Disclaimer: JKR owns Harry and all the other original Hogwarts characters. I only claim rights over Julianne and Professor Lipton.
Chapter 3: Promises
As the trio started to rush up the stairs, Hermione turned around and stopped Ron and Harry.
"What, Hermione!" Harry said, frantically. "C'mon! We've got to get up there to help Juli," he tried to get past Hermione. "What if she's hurt?" Harry was worried. What if something had happened to her? He had to go up to help her.
"You two can't get up these stairs, remember?" Hermione reminded them. "You'll just fall down again," she said, trying not to laugh out loud.
"I don't care!" said Harry, anxious to get to Juli. "We've got to get up there!"
"What, and fall down the stairs trying?" said Juli, who had walked out of the dorm room carrying a blanket. "That's one thing I'd like to see," she said, walking down the stairs as calmly as possible, forcing a smile. She held the blanket tight, and covered her shaking hands with it.
"Wait ... what? You --" stammered Harry. "You screamed and --"
"Yeah," Juli said, starting to blush. "I, er, walked into the room and, er... Dobby the House-Elf was, uh, cleaning. I didn't expect him to be there, and it startled me." Juli tucked her hair behind her ear, like she always did when she was nervous or embarrassed. "I'm sorry I got you so worried," she said as she walked past Harry towards the fire, still clutching the blanket.
Harry had a blank look on his face. Hermione stood there puzzled for a minute, then laughed quietly to herself and followed Juli. Ron shrugged and followed her as Neville and Dean Thomas walked through the portrait and sat down with them. Harry stood alone, thinking. 'There's something going on,' he thought. 'Something isn't right,' he wondered what had really happened, and then warily shrugged it off, and sat down on the floor next to Juli's chair.
They sat around the fire talking for half an hour or so before Seamus joined them, sitting across the group from Juli next to Ginny. She hadn't spoken to her ex-boyfriend since the end of term last year, and she secretly had hoped they would patch things up this year. Even as she thought to herself how rude it was of him to not speak to her, she found herself remembering how happy she was when she was with him; walking across the school grounds, talking. But he broke up with her, so he must have stopped loving her. As she realized this, she promised to herself that she was over him, too. For good.
Soon everyone was growing tired; they all had classes in the morning and had gotten up early to catch the train. The girls started to head up towards their dorms, but as Juli stepped onto the stairs someone called her name. She turned around and saw him. Seamus.
"Juli," said Seamus, softly, just like he had when he had first asked her out in their third year.
"Yes, Seamus?" she said, repeating to herself that she was over him. 'I don't love him anymore,' she told herself.
"I just wanted to say that I'm sorry," he said, now whispering to her.
"For what?" she said, stepping closer. She knew what he was going to say, so why did she ask?
"For letting you go, Juli," he said, regretfully. He moved closer to her and took her hand; for a moment she thought he might kiss her. 'I don't love him anymore. I don't love him anymore.' she repeated in her mind. She pulled her hand away nervously.
"No, Seamus," she said. "No. We're not together anymore." She tried to stay calm, trying not to cry. She felt herself falling for him again, here in the dark, seeing him smile at her again. He was waiting again, almost patiently; his smile was so ... no. She couldn't. "I don't love you anymore," she said softly, almost as if she didn't want to admit it to anyone other than herself.
He looked down, and took her hand, as if he was going to plead with her. But she knew he wouldn't. He knew better.
"It's alright," she said truthfully. "I'll be alright," she smiled. "Don't worry about me."
"But you know I'm going to anyway," he said, softly. He wanted to kiss her, and if she was truthful with herself, she almost wanted to let him. She leaned in and gave him a soft kiss on the cheek before heading back towards the stairs, climbing them slowly.
"Just promise me you'll be good, okay?" she said, smiling as she looked back at him from the top of the stairs. He smiled back at her and nodded. As he walked back towards the boy's staircase, she felt a lump rise in her throat as she quickly turned and opened the door. Almost running to the her dorm room she pushed through Parvati and Lavender's nervous giggles and questions to the bathroom where she slammed the door and slid down the door, head in hands as the tears rolled down her face.
"What am I going to do?" she whispered quietly to herself as she stood up and walked over to the sink. She looked at herself in the mirror; her eyes were all red, and her mascara was running down her cheeks again. "Oh, bloody hell," she said, shutting off the light and finding her way blindly to bed, but not before she bumped into someone.
"Ow, watch where you're going, Juli," the girl said, and Juli recognized her voice instantly.
"Not now, Parvati," she groaned, sniffling. "Go to bed, already."
"Fine, fine," she said huffily and walked into the bathroom.
Juli jumped onto her bed and pulled the covers over her head, wondering what she was going to do about her classes tomorrow. The last thought she had before she falling asleep was of Harry, and his sparkling green eyes.