How could fourth year be almost over? Ambrose had counted up the number of weeks left before the end of term, and before that their end of year exams. He didn't feel ready for his fifth year, which if he stuck to his original plans for his education, would be his final year at Hogwarts. He scratched his quill over the parchment to write out the question he was trying to answer for herbology. Writing the question out sometimes helped him to think about what it was asking. It also made his parchment look longer when he finished the work, which made him feel better about it.

The two of them had a gap in their Tuesday  afternoon which they were filling with catching up on homework. It was some time to spend together, but Ambrose was finding he actually did the majority of his homework if he sat down to work on it while Cy was also doing homework. They had their evening astronomy lesson that night, where Ambrose would ensure he was the politest young man ever if he was within six feet of Cyhirae while her father was watching. The other night he'd woken up in a cold sweat because he'd dreamt that Professors Trishna, Di Luca and Storm had come after him to expel him from Hogwarts so he could never see Cy again. It had been silly, but Ambrose had been breathing in too many fumes in his potions lesson where he'd (not surprisingly) got a bit astray from the instructions.

"I don't know how I'm going to cram everything into my brain for the exams." Ambrose sighed, reaching to pull his herbology text book towards him so he could turn a few pages back and re-read the information about the subspecies he was writing his answer about. "If I could write an essay on Strangely and her rambles, then I'd get an E, but no I have to write about the pollination of different herbs." He glanced up to see if he could glimpse at her answer, but knowing Cy she was already onto something else.

"Well, if it all goes wrong, my uncle says I can go work on flying cars in America." He shrugged, and glanced to see what Cy's reaction was, "I mean, you could come too, like. Study at Lavenstrome's or whatever you'd like." He smiled gently, "Or not, well, whatever you made you happy."

In just a few short weeks finals would be upon them which meant that summer break and her birthday were close at hand. And this would be her first summer with a boyfriend, Cyhirae couldn’t wait.

Cyhirae glanced over at Ambrose’s essay, “Do you need help?" She wanted Ambrose to do well, if only to help build up his confidence in himself. He always seemed happier when he got a good grade, and she did not like seeing him so down on himself. And she liked helping Ambrose with his studies, especially when he finally got something that had been difficult for him. 'I wonder if that's why Dad likes teaching so much.' "Herbology isn't my best subject, but I can help if you’d like?”

‘America? But America is so far away.’ Cyhirae knew that her time together with Ambrose at school would be limited. Eventually, she’d go off to college and he’d start on whatever career he’d chosen for himself. Sure, they’d probably see less of each other on a day to day basis, but she hadn’t really thought that an entire ocean might end up separating them. ‘I don’t even know how much it would cost to go see him. Expensive no doubt.’

She could follow him to America and go to college there, but Cy really didn’t want to leave. She’d still have the same problem but with her friends and family instead of with her boyfriend.  “Well, hopefully you won’t need to.” She smiled at him, trying to reassure herself as much as Ambrose. It wasn’t like Ambrose would be leaving anytime soon. No use worrying about it before it happened. “I bet there’s a perfect job for you right here in the UK.”

The thought of Ambrose potentially leaving brought to mind a different conundrum. Cyhirae had been wondering for a while if it was even worth her staying after fifth year to earn her NEWTs.  Cy had long since come to the conclusion that there was no career waiting for her in the Wizarding world, not one that she wanted to pursue anyway. So it wasn’t like she was going to need her NEWTS or anything. ‘Need to talk to Dad about that.’

"I'll ask you in a minute possibly," Ambrose confessed, "but hopefully I can find enough in the text book." He ran his fingers down the page which were spotted with soil.

"Yeah, I'm sure there is too. I just, well, want to have backup plans. Like, because I'm not going to make time turners." He looked back down at the page and left his finger on one of the points, which he began to rephrase for his answer.

"We'll go one summer or something, for a trip." He grinned, and carried on writing. There was a pause and Ambrose crossed out a word and asked Cyhirae to remind him how to spell it correctly.

"What's happening over summer, anyway?" He asked, suddenly - his attention span was never fantastic with homework, which was why sitting doing it with Cy helped.

