It had been two weeks since Potter’s last visit. Flora was becoming more and more distressed because she missed talking to him terribly. It was not that her husband or her friends did not fulfill that role well enough, but it was different talking to Harry. There was a kind of empathy between them.

Flora began to notice that some people in Hogsmeade treated her differently, some even with contempt. Others seemed to want to challenge her all the time, as if to test her to see what she was capable of doing. When she noticed that, she spared herself and ignored them. But those people were held in certain contempt by her as the belief that they-had-nothing-better-to-do grew inside her.

She wrote to Harry asking him to come and talk to her as soon as possible.

That evening, Flora was at Hogwarts, at the astronomy tower studying the places of stars and constellations (she’d asked astronomy professor for some tips). When she was tired of looking at the sky, she climbed the small wall built around the tower.

Right then, Harry arrived. He misinterpreted the scene, and instead thought that she was going to jump. Scared, he almost fainted; then he tried to call her attention without scaring her.

Without going down, she told him:

“I’ve found out something new, don’t worry, I’m not going to fall down. Look!”

And she immediately began to float towards him. His memory struck him, then. He had never seen another wizard doing that but Voldemort. Nevertheless, she came smiling, which was even more disarming than an Expelliarmus.
Happy with her achievement, she hugged and kissed him on the cheek:

“Thank you for coming. I didn’t expect that you would meet me so early. How did you find me here?”

“Hannah told me you were coming here to watch the stars…What's that? You got me scared... I thought you were going to jump… and… fall down!”

And then a gust of wind flipped her hair; her bright green cloak lightly shined and highlighted the blue of her eyes. Harry let out an exclamation:

“How beautiful you are!”

Flora got closer to him and spoke softly:

“Harry, we're both old enough to know that my appearance is the least important thing to me. I've been younger, fatter, thinner, had shorter, longer, smoother hair, and it has been painted in many different colors. My appearance is constantly changing. And I celebrate each strand of white hair, every wrinkle that appears on my face, every freckle that comes out on my white skin... I celebrate them because they’re full of history, just as this castle walls. It is not my appearance that should matter to you, but my essence.”

Flora took a deep breath and continued:

“Although, I can use my Muggle name with pride - Gressler Ferreira instead of Riddle, don’t play the fool: I can talk to snakes. Then, rather than a Riddle, I'm a Slytherin. So, I need you. I want you always by my side...”

“Yes.”

And then Harry hugged her, looking deeply into her eyes and kissed her on the mouth. The warmth of his lips made her shudder. She pushed him away a little. She needed to talk. Caressing his face gently, her eyes deeply immersed him, Flora whispered softly:

“As I was saying, it’s not this way I need you by my side, no matter how much I want you. I'm a Slytherin, there are some things in me that you can’t even begin to imagine. The load of this surname... The arrogance and the need for power, no matter how loathsome they are; all these scream inside me. I fight every moment, every day against them, trying to suppress them to the bottom of my soul.”

Flora took his hands in hers, and looking deeply in his eyes, she continued:

“I want you by my side because there’s something Felipe will never be able to do for me. I want you by my side so that one day if I falter and end up succumbing to the pressures of my family blood, I want you to be there to make sure I’ll have the same end as my father.”

She saw something incomprehensible in his eyes just before he looked down; then, he took a deep breath and said:

“All right.”

With some owls, wind and stars to witness that moment and without knowing why, Flora closed her eyes and surrendered in to the kiss of her life.