Christmas time grew nearer with every snowflake that fell over Hogwarts. A young woman with hair in such a bright red it made the Weasley's look like blonds sat with her knees pulled up to her chest. Her big, green eyes were half lidded as she gazed across the lightly frozen lake at a group of friends. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were again sitting all together, laughing, having fun. They always were…the group of them, having fun and sitting all together, inseparable and impermeable. How she longed to intrude upon the band and include herself so she could get closer to them…more specifically, closer to him. The boy she had been looking at specifically this whole time…
"Fantasia!" A voice called from behind her. She decided not to look back, knowing very well that it was her dear friend, Celia, coming to join her and yet again. "So, are you looking at Harry again?" Celia prodded. Fantasia gave out a long, exasperated sigh again. "It's not him." She said simply, as she always did.
"Right." Celia mused, not believing her.
"It's not him." Fantasia said again.
"Come on, Fanta! You're always looking at him. Just admit it and get on with it." Celia demanded, crossing her arms.
"Merlin's beard, Celia! It is not Harry that I'm looking at!" She said, finally standing and staring her friend in the eyes. Though she was shorter than Celia, she still looked rather fierce. Celia took a step back, surprised by the sudden attack. Fantasia took a breath and stood up, unclenching her fists which had earlier been held so tightly her knuckles turned white under her striped gloves. "I'm not looking at Harry, okay? I'm not into the whole 'chosen one' thing." She said, calming down.
Celia looked shocked as she said, "So…why are you looking over at them all the time?"
"It's…" Fanta said, trying to come up with some quick excuse, "It's nothing really. I'm just…" She let out a long sigh and fell to the ground again, holding her knees. "Never mind." She finally decided on as she again went to her ritual of gazing on the trio. Celia sat down, looking between her friend and the group. Something then clicked. "Wait a minute." Celia said, eyes wide as she realized. "Wait one bloody minute! You're not looking at Harry, then you must be looking at Ron!" She said, excited.
Fantasia froze up then pushed her friend over angrily, "Say it a little louder why don't you!?" She exclaimed rather pissed. "I don't think the people in Austria heard you!" Celia laughed, "Come on. They didn't hear." She said as she sat up out of the cold snow. "It's not a big deal anyway. You're known for being brave and impulsive, right? So why don't you go tell him."
Fanta gave a long sigh, "It's not that easy." She said shaking her head and lying back in the snow. "I mean, he's always fawning over Hermione so he wouldn't even glace at me. I mean, sure I'm brave and impulsive but I just don't want to try for something I'll never get…then again, I guess it's like that with Quidditch too…" She shook her head. "Am I a complete failure, Celia?" She asked truthfully.
Celia shook her head. "No, Fanta. You're not a failure." She said. Fanta sighed, rolled over and stood up. "I'm going to head inside. You're probably off to the Slytherin common room to talk with Draco, so I'll see you later." She said as she quickly went off before Celia could respond.
Fantasia made it into the Gryffindor common room and pulled off her sweater, scarf, gloves, and hat. She ruffled her hair and went over to the fire to warm up. "Damn it…I'm an idiot. I can't believe what I've been kidding myself with. Then again…maybe I'm not being that stupid. I mean, even Celia's got a thing with that boy, maybe I have a chance." She paused, shook her head, and stared blankly at the fire. "Ow!" She exclaimed, shooting up as she pulled her finger, which had landed on a warm ember, to her mouth. "Bloody Hell!" She shouted as she put her finger in her mouth to help with the burn.
"You alright?" A very familiar boy's voice asked her. She turned on her heel quickly, pulling her finger out of her mouth as she turned to look at the neck and orange-red hair of Ronald Weasley, who had apparently entered the common room and was the first of the trio to speak to her. Her olive green eyes drifted up to meet the freckled face and bright blue eyes of the young man she had just been thinking about. "Erm…" She started, taking a step back, "Yeah. I'm fine. Just fine." She said, as she pushed through the group and made her way to a table. She glanced over her shoulders and saw the group of them sitting in their normal chairs. Fanta let out a long sigh before she took a seat where she could still see the fire and the three of them. She put her finger back in her mouth and rested her head on the table, watching the fire quietly. Soon, without noticing, she drifted to sleep.
"Fantasia?" She was startled by the sound of her own name. She blinked heavily, eyes still a little blurry. Suddenly she realized that she had fallen asleep on the table. "Huh…?" She muttered, sleepily as she pulled her finger from her mouth and wiped the bit of saliva that had crept out of her mouth during her sleep. "You fell asleep on the table." Fanta yawned and said, "Yeah…I kind of figured that out." She said looking up to meet Ron's gorgeous blue eyes. A bright red blush flooded her face as she pushed herself back, though it ended up she pushed too hard and tipped the her chair over. It landed with a thud against the floor and she felt her head contact the back of the chair, hard. "Bloody hell…" She muttered as, instinctively, she tucked her head down and both her hands flew up and tightened on the place her head had hit.
