"I'll give you four hundred dollars to eat my shit!"-Tom
"SOLD!"-Mark
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Second Try
The rest of the week flew by at Hogwarts. Everyone seemed to be getting back to their normal school routine without problems except Sabrina. Everyone seemed to have noticed that ever since she had told Ron, Hermione, and Harry about the Wizarding Mafia over seas, she had been sulking around the castle; that is unless she was with Malfoy. Much to everyone's disgust, Draco and Sabrina were spending more and more time together. In Potions Thursday, she spent the majority of the class talking with Malfoy. Harry couldn't help to watch since they were sitting right in front of him. It always disgusted him how Malfoy would go out of his way to poke her or touch her in any way. Much to Harry's dismay, he was forced to work next to Pansy Parkinson who always stole ingredients from him or hid the most important ones so the potion he made didn't turn out right.
Another couple had been spending more and more time together, away from everyone else that is. Ever since Ron had asked out Hermione to the dance, they seemed to be flirting much more. On Wednesday evening, the two talked in the common room until 10:00 pm. Ron came back to the dormitory beaming. "She kissed me on the cheek!" He said.
With everyone close to him acting like they had all been given some sort of love potion, Harry found himself planning out his date with Cho more than he had thought he would. He planned to walk around the lake with her and talk. There really wasn't that much to do on a date in Hogwarts since you can't leave school grounds. Friday came faster than he had expected and that day at lunch, he was starting to feel nervous.
"Don't worry about it, Harry. You've already been on a date with her, remember?" Ron pointed out.
"Yeah but that didn't go well did it?" Harry said depressingly. Hermione sighed.
"You know if you think it's going to go bad, it usually will. Just be positive about. I'm sure you'll do great. Just don't act like a prick and act like you want to get her into bed. That really turns off a girl."
"I don't act like that." Harry said started to get angry.
"I know you don't but I've never seen you on a date before so who knows what you would say?" Hermione said steadily.
"Believe me the last thing I'm thinking of when I'm with her is shagging her."
"What? You've got to be kidding me." Exclaimed Ron.
"Why Ron? Is that what you think about when you're with me?" Hermione asked with growing anger. He looked at her and turned bright red.
"No! Not at all, I was just going to point out that they've already snogged and if he's like every other kid our age, he's probably going to think about shagging her or what it'd be like to shag her."
"Speaking of shagging, look at Malfoy and Sabrina." Harry said pointing over to the entrance to the Great Hall. The two were standing there talking as Sabrina was leaning against the wall and Malfoy was leaning on arm right next to her. They were both smiling and flirting with each other more so than usual. Hermione and Ron turned and looked at them then looked back at Harry.
"Harry, you're so jealous." Hermione snickered.
"I am not! But look at them! That's just rude. You don't see me and Cho or you and Ron flirting like that in the middle of lunch."
"Let her do what she wants mate. Its her own life."
"But she's making a big mistake. Malfoy's practically a Death Eater in training!"
"Even so, she has to learn it on her own." Hermione said trying to calm him down.
"I'm going to go over there and break it up." Harry said starting to stand up. Hermione grabbed his arm.
"No Harry. She'll be more pissed off at you than ever before if you do that. Plus Cho would be watching. You don't want to ruin your second date with her the exact way she ruined the first one."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked Hermione as he took his seat. Hermione sighed.
"Honestly do have any long term memory? She thought you were going to be with me on Valentine's Day right after you two were done. Then she got all jealous and stormed out."
"Oh yeah. I forgot why she stormed out in the first place." Said Harry. Ron laughed and Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry looked back at the couple standing by the wall. The two were departing and Sabrina was walking back over to the table beaming. Good, Harry thought, it's about time.
"Hey guys! What's up?" She said sitting next to Harry.
"Nothing really, how about you?" Questioned Ron.
"Oh nothing really…" Sabrina said looking down and grinning.
"Thinking of Malfoy?" Harry said coldly.
"Oh drop it. I don't get upset every time you think about Cho." She pointed out. "Is this how it's going to be from now on? Every time that I'm with him are you going to preach to me about how I don't know the real Malfoy? Because tell me now so I know that I can't be with him around you or even think of him around you." Harry put his head down. I guess I am sort of acting like a prick. Speaking of Cho, isn't your date with her tonight?"
"Yeah." Harry said playing with his food with his fork not daring to look her in the eye.
"What are you going to do?" She asked relaxed.
"I don't know, walk around."
"Very romantic." Sabrina said sarcastically.
