MissDitzy – Hm, I'm neither American nor British so I speak some kind of mix, I guess.

Rachel – I remember being very hesitating before adding words of that calibre and I'm still a bit hesitating about keeping them, especially if people react on them (this is also rated PG, so I shall be more careful). So I will leave that for… ehrm, further investigation. Thanks for pointing it out.

Misao, Demon Master – Eh, you seem kind of hyper… you crack me up! P

Also thanks The Iviest, darkangle0170, degrassifan2010, Shafing in Grey, Bumperz, Pussin Boots, gboyary


Chapter 35 – He Likes You

When I woke up, it was probably because I was so hungry that my stomach was sounding like there was an earthquake or something. The room was empty, and the sun shone in through the window, showing all the dust in the air. My eyes fell on the clock on the wall, which stated 5:00 PM. No wonder I was hungry, as I hadn't eaten anything in the last twenty-two hours!

I got up and headed out from the room and into the bathroom, only with a slight limp. I was still dirty from the events in the morning, and took a very quick shower before I headed downstairs to make myself a sandwich or whatever I could find. I found Hermione and Ron on the couch in front of the fireplace downstairs, although there was no fire.

"Hey guys", I said and pulled a hand through my hair.

Hermione grinned. "Hi, Tamara", she greeted me warmly. "How are you feeling?"

I shrugged. "Quite well. Hungry."

"Mum's making dinner but it might take a while", Ron said, "loads of people coming over. Help yourself to a sandwich."

"I will", I said and continued into the dining room, where I found Harry, Sirius and Lupin. Sirius looked a lot better now that he had showered and gotten into some new clothes, though still haggard and the hair was still long and unkempt. I was beginning to suspect it was kind of his style. Harry, on the other side, had just changed his shirt and washed himself briefly. His jeans were still dirty, as well as his hair was covered in dust.

"Has anyone seen Ginny!" Mrs Weasley yelled from the kitchen. "She said she'd help me with the dinner", she added in a more normal voice and appeared in the doorway. "Hi, Tamara. How are you, hungry?"

"Yes", I said.

"Come here, we'll see what we can make for you. Harry", she said, turning to him, "go and take a shower, we are expecting visitors." Harry obliged; rose and headed out of the room. "Someone", Mrs Weasley said to the men, "please go and look for Ginny. Tamara, come with me and have something to eat."

I followed her into the kitchen.

"Dinner shall be ready in about an hour", she said, "don't eat too much. Help yourself to a toast", she continued and handed me two toasts. As I began spreading peanut butter, she kept on talking. "You haven't eaten anything since yesterday, have you? We'd have woken you up if Madam Pomfrey hadn't insisted that you should sleep."

"It's okay", I said and took a bit of the first one. "Thanks a lot."

"You're very welcome, dear", she said before heading back to her cooking.

I headed back out into the dining room, where only Sirius was left – I guessed Lupin had gone after Ginny.

"I heard quite a bit about you", Sirius said.

"You did?"

He nodded. "Sent your own father to Azkaban, did you? Then he escaped, and you ran away from home. You quite remind me of myself when I was your age."

"Really?" I said and sat down. "How?"

"I ran away from home when I was sixteen", he said, "didn't get along with my family. My parents were pure blood fanatics, and my stupid brother joined the Death Eaters."

"Draco is not a Death Eater", I said stubbornly. "I know him better than anyone of you."

"Of course you do."

"He won't join the Death Eaters if Father doesn't make him."

"D'you think he will? Make him join?"

I looked into the table and swallowed the final bit of my final toast. "I don't know", I said.

Then we sat in silence for a while, until I rose abruptly. "I have to go and…" I mumbled quickly and headed off.

"He likes you", Sirius said from behind. "Harry."

I stopped dead and turned slowly around. "Pardon?"

"Harry likes you", he repeated.

"No he doesn't", I said. "How do you know? Did he say that?"

"No. But I know he likes you. It's the way he talks about you, you know", Sirius said.

"No, I don't… in what way does he talk about me?"

He shrugged. "You know. In the way."

"Er… right-o", I said before heading off again.

I passed Ron and Hermione in by the fireplace with a small "hey", then I met Ginny in the staircase.

"Hi", she said, "how are you feeling?"

"Fine", I said. "What's up with the depressed look?"

"Mum is making me help her with dinner again", Ginny muttered, "Tonks was showing me some really cool stuff."

"That sucks", I agreed.

"I'll see you later", she said, "if I'm not there in five bloody seconds mum'll go nuts or something."

