A/N: "Omg it's been two years! I thought she had quit but there's a new chapter!" Yeah, I thought I had quit too but for the last two years this story has continued to get reviews and follows and that convinced me to keep writing. So here we are, two years later, with a new chapter of Please, a Dan and Phil Hogwarts AU. And that is thanks to all of you amazing people who decided to leave reviews and follow the story even though everything indicated I had abandoned the story. So, thanks! And as always, please let me know what you think!
"Hey, guys! How's it going?"
I looked up from the chessboard that was positioned between PJ and I to see Chris take a seat at our table in the Great Hall.
"Hey, Chris," said PJ, a knight dangling from between his fingers, eyes remaining focused on the board, intently staring at the patterned squares, strategizing. A few moments later, he placed the knight on the board. "Check," he said to me. "What's up?" he asked, turning to Chris now that his turn was over.
I stared at the board in astonishment, wondering how on earth PJ had put me in check in so few moves and how best to get out of it.
"Have you guys heard about Alex and Carrie?" Chris asked.
"What happened?" I asked, looking up at him and abandoning my train of thought.
"They just had a huge fight on the stairs down to the entrance hall. I only saw the end of it but I asked Louise Pentland and she said that from what she heard it sounded like Alex might have had a little too much celebratory Firewhisky after Hufflepuff won last night and hooked up with some third year girl."
"Alex cheated on her?" I asked indignantly.
"According to Louise, yeah."
"Poor Carrie."
"Yeah. And that poor third year," said PJ under his breath. "I hope Alex wasn't too pushy with her. You know how he gets when he's drunk. And so many people are going to hate her for coming between Carrie and Alex. They have been together forever."
We all sat there in silence for a moment. Carrie and Alex had had their spats before but were always able to pull through. They were one of those couples that you just knew would always be together—it was a given. I didn't see how they could make it through this though; I knew Carrie well enough to know that she would not forgive something like that. I wanted to see if she was all right but I figured she would not want to talk to anyone just yet, so I made a mental note to check in on her later. I felt really bad for Carrie but even worse about the fact that some of my first thoughts were how this was going to affect me. I was good friends with both of them—how was I supposed to talk to one without betraying the other?
I hesitantly picked up my castle. "Do you still feel like playing?" I asked PJ.
"Not really, to be honest," he responded.
I shrugged and flicked over my king. "You would have won anyway."
"Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. I didn't mean to ruin your game," Chris apologized.
"Don't worry about it. You saved me from another embarrassing defeat at the hands of PJ Liguori," I said lightheartedly, attempting to bring the mood back up. "I think he was determined to get back at me for the match on Saturday. Speaking of which, if I'm ever betting against anyone about the outcome of a match I'm going to come to you. I don't know how you predicted that last one but that was impressive."
Chris shrugged off the complement. "You pick up on a thing or two when you have professional Quiddich players for parents."
I opened my mouth to respond but was cut off before I could speak by a chorus of giggles that entered the Great Hall. I raised an eyebrow at PJ when I saw him immediately stand up a bit straighter.
"You know, with Carrie and Alex out of the way, Hogwarts has a vacancy for happiest couple," Chris said, looking pointedly at PJ.
PJ just glared at Chris while the giggling drifted through the hall and subsided at a table not too far from them.
"Fine," said PJ quietly so that Zoe and her friends would not overhear. "I'll ask her out. But you have to ask out one of her friends."
"Deal," said Chris, shrugging like it was no big deal. "What's her name again? The one with the brown hair?"
"Tanya Burr," I said. "She's dating Jim though."
"Crap. What about blondie?"
"Grace Helbig," I responded.
"Grace. Got it. Let's go PJ!" Chris stood up, hoisted PJ up by the arm, and began to walk over to the girls.
PJ flattened his shirt, fluffed his hair, shook out his arms, straightened up, and followed. I stayed behind, knowing I would be able to hear them from where I was sitting and not wanting to intrude.