"Are you, Gigi and your dad going away?"

“Alright, just let me know if you need help.” Cyhirae put down her quill and flipped through her Potions textbook. While she had never struggled with Potions previously, she didn’t want to give Di Luca any excuse to take points away.

“Yeah,” Cyhirae smiled in relief. “It makes sense to consider all your options.” It was nice to see Ambrose looking at his future no matter how negatively she felt about some of his choices. She did want him to be successful and happy, Cy just really hoped that he would be able to find that success and happiness that wouldn’t take him so far away from her.

“That would be fun.” Left unspoken was the fact that it would have to be several summers down the line. She rattled off the correct spelling for Ambrose before returning to her own essay.

“We’re the summer school trip at the end of June; Dad’s a chaperone again this year." Cyhirae paused and scribbled down a few more sentences on her essay. "Other than that I think we’re just going to be home. Dad hasn’t mentioned any other trips.” He probably wanted to spend as much time catching up with the muggle world as much as she and Gigi did. Though he at least could take trips home in the middle of term. Cy leaned over and snuggled close,“So I have most of the summer free.”

"Oh of course," Ambrose echoed distantly to her saying her dad was going to chaperone the summer trip. He tried not to drop his quill when she snuggled close when he wasn't particularly expecting it.

"So I have most of the summer free." His cheeks were blushing ever so slightly, but he'd become so used to it, and it was more out of still feeling a little bashful that Cyhirae liked him so much when he felt so unworthy.

"You do? Well, I hope Dad'll let me go on the trip again, like, I don't want to have to spend the whole summer hanging around with him and Gabrielle." He decided to not continue with the line his mind had been considering and I went up to Moira's at Easter… because bringing up Moira was a bit of a downer on Cy - because well, Winnie had joked something about him like-liking Moira.

"I think my uncle's doing some barbeque at their place in Sandy not long after we break up for term, you know, invite the other families we know. I reckon you, Gigi and your dad can come, Cambridge isn't that far - like under an hour my aunt said if she drove. They'll probably invite the Norlings again."

Ambrose rolled his eyes, "But if you were there it would be awesome. Just don't like invite Professor Storm like your dad did for Christmas." He slid his arm around her and squeezed, not for the first time thinking he'd much prefer to cuddle her than write his homework. If there were OWLs in Cyhirae Trishna he'd get Outstandings and have all the motivation in the world.

"We should go visit some Muggle places after we get back from the trip." He suggested, "Or you know, you can beat me at xbox if I got the bus to yours."

“Yeah, I do hope your dad will let you go.” It would be nice to be able to hang out and do things without having school hanging over their heads. Her father would still be around to potentially interfere, though he didn’t seem to be as negative about her dating as he was in the beginning. But the mention of wanting to avoid his father and his inamorata seemed to be the perfect opportunity to ask something that she had been concerned about for a while.

“Ambrose,” Cyhirae glanced up at him from her place on his shoulder. “You are alright, right? With your dad and Gabrielle being together?” They hadn’t really talked about how he felt about the whole situation. He seemed to be okay with it on the surface, but she could imagine how difficult it must be. Cyhirae had no idea how she would handle her father dating someone else, though she at least didn’t have to go through mourning her mother on top of it. At least she had never heard Ambrose say anything negative about the woman.

“If you’re willing to put up with the awkwardness that having Gigi around would cause, then sure,” Cy teased. “And I doubt that Professor Storm would want to come along.”  ‘Especially with how tense things are between him and dad are right now.’ She wasn’t all that worried about her father and Ambrose’s family getting along. Ambrose knew her father and Gigi well enough that she couldn’t see him inviting them if it was going to cause trouble. Cy was more nervous about meeting Ambrose’s family than anything.

“Ooh, yes. There’s several movies that I’ve been wanting to see that are coming out this summer,” Cy smiled, finding his hand and entwining her fingers with his. “And you just need more practice Ambrose,” she giggled. “I can show you how to play RockBand if you’d like. We have all the instruments and if none of them work, you can always sing.” She paused thoughtfully, “Though depending on the song, Dad might join in.” Anything with Queen  or the Beatles. Or really any 80s or 70s song. Heck might as well plan on him joining when they start.

