Chapter Four: Squid Food

Harry looked around the inn to find it was empty. The voice in his head screamed to him that this was not a good idea but he ignored it; he would rather be here with Parvati then over there with Ron and Hermione.

Yes this was good, being alone, no wards or worries. Well except the pretty girl next to him. He limped towards a table, with the help of Parvati, and sat down. Now that he put now weight on it, his leg did not pain so much.

'Who were you running from?' Parvati asked all of a sudden.

Harry let out a sigh and decided to tell the truth; he owed her that much.

'Ron and Hermione.'

Harry could tell that she was dying to ask why but, thankfully, she did not. Instead, she said, 'No wonder everyone laughed at me whenever I called this place The Hoggy Head.'

'Didn't you ever read the sign?' he asked with a smile.

She shrugged, 'I just followed Lavender here and we were late so I didn't get to read it properly.'

'I see, wonder where the bar tender is,' he said trying to be casual.

Parvati wrinkled her nose, 'Thank Merlin he's not here, he gives me the creeps.'

Harry wondered vaguely what her reaction would be if she found out he was Dumbledore's brother.

'How are you feeling?' she asked looking at him with concern.

'Alright, I suppose,' he said looking away. How could she be so nice after what he had done to her? They were quiet for a while, not knowing what else to say.

'I'm sorry,' he suddenly blurted.

Parvati looked taken a back but nodded slightly.

That obviously was not enough remembering how Hermione had tried explaining the female mind. He did not get it then and was not going to get now.

'Really I am,' he said earnestly, trying to make her believe him, 'I've been horrible to you and you still managed to be nice to me. I didn't mean to me so harsh that day when I bumped into you. To tell you truth, I…I thought you were someone else.'

Her face slowly lit up in realization.

'Cho Chang?' she asked softly.

He nodded his head in shock, 'How'd you know?'

She giggled, and Harry was surprised to find he did not mind it as much.

'Ahhhh, it is but the powers of the unknown that have told me,' she said in a mystical tone not so different from Professor Trelawney's.

'Are you serious?'

Parvati then burst into laughter, 'No but you've got to admire my acting skills.'

Harry was beginning to understand why Parvati was Head of the Drama Club.

'Then how'd you know?'

'I just guessed. After you left, we saw Chang and Conner come from the direction you came from, looking exceedingly happy I might add. So that's how Lavender knew as well.' She paused and then shifted her eyes towards him and then to her hands before adding, 'I didn't know she was going to write all that nasty stuff otherwise I would have stopped her. I thought she'd just spread the word, like you thought. The only reason she did that anyway was because she saw upset I was.'

Harry did not know what to say, he should have been the one apologizing after he lashed out at her.

'You don't need to be sorry. I suppose I deserved that. I tried saying sorry before but you know…'

Parvati smiled weakly, 'She's just really protective of me. She's never had any sisters so she just, you know, takes me as one. Seamus as well. They both think they need to take care of me. I know they only do it because they love me so that's why I bare with it.'

Parvati's situation seemed oddly familiar and Harry stayed quiet in thought as he watched her blow on to her hands. It was then that he noticed that were an odd shade of blue.

'What wrong with your hands?' he asked with worry.

She blushed, 'Oh, I forgot to wear my gloves today.'

Without thinking, Harry covered her hands with his gloved ones, rubbing them warm. As he did that, a strange feeling came over him, triggering some sort of memory.

(Flashback)

Harry looked up to see a smiling woman with bright green eyes staring at him.

'Playing in the snow again, are you? Aww, don't cry sweetheart. Here does that make you feel better?' she said as she rubbed his cold hands with her warm ones.

(Flashback Ended)

When Harry snapped out of it, he looked up to see a very red Parvati. He looked down at their hands again and let go of them as if he had burnt himself.

'I'm sorry,' he mumbled.

'Oh no,' she squeaked, 'It made my hands feel better. Thanks.'