Later that afternoon at around four thirty, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the Common Room prepping Harry for his date. When it was time to go, Harry waved goodbye to his friends and headed towards the entrance hall. He arrived there first and waited five minutes for Cho. Then five minutes turned into ten then into fifteen. Finally, when Harry had been waiting twenty minutes, he decided she had stood him up and began walking back to Gryffindor tower when he heard a voice calling his name.
"Harry wait!" Cho's familiar voice called out. Harry stopped and turned around. He was walking back to her hesitantly still feeling angry. "Harry I'm so sorry but I couldn't leave the common room. Marietta needed help with an assignment then somebody else started messing around in my dormitory looking for her hair brush and, ugh, Harry it was such a mess. I'm sorry I'm late. I tried as hard as I could to get out of there as fast as I could. Are you mad at me?" She asked looking down at the ground. When she picked up her head to look at him, Harry looked into her eyes and could tell she was truly sorry.
"No." She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
"So what did you have planned?"
"I thought it'd be nice if we could just walk around outside and talk."
"Okay, that sounds good." The two headed off. Outside there were dozens of students enjoying the great September weather they were having. Most people were doing homework or just talking with their friends but Harry noticed some couples like Dean Thomas and Ginny Weasley walking around holding hands. Cho looked at Harry and smiled. They began talking almost rapidly about their summer and the upcoming Quidditch season. Before they knew it, an hour had passed by. Harry and Cho had made their way over to the lake and were sitting there smiling at each other.
"Oh Harry, I never got to congratulate you."
"For what?"
"You know for making everyone believe that you know who is back."
"Oh that." Harry said sulkily. He didn't want to think about that night. The lurching feeling in his stomach came back suddenly and with full force. He didn't want to think about Sirius; not now anyway.
"I mean that must've taken a lot of bravery." Cho said seeing Harry wasn't reacting too good to what she had said. Harry never told her about what had happened last June at the Department of Mysteries. The only people that knew were the people who came with him.
"You know about that?" Questioned Harry.
"Yeah, I found out over the summer from Marietta. Her Mum works at the Ministry." Of course, Harry thought, Marietta's big mouth. "Well you know she's not good with secrets. It must be hard for you too keep losing people like this. I remember after Cedric died." Oh no not Cedric. "But don't worry, I'm not going to start crying again." Harry smiled.
"Thank god."
"But how do you do it. How do you deal with it? I mean he was your godfather even if he was a murder." Cho said still trying to cheer Harry up. Harry felt like screaming at her. If only he could tell her that Sirius was an innocent man. If only…
"I just try not to think about it." Harry said thinking of something quickly.
"You should think about it though. That's how I got through it."
"Listen, I really don't feel like talking about this."
"But Harry, the only way you're going to feel better is if you let your feelings out." Cho said putting her hand on his. Harry felt like yelling even more but Cho's calming hand soothed him.
"I would but you wouldn't understand. There's a lot more to it than what everyone knows." Harry said still trying as hard as ever to get out if.
"Fine then." She snapped. "I was just trying to help." She crossed her arms and looked away from him.
"I'm sorry, I would tell you but it's something that I'm not allowed to tell anyone. I was pretty much sworn to secrecy." Harry said trying to make her ease up.
"Oh. Sorry for snapping at you then." She said with a nervous chuckle.
"It's alright. There's a dance next Friday you know, and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?" Harry said trying not to show her how frightened he was.
"Really? You want to go with me?" Asked Cho sounding surprised and flattered.
"Yeah." Harry didn't know why she was asking him this.
"I'd love to go with you Harry!" Said Cho beaming. Harry smiled back. "I'm sorry I'm acting so surprised. It just everyone thought that you were bound to ask that new girl."
"Sabrina? Nah, besides she's seeing Malfoy." Harry said solomnly.
"Malfoy? He's a slimy git!" She said in disgust.
"I know. That's what I told her. She won't listen to me."
"Oh, you still talk to her?" Cho asked trying to conseal her jealousy.
"Yeah, we're friends. We don't do anything if that's what you're wondering." Harry knew how Cho thought. It was less than a year ago that she got extremely jealous of Hermione when he was going to meet her at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmade on Valentine's Day.
"Oh, okay. Still, I don't like that girl." Cho stated coldly.
"Why?"