"Blimey," Ron said, and she knew that he had come over to see her, "You seem to be having a rather rough day." Fanta lifted her head shyly and yet again saw him. "Here." He said offering a hand to help her out of the upturned chair. She gingerly placed her hand in his and he took a rougher grasp of hers. His extraordinary height and impressive strength made it easy for him to lift her onto her feet. Fanta stood, closer to Ron than she had ever been before and all because of an accident. Everything seemed to pause, her heart fluttered, her breath stopped but it was over sooner than anything. Ron had released her hand and was already picking up the chair. Fanta let out a long breath and said, "Thanks for the help," before starting off to the stairs of the Girl's Dorm. "Right. No problem, 'Tasia." She heard Ron call from the common room.
'Tasia; she had always loved how he would call her that in those rare moments they did talk. Everyone else called her Fanta or Fantasia, but he had a special nickname for her…or at least that's what she liked to pretend every-so-often. She knew very well that it was just like how he called Hermione "'Mione." And it was likely that it wasn't even like that. He probably was more affectionate when he said 'Mione. Fanta had gone into the room and flopped on her bed, a soft "pouf" noise coming from it as she landed. "I'm a bloody fool…" She said quietly to herself as she closed her eyes and eventually drifted to sleep.
The morning came too quickly. Before even the first light of the morning spread across the windows, Fantasia was up. She dressed in her school robes and stared out the window this early morning. It was not long before she became bored of just sitting and staring. She ended up going down into the empty common room where the embers of last night's fire were still crackling slightly. "'Tasia." She heard from behind her and she turned on her heel, hopeful to see that red-haired boy on the stairs. He, of course, wasn't there. It was too early for him to wake up. She let out an annoyed huff and kicked the chair nearby. It made a scratchy noise as it was scooted away. "Bloody…" Fanta said, grabbing her foot, but it faded off into a quite hiss of "Shit."
After recuperating from kicking the chair, she flopped herself down into the chair and looked at the high ceiling in the common room. Her thoughts drifted into daydreams of a romantic relationship that would never be. They were walking along the bank of the lake, hand in hand, not speaking because they had just gotten over with an argument that was about nothing important. They tended to argue a lot because he was boisterous and sarcastic while she was hot tempered and quick to speak. The sun started setting over the trees and they stopped to look at it, smiling softly and casting sideways glances at one another. "'Tasia." He said turning to face her. "'Tasia, are you alright?" That didn't make sense for a romantic daydream.
She was suddenly pulled her from the daydream and back to reality as she realized that it was the real Ron, Hermione, and Harry who stood near the chair, looking at her curiously. "Erm…" Fanta looked between the three of them and quickly flung her legs over the arm of the chair so she was sitting up straight again. "Yeah, I'm okay. Sorry." She said quickly before looking at the clock and deciding that it would be a fine time to use breakfast as an excuse to leave the trio. "Hm…It's just about time to get heading down to breakfast. I suppose I'll see you guys." She said, hoping to escape.
"We were heading that way right now." Harry said with a smile, "Why don't you join us?"
There it was. What she had been waiting for…a reason to penetrate the group and get closer to the boy she adored; a justification to walk with them or sit with them and just be close to them.
"You guys wouldn't mind?" Fanta asked, trying to recollect herself after the shot of glee.
"Not at all. We'd love to have you come with us." Hermione said with a smile. "Your best friend's in a different house anyway, right? Maybe it'd be nice if you could talk to someone you could see more often."
This was right, Celia was in Ravenclaw…and maybe if she got in with Hermione she might be able to force herself between them. But that would be mean. "Yeah. I'd really like that. Thanks, guys." Fanta said with a bright smile.
"No problem, 'Tasia." Ron said, making Fanta's heart flutter with delight. The sound of his voice even made her happy. "Let's go." Harry said and the four, not three but four, of them made their way to the portrait hole.
They climbed through and walked through the halls, chatting back and fourth about homework or teachers. Fanta was happy to be talking with all of them, but she couldn't help but wonder if she would actually be in their group. Would she actually get to stay with them? Was this just a one time thing? Could she actually get close to this group and stay with them?
Her doubts were brushed away as they sat at the table. She sat next to Hermione and they talked happily.
"You know, it's so great to talk to another girl. I mean, I'm always with Ron and Harry so I don't talk to other girls as much."
"I know what you mean. I have two brothers and my mom's always away so I'm always surrounded by guys."
"Maybe you would like to come with me to the library this afternoon? I needed to look into some things for the potions essay due tomorrow and I don't want to have to try and force Ron or Harry to come with me."
"Sure, Hermione, I'll come along. I needed to check something about fairies for Care of Magical Creatures anyway."
Harry smiled, "It's good to hear someone excited about going with Hermione." Ron nodded, agreeing but unable to speak as his mouth was almost overly filled with food. Fanta's eyes drifted over to the young man who was stuffing his face with some sort of muffin. She wanted to watch him, like she always loved to, but she knew it would be obvious if she was now. She let her eyes drift back to her food, though wanting to glance up at him again. Soon Fanta noticed she had hardly touched her food, but found that she wasn't even hungry.
"Um, I think I'm going to head off so I can get my stuff for class." Fanta said with a smile as she started off before anyone could object. As she quickly walked off, Hermione gave her a strange look. "I wonder what that was about." She said as she returned her gaze to Harry and Ron. "She said she just wanted to get her stuff." Harry said simply. Hermione gave a long, exasperated sigh. "Oh, boys…" She said shaking her head.