A/N: Here's another chapter already! I know you are all excited! See I
told you that I just needed to get out of school before I could get back to
all the good stuff! Anyway, let's just right back into it!
~Chapter 17~
After stopping in at Honeydukes and Dervish and Banges the group decided to break up for lunch. While Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco were going to the Three Broomsticks Harry and Cho were going to have lunch at Madame Puddifoot's.
Harry and Cho walked into Madame Puddifoot's crowded little café. There were some Hogwarts students mingling about but they were able to grab a table towards the back where it was relatively quiet.
"What can I get you, dears?" Madame Puddifoot asked walking over to where they stood.
"I'll have a coffee," Cho said.
"Make that two." Madame Puddifoot wrote down their order and moved away to get their drinks.
"So," Cho said as she glanced over the menu, "We're finally alone. Seems like I've been waiting forever for this moment."
Harry's stomach leapt into his throat and his mouth went dry. He didn't know what to say all of the sudden. Déjà vu flooded his senses and he thought back to his first date with Cho in his fifth year in this very café. He prayed that this one would have a much better end than that one had. "Yeah, forever," he said when he was able to get his mouth to work again.
Madame Puddifoot brought their coffees to the table and took their food order. When she left Cho started asking Harry questions about his time at University. They made small talk while they ate talking about life and what their classes were up to.
After they finished eating Cho leaned back and looked around the café. She smiled slightly. "You remember the last time we were here?"
Harry's heart sank a little. Why did she always want to bring up the past? "Yeah, I remember."
"You had made me so mad that day."
"I made you mad?" Harry asked incredulously.
She went on as if she hadn't heard him, "I just didn't know why you didn't want to talk about it. I had so much that I wanted to get out."
Harry was getting frustrated. He didn't understand what her problem was. Why was she doing this to him?
"But that was just it," she continued, "It was about what I wanted. I never thought about you." She leaned forward and took Harry's hand in her own. "It was such a hard time in your life and I didn't help. I was selfish. I wanted my own closure and to hell with what you were feeling. And then to top it all off I was...well...jealous."
"Jealous?" Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. Cho was apologizing for what had happened all those years ago.
"Yes, you were always with Hermione and at the time I didn't know better. But like I told you the other day, I know see where her interests really are."
Harry still didn't understand. What exactly did she see? "What are you talking about? What do you see?"
"Well isn't she with Ron?" Cho asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Harry was about to laugh and say of course not but then thought for a moment, weren't his two best friends all of a sudden spending a lot of time together? Well, they always spent time together, but more time than usual. Didn't he see them from his bedroom window taking walks past curfew? The pieces of the puzzle finally started to come together in Harry's mind. His two best friends were together. Not that it really surprised him, but he was surprised that neither of them had mentioned it to him before. He made a mental note to bring it up to Ron later.
"Well, yeah, but why couldn't you just take my word about it when we were in school?" he asked.
"I don't know," Cho answered looking away sadly, "I'm sorry."
"Hey now. Don't get like that. No use worrying about it now I guess." Cho nodded her head in agreement but Harry saw that she still felt bad that her misconceptions had caused them grief at the time. "Look, I know that you had your reasons for thinking what you thought back then, but there is nothing that you can do to change that now. You can only learn from it and move on. Besides," he said leaning back and spreading his arms, "we're here aren't we?"
Cho smiled, "Yes."
Harry smiled back, "Good, so then no more talk about the past, deal?" He put out his hand toward her.
Cho placed her hand in his, "Deal!"
~ At the Three Broomsticks ~
Ron hated to admit it but Hermione was right. Ginny did seem happy with Draco and he was behaving like a perfect gentleman with her. He opened doors, pulled out chairs for her, and listened attentively while she or Hermione spoke. The only time that he held hands with Ginny was when Ginny took his hand and Ron assumed that was because he didn't want to make any moves on her in front of her brother.
Ron pretty much stayed out of the conversation and only joined in when someone directly asked him a question. He would have much rather just observed Draco with his sister for now and reserve conversation for a time when he could say more than how much he hated him.
