Chapter Ten- Girls Have Cooties
She stepped into the house and sighed. It was just the way she had left it. The wood floors were clean and polished to a fine shine. Fresh flowers were in all the vases, Martin's doing. Walking straight to the black sofa, she turned her back to it, closed her eyes and fell down onto it.
"You can leave now," she told him.
Thump. She sat up and stared over the back of the sofa into the entrance hall. Harry had just dropped two burgundy suitcases next to her black ones.
"What are you doing?"
He walked over to the couch and leaned forward on its back as she laid back down. "What does it look like I'm doing?" he asked.
"Not leaving," Kali quipped.
"We thought it would be for the best if I were to keep an eye on you," he answered.
She narrowed her eyes and studied his grinning face. "What do you mean we?"
"The family."
"I don't need a babysitter," she told him, "I need peace and quiet. And don't you have work?"
He held his hands up in defense. "First, I have a lot of holiday time saved up and I decided to use some of it and, secondly, it'll be like I'm not even here, I swear."
"Why am I inclined to not believe you?" she sighed.
He plopped himself into one of the other chairs in the room as Kali continued to lie down on the sofa with her legs dangling over the arm. "I haven't the faintest idea," Harry told her. "Want to go out to dinner?"
"No," she answered quickly.
"Why not?"
"Not hungry."
"Yes, you are."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes."
"No."
"You know I can just keep going," Harry interrupted.
"I know, I was married to you but, if I recall correctly, I always won," she countered.
Harry smiled. "But we always had fun making up, didn't we?"
"Yes," she conceded, "we did, but I seem to remember that my last name use to be Potter back then."
Though he tried to hide it; that last remark had cut through his defenses and hurt him, badly. Admittedly, he didn't know if his ex-wife had meant it as a joke or if it was a verbal jab to lash out at him because she was mad about him staying there with her. But did her motive truly mean anything? Either way, Harry could feel his shoulders sag.
"Yeah," he said dismissively, "I'm going to go take a shower."
His heavy steps echoed through the open main floor and Kali listened to them get softer and softer till she heard the faint click of the bathroom door closing. It was the beginning of a two week dance in the Riddle house, a polite dance of the careful avoidance of ex-spouses. Sidestepping and vague small talk became the norm between them and, while one of them liked it better that way, the other was getting very annoyed by it.
"Where's Will?" Thomas asked, looking up from his Potions essay.
"With Elizabeth."
Thomas sighed. "I swear Rhiannon, he's spent every night of the week with her!"
"He's head over heels, madly in love with Miss Elizabeth Nott of Slytherin house." She too sighed, but hers was dreamily instead of out of frustration. "I wish I would be able to find someone to love and love me back."
"Uh huh," Thomas said as he stared at his essay. "I'm sure you'll find someone."
Rhiannon sat there and glared at him. "Maybe if you were a little more convincing, I would feel better about finding someone instead of always being the friend."
"Why are you even thinking about dating? We're twelve and I believe I am supposed to think that you have cooties," he replied, still working on his essay.
"Cooties? You think I have cooties?" she asked?
"No, I don't think you have cooties. I just said that most boys my age think girls have cooties," he explained. "We've been friends forever. I know that you don't have cooties."
She began to pack her things into her bag. "I think I'm going to go to the library and study for the Defense exam this week."
"Oh, I'll come with you," Thomas offered.
"No, I just want need some quiet. Bye."
She left the common room leaving Thomas to stare after her. "Why do I feel like I did something wrong?"
Things changed on the thirteenth day of Kali's awkward, mandatory vacation when they both sat down together and laughed, uproariously, at a DVD Harry had rented. After that night, it was like they were friends again, like when they were fifteen. Nearly every night they stayed up to watch a movie or discuss anything and everything they could think about or Harry read while Kali practiced her piano. His heart soared during this time. He thought he had finally figured it out. All he had to do was court her just like he did when they were teenagers.
On the twentieth day of her forced sabbatical, a black owl delivered two envelopes, one addressed to each of them. They both reacted differently to the identical letters, whereas Harry was calm, Kali was not.
"What the bloody hell is this?" she exclaimed.
"I believe they call it an invitation," he explained.
She broke her gaze from the letter and transferred it to her smirking, unwanted houseguest. "I know that, Harry. I was wondering why I got one."
"Didn't you read it?" he asked? When he got a blank stare he chuckled. "Look at who's hosting the charity ball."
"Draco and Ginevra Malfoy," she read. "Her real name is Ginevra? No wonder she prefers Ginny." Harry laughed. "What? I'm just being honest!"
He dropped his letter to the ground and grabbed her hand and pulled her close. "Want to go to the ball with me?" he asked.
She shook his hand free from hers and took a step back. "As friends only," she answered.
"Of course, nothing more," he agreed with a mischievous smirk.
"I'm warning you Harry James Potter…"
"I promise we'll go to the charity as just friends."
"What are you doing, Nott?"
"What does it matter, Goyle?" Elizabeth asked.
Anthony Avery, who inherited Pansy's nose and his father's wit, leaned against the archway leading from the common room to the dormitories. He smiled slyly at her, much more slyly than any sixteen year old should be able to.
"You've been hanging around the Gryffindor whelp for a while now," he commented.
"Don't call Will a whelp!" she shouted. "He's better than you are. Is that why your so paranoid about me spending time with him? Think I've figured out that Will is worth two of you?"
Anthony closed the distance between them in two long strides. He leaned down till his face was mere inches from her. She could feel his hot breath on her face as he talked.
