Chapter 11
Party with Padma, Luna, and Pansy
The next morning, Harry decided to sit with Padma again at her house table for breakfast.
He had only just got done explaining to Padma about Fleur's party when a now familiar voice interrupted him.
"Ooh, a party sounds like fun Harry," Luna said coming up from his side as she sat down next to him directly opposite from Padma.
"That's usually why people like to go to them," Padma pointed out even though she looked excited too.
"I'm so excited to go!" Luna said happily, practically bouncing up and down.
He made a point to be looking at his food so as not to stare at Luna's bouncing boobies again.
Yet truthfully he hadn't planned on inviting Luna, but he didn't have the heart to tell her no now that she knew about it.
After Hermione declined going with him after inviting her last night, and not thinking it a good idea to invite Daphne so soon after...certain events...he had decided that it might be a good idea to bring just Padma as a sort of one on one date.
"I'm also going to get to see Gabby," Luna replied excitedly.
"Who's Gabby?" Harry asked.
"Another person who will supposedly be your friend in the future?" Padma asked.
"Gabby is already my friend!" Luna answered, sounding insulted.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to say that you can't have friends, it's just you tend to mix up the current and possible future tense," Padma apologized.
"Yes I do have poor grammar," Luna agreed, seeming to take this a different way, "it's just more fun to use made up words like gumpey grriggles, or phantasmagorical or lupendous. McGonagall hates it when I use those words though in class."
"So who is this Gabby anyway?" Harry asked.
"Oh you'll see, she's super cute, as cute as a humdinger," Luna replied, "you'll really like her Harry."
"I can't wait to see her," Padma told her honestly.
In truth she was probably saying that because she wanted to see someone who actually existed and did not appear to be a figment of Luna's imagination.
Come to think of it, maybe if he thought really hard, maybe Snape would become a figment of his own imagination.
Yet after doing so and closing his eyes, he opened them again to spot Snape still at the teachers table.
I suppose using your imagination had its limits, he thought.
Too bad.
TOOMANYTOOMANY
When they got to the party after he picked both Padma and Luna up in front of the Ravenclaw common room, he quickly looked around.
It was in a large room with a space clearly set aside for dancing although nobody was currently taking advantage of this just yet and so lay vacant.
On one side of the room was a couple of tables with food and drinks on it and on the other was some chairs lining the walls for people to sit on.
Music emanated throughout the room, obviously the work of some kind of spell, currently letting out a song that he recognized as belonging to the Weird Sisters.
All in all it wasn't too bad for a party and he wondered just how Fleur had gotten access to it.
Over on one side of the room a group of girls that were obviously from Beauxbatons along with a couple of older boys he recognized from Hogwarts, probably the dates of two of the Beauxbatons girls were in a circle talking.
Fleur however he spotted just now setting down a plate of chips.
He, Padma, and Luna went over to say hello.
"Hi Fleur," Harry greeted.
"Oh good you made it," Fleur answered warmly.
"Somehow," He told her, "it was a struggle to fight off all the would-be assassins on our way here."
"I had to fight them off with a stick," Padma claimed.
"A stick that lets you do magic and burn them, turn into jellies, and who knows what else, but hey I suppose still a stick," He pointed out.
Fleur turned to Padma and greeted her with, "nice to see you with Harry, I've already heard quite a bit about you from Harry actually."
"Good things I hope," Padma replied.
"Horrible things actually, but that's not your fault," Fleur told her.
Padma looked at him, obviously not convinced by Fleur but pretending to be angry nonetheless.
"Don't worry Padma," He replied calmly, "Fleur is only throwing me under the bus because I told her that you were more beautiful than she was."
"Nice answer," Fleur complimented him.
"It's nice to meet you too Fleur," Padma said warmly, obviously pleased at his answer as well.
It would have been considered a lie by almost anyone else to say that Padma was more beautiful than Fleur, but for him it was actually entirely truthful. He could even claim to have chosen Fleur over Padma in addition to many other girls which was a pretty strong argument in his defense.
"So who is this lovely lady?" Fleur asked Luna upon turning to her.
Luna giggled as she said, "You just called me a lovely lady. I'm Princess Clarissa."
"I had no idea I was in the presence of royalty," Fleur answered, not really willing to believe her but giving her the benefit of the doubt as she still gave her a polite curtsy.
"So what country are you Princess of?" Padma joked.