I continued upstairs, not knowing exactly where to go. But I bumped into Harry outside the bathroom, and he had obviously gotten showered, as his hair was wet and he had a towel over his shoulders. He had also changed into some clean clothes.

"Hey", he said, "I was wondering if… I could talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure", I said and followed him into his and Ron's bedroom, which was right there. "What's up?"

"I just realized", he began, "that I never really thanked you for coming with me."

"Oh, that's okay. Don't mention."

"It was really nice of you."

"You're welcome", I said.

Then he looked straight into my eyes, and what could I do but look straight into his emerald sparkling eyes? They are almost hypnotizing. It's amazing how anyone can have so green eyes.

"Did you know", he said, still not breaking the sort of connection there were, "that your eyes change colour?"

I smiled. "Yeah…"

"They were grey the other day, and then blue, and now they are ice blue."

"It's a little annoying", I said.

"I think it's cool. They… they are beautiful."

I got this really weird feeling, like an electric impulse that went down from be heart to my stomach. "Er, thanks", I said and went all red, "er, yours are nice to."

Was that the best I could come up with? Nice? How about, beautiful, extraordinary, amazing, astonishing, gorgeous or stunning? There's no lack of adjectives but I chose to say nice. I wanted to sink through the ground, but in the same time, not. I had embarrassed myself horribly. Not good.

"Er", I stammered, "I meant… beautiful. Extraordinary." Redder and redder, I felt it. "Amazing. Astonishing. Gorge-" I interrupted myself. "Er, you know." It was like I had no control over which words that came out of my mouth.

"Thank you", he said simply.

"You're welcome", I said.

"Dinner is ready!" someone yelled and knocked on the door.

"We'd go", I said quickly.

"Yeah."

So we headed downstairs. A lot of people had arrived, almost the whole order was there, plus all the Weasleys (except for Percy), including the other older brother, Charlie, who I did not know very well. I got seated next to Ginny, and later Hermione came and took the seat on the other side of me. Harry ended up on the opposite side of the table, which was a tad frustrating as I felt very tempted to cast glances at him every now and then. It was hard to avoid when he sat just opposite me.

He did not look particularly at me though, at least not when I looked at him. I kept feeling like he avoided eye contact, but then again – so did I. Everyone else around the table was in high spirits and chatting cheerily. I stayed silent, though. As did Harry (for reasons I did not know).

For the rest of the dinner, I tried my best to act normal and enjoy the food. It was marvellous, as always with three different dishes (meatloaf, lasagne and some kind of fish), followed by an incredible soufflé as dessert. And I can honestly say that I had a good time.

Later I excused myself from the table and headed upstairs to our bedroom. Shortly after, Ginny also arrived.

"Hey", she said and sat down on her bed, legs crossed. "Look I don't want to force anything out of you, but I couldn't help noticing that you were acting kind of weird."

"Ginny", I said and turned slowly around, "I… I have a question for you."

"Shoot."

"I was just thinking… when – if – you kind of sort of might think you… like someone… a little-"

"You're in loooove", Ginny said dramatically.

"No", I stated. "Or, maybe. Just a little."

She smirked. "I have a hunch who you're talking about, but still… who is he?"

"No one", I said quickly.

"You're in love with Harry", she said simply.

"Shush!" I hissed. "What if someone heard?"

"No one heard, Tamara", she said with a chuckle. "I doubt they're listening over by the door."

"What if he'd find out? And you can't tell him. If you tell him, I'll die. After I've killed you."

She frowned. "So… you don't want him to find out?"

"No."

"So what's the point of it all, if he isn't ever going to find out? Look, Tamara, I know it's hard but if you just tell him-"

"I'll embarrass myself for all future."

"No, because he likes you too and you'll make a cute couple."

"He doesn't like me."

"Yes he does"; she said seriously. "If you just get a chance to be alone with him and explain your feelings, it'll all turn out fine."

"I was alone with him", I whined. "And it was all 'er' and 'um' and then…"

"Then what?"

"He said that my eyes change colour."

"They do. But that's great, he commented on your eyes. Nice."

"Then he said they were beautiful", I added, walked over to my bed and threw myself upon it.

"Really?" Ginny said. "That's great! What did you say, then?"

I buried my face in my pillow. "Thanks, yours are nice too", I mumbled.

"What?"

I lifted my face slightly from the pillow. "Thanks, yours are nice too", I repeated.

Ginny's mouth formed a small 'O'. "It could have been worse", she said, trying to comfort me. "You could have said… er, I haven't got an example but…"

"Then", I continued, "I began ranting."

"About what?"

"Adjectives describing his eyes."

"Like…?" she asked slowly, fear in her voice.

