September 1st, 1976
WHO: Derek Dobbs and Giada Vance
WHEN: September 1st, 1976
WHERE: Platform 9 3/4
WHAT: Derek's got a deadline to meet!
Ten-fifty. Derek still hadn't spotted her. Not for lack of trying, of course, as he paced fruitlessly up and down the platform, never pausing in his scrutiny of the mass of people swarming around them.
"VINNY," he shouted helplessly, running his hand through his hair for good measure, "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT."
His friend, currently directing (or more aptly, showing off) to impressionable First Years, could merely shrug equally helplessly. And only half-heartedly smother his snickers.
Where was she? he thought, with no small amount of annoyance and desperation. Ten fifty-one, god fucking damn it! He hoped his watch was fast.
Just when he'd given up hope, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that blonde head of hair bent close to the dark curls of her best friend and housemate.
He was going to do it. God fucking damn it, he was going to do it.
Of course, he needed her attention first, and the frantic hand-waving hadn't seemed to accomplish anything. Derek cupped his hands around his mouth. "OY!" he hollered at the top of his lungs.
The head in question still did not turn.
"Dash it all," he murmured, rolling his eyes out of sheer aggravation. Never again was he making pacts with Vinny while hopped up on Butterbeer—not ever. He started a mad dash towards the two of them, heedful but mostly uncaring of his trunk smacking into the ankles of the crowd milling about him. "Oof—sorry, I—watch out! Fuck off, mate, pay better att—" He saw the girls stop, not ten steps from the door of a compartment. Derek doubled his pace. "HIE! GIA!"
Giada had just begun to tell Rachel that she had so much to tell Rachel once they got on the Hogwarts Express (even though they’d been standing on the Platform gossiping for the past forty-five minutes...) when she’d heard her name. She had heard a bit of a ruckus, but whenever was she involved with a ruckus? Never! So she hadn’t bothered to look up! But when her name was shouted, and it was a very familiar shout at that, Giada felt her face heat up quickly and she nearly shoved Rachel away. Okay, okay, she felt like it was a shove, but it was more of a rapid fire bit of hand patting on her best friend’s shoulder to get her to do something because Derek was coming toward her.
Derek, the boy that she had been flirting with through these new-fangled magical journals all summer, the one who’d gotten her such a lovely birthday present even though she had to tell her parents that it was from Patrick who was on business in Italy and---Derek, who was always grabbing her and making her feel all kind of twisty inside her chest and----”Derek! Hi? Hi!”
She heard the conductor of the Hogwarts Express begin his final boarding announcements, and Giada shifted her hold on her trunk to her other hand, figuring that they could continue whatever conversation he was so desperate to have on the train.
Ten fifty-three. Oh bloody fuck it all to hell, she was getting on the train! The pact was null if she got on the train! He shoved Rachel aside, ignoring the outraged squawk of protest, and threw himself in front of Giada to block her from the open train door.
"MMM, nope, sorry, I can't let y—yeah, yeah, clear off!" he turned to yell at the even more outraged students and parents who were foiled from boarding this particular car by his rather large body. Derek took a deep breath and shifted his attention back to Giada.
This was not going at all according to plan. He was supposed to find her well in advance, spirit her off to a dark corner of the station, and thoroughly charm her into accepting his eloquent and evenly-breathed suggestion that they stop beating around the bush and finally go out.
Instead, Derek held up a finger while he tried to catch his breath and semi-collapsed against the side of the door, panting. A side-eye glance at his watch (ten fifty-three and thirty seconds!) snapped him to attention, and still somewhat breathless, he gave Giada his most beguiling grin.
"What in the—" Rachel began shrilly.
"—Miss Giada Vance," Derek began, before stopping as he unconsciously gave her a once-over and fumbled. "Wow, you look great." Ten fifty-four, god fucking damn it! "No, fu—shit, sorry, I—am getting on a tangent." He shook his head. "Hallo. Will you go out with me?"
Giada was sure that Rachel was going to kill her for attracting such a boorish fiend as Derek Dobbs anywhere near them, but she was too struck by him that she could not be bothered to hear a word her friend was saying. Her ears were hot, her neck was hot, her chest, her cheeks. Derek was forcing himself in front of her, and when he looked at her like that, Giada squirmed in a pleased manner and smiled, finding herself so happy that Derek was obviously keen on her. She wanted to hear him compliment her more as it felt so good, but his next statement just made her want to melt.
