AMOR VINCIT OMNIA

Everything is perfect, just as it is.

This is what Milo Bähr thought most of his life and it was true. He wanted something? He got it soon after. No one dared to oppose him because of his scary appearance and his family.

That was just the way Milo lived and to be frank, he didn’t mind living this way, rather he enjoyed living his life in such a comfortable way. It was not truly an exciting life, but he lived without any worries or dangers, that was enough, was it not?

Though this peace soon disappeared when everything at his school and second home was turned upside down by no other person than the boy who lived(and of course his little underlings).

The quiet he had grown to appreciate in his first year at Hogwarts has soon turned into the loudness and back handed whispers about the so-called golden trio (though Milo would like to say that nothing about them was golden, like at all). And, oh boy, the trouble they brought with them, it was too much for Milo’s old soul.

Who could deal with trolls, the claimed return of the dark Lord and mud-bloods turning into stone; and all of that in just two years?

Milo needed a break, but of course with the escape of Sirius Black he couldn’t even get that. Soon he started to relate to the dementors in their dark demeanor, seeing as Milo, too, was just over with everything (and to be honest, he also wanted to give people kisses, well notrandompeoplebut one girl in particular – but only later did he realize this).

Near to the end of his fourth year Milo visited a scene that turned out to be one of the best moments of his school year – maybe even his life.

Watching out onto the grounds of Hogwarts, Milo enjoyed the silence that was surrounding him. Sighing he tried to remember when the last time was in which he could just stand around for a second and not hear anyone whisper about whatever happened inside and outside of the school.

Soon he came to regret thinking about the rare silence, seeing as he jinxed it and summoned the subject of most rumors in the form the golden trio (he still thought the name was shit) and their sworn enemy, Draco Malfoy.

At first he just heard some voices talking hushedly, he didn’t mind that as it was still bearable but it seems like he chose the wrong spot to relax because soon the soft noises turned into loud bickering.

Turning away Milo was ready to just leave and bury himself under his covers, to read a book or study but something made him stop in his tracks.

In his peripheral vision Milo could see a girl with curly hair raise her hand and hit Draco Malfoy square in the face. Yes, the hit wasn’t placed right to his nose, where it surely would have broken at least one bone, but for some girl that probably didn’t have any experience she sure was strong (and the punch probably hurt a lot).

Flanked with her two friends the girl then went away from the ‘crime scene’, leaving Milo with a small smile on his face as he watched Crabbe and Goyle try helping Draco; with what they wanted to help, he did not know.

For the rest of the day, the only thing Milo Bähr could think about was how someone finally stood up to Malfoy (he did not like the younger Slytherin that much, if it wasn’t already clear) and also that it was a shame that he did not know who that girl was.

He only remembered her curly hair that bounced beautifully behind her as she left with her friends. Well she probably was one of Potter’s underlings and if Milo wasn’t wrong the other boy accompanying her had ginger hair; and ginger hair was – if Milo remembered correctly – the Weasley’s trademark.

Every time Milo ran across Malfoy in the following days, he had to hold in a laugh, remembering the happening he saw. The boy didn’t even care if he got a higher ranking in Malfoy’s ‘People I don’t like’ list, it was just Malfoy and his father was too good of a friend with Lucius for his son to openly hate Milo. Though, Milo was sure that Draco already disliked him to a certain degree.

Why, you may wonder, is that so?

The reason is quite simple. Milo was not a part of the sacred twenty-eight. True, he was a pureblood, but in England he was just some pureblood, not one ofthepurebloods. It didn’t really make sense to him because in Germany, where he formerly lived, his family was known widely for being one of the oldest German wizard-families. It seemed, though, that this didn’t matter here.

A thing that happened quite often to Milo for the rest of the school year, was that whenever he walked the corridors of Hogwarts he would notice the familiar curly hair sticking out of the crowd, which is a first to him.

He truly thought that the girl that punched Malfoy was not much around school because he didn’t even know for certain which house she belonged to. Turns out, it was just Milo not paying enough attention to the people of his school, he couldn’t really deny that he didn’t give a shit about the people attending Hogwarts except for some of his housemates. The rest was just like some gum that was attached to the underside of a table, you try to ignore it with all your might (and you also somewhat manage to do that) but you know of its existence and it just disgusts you.

