FULL SUMMARY: Dream after dream, Harry Potter sees a girl that just give him butterflies in his stomach; he is thoroughly convinces that this girl does to Hogwarts with him. His only problem with her? Every time he comes close to seeing the face of this girl, he wakes up from his dreams. So when he tells his best gal pal Elaine Port, she laughs and tries to convince Harry that maybe his so-called "dream girl" really is just in his dreams. Is Elaine right? Or is Harry's dream girl a reality?

chapter 23 – falling for you

Elaine and Harry sat on opposite ends of the couch together. Though their conversation started out as awkward, the tension between them melted away when Harry mentioned the trials to find the girl of his dreams. He noticed, however, that Elaine grew uncomfortable the more they talked about… so why did she go on talking about it with him?

Then he mentioned his breakup with Ginny…

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," Elaine whispered, turning away from him.

The fire glowed against the dimly light common room. Harry sighed to himself, recalling the moment of the breakup.

"It wasn't that bad," he admitted. "To be honest, the worst part of it all is that when I look at my reflection."

Elaine nodded. "That you have to look at the boy who led her to believe all these nonsensical things like that she was the one?"

Harry scratched the back of his head uneasily. "Actually," he confessed, "it's because of the bruise she left on my cheek."

"Oh my gosh! Harry, are you okay?" Elaine jumped to her feet and knelt beside him quickly. "You look terrible!"

Harry shrugged. "It's fine!" he said with a laugh. "Honestly, it didn't hurt at all."

Elaine rolled her eyes and she took Harry's hand in hers. She gave it a light squeeze before sighing. Slowly, she pushed herself up from the ground and took the seat beside Harry. She still kept his hand in hers.

"Elaine, I think that's what we need to talk about," Harry muttered, staring at their interlocked hands. "Ginny wasn't the girl of my dreams."

"What are you talking about? I thought all signs pointed to her!"

"But they also pointed to someone else…" Harry whispered, moving his gaze to her. Taking in her physical features once more, Harry inhaled. "Look, when I started looking for the girl of my dreams, I felt so bad after breaking up with whichever girl I went out with… and then to come back to the common room to have you breathing down my back made me feel even worse!"

"I'm sorry you felt that way," Elaine replied with a frown as she inched closer to Harry. "I guess I was just… jealous…"

"No, no!" Harry said. "It's good that you did that. And it's good that I went through this! It went to prove that my feelings before all of this were stronger than anything that a dream could give me!

"Elaine, you were always there in the back of my mind when I went on these dates. And then on my date with Ginny… oh gosh, the thought of you was just so insurmountable that it made me feel even worse being with Ginny!"

"So why did you continue to go out with her?" Elaine wondered sadly. "If that's how you really felt about all of this, then why?"

Harry scanned the room in a panicked frenzy. Elaine had a valid point; why did he do all of this? None of it was making any sense at all and here he was spurting out whatever he felt – even if it did not correspond with how he felt at all.

"Elaine, you were the one who was always hinting that I should be with Ginny," Harry pressed. "You always made jokes about how I liked her… even when I didn't."

"So then why did you go out with her?" Elaine shouted, finally releasing her hold on his hand. She jumped to her feet in a rage. "If you didn't like her at all, then why did you go out with her for so long?"

"I guess I convinced myself that she was the girl of my dreams," Harry said, getting up from the couch. He grabbed Elaine's wrist in hopes to calm her down. "Please hear me out!"

"Why should I, Harry?" she asked temperamentally.

Harry sighed, "Because I know how I feel about you now! I know that completely now. You're the girl of my dreams!"

Elaine smiled faintly as Harry before shaking her head. A frown now appeared on her face before she let out a sorrowful sigh. "You know that now…?" she said dejectedly.

"Yes," Harry said with a smile as she approached her. "You're the girl from my dreams. It's always been you!"

Still shaking her head, Elaine sighed once more. She was finally hearing what she wanted to hear; she, Elaine Avery Port, was the girl of Harry Potter's dreams. She was everything he had been looking for, so why was she having such a hard time believe in all of it?

"Harry… we can't do this," Elaine whispered as she wrapped her arms around herself.

"WHAT?" Harry shouted at her. "Isn't this what you wanted to hear? Elaine, I thought you felt the same way!"

"Do you have any idea how many girls you have gone out with in the past couple of months?" The downcast look on Elaine's face grew even gloomier.

Harry went wide-eyed as he stared at Elaine. "That was because I needed to test the waters of relationships! I needed to find the one! You told me that I should go out there and find her! Why can't you accept-?"

"I never needed to test my feelings for you," Elaine choked on her words as the tears began to form. "Ever since we met, I knew you were the one for me. I was ready to give you everything…! I figured this would be the year I made my effort. I learned how to do my makeup ad I even grew my hair out. I did all of this for you!"

Elaine's unexpected interruption stunned Harry. How was he supposed to response to her? He couldn't tell her that he didn't notice her new look; otherwise, he would be lying. He couldn't exactly admit to her that he wanted to abandon his wild goose chase just to go out with her; honestly, the thought never really crossed his mind. He had been so set on finding the girl from his dreams that nothing else seemed to matter.

"I'm sorry…" he blurted out softly and slowly.

"I forgive you," Elaine said, letting her arms fall to her sides. "I forgive you for going on all those dates. I forgive you for leading on those poor girls. I forgive you for almost everything that happened because of your silly dreams… but, Harry… the fact that you needed to test the waters of a relationship… that you needed to find the one and tried to do so time and time again… Harry, if it took you a dream to show you all of this, then I don't know how to feel about you anymore.

"I can't forgive you for only believing you like me because of a dream," she began to sob uncontrollably. "Up until recently, you made everyone believe you had feelings for Ginny. What happens if that happens again with me?"

Elaine turned to make her way to the common room, but Harry was quicker. He lunged forward and tried to grab her wrist once more; unfortunately, however, Harry slipped over his own feet and collapsed, hitting his head forcefully against the table across the couch.

"Harry!" was the last thing he heard Elaine scream out before he fell into complete darkness.

- author's note -

[rewritten]: march 22, 2014
[word count]: 1,218 words without summary and a/n

[mv comments]: for those of you who have checked this story regularly, you know that due to a series of messages, i forced myself to revamp the entire story. however once i got to the third chapter, i decided that it wasn't fair of me to keep the story from progressing simply because of a few messages. i will be reediting the story later on, but it will be a little after finishing this. that way you will have the option to reread it if you please. thank you for taking the time to read this update. i hope you enjoyed it! don't forget to leave a review~ xoxo, may.