Secrets

Chapter 9 - Secrets Confessed

The week before Valentine's Day, the ball was on the minds of all the students. It was the topic of discussion before Tuesday evening's DA M.A.P. meeting. Noel had asked Ginny, and she'd said yes, much to both Michael Corner and her brother's dismay. To add to his suffering, both Kyra and Lisa were quick to defend their friend when Ron started badmouthing him.

Hannah was curious who the girls were going with, if anyone had asked them yet. Ernie had apparently asked her, and they kept making sideways glances at each other throughout the meeting.

"Kyra, you should ask Terry to go with you," Lisa said to her friend.

"Maybe," she replied, nonchalantly, "but I think he's planning on asking someone else."

"Really?" Lisa asked, her eyebrow raising. "What makes you say that?"

"Oh, I don't know," she answered. "Just a hunch." 'Or the fact that he asked me at Quidditch practice last night if I would mind if he asked you,' she thought to herself.

"Do you have a date yet, Lisa?" Hannah asked the blonde girl.

"Not yet," she replied. "I haven't figured out who is worthy of spending Valentine's Day with me yet," she said merrily.

"Ron needs a date," Hermione interjected, and the girls all laughed. Ron turned and glared at them, and they laughed even harder.

"What about you, Hermione?" Kyra asked. Not that she really cared, but it didn't hurt to be conversational.

"Um, Harry asked me, actually," the mousy-haired girl replied, sounding as if she were slightly uneasy with the idea. "I'm still with Viktor Krum, so Harry and I are going as friends," she explained, somewhat hurriedly.

Lisa tried not to snort. Knowing Harry's history with girls (namely Cho), that was probably the safest thing he could do.

Professor Bale finally hushed them, and set them to work on their projects. Kyra ended up working with Hermione with the exercises in chapter four for most of the meeting, and got very little time to work on the exercises in chapter six that she had been assigned.

"Can you stay a little later?" Professor Bale asked her as he dismissed them for the evening.

"Yeah, thanks Professor," she replied gratefully. "I wanted to go over the Muggle Repelling Charms with you, if you don't mind."

"Not at all," he told her, settling down at a desk and pulling out the chair beside him for her. "Thank you for working with Hermione this evening. As you discovered, those exercises work much better in pairs."

"Yeah," she said smiling and taking the seat next to the Professor. "While it’s possible to jinx yourself, it’s not often easy or recommended."

They both chuckled, and then they got to work. Almost twenty minutes later, she finally felt more comfortable with the exercises in the chapter. They agreed that she should spend the next meeting working through them some more before moving on to chapter seven.

"Thanks, Professor," she said, gathering up her books and parchment.

"My pleasure," he replied, smiling at her and placing the cap on her bottle of ink.

"Oh, um," she said, wondering whether or not she should bring it up, but she was curious. She had agreed to be his friend, after all. "How are you doing?" she asked. "You know, with your problem from before."

He dropped his hands into his lap. "It's funny you should ask that," he told her, his voice taking on a somewhat serious tone.

She tilted her head. "Why's that?" she asked curiously.

"Well," he started, and paused, his eyes sweeping her face, "because ignoring it isn't helping at all," he said softly, "and I think I've finally decided to go for it."

Her eyes widened, and she sat back slightly. "Really?" she asked, surprised. "You want to tell her how you feel?" Poor Lisa... Terry was probably going to ask her to the ball tonight, which was going to tickle her pink. If Professor Bale made his move after Terry, Lisa was going to feel like she'd been turned inside out, and Terry was going to be crushed if she chose the Professor over him.

Professor Bale nodded, and Kyra wracked her brain, trying to come up with a solution to this problem. Somehow, she didn't think cursing her professor was the best option, though it was certainly tempting...

"What if she already has a date for the dance?" Kyra asked.

He smiled, amused. "I wasn't planning on asking her to the dance," he replied. "However, as of a couple of hours ago, she didn't have a date yet," he added.

"And what if she does by now?" Kyra countered.

He was definitely amused now. "She might," he agreed, "but that's highly improbable."

His wand was lying on the desk beside him, and he reached over and picked it up.

"Colloportus!" he said, aiming his wand at the doorway to the classroom. The door swung shut, sealing itself securely with an odd squelching noise.

He set his wand back down on the desk, and looked at Kyra. "Kyra Bradley," he said gently, "you are one of the brightest young witches I've ever met, but for the life of me I can't understand how you haven't been able to figure out that the student I've fallen in love with is you."

The world suddenly came to a standstill. Kyra's heart stopped beating, her lungs stopped breathing, her jaw forgot how to work and let her mouth fall open, and her posture forgot how to support her. If her chair hadn't had a back on it, she would have fallen off backwards.

She stared at him, trying to jumpstart her brain. The information he'd just provided her with had short-circuited it. "You... you're not in love with Lisa?" she asked slowly.

He shook his head gently. "No, I'm not."

She dropped her gaze and thought about it, and realized that deep down, perhaps she had known. She just... "I guess I couldn't figure it out," she replied softly, still staring at her lap, "because doing so would have required me to admit to myself that I'd fallen for you." Her last words were barely louder than a whisper, but they were loud enough for him to hear her.