As Chris reached the girls, he conjured a bouquet of flowers behind his back and revealed it with a flourish. The girls gasped and giggled, impressed. "Hello, darling," he said, handing the flowers to Grace.
Grace looked taken aback and blushed but she smiled and took the flowers nonetheless.
"Would you like to go to dinner with me, say, this Friday?"
"Um, yeah. Why not?" she responded, glancing around at her friends.
"Fantastic. I'll meet you in the Entrance Hall at six."
Chris stepped aside and PJ took his turn in front of the table.
"Hey Zoe," PJ said, putting on his best smile.
The girls around the table giggled, knowing what was coming. "Hi PJ," she smiled up at him, blushing delicately.
"Do you want to go to the Griffindor-Slytherin match with me this weekend?"
"Yeah, sure! I'd love that!" Zoe replied, enthusiastically.
"I'll meet you after breakfast then?"
"Fantastic! I can't wait!"
"See you this weekend then," PJ smiled.
I quickly began to put the chess pieces away, not wanting them to see that I had been staring at them the entire time.
"What was that, dude?" PJ asked indignantly but not angrily.
"What?" Chris responded.
"The flowers! You made me look bad!"
"But Zoe was going to say yes no matter what. I had to make at least a little effort with… with… uhh…"
"Grace," I helped.
"Yeah, Grace," Chris smiled, slightly abashed.
PJ and I just shook our heads.
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Later that night in the common room, I wanted to find Carrie and see how she was doing but I saw no sign of her. I stayed up late working by the fire, half to see if Carrie would come through the door and half so that I could avoid talking to Alex. Though he and I had been good friends for the last two years, I decided that it was Carrie who deserved my allegiance in this matter. I knew that if I ran into Alex in the dormitory he would try to justify what he did and talk me into seeing his side of it; he was someone who could talk his way out of literally anything. But I knew that Carrie deserved better than to lose both her boyfriend and one of her best friends—me—in the same day so I sat determinedly in the large squishy armchair with my Herbology textbook open on my lap.
When the fire had dwindled down to the last few embers and the common room had emptied save for one NEWT student who had fallen asleep on his textbook in the corner, I decided to go to bed. I had accomplished a good portion of the reading for Herbology and had even made a few entries in my dream diary for Divination. With all the future late nights with Dan to look forward to I was determined to stay on top of my homework.
By the time I woke up the next morning I had forgotten about Alex and Carrie and when I entered the Great Hall for breakfast I heard my name being called from across the hall.
"Phil! Phil!"
It was Louise who had abandoned her usual position at the end of the Hufflepuff table to sit with Jack Howard at the Ravenclaw table. As soon as she saw that I had spotted her, she excitedly waved me over.
"I just told Jack the best joke ever. Want to hear it?"
Jack looked exasperated at her high energy but chuckled to himself. "Hey Phil," he greeted me as I sat down next to Louise.
"How many Slytherins does it take to screw in a light bulb?" Louise asked before I could even grab a piece of toast. Fighting back fits of giggles, she finished, "Five! One to screw in the bulb and four to say that with their father's connections at the Ministry they could have gotten it done faster!"
Louise collapsed in a fit of hysterical laughter while Jack just rolled his eyes at his friend. I coughed out a few uneasy chuckles.
"What? Don't you get it?" asked Louise, finally recovering and wiping away the tears in her eyes. "Because Slytherins are so obsessed with who knows who and power and stuff. Its so funny!"
"Yeah, I get it," I said, squeezing out a little more guilt-stained laughter.
"Why don't you think my joke is funny?" Louise whined, pouting at me.
"I don't know. I mean, not all Slytherins are like that, you know?"
"Oh yeah? Name one," Jack challenged.
