a trip down memory lane // raffaele cassan

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Sabrina was glad to know that, despite not seeing Raffaele for a long time, some things stayed the same. For instance, he was still as blunt and straightforward as ever. It was a trait she appreciated about him, especially when she was surrounded by boys who told her they were in love when all they wanted was to get some.

Raffaele's honesty was also why Alexander liked him, why her best friend got upset with her when she announced their breakup. 'He's has been nothing but honest with you,' Alexander had said. 'You've even gone on holidays with his family. But you threw it all away.'

Truth be told, even when Sabrina dated other men in Paris, Alexander's words never stopped haunting her. She supposed it was also why she decided not to keep in touch until recently—aside from Raffaele and Kat, Alexander was one of those few people who could be honest with her, and yet she chose to surround herself with flatterers who praised her for her beauty and modelling skills.

She chose to read Literature and Art History, building walls around herself using fiction and imagination.

So when Raffaele told her to not sugarcoat it, she couldn't help but feel as if she were travelling back in time, to a time when her relationship with Raffaele pushed her to be more honest with her criticisms. She could still remember the first day she criticised his Charms homework. The memory made her chuckle, and she was immediately brought back to the present again. 'You're still as blunt as ever,' she said as she watched him move around the kitchen. 'It's nice to know some things are still the same. How's Addie doing, by the way? If I'm not mistaken, she should be in fourth or fifth year by now.'

Sabrina raised an eyebrow as Raffaele poured himself a sizeable amount of Firewhisky. As a model, she was used to drinking and partying all night, but she hadn't counted on Raffaele being the sort to drink that much Firewhisky. With a shrug, she picked up the glass. 'Sure, why not.' She raised her glass for a toast, maintaining eye contact with Raffaele. 'Santé.'

As Raffaele sat back, Sabrina tried to make herself more comfortable, though inwardly she began to feel self-conscious. It was so intimate, to be drinking Firewhisky with Raffaele while catching up with each other. She gulped more than she usually did, feeling the Firewhisky burn her throat immediately.

It was certainly the alcohol, and not the fact that he was single, that made her feel warm all over. She wanted to ask why, but decided against it—she was single herself, after all, and besides, what kind of woman asked her ex why he was single? So instead, she sat back and listened to Raffaele as he talked about himself and his friends, glad to know that they too were accomplished young men now. Karl, she never got to know very well since he had always been rather quiet, but Tom always tried to make her feel comfortable whenever she was with their group, and it made her smile to know that they were still best friends.

Not knowing how to respond to Raffaele being free for the rest of the week, Sabrina decided to just answer his question. She knew he was merely referring to her Veela powers, but the question made her wonder... Was he jealous? Did he think she was abusing her Veela powers?

Did he have any idea at all how, even now, she always struggled with the temptation to capitalise on her powers around him?

'I'm in the modelling industry,' she said with a light chuckle. 'I mean, yes we get straight guys there, but half the time I'm surrounded by men more fabulous than me.' She took another swig of Firewhisky before speaking again. 'Well, it was actually Alexander who suggested I get a job at Hogwarts. I met up with him in Paris last week, since he was visiting his sisters. Before that, though, I had no idea at all what he was doing... Kat, too, I never really kept in touch with either of them after Hogwarts.'

Nursing the glass in her hand, she looked down pensively on the alcohol. 'I've no idea where Kat is now, if she's even still in the UK. I've been so busy, juggling uni and my modelling career, that I never really got the time to keep in touch with anyone. But I'd like to change that. It'd be great to see Kat again, definitely.

I've actually been doing a lot of travelling, too. Modelling's like that. You go to New York for their fashion week, then Paris, then Milan. It's a lot of city-hopping, a lot of photoshoots in obscure places. It's not all glamour, too—for this one photoshoot in Dubai, I had to fight the urge to cast petrificus totalus on those black scorpions.' Laughing softly, she shook her head at the idea of being scared by a black scorpion. 'I'm sure you experience a lot more dangerous stuff than I do, though.'

