Chapter Eight: Harry's Ways
The next morning Hermione awoke to find Lauren sitting on the bed and twirling her hair around her fingers. She was obviously worrying or thinking about something, so Hermione came over to help her out.
"Hey Lauren, is everything all right?" Hermione asked, quietly.
"Yeah Hermione, with me it is… but not with Harry. Hermione, he thinks he's in love with me! You know how I feel about Harry!" Lauren exclaimed.
"Do I?" Murmured Hermione, under her breath.
"What?" Asked Lauren.
"Oh, nothing… yes, I know how you say you feel." Hermione replied.
"Hermione Granger, that is EXACTLY how I feel about that boy!" Lauren snapped. She had been under a lot of stress lately because she had a feeling the prophecy was soon going to come true.
"Okay." Hermione shrugged, knowing when to give up. "Then what are you going to do when he asks you out?"
"That will not happen as long as I can have my way." Lauren confidently stated. So far she had been winning her little game this year, but this was unexpected and could change just about everything.
"Well… I guess we'll take it when it comes. But… what about the prophecy?" Hermione asked fearfully.
"Oh my gosh, I've been over that a million times in my head! What's going to come will come, and we'll make light of it and be prepared when it does." Lauren sighed.
"Lauren, let's go to the library." Hermione decided. Most of the time Lauren chose what to do, but today Hermione had other plans.
"Alrighty. Just let me do my hair. All this twirling messes it up pretty badly." With that, Lauren went to the mirror and Hermione snuck downstairs to tell Ron the whole story.
Ten minutes later Lauren and Hermione were sitting in the library, Hermione with a book on potions and Lauren with a book called, "The American Revolution and the Wizards Who Began It".
"Isn't it funny how George Washington told John Adams he was a wizard?" Lauren giggled. Hermione was about to reply when the library door flew open and the four Gryffindor boys walked into the library.
"Great, it's our Famous Fab Four." Lauren sighed, annoyed. "Why are they here?"
Hermione was again interrupted by the boys as they made their way over to the girl's table. Harry's hand automatically ruffled his hair in that adorable way as he began to speak.
"Hey, Lauren, want to come to Hogsmeade with me now that it's opened?" he grinned and offered a hand.
"Uh, let me think about it for a second…" Lauren replied, pretending to look pensive. "Uh, no."
"Come on Lauren!" he grinned even wider and pulled up a chair next to her. She scooted away and he replied "Well, we can do this the easy way or the hard way." He scooped her up into his arms and gave her a smile yet again. She screeched and jumped away from him.
"Come on. You're breakin' my heart here, little one." He laughed, advancing towards Lauren again.
"Go away!" She screeched again, and now a lot of the second year girls in the library were looking at them. The Fab Four seemed to have a fan club too, she noted quickly as a Ravenclaw girl giggled and blushed when Harry looked her way.
"Fine, sweetheart. But the offer is always up; anytime you want to go out with me just tell me." Harry said sweetly as he left the library with the guys, who made sure to pass the second year girls.
As Lauren and Hermione went to leave the library, they heard one of the girls sigh and say, "Wow, Harry is so amazing. I wish I was Lauren."
"Oh, Nick's the one for me. You can just get lost looking at him." Sighed another girl, this time a Gryffindor.
"But Ron's hair is just incredible, Hermione is so lucky." A Hufflepuff replied softly.
Lauren and Hermione held in giggles until they were completely out of the library. Then they laughed so hard that all of the napping paintings woke up, glaring at them as they continued giggling.
"I can just get lost looking at Nick or Ron's incredible hair, can't you?" Lauren giggled, falling down after a couch appeared beneath her.
"Oh yes, and I feel so lucky to be with Ron! But then again I wish I was you… Harry is so amazing." Hermione responded, laughing hard.
They laughed all the way from the second floor back to their common room on the seventh floor. Since last year it was amazing how much Hermione had loosened up. Lauren had really changed her, as everyone had happily noticed. When they finally got to the common room, they were still giggling uncontrollably. They slumped down on the couch and kept laughing, remembering how well they knew those boys and how un-heartthrobish they really were.
At that moment, Nick came downstairs, thankfully alone. He walked over and sat right next to Lauren, smiling. Lauren gave him a smile back. It seemed like no matter what Nick did that day to her, a smile between the two could melt the friction and make everything all better.
"So what's new?" Nick asked, spotting the laughter in the girls' eyes. "Wait, don't tell me. Those second year girls talking about us?"
Lauren laughed. "Yeah! It was so funny!"
Nick grinned and then Hermione looked at the two of them strangely. "Hey, you two, how does Nick always know what you're going to say?"
"It's written all over her pretty little face." Nick grinned.
"It is? Well, I hope it never goes away! You're the only one in the world who knows me better than I've ever known myself!" Lauren smiled at her twin.
"Wow, you two… it's just amazing. Is it a twin thing?" Hermione asked, inquisitively.
"No, I think anyone can have it… but sometimes it has to hurt you before you feel it. By that I mean I think you can do it in love or with family, maybe friends too. But there's so much of me in Lauren, all I have to do is see myself and I'll know where she is." Nick smiled and reclined on the couch. Lauren hit him in the stomach playfully and he hit her right back. Nick thought in his head how good it was to have a built in best friend as a twin.
The next second Lauren was being picked up by an invisible force. "Ahh!" She screamed, obviously not expecting the shock. She was now in a cradle hold and she was kicking and screaming when she realized what was happening. She ripped off an invisible cloth to reveal a wide grinning Harry. She kept screaming, causing quite a few younger students to come downstairs to see what the commotion was all about. Nick laughed and threw a pillow at Harry to respond to Lauren's cries to him for help. She presently slapped Harry and he almost dropped her. She finally gave up screaming, but not kicking. After a minute of Harry's laughing and Lauren trying to kill him, Lauren gave up, exhausted. Now half of the dorm was looking at the two, but none of the seventh years involved could care less at the moment. They were either completely mortified or giddy with laughter. Harry finally put her down after getting attention from all of the Gryffindors.
Of course he put her down with style, everything was about style with him. He sat down on the couch and put her next to him, throwing his arm around her. She jumped up and was about to hex when Nick stopped her and whispered something in her ear. She gave him an evil glare and stalked upstairs, with half of the girls following her to see what was up.
"What the bloody hell did you say to her?" asked Harry, amazed that anyone could stop Lauren when she was so determined.
"Hey, homie, chill. Let's just say that twins have ways with each other and when they don't get their ways they will curse each other around the block and back again." Nick grinned. "But Harry, you don't know when to quit, do you? That was AMAZING!"
"Thanks, it was irresistible." Smiled Harry. He needed something to smile about and hold onto, because the next week would bring angst, death, love, life, and hate.