"I uh…" My thoughts were on Dan and how he did not fit into any of the Slytherin stereotypes. And on what he had said during our first potions lesson together, not too long before our first kiss. We aren't all terrible people like everyone thinks we are. I mean, sure there are some of us who don't play well with others and make everyone else look bad, but the majority of us are just in the house because we aren't afraid to go after what we want. I felt guilty laughing at a joke that make him out to be anything other than the incredibly kind, gentle, caring guy he was.
"I just don't think we should be perpetuating stereotypes like that. It wouldn't be funny if it was a joke about how dumb Hufflepuffs are." I shrugged, trying to act like it wasn't that big of a deal.
"Whatever party pooper," joked Louise, giving me a playful shove. "Sometimes I think you're just too nice."
"So how were your guys' holidays?" I asked, trying to gloss over the awkwardness.
Louise and I had been great friends since our second year when we both wound up being the last two people in the library trying to finish an incredibly long paper on the International Warlock Convention of 1289 for History of Magic that was due the next morning. We sat together on the floor in the back, surrounded by stacks of books, scrapped pieces of parchment, and a few quills that had been broken out of sheer frustration. In a mad panic we flipped through countless books, sharing helpful tidbits of information and helping each other figure out what to write next. We apparently ended up falling asleep because in the morning we were awoken by the angry librarian and had to sprint down two flights of stairs to the first floor. By the time we reached the classroom, we were doubled over in a fit of sleep-deprived giggles.
I very much enjoyed spending time with Louise. Her excitement and enthusiasm were infectious and she was one of the nicest people I knew. Hers and Jack's families were longtime friends and lived near each other. Jack was two years older and had the complete opposite personality. He was more sarcastic and liked to tell it like it was. They acted like siblings, always teasing each other.
Louise was in the middle of animatedly telling a story about how her dog had stolen Jack's Christmas dinner right off his plate when an owl swooped down and dropped a small scroll in front of me.
I unfurled it and read:
Dinner date tonight?
I felt the smile spread across my face.
"What is it?" Louise asked having been cut off from her story by the owl.
"Oh, its just, uh, I have another lesson with Slughorn tonight," I responded, shoving the note in my pocket. "Keep telling your story."
I glanced at the Slythern table and exchanged the smallest of smiles with Dan. As I stared intently at Louis trying to listen to her story, I had to hide my mouth behind my hand to cover the smile that I could not suppress. I kept my other hand curled around the note in my pocket.
Louis's story ended with the dog throwing up Jack's dinner into Jack's shoes. The only thing that stopped Louise from laughing historically at Jack's outraged expression was the fact that we had to go to Transfiguration.
"Don't come back until you've learned to conjure me a new pair of shoes!" Jack shouted after us.
When I waked into the classroom I immediately noticed the change. Carrie and Alex were sitting on opposite sides of the room. Usually we all sat together with Alex in the middle. But today I had to make a choice. I had to pick between two of my friends. And I knew I would feel guilty either way. But again, I knew that the only real choice was to sit with Carrie. After what Alex had done to her—betraying her trust and hurting her so badly—I could not face going and sitting next to him.
Instead I made my way to the far left corner where a bushy blond head was bowed. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alex shoot me a dirty look but I pretended not to notice. I pulled out the chair next to her and sat down, looking at her. She was fiddling with one of the bracelets on her wrist and did not look up.
"Carrie," I began delicately.
"Don't," she said quietly.
Don't talk about Alex. I understood what she meant and I respected her wish.
I still wanted to talk to her though—to see if she was ok, to distract her from Alex, to do anything I could to help. "Are you going to the Griffindor-Slytherin match this weekend?" I asked.
"I dunno," she replied, not looking up from her bracelet.
"You can come with me and Chris. He's taking Grace out for dinner on Friday and it's sure to be a disaster. He can't even remember her name. I'm sure his stories are going to be hilarious."
Carrie and Chris did not hang out that often but I knew that she liked him as a person and found him entertaining. When she didn't respond I added, "I'll help you make your banner the night before too. I've always wanted to see how you do that."
Finally, she looked up at me with eyes that were not entirely focused on my face.
