Chapter 9-Confessions
"Mornin, Harry and Ron." Jeremy said as he saw them walking down the stairs. Hermione was already at the table with Hailie, eating their breakfasts. Steven was sitting next to Jeremy, but he wasn't eating his breakfast. He was staring at something, or someone, attentively.
Harry and Ron took seats next to Steven. Harry immediately started eating, since he was famished. Ron, however, was looking at Steven.
"Morning, Steven..."said Ron. Steven didn't move a little at the sound of his name.
"Earth to Steven! I come in peace!" Ron flailed his hands in front of Steven.
"Huh? Oh, hi, Ron! Hey, Harry! Didn't see you two coming down." said Steven, who seemed to finally snap out of his trance.
"Well, you know, you were in some kind of trace. So, who're you looking at?" asked Ron excitedly, jabbing Steven with his elbow. "Is it a girl?"
Steven didn't reply but his cheeks turned pink.
"Ah ha!!!" said Ron triumphantly, slapping the table with his palm. "So it is a girl! Come on! Tell me who, tell me who!!!" Ron was so excited he was practically jumping up and down.
"Well...I don't think I should..."said Steven shyly.
"Awww, come on, Stevy! I might know her... she might even be my sister!"
"Ummm... ok... it's that Ginny girl from 5th year. Don't tell anyone, ok? Please! Only you and Jer knows about it."
"Well, make that Harry, Hermione, Hailie, Ron and Jeremy..."chipped in Hailie. "Since we all heard it!"
"Damn!"muttered Steven, looking kind of pissed.
"Come on, Steve! You know you can trust us!" persuaded Hailie. "Don't get pissed!"
"Hmmm...Ginny...why does that a-ring a bell somewhere?" asked Ron, knocking his head as he tried to think.
"Uhhh...Ron? It's your sister!" said Hermione unbelievably. "Steve? You like Ron's sister?"
"YOU LIKE MY SISTER?!" gasped Ron, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing.
"Shhhhh!!!"shushed Steven, smacking Ron on the head. Ron was caught off guard and his head splattered into his plate of untouched meatloaf.
"Hey, what was that for?!" Ron asked crossly, his eyes shut because the meatloaf had gotten into his eyes. He felt around for his napkin and his hands felt cloth. He picked it up and wiped his face with it.
"Ron!!!"screamed Hailie outrageously. Ron opened his eyes in time to see Hailie's hand came smacking down on his head, and once again, he smacked face first into his meatloaf. "That's my robe!!!"
"Sorryyyy."apologised Ron, getting pretty annoyed. "Why does everyone keep on doing that? Is today the official 'Let's-smack-Ron-face-first-into-his- uneaten-meatloaf' day? Sheesh."
"I'm sorry, Ron. You lifted up my robe. It's called defense mechanism, you know." Hailie pointed out.
"Ron," said Steven suddenly. "Is Ginny really your sister? Don't kid around with me."
"Does this look like a 'hey, I'm kidding!' face to you?" asked Ron, pointing to his own face, making a serious face. It would've been serious- looking, if it wasn't for the meatloaf gravy dripping from his chin and cheeks.
"Errr...I guess so." admitted Steven. "You have to swear on all honors, never ever ever EVER tell your sis, promise? Do the girly cheerleaders promise thingy. How does it go again?"
"Cheer what?" asked Ron, puzzled. "What's cheer whatever you said?! Is that some kind of lady Dumbledore or something?"
"No, Ron," said Hermione slowly. "Cheerleaders are the Muggle girls who jump around screaming their heads off holding their poofy thingys. Be warned, they are very, and I mean very perky. I have a cousin, who's a cheerleader, and she's so perky, you do not want to meet her. She can make you so pissed off, you'll want to bite her head off."
"Seriously?" asked Harry, who was listening to their conversation while eating his beef spaghetti. "They can't be that bad. The way you describe it, make them sound like a girly version of Snape plus the Durleys."
"Oh, yes. If you don't believe me, try dating one of them. They'll make your brains ooze out." said Jeremy, shivering at the thought of them.
"How do you know?" asked Hermione, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Oh, Jeremy's ex-girlfriend from LA is a cheerleader. She's kinda hot, I guess, since she IS the head cheerleader. All the guys worship her. She has a perfect body and she's sexy too."explained Hailie knowingly. "But they're kapish now. Over, astalavista, baby."