She’d been waiting for him to ask her out all summer. Giada knew that with all their talk and flirting (so, so obvious with the flirting), it was inevitable that they would begin dating. She was a proper young lady, after all, and wouldn't tease and let the boys chase her for long. Giada’s shoulders scrunched up in excitement, and she opened her mouth to respond when the train whistle began to blow. She looked up at a nearby clock, ten fifty-six. Her lips pressed together and she took a quick look at all the people standing around waiting for them to stop blocking the train entrance. There’d only be one time where Derek Dobbs asked you out for the first time, so it had to be perfect.
“--you’ll keep me from boarding until I give you an answer?” she had to shout, her hair beginning to blow in the breeze the Hogwarts Express was creating as it began to start its engines. Her smile was wide and bright, though, making it more than obvious what her answer would be within these last four minutes.
All right, yes, Derek was making a spectacle of himself. Truthfully, however, he was enjoying the hell out of it all. It was his seventh year, for heaven's sake! This was the time he was supposed to seize the day and wring every lively moment dry, which is why he'd even thought of making this pact with Vinny. The start of seventh year set the precedent for the rest of the term, and he was going to start his out right! And asking (or shouting at, whichever) the girl he'd fancied for the last six months to go out with him whilst perched on the train car and causing a traffic jam definitely fit under all those categories, he believed.
"That sounds about right!" he roared back cheerfully, willfully ignoring the jeering crowd and the so-insulted-that-it-has-moved-beyond-speech-and-recognizable-vocal-patterns Rachel Englewood. "So what say you, Gia?"
He really, fervently hoped that that smile was not of the oh-how-sweet-but-no variety, but was in fact the he-is-so-charming-it's-about-bloody-time kind. Because it was about bloody time, as his watch hand showed ten fifty-seven. Damnation! Not that Derek was not enjoying this rampant flirtation and public commotion, but he was on a schedule here!
Derek grabbed the rail with one hand as his upper-half out of the train car and very, very close to the smiling yet still teasing Giada Vance as he looked down at her with a cocked eyebrow. "Shall we make a go of it?"
Her trunk dropped to the ground as Giada nodded, taking hold of the two handles on the side of the door Derek was now leaning out of to step up between his legs and pull herself up and forward. He really knew how to make a scene, didn’t he? And it was all for her. Giada thought she could not be more pleased, but then realized she could be, and she looked at the clock---ten fifty-eight---right before she kissed Derek Dobbs for the first time.
Oh, it was so much better than she’d imagined it being.
Giada was all for public displays of affection, and this one was really taking the cake. There was hooting and hollering, and scolding of course---Rachel would never allow her to hear the end of it, she was sure, but what did she care? She was the one kissing Derek right now, after he proclaimed to basically the whole school that he fancied her, after all. No one else could say that now could they? It made her feel so good to think that this wonderful boy thought so highly of her, and Giada was sure this was the best kiss she’d ever had, and was really eager to add some more to this new, budding collection of lip-locks.
Derek seemed to have some sort of grip to keep himself upright, so Giada wasted no time in slinging her arms around his neck to pull him closer. Someone would get her trunk, right? Yes, Edward would definitely be frantic enough to pick it up for her, or at least, Rachel would make him before the train pulled off. She could stay clinging to Derek like this for days.
"Ugh, Edward, come—" "What are they doing?" "OY! MOVE OUT THE WAY!"
It was all an indistinct aural blur to him, because he was currently kissing only the prettiest girl in the entire seventh year (really, the whole school—why quibble).
Suddenly, Derek felt something tugging at his hair and realized with a start the train was slowly pulling away from the station. Still pressing his lips insistently to hers (oh, by the way, she had definitely laid one on him first!), he let out a whoop of laughter and swung the two of them inside. Reluctantly breaking away, he pulled her firmly inside the train and was decidedly too dazed to think or care about whether or not they'd grabbed everything from the station platform. His grin was wide and cocky as he fingered a loose strand of her very blonde hair and tucked it ever so gently behind her ear.
"You know, I never did get an answer," he said very softly, an arm snaking around her waist to bring her quite inappropriately close to him. The hand tangled in her hair slid slowly along her jaw line until he could cup under her chin and guide her lips to his until they nearly grazed. "… but hell if that was anything but a yes." Not even giving her a chance to correct him, it was his turn to lay a good, solid one on her.
Derek looked at his watch from the corner of his eye. Eleven oh-one. Welcome to the best bloody school year ever.
