"GRYFFINDOR!"
There was a roar from the students at the Gryffindor table as they clapped and cheered to welcome Jasmine to their house. Harry glanced over at the Slytherin table with a huge smile on his face, and saw Malfoy with his head in his hands out of distraught, all the boys on the Slytherin table looked pretty much disappointed that Jasmine was not joining their crew. Pansy Parkinson glanced at Draco and her expression changed from glee to jealousy as she noticed the extent to which he was pissed; if Draco wanted to hide his feelings he was doing a pretty bad job at the moment. Jasmine jumped up from the stool and ran over to the Gryffindor table to join them, Harry signalled for her to come and sit down with him, she saw him immediately and walked over to squeeze in between Harry and Ron. Malfoy noticed and from the look on his face, he was not pleased at all.
Professor Dumbledore clapped twice as the feast for dinner appeared before their eyes, and Harry was not sure, but he could have sworn that Dumbledore smiled at him through the corner of his mouth.
"Oh wow!" cried Jasmine happily, "they never used to give us this much to eat back at Woodward's!"
Everyone laughed as she hungrily tucked into the freshly grilled chicken which the house-elves had prepared only hours before. After a bite or two she introduced herself to the Gryffindor table and had learnt everyone's names very quickly, well, almost everyone's that is. She turned to Harry, Ron and Hermione,
"So, last but certainly not least, and I can tell that you three are the best of friends, who may I address you guys as?" Jasmine asked with a grin. Hermione stretched across Ron to put her hand out,
"Hi Jasmine, I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger" Jasmine shook her hand and replied,
"Wow, that's such a beautiful name babe! I can honestly say that I've never met another Hermione before" both the girls laughed before Ron stretched out his hand,
"And I'm Ron, Ron Weasley" he said, Jasmine gasped,
"Oh my god!" she cried putting her hand to her chest in surprise, "Oh no way! Are you by any chance related to Fred and George Weasley darlin'?"
Ron smirked, "Well, you could say that…I'm their younger brother actually, how do you know Fred and George?" he asked,
"How do you think babe? Whenever I go to Diagon Alley I ALWAYS stop by their amazing joke shop Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes of course! Those two are a right pair I tell you" she giggled,
"Yeah you're right about that, I don't think many brothers would play as many practical jokes as those two have on me" said Ron,
"I'll bet not!" Jasmine chuckled, "and so that leaves the boy with the most beautiful eyes I have ever seen" she said as she turned to Harry, who blushed a very deep shade of red as Lavender and Parvati giggled uncontrollably at this comment,
"Oh come on girls, can't I compliment a guy without you lot thinking I fancy him straight away?" said Jasmine teasingly, "So anyway darling, your name is?"
Harry took a deep breath, ready and waiting for the reaction which normally met him every time he introduced himself to someone new,
"It's Harry," he replied, "Harry Potter"
Jasmine stifled a small "Oh my gosh!" by disguising it with a cough,
"Oh…well Harry, it's nice to meet you," she said shaking his hand.
Harry smiled and looked relieved that she had not jumped and gasped asking to see his famous lightning-bolt scar, Ron however looked completely shocked and somewhat insulted that Jasmine had seemingly not realised who she was talking to. Hermione squeezed his leg and gave him a look to stop him from saying anything. Ron sighed and went back to eating the strawberry cheesecake he had half-finished. It was almost 8pm by the time they had finished their dinner, and Harry, Ron and Hermione took Jasmine to the Gryffindor common room. As they left the great hall, Jasmine seemed mildly distracted as she glanced over at the Slytherin table searching for Draco whom Pansy was keeping occupied by turning him in the opposite direction and whispering something in his ear. Jasmine looked at them for a brief moment with a plain expression on her face and turned her head back to follow Harry to the common room. Harry had noticed that Jasmine had suddenly gone very quiet and her bubbliness had died down somewhat, so attempted to engage her in conversation as they entered the common room. Before he could say anything however, Hermione had grabbed Jasmine's hand and taken her up to the girl's dormitory ("This is where the girls sleep!" she said as Jasmine followed her up). Ron and Harry went to their dormitory accompanied by Seamus, Neville and Dean as they all slumped down on their beds.