"I don't know. One day she wants you, the next she's all over the school with Malfoy. She just seems like she gets around fast, you know?" Cho said looking over at two people one the other side of the lake. "Like right now for instance: She and Malfoy are over there flirting like crazy." Harry peered across the lake. Sure enough, Cho was right. There was Sabrina and Malfoy fliriting. Even though he couldn't hear their conversation, he knew that they were flirting. "It's just a little much. I mean, they do it all over school! Did you see them in the Great Hall today? That was right in front of all of the teachers! Imagine what they do in private!" Harry didn't want to think about Malfoy and his friend in private.
"Remember what we did in private last year?" Harry said sounding very pricky and completely out of character. Why did I say that? What's come over me? Cho smiled deviously and laughed.
"I remember. And if everything goes well at the dance, we can recreate that and add more if we want." Stated Cho sounding extremely seductive. Harry smiled and they laughed. Cho looked at her watch. "Oh my god, dinner starts in a couple of minutes. We better get back to the castle." They stood up and looked at each other and smiled. "I had a great time Harry."
"Me too. Can I walk you to the castle?" He asked.
"Sure." As they began their walk to the castle Cho grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. They passed by Sabrina who was still talking with Malfoy. Harry resisted his urge to whip out his wand and hex him and instead gave Sabrina a small wave. Cho looked at him as he did so then shot Sabrina a dirty look. And mumbled something under her breath that sounded very much like "Dirty whore." When they reached the castle, Harry felt a little uncomfortable. As ironically as it seemed, he had been on a date before but never ended one. "Thanks for a great time Harry." Cho said just as she kissed him tenderly. She smiled and pushed a loose hair from her ponytail out of her face.
"No-no problem." Harry said still a little stunned from the kiss. Cho smiled and walked back into the castle. Harry stood outside for a little longer and looked around feeling happier than he had been all summer. He had his first successful date, a date for the dance, and Cho. Harry could've stayed in that spot all day if Sabrina and Malfoy hadn't walked passed him. Sabrina stopped and waved her hand in front of his face.
"Hello? Earth to Harry. Come in Harry." Said Sabrina snapping her fingers. Harry shook it off and she smiled. "Someone had a good date." Harry couldn't think of anything to say. Malfoy pushed her on and the two entered the castle. Harry followed and for the first time in a week, he didn't feel any jealousy or anger; just complete and total serenity and nirvana.
"SOLD!"-Mark
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Second Try
The rest of the week flew by at Hogwarts. Everyone seemed to be getting back to their normal school routine without problems except Sabrina. Everyone seemed to have noticed that ever since she had told Ron, Hermione, and Harry about the Wizarding Mafia over seas, she had been sulking around the castle; that is unless she was with Malfoy. Much to everyone's disgust, Draco and Sabrina were spending more and more time together. In Potions Thursday, she spent the majority of the class talking with Malfoy. Harry couldn't help to watch since they were sitting right in front of him. It always disgusted him how Malfoy would go out of his way to poke her or touch her in any way. Much to Harry's dismay, he was forced to work next to Pansy Parkinson who always stole ingredients from him or hid the most important ones so the potion he made didn't turn out right.
Another couple had been spending more and more time together, away from everyone else that is. Ever since Ron had asked out Hermione to the dance, they seemed to be flirting much more. On Wednesday evening, the two talked in the common room until 10:00 pm. Ron came back to the dormitory beaming. "She kissed me on the cheek!" He said.
With everyone close to him acting like they had all been given some sort of love potion, Harry found himself planning out his date with Cho more than he had thought he would. He planned to walk around the lake with her and talk. There really wasn't that much to do on a date in Hogwarts since you can't leave school grounds. Friday came faster than he had expected and that day at lunch, he was starting to feel nervous.
"Don't worry about it, Harry. You've already been on a date with her, remember?" Ron pointed out.
"Yeah but that didn't go well did it?" Harry said depressingly. Hermione sighed.
"You know if you think it's going to go bad, it usually will. Just be positive about. I'm sure you'll do great. Just don't act like a prick and act like you want to get her into bed. That really turns off a girl."
"I don't act like that." Harry said started to get angry.
"I know you don't but I've never seen you on a date before so who knows what you would say?" Hermione said steadily.
"Believe me the last thing I'm thinking of when I'm with her is shagging her."
"What? You've got to be kidding me." Exclaimed Ron.
"Why Ron? Is that what you think about when you're with me?" Hermione asked with growing anger. He looked at her and turned bright red.
"No! Not at all, I was just going to point out that they've already snogged and if he's like every other kid our age, he's probably going to think about shagging her or what it'd be like to shag her."
