Chapter 2: Shocker
Chris and Jolina swayed on the swings, everything silent but the creaking wood for ten minutes.
"Uh, chocolate frog?" Jolina broke the silence, pulling the treat out of her pocket.
"Sure, I guess," Chris muttered, barely audible. Jolie pulled out a pumpkin pasty wrapped up in a napkin for herself, and the two sat nibbling on their snack, an awkward silence creeping in again.
"Two more weeks," Hermione muttered, stepping into the backyard.
"Yep, then you'll be free for four months, mum!" Jolina called, swinging higher.
"Unlikely! Last year I barely got any sleep, replying to all the owls I got sent about you!" Hermione Potter sighed, leaning on the side of the back porch.
"What's wrong, Hermione?" Lavender Weasley asked, opening the door. "My precious, baby boy didn't do anything did he?"
Jolie snickered, then whispered in Chris' ear. He turned bright red. A few mutterings later, a pacifier was floating over his head.
"Ha, ha, Jolina. Banish it back to wherever you found it," Hermione ordered, hiding her grin.
Instead, Jolina walked away, Chris following her, and the pacifier still floating by the swings.
Ten minutes later, Harry frowned, and shook his head. "I don't get it! If anyone tries to touch it, they're forced to walk away! Just like the door to her room!"
Hermione looked surprised. "She never lets you in? She lets me in some of the time."
"Face it! She hates both of you. I think the only person she really talks to is Chris," said Cory, Jolie's eight-year-old brother.
"Cory? Room. Now," Harry ordered, steering his son into the house.
Half a mile away, Jolie and Chris were sitting by a creek listening to trickle.
"Damn," Jolie said ruefully, finger-combing her hair.
"What's you problem?" Chris asked, taken aback.
"No, it's not you, stupid. My hair's all tangled from the wind and it really hurts to undo these knots."
"Oh, I see."
"Chris? Can I ask you a question?"
"Sure!" Chris replied, eyes shining excitedly.
"Do you think I should get my hair cut?"
"Oh," Chris slumped, the excited shine gone. "I think, well… you shouldn't cut your hair. It's beautiful. You're beautiful." Chris paused. "Shit, did I say that out loud?!"
Jolina stared at Chris. "Dayum, boy! That's the second time you've said something crazy like that today! You sick?" she slapped a hand to his forehead as if checking for a fever, laughing all the while.
"Yeah, I guess…" he lied weakly.
Jolina felt suddenly anxious, like when she had been sorted…
'Hmm… maybe Hufflepuff?' the hat had asked.
'Nooo!' her mind had screamed back.
'Well, you're smart, brave, a rebel…you pretty much have your pick.'
'Then…I don't want to be a Gryffindor…don't like lions y'see… mum 'n' dad'll be mad… but who cares about them? Anyway… so it's either Slytherin or Ravenclaw. I'm not evil, but I'm not a goody-goody either. This is tough! But I don't want to be surrounded by deatheater wannabes… I guess… Ravenclaw?'
'And so it will be. RAVENCLAW!
"So. How's, erm, David?" Chris asked, startling Jolie out of her flashback.
"Who?" she asked blankly.
"David, your Slytherin boyfriend? Any of this ringing a bell, Jolie?"
"Oh. Yeah. David. Actually, I'm thinking of dumping him. I don't know him well enough," she explained, unconsciously raising Chris' hopes.
"You want me to do it for you?" Chris offered.
"No, that's okay. I think it'd probably be too weird, you know? He'd probably think you were making it all up so you could 'take me away'. Ha. Like he'd be able to do anything even if that were true," Jolina stated.
Chris smiled uneasily. There was turmoil going on inside of him whenever he spoke to Jolie. It did not used to be like that, or at least not before the summer had begun. Now, he suddenly felt full of thoughts that he had to keep inside, like the pressure in a soda can that's so strong, yet the can manages to keep it in. That is, until it is punctured. The bubble that Chris had around his inner thoughts and feelings had narrowly missed being popped and splattering all over, revealing his secrets.
"Earth to Chrissy-boy! Come in. Come in. Damnit, Chris! Enervate!"
Instantly, Chris sat up, shuddering. "Jolina, what did you do that for?"
"Dude, you've been in La La Land for like, ten minutes."
"Sorry 'bout that," Chris grinned sheepishly. "Guess I was thinking about stuff."
"There's a shocker!" Jolina teased.
"And here's another!" came a deep, male voice.
~*~
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