PROLOGUE:
"Hey, Jasmine."
"Goodday!"
Jasmine smiled at the two red haired, freckle-faced, suit clad twins that greeted her over the jingle of the bell attached to the door. "Hey, guys."
"Here to see the pygmys?" Fred asked.
"Just got a new batch," said George with a grin.
She nodded. Of course they knew why she was there, every time the students got to leave the grounds and come to Diagon Alley Jasmine stopped by to see the pygmy puffs. They were her favorite magical creature. She walked over to the glass octagon-shaped pen they were in. "Hey there, little fellas," she wiggled her finger at them against the glass. Several rolled over to her, unfolding and trying to touch her finger with their short, little paws. She giggled.
"Gonna get one today?" Fred asked.
"You know I can't. Unless you can lower the price a little more," she said hopefully.
"Wish we could," said George.
"We already gave you a fifteen percent discount," added Fred.
"Much more and we wouldn't make a profit. Which wouldn't be so bad 'cept then everyone would want one," finished George with a sorry look.
"I know, I understand," Jasmine gave them a smile, trying to make it look more genuine and less disappointment filled than she felt, though she failed. Why did all of her money have to go towards school? "Oh well, can't have your cake and eat it too," she thought with a mental shrug. She loved Hogwarts far more than she had loved her old muggle school.
"Truly am sorry," Fred said as they passed her, a hand briefly touching her should, on their way to take care of another customer.
Jasmine sighed. She loved the cute little pygmy puffs, but she'd never be able to afford one, not while she was in school at least. "Bye, little guys, hope you all find good homes."
Jasmine repositioned her uselessly empty purse, slid her hands into her pockets and headed to the door, watching her yellow and black Converse, in support of her house colors. Not watching where she was going. "Umph!" a flash of brown was all she saw.
"I'm so sorry!" she spluttered.
"I'm sorry!" the voice that made her blush said. It took her a moment to recognize it. Looking up, her eyes as wide as saucers, face hot to the touch, she bit her lip.
"Oh, h-hi, Ron." she smiled.
"Hey, Jasmine."
"Hi, there," Harry smiled.
"Hello, Harry." she waved. "You're both coming to my party this week, right?" she asked, secretly ready to burst with the hope that Ron could come. Of course, she wanted Harry to come too, but Ron...
"Course we are," Harry said.
"Yup, can't wait," Ron added, his brown, homemade sweater bringing out his hair. Jasmine couldn't help but wonder how he would look standing next to her or how she would look in her own Weasley sweater.
"Okay?" Blinking, Jasmine pulled herself back to reality.
"Huh?" she asked.
"See you then?" Ron looked confused.
"Yeah ,yeah, of course.'' Harry gave him a slight pull and Jasmine smiled, going on her way.
She stopped at the door, where she would have been startled had there not been so many first years running around in a blur of color. She felt her face get hot again, as Ron held the door open. He gave her a nod and she gave him a smile.
FIVE DAYS LATER:
Jasmine looked in the Hufflepuff dormitory's mirror, it was about an hour after dinner and she had been frantically getting ready for her party. "Are you sure this looks good enough, Whitney?" she asked, turning to face her best friend. The blue dress in question swished ever so slightly around her knees as she did so.
"Of course, I've always told you that blue was one of your best colors. Plus, you're comfortable in it. Now, would I lie to you?" she raised an eyebrow and tilted her head forward slightly, eyes sparkling.
"No," Jasmine sighed. "I-I just hope he notices me." She turned back to the mirror. Whitney got off the edge of the four-poster.
"Of course he will. I have a feeling this will be a birthday to remember," she said, repositioning a bobby pin in her friend's dark brown hair.
"Darn fine hair," Jasmine thought, her brow knitting a little, as she nodded.
"Like I've said, he's always looking at you during the DA," she whispered the last part so as not to alert the portraits, just in case any of them weren't loyal to the students.
"I guess. I just hope you're right." Of course the boy in question, Ron Weasley, would be at her party, along with everyone else from the DA and a few select friends of hers. She started pacing again, her heart beating to quickly to stand still, if she did, the accumulating energy may just cause it burst.
