Chapter 3: Quills, Quidditch & All-Around Awkwardness
Disclaimer: The characters appearing in this little story of mine belong to J.K. Rowling. I'm just borrowing them. I'm not making any money from this story, as it is merely for my own entertainment and those who choose to read it.
Author's Note: Hey there, just wanted to say thanks to those who reviewed, I always appreciate the feedback and I love compliments! Still at PG-13 here, but don't worry, it's coming! Oh, and to Marsky, regarding the Harry/Ginny break up explanation – all will be revealed soon (as in now, in this chapter!) I was trying to do the create-some-suspense thing (did it work?). Enjoy!
Warning: SLASH
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Harry woke up the next morning with a huge smile on his face, which quickly vanished the minute he looked at the clock.
"Ron, wake up! We overslept and we've got 10 minutes until classes start!" Harry yelled to his friend, who was one bed over and still sound asleep, snoring lightly. Harry rummaged around for a pair of clean socks.
"Glrgh abomph" Ron mumbled.
Harry emerged triumphantly from his drawer with some Snitch socks. After having put them on he made his way over to Ron's bed, leaned over until his mouth was an inch away from Ron's ear and screamed-
"TIME TO WAKE UP!"
Ron jumped about three miles, hitting his head and swearing profusely before turning to glare at Harry, who was smiling innocently at his best friend.
"One of these days Harry" Ron grumbled, "I'm not going to forgive you for that."
"Yeah yeah. Get your uniform on Sleeping Beauty, Transfiguration's in 10 minutes. We're going to have to skip breakfast." Harry replied.
Ron's eyes widened. "No breakfast?! That's crazy talk Harry! Besides, we've at least got time to grab some toast on our way to class."
Harry sighed impatiently and checked the clock again. "Then you'd better hurry Ron, we can't afford detention from McGonagall tonight, we've got Quidditch practice."
"Okay, I'm moving. I'm moving." Ron got out of bed and dressed quickly.
"What happened this morning Harry? You always wake us up in plenty of time." Ron asked as they dashed through the halls.
"I was tired I guess." Harry answered, hoping to avoid this topic.
"Hermione would say you haven't been getting enough sleep lately." Ron made a face. "She still hasn't apologized for pouring that pumpkin juice all over me yesterday."
"I'm sleeping fine." Harry lied. The truth was, these days he was lucky to get two hours of consecutive sleep. He'd laid in his bed last night for hours before drifting off. And when he had finally slept he'd dreamed. Since Sirius' death Harry had been subject to two recurring nightmares. In the first he's forced to watch Sirius die all over again, powerless to stop it. In the second he manages to save Sirius, goes to live with his godfather, defeats Voldemort, and lives happily ever after. He'd dreamt that second dream last night, the worst of the two in his opinion. Although he had woken up with a smile on his face, two seconds later his dream world came crashing down around him, and he was faced once more with the harsh reality of his life.
Harry and Ron hurried into Transfiguration just as the bell sounded. Hermione turned back to watch them enter but then stared straight ahead again, determined to ignore her infuriating boyfriend. Professor McGonagall gave them a disapproving glance as they made their way to their seats, Harry sitting beside Hermione and Ron on his other side.
"Oh bollocks." Ron muttered. "Harry, do you have an extra quill?"
Harry looked in his schoolbag. "No, sorry Ron."
Ron took a deep breath. "Hermione?" he said, leaning over Harry to talk to her. "Do you have a quill I could borrow?"
"Harry, would you please tell your unprepared friend that he can borrow a quill when he apologizes?" Hermione replied stonily, still refusing to look at either of them.
"Me apologize?! You were the one who dumped pumpkin juice all over me! I'm the one who deserves an apology!"
Hermione just 'hmphed' and began to take notes. Seamus handed Ron a quill.
"Why thank you Seamus." Ron said loudly. "What a great friend you are."
Hermione rolled her eyes.
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"Can you believe her?" Ron exclaimed as they exited the Great Hall after dinner that day, heading to the Quidditch Pitch. "She's been ignoring me all day! She hasn't said a word to me in 24 hours!"
"Look Ron" Harry said, somewhat annoyed that his friend hadn't been able to talk about anything else all day long. "If you just apologized to her-"
"I'm not the one who needs to apologize Harry! She should apologize for being over-sensitive and unreasonable, not to mention stubborn and-"
"Ron" Harry interrupted, "You're both being stubborn, as usual. Besides, by this time tomorrow you'll be snuggling by the fire and laughing at how silly you were both being, so save your breath. I don't wanna hear it."
