his shoulder.
"I don't want to know that feeling either," Marissa said carefully, feeling her heart flipping around in her chest. `What is he saying? We aren't even seventeen, I'm still a year and a half from it and we're declaring that we want to marry each other? Is this normal?' Marissa thought to herself, her mind reeling from the two times they had sex in the past hour and now with the way the conversation was going.
"Let's NOT find out how that feels," Brian whispered quickly, as if he wanted to get the words out fast. Now, Marissa raised her head and stared at him in the dim light. She brushed away a strand of hair from his unmarked forehead and met his nervous gaze.
"Never," she whispered feeling a flush of happiness as he smiled widely at her. Both knew neither more needed to be said. Both knew they were too young to make the commitment of engagement, but both knew they were right for each other. Finally, Brian and Marissa knew they had a vicious love for the other and that making that connection aloud, fortified their relationship and would also see them through to the point in their lives where engagement would fall right in, as easily as a ring being slipped on to a finger.
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A/N #2: this is not the end of TNG. Just the end of the major story. I have two more chapters, then an Epilogue. One will sum up 6th and 7th year; the other will talk about outside Hogwarts and what the rest of the gang is up too. Then, I will be done. I am working on another story, a Harry and Hermione one and will let you all know when the first chapter of that will be posted!!
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