It was about a half an hour later, that everyone met up in the Room of Requirement. Harry had done Whitney the favor of asking Professor McGonagall to let them stay up after curfew. She agreed to keep it quiet and, from what Harry said, there was a twinkle of enjoyment in defying Umbridge in her eyes.
Jasmine entered the Room of Requirement and her breath caught. She knew that the Room could transform into whatever the user needed, but this was incredible! Long, rectangular tables with blue swirled clothes, which upon closer inspection were swirling like galaxies, were positioned around the room in the shape of a badger and the chairs that accompanied them were navy blue and shaped almost like a lower-case "b", but without the back brace on the backwards ''c'' shape; the entrance, was in the shape of an archway with blue lights strung up around it, as it was in the corners of the room as well, plants that looked like ivy wrapped along with them; also, leading from the archway, a path was laid with flowers and miniature hedges, no more than a foot tall, shaped like a badger each table had a flower arrangement, mixed with natural-looking sticks and blue squiggly ones, some adorned with glitter; a few glass show cases held both glowing and non-glowing blue crystals that were placed along the walls in places and a few in the corners; above each table, matching their shape, were balloons, without strings, floating of their own accord; bubbles of blue light and spheres of a blue-white mix of light were also floating mid air; the ceiling had throngs of beautiful blue silk cloth hanging to make it look like a tent, lights hung in the center of them, and a giant balloon and streamer flower hung at its center; blue stars hung from various parts of the ceiling as well as from the few small lanterns that were lit; the outlines of badgers danced across the ceiling, like a hologram; square lights of different lengths hung in the corners but, in the center of the room, a double layer chandelier made of aged-silver with candles ringing each layer hung; and, last but not least, the walls were glowing with different shades of blue. It was beautiful!
"So, what'cha think?" Whitney asked, pride in her voice. Jasmine didn't have to even look at her to know that she was beaming.
"This is AMAZING!" Jasmine replied, her hazel eyes opened wide in awe, looking more green than brown in the blue glow.
"Glad ya like it. Now let's go," she said, ushering her in with a hand on her back.
They walked down the beautiful pathway and were greeted by most of Jasmine's friends; they had all agreed to meet at slightly different times, taking slightly different routes so as not to be caught by Filch and Ms. Norris. Everywhere she looked, however, she couldn't find Ron, Harry or Hermione. She sighed, it was nearly time for everyone to be there and she had figured, since they lead the DA, that they would be some of the first to show. Maybe they weren't coming...
...Just then, the door opened to allow more guests. Jasmine craned her neck, along with everyone else who feared it might be Umbridge. To everyone's relief, especially Jasmine's, it was the Trio. After being bumbarded by people, Harry and the others came over.
"Happy birthday, Jasmine!" Hermione said, smiling, giving her a hug.
"Happy birthday." Harry smiled.
"Yeah, happy birthday," Ron said, brushing his hair over his ears.
"Thanks, guys," Jasmine smiled, throwing a glance at Whitney.
"Okay, let's let the birthday girl open her gifts!" Whitney announced, after giving Jasmine an eyebrow raise and a shrug.
Everyone gathered around, pulling up chairs. A big, blue comfy chair with a table appeared for the birthday girl. Smiling, Jasmine went and sat down. Whitney levitated all of the gifts over to her, one by one.
Most of the gifts were great! She got a new shirt, a box of chocolates from Honeyduke's, some FizzingWhizbees and Canary Creams from Fred and George, along with a card (which she thought was odd for them) that warned her not to open it until later. Finally, she was down to her last gift. This one had a roughly written RON on it. The quill had scratched through the paper in a few places, which she could tell Ron had tried to cover up beneath the folds of paper as she unwrapped it. Whatever it was, it was light. She shook it lightly. Ron turned pale, well, paler than normal.
"Er, um, don't shake it. It's fragile," Harry covered for his friend.