Remembering her Firewhisky, she finished her glass and reached for the bottle to pour herself some more. 'So, I'm guessing Ma—Mrs. Cassan hasn't been bothering you about settling down and all that.' She averted her eyes upon realising that she had almost said 'Mamma Helena,' the name Mrs. Cassan had asked Sabrina to call her when she was still with Raffaele. Of course, she had no right to that nickname anymore.

She had no right to the anticipation she felt every time she asked him a question that could reveal where she stood now in his life.

Guest

"If I wasn't blunt, I'd be boring." Raffaele replied, smiling at that point - true or not, Raffaele would not wish to be boring, or predictable, and bluntness often came as a surprise to people. Even though, ninety percent of the time, Raffaele wasn't rude with his bluntness, it had the tendency to catch people off guard. "Hopefully you haven't fallen too firmly back in to sugarcoating things, or we're going to need words!" Adrian added, showing he still wanted her to be honest with him, even if it was going to cost him a lot.

"Addie is doing great. She's just finished her fourth year, and she got a summer job at The Leaky Cauldron, as a waitress, not behind the bar." He explained, though he doubted Sabrina needed the clarification on what the UK Law said. "So, she's got a big year ahead of her, her O.W.L.S... I'm worried about her, to be honest, she's more than capable, she just... doesn't like studying very much. And, of course, I want her to do well, but I want her to know that she is under no pressure to match me, or Giovanni. But, you know..." He gave a small shrug, moving away from the topic, because Sabrina probably didn't care enough for his full explanation of his little sister.

Raffaele was aware that Sabrina was watching him whilst he poured, though, he didn't openly acknowledge it. Was she judging him? Merlin only knew, and Raffaele didn't much care. It was only alcohol. "Salute." He responded in Italian raising his glass, before taking a sip and letting out a small sigh of relief. He loved a Firewhiskey after a long week, it helped loosen out all the stress in his body.

He watched her take a drink - larger than he'd seen her do before. Raffaele could remember the first time they'd gotten drunk, they'd been together, on a beach in the South of Italy watching the sun set. A bottle of Firewhiskey between them. They'd been sixteen and Sabrina in that moment had been so timid, so worried they'd get caught, and his parents go really mad. He remembered the timid sips she took, and the look of disgust on her features. The way Sabrina had told him it felt like it was burning her from the inside out.

The night had been beautiful, Raffaele remembered fondly, they'd been very happy, without a care in the world. And that night... that night he had told her how much he cared for her, how much he loved her and that he was glad they had spent the summer together, creating memories on an incalculable level.

But the Sabrina before him was not that girl anymore. She could handle her drink, even looked confident in doing so, and unlike anything that had come before, this was not going to end with him professing his love for her.

The information as to what Sabrina had been doing simply made Raffaele nod along. She had confused his brazen comment with the boys (they weren't really men...) that she worked instead of the mass appeal she had with others. But, that didn't really matter, and probably left them in a more amicable position. "Sounds like the move to Hogwarts will be a good decision then." Raffaele responded when she spoke of the scorpions. "Though, you'll have to put up with Addie, Felipe and, as of this year, Nico." Raffaele added, making a face at the idea. Addie wasn't bad, but... his younger brothers were probably a handful at best.

The near slip had not been missed by Raffaele, and he tucked the information away for later. Instead, he gave another casual shrug. "I don't think she understands that most women are not overly fond of the idea of me being away from home for weeks on end. Nor the fact I risk my life every single moment I am working. Not to mention, I simply don't have time to actively try to find someone that would be suitable. It was actually Giovanni that tried to push that more, signed me up for a dating site on my phone, but I only look at it when I get a message, and I have time."

The comment wasn't really supposed to make Sabrina jealous, it was just honesty. And whilst he might have exploited the app a couple of years ago, he had long since given up and uninstalled it from his phone.

Guest

Sabrina merely smiled at Raffaele's comment about her going back to sugarcoating words. A long time ago, she would've bantered with him, but now that they were practically strangers, she wasn't sure if she would be crossing any boundaries.