"Ok, I'll think about it," she said.
I did not want to push it so I just smiled at her and squeezed her hand reassuringly.
Just then McGonagall came into the room and began class.
We were still working on vanishing spells so I had no trouble at all making my iguana disappear; however, I realized Carrie was struggling to make any visible changes to her rabbit. So as to avoid McGonagall coming over and criticizing her work—which I was sure she would not want to deal with given the circumstances—I explained to her what PJ had explained to me. Carrie wanted to quit but I got her to keep trying. As McGonagall walked by, she glanced in our direction and gave me a brief nod.
I got the feeling she understood the situation. I wondered how much the professors knew about everyone's personal lives. Hogwarts was a small school and with only 40
people in each year any amount of gossip traveled like wild fire. It wouldn't be hard for professors to overhear whispered rumors that flew through the corridors. McGonagall was strict but she was not unreasonable; she must have either heard about Carrie and Alex or figured it out based on the fact that they were not seated together as usual. Either way, I found that I gained a new sense of respect for her for not putting pressure on Carrie today.
When class was dismissed, Carrie strode out of the room as fast as possible leaving me behind. From across the room I saw Alex gathering his things and immediately scanned the room for someone to talk to. I saw Louise carefully putting away her color changing ink and made a beeline for her.
"Hey Phil," she said when she saw me approach. "That was really nice of you to help Carrie like that."
"It's the least I could do after what she's been through," I said under my breath as Alex walked past us out of the room.
"Poor girl," Louise sighed. She lowered her voice as we made our way out of the classroom and said, "She had her bed curtains closed last night but I could hear her crying. She wouldn't talk to any of us."
With the rest of the fifth year Hufflepuffs, we made our way down to the dungeons for Potions. As we walked down the corridors, everything got gradually darker and slightly damper. Suddenly a group of people strode out of an adjacent hallway and I had to jump out of the way to avoid the person in the front.
"Oi! Watch where you're going."
I steadied myself and looked at who it was. Caspar was joined by the Harries twins and—I felt a pang in my stomach when I saw his face—Dan.
"God Lester, you're so stupid. How do you manage to play Quiddich without flying into a goal post?"
Caspar's jeer earned a chuckle from the twins. Dan just stared at me with a blank expression.
"At least I'm good enough to make it on the team. Even if you were good enough to try out you wouldn't be able to play with all your remedial potions lessons."
It had been a joke but with the expression that twisted onto Caspar's face I realized with joy that he might actually be doing remedial potions.
Caspar composed himself quickly enough to throw a retort back at me. "Yeah right. At least I don't suck Slughorn's dick to be treated like the best student in the class. That's what you're doing, isn't it? With those special lessons of yours." He put heavy sarcasm on the words "special lessons."
"Shut up, Caspar. You're just jealous." It was a lame response but I was not usually that good with insults anyway.
"What would I be jealous of? Your gay haircut?"
"Do you let your Muggle mum cut it for you in the dark?" Finn chimed in.
"Or are you stupid enough to think that it looks good and you actually ask someone to cut it that way?" Jack jeered.
There was a pause and I realized they were waiting for Dan to contribute to their list of reasons why I was pathetic.
He had been staring at me the entire time but as soon as he opened his mouth, he lowered his eyes. "Yeah, you're so stupid."
There was a loud bang and everyone spun around. Slughorn had opened the door with a flourish and was smiling at everyone.
"Come in! Come in! It is time to advance your knowledge in the wondrous art of potion making!"
Dan had not even said it with any conviction but out of everything that had been said, his words were the only ones that hurt. I was used to Caspar. The only time he ever really got to me was when he physically hurt me. But to hear that come out of Dan's mouth, even though he didn't mean it, was almost unbearable.
Jack nudged Dan and Finn and the three of them began to walk away. Caspar walked towards the classroom door, slamming his shoulder into mine has he passed.
"Do you still think not all Slyterins are bad?" Louise asked with a sympathetic look on her face.
