A/N: OK, since I didn't get any reviews last chapter, I'm offering cake now! : Revieeeeeeeeeeew:
Disclaimer: ditto last chapter…and the chapter before that…and the chapter before that…durg
The next day Azera took a 'day off' from Draco (even though it did include some sneaky snogging in the bathroom, wink wink) and returned to the common room for the next phase of the mission that she had dubbed Mission: So Possible. After helping Harry with his Charms essay, Azera took it upon herself to strike up a conversation.
"I heard you were really talented at Quidditch," she said, running her fingers through her conveniently long hair. "I can't wait to see you play."
Harry grinned, glad that she had warmed up to him and had lost some of the shyness that she had sported as the new girl in town. Although, he did find shyness rather appealing in a woman and was happy that Azera wasn't bold and raucous like some of the Slytherin girls. "You won't have to wait long," he said in a friendly tone. "Our match against Slytherin's coming up pretty soon. I can't wait to beat them!" he added. Although the slightly adoring look in her eyes never faltered for a moment, a voice in the back of Azera's mind chimed in, Let's see who beats who.
"What kind of a broom have you got?" she asked interestedly. Harry's eyes lit up even more than they had already been.
"A Firebolt," he said. Azera could tell that he favored his broom above all his other possessions.
"Wow," she said softly. "That must be amazing, flying on a broom like that."
"It is," Harry agreed. "Sometimes when it's dark out and I go out onto the pitch to practice, its like I'm a bird or something stupid like that, and you forget that there's a ground under you and its like your suspended in space and you can just float there forever," he added. Is he starting to confide in me already? Azera thought. Fool-boy. He's as stupid as his parents were.
But, the friendly Azera seized the opportunity. "I'd like to feel like that sometime. There are so many things to worry about here! Homework and essays and…boys," she said, almost choking on the sickening syrupiness of the last word. Acting like this had its lows, but Harry was buying it like cheap candy. A blush rose to his cheeks as he pondered her statement.
"Yeah, you get overloaded pretty quickly, and yeah there is the g-girls," he said. Potter couldn't even keep his cool. He will be so easy to do away with…
Dammit. Does he have a girlfriend?
"You got a girlfriend?" Azera blurted before slipping back into character. Harry's cheeks burned as bright as Weasley hair.
"Sort of," he said reluctantly. "She's not really, but she kind of is."
Oh. I get it.
"Oh," Azera said, trying to sound as disappointed as she could. LIKE I couldn't get better than this pre-teen! She scooted closer to him in her chair and nudged his foot with her toe, grazed her hand across his knee, and flipped her hair slowly over her shoulder. He looked like a frog about to drool. She batted her eyelashes and almost laughed out loud at the expression on his face. I guess he's not used to having girls throw themselves at him…pity. He'll never have anyone do it outside me! Where's Draco? Why am I wasting my time here…? "What's her name?" she said curiously.
"Cho Chang." The nemesis has a name. Azera sighed. Is she as pretty as me? she though sarcastically. She'll never be able to take you higher…
But, Azera had dealt with worse before. All she needed to do was break them up and get her fingernails even deeper under Potter's skin. Then, her mission was as good as dead.
In the second of two successive, depressing, almost-Draco-free days, Azera sat writing him an owl when Harry stepped into the room alone, which was very unusual. She was the only one in the common room besides Potter and it took him a moment for him to notice her. Azera covered up the note as he caught sight of her, smiled, and then came closer. "Hey, Azera," he said warmly, sitting on the edge of the table that she was sitting at. She scrawled a hasty Love, Azera on the note and then tied it to the owl's leg.
"Hey Harry," she said.
"I was thinking," he said, watching the owl melt into the shadows, "I feel like a spin on my broom. Want to come with me?"
Yes, finally he's making a move on me! "Sure, I'd love too," Azera said, rising from her seat and slipping her robes back onto her shoulders. Harry disappeared into the dormitories for a moment, which Azera took advantage of and cast several spells onto herself to make her hair shinier and softer and to make herself smell nicer. A minute later he came out, his broom and an Invisibility Cloak clutched in his hand.
Azera tried to calm herself down while arranging herself in a more flirtatious pose. There is no way he could have gotten my Cloak. It's magically locked into the trunk at the edge of my bed in the girls' dormitories, which boys aren't allowed into. Calm…
Her breathing returned to normal as Harry approached her, holding out the cloak. "My dad's Invisibility Cloak," he said proudly, sweeping it around the two of them. "No one will be able to see us when we're wearing this," he added as if she was one of his prat friends. He surprised her by taking her hand and leading her down to the Great Hall and then through the grounds to the Quidditch pitch. He took the cloak off and folded it neatly onto the nearest bleacher.
"I'll watch you for a while," Azera said before he could invite her for a go on the broom. He took the opportunity to show off his amazing skills as she knew he would- Potters never missed an opportunity to show off, ever. He banked and dived and turned over and it was close to an hour later when he came back down to earth. Azera eased her cramped legs from their crossed position as Harry helped her onto the broom. It took a great effort for Azera to pretend to be scared, but she managed to pull it off.
"You're not going to let me fall, are you?" she said in a half-teasing tone. Harry grinned.
"Never," he said. Azera wrapped her arms around Harry's waist, surprised at the muscles that she felt there. She relaxed against his back as he kicked off from the hard ground and went through a tamer rendition of the routine that he had just demonstrated for her. The wind whipped her hair against Harry's cheeks, and Azera was thankful for the spell that she had cast. She pulled herself closer to him as he looped and corkscrewed wildly through the air. Her stomach did a genuine flip as he demonstrated the Wronski Feint for her, and she found herself applauding as they landed.
"Wow," she said, "that was amazing! You were right about how it felt," she added. "I felt like we were the only two people in the world."
"Yeah," Harry said, "me too." The silence grew thicker in the air around them for a moment as Azera tilted her head and brought it closer to his, looking up at him through her lashes to gauge his reaction. He looked a little surprised and a tad reluctant, but she knew that the boy in him would win. Boys just don't refuse kisses from beautiful girls even when they have a girlfriend already.
The tips of their noses grazed together, and Azera saw him close his eyes. She decided to close hers too as she pushed her lips softly onto his. It took a moment but then she discovered that he was kissing her back. Chow or Chong or whatever her name had been was obviously forgotten as Harry pushed the kiss farther than Draco had bothered too. He pulled her gently against him as he kept it going, and Azera figured that he hadn't had a kiss in a long time, so she decided to favor him. He was a better kissed than she had expected, and it was he that pulled away first, slightly out of breath. He wouldn't lean in for another kiss- Harry was on a typical guilt trip.