─────────────
'SOAKED'
──────────────

♡

Nine minutes later

"Bees don't fly in the rain, so why should I?" Mina asked, arms wrapped around herself as a sudden cold breeze drew shivers down her skin. She found herself leaning closer to Harry as they walked in some effort to gain warmth.

"Because you're not a bee?" He laughed, and their arms brushed; shoes squelching in the mud as they walked onto the pitch. "Besides, it's not even raining anymore!" Harry held his hands out for a moment and showed her his dry palms.

"Yeah, but I feel like the rain before was just the start," Mina eyed the dark, overcast sky warily. They reached the small broom shed, and as usual, Harry went in to find her broom. "Those clouds look like they'll bucket down any second."

"You're just a pessimist," his voice echoed from inside, and after a moment of rummaging, found her broom. Harry walked out and handed it to her, and the two made their way to the centre of the pitch—albeit begrudgingly for Mina, who would much rather curl up with her new book in the comfy Hufflepuff common room than be out here in the cold.

"Okay, so last time you hovered and that was it, but this time, we're gonna try to get you to fly around a little bit, yeah?"

She nodded, squinting as the wind blew into her eyes, and Harry stepped in front of her so his chest acted as a shield from it. The gusts ruffled his hair.

"Cool, so mount your broom like last time," he said, and she did. Harry stepped closer and adjusted her hands a little from where they rested on the handle. "Yeah, like that. When I say go, kick off from the ground hard, and really try to balance—look forward, not down, and keep your weight lifting upward if that makes sense. With me so far?"

"...I think so," Mina said, concentrating on his words, and he smiled. Small, icy drops of rain slowly started to fall onto her cheeks.

"You don't have to go super high up just yet if you don't want to," he assured her, knowing she was disguising the nervousness she felt. More raindrops hit their skin. "Just try to stay up longer than last time, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, hold on tight...go!"

Mina kicked off from the ground just as the rain started to pour harder and the clouds became a darker greyscale.

She didn't break concentration this time despite the bubbling nerves in her stomach, but focused on what he'd instructed her instead; lifting the broom handle upward. She was wobbly for a moment as the broom rose in the air, well over Harry's head, but found balance and stilled.

Mina laughed nervously as she managed to hover in the air, and her hands started to hurt from how tight she was holding the handle as he grinned at her from the ground. She felt a wave of anxiety crash over her, however, as she looked down to see the ground further away than she anticipated. The rain intensified, and droplets intercepted her from every angle.

"YES! PERFECT!" Harry called up to her; raising his voice so she could hear him above the rain as it intensified. Droplets started to cover the lenses of his glasses and seep through the threads of her jumper; making it appear a darker shade of grey.

"HOW DO I GET BACK DOWN?" She asked, shivering as another gust of wind met her skin; her hair starting to drip at the ends. Without Mina noticing, the broom started to rise higher.

"WHAT?" He yelled.

Around them, a thick fog surrounded the pitch—so thick that, when she looked up, Mina couldn't see the castle anymore in the distance. For those moments, it felt like the whole world had shrunk to be just the two of them and the pitch.

"HOW DO I GET BACK DOWN?"

"STOP GOING HIGHER—!"

Harry's voice was drowned out with the howling wind whistling in her ears, and she flinched as loud thunder crashed; leaving her broom to twist in the air with her sudden movement.

She heard his voice again from below, but it was incomprehensible. Looking down, she saw him beckoning her toward him with his arms outstretched. Mina was grateful for having chosen to wear the uniform's trousers instead of the skirt that morning.

"WHAT?"

"LET GO!" Harry shouted. "I DONT HAVE MY BROOM!"

"HOW DO YOU NOT HAVE YOUR BROOM?!"

"I FORGOT IT—JUST LET GO! I'LL CATCH YOU!"

"I AM NOT LETTING GO OF THIS BROOM, HARRY, I SWEAR TO—!"

"IF YOU GET ANY HIGHER I WON'T BE ABLE TO!"

She squeezed her eyes shut for a second, feeling her heart increase to a speed she didn't know it could accelerate to. Her hands felt stuck to the broom; too frozen in fear to loosen their grip.

"LET GO, MINA!"

"I CAN'T!"

"YOU CAN!"

Mina sucked in a breath, and quickly, leaving no time to think, unmounted the broom; swinging her leg back over the handle to join her other one, leaving her dangling in the air. Her hands clung onto the wood painfully until she, finally, let go.

Her heart lurched, and suddenly she was nothing but weightless and falling alongside the millions of heavy raindrops—until, surely enough, strong arms suddenly wrapped around her middle with a grunt, and the two fell to the wet ground with a thud.

Breathing heavily, it took a moment for Mina to comprehend that she had not, in fact, just died, but rather was in a state of shock—from both falling from a height tall enough to be deemed scary, and the fact that she was currently lying directly on top of Harry; his arms still around her back as the rain fell around them.

