Union/2
A/N: Welcome back! Thank you for coming to read the second chapter. After this one, we'll be really diving into the plot that I have set out, which I'm very excited for. I think have no way for line breaks other than the horizontal lines, I hope that doesn't bother anyone too much! Luckily this chapter doesn't really have a need for them. Enjoy!
The end of term came rather quickly, blindsiding Harry and Ron. Noisy rumors filled the halls and classrooms, taking up much of the students' attention. Most of the teachers had given up on teaching them, seeing no point in trying when they were obviously so preoccupied. The only one who truly held fast to their regimen was Snape, who was pleased to let them know he would be testing them on antidotes during their last lesson.
Harry tried to keep his mind on the holidays, but Hermione made a point to remind him about the egg he was needing to solve. He hissed at her to drop it as they were walking out of the dungeons after potions class. Apparently word had gotten around that Harry had presumably already gotten a date for the ball, which meant the majority of the girls he'd be interested in didn't even think to ask. A particularly brave Ravenclaw came up to him during one breakfast and, in front of all his friends, asked him to drop his date for her. He decided to not explain that he didn't actually have one, seeing as how that wasn't the type of person he'd want to be dancing with anyways, and declined.
They were walking down the hall when Harry caught a glimpse of Cho emerging from Defense class with one of her friends. Gulping down his fear of rejection, Harry quickly turned to his friends and told them he'd meet them at dinner. Ron grinned after him, knowing exactly what he was doing.
At least he can solve one of his problems today. He walked toward her with a hurried pace, and called out to her when he got a few feet away.
"Cho! I, uh-" he stopped in his tracks when she and her friend turned around, her smile striking down whatever courage he'd mustered up. It didn't help that her friend was staring at him annoyed either.
"Yes, Harry?" His stomach lurched nervously as her voice rang in his ears like bells.
"I was just wondering.." He turned red at the puzzled look on her face, "The ball is coming up, as you know, and, I just thought- I mean, you're a girl, and- we both play Quidditch and-" He was looking anywhere but her now, growing redder still as he rambled and finally forced out, "Do you want to go to the ball? With me I mean?"
"Oh Harry.." Her response came quietly and... What was that in her voice? Pity?
He darted his eyes back to her face, taking in her expression. Definitely pity. The air seemed to suck out of his lungs.
"I've already said I'll go with someone else." Her face started to go red.
"Oh."
"It's- it's Cedric." Even redder.
"Oh.. right."
They stood there for a moment staring at each other, and Cho was brought out of it by her friend tugging her robes.
"Well, b..bye Harry, I'll see you around!"
"Yeah," and he watched her be pulled away by her friend, his head beginning to pound with embarrassment.
Of course she had already been asked to the ball. It was his fault he waited so late- and by Cedric! Of all people.
A chuckle from behind him pierced his thoughts, and he turned around with his face still hot.
"Trying to use your fame to get as many girls to go with you as you can, Potter?" Draco was standing with a triumphant look across his face, Crabbe and Goyle flanking his sides sniggering. Dread washed away his embarrassment from before.
"Not now, Malfoy," he growled out.
"Oh, don't let me keep you from going to your dorm and sulking," he said with false pity, "And here I thought you'd already had a date, even above Granger's standards. Oh! How terrible."
Harry stared daggers at him. "Who I take to the ball is none of your business, Malfoy."
"Apparently it's none of yours either!" Draco was cackling now, as were his goons.
"Piss off." Harry turned and walked briskly away, not bothering to look at the students who had listened to the whole thing. Who were, to his dismay, whispering among themselves just loud enough for him to hear.
"Harry Potter? He doesn't have a date yet!" - "There's still a chance!" - "What happened to his other date? You don't think-"
He darted off around the corner, keeping his head down, and made his way to Gryffindor tower, not feeling like dinner whatsoever. Once in the common room, he noticed Ron sitting in a corner with Ginny, looking particularly sullen with his face pressed into his hands. He put aside his sour mood and made his way over to them.
