Just a short drabble, meant to entertain. Lighthearted yay!

This is like a shorter, happier, similarly-structured counterpart to Evolution. If you like this, check that one out. :D

All my best,

Speechwriter

I.

We first met in a bookshop. Isn't that fitting?

I held my mother's hand, and we walked through the doors together, and I saw you.

Everything was new to me back then, and you were no exception – yet, somehow, I knew. I knew you were the one for me. Something inside me tugged at me when I looked at you for the first time, sitting there, looking sort of lonely, looking like you needed me to hold you and cherish you and help you realize your full potential –

"Mum," I whispered to my mother, raising my other hand, "look over there."

"Don't point," she scolded. I hardly cared, though. I knew you were calling to me. I knew you'd been waiting your entire short life for this moment, as had I – seeking the companion that would see me through thick and thin, and you seeking yours.

From that day forth, we were pretty much inseparable, weren't we?

II.

They never acknowledged you, not really. Not even when I'd walk around humming with happiness, having just spent hours with you, everything about you on my mind. Harry and Ron would always roll their eyes when I talked about you; they would always discard you, but just know that I never did. You were my counterpart, of course. You were always right, just like me. How could you ever be wrong? How could we ever be wrong?

III.

Then, the betrayal.

You didn't quite lie to me, per se. You didn't tell me the whole truth, though, and in my book, that feels so much like a lie that they're interchangeable. I didn't understand your motive. I still don't. I was only fourteen, easily shocked, easily horrified by such ease of manipulation – this vital facet you left out. And it was about something I cared so much about, too! Did you really think I wouldn't mind? Did you really think I wouldn't care that you let me down?

It hurt so much, when I realized your deception. I felt as if we should take a break. We didn't see each other for a long time, then.

I'm sorry, now, for ignoring you. I know it wasn't your fault, not really. How could it be?

IV.

I came back to you three years later, on the eve of battle, but that wasn't ever really a choice, I suppose. You were made for me, and I was made for you, and I had no choice but to hope that I could find you again – so that you could come with me, with Harry, with Ron. I couldn't just abandon you like you were nothing. Not after everything we'd been through, after everything you'd helped me through, everywhere we'd been together.

And when we survived everything – when we finally got through it all – you were still there, to the very end, ready to regale me with stories, ready to comfort me with everything you knew.

I think I can say it now. It's been so long since the betrayal, and I've fixed all that now. The House-elves are free, so I think – yes, I think I can say it.

I love you.

I love you, Hogwarts: A History.