The way he talked about Addie showed how much he cared about his sister, and as much as Sabrina wanted to bring up memories of young Addie always having wounds from running around, she had to push them all away and focus on the now. 'I can help push her, in Charms class at least,' she said. She wanted to say, she wasn't surprised to know that Addie hated studying. That she could still remember how the young girl preferred to put her energy in playing and exploring, and that she knew Addie would do well due to her naturally curious nature. Instead, Sabrina merely left it at that, not wanting to seem like she was clinging too much to the past.

It had never really crossed her mind how, as a Hogwarts professor, she would be seeing Raffaele's siblings, the only children she had ever taken care of. Perhaps they were the only children she can actually take care of. But as teenagers living away from their parents in Hogwarts, they weren't really children anymore. Sabrina would know—during her last few years at Hogwarts, she slowly discovered what adulthood was like with Raffaele.

If those memories still crossed his mind, Sabrina wasn't sure. He was certainly doing a good job at being civil with her, especially since he had every right to pretend he didn't know her when they ran into each other. But of course, Raffaele wasn't that sort of person. She can still remember the last strip of paper she had put into the jar, and what she had written there.

'Today, you said you can never hate me.'

The ink had been smudged with her tears, but Sabrina didn't care. She had still put the paper in, then on the last Hogsmeade weekend, she buried the jar with Kat near the Shrieking Shack. She thought she could bury her feelings for Raffaele along with the jar. And perhaps, in a way, she did—as dust gathered over that bit of earth, as the seasons changed and years passed, the pain and the longing eventually faded. There were times in Paris when she wondered if she should send an owl, maybe ask him how he was, but she ignored the urge and focused instead on the new modelling jobs scheduled by her manager.

But perhaps, it was only easy to numb herself from the ache when Raffaele wasn't in front of her, leaning back on his chair instead of cuddling on a couch with her like they usually did before.

She put on a poker face as he talked about the dating app. Bloody dating apps. She had never tried them herself—as a model, her manager would have killed her, and besides, she wasn't remotely interested in getting ready for five hours just for a guy. Not when she had large fashion houses to walk for, and budding photographers to charm with her poses. It could get so tiring, to be required to look beautiful all the time.

With Raffaele, it was never just about her face.

He listened to her songs, to her poems, to the things that spoke to her heart. He gazed at the stars with her. Almost fell asleep on the sand holding her hand.

She wondered if it was all about pretty faces on dating apps for him now.

Sabrina took a large swig of Firewhisky, then poured herself some more again. 'I'm excited to meet your siblings again, now that they're much older. I'm sure they'd do well in my classes. Or at least, I'll make sure they do,' she chuckled. 'And well, has that dating app thing worked for you, then? Did you meet anyone particularly interesting?'

Guest

"Look out for all of them." Raffaele replied to Sabrina saying she would look after Addie in Charms class. He wanted all of his siblings to do their best in all of their classes, including Felipe, so any help they could get to thrive in their lessons was something Raffaele was not ashamed to ask for. "Just... don't tell them I asked you to." Raffaele added, because he knew that would not go down well, even if he was just trying to help them.

With the question on the dating app arising, Raffaele couldn't help but smile at the idea of something like that being useful. "If you want looks and absolutely no personality, it's perfect. I don't think Giovanni took in to consideration that looks are... kind of an after thought for me. I mean, you know, a beautiful woman is fantastic, but only if she had the personality to go with it. Otherwise you might as well just stick to being single." He explained, not using those comments as a dig at Sabrina for her stupid excuse for their break up.

It was simply Raffaele being honest.

But, whether or not Sabrina had realised that by now, Raffaele didn't know, and in all honesty, it no longer mattered whether Sabrina thought he had been serious about them. Their relationship had been over for much too long for them to find a way back.