"Ron?" Harry reached out and touched his friend's shoulder, who looked at Harry with what could only be described as a mix of horror and nausea.
"You... okay?"
"Okay? Okay! No, I've got to be mad to have done that!" Ron slapped his face back into his hands and Ginny moved to rub his back soothingly.
"What? What have you done?" asked Harry. When Ron didn't answer, Ginny decided to for him.
"He asked that girl from Beauxbatons, Fleur, to go to the ball with him." She grinned once she'd said it, obviously amused, but Harry's expression was a shocked one. He quickly snapped out of it and had an idea
"Ron, come up with me," Harry laced his arm under one of Ron's to bring him to his feet, "I've got something that'll help us out."
"Us?" Ginny piped up as they started to leave.
"I was turned down just before I got here by Cho," Harry responded grimly. Ginny looked away as Harry led her brother up the stairs to their dorm.
"You've got to stop having to have me help you up the stairs- you're taller than me, you know, it's awkward with your legs." Harry let him go and Ron threw himself face down onto his bed. Harry felt a strong sense of empathy for Ron. Surely he hadn't been made fun of immediately after like he had been, but he knew that Ron's ego wasn't that great to begin with.
"Don' unersphan hut ot nto mmmnee." Ron droned into his pillow, roughly being made out as "Don't understand what got into me," by Harry.
Suddenly remembering what he brought him up here for, he reached into his trunk and pulled out the flask George had given him the night of the celebration, still full to the brim. He tossed it onto the bed next to Ron, causing him to look up at it, his face eyeing it questioningly.
"S' that?"
"Firewhisky," Harry grinned at him as he popped up faster than a niffler after a galleon, and grabbed the flask off the bed.
"Harry! How? You're underage!" He was looking at it mesmerized, like it was a glittering jewel, holding it up to get a better look at it. "Did you sneak over to Hogsmeade and sweet talk it out of someone?"
"No!" Harry laughed, "It's from the party a bit ago, George gave that to me and I hadn't touched it.
"Oh Harry, you're my bloody hero." He twisted open the top and gave Harry a look. "Can I?"
"Yes!"
He took a grateful sip out of the container, humming his approval before handing it back to Harry, who also took a swig.
"So," the redhead started, smacking his lips satisfactorily, "You got turned down too, eh?"
Harry frowned, and passed the flask back to him. "Yeah. Much worse than you got I bet."
"What happened?"
"Malfoy saw the whole thing and practically laughed his head off," he spat, with anger and embarrassment bubbling in his chest.
Ron's eyes widened as he brought the flask back down from another drink, sputtering. "He what!"
"Yeah, I guess on the bright side, the whole school's bound to know I'm up for grabs again by now."
"I'll kill him." Ron peered at his friend, whose face was getting pinker by the minute, as was his own from the liquor pooling in his stomach, "I'm in a right mood and I'll do it."
"It's okay, not like I didn't ask for it by waiting so late." Harry sighed into the drink and took another gulp. "I'm always procrastinating."
"And Malfoy's always been a prat."
Harry grunted in agreement.
"Bet McGonagall'll go with you!"
He and Harry laughed.
This went on through the night, them bantering on about the ball and musing who they'd try to ask next, passing the firewhiskey back and forth until both of them were laughing stupidly at their suggestions(which got more and more ridiculous as time went on), faces flushed.
"What about Millicent?" Harry was laughing even before the name left him.
"Bulstrode?!" Ron guffawed, "You mean Bullfrog!"
They hooted and laughed for a whole minute before Ron looked up at Harry, face red with laughter.
"I bet you a whole galleon Crabbe and Goyle are going together!"
They bent over with laughter, clutching their sides. Ron waved the flask around, listening to the contents inside notably emptier than before, and then knocked back another drink.
Harry chuckled and took it from Ron and set it in his lap. "Careful, we still have to go to lessons tomorrow." Ron groaned and fell to the bed on his side.