"Never speak to me like that again, do you understand me?" he growled. "You need to learn how to respect your husband."
"We aren't married yet, Anthony! And if I have my way we shan't be… ever!" she declared before storming past him.
"This is so boring!" Kali sighed as she played with her drink.
When she had first entered the famous glass ceiling ballroom of the Ptolemy Hotel in her pristine silver dress robes, Kali noted two things; one, Malfoys still threw lavished soirées and, two, people became deathly silent whenever she and Harry, who opted to wear black robes, would go near them. It had become very annoying, very quickly.
"We can't leave yet," Harry whispered in her ear causing her to shiver slightly. She hated the fact that he could still have an effect on her.
"And why not?"
"Ginny hasn't asked for money yet."
"Oh, yes, for the orphaned children fund," she remembered. "What was it called again?"
She was smirking and Harry glared. "The Harry Potter Children's Foundation," he answered.
She laughed behind her hand. She had known the name of the charity the whole time, but she knew Harry hated it that the founder, Ginevra Malfoy, had named the charity that to honor him in 2008.
"Can I have everyone's attention please?" rang out a very demure voice, "Attention please!" The string quartet had stopped playing and all talking had ceased as the little redhead stood on stage waiting. "Ok, thank you all for coming to the Seventh Annual Harry Potter Children's Foundation Charity Ball!" The guests applauded. "Before I ask you to part with your money, I'd like to take some time to thank our top five benefactors from this past year. The Malfoy family, Harry Potter, the United Kingdom Quidditch League, the Nimbus Racing Broom Company and the 2015-2016 staff at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
The audience, made up of some of the most prestigious witches and wizards, applauded politely. Before Ginny could say anything more, Draco grabbed the group's attention.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "While my associates and I make our way around the room with our collection baskets, Kali Lupin has agreed to perform a song for us."
"For those of you who may not remember," his wife began to explain, "Miss Lupin, formerly Mrs. Potter, is an accomplished pianist and performer though her performances were rare and mainly for family and close friends. So this is a rare and special treat for us all."
There was scattered clapping as Kali stood up with a fake smile plastered on her face. She waved demurely as she walked up to the piano that had appeared after Draco's announcement. She stretched her fingers then cast the Sonorus spell on herself as Ginny nodded her head, Kali's signal to begin.
There's a saying old says that love is blind
Still we're often told, seek and ye shall find
So I'm going to seek a certain lad I've had in mind
Looking everywhere, haven't found him yet
Harry still couldn't believe she was up there, singing in front of all these people. She used to be terrified to sing and play for large groups. She always thought that she was terrible at singing. Once in a great while the family would be able to convince her to sing them a little ditty, but there she was, singing an old muggle song no less. At least he thought it was an old muggle song.
He's the big affair I cannot forget There's a somebody I'm longing to see
Only man I ever think of with regret
I'd like to add his initial to my monogram
Tell me, where is the shepherd for this lost lamb?
I hope that he turns out to be
Someone who'll watch over me
I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood
I know I could always be good
Someone who'll watch over me
Though he couldn't for the life of him remember the song, he knew her piano playing was a flawless example of how hard she had practiced and how talented she really was, thanks to a magical gift from her ancestor. Though her voice was also good, it wasn't perfect, Harry realized. Very subtly, her voice wavered slightly at certain points but it could have been fear.
Although he may not be the man some
Girls think of as handsome
To my heart he carries the key
Won't you tell him please to put on some speed
Follow my lead, oh, how I need
Someone to watch over me
As her voice faded, a question jumped into Harry's head. Did that song have any special or hidden meaning? Before he could ponder this rather spontaneous inquiry, Kali had stepped down from the stage and was standing in front of him waiting for an answer.
"What did you say?" Harry asked dumbly.
"I asked if you wanted to dance with me," she sighed. "Performing sort of energized me."
"Gladly."
He took her hand in his and escorted her to the dance floor just as music began. Their bodies fell back into the pattern of being close and they held each other like they use to as Harry led her around.
"I didn't recognize the song you played."
"Oh," she said. "It's a muggle song called Someone to Watch Over Me. I'm not surprised that you didn't know it. I bet no one here knew it. I found it in one of the new piano books I bought."
"But I know the song playing right now," he told her with a smirk. She smiled and it gave him courage to go on. "It's a little bit funny this feeling inside I'm not one of those who can easily hide I don't have much money but boy if I did I'd buy a big house where we both could live…" he sang quietly to her.
She blushed a deep shade of pink but she continued smiling even though he couldn't sing at all. "How do you know this song?"
"Quinn has a fondness of playing his American music in his office loud enough for the whole department to hear."
She laughed again and it made Harry's heart swell. "That sounds like something Jon would do," Kali agreed. As another song began playing, Kali took a quick glance around. "You want to leave now? I feel like…"
"I know exactly what you mean," he said.
They left the dance floor and walked to the apparition point as stealthily as they could. When they reached the appropriate area, they both disappeared, still smiling.
They both reappeared at Kali's home and, the instant that they were both tangible, they were kissing and holding each other. Harry pulled back for a moment, heavily panting, but his eyes were intense and wild.
"Are you sure about this, Kal?" he asked.
She nodded her head enthusiastically as she too was panting. "More than anything at the moment."
He nodded silently and pulled her closer, gentler this time and with a more controlled passion. She leaned into his body and they clumsily made their way upstairs while snogging. They entered the first bedroom they came to, which was Harry's, and slammed the door shut.