"Beautiful, extraordinary, amazing, astonishing, gorgeous", I said.

"You said that!"

I nodded. "This is a total tragedy. I blushed like mad and I totally embarrassed myself."

"What did he say?"

"'Thank you'. And I said, 'You're welcome'. Then someone said it was dinner, so I said 'We'd go' and then we left." I turned my head and looked Ginny. "You're laughing."

"It's quite amusing", she giggled, "seeing and hearing how you two desperately try to get it together without anyone actually taking the first, or the second, or the third step – or any step at all – because you're both abnormally shy."

"That was constructive criticism, thank you", I said sarcastically. "Listen, I didn't tell you this just so that you would be able to make fun of me."

"Don't worry", Ginny said, "I'll help you. In fact, I'll take care of this right now."

I frowned. "How? You're not gonna go and tell him straight away, are you?"

"No", she said simply but literally jumped out of bed. "Come!"

She was acting very suspiciously, clearly she was up to something. Yet I rose from the bed and headed after her out from the room.

"Your hair", she said and pushed some hairs out of my face, "your clothes" – I straightened them – "hm… yeah."

"Look, Ginny, I have no bloody idea what you're up to but I have a bad feeling about this."

"Nah", she said, grabbed my arm and pulled me in the direction towards the boys' room. "It'll all turn out fine, you'll see." She knocked on the door.

"Come in", Ron said.

Ginny flung the door open and marched in, still pulling me. "Hi", she said to Harry and Ron, who were playing wizard's chess. "What's up, where's Hermione?"

"Helping mum with dishes", Ron muttered. "Queen to E4."

"Ron, would you mind leaving the room for a while?" Ginny asked politely.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

"What?" Ron objected. "Why?"

"You'll see", Ginny said and grinned smugly.

For some weird reason, her brother obliged, and headed out of the room.

"Ginny, no", I said warningly.

She turned to me. "Tamara, yes." She turned to Harry. "Harry, will you get up here please?"

Harry rose hesitatingly and walked up to us.

"Now", Ginny said, "you know that you should really be able to do this on your own but I guess I'll have to help you out a little."

And with that, she simply grabbed the back of my and Harry's heads and forced them together. Our lips met, but we did not kiss – especially not as we both were in shock. I just froze, as did Harry appear to do.

"Fine", she said, "then I'll just leave you here.

She let go of our heads so we pulled apart, then she marched out and slammed the door shut behind her.

"Er", I said, "oh my god I did not mean to-"

"Um, what was that?"

"-Ginny just pulled me over here-"

"Typically Ginny."

"-this was really awkward-"

"A bit interesting strategy, I must say."

"-and I apologize-"

"I didn't mind."

I froze again. "What did you say?" I said weakly.

All of a sudden, he seemed very interested in a spot on the white wall. "I said I didn't mind", he repeated.

"You didn't."

"Hm, no."

"Oh. That's good."

"Yeah, I guess. Did you? Mind?"

"Nah", I said, trying my best to sound offhanded.

"Good then. Neither of us minded. So I guess there's nothing to apologize for."

"You're right, of course."

"You know, your eyes are almost silver now", he said suddenly.

"It must be the light", I said. "Or perhaps they change during the day? So that when I wake up, they're blue, then ice blue, then grey-ish and now, in the evening, they're silver."

"Yeah", he said.

"But", I said, "the thing we talked about… that neither one of us minded? If… if, Ginny would get such ideas again, would you mind then?"

"No", he said simply.

"Good."

"Or perhaps it'd happen for some other reason."

"Yeah", I said.

Silence.

"We don't seem to be making any progress here", I said.

"I think that perhaps… perhaps we should count to three, and then we could both… not mind on the same time, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Good idea."

"Would you like to count, or shall I?"

"Let's do it together."

"One", we said in unison, "two…"

We never said 'three'. I was speechless as I saw Harry lean closer, and when his lips touched mine I just closed my eyes.

It wasn't awkward like I had imagined it to be. Neither was it the most romantic and perfect kiss ever. But we had made progress, finally. I had kissed him and he had kissed me, in the same time, even if it had required a countdown.


Author's Note: I had so much fun writing this chapter! I had dreamed it all up already, and then I added a lot of stuff… It only got longer and longer, I didn't want to cut it off. But here, at nine pages, I finally reached a point where the words stopped coming to me.

I hope that satisfied you people who have been asking for this… if not, feel free to express you thoughts in a review (you know one of those you conjure by pressing the little purple button down there).

It's late at night and I'm thirsty after having written all this. I want OJ. (And a review from you.)