"You're staring at him again," Maria sighed, glancing at Molly. The red-haired teenager was occupying herself by staring at the Gryffindors, or more specifically, at one Gryffindor sitting next to her cousin James - Casey Chance. "Why do you like him so much, anyway?"
"He's handsome, he's good at Quidditch, he's funny, he's smart, he's friendly -"
"Never mind," Maria interrupted Molly's spiel. "Why don't you go over there and talk to him, if you like him so much?"
"Talk to him? Maria, are you crazy? I get nervous around boys I like - I can't go over there and try to talk to him, I'll sound like a blubbering idiot."
"You're the farthest thing from an idiot. Besides, if he likes you, he won't care."
"He'd never date me anyway. He doesn't date girls like me."
"He might go out with you," Maria tried to reassure her. "You never know."
Molly contented herself with gazing longingly at Casey. "All right. You believe that, and I'll stick to reality." Molly was too much of a realist to believe that she would ever be the object of Casey's affections.
She didn't know that she already occupied his thoughts, the same way he occupied hers.