Chapter Four: Drowning Dreams
Jasna was filled with a rage as she came upon the unfortunate person who had overheard that terrible ordeal.
"Jasna!" Malfoy said brightly. "Jasna! Just wanted to say…Good show!"
Jasna walked on past him, ignoring his sputtering.
"You put him in his place! You showed hi-"
"BITE ME!" Jasna whirled around, yelling, and ran down the remainder of the stairs out to the school grounds.
Malfoy stared after her, thinking 'WOW! A girl after my own heart!'
Jasna stomped off down the school grounds when she realized she didn't know where she was going.
"Well!" She cried. She decided she'd go pay Hagrid a visit.
"Good evenin', Jasna!" Hagrid greeted her when he opened his door.
"What's good about it?" Jasna
asked as she walked straight past him into the cabin.
"Well, come on in, why don't ya?" Hagrid said with a chuckle.
"Don't give me all that happy shit!" she said, angrily, falling into one of his chairs. Hagrid's smile disappeared and was replaced with confusion.
"Um, well, er, uh…" he
stuttered.
"Well spit it out, you freak!"
"Jasna, I don' think-"
"You're right, you don't think!"
"Jasna, that's enough! I won' take that kind o' language in me house!" Jasna just gave a pout, like a little girl.
"Now, if all yer gonna do is shout at me, an' use nasty words, then git out." Hagrid said, pointing to the door. Jasna remained motionless, and Hagrid sighed, pouring hot water into a cup.
"Here, 'ave some tea, then."
"I don't want-"
"You'll have some tea, or you'll look at it while I have some!"
Jasna sat back, and crossed her arms.
"Well, I bet…I bet it's crummy tea, then…" She said grumpily.
"Aye." Hagrid said, ignoring the meaning of her harsh words.
Harry tromped up the stairs, looking out at the castle grounds, and he sighed.
"She is so annoying!" He said and slammed his fist onto a stone.
"OW! That hurt!" Harry gingerly held his wounded hand as he continued down the stairway.
"Potter! Well, I guess you now know what a good telling off is like!" Malfoy said, sneering as Harry rounded the bend.
"Yes, and I've never had one before," Harry rolled his eyes. "Now go away, Malfoy."
"Well, that was rather weak, wasn't it?"
"What?"
"You usually say, 'eat slugs' or some such nonsense to me. It's tradition."
"Tradition?"
"Yes, you idiot! Tradition. You know, that thing, where you do something over and over?"
"Yes, I am aware of what tradition is, Malfoy. Now go away."
"Hmph," Malfoy slumped against the wall. "Well I guess tradition doesn't mean much to a boy without any parents."
Harry stood stock-still, closed his eyes, anger simmering inside him, and walked on.
"That's right, Potter. Move on. Forget all about the little people in your famous life. Forget all about Jasna, too. Though she's probably been through more than you ever have."
"Eat slugs, Malfoy!" Harry called back over his shoulder.
"There we go!" Malfoy said,
satisfied. Harry rolled his eyes and
walked towards the Gryffindor common room.
He gave the password to the Fat Lady and entered the common room, extremely
angry. Hermione looked up from her
book.
"You're late," she said.
"So?" Harry snapped.
"She was just making a statement! Calm down!" Ron said.
"Let me tell you something! You get in a fight with the only person who
could begin to understand you, she calls you a pathetic, fake boy wonder and
you tell me if you could calm down! To
top it off, have your worst enemy try and make you feel worse by blabbing on
about the definition of tradition!"
"Wait… Jasna said what now?" Ron asked.
Hermione was fed up herself. She
slammed her book shut.
"I swear, Harry!" She cried, "What is it with you and that girl? One minute, you're the best of friends, as
friendly as can be, the next, your screaming your heads off at each other, then
you're friends, then enemies! And why
won't you tell us what went on in that hall! You've never kept secrets from us before! What makes this so different? We're your friends, Harry! We've been through everything together! And yet, you and Jasna Larden are sharing
secrets! What is so important that you
can't even tell your best friends?"
