The person coming down the hall was... Cho.
"Back off, Potter, she's mine," snarled Malfoy, clutching the flowers to his chest.
"Says who?" retaliated Harry.
"The Hooded Bandit of Truth."
"What, Rob? Rob's in this? Note to self--"
"What's going on?" asked Cho, standing over the two boys.
"Cho! Baby! Look what I got you!" Malfoy said, thrusting the flowers into her arms.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"But I got you chocolate. You *like* chocolate... And look at the shiny tin box! You like shiny things, you know you do." Harry's voice was hypnotic, and his eyes were widening like a madman's.
"STOP!" she yelled. "Okay, you both wanna be my boyfriend, and I'm flattered. But there's only one way to settle this."
"... Bingo?"
"No! A civil game of trivia."
"Why?" whined Draco.
"Because one of the most important qualities of a man is intelligence."
"Ooh! I like trivia." The trio turned around, to find Rob had materialized behind them.
"It's you, you dirty double crossing--" Harry took an angry step towards the ghost.
"You can't kill me, I'm already dead," Rob remarked ruefully.
"Right, anyway..." Cho began again, a little annoyed. "I have a class to get to, so the game will be quick. We'll play to, oh, say, two points? Rob will keep score. I'll ask the questions. Ready?"
"I can't keep score. I lost my arms in Vietnam."
"You have arms! My God, why is everyone here so stupid?"
Rob shrugged and took out a piece of chalk, drawing a line down the center of the stone wall. On one side, he wrote DM. On the opposite, HP.
"First question: What is the capital of Qatar? Yes, Draco?"
"What's a Qatar?"
"I know the answer, Cho. It's Doha," Harry remarked sweetly. Rob made one line by Harry's name with a loud, slow squeak.
"Good. Next question. Give the formula for find a triangular number."
"Multiply-N-times-one-more-then-itself-and-divide-by-two," Draco answered breathlessly, before pausing to stick his tongue out at his opponent.
Meanwhile, Ron skipped down the hall whistling a happy tune. "We make the pants, we make the-- JESUS TAPDANCING CHRIST!" he exclaimed after catching a glimpse of the makeshift tournament that was going on.
"What is it, Ron?" asked Harry, frightened.
"I dunno, I just like saying that.
"Oh. Hey Ron?"
"Yes Harry?"
"You're mental."
"I know."
"Moving on... The score is currently tied. Now, the tie breaker. In most plant and animal cells, the mitochondria serves to what?" Cho tapped her foot.
"..."
"You know this."
"No we don't," said Harry.
"Fine. Who's the headmistress of Ravenclaw?"
Somewhere, a cricket chirped.
"You should know this!"
"But we don't somehow..." Malfoy's voice trailed off, confused.
"IT'S *incoherent mumble*! YOU ONLY SEE HER 500 TIMES A DAY! COME ON, HOW STUPID CAN YOU GET?"
"I honestly don't know," Harry confessed.
"You don't know my favorite teacher? You don't know me at all!"
She ran off down the hall, twisting and turning through the dark halls, not quite knowing where she was going.
She almost smacked into a tree by the Quidditch field.
Ron followed her, behind by only a few steps. Trailing at his heals was Draco, and Harry brought up the rear.
"C'mon Cho, you don't wanna hang out with these fake-o's anymore."
"Fake-o? Who are you calling a fake-o? You tried to be nice and fell flat on your face! You tried to be a... a... punk... thing and you looked ridicules! It made you creepier then usual!"
Harry snickered.
"And you're just as bad! Your costume was fun for a while, but it went too far! This masquerade needs to end." She threw up her hands. "I'm sick of you all trying to make decisions for me!"
"But that means you hate Harry more, right? So there's more of a chance you'd go out with me?"
"SHUT UP!" she screamed, then gave a manic laugh.
"You all try too hard! I'm going to give up and go out with Ron!" The object of Cho's desire beamed.
Cho pulled him into the equipment closet, and onto a broom, and flew off into the afternoon sky.
No one spoke for a while.
"My Firebolt..." Harry said mournfully.
***
"So you're not mad about the whole Cho thing?"
"Nope, not really," Harry said to Ron at breakfast the next morning. "Toast?"
"Sure, thanks."
"What I figure is," Harry began pouring his milk. "I'm better off single. It was too much work trying to get a girlfriend."
"Why are you reading the personals?"
Harry shrewdly folded up his newspaper. "I'm gonna take a break, do some soul--- oh wow." Harry craned his neck, trying to get a better view of the attractive fifth year.
"Be right back..."
"Harry! Harry, that's Draco's girlfriend, you know. Harry! Aw, here it goes..."
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El Fine