Cut Short

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"Hey," Ivy whispered softly, "how're you feeling now?" She held Quinn in her arms, sitting in his lap. The heavy breathing had settled down, and Quinn was not clutching her as tightly as he was before.

Quinn leaned away from Ivy but didn't let her go. His face looked like a mess with tear stains, but the heaviness had lifted away, and now he seemed much more like himself than before. "Yes, I'm fine now, thank you. . . . I apologize for my unsightly behavior," he said. "I don't know why that suddenly came over me. . ."

"No. . . no need to apologize," Ivy said. She felt that Quinn breaking down had done good. She feared that if Quinn had continued to hold it in without an outlet, it would've snowballed into much bigger concerns down the line.

"It was guilt," he suddenly said.

"What?"

"Why I didn't tell you about the Horcruxes," he said with a tired voice. "I knew if I told you about the Horcruxes, I would've needed to tell you about Harry. If it was before, I wouldn't have pressured Dumbledore into revealing Harry's identity and simply let Dumbledore do whatever he was doing— the reason why I revealed it was because of guilt of hiding a lot more, much more. Somewhere in my mind, I felt that if your family learned about Harry, it would ease my conscience somehow. . . it didn't. I felt great when I left the Headmaster's Office, but by the time I was out o the castle, I was back in the pangs of anxiety. When Dumbledore threatened to reveal my secret, and I had to tell you myself before he could, I felt like hurling my stomach out at the thought of things going to the worst-case scenario."

"The worst-case scenario?"

"You breaking up with me, of course," Quinn said tiredly. "I jeopardized a lot doing this; I'm already at odds with my family, my social life has reduced to nothing, and if you left me, it would be all for nothing."

"It wouldn't be for nothing. . . You-Know-Who will be vanquished."

"We don't know that for sure. As I told you before, killing him is the hardest part of the problem."

"Don't be like that. If the other side is You-Know-Who, then we have Dumbledore. The Headmaster can stand against him. . . and Dumbledore has the Elder wand, the most powerful wand in existence, which gives him a clear advantage."

Quinn's brows raised as a surprise passed over his expressions; he sat up straighter in the chair. "You found about the wand?" he asked.

"I found about the Deathly Hallows." It was the last time they had met that he had given her some cryptic information about what he was doing. Fueled by the anger, she had dug into it on her own, and after much researching, she wasn't able to find a single reference of the symbol anywhere in the Hogwarts library. Just when she had started to think that Hogwarts was a dead-end, she stumbled upon it from an unlikely source. "I had almost given up when Luna happened. . ."

"Luna?"

"I was in the library when she found me and saw the Deathly Hallow symbol I had drawn. She knew what it was. The Tale of the Three Brothers by Beedle the Bard. . . it turns out that her father had shown the symbol to her while telling her the story. The three Deathly Hallows— the Elder Wand, the Resurrection Stone, and the Invisibility Cloak. . . do you really think they were crafted by Death?"

"No, even with the existence of magic, I don't believe laws of nature having living personifications. I think they were made by the three brothers, who I don't know if you know. . ."

"They're my ancestors. I found Ignotus Peverell in the Potter family," she sighed. "I can't believe my Invisibility Cloak is the Invisibility Cloak from the story. . . I still can't believe it."

"The signs of it being something special have always been present. That cloak has been passed down in the Potter family for generations and before without ever needing any work on the strengthening of the charms. . . it's clear that the cloak is special."

Ivy had to agree to the point. She guessed no one ever paid any attention to the fact because the cloak had been in the family for so long that its existence had become normalized. "I can't believe you have the Ressurection Stone," she said. "Does. . . Does it really work, you know, can it summon the dead?"

Quinn nodded.

"Have you used it?"

"For summoning souls— no. I have been using it for other purposes."

"And what are they? You didn't tell me last time. I found about the Hallows now; can you tell me now?" Ivy found herself the target of scrutiny in Quinn's eyes the moment the question left her. The stone-grey eyes studied her for a moment.

"I'm trying to figure out how to get the Horcrux out of Harry's head. Even though a fragment, a Horcrux is still a soul, and because the Resurrection Stone is a soul artifact, I believe it can be the key to free Harry from the Horcrux." He sighed, "It's not going well."

"Don't push yourself," Ivy caressed Quinn's face, which was paler than usual.

Quinn gently grasped Ivy's hand and leaned into it. "I didn't have any hope today, you know. I had been avoiding you since the last meeting because I thought if we meet, you will dump me. . ."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Not gonna lie, I'm judging you a little bit," he said and got a light smack in return. Quinn stared at her as he softly said, "You're too good for me, you know. . ."

Ivy sensed his eyes going to her lips, and even she found herself doing the same. They moved at the same time, and in a moment, they were kissing. It was stronger than what she was expecting, but at the same time, she was surprised at her own reaction— since the last time they had met, she hadn't once imagined it going like this once.

She felt his hand go under her sweater. She raised her arms up, and Quinn removed it, and yet she felt herself getting hotter. She reciprocated and got rid of his suit jacket; one by one, the clothes began to come off, but before they could move ahead from making out, there was a loud slam.