"Lalaland," Luna replied easily.
"Your subjects must be crazy about you," Harry responded.
"They are as they very well should, I even let them ride unicorns on our hunts," Luna answered.
"Are you sure that admitting that you're a princess is a good idea though?" He pointed out, "what about all the people who might try to kidnap you for ransom?"
"That actually sounds like fun," Luna argued, "you can kidnap me and make me pay your ransom anytime you want Harry."
"It's a good thing you aren't a real princess then or I might have to kidnap you and trust me I wouldn't do what you expect Harry to do," Padma answered.
"Are you jealous Padma?" He teased.
"Of Luna getting to pretend to be a princess?" Padma asked.
"I'll treat you like a princess too if you want," He offered.
"While admittedly tempting I'm not sure if it would be practical at my age," Padma pointed out.
"Oh don't worry, most girls used to pretend to be princesses when they were little girls," Fleur pointed out, "the fact that she is brave enough to still pretend and have some fun I would consider a good thing. My sister is the same way."
"Well if we're going to role play then I'll let Luna be the princess, and I'll be her servant girl," Padma suggested.
"You mean you'll let me be the princess?" Luna asked sounding impressed, "you can be a princess too if you want."
"It's all right, you were the one who thought of it, so you get to be the princess," Padma offered.
Luna actually started to cry at that.
"It's not that big of a deal," Padma said, confused why she would get so emotional about it.
"You're going to be such an incredible wife," Luna told her.
"Um...thanks I guess," Padma replied, not sure how to reply to that.
Personally he didn't get it either, but then again he didn't really understand girls, much less Luna so he didn't worry about it too much.
"So who do I and Harry get to be?" Fleur then asked.
"Well Harry gets to be the prince of course," Padma answered.
"Prince Harry, of course," Fleur agreed, "then I want to be a knight."
"Were females allowed to be knights?" Harry pointed out.
"Well in this game they are," Padma told him.
"I didn't mean to be sexist," He tried to apologize.
"That's not really being sexist," Fleur said.
"I think Harry is the sexiest," Luna replied.
"Sexist Luna, not sexiest, and I've never met a sexy sexist," Padma corrected her.
"If Harry were to act like a sexist, you would have," Luna pointed out.
"If Harry was really a sexist even as far as I'm concerned then he would just be a jerk," Padma observed.
"That's why I'll always treat women with the respect they deserve," He told them all.
Padma looked at him and asked, "You're just trying to get another kiss from me aren't you?"
"Maybe," He admitted.
She gave him an annoyed look but still gave him a quick peck on the lips anyway. Well it still worked...
"Can we get back to our game now?" Luna pouted.
"Yes, Princess," Fleur said, "may I interest you in some refreshments to satisfy you?"
Luna grinned and said, "Thank you Fleur, I hereby grant unto you the title Sir Lady Fleur of the Court."
"You are most kind my lady," Fleur said, curtsying.
"So who else is supposed to be coming?" Padma asked.
"This is about it," Fleur answered, "there isn't a lot of guys here which is actually one reason why I invited Harry. I think a couple of my friends brought their boyfriends, but we're going to have a real shortage of boys to dance with."
"Yeah, and I unfortunately have two left feet," Harry answered.
"No you don't, you're actually a quite good dancer," Padma claimed, elbowing him a little.
"Princes are supposed to be excellent dancers," Luna pointed out.
"Well this Prince doesn't want to be stepping on any princesses, knights, or servants' feet," He answered.
"You only stepped on my feet once Prince Harry," Padma said, remembering to call him by his fake title.
"I don't remember anything during our dance lesson except holding your waist and thinking Oh Merlin I'm touching Padma's waist!" He told her.
She rolled her eyes and said, "Of course that's the one part you remember."
In truth he remembered a lot more than that, but he really only knew how to do a basic waltz...which judging from the type of music would be totally useless in this setting.
"So why don't I go introduce you to my friends?" Fleur suggested.
She brought them over so that they could enter the circle the others had formed.
"Everyone this is Prince Harry, Maid Padma, and Princess Clarissa," She introduced.
All of them nodded and he noted that none of them seemed to have any trouble understanding them, either because Beauxbatons taught all of their students English or because it was the work of some sort of language understanding spell.
"We're playing a game," Fleur explained at some of the looks of confusion on their faces at hearing their names.
