There's a Place

Though I am old with wandering

Through hollow lands and hilly lands,

I will find out where she has gone,

And kiss her lips and take her hands;

And walk among long dappled grass,

And pluck till time and times are done

The silver apples of the moon,

The golden apples of the sun.

-The Song of Wandering Aengus, W.B. Yeats

In the back of her mind, there is a place. A place that has no name other than "The Place". It is paradise; a sanctuary that allows her to be herself. It is a place where she does not have to worry about danger, Voldemort, or death. It is a place where she can lose herself within her imagination. A place where she need not worry about her friends, for in her place there is no worry. The special place is only found at the very back of her mind.

When he transforms, he finds his place. When the Queen of the Night, illuminating the darkness, is full, he finds his place, hidden deep inside of him. The transformation might be painful, but the result is bliss. He can run wild without a worry. For when he becomes the beast, he has no worry. Worry comes before and after the period of madness - the time of the wolf. It is then that he has his place. That he finds comfort and can live free without a worry, even though it's for a brief period of time. It is a place of bliss he has only for a few hours every month.

In her place there is love without restrictions. In her place she is not just the student, and he is not just the teacher. In her place, their love is pure and unlimited; there is no worry of getting caught. There is no worry that what they have is frowned upon. In her place, at the very back of her mind, she is free as a bird. In her place, there is no need to sneak around, or act as if they hadn't spent the night together. There's a place where she doesn't need to hurry to shower so Mr. Black doesn't smell him upon her. It's the very same place where she does not need to hide the necklace he gave her under her school robes so Professor Snape's sharp eyes do not spot it.

There's a place where he can run wild, forgetting the disasters of his human life. There's a place where he swears he is a wolf that turns into human, and not the other way around. It's a place where he wonders if all he's living is just some strange dream. There's a place where the Alpha male kicks in and reminds him of his mate. The word is so possessive, so primitive, it makes him grin - not the human, but the wolf. In his place, the word is common, the word is commanding. In this place neither Sirius nor Severus matter. All that matters, in this paradise of a place, is his mate: the woman he spends his nights with, entangled within the sheets in sweet glory.

When she retreats to her place, she smells him on her. It's overwhelming and comforting. In her place, their smells blend magically. Of all the Heavens in the world, none is as sweet as her place. In her place, she is still sane, still innocent. She can pretend she has not seen endless people tortured and killed before she reached the age of seventeen. She ignores how the deaths of close friends almost drove her mad. In her place, there is no threat to her body or her mind. In her place, there is only sweet, sweet bliss.

In his place, he has enough strength to protect her, to comfort her. He can take down all her inner demons; scare them away with a growl. In his paradise, they do not have to fear anything, except perhaps their own lust. There's this place within him where he can stick out his tongue childishly at their worries, fears and doubts. It's a place where he feels no fear that she'll be taken away from him. There's no fear, because in this place there is only them. It's a place where they can have tickle fights under a willow tree without the fear that they might be seen. They can splash around in a lake, their wands forgotten in their rooms, because in this place Voldemort doesn't exist.

There's a place, in the back corners of her mind, where she can take him home to meet her family. It's the place where she need not fear her family be attacked by Death Eaters. Where she need not worry that Ron might not come back from a fight alive. It's the place where innocent children aren't killed, where Muggles aren't tortured. In the back of her mind everything is perfect. There's a place where tears don't fall; a place where your heart doesn't shred into a million pieces. It's a place of happiness where people aren't poor. It's blissfulness where Muggles and Wizards alike get along.

There's a place within him - man and beast - that screams innocent. A place that is not tainted by the cold hands of the cruelty of the world. A place that has not been punished and humiliated by rejection. It's a place where hearts do not break and feelings do not get hurt. There's such a place within him that has only warmth. Somewhere inside of him, there is innocence in its purest form. Somewhere there's a place where thunder does not strike, where death does not make its call.

But for the time being, there is no place. He knows that, she knows that. For now, the place is only held within them. For now, that little bit of place inside them is enough. There's a place much bigger than that out in the world. It's the place called life. And they know how to live it. Face its rejections, violence, cruelness and bitterness, because inside of them, the smaller place gives them hope. A tiny bit of hope is enough for them.

There's a place within them that brought them together.