"Oh really? Jeremy has a girlfriend?" Hermione asked, trying to hide her disappointment.
"I HAD a girlfriend. Not has." corrected Jeremy, looking embarrassed that the topic was now about him and his ex-girl.
"Tell me more about her."said Hermione, pretending to look excited. Deep down, she felt like her heart had been ripped to a thousand and one pieces.
"Well..."said Hailie, trying to remember stuff about them.
"I don't think we should." muttered Jeremy, "I don't think they would want to know."
"Yes, I would LOVE to know." said Hermione persistently.
"Well, all I know is that they were REALLY into each other for quite some time. She was pretty crazy about Jeremy and she didn't know it, but Jeremy was kind of attracted to her too. They started going out after one prom night when were each other's dates, I guess. Since then, they were always everywhere together. They won class couple 5 years in a row! Pretty cool, huh?"
"Um, yeah..."mumbled Hermione, feeling worse than ever.
"I have never ever seen such love birds. Even Romeo and Juliet can't beat them. They were a pretty good couple, I guess. She's a head cheerleader, he's the captain of our school Quidditch team. They were like soul mates, but more. The sad thing was that Jeremy caught her kissing one of his Quidditch mate outside school. He was broken-hearted, I tell you, devastated. But at least he got over it." Hazily patted Jeremy on the back and he shrugged.
"How about her?" asked Hermione, "Wasn't she even upset?"
"Not really at first, but when she realized what a great boyfriend he'd been, it was too late. He'd moved on." Hailie said.
"Hey, hey, hey,"said Steven, "We were talking about me and Ron here!" He snapped his fingers at Ron, who seemed to be lost in space. "You have to promise me not to tell your sister..please!!! I beg you!"
"Well, Stevy beavy, I've got some bad news for you. Do you want to hear about it?" asked Ron, shaking his head.
"What is it? Is it something bad? Or something really really bad? Or something extremly bad? Or something so bad –"
"Uh, Steven? Snap out of it." said Ron, looking dully at him. The others were all staring at him with raised eyebrows.
"Um, sorry." Steven cleared his throat uncomfortably. "So, what is it?"
"You know Ginny, she has a terrible crush on Harry Potter since she first laid eyes on him."tsked Ron.
"Ginny likes Harry?" asked Steven unbelievably. "As in this Harry?" Steven pointed at Harry, who looked up in alarm at them, with spaghetti drooling out from his mouth.
"What?" He asked them. "What're you all talking about now?"
"Harry, can you please pay attention?" Hermione said annoyingly.
""It's not like I'm such a busybody like SOME people, you know." he shot back. Hermione rolled her eyes irritatedly at him and crossed her arms.
"Ron said that Ginny likes you, is it true?" asked Steven uneasily.
"I dunno." Harry squirmed in his seat and continued slurping his spaghetti.
"What's wrong with that? I think Harry's really cute." confessed Hailie, looking at Harry.
Harry choked all of a sudden and not daring to meet Hailie's eye, he grabbed any food he could see in front of him and stuffed them into his mouth.
"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Jeremy slyly, looking at Hailie, who started blushing and turned away.
"Olalla! Hailie and Harry sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!!!"sang Ron as loud as he could.
Smack! Harry reached over and smacked Ron on the head, and you guessed it, he smacked into his meatloaf AGAIN.
"Hey, Stevy,"said Ron while wiping his face with a napkin. "Don't worry. Harry would never go out with Ginny. Right, Harry?"
Harry looked up at Ron, his mouth almost bursting with all kinds of buns stuffed into his mouth. He raised his eyebrow and reached for his goblet. He drank his pumpkin juice and with great difficulty, he managed to swallow the buns.
"Hey, guys, we'd better hurry up and eat. It's almost time for our first lesson of the year." reminded Jeremy. "Hailie, you can follow Harry and the others if you don't know where your class is."
Hailie nodded and started eating. Steven leaned over to Harry and whispered in his ear.
"Are you attracted to Ginny in any way?"
"No."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"Why? Don't you think she's cute?"
"Yeah, but just not in THAT kind of way. Just a friendly way."
"Oh. So you won't mind if I chase her, do you?"
"Steven, I don't care. I don't like her, ok? And besides, I think both of you make a good couple."
"Really? You really think so?"