"I dunno," I mumbled.
I walked through the dungeon door in a daze, dropped my bag next to the desk, and automatically went through the motions of setting up my cauldron. I looked up at Slughorn but did not really see him, though some of his words managed to drift through the haze in my brain and I gathered that we would be making the Drought of Peace again today.
I made a valiant effort to concentrate on the ingredients for the potion but all I could think about was what Dan had just said to me. You're so stupid. It kept replaying over and over in my head like a film clip stuck on a loop. He didn't mean it; he had to say something or else it would have been suspicious, I kept telling myself. But me attempt at reassuring myself did nothing to alleviate the twisted, burning weight in my stomach that throbbed every time Dan's words echoed in my head.
The rational part of my brain kept trying to reason with me. It was necessary for him to say something. I didn't want anyone finding out about us either. He had no other choice. He didn't mean it.
But then another voice came into my head. You defended him earlier today though. You didn't go along with Louis's joke.
My hand slipped as I was crushing my porcupine quills and I nearly crushed my finger.
How could he have said that? He was supposed to be the one person I could trust to be there for me no matter what.
I felt myself growing angry, a sense of betrayal seeping into my veins from the pit of my stomach. I began to crush my quills with more vigor.
He could have walked away. He could have chosen to not say anything. He said he was going to be late for class or had to go talk to a professor or any number of things rather than stand there and watch Caspar and the twins have a go at me.
Then I realized that behind the anger there was humiliation. Having Caspar say those things about me in front of Dan made me feel embarrassed. Embarrassed that I hadn't stood up for myself more, that he had seen me being called names, that Caspar clearly "won." But I shoved those thoughts aside as quickly as they came. Anger was the preferable emotion to humiliation.
"Phil, there's not going to be anything left of your porcupine quills if you keep that up," Louise said, grabbing my wrist. "Are you ok? Did you let Caspar get to you? You know he's all talk. Thinks he's so cool and all that for making fun of people."
"Thanks, Louise," I responded and added the pulverized quills to my potion.
As I continued my potion, I alternated between anger and hurt, his words still repeating in my head. Three quarters of the way through the lesson, my potion exploded with a loud bang, covering those within ten feet in a toxic turquoise color that smelled rancid but was otherwise not harmful. After clearing the mess with a wave of his wand, Slughorn tried to ask me what had gone wrong. Why his fifth year potions star had suddenly made a huge mistake. He was glancing suspiciously at the Slytherins, but I could honestly tell him I had no idea. I had not been paying the slightest bit of attention.
It was not until I had packed up and stuck my hands in my pockets that I remembered the small scroll sitting there.
Dinner date tonight?
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When dinnertime came around I was sitting on the windowsill of my dormitory, the feeling of being punched in the gut still present. But now a sense of dread began to trickle though my body. How was I supposed to go face him after how he had made me feel for the last few hours? I realized with a pang that he probably did not even know I was feeling this way. He probably did not realize what those few words had done to me.
I slowly stood up and dragged my feet across the room and down the stairs, not even bothering to check my appearance in the mirror on the way out. I was angry and knew I could not let this go but I did not want to fight with Dan. As a passive person, I rarely harbored anger towards people and even more rarely expressed it. I was of the opinion that anger did not accomplish anything. But on the other hand I refused to let myself be treated that way and not express how it made me feel. And how it made me feel was angry.
As I trudged up the stairs to the seventh floor, I felt the anger bubbling just below the surface. You're so stupid, replayed in my head with every step I took. My fists tightened and my jaw clenched. I arrived at the door and paused for a moment. A jolt of anger spiked through my body as You're so stupid echoed loudly in my head again, then I pushed the door open.
The first thing to catch my eyes was a small table set for two sitting in the center of the room. It was adorned with candles and a vase of flowers. The couches had been pushed to the walls and a fire crackled merrily in the hearth. The two chairs at the table were empty. Dan had instead been sitting on the end of one of the couches in the corner of the room and had stood up as soon as I had entered.
