"Would you like some fruit punch?"
The first time he asked her, she was there by accident, trying to find the Licorice Wands.
The Slug Club party was in full swing, but she was having no fun. Her date was too busy sharing crude jokes with Fabian and Gideon Prewett to entertain her, so she had left, wandering around aimlessly to look for her favorite candy. The air was thick with perfume and laughter, and there were so many different tables filled with so many different sweets, that she didn't know where to start.
After having scoured three different tables, she made her way over to the punch table, not noticing a familiar, messy-haired boy filling up his cup.
"Would you like some fruit punch?"
"No thanks," she said, jumping and turning to face him.
"Ouch," he said, running a hand through his hair as she chewed on her lip. "First you don't want to be my date, and now you won't even take some punch from me?"
"I told you that someone else had already asked me," she said, frowning slightly.
"If I would have asked you sooner, would you have come with me?" he inquired, leaning across the vat of fizzing red juice to study her face.
Of course she would have come with him! He had changed drastically over the break between sixth and seventh year (or was it she who had changed drastically?). Regardless of who had changed, he was nice now; and everyone knew she had a thing for Quidditch players thanks to Alice's big mouth.
Her eyes caught on the three buttons on his shirt that were undone exposing a sliver of the skin that every witch in the school salivated over.
She yanked her eyes up to his quickly, before she could start drooling.
"Well?" he pushed.
"I don't know," she lied, before giving him a small smile and walking away in the opposite direction.
He watched her until she disappeared behind a large group of students, the smirk that used to get him everything he wanted dancing on his lips.
a/n: I know, I know, she didn't tell him that she liked him! Don't worry, there will be two more chapters in which she WILL! :)