After lunch Ron and Draco left the girls at the table to go pay the check at the bar. "Do you think that's a good idea?" Ginny asked a little worried.
"Don't worry," Hermione tried to reassure her, "they'll be fine."
As they walked up to the bar Draco asked, "Is this where you tell me I'd better not hurt your sister?"
Ron glared at Draco for a moment before answering, "You seem to know that already so I'll just say this, make her happy."
"Look, for whatever it's worth, I do care for your sister."
"I'm reserving judgment on that," Ron answered and paid the bill.
~~~
They met up with Harry and Cho again and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around looking in shops and chatting. The biggest surprise came at the end of the day just before they were to return to Hogwarts when they were passing by the Hog's Head as Neville and Parvati were coming out. The two of them were laughing as if they'd just heard the funniest joke in the entire world – and they were holding hands.
Six equally shocked eyes were staring at the two. When they noticed they had an audience the quickly stopped laughing and let go of their hands.
"Oh...hi guys," Neville said.
"Hi Neville, Parvati," Harry answered.
Everyone murmured hellos still quite shocked at what they had just witnessed.
"Well...we'd better be off," Neville said putting his hand on the small of Parvati's back and guiding her past the group who was still watching their every move. When they got to a distance that they thought was safe they started holding hands again unaware that they were still being watched.
Ron seemed to recover first, "When in the name of Merlin did that happen?
They were still standing there in a daze when another group exited out of the Hog's Head who also wasn't paying attention and who had the unfortunate luck of running right into Draco...again.
"Oh my God! I am so sorry Professor Malfoy!" Coop was saying his face a flaming red color.
Ginny bit back a smile and bent down to help Draco up. "Where is he?" Draco spat out.
Ron openly laughed out loud at the situation, his day had just gotten a whole lot better.
"I'm sorry Professor!" Coop said again while Emily and Tyler tried hard not to laugh at their friend's horrible luck.
Ginny quickly tried to smooth over the situation, "Don't worry Coop, Professor Malfoy is alright. No harm done." Draco's mouth was shut in a thin grim line that betrayed his real sentiment. "See, everyone's alright."
"Yeah, Malfoy, you alright there?" Ron asked him with barely contained glee.
Draco shot him a look that could have melted steel, which only caused Ron to grin wider.
"Alright you two," Hermione said, "That's enough. Actually, we'd better get going. It's time to go back to the school."
The group started heading back to the school with Emily, Tyler and Coop following behind. "You OK?" Emily asked, concerned for her friend.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Coop grumbled.
"You sure?"
"I said I was fine!" Coop snapped back.
"Sorry I asked," she replied and walked off ahead of Coop and Tyler. Emily tried to not take offense to her friends scathing remark. She knew that his ego was a little bruised over his latest encounter with Draco and he couldn't be feeling too good about that.
"Excuse me, Professor Weasley, Professor Granger?" The two women turned around at the sound of their names.
"Yes Emily?" Hermione said. By this time the rest of the group had stopped walking and Emily felt a bit silly that she wanted to talk to her teachers about her friends.
"Never mind," she said and started to turn around.
Ginny stopped her before she could leave, "What is it Emily?"
"Um, It's nothing really. I just wanted to know if I could talk to you for a minute, but I don't want to interrupt or anything."
"It's not a problem at all," Hermione said. She tuned back to the others. "You guys go ahead, we'll be right behind you."
Everyone walked on ahead of them and they ended up trailing everyone on the walk back to Hogwarts. "So what's on your mind Emily?" Ginny asked.
"Well, it's my friends see. I'm just having a rough time of it with them. It's like one minute all I'm good for is to help them with their homework then the next minute I'm a nuisance. It seems that everything I say to them is wrong."
"Like you have to work twice as hard for the same recognition," Ginny volunteered.
