Chapter 9- Arguments and Letters
Harry woke up to a gloomy, rainy, morning. Rain drops fell against the window, giving off unbearable poundings. Harry got up from bed and dressed in his regular muggle clothes, for the day which he woke up to is the first day of a long weekend. As soon as he finished getting dressed, he lazily made his way down to the common room. There the rest of the Gryffindor students were conversing, enjoying what the weekend has to offer. He looked around the room for some familiar faces, and saw Ron, Hermione and Ginny conversing with one another at one corner of the room, completely segregated from everyone else.
Harry approached them hoping to get his situation with Harper out of his mind for at least a couple of minutes.
Ron, Hermione and Ginny were in deep conversation until Ginny had spotted Harry heading towards them.
"Harry!!" Ginny greeted, lifting up her head in excitement. Hermione and Ron turned around to greet him.
"Hey, Harry."
"Harry," Hermione paused, "we were just about to head down to breakfast. Want to join us?'
"Sure, I can eat an elephant right now." Harry responded, rubbing his stomach.
"Ha ha, elephant, that's funny," Ron joked.
"Have you guys seen Harper?" Harry questioned, as he had noticed that she wasn't around, as usual. Ron and Hermione looked at each other in disdain, and then looked back at Harry.
"Harry," Hermione began, "she apologizes… that she won't make to breakfast."
Harry groaned in an exasperated way. "Wow! What a surprise," Harry said sarcastically, "when will she stop doing this to me?" Harry's temper rose and showed.
"She probably just got held back or something," Ron exclaimed, trying to calm his friend down.
"Harry, she really is sorry," Hermione justified, trying to calm Harry down, "she said that she'll be able to make it next time."
"Oh really?" Harry retorted irritably, "that's what she said the last time and the time before that. I don't even know where she really runs off to half the time." Harry combed his hair with his fingers, while trying to calm down. "Forget it, c'mon let's go eat."
Harry stormed out of the room, with Hermione, Ron and Ginny chasing after him. Eventually, Harry calmed down before they reached the Great Hall; all he needed was to walk it off. The four of them sat with Neville, Dean, and Seamus, who had been there since for at least an hour. For the first time in a long time Harry had a nice enjoyable breakfast with his close friends, whom he hadn't spoken to for quite sometime.
After breakfast, Ron and Hermione had left to perform their prefect duties, while Ginny went with Pavarti Patil to work on a Transfiguration research project. Harry didn't feel like staying around Neville, Dean and especially Seamus, especially when he kept giving Harry the cold shoulder the whole time during breakfast. According to Seamus and his aunt, they detested Harry because of him supposedly assisting the Dark Lord back into power. Harry had tried, countless of times, to convince Seamus that he had nothing to do with assisting the Dark Lord with anything.
After the Ginny had left, Harry left as well. He strolled down the empty hallway alone, thinking of a place to stay, but soon he saw it. The Old Oak Tree, the very tree where his relationship with Harper had started. He stopped dead in his tracks, observing the tree under the gloomy, dark weather.
The rain had started to pour harder, as Harper stared out into the field from the Divination tower. With the way the weather has been going, it gave the room more gloom to what it already had. The seats were empty and the room was silent. The only noise being made did not come from an animal nor from a witch but from the rain drops heavily crashing against the window.
Professor Sibyll Trelawney sat behind her crystal ball, constructing a new lesson prior to her upcoming classes, while Harper sat behind a table two feet away the professor correcting essays. Professor Sprout had recommended Professor Trelawney that Harper was the student to go to for assistance in the classroom, which was how Harper had ended up spending most of her morning weekend in the Divination Tower. Since she had come up from breakfast, Harper has done nothing but soak her eyes in the words written down by students on constellations and their true meanings.
Harper had easily lost interest in the essays and was suddenly in deep thought. She stared out the window, feeling guilty for leaving Harry before breakfast. It hurt her just thinking of what she had done. Harper thought of the status of her relationship with Harry, by the way she sees it shatters her heart into a million pieces. She yearned to jump out of her seat, run out of the class and into Harry's arms, but she knew that Professor Trelawney would never allow her. Harper attempted countless of times to get out of her situation but Professor Trelawney would make up some pitiable excuse to get her to stay.
----------Flashback----------
"What's going on with you too?"
"There's just too many things placed on us and we both underestimated it," Harper paused. She gazed again at the fire, examining its flames and amount of light it gives off.
"You know," Harper continued, breaking her gaze and staring at Hermione, "since Harry and I have been spending less time together, I sometimes come to think that our relationship was all based on nothing but a strong jolt of infatuation."
"You both are a lot more alike then you see," Hermione paused, "you two are two of a kind and you guys don't even see it."
"What d'you mean?" Harper looked at Hermione with much curiosity.
"He mentioned those exact same words, just before he left for Quidditch practice."
"He did?"
---------- End of Flashback----------
Harper thought of the conversation she had with Hermione, just three days ago. A tear fell from the corner of her eye as she thought of it.
Professor Trelawney, who had directed her attention to Harper, had seen the tear from Harper's eye.
"Child, is there something wrong?" Professor Trelawney asked. Her deep, pitched voice startled Harper.
"Oh, no professor," Harper replied, wiping her tear away before the professor could see any sign of it, "there's nothing wrong."
"Child, there's no use hiding your pain," Professor Trelawney began, "I can use my inner eye to see the future."