Ron looked taken aback, and more than a little ticked off. "Well, excuse me! I thought you were my friend who cared, but I guess I was mistaken!"
"Damn right, I don't care! I'm sick of hearing you complain all the time!"
"Hey, just because my sister broke up with you doesn't mean you have to take it out on me!"
They were both silent for a beat as Ron's words settled in the air.
Ron sighed. "I didn't mean it like that. You know how much it sucks that you two are over, hell, if you guys had gotten married we would have been brothers."
"Let's just drop it, alright?" Harry said suddenly.
"Yeah, sure. Okay." Ron agreed quickly. An awkward silence fell over the two friends. One that was unfortunately disrupted a few seconds later.
"Well, what do we have here?"
Malfoy came up from behind them, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle, and looking rather smug.
"Sod off Malfoy." Harry said half-heartedly.
The blonde boy smirked. "Pothead and Weasel fighting? Trouble in paradise you two?"
"Get lost ferret face." Ron said.
Malfoy of course ignored him. "Those were nice dress robes you wore to the Valentine's Day Ball Weasel. What, did your father rob Gringotts or something?" Crabbe and Goyle chuckled.
Ron turned red. "Listen Malfoy, you-"
Harry stepped in. "We don't have time for this, we've got practice. Come on Ron."
"How's the mudblood Weasely? Still haven't made up after that lover's spat the other day? Orange is really your colour y'know, matches your hair." Malfoy called after them.
"Just ignore him." Harry advised as Ron seethed.
"I tell you Harry, someday…" Ron trailed off.
"Someday he'll get exactly what's coming to him." Harry finished. "But until then we can just satisfy ourselves with kicking his arse in the game against Slytherin next month."
Ron smiled. "Can't wait."
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Draco fumed all the way back to the dungeons. He'd been looking forward to going at it with Hogwarts' Golden Boy, relieve some of his pent up energy. And for Potter to just snub him like that was humiliating. As if he hadn't had enough of that recently. The other Slytherins had been having a jolly old time with the news that Pansy had been the one to break it off. It hadn't reached the rest of his classmates as far as he knew, but when it did he was sure the Gryffindors would have a field day.
Father wouldn't be pleased either. That was exactly what he needed now, his father sending another angry owl detailing his disappointment at Draco's latest attempt to tarnish the Malfoy name. Lucius never sent Howlers – they were too undignified – but he always found other ways to express his displeasure. Draco shuddered involuntarily. Sometimes he wished his father had been sent to Azkaban, but as usual Lucius had known exactly what strings to pull and which people to blackmail.
Malfoy and his lackeys entered the Slytherin common room. Crabbe and Goyle went off to play 'Bop It', a game they had invented last year. One of them stood in front of a couch with a Beater club and the other hid behind it. Then the boy behind the couch would randomly stick their head up several times, and the boy with the club would attempt to 'Bop' them before the head disappeared again. The game ended when one of them lost consciousness.
Malfoy shook his head. And people wondered why they were so stupid. Just one round of Bop It guaranteed the loss of at least 50 brain cells.
Draco headed towards his bedroom. Since the break up he preferred to spend as little time as possible in the common room. It gave his peers less of an opportunity to mock him. Unfortunately, he was stopped before he could exit the room.
"Hey Draco" someone called after him.
The voice belonged to Cassandra Demos, the "raven-haired goddess of Slytherin" as Blaise called her. Blaise had spent 5th year fawning all over her, and most of 6th year so far as well. As of yesterday, she had rejected him 67 times.
"What is it Cassandra?" Draco asked impatiently.
"Cassie." She corrected. "I heard about you and Pansy…"
Draco shifted defensively. "Look, I don't know what they might have told you but I was the one who dumped her."
Cassie smiled. "I figured someone had gotten the story wrong." She said, playing provocatively with his tie.
"Yeah well, you can't believe everything you hear." Draco said stiffly.
"I thought maybe…" she ran her finger along his jaw line, "we might take this opportunity to get to know each other better." She finished coyly.
Draco wasn't sure exactly how to respond to her invitation. After all, Blaise was one of his good friends. So Draco thought it over carefully. For one second.
"Sounds like a great idea." He said, taking her hand and leading her up to his room. After all, Blaise wasn't such a great friend. Draco distinctly remembered him taking the last piece of gooseberry pie just the other night, the piece which Draco had been eyeing. So really, Blaise deserved it.