"Exactly," Emily agreed, "And then when I try to help them out with things they don't want it but when they can't get something done it's like I'm expected to just drop everything and do for them. And then he only thinks of me as one of the guys—"
"He?" Hermione interrupted. She and Ginny exchanged knowing looks, "Any particular he?"
Emily's face was scarlet, "I meant they, but then when we play Quidditch he holds back." Ginny and Hermione let the use of he slip by as Emily continued, "I mean, he thinks I'm just one of the guys, but apparently that doesn't extend to the Quidditch Pitch where I'm a baby who needs supervision so I don't hurt myself."
Emily took a breath. "Well, I thought I'd ask you two about it since you have all those brother," she said looking at Ginny, "and you're such good friends with Professor Potter and Professor Weasley," she said looking at Hermione, "I thought that maybe you'd be able to give me a bit of advice."
"Well," Hermione started, "I wish that I could tell you that it will get better, but guys are just as unpredictable at what they're going to do or when they're going to do it when they're older."
"She's right," Ginny agreed, "Believe me with six brothers I know how it is. But they do have some redeeming qualities. Sometimes it's their unpredictability that makes them so special," she said smiling as she thought of how wrong she had been about Draco and how happy he was making her now.
"Exactly," Hermione said, "But if you're worried that Coop isn't being receptive to your feelings you can try talking to him."
"Coop?" Emily asked her face becoming even redder. "Who said anything about Coop?"
Hermione recovered quickly, "Er—well, whichever guy you're worried about. Maybe if you talk to them, they'll realize that they're hurting your feeling."
"I guess you're right. Thanks you for listening to me. I really feel better. Its kind of hard not having a close female friend to talk to."
Hermione laughed, "Oh believe me I know! I remember this one time in third year—"she stopped walking abruptly and pulled Emily behind her.
"What is it?" Ginny asked as Hermione pulled out her wand. Ginny pulled out her wand as well.
"There in the forest. I thought I saw a dark hooded figure. Stay behind me Emily."
Emily's heart started pounding as she looked wildly toward the forest looking for any movement in the trees. She didn't see anything and thought that maybe her teacher had just mistaken an animal moving for something else when a green flash came in their direction and Hermione fell to the ground.
Everything happened in a blur. Emily started screaming. "Professor Granger!" she cried kneeling down next to her teacher.
"Stay down!" Ginny told her as she still searched the woods for their unknown assailant.
Down the road the others heard the scream and when they turned around Ron's heart stopped beating. "HERMIONE!" he screamed.
Harry told Cho to quickly get the students back to the school before hurrying after Ron and Draco who were running to where the girls were. Tyler and Coop, who were behind the other students, also started running back to get Emily to safety. Before anyone could reach them another green flash came out of the forest and Ginny was also falling to the ground. "Professor Weasley!" Emily cried and turned to see if she could help her other teacher.
Just then Ron, Draco, and Harry reached them, wands at the ready. "Get her out of here!" Harry called out to Tyler and Coop who were kneeling next to Emily.
"Come on Emily, we have to get out of here!" Coop said urgently. He grabbed her arms and tried to pull her up.
"No!" Emily cried out, "Professor Weasley, Professor Granger, wake up!"
"We have to go!" Tyler said. They finally managed to get her up albeit difficultly as she wanted to stay with her teachers to make sure they were all right.
As they were walking away they heard a loud call coming from the direction of the woods "MORSMORDRE!"
Emily and the others turned at the sound of the spell being cast. Emily's eyes went wide with fear as she glanced at the giant emerald skull insignia of the Death Eaters in the sky. Emily promptly fainted and Coop caught her before she hit the ground.
A/N: So the poo FINALLY hit the fan!!! And look there's a bit of a cliffy!!! He he he. Anyway, thanks so much to my readers who have stuck with me while I've been trying to get all my school stuff done, but now that I'm on break I'll be able to update much more frequently. Well at least until classes start up again in January. Oh did everyone get a chance to check out the PoA trailer??? Looks good! I can't wait for the movie to come out! I'm uber excited about that one! Anyway, review if you have time! L8tr!
