Disclaimer: I do not own the Harry Potter series or anything Harry Potter related.
It had been a couple of weeks since Ben's arrival at Hogwarts. Ben and I had been spending most of our spare time together. We had been spending a lot of our time in Dumbledore's back garden, practising our magic. I was surprised by the speed at which my powers were developing. Even though I had only been working with Ben for a short time, I was able to see a drastic improvement from a few weeks ago. Now I was able to control myself enough that I didn't pass out with exhaustion. I was progressing enough that I didn't need Ben's help to direct my magic anymore. We had started working on his powers now too. I had known that his powers were going to be amazing but when after working with him for a short amount of time, I was shocked by what he could do. It was like nothing I had ever seen. During one of our practice sessions he actually set a tree on fire. He quickly used his wand to put the fire out.
He had been fitting in really well here, and was easily making friends. Everyone was eager to make friends with the mysterious, American transfer. He was getting along well with my friends too. Him and Ron supported the same quidditch team, so they immediately bonded over that. Ben and Hermione had also become friends because Ben was interested in hearing about the research Hermione had been doing on the Elements thing. They often sat in the common room after classes discussing some of the things she had been reading. I was pretty grateful that they had become friends, because I knew that if Ben wasn't around I would be the one that would have to hear about her research.
Harry was the only person that didn't really seem to like Ben. Harry just ignored Ben altogether for the most part, though if Ben did ask him something, Harry would respond with one word. I couldn't understand why Harry was acting this way! Every person that Ben had met here at Hogwarts loved him, but Harry seemed to have made up his mind after only a few hours. Ben had noticed something strange too. One day, when we were walking to Dumbledore's office for a meeting, Ben asked me about Harry's weird behaviour. I just brushed it off and told him he was just imagining it, because I wasn't sure what to tell him. After that Ben just kept his distance from Harry, and Harry didn't seem to mind at all.
Working with Ben was making me realize how much work I still had before I would be able to use my powers for anything. I couldn't help but think about the war with Voldemort. I tried to put it out of my mind, but I had been waking up in a cold sweat a lot lately. I kept imagining having to defend my friends using my powers but losing control and hurting them. It made me work harder than ever to get better.
Today had been a lazy day. It was a Saturday, so we didn't have classes that we had to get to and we didn't have a meeting with Dumbledore. All of us were lounging around in the common room when Hermione decided to go to the library. Ron and Ben started a game of wizards chess after that. I was sitting on the couch watching with a sulking Harry. Ron and Ben were too immersed in their game so I decided to take this opportunity to find out what was bugging Harry.
"How's it going Harry?" I asked, nonchalantly. He glanced up from the book he was reading.
"It's going alright. What about you?" He replied.
"Not too bad! Training is going pretty well!" I said with a smile.
"That's good to hear. At least we're sure that you wont explode the planet now," he joke. I rolled my eyes and smacked him on the arm.
"You'd better watch it, Potter. I can have a boulder chasing you around Hogwarts for the rest of the evening," I said. He laughed along with me. "So, I hear that quidditch is going to be starting up really soon!" I commented.
"Yeah, it is. Are you still going to try out?" He asked. I hadn't really thought about quidditch lately. I knew that I had too much to think about right now to also get involved in quidditch.
"I don't think I can. I'm already having to balance my lessons with Dumbledore and my school work. I don't think I have enough time for it. I think Ben's going to try out though!" I replied. This was my sneaky way of bringing up his issue with Ben.
"Oh, is that right?" He replied uninterestedly.
"Yeah. He's going for the chaser position. He played at his old school," I said.
"That's great," Harry muttered.
"Ok, Harry, clearly you have a problem with him! What's the matter?" I whispered though I knew that nobody was paying us any attention.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," said Harry.
"Listen, he's never been anything but nice to you! So you have to have some reason for disliking him!" I hissed. I was starting to get fed up of Harry's mood swings.
