Chapter 5 – Love Fool
The party entered Diagon Alley, walking slowly, still recovering from the shock of their results.
"Ok!" Jen called, sweeping around to face the trio, with Lee remaining faithfully at her side, "We go to Flourish and Blotts and get the books. Any potions ingredients we will get them from the Apothecary then we will pop to Florean's and get some munchies before we take them to the joke shop and see the twins and eat there and be happy, yes?" she asked, with an almost childlike quality to her voice. Harry, Ron and Hermione exchanged glances, before looking back at Jen.
"Well…" she smiled, "not like you have a choice anyway." She turned and led the way to Flourish and Blotts. As soon as they entered, Jen and Chris vanished in different directions, looking up their own interests. Harry, Ron and Hermione unfurled their booklists,
"So I guess we only buy for the subjects we want to take, right?" Ron asked, uncertainly scanning his list,
"Well I'll get my books," Hermione muttered, "I'll meet you guys in a sec?"
"What are we going to take?" Ron asked, looking at Harry, "We can take 5 right?"
"Uh…Defence against the Dark Arts, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms," Harry muttered trying to recall his career meeting with Professor McGonnagol the year before, "and then I guess I can take one more…that'll be Care of Magical Creatures."
"Yeah…" Ron mumbled, looking down, "I…kinda said I wanted to be an Auror too…but I won't be accepted into Potions, no way. Snape wasn't accepting anyone with less than an outstanding into the class. "Ron sighed, totally disheartened, "There goes my career," he muttered.
"What's that?" Jen who had been, apparently wandering absent-mindedly around the shop, stopped as she passed the boys.
"I wanted to be an Auror," Ron muttered, shifting his weight, "But I only scraped an Acceptable in Potions…Snape would never take me into his class."
"Oh relax," Jen smiled, "Put it down anyways and I'll get you into the class…I'm sure my contacts can pull something off."
Ron looked at her, uneasily before he spoke again, "Are you sure?" he asked, "But what if you can't and I buy the book and I don't get in…"
"Oh come on," Jen protested, "even though I doubt your sanity for wanting to take potions in the first place, I will get you into that class and if not I will pay you for the book and you can buy another one…I've always wanted to see how well a text book burns."
"Hey Jen!" Chris called from somewhere within the relatively quiet store, "I found the book you wanted!"
"Oooooooooh," Jen smiled, mystically, then turning to her friends said in a childish voice, but totally emotionless, turning her eyes up to the heavens, thoughtfully, "I would be an evil queen." She swept off to find Chris, leaving Harry and Ron to glance at each other, confused but willing to dismiss the whole thing as another example of Jen being…Jen.
Harry and Ron agreed to take the same subjects as each other, but it hit Ron hard that he would be unable to take Care of Magical Creatures. Although, Hagrid would undoubtedly let him take the subject regardless of the grade he got, with an Outstanding in Divination (which he still found hard to believe) he was more than expected to take a study of the future. The one thing that lightened his spirits (not by much though) was the fact that the crazy Professor Trelawney had been replaced with the far more interesting Firenze.
It was ironic that although Jen had been complaining about the length of time spent discussing the OWLs results, she took the longest in the book store, returning to her friends long after they had regrouped at the entrance, laden with books.
She appeared a short while later, reading the book Lee had no doubt found for her, 'Evil queens and their helpless minions: a guide to.'
"What's that?" Hermione asked.
"It's a guide to all the sorceresses who went wrong and ended up turning to the dark side of life," Chris muttered, leading them out of the book shop. "For some reason, all the sorceresses who invoke dark powers call themselves 'queens'."
"I would be an evil queen," Jen said, in the same tone as before, sounding like a monotonous six year old. Then laughed playfully.
"What's the difference between a sorceress and a witch?" Harry asked Hermione as the group moved to the ice cream parlour.
"Well, a sorceress is born with her powers," Hermione explained, "They usually use them for good, but then there are those who turn to the dark side and have followers, usually declaring themselves queen of some region, for some reason. Arrogant lot from what I've read."
"Like you then Hermione," Jen called from the front of the group, leaving the parlour with an armful of ice cream sundaes and bolting down the street to get them to Fred and George before they melted.
The others followed to the joke shop, arriving in time to find Fred, George and Jen laughing and eating ice cream.
"This was so nice of you Jen," Fred smiled as Jen climbed up to sit on the counter.
Harry looked around in awe at the joke shop he helped to create. The walls were filled with 'Weasley' approved joke items, they had been working non stop recently and it had definitely paid off. Looking over at Jen, he could see that she was sitting on top of order forms, filled with items to be brought in as well as huge stock to sell off. He noticed that Zonko's in particular had taken an interest in their items.
"What are you looking at, Harry?" Fred called, playfully as he noticed just where Harry's eyes were lingering. He looked up quickly and found himself drawn, instead to Jen's face. She was looking out of the window, watching the shoppers pass by, an oddly thoughtful expression on her face and for a brief moment, to Harry at least, she wasn't the loud, sarcastic Jen he was used to, he could see her thinking, almost contemplating something genuinely important, her face relaxed but concerned, as if she were carrying some great weight on her shoulders.
'Her eyes look so sad…like she's trying to figure something out…woah!' Harry stopped himself, 'Why am I looking at her eyes all of a sudden?'
"Harry?" Chris tapped Harry on the shoulder.
"Order forms!" Harry blurted out, "I was uh looking at the order forms." He was aware that the room was looking at him, and an indiscernible blush filled his cheeks.
The bell rang indicating that someone had just entered the shop. The room fell into an uneasy silence as their eyes beheld a peaky faced, white-blonde boy.