~Chapter 17~
After stopping in at Honeydukes and Dervish and Banges the group decided to break up for lunch. While Ron, Hermione, Ginny, and Draco were going to the Three Broomsticks Harry and Cho were going to have lunch at Madame Puddifoot's.
Harry and Cho walked into Madame Puddifoot's crowded little café. There were some Hogwarts students mingling about but they were able to grab a table towards the back where it was relatively quiet.
"What can I get you, dears?" Madame Puddifoot asked walking over to where they stood.
"I'll have a coffee," Cho said.
"Make that two." Madame Puddifoot wrote down their order and moved away to get their drinks.
"So," Cho said as she glanced over the menu, "We're finally alone. Seems like I've been waiting forever for this moment."
Harry's stomach leapt into his throat and his mouth went dry. He didn't know what to say all of the sudden. Déjà vu flooded his senses and he thought back to his first date with Cho in his fifth year in this very café. He prayed that this one would have a much better end than that one had. "Yeah, forever," he said when he was able to get his mouth to work again.
Madame Puddifoot brought their coffees to the table and took their food order. When she left Cho started asking Harry questions about his time at University. They made small talk while they ate talking about life and what their classes were up to.
After they finished eating Cho leaned back and looked around the café. She smiled slightly. "You remember the last time we were here?"
Harry's heart sank a little. Why did she always want to bring up the past? "Yeah, I remember."
"You had made me so mad that day."
"I made you mad?" Harry asked incredulously.
She went on as if she hadn't heard him, "I just didn't know why you didn't want to talk about it. I had so much that I wanted to get out."
Harry was getting frustrated. He didn't understand what her problem was. Why was she doing this to him?
"But that was just it," she continued, "It was about what I wanted. I never thought about you." She leaned forward and took Harry's hand in her own. "It was such a hard time in your life and I didn't help. I was selfish. I wanted my own closure and to hell with what you were feeling. And then to top it all off I was...well...jealous."
"Jealous?" Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. Cho was apologizing for what had happened all those years ago.
"Yes, you were always with Hermione and at the time I didn't know better. But like I told you the other day, I know see where her interests really are."
Harry still didn't understand. What exactly did she see? "What are you talking about? What do you see?"
"Well isn't she with Ron?" Cho asked as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Harry was about to laugh and say of course not but then thought for a moment, weren't his two best friends all of a sudden spending a lot of time together? Well, they always spent time together, but more time than usual. Didn't he see them from his bedroom window taking walks past curfew? The pieces of the puzzle finally started to come together in Harry's mind. His two best friends were together. Not that it really surprised him, but he was surprised that neither of them had mentioned it to him before. He made a mental note to bring it up to Ron later.
"Well, yeah, but why couldn't you just take my word about it when we were in school?" he asked.
"I don't know," Cho answered looking away sadly, "I'm sorry."
"Hey now. Don't get like that. No use worrying about it now I guess." Cho nodded her head in agreement but Harry saw that she still felt bad that her misconceptions had caused them grief at the time. "Look, I know that you had your reasons for thinking what you thought back then, but there is nothing that you can do to change that now. You can only learn from it and move on. Besides," he said leaning back and spreading his arms, "we're here aren't we?"
Cho smiled, "Yes."
Harry smiled back, "Good, so then no more talk about the past, deal?" He put out his hand toward her.
Cho placed her hand in his, "Deal!"
~ At the Three Broomsticks ~
Ron hated to admit it but Hermione was right. Ginny did seem happy with Draco and he was behaving like a perfect gentleman with her. He opened doors, pulled out chairs for her, and listened attentively while she or Hermione spoke. The only time that he held hands with Ginny was when Ginny took his hand and Ron assumed that was because he didn't want to make any moves on her in front of her brother.
Ron pretty much stayed out of the conversation and only joined in when someone directly asked him a question. He would have much rather just observed Draco with his sister for now and reserve conversation for a time when he could say more than how much he hated him.