"Yeah. She's cute and small, you're tall and kinda built, you can be her bodyguard and her boyfriend. A two in one package for Ginny. And you can just pick her up and kiss her."
Steven beamed very happily as he thought of what Harry said. He popped his last bit of toast into his mouth and glanced over at Ginny, who was laughing with her friends.
"She's the cutest girl I've ever seen in my life!" thought Steven, blushing. "I want to make her my girl!"
"Hey, Steven?" Jeremy's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "It's time to go! We're having Transfiguration first!"
"Oh, ok." Steven stood up, and wiped his mouth. "Who's the teacher?"
"Pro. McG. She's a nice lady, if you don't provoke her, if you know what I mean." said Ron, nodding is head.
"She's dangerous." added Harry.
"Uh huh."said Steven, raising an eyebrow. "Thanks for the ADVICE, guys, it really helped. So, see you guys later?"
"Ok, see ya!"replied Harry and Ron, waving.
Jeremy looked at Hermione and smiled at her. She looked up and forced a smile. Jeremy and Steven then walked away and up the stairs they went to get to their Transfiguration class.
"Hey, let's go!" said Harry, getting up. "Don't want to late for Snape's class!"
"Yeah, man. Hermione, are you alright?"asked Ron, looking at Hermione with concern. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"Is it about the Jeremy thingy?" Ron asked and looking at Hermione's pained face, added, "Aww, c'mon, Hermy! Jeremy HAD a girlfriend, and it's over between them now. Look, they're both like a thousand miles apart! I don't think he cares about her anymore. Cheer up. I think that he secretly likes you too."
"Hey, you know what? I just found out something. Hermy and Jermy. That rhymes, dude!" said Harry suddenly. "Hermy, Jermy, Hermy, Jermy, Hermy, Jermy."
"Harry, knock it off!!!"scowled Ron. "That's kinda annoying. But it rhymes and both ends with 'e-r-m-y! Shows how perfect you two should be!"
Hermione smiled at her friends. "Thanks, guys, for cheering me up." She stood up and tugged both of her friends by the arms. "Now, come on! We're gonna be late for Potions!"
"Mornin, Harry and Ron." Jeremy said as he saw them walking down the stairs. Hermione was already at the table with Hailie, eating their breakfasts. Steven was sitting next to Jeremy, but he wasn't eating his breakfast. He was staring at something, or someone, attentively.
Harry and Ron took seats next to Steven. Harry immediately started eating, since he was famished. Ron, however, was looking at Steven.
"Morning, Steven..."said Ron. Steven didn't move a little at the sound of his name.
"Earth to Steven! I come in peace!" Ron flailed his hands in front of Steven.
"Huh? Oh, hi, Ron! Hey, Harry! Didn't see you two coming down." said Steven, who seemed to finally snap out of his trance.
"Well, you know, you were in some kind of trace. So, who're you looking at?" asked Ron excitedly, jabbing Steven with his elbow. "Is it a girl?"
Steven didn't reply but his cheeks turned pink.
"Ah ha!!!" said Ron triumphantly, slapping the table with his palm. "So it is a girl! Come on! Tell me who, tell me who!!!" Ron was so excited he was practically jumping up and down.
"Well...I don't think I should..."said Steven shyly.
"Awww, come on, Stevy! I might know her... she might even be my sister!"
"Ummm... ok... it's that Ginny girl from 5th year. Don't tell anyone, ok? Please! Only you and Jer knows about it."
"Well, make that Harry, Hermione, Hailie, Ron and Jeremy..."chipped in Hailie. "Since we all heard it!"
"Damn!"muttered Steven, looking kind of pissed.
"Come on, Steve! You know you can trust us!" persuaded Hailie. "Don't get pissed!"
"Hmmm...Ginny...why does that a-ring a bell somewhere?" asked Ron, knocking his head as he tried to think.
"Uhhh...Ron? It's your sister!" said Hermione unbelievably. "Steve? You like Ron's sister?"
"YOU LIKE MY SISTER?!" gasped Ron, hardly daring to believe what he was hearing.
"Shhhhh!!!"shushed Steven, smacking Ron on the head. Ron was caught off guard and his head splattered into his plate of untouched meatloaf.
"Hey, what was that for?!" Ron asked crossly, his eyes shut because the meatloaf had gotten into his eyes. He felt around for his napkin and his hands felt cloth. He picked it up and wiped his face with it.