Now that Milo was interested in her he wanted to know more about this mysterious girl. Which house does she belong to? How old is she? What’s her blood status?

It was questions like these that swarmed in Milo’s head whenever he caught sight of those slowly familiar becoming curls that were either put up in a ponytail, braided over her back or just left open to fly around (was she single, was one of the additional questions, though he tried to push this question to the very back of his head). From time to time he also wondered if her hand was okay because her hit was strong but if not performed right, it could hurt the one punching even more than the one getting punched.

So the last few weeks of school passed by with Milo beginning to think more and more about the girl, until he finally got an opportunity to start a conversation with her, even if he messed this opportunity up.

Entering the library, one of the few somewhat silent places in Hogwarts, Milo looked around and spotted those familiar curls.

She was buried behind a pile of books that Milo knew all too well, it was the books he had been reading, studying and using over the past year. That made him wonder, was she in his year?

He slowly started cursing his lack of interest for other people; not that this would change soon.

Breathing in, Milo confidently strided over to her table, sitting down opposite of the girl and she didn’t even have it in her to look up, too engrossed in the book in front of her to notice him. Clearing his throat Milo hoped to get her attention this way but to no avail, the girl seemed to not even hear him, or to just blatantly ignore him.

The Slytherin boy thought it over and just decided to muster her for a few moments, maybe she was just shy, or scared of him.

Now that she was just a few meters away from him, Milo noticed many more things that he never had when watching her from afar.

First, the girl’s hair was kept out of her face with a hair tie or clip that only pulled half of her hair up. Then there were also a few stray hair strands that got in her pale face and she blew them away with an annoyed sigh.

Second, the girl’s eyes were pretty plain. They were in a brown that you could see in every one of the forbidden forest’s trees, even though they were plain, Milo still found them extremely entrancing and wanted to look at them for some time longer. Those eyes were underlined by black rings that probably came from not sleeping enough; Milo had the same problem, just his weren’t as prominent as hers.

Third, all over her hands were small cuts and almost completely healed wounds, here and there was still a band aid to be seen. Milo was sure that she didn’t get those bruises from the punch she gave Malfoy, but if not from that, where would she have gotten them?

And finally the last thing he noticed was, well Milo didn’t know what those things she wore were, he just knew that there was something in her ears, that she tried to cover up with her hair. Starting from the strange things in her ears was a small thread or rope whose end was not visible, so it left him to wonder what strange things this mysterious girl possessed.

Ending his observation, Milo decided to sit there for a while longer to look at the girl (Milo really wanted to know her name) while she was engrossed in her D.A.D.A. book. How she was able to sit there for such a long time without looking across the room was a miracle to him.

Slowly the brown eyed boy started to feel his feet growing stiff so he got up to grab a book on a nearby shelf.

Just as he turned the corner he heard hurried footsteps coming closer, so he pried in the direction the steps were coming from and glanced at the table he was sitting at before.

For the first time the girl looked up and quickly pulled whatever there was in her ears out and stuffed it into her bag. Then two boys came running to her table, one with black hair and glasses (Milo knew that it was Harry Potter) and a ginger in worn down robes (and that should be one of the infamous, blood traitor Weasleys). The boys came to a halt next to her and exclaimed, a bit too loud (actually, way too loud) for a library, “Hermione, we were looking all over the school for you!”

“Yes, now come we have to show you something”, Potter said those words with a nervous look around the room, as if he was afraid someone would listen in on their conversation, and someone actually was listening in. However Milo was too distracted by the name that the Weasley boy said at first, to pay any heed to the contents of their conversation.

“So her name is Hermione?“, he thought, with a dreamy look crossing his face, “It’s a very pretty name and it even fits her.”

While he was still in his own world, the trio already left the library in a hurry while whispering excitedly, though unbeknownst to all of the boys, Hermione threw one last glance in the direction of the book shelf behind which Milo took shelter.