As Sabrina took another glass, Raffaele drained his and did the same and took a sip from the fresh glass. "I remember a time when you used to pull the funniest of faces when you were drinking. I'm guessing your modelling career has hardened you to the effects of alcohol, huh?" He teased, not pushing too hard too quickly with his comments. This was nice, it was nice to see Sabrina so well, but it also hurt.

Pulling up memories he'd thought he'd forgotten.

Making new ones to mull over when she was gone.

Guest

Though Sabrina was anxious about how the younger Cassans would react to her now, she smiled at Raffaele and nodded. They were so young back then that she doubted they would remember her, but if they did, would they hate her for leaving Raffaele? Or perhaps see her as one of those girls Raffaele brought home to meet the parents? Either way, she wanted to help them, since she knew it would make Raffaele happy to see them succeed.

Raffaele finding the dating app to be a waste of time made her laugh, though there was a small comment that made her question if Raffaele had just insulted her. Certainly he didn't think she lacked personality—or did he? She wasn't just another pretty face, as far as she was concerned. She and Kat, who were both popular back in Hogwarts for their looks and charm, made sure that they excelled at what they liked. It was a point of pride for her, how she did her best to be remembered not as a part-Veela but as a witch who was incredibly brilliant and versatile.

It wasn't like Raffaele to dig subtly. If he disliked someone, he was blunt and straightforward, not fake. Not like the modelling world she had temporarily left behind. But many years have passed since she last saw him, and people change. Perhaps, Raffaele was the sort to fake friendliness now. Perhaps he did end up hating her after all.

It hurt more than it should have.

She fought back the urge to be overly sensitive about it by excusing herself and saying she needed to be somewhere else. What the point was of staying, Sabrina didn't know, but what she did know was that she was not about to let Raffaele win this one. If he wanted a verbal ping pong match, she would give it to him.

'On that, I agree with you,' she said with a sweet smile. 'Relationships are pointless when it's just about... you know, all those superficial things. Like looks. Or having a trophy partner. Or sex.' Memories of the times they had spent at the Prefects' Bathroom popped up in her head, and she remembered overhearing some Slytherin lads make bets about her virginity. If Raffaele Cassan, Gryffindor prefect and Quidditch Captain had scored.

Taking a small, slow sip from her glass this time, she leaned forward a little, enough so that there was a hint of what was underneath her dress, yet not low enough so that there was still room left for Raffaele's imagination. Smiling innocently at him, she leaned back against her chair again and stretched her long legs a bit before crossing them. She was the most proud of her legs—they were smooth, and toned, and they had landed her a lot of her modelling jobs.

'My modelling career has hardened me to a lot of things,' she said with a smile, although there was an edge to her voice. She wondered if he would catch the change in the way she talked now—the Sabrina he knew from Hogwarts might have giggled and blushed, and though her skin was still annoyingly prone to betraying how she felt, she had managed to control her reactions to most things. It was the only way she could have survived the modelling world.

So how come right in this moment, despite every calculating move she made, she only felt out of control?

'And what about you? It seems you've taken a liking to Firewhisky,' she said, looking pointedly at the bottle they were quickly draining. 'So, what else is new about you? Any new hobbies? Interests?' She drawled out the word interests, keeping eye contact while maintaining a neutral expression.

She dared him to look her in the eye, to hold her gaze and show her what he really felt now. Why he even bothered to invite her in his flat.

Guest

The start of the ping pong made Raffaele smile to himself - yes, she'd picked up on his meaning. Whilst he hadn't wanted to go there, he had done so. Veering away from his bluntness momentarily. "I'm glad we're agreed on that much, then, now at least." Raffaele replied to Sabrina, actually meaning those words this time. He said them lightly though, not maliciously.

Like he had told Sabrina when they had broken up, he could never hate her.

But that didn't mean he was going to let her get away with the stupid reason she had given him when they had broken up. No, if they were going to be friends, there would be banter around it, that much Raffaele would insist upon. To make it easier to deal with.