She felt his gentle touch on her chin, lightly prodding her to raise her head. She complied, and looked through watery eyes into his deep blue ones. What she saw there almost took her barely regained breath away again. His eyes were filled with more happiness and love than she'd ever seen directed at her before.

They held each other's gaze for several long heartbeats, before he slowly leaned towards her. She didn't resist as he lightly brushed his lips against hers and then leaned back far enough to see into her eyes, silently asking for permission to continue. She granted it by leaning forward and pressing her lips to his.

She felt his entire body relax as she kissed him. She had no idea how long the kiss lasted before they finally parted due to lack of oxygen. Kyra had been kissed before, but never so gently, deeply, or wonderfully.

Breathing deeply, Kyra leaned back and looked into his beautiful blue eyes again. "Why me?" she asked him quietly.

He smiled at her, and she realized how incredibly handsome she thought he was. She'd left the fawning up to Lisa for so long that she'd forgotten how much she agreed with her friend.

"Because you're everything I've ever wanted," he told her, taking her hands in his. "You're bright, you're kind, and helpful, and have a great sense of humor," he continued, looking deep into her hazel eyes. "And you're a Chaser," he added, smiling. "That pretty much makes you the perfect woman," he quipped lightly, "at least for me."

Kyra beamed at him, feeling overwhelmed with happiness and joy at the thought of anyone - but not just anyone, she corrected herself - him wanting to be with her. "But you're still a teacher," she said, tracing one of his fingers with her thumb. "Aren't we going to get into trouble for... this?" she asked worriedly.

He shook his head, not really knowing the answer. "I told you I looked in every rule book I could find, and nothing ever mentioned teachers getting involved with students."

"So you didn’t talk to Professor Dumbledore?" she asked him.

He looked at her ruefully. "Would you have?"

"No." She couldn't stop smiling at him. "So... should we just keep it a secret for now?"

"That's the way I'm leaning," he admitted, "assuming you actually want this..." He trailed off, searching her face to be sure she wanted to be with him as much as he wanted to be with her. He didn't want to push her into a relationship that she wasn't ready to deal with. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yes," she nodded, smiling at him reassuringly. "I do want this," she told him, the happiness plain on her face. "It isn't going to be easy though."

"No one ever said life was easy," he returned. "But we're Ravenclaws, so we should at least know how to make it look easy," he quipped.

Kyra giggled. Her face fell when she looked at the clock hanging on the wall though. "Not that I ever want to leave this classroom again," she said sadly, "but I should probably be getting back to the dorm."

He nodded. "Yes, you probably should," he agreed. "But before you go, I was wondering - would you be interested in skipping the ball and letting me take you out for dinner?" he asked.

"You want to break a school rule to take me out on a date?" she asked in return, raising an eyebrow.

He nodded again.

She grinned. "It's a date then."

He beamed at her, and she stood up and picked up her books.

"Oh," he said, "um, I guess I have one more request before you go..."

She turned back to him. "What's that?" she asked curiously.

"Would you mind calling me -"

"Justin?" she finished for him, flashing him a beautiful smile.

"Thank you," he said gratefully, returning her smile. "For everything," he added.

"My pleasure," she replied. She turned to go, but changed her mind and turned back to him, leaning in for one last kiss before she left.

Five minutes later, she finally left the classroom, after he removed the locking charm on the door. Kyra practically floated back to Ravenclaw Tower. She walked down the corridors and up the staircases in a daze, gave the password to the wise old man, stepped through the portrait hole, and was immediately tackled by Lisa.

"What?" Kyra stammered at her friend. "What's wrong?" she asked in surprise.

"Nothing!" Lisa exclaimed, beaming at her friend. "Terry just asked me to the ball," she told her best friend excitedly. "You knew he was going to ask me, didn't you?" she demanded.

Kyra nodded, grinning.

"And you didn't say anything??" Lisa retorted. "You, me, upstairs, right now," she demanded, practically dragging her friend through the common room and up the stairs to their dorm.

Surprising herself, Kyra actually managed to have a halfway intelligent conversation with Lisa regarding Terry. It was a good thing she was happy for her friends because she found it quite impossible to wipe the smile off her face. Lisa finally commented on her slightly abnormal behavior, but Kyra just told her friend that she was happy for Lisa and Terry, and that she thought they'd make a great couple. Lisa beamed at her friend, thrilled that Kyra wasn't the least bit jealous. Lisa had been afraid that Kyra had had a crush on Terry.

While that certainly wasn't the case, Kyra knew that if Lisa were to find out about her and Justin, it would be a completely different story. Kyra hoped, for her sake, that Terry and Lisa had a long and prosperous relationship, so that Lisa wouldn't kill her best friend when she finally decided to tell her.

As soon as Lisa finally let her be, Kyra changed into her pajamas and crawled into her four-poster bed. She drew her curtains and replayed the evening's events over and over again in her mind until she eventually fell into a deep, blissful sleep.

~*~