I just looked at him. There must have been something in my face because his expression went from worried to distressed in an instant.
"Phil, I'm so, so sorry," he said striding across the room towards me. He stopped two feet away from me, his arms slightly extended like he wanted to touch me but did not want to upset me further.
"Why the hell did you have to do that?" I said quietly. I could feel the anger seeping into my voice with every word.
"I panicked, okay?" Dan said gently but with desperation seeping into his voice. "I just froze and had no idea what to do. I wasn't expecting to run into you and I wasn't expecting Caspar to be such a dick. I'm sorry. I just panicked."
"You could have made an excuse and walked away." My voice was getting louder.
"You could have just not said anything. I know you didn't want to make people suspicious but you could have said any number of things rather than calling me so stupid! I defended you earlier today! Louise was making jokes about Slytherins and I stood up for you. I said that not all Slytherins are bad people. I'm starting to wonder if I was wrong…"
I saw Dan's face crumple and his arms sagged down by his sides.
"I'm so sorry Phil," Dan said quietly. "There's no excuse for what I said. There really isn't. I hurt you and I'm sorry. But please believe me when I say that that was the last thing that I wanted to do. I know that I fucked up and I've felt really shit about it all day. If I could do it over I would. I wish I had just punched Caspar right then and there. I could have played it off like I was trying to punch you and just tripped. Everyone knows I can be pretty clumsy sometimes. But you're right. I could have done any number of things. But instead I picked one of the worst options. I'm sorry."
I could see genuine anguish in Dan's eyes and I felt my anger melting away. Instead it was replaced by a sense of guilt that I had gotten so angry. Of course he had not meant it. We had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Things like this were bound to happen when you're trying to keep a relationship secret.
"I'm sorry," I found myself beginning to apologize. "I shouldn't have gotten angry. I know—"
"No, Phil. Stop. I fucked up and you have every right to be upset. Never apologize for feeling that way. I understand if you want to cancel our dinner date tonight." He looked down and turned away from me ever so slightly as though to make it easier for me to leave.
I just nodded my head. I felt almost overcome with relief. Before me stood my boyfriend who had just hurt me but had owned up to his actions and apologized. He had not gotten angry or defensive as people so often do, and for that I was grateful. It was a better response than I ever could have hoped for.
"Come here," I said.
Dan looked up at me and I saw a look of shock and gratitude flit across his face.
I opened my arms to him. He took a tentative step forward and I pulled him into a hug. After a moment, I felt both of our bodies relax as we let the mutual physical comfort cleanse us of everything we had felt since the incident earlier. We held each other like this for a while.
Suddenly, my stomach growled between us causing us to break apart in fits of hysteric laughter. I had not eaten lunch and had not realized I was hungry. We were laughing so hard Dan had to sit down on the couch and I had to lean against the wall for support. As we laughed at the hilarity of the incident we briefly made eye contact and I could tell that all the tension was completely gone. There were no hard feelings and there would be no grudges. It was back to just being Dan and I enjoying each other's company.
"Shall we have some dinner then?" Dan asked when we had recovered enough to regain our breath.
"Yes please," I responded, rubbing my belly.
Dan led the way over to the table and pulled out a chair for me. "Your server will be with you shortly," he said in a fake posh accent.
Dan did a sort of pirouette, cleared his throat, and in another fake accent said, "I am Dan and I will be your server for the evening. For dinner tonight we will be having lamb chops with roasted carrots and potatoes." He lifted the plate covers off the table to reveal an elegant looking meal. "With a side of chips for two," he finished, taking away a third plate cover and revealing an enormous plate of chips.
"A fancy meal with a side of chips. I like your style, Dan Howell."
Dan winked at me as he sat down and said, "Dig in!"
"How did you get all this food?" I asked through a mouthful of lamb.
"Lets just say I have some friends in the kitchen."
