Prompts: "But I thought you said...", wive's tales, Muggle, 'I Forgive You' by Kelly Clarkson, windswept, minute, heather, blow me away, star-crossed, "What?" / "You just don't get it, do you?", key, agoraphobia.

Word Count: 465 words

seventeen minutes

The first thing James processes is that it's raining.

He's always loved symbolism.

sixteen minutes

The last thing Narcissa thinks of is the rain pouring down on her, the drops flattening her hair and gripping tight to her coat, desperate lovers clinging on for dear life.

She pounds on the door to their Muggle flat, fumbling with her key in the lock. It won't work.

(If she suspects that James has changed the locks, she doesn't linger over it.)

twelve minutes

"James," Narcissa pleads. He slumps against the other side of the door - stars apart from her - head buried in his hands. I forgive you, he thinks, over and over. I forgive you.

nine minutes

She looks around, suddenly nervous, face half covered in the light of the streetlight. She knocks on the door again, because the air is bitter and she's windswept and she feels like the walls are closing in.

Which is ridiculous, because there aren't any walls out here.

Narcissa shivers.

eight minutes

James tears open the door, not even blinking when Narcissa falls into him. He pulls a piece of heather out of her hair, and smiles down at her.

She opens her Muggle umbrella - finally, he thinks - and shakes it out.

"You shouldn't do that, you know," he tells her, spinning his keys around his finger absentmindedly.

"Old wive's tale," she murmurs. "Are you finally going to let me tell you that I couldn't care less whether you're a puppet for Dumbledore or for Voldemort? Are you going to let me tell you that I just love you?"

"But I thought you said.."

Narcissa smiles, shaking her head. James stares. "We're a right old pair of star-crossed lovers, aren't we?" She laughs bitterly, wrapping her arms around herself.

"What?"

"You just don't get it, do you?"

five minutes

"I know you blow me away," James tells her with a smirk, and she blows a piece of hair out of her face, unamused and just a little in love. "It's the key to love, after all."

four minutes

"We were just a couple of kids," Narcissa whimpers as she is tugged into a rib-crushing hug, her heart pounding between their chests, caged and bound. "Trying to figure it out."

"We were busy living the dream, you mean," he adds, and he presses a key into her palm - the etchings different.

He'd changed the locks after all.

one minute

"I forgive you," she whispers against his cheek, and he smiles, a brush of lips against her neck, a warmth spreading through her chest when she thinks, I forgive me.

"The damage is done." But he tucks a lock of windswept hair behind her ear, and smiles softly.

Their lips meet -

it's time

- and the stars are crossed.