Jasmine gently sat the box back in her lap before carefully proceeding. It took Jasmine a moment to realize what it was she was looking at. In the box, surrounded by pieces of blue velvet fabric, was a little, purple pygmy puff. Her mouth dropped, a gasp escaping the open door. She looked up at Ron.
"They haven't managed to have a blue one yet," he said, rubbing the back of his neck, his ears turning red.
"Open the card!" said Fred, jumping in before Jasmine could say anything to Ron.
She picked the card back up and opened it. Inside was nothing more than a slip of paper, it read:
*LIFETIME SUPPLY OF PYGMY PUFF FOOD*
In tiny writing it also had scribbled:
*IF YOU DATE OUR BROTHER! HE'S BONKERS ABOUT YOU! SERIOUSLY, PLEASE, DO IT FOR US!
Jasmine barely managed to stifle a giggle, she could feel her cheeks turning red. She heard Whitney snort over her shoulder. She looked at the twins, nodding. They both lightly smacked each other in the shoulder, grinning wickedly. Not wanting to make a scene, she tucked the slip of paper away for later.
"Thank you, everyone, for your amazing gifts, I love them! And, Ron, thank you, so much! I've wanted a pygmy puff for a long time now," which she knew he already knew. He nodded, grinning. "Now, everyone, we can all have some cake!"
Everyone clapped as they headed over to the large buffet table of food. A large, pygmy puff shaped and decorated cake sat with sixteen candles on it. After the singing, Whitney cut the cake. Having been handed the first slice, Jasmine stood back and waited.
The crowd was so large that it took some wandering to find Ron. "Ron?" she asked, her voice quieter than she had intended. He turned around.
"Oh, hey, Jasmine. Like your gift?" he smiled.
"Very much, thank you, Ron," she smiled back. "Um, there was something in the card."
"Yeah," he replied, nodding, "the voucher. I'm gonna be working all summer for it."
She smiled softly, touched by the hard work. Maybe he did like her.
"I think there was more than you know," she laughed, half nervously. Ron raised an eyebrow. Jasmine walked over beside him and held out the slip.
He quickly snatched it from her, ears and face the same shade as his hair, and growled, marching over to them. Jasmine watched as the three brothers argued, Fred and George mostly smiling, giving each other glances and apologizing. She decided to go over and see what all the fuss was about. Had it been a trick or the truth?
"How could you two! This isn't funny!" Ron was nearly shouting.
"Oh, look who it is," George grinned. Fred pointed warningly behind Ron. Flustered, Ron sighed and then turned around.
"Jasmine-" he looked nervous.
It was now or never for Jasmine, she had to find out. "Is it true?" she asked, her throat suddenly screaming for punch.
Ron sighed again, nodding, rubbing the back of his neck. "Yeah, I've liked you for a while now. Wanted to ask you to be my girlfriend today, but I chickened out. Plus, my stupid brothers gave you that slip."
"Yes," Jasmine said, grinning.
"What?" Ron was clueless.
Today had been a good day so far, why not push her luck? Jasmine stepped closer to Ron, nearly losing her courage as he looked at her with an odd expression. "Just...hold still," she kissed him.
To her surprise and utter delight, he kissed her back, putting his hand on the back of her head and pulling her closer.
When they finally separated, Jasmine said, "Yes," smiling even wider, breathless.
"Yes?" Ron asked. Jasmine nodded.
"Yes!"
"YES!" Ron picked her up and twirled her around. He went over to Harry. "She said yes!"
After getting several thumbs ups from a group of his guy friends, including Harry, hugs and pats on the back, he came back over to Jasmine, his new girlfriend and put his arm around her shoulders.
Cautiously, Fred and George approached. "I take it it went well?" Fred asked.
"Blimey, it's either that or he's taking rejection exceptionally well, mated! Look at that grin!" George chimed in.
Ron turned red once more, still grinning like a dork. "Thanks guys, I guess I owe you one."
"This is a birthday to remember after all, eh?" Whitney said, suddenly showing up next to Jasmine.
"This is DEFINITELY a birthday to remember," Jasmine replied grinning.