Author's Note:

HOLA! My next piece. After the last two competitions almost made me have a heart attack. I didn't want to enter any more competitions. But... here I am still entering :) and I think I might be addicted to the internet. -_- Sighhhh! School's starting soon :/

Anyway, this was a random idea I had while I was desperately wondering how to fulfill the requirements of the competition. And! I love this idea. This concept. I might expand on this later on. :D

Anyway, hope you guys like this. Tell me what you think.

A.K.

Magicka

"We sometimes encounter people, even perfect strangers, who begin to interest us at first sight, somehow suddenly, all at once, before a word has been spoken." - Fyodor Dostoyevski

Magicka was a small diner. A diner I would never have entered. I would never have noticed. But my girlfriend, Pansy Parkinson noticed. And this story is about this weird place, where I met weird people, who somehow taught me to admit my feelings and put a ring on Pansy's finger. This is the story of Magicka.

This happened three years back. Pansy had somehow made a friend. A friend she liked. I was surprised. Pansy never makes friends. She makes enemies and acquaintances, not friends. And so, obviously, I was curious about this mysterious person who Pansy had befriended. I wanted to meet this person. But she kept refusing my requests. Till that day. 3 March 2002. She agreed to bring me to see this friend of hers. However, the condition was that I should not upset her, no matter what. I agreed, eager to meet this friend.

We apparated to this dirty alley. I didn't complain, much. We walked side by side out of the alley and into the streets. The streets were just as bad as the alleys. This must be the poorer part of town. "Please tell me you are not serious," I told Pansy in shock, once I noticed we were in the muggle world. "This place is filthy." This couldn't be the place she met her friend. Muggle world aside, this place was in shambles. Pansy pursed her lips and started walking briskly towards something. Before I knew it, we were standing in front of a shop.

The door had luminous green writing on it. It said Magicka. Pansy pushed the door open and we entered the gray building. The first thing I saw was a counter. A blonde girl stood behind the counter, polishing the counter-top She looked up when we entered and shot Pansy a smile. I ignored her in favour of scoping out the store. On my right, was a wall decorated with posters. Strange posters. The people in the pictures didn't move. I looked to my left and saw four tables. That was all. Four tables only. At the right hand corner table, a bundled up figure sat, reading a book. I looked to Pansy for direction, feeling out of my depth.

Pansy led me to the table diagonal to the lone reader. We had barely sat when the blonde appeared. "Hi Pansy," "Hi Luna! Can I have two of my usual tea, and two of the cake specials." Pansy didn't introduce me and the blonde didn't ask. I ignored them both in favour of staring at the other patron. He or she was so bundled up I could not even tell the gender. Scarves covered half the face, while a hood covered the head. Coats and gloves. Every visible part was covered. I was intrigued. I had never seen someone cover up this much, especially inside a building.

"Blaise," Pansy touched my hand. "He will be here soon. And then we can talk to her," she said while looking out the stained window. "What is going on Pansy?" I asked in a firm voice, needing a complete answer. "You know, the girl who served us? That's Luna Lovegood." Oh. That was why she looked vaguely familiar. "The girl at the corner, reading her book is Hermione Granger. The friend I was talking about." She paused. And I loudly hissed, "Are you out of your mind Pansy?! You know what they say about her!" I was frustrated and worried. Granger was said to have gone crazy while she was in St. Mungo's. She went berserk, and escaped. and nobody has heard of her since. "Pansy! You could have gotten hurt!" I explained to my naive girlfriend.

Before she could reply, the door opened. "Hey Luna," a deep voice said. I turned to see a dark haired man. With a scar. Harry Potter. Just my luck. Seemed like a reunion was imminent. He looked in our direction and nodded before heading in to sit beside the bundl-Hermione Granger. All of a sudden, Pansy was rising and saying, "Harry is here. Hermione will meet us now. So come on, let's go," I looked at her in shock as she moved towards Potter and Granger's table. I quickly got up to follow her. Granger could hurt us. She was mentally unstable, and Pansy wanted to share a table with her?

We seated ourselves in front of them and I noticed Potter help Granger out of the coat and scarves. Pansy sat near the wall, and faced Granger, while I was beside her, opposite Potter. Oh, what has the world come to? I wondered what to say. Years of mingling with pure blood society, knowing when to say what, and yet, I couldn't muster a single word up for my ex-classmates. As I was thinking, Lovegood arrived. "Pansy, your tea." She said placing a cup in front of Pansy and me. "Harry, your coffee, and Hermione, your juice." Lovegood said as she placed their drinks down. "I will be back with your cakes." I held Pansy's hands under the table, and bumped her knees periodically to hear her muffled giggles. I don't think Potter or Granger noticed us. Hopefully they didn't.

Granger broke the silence, keeping her gaze on the book. "The streets will be clean, the trash removed. The world will be reborn." I stared at her stumped. Her cryptic words were said very softly. I looked at my companions. Pansy just drank her tea, one eye on Granger. Potter had a hand near her arm, slightly touching. "They are going to demolish this place soon. There are talks of building a park here." Potter said quietly, slowly taking Granger's hand in his. Oh. So she wasn't spouting nonsense. That's good to know. "Hermione," Pansy began, "I told you that I wanted you to meet someone special right? Well, this is Blaise. My boyfriend. What do you think?" Pansy looked keenly at Granger, but the brunette barely acknowledged her. I felt slighted on Pansy's behalf and was going to say so when, "Not good. More me, less you." She whispered. Did she just say I wasn't good? Wasn't good at what? I was about to start a argument when I saw Pansy's crushed look. Pansy valued Granger and this was how Granger treated her?

