"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…"

"Ow, Blaine! Could you stop hitting me?"

"I'm sorry! I'll try! Oh my god."

"Can't you express excitement in a less violent way? I've never seen you like this before."

Blaine turned to Kurt, eyes burning, smiling with profound joy, "This isn't excitement Kurt. This is like, way beyond excitement."

The two boys had been waiting in line for three hours for the midnight showing of The Deathly Hallows: Part Two. For the first two and a half they had sat against the local cinema's wall with a checked blanket across their knees sharing a thermos of coffee and the ham and cheese sandwiches that Carole had forced on them as they left Kurt's house. Blaine had on a white shirt, grey vest and proudly wore a yellow and black Hufflepuff tie. Kurt had convinced Blaine not to wear his wizard cloak on condition that he too bore his house colours. Consequently his neck was snuggly muffled in a long gold and red Gryffindor scarf and Blaine's phone must have taken about fifty photos of the two of them dressed up and beaming. He had spent all day in a contagious, soaring mood humming Hedwig's theme to himself and impulsively giggling with anticipation.

Even as Kurt rubbed the tender shoulder that Blaine had spent all night pummelling, he couldn't help an affectionate grin from stealing across his face.

"Are you sure you're 17 Blaine?"

Blaine made an incredulous sound, "It's Harry Potter Kurt! Harry Potter! This is our lives! This is our..." he stammered and then spat, "It's our childhood!"

Kurt slid an arm around Blaine's waist, "It's one part of our lives babe."

"A big part."

"Uh huh… I can't believe I'm dating a Hufflepuff."

"Woah, house hate! I had no idea you felt like that!"

"I'm kidding!"

"Good."

Kurt shook his head disbelievingly.

Blaine breathed, "I don't understand how you're so calm right now!"

"Blaine, I'm excited! OK? I'm absolutely thrilled. Apparently I'm just better at hiding it."

Blaine whined and bounced on the balls of his feet, "Why would you want to hide it? Oh my god, what time is it?"

Kurt rolled his eyes, sighed and gripped Blaine by the elbow, lifting his arm and pushing his sleeve up, "It's 11:55, see? Your magical wristwatch knows all."

"Five minutes, five minutes, five minutes…"

"Plus ads. And trailers."

"Whatever. Five minutes!"

"Are you sure you don't want any snacks?"

"Yep. I don't want to be distracted. Food is too distracting."

Kurt looked sideways at his boyfriend, "OK, I'm starting to worry about you now…"

Blaine expelled a stream of breath loudly, "Kurt! Stop pretending this isn't one of the most important days of your life! Be happy! Freak out with me!"

Kurt's face remained completely passive for a moment before he exploded with laughter, grabbing Blaine's hand and swinging it between them, "You're so adorable I can't even stand it."

Blaine leant into Kurt, "Thank you. This just means a lot. It's important that you're with me right now."

Kurt stopped laughing as a friendly warmth crept through his body, "Me too." He said quietly, looking at his feet, "My Mum used to read the books to me before bed. The Order of the Phoenix came out just before… um, before she died. It got to the point where I ended up reading it to her when she was too tired to."

Blaine squeezed Kurt's hand gently, silently understanding.

Kurt looked up at him and smiled, "J.K. pretty much taught me to read."

"Me too. She taught me a lot actually. And gave me some of my best friends."

"That should sound weirder than it does..."

"I know." he laughed.

Kurt chewed his lip, "Is it weird that Dumbledore is an inspiration to me?"

Blaine laughed, "No Kurt, it's me you're talking to. I totally understand"

Kurt grinned sheepishly, "Good. I mean… I loved J.K. as it was, but when she came out and said that Dumbledore was gay," he paused, "I dunno. It kind of meant a lot to have a prominent fictional character like that. And a powerful one."

Blaine nodded, "Yeah. Having someone as utterly in the public eye as she is saying that a man loving a man is as natural and ordinary as any other relationship was kind of huge for me. That she wasn't bothered by the inevitable backlash. She's amazing."

"It… that all happened before I came out, you know? But it helped me feel like eventually I could."

Blaine stared at Kurt evenly, "Me too."

He said it with such sincerity that it winded Kurt a little. When he'd recovered somewhat he grabbed Blaine's arm again, dragging his watch into view.

"One minute!"

Blaine yelped, "One minute! Oh god."

He rifled in his satchel for a moment and pulled out three small packets of tissues. He offered one of them to Kurt.

Kurt widened his eyes and laughed, "I think I'll be fine."

Blaine cocked his head sceptically, stuffing them in his pockets, "OK then…"

At that moment the cinema doors swung open and the line of ardent, expectant fans began to cheer and surge forward.

Kurt put his arm around Blaine, "Ready to say goodbye?"

"No! Yes!" Blaine clapped his hands manically, "Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For the last time John Williams' familiar refrain blasted out over the dim theatre as credits rolled and the audience applauded wildly.

Blaine's face was riven by a massive smile as contradictory tears ran down his cheeks. He shook a little with weak, irrepressible laughter that could just as easily have been small sobs. He wiped his nose with a tissue wound around his fingers and simultaneously felt release, sorrow, love, loss and contentment. He felt a small tug on his cuff and turned to see Kurt's face, red as he wept.

"Can I have some of those tissues?"

Blaine let out a huge laugh (or was it a sob?) and shakily dug for one of the packets, handing it to Kurt before twining his arms around his boyfriend's neck and hiding his face.

He murmured into his collar, "Can we go see it again now?"