"I'll tell you what the 'big secret' is! Everyone else seems to know! Jasna's dad is- I mean, never mind…" Harry said. Hermione gave out a frustrated growl.
"You see? You won't tell us a thing!"
"Be glad you don't know! I wish I
didn't!"
"Wait, shut up!" Ron cried. Harry and Hermione ignored him.
"Maybe if you just told us it wouldn't be so bad!"
"Are you encouraging me to share someone's private secret?"
"I said shut up!" again, they ignored Ron.
"Why are you taking her
side? I thought you were mad at her!"
"SHUT UP!!!" Ron screamed. Finally,
Harry and Hermione noticed.
"Oh, hi Ron," Hermione forced a smile.
"No more yelling! I think I've had enough of that today. You, go over there," he said to Hermione.
"But-"
"Oh, just get back to your book and shut up!" Ron interrupted. Hermione gave out a frustrated and reluctant
'Hmph' before walking back over to her chair.
Harry was laughing.
"What are you laughing at?" Ron asked and Harry was silenced, "You, go and find Jasna and apologize."
"But I don't know-"
"Hagrid's. I saw her make her way
there. No GO!"
"Fine!" Harry said as he left
through the portrait hole, "But I don't know why I need to apologize. It's her fault-"
"GO!" Ron cried, pointing at the portrait hole. Harry, rolling his eyes, exited.
"So, Jasna, 'ow's school been?" Hagrid rose a cup up to his mouth and tried to start a pleasant conversation. Jasna chose not to participate.
"Hm, well that's nice." Jasna glared at the friendly giant.
"Do you enjoy being annoying and stupid?"
"Do you wanna tell me what's wrong?!"
"Do you have to answer a question with a question?!"
"Does that bother yeh all that much?!"
"Why the hell wouldn't it?!"
"Why are yeh bein' so mean n nasty?!"
"Why NOT?!"
Hagrid sighed, and stood up, showing his full height. Suddenly, Jasna felt very small.
"Um, should I leave?" she asked, sheepishly, as she stood up herself.
"Do yeh want ta leave?"
"What's with the question thing?"
"Why are yeh asking me?"
"Arg! I'm going!" she said as she stomped off.
"No, Jasna, wait!" he called after her, "I'm sorry! What's wrong?"
"It's way too complicated," Jasna said as she walked off towards the school. The sun had set when she was in Hagrid's hut.
The evening air was clear as Jasna stepped out of the cabin.
"Well, what do I do now?" Jasna asked herself. "I can't go back to Hagrid, duh, and I can't go to the common room…'cause…they'll…yell…at…me…"
She sat down on the bank of the lake, pondering her predicament as she saw stars' reflections begin to appear on the glassy surface. She looked up at the castle, looming in the night sky.
"Everyone hates me." Jasna mumbled to herself, as she looked at the forbidding towers and doorways of Hogwarts.
"That's not true."
"Wha-a-a?!?!" Jasna jumped up, and began frantically looking for the owner of the voice.
"Relax. Relax. Settle down." Harry came out of the shadows of a nearby tree. He had an amused smile on his face.
"Don't DO that!!" Harry laughed.
"Why are you here?" asked Jasna coldly. Harry was silent, and said
"Well, you see, I was just…um…taking a walk! And, I, um, was talking to Ron and…"
"Where's Ron?" Jasna asked, looking around.
"He, um, he… Ran away. Well, anyway what he told me to say was…" he muttered something barely audible.
"What?"
"I said…" he muttered again.
"What? You say you're sorry?"
"No, I said it was a lovely night! OF COURSE I SAID I'M SORRY!" Harry was suddenly silent. He kicked the grass, and put his hands in his robe pockets.
"Yeah, well you should be…" Jasna said under her breath.
"What?"
"I said yeah, swell wooden trees."
"OK. Well, anyway, I just need to treat you with… more… respect," he muttered, reluctantly.