Raffaele couldn't help himself, though, a moment later when Sabrina moved, presenting him with the smallest glimpse of her chest. Not quite cleavage, no, but enough to peak his interest. Sabrina was a woman now, and Raffaele could remember how perfect she'd been just short of ten years ago. Now, fully developed in every way...

Raffaele snapped himself from those thoughts, his eyes returning to the amber liquid in his glass as he finished off the second glass and busied himself with making another. Getting drunk was probably not a good idea, but by Merlin's soggy socks he was not going through this sober if Sabrina was going to flaunt herself at him in such a manner.

The comment of being hardened to a lot of things made Raffaele nod. He could see that. No longer was Sabrina as innocent as she had been in school, nor as shy. People changed, and Raffaele understood that completely. There was nothing wrong with this version of Sabrina, either, she was simply much more grown up than she had been last time they had seen each other. For better or worse, only time would tell.

"Oh, Firewhiskey is just my go to at the end of the week. One or two, to relax, you know? No big deal." Raffaele replied. And, for the most part that was true. He only went through more than that when he was feeling completely shitty. Like when Tom had announced his engagement to one of the most beautiful and talented witches Raffaele had ever met. His single life had gotten to him at that point, and Firewhiskey had been good to numb the pain.

"You can see everything you need to know about me here, there's not much that is new. I don't have time for new. If my work wasn't so extravagantly dangerous I might even have said I'd become boring with age. Mama says I work too hard, and don't 'play' enough - I think she got that bit fro Giovanni - but... like I keep telling her, what's the point in coming home to nothing?" He asked, his eyes meeting with Sabrina's in that moment.

Sabrina would be able to see that he was, in a way, still hurting over their break up. There had been other girls, to fill an evening or two, but he'd not connected with anyone romantically like he had with Sabrina. Maybe it was because she was his first love, maybe he hadn't really let go, perhaps it was just him being too scared to allow himself to be like that with someone again.

"Why did you really break up with me, Sabrina? Did you really believe it was only your Veela beauty that kept me with you?" Raffaele asked, his eyes not faltering from hers in that moment. He needed to know, and it was definitely the alcohol that was allowing him to be so stupid - even if he'd only had two, there was the rest of the bottle to drown his sorrows with if she didn't wish to answer.

Guest

A small but smug smile played on Sabrina's lips as she watched Raffaele down his glass of Firewhisky and pour himself another one. She was glad she had chosen to wear a slightly low-cut cream chiffon summer dress, and that she had tied her hair up to show off her long, graceful neck and slightly tanned shoulders.

Having a glass or two to relax at the end of the week was understandable, but the way Raffaele quickly downed his glass after looking at her made Sabrina wonder if relaxing was really what was on his mind. She decided not to make it worse for him for now—as he talked about being unable to do something new lately, she listened quietly, unable to stop herself from feeling genuinely interested in knowing how his world was like now.

That was when he caught her off-guard. Holding her gaze, he asked her the question she had always avoided thinking about for the longest time. She wanted to look away, to break the moment, but found that she couldn't—his blue eyes were boring into hers, looking right into her soul. She could tell him lies, but her eyes could never cooperate. Not when he was staring at her like that.

Her grip on the glass tightened. She swallowed as she fought the urge to down all of the liquid in it.

They were supposed to open their graduation party with a dance. It could've been the happy ending to their Hogwarts years, and a new beginning for the rest of their lives. During their rehearsals, they had often gotten distracted, kissing and holding each other tight instead of swaying to the beat.

On the night of their final rehearsals, Sabrina asked Raffaele if he could come to the Astronomy tower with him. He had chuckled at the idea, even asking out loud if Sabrina was getting more 'aggressive', only to see the serious look on Sabrina's face. Underneath the stars, Sabrina talked about how she didn't think it would work, how he was only attracted to her because she was a Veela. In a few years, he would become desensitized to her charms, get bored and leave her.

That was what she had said then. Now, with the Firewhisky making her feel warm and Raffaele looking her in the eyes, the words she had used wouldn't come back.