"Malfoy," Harry growled, as he did every time his arch enemy came into sight.
"Just browsing, Potter," Malfoy spat, "I just wanted to see how badly the joke shop was doing…or if you'd actually made any money…well that considered I suppose a knut would be considered making money in your case."
"Hi Malfoy!" Jen said, cheerfully, jumping from the desk and giving the Slytherin a hug, "Long time no see." The Weasley's all looked on, indifferently but still irritated by the usual Malfoy comments. Harry wondered whether he was the only one who felt angry that Jen had embraced the blonde boy. Fred and George had rolled their eyes and had turned their attention to the order forms, choosing to ignore the Slytherin. Hermione was glaring at both of them, but she glared at Jen anyway, so Harry failed to see any change. Ron however, was seemingly as angry as Harry, but he chose to ignore them.
Harry's eyes narrowed as Malfoy smiled, innocently, returning the embrace somewhat, but before he could close his arms around her Jen had pulled away.
"How are you, dear?" she asked. Malfoy and Jen engaged in deep conversation while the rest of the group diverted their attention to more menial things. Harry however; found himself rigid with anger as Jen and Malfoy laughing and talking with each other. Malfoy's eyes caught Harry's and a look of glee spread across his peaky face. Harry's fists clenched,
'Why am I acting like this?' Harry growled…then it hit him, 'wasn't this the way I acted when Cho danced with Cedric?' Harry paused for a moment, 'I'm jealous? I'm jealous of Malfoy…Oh no, I like Jen…worse than that Malfoy knows I like Jen! Actually…what's so bad about me liking Jen? She's great…she's funny and she's quite pretty…actually she's more than pretty…she's gorgeous, she's…what are they doing now!'
"So I'll see you around, Draco darling," Jen smiled, trying to back away from Malfoy. Malfoy smiled, but kept his sneering eyes on Harry,
"Yes, I'll see you soon Jen…" keeping eye contact with Harry, he leaned in and pressed his lips to her cheek, before turning to leave. Jen turned away and Harry could see the look of disgust left on her face.
'You bast-' Harry pulled Malfoy back as he reached the door, and swung his fist across his face. Malfoy crumpled to the ground, his nose bleeding from the contact. Malfoy stumbled as he tried to stand up, by now Lee had moved forward to restrain Harry, though little effort was needed.
"You'll pay for that, Potter," Malfoy spat, opening the door and falling out of it.
The shop had sunk into a kind of shocked…somewhat revered silence, with all eyes resting on Harry. Chris let go of Harry and placed his hand on Jen's shoulder, comfortingly,
"You ok?"
"Ugh!" she muttered, harshly wiping away at her cheek, "That wasn't in the job description," she muttered. Chris chuckled and embraced her warmly.
'Oh…she's with Chris,' Harry's crestfallen thoughts hit him, but they were rudely interrupted by Jen's wrath.
"What the bloody hell do you think you were doing!" Jen screamed.
"I…uh…I…" Harry stammered.
"I would have loved to have hit him! I would like nothing more than to smack that arrogant mouth of his…but I can't and neither can you for that matter!" she yelled.
"Huh?" Harry asked, nonplussed.
"For the first person in years to have had an outstanding plus, you're rather slow aren't you? Draco equals Lucius Malfoy's son. Lucius Malfoy equals Death Eater. Important Death Eater for that matter. Malfoy is in Voldermort's inner circle, in short Potter, you just pissed off a Death Eater."
From the expression on Harry's face it was clear that he still didn't understand fully, Jen groaned loudly and tried again,
"We want to find out what Voldemort is planning, if we can get near Lucius Malfoy it might pay off…get to the father through the son?" She suggested, Harry looked a little enlightened,
"The father through the son?" he asked.
"Get it?" she asked. Harry nodded, Jen sighed in relief, "You are such a fool…why did you hit him anyway?" she asked, as an after thought.
Harry blushed again and looked away, stammering as he tried to think of an excuse. Thankfully he didn't have to answer, Fred and George did it for him,
"It's Harry and Draco, Jen," Fred smiled, "Hitting each other is what they do."
"Right, Harry?" George asked with a wink.
"Uh yeah," Harry muttered, "whatever."
"Wow…I'm glad I don't have to put up with you two in Hogwarts together," Jen muttered, "I can't imagine you two in actual lessons with each other…actually…on reflection," Jen smiled at Harry, "I think it would be worth going to Hogwarts just to smack him one whenever I saw him."
"Well you'll have plenty of chances when you do go to Hogwarts," Hermione said, bluntly. Jen looked up, quickly,
"I don't go to Hogwarts," Jen said, seriously, "I never would go to Hogwarts, I'd hate it."
"But Dumbledore…ow Ron!" Ron had stamped rather harshly on Hermione's foot. Jen froze and looked at Chris,
"Dumbledore? He's sending me to…?"
"Uh…yeah?" Chris muttered. Jen clenched her fist and gave a frustrated cry.
Harry didn't quite see what happened next, all he knew was that a large fire erupted in the centre of the shop, Chris pulled Harry back, away from it…when the flames had cleared Jen had gone.
"What the hell!" Ron screamed.
"It's so cool when she does that," Fred muttered enviously.
" I know," agreed George. " The rebels way to apparate".
"Yeah…" Chris muttered, "and if we hurry we can beat her to the car." Pulling the group out, he, Harry, Ron and Hermione all bolted up Diagon Alley to the car park, just in time to see Jen pulling out at a dangerous speed, the sound of Pink Floyd's 'Another Brick in the Wall' echoing at ear splitting volume around them.
"Bugger…" Chris muttered, watching the car speed off. "So?" he said, cheerfully, "anyone got money for the bus?"
TBC