After lunch Ron and Draco left the girls at the table to go pay the check at the bar. "Do you think that's a good idea?" Ginny asked a little worried.
"Don't worry," Hermione tried to reassure her, "they'll be fine."
As they walked up to the bar Draco asked, "Is this where you tell me I'd better not hurt your sister?"
Ron glared at Draco for a moment before answering, "You seem to know that already so I'll just say this, make her happy."
"Look, for whatever it's worth, I do care for your sister."
"I'm reserving judgment on that," Ron answered and paid the bill.
~~~
They met up with Harry and Cho again and spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around looking in shops and chatting. The biggest surprise came at the end of the day just before they were to return to Hogwarts when they were passing by the Hog's Head as Neville and Parvati were coming out. The two of them were laughing as if they'd just heard the funniest joke in the entire world – and they were holding hands.
Six equally shocked eyes were staring at the two. When they noticed they had an audience the quickly stopped laughing and let go of their hands.
"Oh...hi guys," Neville said.
"Hi Neville, Parvati," Harry answered.
Everyone murmured hellos still quite shocked at what they had just witnessed.
"Well...we'd better be off," Neville said putting his hand on the small of Parvati's back and guiding her past the group who was still watching their every move. When they got to a distance that they thought was safe they started holding hands again unaware that they were still being watched.
Ron seemed to recover first, "When in the name of Merlin did that happen?
They were still standing there in a daze when another group exited out of the Hog's Head who also wasn't paying attention and who had the unfortunate luck of running right into Draco...again.
"Oh my God! I am so sorry Professor Malfoy!" Coop was saying his face a flaming red color.
Ginny bit back a smile and bent down to help Draco up. "Where is he?" Draco spat out.
Ron openly laughed out loud at the situation, his day had just gotten a whole lot better.
"I'm sorry Professor!" Coop said again while Emily and Tyler tried hard not to laugh at their friend's horrible luck.
Ginny quickly tried to smooth over the situation, "Don't worry Coop, Professor Malfoy is alright. No harm done." Draco's mouth was shut in a thin grim line that betrayed his real sentiment. "See, everyone's alright."
"Yeah, Malfoy, you alright there?" Ron asked him with barely contained glee.
Draco shot him a look that could have melted steel, which only caused Ron to grin wider.
"Alright you two," Hermione said, "That's enough. Actually, we'd better get going. It's time to go back to the school."
The group started heading back to the school with Emily, Tyler and Coop following behind. "You OK?" Emily asked, concerned for her friend.
"Yeah, I'm fine," Coop grumbled.
"You sure?"
"I said I was fine!" Coop snapped back.
"Sorry I asked," she replied and walked off ahead of Coop and Tyler. Emily tried to not take offense to her friends scathing remark. She knew that his ego was a little bruised over his latest encounter with Draco and he couldn't be feeling too good about that.
"Excuse me, Professor Weasley, Professor Granger?" The two women turned around at the sound of their names.
"Yes Emily?" Hermione said. By this time the rest of the group had stopped walking and Emily felt a bit silly that she wanted to talk to her teachers about her friends.
"Never mind," she said and started to turn around.
Ginny stopped her before she could leave, "What is it Emily?"
"Um, It's nothing really. I just wanted to know if I could talk to you for a minute, but I don't want to interrupt or anything."
"It's not a problem at all," Hermione said. She tuned back to the others. "You guys go ahead, we'll be right behind you."
Everyone walked on ahead of them and they ended up trailing everyone on the walk back to Hogwarts. "So what's on your mind Emily?" Ginny asked.
"Well, it's my friends see. I'm just having a rough time of it with them. It's like one minute all I'm good for is to help them with their homework then the next minute I'm a nuisance. It seems that everything I say to them is wrong."
"Like you have to work twice as hard for the same recognition," Ginny volunteered.