They sat in silence again, Harry becoming very interested in the patterns of the wooden table.

'You know my father used to do that to me all the time,' she said breaking the silence.

Harry whipped his head up to see a dreamy smile on Parvati's face.

'I always didn't have my gloves on for some reason or the other and he would pick me up, put me on shoulder and rub my hands warm before I got them all cold again and he would do it again…and again. He never minded or never told me off for not wearing my gloves. I guess I never wore them because I liked the feeling of the snow on my hands, all crunchy and cold. Do you like the feeling of snow?'

'Not when it turns your hands blue,' he said scowling.

Parvati shook her head, her hair shining in the candle light, 'Loosen up Harry! Why do you always seem so worried or moody? Do you always just want to look at the dark side of life?'

Harry looked at her, his green eyes wide with shock. No one had ever asked those questions before. But what was there to be happy about with Voldemort around and an up coming war?

'What's the brighter side?'

'Oh come on Harry, isn't there anything that makes you happy or alive?'

'Quidditch,' he answered automatically.

She smiled as if she had been expecting the answer. 'Anything else? I'm sure a lot of fascinating things happen to you. I've heard you've been to the Forbidden Forest, what was that like?' she asked, her eyes shining with excitement.

When Harry did not answer she continued by saying, 'You know Harry, a lot of people have their problems. I understand that you've got a lot of things to worry about, but it's not healthy. You're just missing out on all the other brilliant things in life. Life's too…too…'

'Short?'

'There you go again. I was going for exhilarating.'

Maybe she was right, why be so miserable all the time. He saw lots of people happy all the time even though they had reasons not to be. He thought about Neville and how he had parents who were tortured to madness but still managed to be cheerful.

'Have you ever seen a talking spider?'

'A talking what?'

'Spider,' he said making his hands crawl on the table to elaborate. 'I saw one once, in the Forbidden Forest. It was huge! Tried to feed me and Ron to his kids. Spoke really good English though.'

Parvati looked dumbstruck for a second before laughing, 'You've got to be joking.'

'I wish, but then we got saved by Ron's flying car that'd been hiding in the forest ever since me and Ron flew it to Hogwarts.'

This caused her to laugh even more and Harry smiled realizing how silly it sounded. But that was the point wasn't it? The whole situation had actually been dead frightening but thinking about it now, Harry realized how comical it sounded.

'Oooh!' she said her eyes lighting up, 'how fun! But have you ever been swallowed whole by a giant squid? Took Hagrid a half hour to convince the monster that I wasn't squid food.'

Now Harry was laughing, 'Is that why you were in the Hospital Wing for a whole week?'

'Yup. The wretched thing had the nerve to bite off half my hair!' she shuddered, 'Apparently it likes shiny objects.'

They continued like this for a while, each telling their horrible experiences and then laughing at each others expense.

'But I bet you have never dueled with a troll,' Harry said, tears of mirth having spilled down his cheek after having spent an hour laughing his head off with Parvati.

'Oh but I have!'

'Really?'

'Uhuh, her name was Pansy Parkinson.'

Harry nearly fell off his chair at the surprise and hilarity of her comment. 'Next time…' he started but stopped when Parvati slapped her forehead.

'Time!' she exclaimed pulling her sleeve back at glancing at her watch, 'Harry, we should be meeting up with everyone right now.'

Harry almost felt regretful at the thought of having to end his conversation with Parvati so soon. He got up slowly, the pain of his leg rushing back to him.

'Quickly,' she said impatiently, 'or everyone will leave without us.'

'I'm sorry I can't be faster. It's rather hard with a sprained ankle,' he said sarcastically.

'Oh yeah,' she said taking her wand out and mumbling an incantation which instantly healed his ankle.

'You couldn't have done that before?' he asked, flabbergasted.

Parvati smiled cheekily at him. 'Nope. That's what you get for being mean to me,' she said walking out of the inn followed by a slightly fuming Harry.