Emilia’s eyes squinted involuntarily as the nurse moved the lamp right over her face to inspect her injuries. Her face was still slightly swollen and full of blister remains but thankfully, soon there was going to be nothing left but scars.

Once the nurse was done with the inspection she helped the girl sit up, fixing up the pillow to support her back and left to tend to any other students that could still have some injuries after the fight at the mine.

She looked over to the little bedside table and grabbed a hand mirror, to take a look at the state of her face herself.

She sighed with resignation, seeing the red scarring all over her face and neck, and her once waist-long her barely reaching her arms and being cut extremely uneven, after someone tried to fix whatever was left of it after the fire.

The door to the Hospital Wing opened slightly and she saw Atticus come in, grinning from ear to ear and hiding something behind his back.

‘What are you smiling about, huh?’ – she asked him, a smirk creeping up on her face at the sight of the boy.

‘I’ve got some good news.’ – he revealed.

‘Really? What is it?’ – she asked, surprised.

‘I just talked with Weasley. She says you automatically passed all of your O.W.L.’s.’

Emilia bit down on her lip, her smile fading away.

‘But that’s so unfair to everyone that actually studied for these exams… I didn’t even attend them, I was stuck here the entire time.’ – she replied with guilt painted on her face.

‘Well, you didn’t have time to worry about some stupid exams, you were busy having a dark wizard on your back, trying to kidnap you.’ – he raised his brow, staring at her.

‘That’s no excuse, I still shouldn’t be allowed to pass the…’ – she tried to continue but he stopped her.

‘Of course not, superhero.’ – he chuckled and sat on the edge of the bed, his arms still behind his back.

‘Don’t call me that.’ – she scolded him, but couldn’t help feeling curious about what he was hiding. – ‘What have you got there?’

‘Well…’ – he rolled his eyes dramatically and pulled out a flat box tied with a green ribbon. – ‘I figured you need something nice for today.’

‘Huh? What’s today?’ – she questioned him with her brows narrowed in suspicion. – ‘Wait… is it the End of the Year Ceremony already?’

‘Yeah.’ – he nodded. – ‘But there’s also a little surprise for you at the Great Hall, but shush, you didn’t hear it from me.’ – he smirked.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

She stared at him and then back down at the box.

‘Come on, open it.’ – he nudged her playfully.

The girl untied the ribbon slowly and lifted the cover. A glimpse of dark red, shiny material caught her eye right as Atticus grabbed it from the box and stood up to unroll the rest of it.

A stunning, maroon dress with fringed sleeves and collar, decorated with sewn in gold flowers, rolled out in his hands.

‘Do you like it?’ – he asked excitedly. – ‘Roz helped me pick it out.’

‘Oh my god, Atticus.’ – Emilia’s jaw dropped. – ‘It’s so beautiful, I love it.’

‘Want to try it on?’

She nodded with excitement.

The boy helped her stand up, watching over her still weak legs to make sure she can stand on her own. He looked away respectfully and moved over one of the privacy screens to let her undress in peace and only turned back around as she asked him to help her zip up the back of the dress.

He stood behind her and carefully pulled the zipper up, avoiding hurting her still vulnerable and burnt skin and gently turned her around to look at her in her new dress.

‘You’re so beautiful.’ – he smiled and she wrapped her hands around him in a tight embrace.

They stood like this for a moment, taking each other in as much as they could, knowing that the danger had finally passed and everything was going to be okay.

Suddenly Emilia felt a stab of guilt in her stomach once again.

‘You know…’ – she started. – ‘I just realized, I never actually thanked you for saving my life. So… thank you, Atticus. And also… I’m sorry.

‘Sorry for what? – he asked, worryingly.

‘For not believing you… I feel so stupid now.’

‘Hey, don’t say that. Everything’s fine now, you’re safe, that’s all that matters.’ – he comforted her, caressing her face gently.

‘Yeah, thanks to you. You saved my life, you saved me from falling down that mine shaft. How could I ever repay you for that?’ – she felt salty tears stinging her eyes.

‘You’ve saved my life plenty of times before. What I did was just the first step into making us even.’

...

Atticus walked Emilia slowly and carefully down the many stairs of the castle, before reaching the Great Hall.

Smiling, he opened the door, where everyone had already gathered and was ready to enjoy the feast, but upon seeing them enter a big round of applause sounded all over the hall.

He looked over at the girl and saw her cheeks burning as the attention was concentrated on her and chuckled lightly, guiding her all across the room to the pedestal right up front where the newly promoted Headmastress Weasley was standing, also smiling with all of the professors behind them.

Emilia gave him one last frustrated look as he helped her up the stairs and allowed the teacher to take over as he turned back and took a seat by the Slytherin table, next to Ominis and Sebastian.

While Headmastress began her speech, he watched the faces of the students around, everyone happy and ready to enjoy their summer vacation and feeling relieved after passing all their exams. He noticed Rosie and Jaz sitting all across the room by the Gryffindor table and surprisingly, Mattias next to them. He had his arm around Jaz and despite looking quite worried and sad, every time the girl looked back at him he grinned his teeth at her reassuringly.

Will be and Emilia also be like that? Were they a couple now?

He watched her stand beside Professor Weasley, burning up like a tomato, and couldn’t help but smile. Whatever was going to happen, all that he truly cared about was just making sure Vay would be safe and happy, just as she was at that very moment.

That was all he could ever wish for.

To be continued…