"Exactly," Emily agreed, "And then when I try to help them out with things they don't want it but when they can't get something done it's like I'm expected to just drop everything and do for them. And then he only thinks of me as one of the guys—"
"He?" Hermione interrupted. She and Ginny exchanged knowing looks, "Any particular he?"
Emily's face was scarlet, "I meant they, but then when we play Quidditch he holds back." Ginny and Hermione let the use of he slip by as Emily continued, "I mean, he thinks I'm just one of the guys, but apparently that doesn't extend to the Quidditch Pitch where I'm a baby who needs supervision so I don't hurt myself."
Emily took a breath. "Well, I thought I'd ask you two about it since you have all those brother," she said looking at Ginny, "and you're such good friends with Professor Potter and Professor Weasley," she said looking at Hermione, "I thought that maybe you'd be able to give me a bit of advice."
"Well," Hermione started, "I wish that I could tell you that it will get better, but guys are just as unpredictable at what they're going to do or when they're going to do it when they're older."
"She's right," Ginny agreed, "Believe me with six brothers I know how it is. But they do have some redeeming qualities. Sometimes it's their unpredictability that makes them so special," she said smiling as she thought of how wrong she had been about Draco and how happy he was making her now.
"Exactly," Hermione said, "But if you're worried that Coop isn't being receptive to your feelings you can try talking to him."
"Coop?" Emily asked her face becoming even redder. "Who said anything about Coop?"
Hermione recovered quickly, "Er—well, whichever guy you're worried about. Maybe if you talk to them, they'll realize that they're hurting your feeling."
"I guess you're right. Thanks you for listening to me. I really feel better. Its kind of hard not having a close female friend to talk to."
Hermione laughed, "Oh believe me I know! I remember this one time in third year—"she stopped walking abruptly and pulled Emily behind her.
"What is it?" Ginny asked as Hermione pulled out her wand. Ginny pulled out her wand as well.
"There in the forest. I thought I saw a dark hooded figure. Stay behind me Emily."
Emily's heart started pounding as she looked wildly toward the forest looking for any movement in the trees. She didn't see anything and thought that maybe her teacher had just mistaken an animal moving for something else when a green flash came in their direction and Hermione fell to the ground.
Everything happened in a blur. Emily started screaming. "Professor Granger!" she cried kneeling down next to her teacher.
"Stay down!" Ginny told her as she still searched the woods for their unknown assailant.
Down the road the others heard the scream and when they turned around Ron's heart stopped beating. "HERMIONE!" he screamed.
Harry told Cho to quickly get the students back to the school before hurrying after Ron and Draco who were running to where the girls were. Tyler and Coop, who were behind the other students, also started running back to get Emily to safety. Before anyone could reach them another green flash came out of the forest and Ginny was also falling to the ground. "Professor Weasley!" Emily cried and turned to see if she could help her other teacher.
Just then Ron, Draco, and Harry reached them, wands at the ready. "Get her out of here!" Harry called out to Tyler and Coop who were kneeling next to Emily.
"Come on Emily, we have to get out of here!" Coop said urgently. He grabbed her arms and tried to pull her up.
"No!" Emily cried out, "Professor Weasley, Professor Granger, wake up!"
"We have to go!" Tyler said. They finally managed to get her up albeit difficultly as she wanted to stay with her teachers to make sure they were all right.
As they were walking away they heard a loud call coming from the direction of the woods "MORSMORDRE!"
Emily and the others turned at the sound of the spell being cast. Emily's eyes went wide with fear as she glanced at the giant emerald skull insignia of the Death Eaters in the sky. Emily promptly fainted and Coop caught her before she hit the ground.
A/N: So the poo FINALLY hit the fan!!! And look there's a bit of a cliffy!!! He he he. Anyway, thanks so much to my readers who have stuck with me while I've been trying to get all my school stuff done, but now that I'm on break I'll be able to update much more frequently. Well at least until classes start up again in January. Oh did everyone get a chance to check out the PoA trailer??? Looks good! I can't wait for the movie to come out! I'm uber excited about that one! Anyway, review if you have time! L8tr!