"Speaking of shagging, look at Malfoy and Sabrina." Harry said pointing over to the entrance to the Great Hall. The two were standing there talking as Sabrina was leaning against the wall and Malfoy was leaning on arm right next to her. They were both smiling and flirting with each other more so than usual. Hermione and Ron turned and looked at them then looked back at Harry.
"Harry, you're so jealous." Hermione snickered.
"I am not! But look at them! That's just rude. You don't see me and Cho or you and Ron flirting like that in the middle of lunch."
"Let her do what she wants mate. Its her own life."
"But she's making a big mistake. Malfoy's practically a Death Eater in training!"
"Even so, she has to learn it on her own." Hermione said trying to calm him down.
"I'm going to go over there and break it up." Harry said starting to stand up. Hermione grabbed his arm.
"No Harry. She'll be more pissed off at you than ever before if you do that. Plus Cho would be watching. You don't want to ruin your second date with her the exact way she ruined the first one."
"What do you mean?" Harry asked Hermione as he took his seat. Hermione sighed.
"Honestly do have any long term memory? She thought you were going to be with me on Valentine's Day right after you two were done. Then she got all jealous and stormed out."
"Oh yeah. I forgot why she stormed out in the first place." Said Harry. Ron laughed and Hermione rolled her eyes. Harry looked back at the couple standing by the wall. The two were departing and Sabrina was walking back over to the table beaming. Good, Harry thought, it's about time.
"Hey guys! What's up?" She said sitting next to Harry.
"Nothing really, how about you?" Questioned Ron.
"Oh nothing really…" Sabrina said looking down and grinning.
"Thinking of Malfoy?" Harry said coldly.
"Oh drop it. I don't get upset every time you think about Cho." She pointed out. "Is this how it's going to be from now on? Every time that I'm with him are you going to preach to me about how I don't know the real Malfoy? Because tell me now so I know that I can't be with him around you or even think of him around you." Harry put his head down. I guess I am sort of acting like a prick. Speaking of Cho, isn't your date with her tonight?"
"Yeah." Harry said playing with his food with his fork not daring to look her in the eye.
"What are you going to do?" She asked relaxed.
"I don't know, walk around."
"Very romantic." Sabrina said sarcastically.
Later that afternoon at around four thirty, Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in the Common Room prepping Harry for his date. When it was time to go, Harry waved goodbye to his friends and headed towards the entrance hall. He arrived there first and waited five minutes for Cho. Then five minutes turned into ten then into fifteen. Finally, when Harry had been waiting twenty minutes, he decided she had stood him up and began walking back to Gryffindor tower when he heard a voice calling his name.
"Harry wait!" Cho's familiar voice called out. Harry stopped and turned around. He was walking back to her hesitantly still feeling angry. "Harry I'm so sorry but I couldn't leave the common room. Marietta needed help with an assignment then somebody else started messing around in my dormitory looking for her hair brush and, ugh, Harry it was such a mess. I'm sorry I'm late. I tried as hard as I could to get out of there as fast as I could. Are you mad at me?" She asked looking down at the ground. When she picked up her head to look at him, Harry looked into her eyes and could tell she was truly sorry.
"No." She smiled and kissed him on the cheek.
"So what did you have planned?"
"I thought it'd be nice if we could just walk around outside and talk."
"Okay, that sounds good." The two headed off. Outside there were dozens of students enjoying the great September weather they were having. Most people were doing homework or just talking with their friends but Harry noticed some couples like Dean Thomas and Ginny Weasley walking around holding hands. Cho looked at Harry and smiled. They began talking almost rapidly about their summer and the upcoming Quidditch season. Before they knew it, an hour had passed by. Harry and Cho had made their way over to the lake and were sitting there smiling at each other.
"Oh Harry, I never got to congratulate you."
"For what?"
"You know for making everyone believe that you know who is back."
"Oh that." Harry said sulkily. He didn't want to think about that night. The lurching feeling in his stomach came back suddenly and with full force. He didn't want to think about Sirius; not now anyway.
"I mean that must've taken a lot of bravery." Cho said seeing Harry wasn't reacting too good to what she had said. Harry never told her about what had happened last June at the Department of Mysteries. The only people that knew were the people who came with him.
"You know about that?" Questioned Harry.
"Yeah, I found out over the summer from Marietta. Her Mum works at the Ministry." Of course, Harry thought, Marietta's big mouth. "Well you know she's not good with secrets. It must be hard for you too keep losing people like this. I remember after Cedric died." Oh no not Cedric. "But don't worry, I'm not going to start crying again." Harry smiled.
