Astronomy Tower
There was something magical in the stars… Obviously there was something magical in most of the things at Hogwarts, thought Nami, but the stars had that kind of unknown magic…
In Astronomy class they would study them, of course, and draw maps (she loved them), but when she stared at them she could see so much more.
The Astronomy Tower was one of her favorite places at the school. Not only was it the perfect place to see the stars, also it was the perfect place to think when no one was in there.
Some nights she slipped away from her room in the deepest part of the school and went to the top of the tower, where she would enjoy some hot chocolate under the stars.
It was one of those nights in her third year when she found out that she wasn’t alone. A quiet snore could be heard in the darkness.
Scared to be caught out of bed, she approached the sound quietly and found a certain green haired teen sleeping on the floor surrounded by unfinished charts.
“Zoro”, she said with a low voice. When he didn’t move, she touched him. Opening his eyes lazily he grunted something.
“Wake up, lazy ass”, Nami said more firmly.
“What do you want?”, he said.
“You fell asleep in the middle of the Astronomy Tower”.
“I know”, he replied calmly.
“What were you doing?”, she asked, looking at the papers.
“Homework. But they look all the same”, answered the boy.
Of course he would say that… With his poor sense of direction, he could spend hours staring at those small points in the sky and still don’t know how to put them in the map.
“Let me see them”, she said while taking the papers. Carefully, she completed and corrected the charts. Zoro pretended to be asleep, but he stared at the girl through his eyelashes and admired her face of concentration. She really changed when she liked something.
After some time, Nami handed the parchments to Zoro.
“There”.
“Thank you”, said Zoro.
“And I will only charge you a few galleons for it”, said Nami happily.
“What?!! Don’t you do anything for free, woman?”, said Zoro while he got up quickly.
“Hehe”, laughed Nami. “Of course not. But don’t worry, you can pay me later… Now sit down, I’ll try to explain to you the difference between the stars”.
“So you can charge me more?”, asked Zoro, frowning.
“Hahaha. Come on! Sit down”, said Nami, grabbing his arm and pushing him down. Zoro laid facing the sky and Nami joined him. Zoro could feel her arm touching his arm, and her head was practically on his shoulder.
Nami started pointing at some stars and explaining their names, evolution and many other things Zoro forgot the second after. From time to time, he would stare at Nami instead. He could see the stars reflected on her eyes, and the smile on her face was sincere, something that (unfortunately, thought Zoro) was rare to see. When he realized he had been looking at her for too long, he tried to focus on the stars again. At one point Nami stopped talking and just put her head on his shoulder. Zoro had to refrain his impulse to put his head on hers.
“I’d love to be able to visit every star and draw it”, said Nami. Zoro looked at her. There was that sad expression again.
“I’m sure Luffy would love to do that trip”, said the boy, trying to cheer her up.
“And you?”, said Nami looking at him.
He didn’t care about the stars, but when she looked at her he thought he wouldn’t mind traveling to each one of them.
“Why not?”, he said. “Sure I can duel many things there”.
Nami smiled and looked at the sky again. Definitely, there was something magical in the stars.