"Calm down Blaise," Potter said calmly. "Hermione just meant that you were looking more at her than at Pansy. Were you?" He directed the last part at me. I almost started stammering. How did Potter know I had been staring at Granger earlier? But before I could ask, Pansy began talking. "Why Blaise? I love you, yet you go around ogling other girls." Pansy was about to cry. I had to do some quick damage control. "I was just curious about Granger. I wasn't ogling at her." I shot a quick glare at Granger.

"Love is suffering. One side always loves more." She suddenly said, just as softly. That sounded so crazy. We loved each other equally. I looked at Pansy, ready to make a joke, share a secret smirk, lift her mood. But Pansy's teary eyes were on her. She blinked rapidly, and then she was looking at Granger with a soft smile on her pink lips. "Who loves who more?" She asked softly, taking ahold of one of the tanned hands. Granger cocked her head and looked at me. Her gaze electrifying. I felt a jolt pass through me and my discomfort grew. I didn't want to hear her answer. At that moment, I was afraid of her answer. She then turned to Potter and sent him a small smile. "Harry loves me more," she murmured. "He is suffering." And the calm was shattered. Potter froze, eyes widening. "I'm not-" "You are!" That was the first time I heard her speak aloud. Everyone was silent.

Lovegood neared us and broke the silence. "Love is suffering, Hermione. But Harry will suffer for you, because he loves you. You might never love him as much as he should be loved. But he will still love you. And you will always try. And Hermione, that is love. Love hurts. But we still do it. We still love." Her dreamy voice soothed the agitated Granger. And soon Granger was back to being buried in the book, ignoring all of us. "She's done talking today," Pansy whispered to me, pointing discreetly to the book. "She's gone back to reading."

"We should be leaving," Pansy said, gathering her things. "It was good to see you Zabini," Potter said. Potter wasn't that bad after all. I nodded. "It's better not to know. Sometimes, it's you. Sometimes it's him. Sometimes it's better not to know," Granger murmured. Pansy who had been about to get up, was now still. And suddenly, she clutched Granger's hand and said, "I wish you didn't know," voice breaking slightly. I was slightly puzzled. Potter seemed to get it though. I sent him a questioning look and he nodded at me to follow him as he left the seat.

Granger looked up in alarm, catching Potter's eye. "I will be back. Just have some things to tell Zabini." Potter said, smiling widely. We walked toward the door. "Zabini," Potter said. I stared at him expectantly, wondering what warranted a private conversation with the savior of the wizarding world. "Zabini, Pansy likes you." I stared at him, confused. I knew Pansy liked me. That's why we were dating. "She loves you." I looked at him shrewdly. "We never say such-" "I know," he said calmly. "She loves you. You love her." I was too shocked to protest. "Hermione notices things. I notice things too. Tell her you love her. Tell her, before she starts doubting love." It was slowly starting to come together. Pansy had brought me here to meet her special friends. She had trusted me enough. She loved me. And just now... Oh no. She must have thought she loved me more than I loved her, especially since I didn't protest anything. Which might be true sometimes, but, I loved that woman.

Pansy was the first girl I had a crush on. Yet she never knew. She never noticed me. Who would notice the side-kick to the Slytherin Prince. But somehow, fate or destiny or luck, somehow, after the war, I found her. I saw her. And for the first time, she noticed me. And that was when she gave me a chance. A chance to win her heart. I was never in the competition from the start, but somehow, I won the prize. I had to tell her.

I turned quickly, intending to run back to the table, but I almost knocked over Pansy. She had been behind me, and I hadn't noticed. I pulled her closer to me. I looked her in the eyes. I had to do this. For her. For me. "Pansy, I love you," I kissed her. Deeply.

When I let her lips go, I wasn't letting her go, I noticed the small tears at the corner of her dark eyes. "I love you too Blaise." She smiled. I returned the smile as I lowered my forehead to hers, till it touched. I was going to marry this woman one day.

"Let's go home," she murmured. I made a sound of approval. She let go of me and walked over to Potter. "Thanks Harry," she said as she kissed him on the cheek. "You know, she loves you, more than she thinks she does," she whispered. I looked over at Granger. She seemed to be engrossed in the book, but I knew better now. She was watching Potter. She was always watching Potter.

I stared at her for a while longer. She looked the same, yet, she was totally different. "Bye Granger!" I shouted. Not shouted really, I just said it in a louder voice. Her eyes crinkled. And her fingers wiggled. "That's her way of saying goodbye," Pansy said, but I knew it already. "Let's go," I said to Pansy. "See you," I nodded to Potter and Lovegood. The pair smiled and waved us off.

We left Magicka, and I was sad. I didn't want to leave. The place wasn't much. But the people... Pansy must have used legilimency, as she suddenly said, "We can come back," while slipping her warm hand into mine. Yes we can. And yes we did. We returned till the place was demolished. And after that we met at Potter's place. Because, we had become friends.

Wow. That was unexpectedly hard. I hope it flows. I hope you like it :D

And this is for:

-Greenhouses Competition: Stargazer

-6 Senses Competition - Touch/Feel: Warm

-Colours Competition: Gold (Negative)

-Key Signature Competition: A Minor

-Dark Side Competition: Nagini

-Hogwarts Classes Category Competition: Transfigurations

-Quidditch Position Competition: Keeper

-Fantastic Beasts Challenge: Kneazle

-If you Dare Challenge: 505. Tears

-Fanfiction Tournament Competition - Tournament 6 Round 1 Prompt: Love is suffering. One side always loves more.

-The Diagon Alley Challenge: Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour

-50 Different Friendships Challenge: Cry

-The Big Brother Competition Round 2 with Prompts: "Please tell me you are not serious", Blaise Zabini, Hermione Granger, Romance and Quote