"Don't worry, it was my fault," she sighed, finally.
"Yeah, well, it was my… fault… too…" he muttered again. This was hard for him to say.
"No, it wasn't it was my fault." She cried.
"No." Harry disagreed.
"Yes." Jasna snapped, her temper returning.
"No."
"Yes, it was."
"No, it was my fault!"
"No! It was MINE!" Jasna shouted
"Look, I'm trying to apologize, here! Just SHUT UP, AND LET ME DO IT!!" Harry screamed at her
"Oh, cut the crap, and ADMIT it was me!" Jasna screamed back
"Look, I came to apologize, and-"
"Oh stop saying what Ron TOLD you to say, and just admit it was MY fault!"
"No!" Harry protested.
"Yes!" Jasna poked him sharply in the chest to annunciate this.
"Don't poke me!"
"Then admit I'm the one to blame!"
"No!" Harry pushed her away.
"Don't push me!"
"I will if I want to!"
"Oh yeah?!"
"Yeah!"
With that they began pushing and shoving at each other until it became a particularly brutal fight. Jasna threw a punch at Harry, who dodged it and elbowed her in the ribs. This made Jasna double over in pain and fall backwards. As she was losing her balance, she grabbed onto Harry's robes. They both screamed as they fell into the lake. Harry tried to get out of the water and climb back onto the shore, but the fight wasn't over. Jasna grabbed him by the collar and pulled him under.
"Had enough?" She laughed as she dunked him again. But when he surfaced again, he twisted out of her grasp and pushed her backwards, making her fall under.
"HA!" Harry cried. When she came up again, he pushed her head down. This happened once more until Jasna finally succeeded in splashing the green water into his eyes. Harry, now distracted, staggered and he fell backwards himself into the water. Jasna jumped on him, pushing them both under. Under the water, they tugged at each other and pulled at each other's robes. Harry tore a piece off of Jasna's shoulder and Jasna enlarged his collar with a large rip. Finally, they surfaced again, gasping for breath. They stared at each other, both of them soaking wet, hair in their eyes, damp robes hanging pitifully off of their bodies and they both burst out laughing.
"Look at you!" Jasna cried,
looking Harry up and down, "You look like… Like a… Like a dripping-wet skinny
black puppy dog!"
"I wouldn't be talking!" Harry returned.
Jasna grinned.
"I'm sorry."
"No, I'm sorry."
"Let's not start that again!" Jasna laughed.
"Remind me, how did we get in
the lake again?"
"We were arguing about whose fault it was that we got into a fight which led to
another fight which led to me poking you which led to you pushing me which led
to me punching you which led to you elbowing me which resulted in our fall into
the lake."
"What?"
"Don't worry about it!" Jasna laughed again and sighed. She pulled up her feet and lay on the
surface of the water on her back, looking at the stars. Harry copied her.
"Aren't they beautiful?" Jasna asked.
"Yeah, great," Harry muttered. They just lay there, on their backs in silence, staring up at the stars. Jasna couldn't be happier.
"You know what Harry?" she said.
"What?" Harry asked.
"You're a real good friend."
Harry was about to reply, but he heard something. He fell into the water.
"Did you hear that?" he asked
Jasna.
"Hear what?" Jasna was still floating on her back, staring dreamily up at the
stars. Harry looked around.
"Nothing…" he muttered. He joined Jasna on his back again. He was engulfed in his thoughts. The stars were so peaceful, it was a great place to think. There were things about Jasna that still worried him. She'd said Voldemort had tortured here since she was a child. But hadn't he been in hiding since she was a year old? And what were the things she hadn't told him in that little outburst in the hall? She seemed to love her mother a lot. The way she spoke about her, it sounded as if she was an angel to her. But how could a nice woman like that have such a nice daughter with a man that horrible? He was so engrossed in his thoughts, he didn't hear, nor see the figure sneaking up behind them.
The last thing the two teenagers saw, was the bright stars as a curse rendered them unconscious.