"He just seems like an ass. And I don't particularly like how he treats you! He just flirts with you and puts his arm around you though he barely knows you," he snapped. I furrowed my brow in confusion. If I didn't know any better it sounded like Harry was jealous. I hadn't even noticed that Ben did those things. Since we spent so much time training, we had to hold hands a lot. It didn't really feel odd for Ben to place his arm around me. It felt completely natural. And as for flirting... I had never noticed anything of the sort. He was just naturally friendly with everyone. Harry was clearly misinterpreting our friendship for something more, though I couldn't understand why it would matter to him.
"Look Harry, Ben and I are friends. We're both Elements, so we share something very important. He's very important to me, so you're just going to have to learn to deal with him! And as for the flirting and stuff, I honestly don't know what you're taking about, but I suggest you keep it to yourself," I snapped back.
"Can't you see that he likes you?" He cried. Ron and Ben looked over at us. They didn't have any context for Harry's statement so they didn't know what we had been talking about. I gave Harry a sharp look and he lowered his voice so only I could hear.
"I can't believe you're so clueless. He likes you and you're just leading him on!" He whispered.
"Harry! He's just a friend! And even if he did like me, or if I liked him for that matter, it is none of your business!" I said venomously.
"I'm just looking after you, Ava," he said sadly.
"Well, you don't need to. I can look after myself," I said simply. I said a quick good night to the boys and stalked off to my room. I couldn't figure out how our fight had started. It was so unnecessary, but I was so angry that I wasn't really thinking clearly. I couldn't believe what Harry had said either! Ben liking me! That was preposterous and it had come out of nowhere.
Why would Harry think that? I thought angrily. I tried to think about times that Ben and I had spent together without everyone else. He did playfully hold my hand a lot, and he always called me 'beautiful' or 'honey' but I figured that was an American thing. As I was sitting on my bed still fuming, Hermione came into the room.
"Hey Ava. Ron told me to come and check on you. He said something about you having a fight with Harry," she said. I sighed but decided that Hermione would be an good, impartial person to talk to.
"Well, I decided to ask Harry why he didn't like Ben. It kinda just blew up from there. Harry said something about Ben liking me and that he was trying to protect me," I told her.
"Ava...," she said slowly. "I hate to say I told you so, but I did tell you that Harry liked you. I mean obviously he's jealous of your closeness with Ben."
"Hermione. That's not it. He's just being a jerk. Even if I did like Ben, it's none of his damn business," I cried.
"Do you like Ben?" she asked quietly.
"What? No. I don't think so... I don't know. I never really thought about it. He's really great, and funny but I hadn't really thought anything off it," I replied thoughtfully.
"Well, I do agree with Harry about Ben liking you. You're obviously not so good at taking his hints. I don't think that Harry reacted very well to it though," Hermione said.
"So you're agreeing with Harry? That Ben likes me? What happened to girl power?" I cried, though I wasn't really angry anymore.
"It's just my honestly opinion. And I think that if you do like Ben, then you should just go for it!" She smiled.
"Oh Hermione. What a mess. Everything is just so messed up. I'm just so overwhelmed with everything... school, my lessons with Dumbledore, now this Harry thing!" I said, as Hermione came over and sat beside me. She put her arm around my shoulder and I rested my head on her shoulder.
I couldn't believe how everything had become this complicated. Even if Harry was right about the Ben thing then I would have to deal with that. It was also difficult because I was so confused about my feels for both boys. I still had feelings for Harry. Even though we had agreed that our kiss had been a mistake, I still couldn't stop thinking about it. I kept hoping that Harry would make a move but nothing had happened since that day at Hogsmeade.
Now I had to throw my feelings about Ben into this mess too. I had to admit that he was pretty gorgeous. And being with him felt so natural. It was so much less complicated than what I was feeling for Harry. It would be so much easier to be with Ben, but I knew that my feelings for Harry would always be stronger. I wasn't even sure if I liked Ben at all.
All of this thinking was making my head hurt so I decided to put it out of my head. I told Hermione that I needed to go to bed so she said goodnight and went back down to the common room.
I lay down in bed with my head swimming.
Things are about to get very interesting, I thought before drifting off to sleep.
Sorry this was really short and stuff...I've been really busy today, so this was just a quick, update chapter! I'll update soon! :)
Thx for reading!