'Raffaele, let's not—' she caught herself and took a deep breath. It wasn't fair, to not be honest with Raffaele when it happened so long ago. She could at least give him the truth now, if it would help things between them. That much he deserved to know. Seeing the glass she had forgotten she was holding, she finished off its contents and took the bottle to pour herself some more.

'You're going to think this is stupid,' Sabrina continued, her smile small and sad as looked back at Raffaele. Avoiding eye contact was a bad habit she had in Hogwarts, and she couldn't go back to that habit now. 'I was scared. Scared that I wasn't good enough. That I was getting really attached to you, even thinking of a future with you...' She shook her head as she remembered how she used to write 'Sabrina Cassan' on her journal, trying out different ways of writing it and liking how it fit. 'I knew it would break my heart, if you said you didn't want me anymore. If you... if you fell out of love with me. So I did that, hoping I'd become more detached and independent.

It's really stupid, I know, and if you did end up hating me... if you still do, I deserve it.' Looking away from Raffaele, she blinked back the tears threatening to form in her eyes. 'I'm sorry.'

Guest

The idea of not doing this conversation now was not an option to Raffaele, and whether it was the very serious look on his features, or whether Sabrina changed her mind when she cut off, he didn't know. All he knew was that if she didn't tell him the truth, now after all of these years, then they would never be able to move forward. Whether moving forward was as friends, or simply acquaintances, didn't matter, so long as he knew the truth.

Though, listening to the explanation didn't really make much sense, Raffaele didn't interrupt. His features turned in to a light frown as he waited. The logic was so backwards that he simply couldn't fathom why Sabrina had thought like this. Had he given her a reason to think that he was swaying from his feelings for her? Because... he had only fallen more deeply in love with her in their final year, he'd wanted nothing but her.

Even his parents knew as much with everything they had planned over the summer, a surprise for Sabrina as a graduation present.

No, it didn't make any sense.

As Sabrina's eyes fell away from his, Raffaele remained silent for a moment, just waiting. For something more. But when nothing else came, he downed his next glass of Firewhiskey and put his glass down on the table. Moving over the sofa a bit to be closer to her. He'd seen Sabrina cry, and perhaps that was one thing that hadn't changed. The body posture just before tears were about to fall made him react to her in a way his teenage self would of.

Putting his hand gently on her knee - in a platonic manner - Raffele gave it a gentle shake. "Hey, no crying, yeah?" He told her, his tone playful to try to get her from crying. "Though, you're right, that is the stupidest reason I've ever heard for someone to break up with someone." He added, again his tone was light, even if he did mean the words.

"Did I... Had I done something to make you think I didn't love you?" Raffaele asked, concern on his features that had no right to be there in a man who had moved on. Was over this break up. But, even if his head wanted to believe it was over with Sabrina, his heart was still fond of her, perhaps not love because she had hurt him, but fondness bordering on stronger feelings.

Guest

Sabrina hated how easily tears came to her. Back when she was a Prefect, she often cried secretly whenever some of the troublemaker Slytherin girls wouldn't listen to her, and it was in fact during one of those moments that she got to know Raffaele Cassan.

She already had a crush on him then—he was nice, good looking, and brilliant. In their classes, she was competitive with him, and their interactions during prefect meetings consisted of light banter she never exchanged with anyone else. However, the friendship only truly began when he walked into her crying in the Charms classroom, berating herself for not being more stern and confident.

And now here she was, on the verge of tears as Raffaele playfully told her not to cry. It had been effective back in Hogwarts, and she was surprised to know that it was still effective, that it still managed to make her smile. Wiping her eyes dry, she looked up at Raffaele with sparkling eyes and laughed softly. 'I'm okay,' she said. 'I know, I know. I'm still a crybaby. But at least I'm now a prettier and more confident crybaby, right?'

With Raffaele much closer to her, Sabrina felt her heart beat faster, and yet there was a sense of comfort to their proximity. She pondered over his question, trying to think if there was indeed a time when it seemed as if he would fall out of love with her. 'No,' she shook her head eventually, 'No, you didn't really do anything. I was being stupid.

