Who: Miranda Dodderidge and Ralph Merridew
What: Has to check up on her idiot!
Where: Hospital Wing
When: Midnight on Saturday night? I've been waiting all week shush
Oh, she fucking
hated Ludo Bagman. It did
not matter to Miranda that
technically Ralph had started the fight, but--but
ooooh. Okay, Ralph was an
idiot, but seeing him hurt and bleeding and in pain and just---Miranda could barely
breath and she had
no idea how she had survived the bloody day and--who
said she wasn't allowed to visit him?
Goodness, that wasn't fair. If she had been his bloody
girlfriend Pomfrey may have let her sit in the waiting area, but of course, she
wasn't his girlfriend so she'd been shuffled up back to the dorm were she could storm and stew and be
pissed off at fucking
Ludo Bagman.
Be
cause, if he was her bloody friend like he said he still wanted to be, what the
hell? What the hell! He could have let Ralph get suspended and look like a fool and walked away! But
no, he had to show off, be the jerk everyone thought he was, and bloody fight with Ralph. With
Ralph!
Okay, okay, she probably didn't
hate Ludo and all of her jumbled thoughts were probably caused from stress of the day and everything, but she
really didn't like him right now. Miranda tried not to think about him, though, as she slipped through the hospital wing doors as quietly as possible. It was way,
way past curfew, and she only made it because Gillian was on patrol tonight and had given her, ah
detours to take. At any rate, it had taken her a good twenty minutes to get to the hospital wing, and now she was a mere couple of meters away from Ralph.
Pomfrey was a nutter and had kept the two boys overnight, so Miranda peeked behind one of the curtains--ah, no, that was Ludo, before she hurried over to the next closed one and quickly hid inside. Ooh, Ralph Jackson Merridew, he was honestly going to be the death of her. Miranda couldn't help herself, she rushed to his side and jabbed him hard in the shoulder.
"Ralph," she hissed, "Ralph Jackson Merridew, you wake up right this instant!" she scolded as quietly as possible.
Today, for Ralph, had not been a good day. And the sad part was, he hadn't really been expecting it to be pleasant even when he'd woken up the previous morning. Not to say that he'd planned to go and try to smash Ludo Bagman's face off, because he hadn't. But he had just had
that feeling in his stomach during breakfast. The fact that Kingsley and Davy had passed it off as nerves hadn't helped much. Either way, Ralph would have never guessed that he would have found himself, after being bludgered, knocked off his broom and with a broken arm, to be just a few beds away from Ludo Bagman in the hospital wing after the Quidditch match.
He didn't even know if Selena had caught the snitch or not. How lame was that? Everything after being hit seemed a blur. The only things he remembered were feeling like his right arm had absolutely died, a lot of yelling, a lot of rushing and then being forced to drink some nasty potion which made him fall asleep almost immediately.
Which was what Ralph had been doing until he felt a sharp pain wake him up rather abruptly. Groggy, it took a few seconds for him to put together his surroundings. Someone was... waking him up. It better not be fucking Bagman, oh, he'd
kill him if he woke him up to start something else because---
Miranda. Ralph suddenly felt
incredibly awake. His face pulled back tight as he watched her for a few seconds to give his head time to stop spinning. What time was it? How had she-- What was-- "What--- what are you doing here?" Ralph croaked out finally, shifting slowly to sit up. He didn't like the look on her face, and he wasn't sure if he should look angry too, or something other than completely confused.
It took Miranda .1 seconds to launch herself at Ralph, holding him tightly and not caring if he was still sore. The bloody bastard deserved to be in discomfort after all this mess, but Miranda
needed to hold him before she went absolutely insane. Oh, fuck it all, she didn't care if Ralph pushed her away or told her to get lost forever, Merlin's bloody--she
couldn't let him go after seeing all that. He had to know how much he scared her, or how terrified she was that he
wasn't going to get up. Even if she wanted to scold him and yell at him for doing something so dumb, Miranda couldn't bring actually bring herself to do it, so Ralph--he---he
had to understand without her actually
saying it.
She was on the bed now, her legs pulled underneath her and her face buried into his shoulder. Oh Merlin, she'd only probably been holding him for a good two seconds but it felt like fucking
years. She'd barely spoken a word to Ralph in a month. IN A MONTH. How had she even managed that? A month! A FUCKING
MONTH, and oh
hell, even with all the dirt, sweat, blood, he still smelled like Ralph and she held on a little tighter and fuck it
all, she could not do this any longer.
"Don't
do that to me," she mumbled into his shoulder. Please forgive me,
please.
Ralph didn't even try to hold back his muffled sound of shock as Miranda grabbed onto him tightly and jumped onto the bed. Half because he hadn't been expecting her to react like that, and because also, his body
did sort of still hurt, he found out quickly enough, especially his arm. But--- grunting softly, Ralph, to the best of his ability, pushed his pain aside because this was
Miranda, and she was here and he was fairly certain she had never clutched onto him this tightly before.