"Ron!!!"screamed Hailie outrageously. Ron opened his eyes in time to see Hailie's hand came smacking down on his head, and once again, he smacked face first into his meatloaf. "That's my robe!!!"
"Sorryyyy."apologised Ron, getting pretty annoyed. "Why does everyone keep on doing that? Is today the official 'Let's-smack-Ron-face-first-into-his- uneaten-meatloaf' day? Sheesh."
"I'm sorry, Ron. You lifted up my robe. It's called defense mechanism, you know." Hailie pointed out.
"Ron," said Steven suddenly. "Is Ginny really your sister? Don't kid around with me."
"Does this look like a 'hey, I'm kidding!' face to you?" asked Ron, pointing to his own face, making a serious face. It would've been serious- looking, if it wasn't for the meatloaf gravy dripping from his chin and cheeks.
"Errr...I guess so." admitted Steven. "You have to swear on all honors, never ever ever EVER tell your sis, promise? Do the girly cheerleaders promise thingy. How does it go again?"
"Cheer what?" asked Ron, puzzled. "What's cheer whatever you said?! Is that some kind of lady Dumbledore or something?"
"No, Ron," said Hermione slowly. "Cheerleaders are the Muggle girls who jump around screaming their heads off holding their poofy thingys. Be warned, they are very, and I mean very perky. I have a cousin, who's a cheerleader, and she's so perky, you do not want to meet her. She can make you so pissed off, you'll want to bite her head off."
"Seriously?" asked Harry, who was listening to their conversation while eating his beef spaghetti. "They can't be that bad. The way you describe it, make them sound like a girly version of Snape plus the Durleys."
"Oh, yes. If you don't believe me, try dating one of them. They'll make your brains ooze out." said Jeremy, shivering at the thought of them.
"How do you know?" asked Hermione, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Oh, Jeremy's ex-girlfriend from LA is a cheerleader. She's kinda hot, I guess, since she IS the head cheerleader. All the guys worship her. She has a perfect body and she's sexy too."explained Hailie knowingly. "But they're kapish now. Over, astalavista, baby."
"Oh really? Jeremy has a girlfriend?" Hermione asked, trying to hide her disappointment.
"I HAD a girlfriend. Not has." corrected Jeremy, looking embarrassed that the topic was now about him and his ex-girl.
"Tell me more about her."said Hermione, pretending to look excited. Deep down, she felt like her heart had been ripped to a thousand and one pieces.
"Well..."said Hailie, trying to remember stuff about them.
"I don't think we should." muttered Jeremy, "I don't think they would want to know."
"Yes, I would LOVE to know." said Hermione persistently.
"Well, all I know is that they were REALLY into each other for quite some time. She was pretty crazy about Jeremy and she didn't know it, but Jeremy was kind of attracted to her too. They started going out after one prom night when were each other's dates, I guess. Since then, they were always everywhere together. They won class couple 5 years in a row! Pretty cool, huh?"
"Um, yeah..."mumbled Hermione, feeling worse than ever.
"I have never ever seen such love birds. Even Romeo and Juliet can't beat them. They were a pretty good couple, I guess. She's a head cheerleader, he's the captain of our school Quidditch team. They were like soul mates, but more. The sad thing was that Jeremy caught her kissing one of his Quidditch mate outside school. He was broken-hearted, I tell you, devastated. But at least he got over it." Hazily patted Jeremy on the back and he shrugged.
"How about her?" asked Hermione, "Wasn't she even upset?"
"Not really at first, but when she realized what a great boyfriend he'd been, it was too late. He'd moved on." Hailie said.
"Hey, hey, hey,"said Steven, "We were talking about me and Ron here!" He snapped his fingers at Ron, who seemed to be lost in space. "You have to promise me not to tell your sister..please!!! I beg you!"
"Well, Stevy beavy, I've got some bad news for you. Do you want to hear about it?" asked Ron, shaking his head.
"What is it? Is it something bad? Or something really really bad? Or something extremly bad? Or something so bad –"
"Uh, Steven? Snap out of it." said Ron, looking dully at him. The others were all staring at him with raised eyebrows.
"Um, sorry." Steven cleared his throat uncomfortably. "So, what is it?"
"You know Ginny, she has a terrible crush on Harry Potter since she first laid eyes on him."tsked Ron.