'You see, I'm... You know about my father.' Her father had come up once, during a conversation they had in the Astronomy tower late at night. It was her mother's birthday, and Sabrina was feeling sad for not being there to celebrate it with her. Without Sabrina in their small flat, Marianne Caro had to celebrate her birthday alone. When Raffaele asked where her father was, Sabrina proceeded to talk about how she never met him, since he was betrothed by his grandparents to another pureblood woman back in Korea.

'He could've fought for her, if he really did love her,' she said softly before taking a sip from her glass. 'Maman raised me on her own, because he abandoned her. And I always thought, what if you abandoned me too? Maman never talked about it, but I knew she could never love the same way again. I saw it in the way she talked about him.'

She reached for Raffaele's hand, squeezing it as she looked him in the eyes. 'So no, it wasn't you. You didn't do anything wrong. You were perfect, and you had no idea how much I questioned my decision when I was alone in Paris.'

Letting go of his hand, she sighed and finished her glass. 'I'm not trying to justify myself. I know it was stupid. But I think I did need to learn to be alone, to become more confident on my own. I thought maybe, someday I'd be deserving of you.' She shook her head and chuckled, though there was little mirth in it. 'Did you ever hate me?'

Guest

"More confident, maybe." Raffaele teased her with the light correction. His smile and his would show that he was only teasing her about not being prettier. There was no denying that Sabrina was one of the more beautiful women in the world, he would be a liar to say she hadn't grown more beautiful since they'd dated. But his comment was meant only in jest and he hoped that Sabrina would know that.

Raffaele gave only a small nod when she asked if he remembered about her father. Her home life. Of course he remembered, he remembered everything about her. Everything they had shared together, he remembered all of it, even if it caused him pain to do so. "I wish I would have realised..." Raffaele told her in nothing more than a whisper when she took his hand. The physical contact was relaxing in a time he'd never felt more angry. With himself, only himself, and the fact he'd let her go all those years ago.

It wasn't as if he hadn't argued against their break up, because he had told her a hundred times in the astronomy tower that he loved her. That it was not some stupid infatuation born from her Veela charm. He had told her that he loved her for so much more than her beauty, but even though he'd told her with all the passion in the world, Sabrina had turned him away.

And he had gone without pushing her for more reasoning.

His mistake. A mistake Raffaele would have to live with for as long as he lived.

"You're stupid. The cleverest stupid person I know." Raffaele told her as she apologised again. Explained how she'd found herself. And how she had hoped she would be deserving of him.

Intoxication pushed Raffaele forwards, closing the gap between them. Intoxication in more than one manner. Sabrina was beautiful, captivating, leaving him wanting more, as she always had. Her Veela Charm only aided that, though when she was using it, Raffaele would never know. The intoxication of memories long since buried, highlighting their intimate moments in his mind, replaying his favourite memories of their relationship. And then there was the intoxication of alcohol that would always be a man's downfall.

But before he could seal the distance, Sabrina spoke again.

'Did you ever hate me?'

"I tried." Raffaele replied honestly, though his voice was thick with emotion. "I tried to hate you, because at least then, breaking up wouldn't have mattered... wouldn't have hurt. But... I told you I could never hate you, and I'm not a liar, Sabrina."

The words filled the space for a moment, and from Sabrina's eyes, Raffaele's moved to her lips - leaving little doubt in what he wanted in that moment - back up to her eyes. Raffaele could almost be labelled vulnerable in that moment, his eyes softening as if they were back in school, tucked up in one another's arms in the Astronomy Tower, telling each other about their fondest memories, or how much they meant to one another, or their plans for the future.

And, if you looked probably, like Sabrina only could, you would have seen that, really, his feelings for her might have been buried for a number of years, but they had not changed...

» Raffaele Cassan
» the incompatibility of secrets and younger sisters // raffaele cassan
» The Persistence of Memory (Brooke)
» Birthday Trip (Open)
» Adelaide Cassan