Her face heated drastically in spite of the cold at the feeling of his warm breath on her flesh as he leaned in to speak to her. Merlin, if he just leaned in a little further...but no. That would be inappropriate and ill-advised. Dezzie was at once both pleased and horrified that the nature of their conversation required such proximity.

“I am not one for gossip,” she whispered in reply—honestly—“but I can’t help but be curious. Is that terrible of me?”

If it wasn’t, certain other thoughts she had for the moment certainly were.

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"Not at all," Arthur breathed, "You have to wonder what he's heard - or seen, even."

Certainly more than one person had to have spoken too loudly or too much in sleighs. Never mind physical intimacy - they were already so close that he would not have been at all surprised to hear of people kissing in the back of sleighs.

He had to stop thinking along those lines. They were so close that he could feel the warmth of her body through their layers of clothing and Arthur had always been reckless.

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   Desdemona Pettigrew

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set by MJ <3

Under normal circumstances, the witch might have replied that the driver would see nothing from her. Though some aspects of her life—particularly her occupation—were not the norm, Desdemona had always tried to lead her life in a polite and moral fashion. She was largely unremarkable, behaviour-wise.

But this—pressed up against Arthur Pettigrew in a small sleigh, breath mingling with every whispered word, the heat of him a constant reminder that they were practically sitting on top of one another—was not normal circumstances, and the chaser could not be sure that it was anything other than a general awkwardness on her part stopping her from doing something altogether impolite.

“I should hope not something too disgraceful!” she offered, still quiet. “Surely people must remember that they are in public.”

Yes. Public. That’s where she was.

The fact that the ‘public’ was now her primary concern over their friendship and his role as captain was not lost on her, and worried Dezzie immensely.

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"Maybe they're just too - reckless for their own good," Arthur said. That this sentence could be used to describe him was not lost on him; he had ruined his life, more than once, because he had made an ill-advised decision for the hell of it. He had lost a fortune, gone to prison, and gotten punched in the face. More than once.

He had also captained the British national team and jumped ship to the Hogsmeade Howlers. If he hadn't done the latter, they never would have become friends, and he wouldn't be here - might even have drifted into the casino by now. Certainly he would have drifted there after Azkaban if he hadn't had the real responsibility of running a Quidditch team.

"It's easy to lose yourself if you stop paying attention, I think," he said, "Or even if you just think it's worth it."

He wanted to kiss her. Damnit, he wanted to kiss her.

He leaned forward ever so slightly and kissed her.

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   Desdemona Pettigrew

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set by MJ <3

Any response she might have formulated was forgotten (as was, in all honesty, the English language) as Mr. Pettigrew’s lips met with her own.

It would occur to Dezzie only later that any of the romantic novels she had read involved the heroine’s eyes closing during The Big Kiss, but hers instead remained resolutely open in utter shock at what was happening to her.

To her in that she was too surprised to be particularly involved in the matter, not in that she wanted nothing to do with it.

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Arthur's heart was thudding as he pulled away and that was silly, he had experience in matters like this, but he was not especially used to a lack of reaction being the reaction.

But that wasn't quite it, either; she looked shocked, and he felt suddenly, horrendously guilty. (Not regretful, though.)

"Sorry," Arthur said, genuinely. He glanced sideways at the sleigh driver but he wasn't reacting, either - maybe Art had been right, or maybe it had been quiet, or maybe the man just didn't care.

Merlin, what had he been thinking?

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He stopped. He was speaking. She should probably reply. Speaking required breathing. Breathing. Right. Dezzie reminded herself that that was necessary to not die.

Frantically, her wide-eyed gaze moved to the sleigh driver who was either oblivious or determined not to react (that was good) and then back to Captain Pettigrew who seemed to think he had done something wrong.

Which he absolutely had not!

Except he had. Kissing in public was bad.

Kissing full-stop was bad, unless one was married, which Desdemona was quite sure was not in the cards for her.

Except it hadn’t felt bad, in the physical sense.

But morally bad. Yes.

Dezzie had little experience in kissing and the etiquette surrounding it. How did one respond to a kiss politely? Respond to an apology for a kiss politely? Oh Merlin, what if he regretted it? Did she regret it?

Yes.

No.

Maybe?

Maybe if he kissed her again, she would have a better idea of how to respond. After all, it had been her first kiss; surely her second would see her every bit the seasoned veteran.

But he was apologizing. So that probably wouldn’t happen.

What would her sisters say? Bella would surely warn her off, but Cordy would egg her on. Cressi would almost certainly just chuckle, and God forbid she ever mention this interlude to her mother. So that line of thought was no good.

His mouth was still dangerously close to hers. Surely if he was embarrassed he would have looked away—she always did when she felt awkward. That settled it, then.

With every ounce of moxie that had ever graced her bloodstream, she did what would likely prove to be her boldest action in all of time:

Dezzie kissed Art Pettigrew.

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Arthur was part of the way through chiding himself when she kissed him and all thoughts went right out of his head.

If he had expected anything - which he hadn't, he hadn't thought of anything past actually kissing her - he sure as hell had not expected this.

He pressed his lips against hers and reached up one gloved hand to touch her cheek - they were kissing, she had kissed him, and some distant part of him reflected that they were very luck that sleighs were relatively private because if this had been any more public it would have been in the papers by the end of the week.

They really probably should not have been kissing in public.

Arthur really, really didn't care. His first priority was her and that was occupying all of his attention at the moment - he was too shocked to worry, too delighted and too Arthur Pettigrew to be distracted by public decency.

When he broke off this time he grinned at her because he could not help himself.

"So," Arthur said, moving his hand away, "I suppose that this would probably be an opportune moment to tell you that I fancy you."

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“I would be decidedly put out were that not the case,” Desdemona replied wryly, cheeks flushing with…embarrassment? Excitement? This was all a great deal for the witch to process. “And I suppose I must confess the feeling to be mutual,” she added for good measure. She was damned if they would regress now that she’d made a harlot of herself!

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The corners of Art's eyes crinkled up with delight. "Excellent," he said cheerfully, "I'm glad to know we're on the same page." There were, of course, other things to think about - but for now they were on a sled and they had kissed (twice!) and Arthur had never been much for thinking about the consequences, anyways.

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Later, Desdemona would no doubt agonize about the practicality of the situation, but for now she was unabashedly content. Though she did resign herself to no more kissing—it was hardly appropriate, even under the circumstances!

“It would have been horribly awkward otherwise,” was the response she gave instead of any pragmatic discussion.

  

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Arthur laughed. "Terribly awkward," he said, "I can't even imagine." He was lucky it was this way, really - if she hadn't kissed him the second time, they might have been in serious competition for The Most Awkward Sled Ride of All Time.

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It was, she thought, something of a Christmas miracle. Arthur Pettigrew fancied her, and they were good enough friends for Desdemona to believe wholeheartedly that it would lead further—after all, how could he be so dishonorable as to lead her astray and not marry her?

For a girl who had faced disappointment after disappointment throughout her life, things were surely starting to look up.

  

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