He should--- could he--- awkwardly, Ralph tried to move his arms from under her grasp to maybe shift a bit, but that didn't work. Not that he particularly was too upset over that, because it felt like he hadn't been near her for ages, but she was--- upset. He let out a long breath of air, stopped shifting, and settled on letting his head sink a bit to rest the side of his face lightly in her hair.
"I'm---- okay, now," he answered quietly, breathing slow. Ralph didn't know
what to say to her. Well, no, that was a complete lie, he had a
million things running through his mind that could say to her, all of them equally emotionally draining as the next, but he didn't know how to say it. Everything had been concerning her; the fight, the fight on the pitch,
their fight and--- ugh, each stupider than the last. On his part, anyway.
"Really."
"You---" she breathed, not able to say anything else in fear of bursting into tears. Miranda knew she was being dramatic (and when
she knew, it was serious), but she had never seen anyone she loved get hurt before, at least not like
that. Moses had his scares when he went on his trips for work, but those were always stories he'd tell, Miranda couldn't actually see him hurt or in mortal peril. Not that Ralph had been---well! There was
blood, lots of it, and she--she--she wasn't his
girlfriend so the aching feeling to go and take care of him had to be pushed away as he went off with Pomfrey and
ugh did Miranda hate that matron.
She pulled back to look at him, mouth twisted sadly. Her tight embrace loosened but only so her fingers could brush across his features. Miranda knew she loved Ralph, she
did, but not being able to look at him and touch him like she was used to had been absolutely killing her, and as her fingers traced across his cheeks there was a tight twisting in her gut that was telling her she could not go through that again. She could
not and would do anything she could to keep Ralph from hurting again and---holy
hell, what was this called? An epiphany? Was that it? She was having an
epiphany, and it included never letting this man go, because she simply could not live without him.
"You are," she started, voice cracking already, but she would say this. Miranda cupped his face in her hands, making sure that he was paying attention (because this was serious business), "You are stuck with me, Ralph Merridew, you are stuck with me no matter--no matter
what. Is that clear?"
Suddenly, it dawned on Ralph how serious this was--- Miranda was. Not that he hadn't known before, because obviously when your ex-girlfriend (current girlfriend? It was beyond complicated at this point) came to you in the middle of the night after nearly breaking your neck in a Quidditch match, ready to ball her eyes out with that
face that she had on and practically laying with him on the bed, it was--- serious. Very serious. And blame his stupidity, or the fact that his head still was throbbing to catch up, but yes. He got it, now.
As Miranda shifted, Ralph moved to get at least one arm around her waist. He felt his stomach give a--- a,
something like a burst as she brought her hands to his face, and from then on he couldn't stop looking at her. This--- this--- this was
Miranda, how could he have been so stupid to think that--- that not being with her would be okay? He
needed her. He needed her to be around him, and to make him laugh, and keep him in line and be his
girlfriend because there was no one else, it was only
her. With her every touch, Ralph felt his skin jump and itch like it always did, and a chill went up his spine as she grabbed onto his face. Miranda was it, she was--- the
one, because no one had even come close to make him feel like this before; it was impossible to love someone as much as he felt about her right then.
Ralph began to nod his head at her, almost numbly. Yes, yes--- yes. A small smile crept onto his face as he leaned in to her a bit. "What would I do without you?" he asked tenderly, just above a whisper. "You're---- Miranda Daisy Dodderidge. I can't live without you."
"Ohhh," what else could she say to that? This was definitely the most romantic thing that had ever happened to her, easy. Even if they
were in the hospital wing. She couldn't breathe, Miranda was smiling, and tears had struck her eyes, but she couldn't breathe. They had just---they, he--oh, ohhh, okay. Okay. He couldn't--
ohhh. Her forehead pressed against Ralph's and she let out a soft breath, finally able to breathe again. Merlin's pants, what did this mean? Oh, goodness, he couldn't live without her, that meant he wanted to live
with her, and if he wanted to live a long time, that meant he had to live a long time with
her. With her. For his hopefully long life. Ralph wanted to be with her for his hopefully long life. Ohhh, Merlin, a month ago she would have been hollering about an engagement but as she slowly stared to kiss Ralph, Miranda realized she could live happily just being with him like this and nothing more. And that was remarkable, that was really, really wild and
groovy and holy hell.
Holy
hell. She was going to be with Ralph forever.
That was bloody
brilliant.
Miranda didn't hesitate when the snogging became more heated, and soon---ah, could they do this
here? Oh--yes, yes it didn't matter, she had forever with Ralph to deal with the consequences.