"So Harry," started Dean, "it looks like you've got a bit of a soft spot for this new girl eh?" he winked chuckling as all the boys started teasing him ("get in there Harry!" Seamus cried).
"Oh shut up guys!" Harry yelled blushing red as Ron gave him a friendly punch in the arm.
"So when are you gonna ask her on a date then mate?" quizzed Ron,
"Err, I'm not?" Harry replied in an 'are-you-mad' voice. Ron looked puzzled,
"Why not!" all the guys cried in unison, Harry jumped in surprise at this minor outrage, and got up from his bed walking over to the window, it was raining outside.
"Well?" said Ron urging Harry to answer,
Harry sighed, "Because she likes someone else" he replied quietly,
"What?" said Neville, "how do you know that? She's only been here five minutes!"
Harry explained how he had seen the look Jasmine had given Malfoy as she walked into the great hall and the subtle look of attraction on Malfoy's face, aswell as his anxiousness for the Sorting Hat to shout 'Slytherin!' It was silent for about 30 seconds before Ron finally stammered,
"Well…wha…it…Harry that doesn't mean anything!" he finally said sounding rather unconvinced himself. Harry turned to look at all the bemused expressions on the guy's faces.
"You didn't see the look they gave eachother Ron ok? There was more sexual tension in that look then there has ever been between you and Hermione" said Harry.
Dean, Seamus and Neville snorted ("Oi oi Ron!") as his ears went red,
"Yeah alright, alright…" he said looking embarrassed, "I get ya".
All of them slowly went quiet trying not to look at Harry, after a while, Seamus broke the silence,
"But Harry, there's no way Malfoy would look at her if she was in Gryffindor…would he?" Neville, Dean and Ron looked up at him encouragingly; Harry bit his lip,
"You never know with Malfoy…if he knew it would hurt me, then yeah he probably would..." he replied looking back out the window.
"Harry" said Dean, "this isn't you mate, you would fight Malfoy for her, I mean, you've faced the Dark Lord, I hardly think the likes of Draco Malfoy would stop you"
Harry turned to look at him, "I know Dean, but…I dunno…there was just something between them, it was…" Harry couldn't complete his sentence, he honestly didn't know what made him so sure that Malfoy and Jasmine were attracted to eachother, but he just knew that they were…if that made any sense.
"But Malfoy's a ba..." Ron stopped mid-sentence as he heard footsteps running toward their dormitory. The boys all looked toward the door, waiting to see who it was.
"Hey guys!" cried Hermione, followed by Jasmine who smiled at them as she walked in.
"Alright Jasmine?" asked Seamus as she looked around inspecting the boy's room.
"Like what you see Jas?" asked Ron curiously, "I can call you Jas right?"
Jasmine smiled sweetly at them "My darling boys," she said "you can call me whatever you want! Be nice though…" she winked flirtingly. They all laughed at this comment as she sat down on Harry's bed, while Hermione sat on Ron's lap. Harry merely smiled as he watched everyone laughing and joking with Jas, she had such a sweet smile, and he loved the way her eye's danced as she laughed. She was really like no other girl he had ever met before, confident, bubbly, flirty, pretty…just downright amazing. He wanted her so much. He wanted to hold her. He wanted to kiss her. He wanted to touch her. He wanted Malfoy to disappear.
Look at yourself Harry James Potter, he thought, scolding himself, what is wrong with you? Are you really gonna sit there feeling sorry for yourself every day? There's no way, you can let Malfoy win, no way! You've gotta fight Harry, do whatever it takes, don't let a girl like this slip through your fingers because of some arrogant snotty Slytherin! Fight Harry! Dean was right, don't let Malfoy win…
And with that, Harry suddenly smiled with a tiny glint in his eye and walked over to Jasmine to sit by her on his bed; she greeted him with the same beautiful smile she always did.
"So guys," said Harry, "did you hear the one about the horse and the Slytherin?"
All the boys gave Harry a go-for-it grin. This time he wouldn't fail. This time there were no tears from a girl to stop him in his tracks. This time Harry meant it.
Tune in for the next chapter!