Chapter 12

John entered the common room and sat down on a chair next to Mike and Sarah. Mike raised his eyebrows. 'You look happy.'

'Do I? Oh, it's just… No homework.' John shrugged.

'Listen, John, I was wondering…' said Sarah, looking up from the book she was reading. 'D'you want to go to Slughorn's party with me?'

'Oh,' said John. How was he going to explain to Sarah he was going with Sherlock? 'Well, I'm kind of busy that day, actually.'

'Doing what?'

'You know… homework and all. And I've got to practice for Quidditch, too. So I don't think I'll be able to come – sorry.'

'That's okay,' said Sarah, but her voice sounded small. She returned to her book.

John felt bad, but he'd already promised to go with Sherlock.

After a while Sarah stood up and left. Mike looked at John. 'You're not really busy on the day of the party, are you?'

John's eyes widened. Did Mike know about him and Sherlock going together?

'If you don't like her anymore, you could just say it.'

John sighed in relief. Clearly, Mike didn't know. He thought John had declined because he didn't want to go with Sarah. 'That's not it, Mike. Are you going?'

Mike shook his head. 'Slughorn didn't invite me and no one seems to want to go with me. I'm not as lucky as you.' He chuckled. 'Though you didn't even accept her invitation! You could've agreed to come with her as friends, you know.'

So when I go with Sherlock – will we be going as friends? wondered John. Or are we more than that?

...

When John left the common room, Sherlock was already standing outside of the Fat Lady. He was wearing beautiful dress robes that took John's breath away. 'Wow,' John managed to say.

'John!' said Sherlock, smiling as he surveyed his friend. He nodded approvingly. 'You look good.'

John felt himself getting red. 'Thanks. You too.'

'So… shall we go?' When John looked up, he saw Sherlock was looking at him awkwardly.

'Sure,' he answered.

They made their way to Professor Slughorn's office. John felt slightly nervous, but also happy. He kept glancing at Sherlock, quickly looking away when he found his friend was looking at him, too.

'Ah, Mr Holmes,' said Professor Slughorn when they'd arrived. 'And you've brought John with you, I see?'

'Yes, sir,' said Sherlock. 'He wasn't invited, so I decided to let him come with me.' There was something accusing in his voice, but Slughorn didn't seem to realize it.

'How nice of you. Come in!' He stepped aside and the two boys entered the room.

The room was decorated with hangings, lamps and balloons. It was crowded with students and some house-elves who were carrying heavy silver platters of food. Loud music John didn't recognize was playing.

They stood in the corner of the room for a few minutes, until John asked, 'So should we… dance?'

'I don't dance,' said Sherlock immediately.

'Oh,' said John.

A house-elf approached them. 'Would you like a pasty?'

'Yes, please,' said John, taking one.

'What about you, sir?'

'No, thanks,' said Sherlock with a smile. The house-elf disappeared into the crowd again.

'D'you ever eat?' asked John.

'If I didn't, I wouldn't be here, would I?' replied Sherlock. Seeing John's grin, he asked, 'What?'

'Nothing,' said John quickly.

Sherlock heaved a sigh.

'What?' asked John.

'Parties are dull.'

'They are,' agreed John. 'Shouldn't we go talk to someone?'

'Don't feel like it.'

'D'you feel like doing anything?'
'Well, standing here with you is fine.'

'Thanks.' John looked at the dancing people, then froze. A brown-haired girl with a pink dress was standing on the dance floor, talking to a Ravenclaw boy he didn't recognize. He should've known she'd be here. She asked him with her, after all.
It was Sarah.

Sherlock had noticed John's reaction. 'What?'

John stared at Sarah. She clearly hadn't seen him yet, but he couldn't risk it. She thought he wasn't going to the party. If she saw him, she'd be really angry at him. And if she saw he was with Sherlock–

'We need to get out of here!' John hissed, grabbing Sherlock's sleeve and pulling him with him, past the dance floor, towards the door.

Sherlock was struggling. 'Why?'

'I'll tell you when we're outside! We need to leave!' said John urgently, still moving towards the door.

Sherlock clearly didn't understand what was going on, but he followed John out of the room, into the corridor. 'What the hell is going on?' He looked at the dancing people in Slughorn's office and his expression hardened. 'Oh, I see. It's about Sarah, isn't it?'

'Yes,' admitted John. 'I told her–'

But Sherlock turned around and started to walk away.

'Sherlock? What's wrong?' John called after him.

Sherlock stopped walking and turned around. 'Why'd you even agree to go to the party with me?'

John frowned. 'What d'you mean?'

'Obviously you don't want to be seen with me at the party. That's why we had to leave, isn't it? You're ashamed of me.'

'Of course I'm not ashamed of you!' said John disbelievingly. 'You don't understand!'

'Oh, I understand. You'd rather be friends with the other Gryffindors, wouldn't you? Well, that's fine by me. At least you could've told me, though!'

John felt himself getting angry. 'I'm not the one having secrets! Why don't you tell me why you've only arrived at Hogwarts this year?'

'It doesn't matter,' said Sherlock coldly.

'It matters to me! I'm your friend, right? Why won't you tell me?'

'Why won't you tell me you don't want to be friends?' said Sherlock angrily.

'I do want to be friends!'

'So why don't you want Sarah to see us together at Slughorn's party?'

'Because I told her I wouldn't go when she asked me!'

Sherlock raised his eyebrows. 'Yeah, right.' He turned around and stalked off.

'Well, if you don't believe me, that's fine!' John shouted. 'I don't care!'

But he did care. And as Sherlock disappeared from his sight, he sank down to the floor and buried his face in his hands.

I'm so freaked out over The Reichenbach Fall this Sunday! I'm sure it's going to be amazing, but someone's going to die and I can't even adkfjsdf

Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter, I'll try to update soon again because we don't want Sherlock and John to be angry with each other, do we? 0_o

So yeah, thanks to all of you for reviewing, and yes they will kiss soon :P

SevLovesLily thanks for the tip! I think I'll keep using ' marks in this story because I've been using those from the start but I'll use the double ones if I'm going to write another story n_n