I didn't have many friends until my fifth year at Hogwarts. I mean, there was my friend Craig, and my cat, Da Vinci, but apart from that, I spent most of the time in the library. My problem with people wasn't that they weren't nice, which they mostly were, or that I wasn't nice, which I am. I just didn't like going to parties or socializing too much. But people liked me and I liked people. Life is not very hard as a 4th year Hufflepuff. Nothing is really expected of us. Have okay grades and not join the dark wizards. My fifth year was different though. For some reason, I had the urge to socialize.
It all started on the evening I made the acquaintance of Lucy. I was getting my shopping done in Diagon alley, and I had stopped at The Ice Cream Parlor, where Florean's used to be. My parents and my siblings continued shopping for their things. Lucy walked in a few minutes after me, but my focus on my ice cream, which was extremely more interesting to me at the moment, kept me from noticing her. After a while, before I had finished it, I looked up, and noticed her looking at me. She wasn't staring, just looking as if trying to recognize who I was, and she smiled when I looked at her. She had long, wavy, black hair that followed the curves of her back to her waist, and clear blue eyes that seemed to sparkle when she smiled, Her lips were thin but still colorful and pretty, she was about as tall as me and extremely beautiful. I smiled back in the most awkward way possible, and then directed my full attention to the ice cream I was eating. After I finished I thought about going to sit with her, but decided against it. She came to me. At this point my whole body wanted to run away to keep from having an awkward conversation, but I stayed to keep from making myself look more like an idiot.
"Hi," She smiled. "I'm Lucy, what's your name?"
"Hi, I'm Nicholas," I answered trying to make my voice sound deeper than normal and invoking a cough that made things even worse. "And you?"
It took me a few seconds and a laugh from her to realize what I had said. At this point my parents and my siblings came in looking for me and we went home.
"Hey, wait a second," she said as I walked out the door, "Are you going to Hogwarts?"
"Yeah," I called behind me, "See you there?" but I couldn't hear the response.
That was awkward. School started in three days.