Sorry that it took me so long to update, I had a ton of work to do, and I sort of forgot where I was going with this story, but now I've remembered again, and hopefully you all like the direction it's taking. If you think things are developing too fast, I can change it. Please review :)
Harry looked over at Danni as they were crouched under the table, and he could literally hear her heart beating. He stood up, and pulled her up with him. He gave her a concerned look. "What's wrong? I get that you don't like me, but what made you suddenly want to bolt?"
Danni shook her head. She couldn't tell Harry that she could read minds. He would probably tell all his friends, and they would have a good laugh about it. She mumbled softly. "I just wanted to get away from you."
Harry let go of her hand, and she almost whimpered at the loss of his warmth. She could see the hurt look in his eyes, and she told herself she didn't care. After all, she had always hated him, and actually meeting him just last night wasn't going to change that. And he shouldn't look so sad, he knew from the start that Danni didn't like him.
Harry pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. He saw that Danni looked uncomfortable, and he just wanted to feel hurt that someone disliked him that much. But then he noticed that she was squirming awkwardly, and had a guilty look in her eyes. She felt bad for hurting his feelings. That meant that she couldn't hate him that much, right?
He crossed his arms over his chest. "And that's the only reason you wanted to leave."
Danni nodded stubbornly, then spoke as she thought of another thing. "Well, I also wanted to talk to my friends, but you dragged me away from them."
Harry felt like that wasn't everything, but he didn't want to push it. He hadn't actually considered that she had just wanted to eat a simple breakfast with his friends. Danni started to shrug off the red robes. "If you'll excuse me, I need to get back to my dorm. I need to grab my books and stuff."
Harry nodded thoughtfully. "What class do you have first?"
"Transformations."
Harry shrugged. "Skip it." He laughed at Danni's horrified look.
Her eyebrows were practically sitting at her hairline, she raised them so much. "Are you serious? You may be able to get away with things like that, but I would get detentions for a month."
"But wouldn't it be worth it just to hang out with me?" The look on Danni's face was priceless.
She spluttered, until she was able to think of a good argument. "If I get detentions for a month, that means thirty less hours that I have to hang out with you, so you're right, it's absolutely worth it."
Harry shrugged again. "Just tell them you were helping me with my homework or something. Then they won't be able to give you any punishment."
Danni shook her head. "You just think you're so above the rest of us, don't you?"
Harry grinned. "Well, yeah, I did defeat V-" Danni pressed her hands against his mouth.
She hissed at him. "Are you crazy? I don't care who you are, you can't just go around saying his name as easily as you can say soup."
Harry frowned. "I think soup is a pretty difficult word. Maybe we should just rename soup you-know-who, because then whenever we talk about soup, people will give us funny looks." Danni looked a little shocked that Harry had spoken right into her hands.
She pulled her hands away, and wiped them on the side of her skirt. At Harry's confused look, she said, "Potter cooties." which caused Harry to burst out laughing.
"Seriously? Cooties? That's like… so childish."
Danni glanced up at the giant hourglasses, and Harry turned around to follow her gaze. As soon as he turned around, Danni dashed for the door, not caring that she was still wearing Hermione's old robes.
But she hadn't realized how fit Harry was, since Quidditch training was pretty intense. He had heard her pounding footsteps, and caught up with her right away. He grabbed the robes, and tugged too hard, sending Danni toppling to the ground, and Harry fell on top of her.
Danni was only still for a moment before she started trying to wiggle out from under Harry, who had her pinned to the ground. She shoved his chest, but he barely moved. "Hey, are you going to move or what? I already told you that I need to get to class."
Harry nodded. "Alright. Feel free to go at anytime." He didn't make any effort to move, just stayed where he was, and Danni kept pushing against him, trying to get out.
After a few minutes, she gave up, and just laid there, silently fuming. She crossed her arms over her chest. "Someone is going to walk in here any minute now."
Harry smiled. "Let them. Who cares?" When Danni grimaced, he couldn't help letting his smile grow. "What's the matter? Afraid this would ruin your reputation as the Harry Potter hater?"
Danni frowned. "Maybe I wouldn't hate you so much if you didn't always act like you're better than everyone else. The majority of Slytherin house are good people, but you judge them all as bad because a small group of them think they are better than everyone else. You also think you're better than everyone else though, so you're no better than them. But I don't judge the entire Gryffindor house because of you a few others."
Harry nodded slowly. "I see. Well the thing is… I am better than everyone else. I don't see you defeating grown mountain trolls or the basilisk or any of the other things I've done."
Danni pouted for a moment. "But you wouldn't have fought that troll if you hadn't been so mean to Hermione, and Ron is the one who beat a chess game to let you get to the stone or whatever, and Hermione is the one who made the polyjuice potion and helped you find the basilisk, and Dumbledore has always given you special treatment, and if I was in the same circumstances as you…"
Harry grinned. "Alright. But can you do this?" He rolled off of Danni and stood up. He pulled out his wand and waved it in front of him. "Expecto patronum." There was a silver light, and then a life sized silver stag was standing in the middle of the great hall.
Danni slowly stood up, her eyes wide. "You can do the patronus charm? That is…" she caught herself before she said anything too complimentative. "...okay, I guess. I mean, if you're into that kind of thing. But since the dementors work for the ministry of magic, it's not like you'll ever need that, right? So it's mediocre. There are more useful things you could learn."
Harry laughed. "You're right, that's hardly impressive at all. Do tell me what spells you can do ahead of everyone else in our year?'
Danni smirked. "Did you forget who was messing with the balance of the rubies last night?"
Harry nodded. "Touche. I guess we are equally matched, then. So maybe I'm better than most people… but I know that I'm not better than you." And despite Danni furiously telling herself that that wasn't even anything, a bright red blush spread across her face, much to Harry's amusement.
Then she realized that she was free, and she sprinted away. She really didn't want to miss any classes, and McGonagall was such a strict professor. Harry watched her go, but made no move to follow after her. He was confident that he would see her again.