"Are you okay?" He asked breathlessly as thunder rumbled dangerously above them. Mina moved her hands to the muddy ground and pushed herself off his chest; moving her legs to be on either side of his instead of on top. His arms remained around her.

"Yeah," she said after feeling that nothing was hurting—other than a bruised ego, maybe. Mina's wet, black hair draped on either side of her face as she looked down at him. "You?"

He finally caught his breath. "Yeah."

A moment passed as smiles grew on their faces, and soon enough they had dissolved into laughter. The rain only got harder; officially drenching the two to their cores, as though they'd just dived into the ocean and resurfaced.

Her sides began to ache as she struggled for breath once more, watching gleefully as his head moved further back into the ground as he laughed. Lightning suddenly crashed somewhere nearby, and the two both jumped, which only made them laugh harder.

Mina, feeling her face flush at his lingering arms and proximity, stood first, wiping her muddy hands on her pants, and he followed suit as their hair stuck to their faces; soaked.

As the rain turned into hail, the two quickly took off running from the centre of the pitch to the closest shelter—that being the broom shed. Their feet slid against the grass and the puddles splashed onto their pants as they ran to its door, and Harry fumbled with the handle for a moment before opening it, and the two jumped inside, hastily closing it behind them as the hail turned on an angle and tried barrelling it's way inside.

The rain and hail loudly intercepted the tin roof, creating a continuous, ear-piercing racket as the two caught their breath for what felt like the hundredth time that afternoon; their hair and uniforms dripping onto the dry, dirty floor.

Faint light seeped in through the edges of the doorway, but it wasn't enough to see properly, and for a moment, Harry was just a tall silhouette, his figure almost pressed against hers, before he muttered "Lumos," and their faces were lit by its white glow between them.

She eyed the way the light reflected in the small rain droplets trickling down his face. He was standing closer to her than she originally thought, but neither moved backward; forced to be close from where they stood in the cluttered, small shed.

"We should wait here till it eases," Harry said, and she breathed an agreement; the two trading amused glances once more as they delved into a comfortable silence.

All she knew in that moment was the constant lull of rain meeting her ears and his radiating body heat she could feel from standing so close.

His gaze lingered on her, and Mina's breath hitched as he reached forward a little. She felt his warm fingers gently brush over her forehead; moving a stray strand of hair stuck to her face aside. She felt her heart beating in her ears.

Kiss him. Kiss him. Kiss him.

For a moment, Mina swore she forgot how to breathe; what with such little space between them. She knew if she stood on her toes, due to his height advantage, and leaned in, then her lips would no doubt meet his the way her heart was telling her to.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I think that was some solid progress out there," Harry spoke, and she wondered how he could be so calm when she was close to malfunctioning.

"I just hovered," she managed to say. The air seemed thick, and though they had to talk loudly to hear one another over the pounding hail, the voice in her head seemed louder than it all. Kiss him. Kiss him. Kiss him.

"Progress is progress, Lee," he smiled, and it felt like her heart stopped with the way he said her name. Kiss him. Kiss him. Kiss him. Mina gulped, and flinched a concerning amount as a loud crack of thunder jolted her senses and she felt herself stumble into him.

This only made her flush deeper and the kiss him voice in her head grow louder as Harry laughed a little at her reaction. If it were possible, she was standing even closer now; her jumper actually brushing against his.

"You're pretty jumpy today," he said looking down at her, and she merely hummed in response, trying to distract herself from his dripping hair and bright eyes in the white light with the shadows contouring all the right places along his jaw.

"Are you alright?" Harry asked quietly.

No, because all I can think about right now is how much I want to kiss you.

"Yeah," she said, but he didn't seem to believe her.

"...If the flying is making you too anxious, we don't have to keep—"

"No, no," Mina interrupted him, and cleared her throat. "It's not that."

"What is it, then?"

"Uh..." was all that left her lips. Does she tell him, and risk getting rejected whilst stranded together in some broom shed? Is their friendship too important to risk the awkward, painful possibility of unrequited feelings? What if he never spoke to her again?

But it was just the two of them there, in that moment, together. Just him and her. She could just say it, and it would be said, and the world would still go on. The words dangled off the cliff of her tongue.

But then the moment ended.

The rain had stopped, and he'd broken their gaze to open the shed door; letting in the fresh scent of post-storm grassy fields. Harry extinguished his wand and slid it back in his pocket, and as the two stepped out, Mina was relieved as the air could finally meet her lungs properly.

But somewhere deep down as she watched him lock the door and turn back to her with his usual charm, picking up a new conversation instead of continuing the other, a bittersweet feeling seemed to falter her smile as they walked back to the castle together.

She missed her chance.

She should've kissed him.

♡

a/n:
ouch
currently im turning my focus to this book to try and get it finished asap without rushing it so stay tuned for another update VERY SOON
-g