Kappa Got Your Tongue?
"Tired Potter?"
Harry looked up from his essay to see Pansy Parkinson pull up a chair and sit opposite him. He glanced sideways, only to realise that Hermione and Ron were bookshelves away. He was alone with a predator.
"Well? Kappa got your tongue?" She drummed her fingers on the table.
"Pardon?" Harry didn't understand why she was talking to him; wasn't she supposed to be one of Malfoy's minions?
"Tired?"
"Yeah, a bit." Why had he told Hermione and Ron that he needed to keep working? Why hadn't he gone with them to find that book on animagi?
"What're you doing?"
"Essay for McGonagall." Harry's eyes widened with horror as she took parchement and a quill out of her bag.
"Mind if I join you? It's a pig isn't it?"
Yes to both questions, he thought. "Course you can; and it's not that bad once you get started." Silence, except the scratching of quills and the occasional grunt coming from Crabbe and Goyle, two tables away. Why was she talking to him? Why was he talking to her? He told himself adamantly that it had absolutely nothing to do with the way she bit her lip while she worked.
"Look Potter, I need a bloke's perspective," she suddenly blurted out.
"A bloke's perspective?" he asked cautiously. "Why are you asking me? What about...Malfoy or Zabini?"
"Please; give me some credit," she said. "Draco would be too busy trying to fuck me to listen and Blaise is a lone wolf and doesn't speak to anyone."
Harry raised his eyebrows, "Oh. What's the problem then?"
"I like this guy and he has absolutely no idea. I think he hates me and I don't know what to do."
Pansy watched the boy across the table carefully. He brushed a hand through his hair. "Just tell him."
She felt like screaming. She, Pansy Parkinson, had lowered herself to clichés and still he was oblivious to the obvious.
"I'm sorry Pakin...Pansy. Girls are probably better at giving that kind of advice. I really haven't the faintest clue about that sort of thing."
She smiled at him. "Don't worry. It doesn't matter." He really hadn't the faintest clue. Typical male. She gave up.
"Pansy?" he called after her as she was about to disappear behind a bookcase.
"Yes?"
He hesitated, and then threw all caution to the winds. "Wait up!" He stuffed hie half-finished essay in hie bag and sprinted after her.
She looked at him, confused. "I've got to go and speak to a couple of Gryffindors about the Quidditch match tomorrow," he said, in way of explanation.
"Oh." Together they walked down to the Gryffindor Tower portrait.
"I'll see you later then." She turned to go.
"Who were you talking about?"
She stared at him and he felt himself go red.
"Only, well, oh damit!" Harry pulled her towards him and kissed her gently.
"Oh," she said, once he released her.
"Well?" his green eyes twinkled down at her. "Kappa got your tongue?"