"Thank god."
"But how do you do it. How do you deal with it? I mean he was your godfather even if he was a murder." Cho said still trying to cheer Harry up. Harry felt like screaming at her. If only he could tell her that Sirius was an innocent man. If only…
"I just try not to think about it." Harry said thinking of something quickly.
"You should think about it though. That's how I got through it."
"Listen, I really don't feel like talking about this."
"But Harry, the only way you're going to feel better is if you let your feelings out." Cho said putting her hand on his. Harry felt like yelling even more but Cho's calming hand soothed him.
"I would but you wouldn't understand. There's a lot more to it than what everyone knows." Harry said still trying as hard as ever to get out if.
"Fine then." She snapped. "I was just trying to help." She crossed her arms and looked away from him.
"I'm sorry, I would tell you but it's something that I'm not allowed to tell anyone. I was pretty much sworn to secrecy." Harry said trying to make her ease up.
"Oh. Sorry for snapping at you then." She said with a nervous chuckle.
"It's alright. There's a dance next Friday you know, and I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?" Harry said trying not to show her how frightened he was.
"Really? You want to go with me?" Asked Cho sounding surprised and flattered.
"Yeah." Harry didn't know why she was asking him this.
"I'd love to go with you Harry!" Said Cho beaming. Harry smiled back. "I'm sorry I'm acting so surprised. It just everyone thought that you were bound to ask that new girl."
"Sabrina? Nah, besides she's seeing Malfoy." Harry said solomnly.
"Malfoy? He's a slimy git!" She said in disgust.
"I know. That's what I told her. She won't listen to me."
"Oh, you still talk to her?" Cho asked trying to conseal her jealousy.
"Yeah, we're friends. We don't do anything if that's what you're wondering." Harry knew how Cho thought. It was less than a year ago that she got extremely jealous of Hermione when he was going to meet her at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmade on Valentine's Day.
"Oh, okay. Still, I don't like that girl." Cho stated coldly.
"Why?"
"I don't know. One day she wants you, the next she's all over the school with Malfoy. She just seems like she gets around fast, you know?" Cho said looking over at two people one the other side of the lake. "Like right now for instance: She and Malfoy are over there flirting like crazy." Harry peered across the lake. Sure enough, Cho was right. There was Sabrina and Malfoy fliriting. Even though he couldn't hear their conversation, he knew that they were flirting. "It's just a little much. I mean, they do it all over school! Did you see them in the Great Hall today? That was right in front of all of the teachers! Imagine what they do in private!" Harry didn't want to think about Malfoy and his friend in private.
"Remember what we did in private last year?" Harry said sounding very pricky and completely out of character. Why did I say that? What's come over me? Cho smiled deviously and laughed.
"I remember. And if everything goes well at the dance, we can recreate that and add more if we want." Stated Cho sounding extremely seductive. Harry smiled and they laughed. Cho looked at her watch. "Oh my god, dinner starts in a couple of minutes. We better get back to the castle." They stood up and looked at each other and smiled. "I had a great time Harry."
"Me too. Can I walk you to the castle?" He asked.
"Sure." As they began their walk to the castle Cho grabbed his hand and gave it a squeeze. They passed by Sabrina who was still talking with Malfoy. Harry resisted his urge to whip out his wand and hex him and instead gave Sabrina a small wave. Cho looked at him as he did so then shot Sabrina a dirty look. And mumbled something under her breath that sounded very much like "Dirty whore." When they reached the castle, Harry felt a little uncomfortable. As ironically as it seemed, he had been on a date before but never ended one. "Thanks for a great time Harry." Cho said just as she kissed him tenderly. She smiled and pushed a loose hair from her ponytail out of her face.
"No-no problem." Harry said still a little stunned from the kiss. Cho smiled and walked back into the castle. Harry stood outside for a little longer and looked around feeling happier than he had been all summer. He had his first successful date, a date for the dance, and Cho. Harry could've stayed in that spot all day if Sabrina and Malfoy hadn't walked passed him. Sabrina stopped and waved her hand in front of his face.
"Hello? Earth to Harry. Come in Harry." Said Sabrina snapping her fingers. Harry shook it off and she smiled. "Someone had a good date." Harry couldn't think of anything to say. Malfoy pushed her on and the two entered the castle. Harry followed and for the first time in a week, he didn't feel any jealousy or anger; just complete and total serenity and nirvana.