House: Gryffindor
Position: Year 1
Category: Standard
Prompt: It all started with a simple "Good morning", and went downhill from there.
Words: 610
It all started with a simple "Good morning", and went downhill from there. Fifteen year old Henry Potter was a Gryffindor true and true. He was brave, noble and daring with a tendency for recklessness. He was raised with a bias against Slytherin and so far, his experiences with Slytherins had done nothing to change his perception of them. So far, all the Slytherins he had encountered were bigoted, mean and mostly bullies.
That morning, he passed by a group of Slytherin girl as he was heading to class and to his surprise one of the girls greeted him with "Good morning". Henry recognized the girl as Elsa Malfoy, sister of Loius Malfoy. Her brother was a popular Slytherin bully who targeted muggle-borns and poor students. The smile Elsa gave him as she said Good Morning along with her enticing big blue eyes caused butterflies in his stomach. Henry could not get Elsa off his mind for the rest of the day, and she didn't make it any easier. During lunch, he saw her chatting animatedly with her friends at the Slytherin table. He couldn't even explain to himself why he was compelled to look at her. When she caught him staring, she smiled at him, a smile that made his knees feel weak.
For some reason, Elsa was unavoidable throughout the whole day. Aside from lunch, Elsa was the star of their Potions class that day. Their Potions professor brought her in front of their class and showered her with praise. Henry found himself trying hard to look anywhere but the front of his class where their professor was parading her and her Potion. But yet, when she was seated, he had the urge to turn around and get a glimpse of her. By 3pm, Henry had seen her for a total of twelve times, which was three to four times more often than he usually saw her in a day, and each time she gave him that same winning smile. He can't believe he actually counted the number of times he saw her. What was with him? Why was she getting into his head? And that smile and those eyes, Henry was sure she was casting some sort of charm on him with them.
But Elsa was a Slytherin, part of the bigoted Malfoy family and the sister of Louis Malfoy. She was certainly not his type. She couldn't have been different from her family. He was just physically attracted to her, Henry told himself. He couldn't let that cloud his judgment. He had to get her out of his mind. Shortly before dinner, Henry saw Elsa for the thirteenth time. But this time, he was surprised by what he saw her doing. She saved a first year muggle-born from being bullied by her brother and his gang. After she had sent or rather yelled at them to be on their way, she comforted the kid.
Henry felt a pang of guilt. Perhaps he had misjudged her. He had let his prejudice against Slytherin get in the way of his judgment. He had assumed things about her simply based on her house and family. After dinner, he received his patrolling schedule for the night. He was to patrol with Elsa. He thought things were going downhill for him with his constant run-ins with Elsa and his growing attraction to her. But the universe was sending him a sign, Henry finally decided. He was going to speak to her and get to know her without letting his prejudice get in the way. Perhaps things were really going uphill throughout the day and it took him this long to notice.
