He Who Is Not Mine

By like a falling star



"Wake up, Leia." A voice calls. "Everyone's already up."

I groan and pull the pillow over my ears, trying to block out the sound. "Go away, Padma." I say groggily to my good friend, Padma Patil.

"Yeah, go away, Padma," Gretchen teases. "You're interrupting her dream with Ron."

"Ooh." Padma bounces over. "Dreaming of Ron, are you? I should have known." She giggles. "He's grown up a lot since the summer. Very different from his Yule-Ball-days. I very nearly didn't recognise him."

"Yeah, the muscles." Even without opening my eyes, I know that Gretchen is wiggling her eyebrows. She sits on my bed and pokes me in the ribs. "Reckon he's been working out?"

A steamy image of Ron Weasley flexing his pecs, a knowing smile on his face, fills my mind. I pull the pillow over my face to hide my blush.

Gretchen snorts. "You're such a pig." She complains.

Padma pulls the pillow off and tosses it somewhere else.

"Hey!" I protest.

"C'mon, hon. Wake up. It's Tuesday." She reminds me.

Tuesday. Tuesday. Oh! My mind snaps into focus.

I live for Tuesdays. It's the day the sixth-year Griffindors and Ravenclaws have class together. Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. And with Ron.

I sigh dreamily, and get up. "C'mon, you guys, hurry up." I say. "We don't want to be late for breakfast."



*



I sigh, and my friends glance over at me with a look of concern.

It's the same every week.

I know, my friends know it, but I don't care, and they don't know why I don't care.

It's two minutes before Transfiguration, and most of the class have already gathered outside the classroom. It's a rule that no students are allowed in the greenhouse, the Potions classroom, the Transfiguration classroom and the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom before the teacher gets there.

Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are snogging.

It isn't very deep snogging, from what my friends tell me [I refused to look after the first few seconds] but they seem to be enjoying it very much. I try not to let it bother me, but the thought keeps struggling to surface- if they're acting so intimately outside a classroom where everyone can see, what do they do in private, where no one can see?

I look up. They're still at it. So are Seamus Finnigan and Lavender Brown. Their friends are around them. The Griffindor gang. Harry and Dean and Parvati and the rest of them are smiling and smirking, making stupid remarks.

"Get a room, won't you?"

"You do this so often-are your mouths permanently glued together?"

"Whose tongue was that?"

It's enough to make a person sick. I bite my lip and look away.

"Leia?" Padma says, very gently. She looks at Ron and Hermione for a moment, before nodding silently to Gretchen. "We need to talk."



*



Transfiguration was terrible.

They [you know who I mean] officially started going out sometime last week, though I suspect it's been much longer than that.

It didn't used to be this bad, before they actually started dating. They would laugh together, they would quarrel with each other, and I would feel a twinge of jealousy at how close they were.

It was worse today. It seemed that now they were officially a couple, things had changed. I had to endure the shy, lovey-dovey smiles they directed at one another and all their accidentally-on-purpose brushing of hands all through Transfiguration. It doesn't help that I sit right behind them. At the beginning of the year I was glad that I sat right behind Ron; I had a great view of his butt and it gave me a good opportunity to get to know him better. This morning, though, I wished I was anywhere but there.

I plop down onto my bed. "So," I begin brightly. "Let's talk! What did you want to talk about?"

Padma and Gretchen glance at one another, very fleetingly. "Leia. You know. what happened today. before Transfiguration." Padma begins, her voice hesitant.

At the memory, I try to stop the flash of pain that crosses my face. I keep my voice nonchalant as I speak. "Yeah, I know."

Gretchen is a little more straightforward. "Leia, you're our friend, and we refuse to see you get hurt like this." She swallows. "This isn't going to sound good, but you've got to get over Ron before it's too late." She says very earnestly.

Padma nods. "Parvati's rather close to them, you know, and it seems that." She glances nervously at me for a moment, before stalwartly continuing. "Ron is very much in love with Hermione, as she is with him."

The worst thing about it is, I know. I've seen the way Ron and the girl look at each other, and it's. heartbreaking, really. It's heartbreakingly sweet, and I wish that it was me he was looking at that way instead. Ron, with his goofy smile and witty quips.

I can't help myself. I start crying.

"Oh, Leia!" Gretchen puts an arm around me.

Padma conjures up a mug of steaming hot milk tea and hands it to me. She seems to be unable to think of anything to say.

Neither can I, actually. There really isn't anything to say.

*