"Hey, Ron?" his friend perked up and gave him his attention. "I mean, we can go together if you like. It's not weird, you know, we're best friends and it's not like we have to be.. Romantic."
Ron choked on seemingly nothing, and sat back up coughing violently. Harry was watching him, eyebrows raised, as the redhead caught his breath.
"Harry! No!" Ron stared at him like he'd grown another head, "You're a champion! You have to dance in front of the whole school in the beginning." Harry laughed softly at that, having forgot that detail.
"Right, you're right. Hey, you want to run down to the common room to see who's still awake? The others aren't up here yet."
Ron nodded in agreement and got to his feet clumsily, as did Harry. He made sure to kick the flask under his bed before they started for the stairs.
They finally made it down into the common room, only tripping a couple times on themselves, to find the Weasley twins, Seamus, Dean, Neville, Ginny, Hermione, and a few others still down there, some working, some chattering among themselves. They walked over to the twins, faces still flushed and the two immediately chuckled upon seeing them.
"You little devils, you."
"On a school night, too!"
"Can't really blame you though, heard about the girls."
"Terrible luck."
The buzzing warmth that surrounded Harry and Ron seemed to subside and they frowned at one another. The twins took this opportunity to hang their arms over either boy's shoulder and bring them in.
"Don't worry!" Fred started loudly, gaining the attention of the common room, "I'm sure there's bound to be someone who wants to go as your date!" He eyed the room expectantly and wiggled his eyebrows at a few girls that caught his eye.
Harry and Ron immediately pushed their arms off them and gaped at the two.
"What do you think you're doing!"
"Just trying to help out a fellow brother, Ronnie." George stuck him in the ribs with a pointed finger. "We can't have you be the only Weasley around that hasn't had a girlfriend yet."
"The only!?" Ron looked at them incredulously. "You've had a girlfriend before? You?"
"Oh loads," they said in unison. "They love the whole twin thing."
Ron wrinkled his nose at them.
"And you have a date? Each of you, to the ball?"
The twins gave each other a look and turned away from them, shouting pointedly at the group of girls Fred at eyed earlier.
"Oi! Angelina!" Said girl looked up from her conversation, "You and a friend want to go to the ball with us?" Fred pointed his thumb to and from him and George.
Angelina looked them up and down for a moment and then, "Okay," she shrugged and went back to her conversation.
Harry and Ron stared with open mouths.
"It's that easy? You just-" Harry looked back at the group, who was starting to pack up and leave, "Just like that?"
"Yep," they said.
Harry eyed Parvati and Lavender come through the portrait hole and pushed past the twins and Ron to head over to them, courage burning in his belly.
"Parvati! Lavender!" They stopped and turned to him. "You two want to go to the ball with Ron and I? You know, as dates?"
Parvati giggled before responding, and Lavender looked away with pink cresting her cheeks.
"I'll go with you Harry! Lavender here, though, she's going with Seamus."
Harry's excitement was halved.
"But, my sister, Padma," she looked over Harry's shoulder to Ron and waved at him, "She hasn't got a date yet. I bet she'll be thrilled to go with your friend." She smiled genuinely at Harry and turned to go on her way with Lavender.
Harry skirted across the floor quickly and grabbed Ron by the shoulders, shaking him.
"We've got dates! We did it!" he said loudly.
Ron cheered and the twins chuckled to themselves, while Hermione and Ginny both rolled their eyes at them.
Feeling loads better than before, the boys went back up to the dorm and got settled into their respectable beds. One problem solved, Harry thought, Tomorrow, the egg. As he closed his eyes, and drifted into sleep, he thought about how much he'd love to jump ahead in time to see the look on Draco's face when he sees him with a proper date. His heart gave a small sputter, to which he ignored.
A/N: Another chapter in! Please tell me what you think. The next chapter, as stated at the beginning, will dive right into the direction I want this to go. I'll be going over this chapter like the last one, too, once it's live and read it once more to make sure there are no mistakes in spelling, etc... Well, see you next chapter! - Yenne