The conversation flowed easily between us as we ate our meals together. And in that moment I was very grateful for my inability to hold a grudge.
Throughout dinner we talked about Quidditch. Dan told me about how he had gone to the Quidditch World Cup with his family when he was six and he had decided then that he wanted to be a professional Quidditch player. He begged and begged and finally his parents had bought him his first broom for Christmas when he was seven. He used to fly around the yard, snatching apples off the trees, and pelting them at his brother, though never hard enough to actually hurt him. When he was nine he began playing for the Manchester Moon Frogs, a little league Quidditch team. By the time he got to Hogwarts, he was good enough to make the team in his second year.
"I don't want to do it professionally anymore," he finished. "That was just my dream job as a little kid. You know, flying out into the world cup stadium with my team and hearing half the crowd cheering their heads off and the other half booing at the top of their lungs. Everyone in that stadium would either love me or hate me for being so good."
I laughed, finding it incredible that I could go from finding Dan adorable to incredibly sexy in the course of that one story. The image of seven-year-old Dan flying around on a tiny broom made me smile and the image of Dan the Quidditch star made me want to drag him over to the couch and get on top of him. Even though he said he was not interested in playing Quidditch professionally, I still did not doubt that he had the talent and skill to do so if he wanted to.
Dan asked me what it was like to watch Quidditch for the first time and I told him about how mind-blowing it was. I had gone to my first Hogwarts Quidditch match with Louise and had not been able to shut up about how amazing it was the entire time. Having come from a non-magical family everything had been so new to me but seeing 15 people flying around in the air on broomsticks was just about the most incredible thing I had seen yet. Of course this was before I had seen Professor McGonagall transform from cat to human or had seen a stampede of inanimate objects do cartwheels across a classroom.
After the match, Louise had made sure to introduce me to Jack Howard who knew how to play Quidditch but was not on the Ravenclaw team so he could give me a few lessons. I explained to Dan what football was and how I had played it when I was younger. I had been a goalie so I was basically an earth-bound keeper. Since I already had these skills, I just had to learn how to use them in the air. Jack had helped me a bit and I tried out for the Hufflepuff team in my second year. The tryout was an absolute disaster and I laughed at myself as I recalled to Dan how I missed every single shot except for one where I almost fell off my broom and my flailing arms hit the quaffle by accident.
But I had worked hard for the rest of the year and made the team in my third year. I give credit to Jim being captain. The captain when I had tried out the first time was very intimidating and scary but Jim was so kind that I felt like even my mistakes were successes.
As we finished our dinners, Dan got up and removed the plates. He gathered plates that had been sitting covered, next to the fire and placed them on the table. They were revealed to contain apple pie, one of my favorite desserts.
Conversation drifted away from Quidditch and toward our futures. Neither of us knew what we wanted to do when we graduated from Hogwarts. Dan said he could see me becoming a Healer. I was not opposed to that career; the opportunity to help people and apply my potions knowledge was appealing to me.
"I could see you being a curse breaker," I said. "You have to be smart and it's a little dangerous."
"That actually does sound interesting," he said. "You know, I really could see myself doing that. You might have just helped me through my mid-life crisis."
"Mid-life?" I questioned. "I hope not."
"Ok, quarter-life crisis," he responded, chuckling.
As I scraped the last bite of apple pie off my plate and put it in my mouth, Dan asked, "So do you want to adjourn to the couch?"
His tone was innocent but when I met his eyes I saw pure desire that rendered me momentarily paralyzed.
I nodded my head and he stood up, offering his hand. I took it, stood up, and followed him to the couch, feeling myself becoming aroused just at the thought of what might happen next. Before I could let my imagination form a coherent thought however, Dan gave my arm a tug, which caused me to fall onto the couch.
Before I had comprehended what had happened, Dan was on top of me, his hips inches from mine, his face so close that I could feel his apple-cinnamon breath as he spoke. "It has been way too long since I've been able to touch you," he whispered and leaned in.