Ivy jumped and turned to the noise, feeling a mix of shock and irritation. But all of that drained away when she realized where the sound came from. The loud slam was from the door of the room swinging to slam into the wall, but that wasn't what had shocked her— it was who had slammed the door open. It was her twin brother in his natural appearance (without the disguise they had put on) along with Hermione and Ron, who were still in disguise. She watched as they, for a split-second, their eyes widened, but before she could even blink, three red spells shot toward them faster than an arrow from behind her, making their eyes turn upwards, and they crumpled down where they stood.

Ivy turned back to Quinn, who shrugged. "I'm testy these days," he said. "They're lucky you were here, or else they would've been hit with something much worse than a stunner."

"Wake them up, please," she said, contacting up from his lap before adding, "let me get dressed first."

As she got dressed, Quinn dressed himself, all the while grumbled about locking the door— much faster than her, using magic— and then levitated Harry, Ron, and Hermione and dumped them into the chairs in the room. She gave him a nod, and Quinn snapped his fingers. The unconscious three snapped open their eyes and immediately jumped up from their chair. Beside her, Quinn waved his hand, and all of them were knocked back into their chairs. She gave him a look.

"Ivy!" "Are you alright?!" "Wha—"

"Calm down," she said. "What are you three think you're doing?! Didn't I tell you to go, and I'll catch up to you."

"You mean you'll catch up after shagging him!" Harry shouted scathingly.

"I don't like the sound of that," commented Quinn, leaning against the wall just beside the door. "Makes me sound dirty."

"I can do whatever I want," Ivy said, arms crossed. "You barging in here was extremely rude. You shouldn't have done that." It didn't feel great to have her twin brother barge upon her when she and her boyfriend were in a state of undress, not to mention her best friend and a boy who she saw as a brother.

"I'm also curious, how did you get in here? Ernie should've stopped you," Quinn asked Harry, but then he narrowed his eyes. "Don't tell me you showed him your face, and he let you." Hermione and Ron's expressions answered for Harry. Quinn sighed, "He's getting old; I'll have to have a talk with his son."

"You shouldn't have removed your disguise," said Ivy. "There's a reason why we used them; what if someone saw you."

"Let's not turn this about me," said Harry. He pointed to Quinn with his whole hand and spoke, "Just a while back, you were telling me how much you hated him— and now you're doing this! What the hell?!"

Ivy resisted the urge to look at Quinn. She had said some nasty words before today in anger and frustration, mostly in front of Hermione, but there were times she had sprung out in front of Harry and Ron. "What do you want, Harry?" she asked. "You barged in here; now what?"

"Are you serious? I was worried about you! I didn't know what will he do to you!?"

"Oh. . . and here I remember a time when you were willing to have your flesh cut by Umbridge on my word," said Quinn, pumping his brows. "Where did all that trust go?"

Harry ignored Quinn and continued to speak to Ivy. "You know, he's dating Greengrass, right?! What the hell are you doing?"

Ivy could feel Quinn's eyes boring into her from behind. She had told Harry about Quinn being the Invisible Vigilante and about the other Horcrux that he had destroyed, along with other things Quinn had told her, but she had left her relationship with him out of the things she had told Harry. In the room, only Hermione knew about their dating.

'Well, not anymore,' she thought. "We are dating," she said.

" "What?!" " Harry and Ron shouted in unison.

"Happily," said Quinn. Ivy gave him a glare asking him to stop. He wasn't being helpful here.

"When did he break up with Daphne?" asked Harry, still reeling from the shock. "When did you two start. . . when did all this happen?!"

"He didn't break up with Daphne," Ivy sighed as she saw Harry and Ron's expressions cycle through a very wide range. "He's dating me, and he's dating Daphne. As for when. . . same day as Professor Snape's funeral."

There was utter silence in the room. Ron was staring at Quinn, shocked with a hint of administration in his eyes. Harry, on the other hand, was moving his eyes between Ivy and Quinn— he opened his mouth to speak but couldn't get any words out— for a moment, he resembled Ron by quite a bit.

Ivy gave Hermione and 'telepathically' had a conversation with her best friend. She pleaded with Hermione to take over, and after some back and forth, Hermione agreed.

"Alright, boys, let's get out of here," said Hermione. "Let's go back to the castle, and I'll tell you all about it."

"You knew?!" Harry exclaimed for the n-th time.

"Yes, I knew, of course, I knew. I'm her best friend. Now, let's go," said Hermione, and amidst protest, she dragged them both out, closing the door behind, leaving Quinn and Ivy alone.

"I think I should leave," said Ivy, after a moment of silence. "Harry would irritate Hermione if I don't get there soon."

Quinn nodded. "I should also leave. . . can't be seen out and then stay for long. . . the news will get to grandfather." He took Ivy's coat from the hanger and helped it on her.

"Quinn. . . " Ivy turned to face Quinn and found him close enough to feel his breath. His hand went up to her cheek as he kissed her. It was deep, and Ivy savoured it because she knew that it was going to be the last one for a while.

The kiss ended, and Quinn began to back away towards the door. "I don't know when any of this will end, but I'm going to well damn make sure that when things settle, they tip on my side." There was a steel in his eyes that, to Ivy, was a little scary and reminded her that she was looking at the Invisible Vigilante, but at the same time, that same looked so reliable that all she could do was nod. "Be safe, Ivy, be safe," said Quinn before disappearing.

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Quinn West - MC - I'm going to take a long shower.

Ivy Potter - Rollercoaster - Okay, I don't have to have this talk, but let's have it.

FictionOnlyReader - Author - Hostel Mess food ain't that great. . .

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