"Yeah," Ambrose assured Cyhirae when she asked if he was alright about Gabrielle. He had to be, he loved his Dad, and he wanted him to be happy. The way he didn't meet Cyhirae's eyes suggested he still wasn't.

"Gigi's not so bad, heh, she needs Whitman or someone to make out with, that'd distract her." He chuckled, and looked up at Cyhirae's beautiful eyes properly as their fingers entwined.

"Sounds like a plan then," Ambrose laughed, "Hey, I've got to win your dad over somehow, and since Donovan's creatures lesson with the nixie's the cat's out of the bag that I can hold a tune in a bucket, so might as well." He smiled happily at her, homework forgotten.

"Eh, I'm lucky to have you, wonderful, beautiful Cyhirae Trishna." He admitted with a blush and leant forward to give her a little kiss.

With a smile, he turned back to his homework to all appearances, and began to sing a few a lines that had popped into his head with a mention of The Beatles.
"Little darling, it's been a long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it's been here. Here comes the sun, here comes the sun, and I say it's all right."[1] He didn't mind singing a little in front of Cyhirae - being with her made him happy enough to feel confident enough to do it. His voice wasn't anything special at all, but it wasn't offensive on the ears, and it generally brightened his mood, though not usually considered for public consumption.

"Little darling, I must return to my essay, little darling, even though I know not what to write…" He continued a little less melodically as he made a face at his work again.

"Can it be summer now? I'd take a round of Gigi's arse kicking if it could be." He asked, looking back to Cyhirae, grinning.

1.	The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun

Ambrose wasn’t meeting her eyes, a sure sign he was lying. To her or to himself Cyhirae didn’t know for sure, but either way it was troubling. It was frustrating to not know, to wonder if he was lying to her, to worry about the damage his denial might do to his relationship with his father. “Well… okay then. If you’re sure.” But pushing things, at least for now, would probably make it worse, it always did with her father. Probably best to wait until after she had at least seen Ambrose interacting with the woman before doing anything.
 
Cyhirae made an exaggerated face of disgust, “I’d rather not have to think about Gigi snogging anyone thank you very much.” The thought of Gigi doing dating stuff, even if it was only snogging, seemed so outlandish Cy couldn’t even imagine it. Gigi had never shown any interest in romance that Cyhirae could remember. If anything she seemed quite negative about the subject to Cy.

Cy flushed in pleasure at Ambrose’s compliments and met his kiss happily. “I know you will.” She pulled back and turned back to her own homework as he began to sing.
 
 She put down her pen and sighed, “Yeah. Though not about the arse kicking.” Laying her head back down on his shoulder she snuggled close. “I miss all our muggle stuff. And we’re so cut off from everything here.” Going home during break was wonderful, but it always emphasized just how out of the loop she was being stuck at Hogwarts for nine months out of the year. Always missing all the latest movies, television shows, video games and gossip, especially now that her former information pipeline was living at the castle. Every year it reconfirmed that, like her father, Cyhirae didn’t want to live in the wizarding world after she graduated.

"You really do love the Muggle world, don't you?" Ambrose asked Cyhirae gently, with a smile. "I can see why, if you grew up amongst it all, but to me it just seems strange, to have such a wonderful wizarding world, and to want to sit and stare at an illuminated box. I don't knock it though." He leaned over a little to snuggle her closer.

Ambrose found Cyhirae's world of Muggles quite baffling, even if he had grown up with Muggle neighbours and attended a Muggle primary school. They hadn't ever had a television at home, or made great use of electricity, because magic got in the way. His mother was a witch, as was his father, but the family trait was for Pepper men to marry Muggles quite often, like his aunt Catherine, who was an accountant, and a very sensible and clever person.

"Do you think you'd ever snap your wand and decide to become a Muggle full time after Hogwarts?" He asked thoughtfully, trying to imagine Cyhirae, aged 18, doing that, "Or do you think you might be a witch on Sundays still?"

But there was still an essay to finish, Ambrose remembered. So with a sigh, and Cyhirae's reminding look, he picked up his quill once more.

End