"Ginny likes Harry?" asked Steven unbelievably. "As in this Harry?" Steven pointed at Harry, who looked up in alarm at them, with spaghetti drooling out from his mouth.
"What?" He asked them. "What're you all talking about now?"
"Harry, can you please pay attention?" Hermione said annoyingly.
""It's not like I'm such a busybody like SOME people, you know." he shot back. Hermione rolled her eyes irritatedly at him and crossed her arms.
"Ron said that Ginny likes you, is it true?" asked Steven uneasily.
"I dunno." Harry squirmed in his seat and continued slurping his spaghetti.
"What's wrong with that? I think Harry's really cute." confessed Hailie, looking at Harry.
Harry choked all of a sudden and not daring to meet Hailie's eye, he grabbed any food he could see in front of him and stuffed them into his mouth.
"Are you guys thinking what I'm thinking?" asked Jeremy slyly, looking at Hailie, who started blushing and turned away.
"Olalla! Hailie and Harry sitting on a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!!!"sang Ron as loud as he could.
Smack! Harry reached over and smacked Ron on the head, and you guessed it, he smacked into his meatloaf AGAIN.
"Hey, Stevy,"said Ron while wiping his face with a napkin. "Don't worry. Harry would never go out with Ginny. Right, Harry?"
Harry looked up at Ron, his mouth almost bursting with all kinds of buns stuffed into his mouth. He raised his eyebrow and reached for his goblet. He drank his pumpkin juice and with great difficulty, he managed to swallow the buns.
"Hey, guys, we'd better hurry up and eat. It's almost time for our first lesson of the year." reminded Jeremy. "Hailie, you can follow Harry and the others if you don't know where your class is."
Hailie nodded and started eating. Steven leaned over to Harry and whispered in his ear.
"Are you attracted to Ginny in any way?"
"No."
"Seriously?"
"Yes."
"Why? Don't you think she's cute?"
"Yeah, but just not in THAT kind of way. Just a friendly way."
"Oh. So you won't mind if I chase her, do you?"
"Steven, I don't care. I don't like her, ok? And besides, I think both of you make a good couple."
"Really? You really think so?"
"Yeah. She's cute and small, you're tall and kinda built, you can be her bodyguard and her boyfriend. A two in one package for Ginny. And you can just pick her up and kiss her."
Steven beamed very happily as he thought of what Harry said. He popped his last bit of toast into his mouth and glanced over at Ginny, who was laughing with her friends.
"She's the cutest girl I've ever seen in my life!" thought Steven, blushing. "I want to make her my girl!"
"Hey, Steven?" Jeremy's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. "It's time to go! We're having Transfiguration first!"
"Oh, ok." Steven stood up, and wiped his mouth. "Who's the teacher?"
"Pro. McG. She's a nice lady, if you don't provoke her, if you know what I mean." said Ron, nodding is head.
"She's dangerous." added Harry.
"Uh huh."said Steven, raising an eyebrow. "Thanks for the ADVICE, guys, it really helped. So, see you guys later?"
"Ok, see ya!"replied Harry and Ron, waving.
Jeremy looked at Hermione and smiled at her. She looked up and forced a smile. Jeremy and Steven then walked away and up the stairs they went to get to their Transfiguration class.
"Hey, let's go!" said Harry, getting up. "Don't want to late for Snape's class!"
"Yeah, man. Hermione, are you alright?"asked Ron, looking at Hermione with concern. "Huh? Oh, yeah, I'm fine."
"Is it about the Jeremy thingy?" Ron asked and looking at Hermione's pained face, added, "Aww, c'mon, Hermy! Jeremy HAD a girlfriend, and it's over between them now. Look, they're both like a thousand miles apart! I don't think he cares about her anymore. Cheer up. I think that he secretly likes you too."
"Hey, you know what? I just found out something. Hermy and Jermy. That rhymes, dude!" said Harry suddenly. "Hermy, Jermy, Hermy, Jermy, Hermy, Jermy."
"Harry, knock it off!!!"scowled Ron. "That's kinda annoying. But it rhymes and both ends with 'e-r-m-y! Shows how perfect you two should be!"
Hermione smiled at her friends. "Thanks, guys, for cheering me up." She stood up and tugged both of her friends by the arms. "Now, come on! We're gonna be late for Potions!"