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Later that night, Hermione sat in the Gryffindor common room by the fire, attempting to finish off the Transfiguration essay they'd been assigned that day. She wrote furiously with her quill, pausing every now and then to cross reference with the text on her lap and nibbling on her bottom lip in concentration. Something Ron always said he thought of as one of her more adorable little quirks. At that thought she determinedly stopped her nibbling.
Ginny sat down gingerly next to the older girl and cleared her throat nervously.
"One sec Gin." Hermione said without looking up. Ginny sat patiently for another minute while Hermione continued to write.
"Okay, what's up?" Hermione asked, putting down the quill and smiling with satisfaction at the finished essay before her.
"Oh, I was just wondering how you were doing and if you had a good time at the Valentine's Day Ball and if you liked graham crackers and I can't stop thinking about him!" Ginny rambled somewhat hysterically, hiding her face in her hands at the last part.
Hermione smiled mentally. Ginny always reminded her of those women you see who walk into a store to buy a pregnancy test and end up buying a screwdriver, Christmas lights and two heads of cabbage, hoping that the pregnancy test would somehow be less obvious that way.
She didn't say any of that however, just sighed sympathetically like any good friend would. "I'm pretty sure he's been thinking about you a lot recently as well."
"Really?" Ginny asked eagerly. "Y'think?" Hermione nodded.
It was Ginny's turn to sigh this time. "I'm just…having second thoughts I guess. I didn't expect it to be this hard!"
"Look Gin, I can't really give you advice when I don't know the break up circumstances in the first place." Hermione said slowly, somewhat hoping that Ginny would finally spill. She was kinda curious, neither Harry nor Ginny had really given an explanation for their sudden split. Although Ginny had assured Ron that she didn't need Harry's teeth knocked out.
"I think though that in situations like these you just have to trust that you made the right decision for the right reasons, despite how hard it might be." Hermione finished.
The redheaded girl shook her head. "I know…I know you're right but…well, maybe I can help him."
Hermione's brow furrowed. "What do you mean Gin?"
Ginny attempted to look anywhere other than Hermione's face. "It's just that lately, he's seemed…distant. Like something bothering him, but he won't talk to me. And I really tried to be understanding and get him to open up but, well, you know Harry…"
Hermione smiled wearily. "Oh, I know Harry alright." Hermione exhaled deeply. "He has a really hard time communicating feelings."
Ginny nodded in agreement. "Exactly. So then I thought I could just be there for him. But he always seemed to be somewhere else…mentally, I mean. And when we would, y'know…" Ginny flushed in embarrassment.
"You were sleeping together?" Hermione whispered incredulously.
"No!" Ginny said, apparently shocked. "Like, fool around I mean. He never really seemed to, like, get into it…"
"Oh." Hermione replied, unsure of what to say. "OH!" she exclaimed as realization dawned on her. "Well, then um, you probably made the right decision. You both probably just need some time apart, give Harry his space." Hermione shifted uncomfortably in her seat.
Ginny winced. "I guess you're right, I just needed to hear it from someone else. Thanks Hermione." She got up to go, then turned around again. "Can we pretend this conversation never happened?"
"I think that can be arranged." Hermione responded shakily. "I'm planning on performing a memory charm on myself tonight anyways. There are some things I really don't need to know about my friends." Ginny smiled, and then both girls looked up as the portrait hole opened.
"Do you really think it would be too risky to try that new move in the game against Hufflepuff next week?" Ron asked Harry as the two boys walked into the room. "Because I think if we…" Ron lost his train of thought when he spotted Hermione.
"Just go talk to her mate." Harry whispered encouragingly, giving Ron a nudge in her direction.
As Ron walked nervously up to Hermione, Harry turned to go to his room, only to bump right into Ginny.
"Oh, sorry." Harry stammered, somewhat shaken.
"My fault." She smiled weakly. "How are you?"
"Good. Good. Quidditch is…fun." He replied.
"Good." She gave him an odd look. "Alright then, well I've got homework so…"
"Me too!" Harry said, maybe a bit too loudly.
"Yeah okay. Um, bye." Ginny said, walking off.
"Bye." Harry said quietly to himself.
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So, what did you think? That one was a bit longer than the last. Just so you know, Draco/Harry action coming up VERY soon, I just wanted to establish a bit first, I hate it when people do the totally unrealistic "Oh I'm in love with you Draco" "Really Harry, that's so funny because I've secretly been pining for you the last 6 years of my life as well even though I've spent my every free moment making your life miserable" thing. Drives me crazy. Anyways, REVIEW or die. Okay, that's not very nice of me. Review or I'll never post another chapter ever again. Hmmmm, not much better. Oh well, I'll work on it.