Harper looked at her curiously. "And… I saw you tearing before you wiped it away," Professor Trelawney stated.
"Oh thanks professor that makes me feel so much better," Harper stated sarcastically. Harper looked away, hoping that she could just run out of the room. Professor Trelawney fell silent.
"Well, I'm sorry for prying," Professor Trelawney stated. Professor Trelawney fell silent and directed her attention back to her lesson planning. Harper stared out the window one last time and directed her attention back on correcting essays. The afternoon came in darker than the morning; heavier rain started to pour and the wind becoming stronger than usual.
Harry had lunch alone. Ron and Hermione were off patrolling the corridors for mischief students and ghost pranks, while Ginny met up with the Gryffindor Quidditch tem for their upcoming match, which is to take place later that afternoon. After he had lunch, he headed up to the Gryffindor tower. There he found most of the Gryffindor Quidditch team discussing and planning strategies for upcoming game.
"Harry," Ginny greeted him, "C'mon get ready!! Game, I'll start in about an hour."
"Harry, everyone's headed to the stadium c'mon, grab your Firebolt," Ron informed Harry. The team made their way past Harry and down to the player's pitch to change into their Quidditch robes.
Harry followed the rest of the team down to the pitch. As they were on their way they stumbled upon face to face with the very team they were to go up against, Slytherin team, whom just like the Gryffindor team were on their way to change into their robes. Smirks grew on the Slytherin team's faces as Draco led them towards their opponents.
"So are you and you're little Boy Scout team ready to be slaughtered in front of the whole school, Potter?" Draco criticized. Harry walked in front of the team, confronting Draco.
"No, Malfoy the question is, are you and you're little git scouts ready to lose to us…"Harry paused, "again?" The rest of the Gryffindor team laughed at the reaction of some of the Slytherin's to Harry's remark. Draco, however, stood there glaring furiously at Harry, while Harry simply smirked.
"You better watch you're back, Potter," Draco threatened as he led the Slytherin team down to their part of the player's pitch. As they left the, rest of the Gryffindor team laughed and gave Harry pats on the back.
"That was bloody brilliant," Ron exclaimed, still laughing about what had just happened, "you really pushed Malfoy into his place."
"Thanks." With all that said and done, Harry led the team to change and made their way to the Quidditch field. They propped on their broomsticks, placed on their goggles and soared into the air; the wind and rain crashed into their faces, soaking the team instantly. Students, who were cheering from the sidelines wore raincoats and carried umbrellas, anything to keep them dry.
The team gathered, constructing different formations, which they had practice numerous times in order to perfect it, as their entrance to the field. Slytherin and Gryffindor met up at the center of the field, hovering high above the air, while Madame Hooch released the bludgers, and the snitch and finally the quaffle, beginning the game.
The rain fell harder against the window, as Harper was assigned another stack of essays to read. This was the sixth stack of essays, which she was assigned to read. As she was reading an essay written by Buffrius Triton, a sixth year Ranvenclaw, Harper heard a very distant sound. The sound was drowned out by the rain falling hard against the window, but as the rain had started to lightened, Harper was able to distinguish what the sound was, a group of students cheering.
"I wonder what's going on out there." Harper asked, out loud. Professor Trelawney looked up keeping a constant grip on her quill.
"Ah, the match must've started already.
"What match professor?"
"Why? The Quidditch match between Gryffindor and Slytherin, of course."
"Oh, THE QUIDDITCH MATCH!!" Harper jumped out of her seat, and ran to the window. She looked towards the quidditch pitch and say small figures flying around, like little airplane toys, heading in different directions. "I totally forgot, Harry's game is today!! Professor I'm so sorry but I've got to go."
Harry soared around the pitch looking for the golden snitch. Through the corner of his eye he could see that Draco was close by, waiting for Harry to spot the Snitch. The score is currently 100- 90 with Slytherin on the lead. Most of the Gryffindor students in the sidelines were cheering on for their team while the Slytherin house was cheering for theirs. Harry hovered by the Gryffindor sidelines, and saw his friends there, cheering for him, but he didn't spot Harper.
"My first match of the year, and she's off somewhere," Harry whispered to himself, feeling very disappointed. He flew away, hoping to forget about Harper for the moment and concentrate on looking for the snitch. As he flew next to the Ravenclaw house, he spotted Cho Chang cheering for him on the sidelines, and that's when he had spotted it, hovering just right below from where Cho was. Harry propped up his broom and flew towards it. The score was 200 – 90 with Slytherin still in the lead. Ron failed to prevent the quaffles from going through any of the three hoops.
Harry chased after the snitch across the field, high above the sky and going down towards the ground. Draco was soon flying right beside him, attempting to throw Harry off of his broom.
"I'm so sorry, but I need these papers graded by tonight."
"But, Professor the match-"
"No, I'm sorry Ms. Pryce, if I allow you to leave I won't be able to find someone else in such short notice," Professor Trelawney explained. Harper gathered all her things and approached the desk in which Professor Trelawney was using.
"Professor I- "
"No, Ms. Pryce," Professor Trelawney interrupted. Before Professor Trelawney could continue, Argus Filch entered the room, with his cat Mrs. Norris, carrying a parchment rolled up in a Red ribbon.
"Professor," Mr. Filch began, with a deep scratchy voice, "a letter from home for Ms. Pryce."