She in turn introduced them to all her friends, including her cousin Roxanne who appeared to have veela blood as well, only she had red hair instead of silvery blond.
"My little sister should be around here somewhere," Fleur claimed as she looked around.
At that moment there was a loud scream.
"Luna!" A girl's voice yelled excitedly.
He turned around just in time to see Luna and a much smaller girl embrace.
"Gabby!" Luna answered just as enthusiastically.
"I'm so glad you could make it!" Gabby answered excitedly.
"Wait a minute," Padma asked, "this is your friend Gabby?"
It was quite obvious to him at least that Padma hadn't actually believed that Luna had an actual real friend named Gabby. Not that he could blame her.
Yet from what he could tell, the two girls appeared to be very good friends as they jumped up and down and hugged each other tightly.
"Yeah, I told you about her remember?" Luna reminded her.
"This is your friend Luna, Gabrielle?" Fleur asked Gabby.
"Yep," Gabrielle agreed, putting an arm around Luna, "Luna is the best!"
"Well you're the best and a cuddly cookie," Luna answered.
"Ah, thanks Luna," Gabrielle replied, taking it as a big compliment.
"I kept hearing all these stories about you from Gabrielle but I wasn't sure if I believed in them...or you as a matter of fact," Fleur commented.
"Oh they're all real. Trust me you'll come to find that out for yourself," Luna answered mysteriously.
"I invited Luna to come here," Gabrielle informed her.
So Luna hadn't simply invited herself or got him to practically invite her, he thought.
"So how do you know Luna anyway?" Padma asked.
Gabrielle sighed and said, "It's kind of a long story but we're in the same year at Hogwarts so we have classes together."
That was certainly a relief.
Try as he might he couldn't help notice that Gabrielle looked very cute (Luna had been right about that) but unfortunately she also looked quite young, in part because she was so small and short.
She could just be a late bloomer, but she still had two obvious and prominent bumps on her chest that would seem to say otherwise.
It kind of unnerved him at first finding himself attracted to such a young girl that appeared to be younger than 13 or 14 which was probably her real age, but finding that she was actually only a little bit younger than him made him feel much less like a pedophile.
"So what are you doing at Hogwarts then if your sister goes to Beauxbatons?" Padma asked Gabrielle.
"She's still a Beauxbatons student," Fleur explained, "when I found out I was selected to be one of the ones going to Hogwarts for the tournament I just couldn't be separated from my little sister so she came with me."
One of the other Beauxbatons girls overheard as they were still rather close by and commented, "I wouldn't say that's the reason."
"Leave her alone Gwen," Fleur cautioned.
"I can handle it," Gabrielle insisted to Fleur firmly.
"I'm sure you can, I'm more worried about what might happen to Gwen," Fleur replied, sounding worried.
Gwen laughed and said, "I think I can handle your little baby sister."
"Alright, that's it!" Gabrielle exclaimed, drawing her wand, "you want to duel and see if you can really handle me?"
Gwen's boyfriend jumped in, a 7th year Gryffindor that Harry recognized but had never directly spoken to. His name was Robert...Collins, yeah that was it.
"Look little girl, I don't want you trying to pick fights with my girlfriend if you know what's good for you, you might get hurt," Robert cautioned her.
"Or you might get hurt if you're the one dueling me," Gabrielle answered boldly.
"I'm not going to fight a little girl," Robert replied, trying to back out.
"What? Are you scared you'll lose?" Gabrielle taunted.
Robert seemed to be in a quandary, the one that all guys feared. If he fought her and won, it meant he just beat up a little girl. If he lost it meant he just got beat by a little girl. It was a no win situation.
"Go turn him into a chicken," Luna suggested to Gabrielle.
Gabrielle grinned and said, "Or a lizard."
"A lizardchicken," Both girls said at once, sharing equal grins.
"Wow you two seem to be destined to be friends," Padma commented.
Neither girl argued with that statement, actually seeming quite pleased.
"Nobody is going to be turning anyone into anything," Fleur said, trying to smooth things over.
"She might be a bit too much for you Robert," one of the other Beauxbatons girls cautioned.
It was the wrong thing to say. Robert's manhood was now in question and he was now obligated to uphold it.
"You've got yourself a duel," Robert told Gabrielle, "I'll try to go easy on you."
"Gabby please," Fleur tried to beg Gabrielle before realizing it was a lost cause, "at least don't embarrass him too badly, he's got his girlfriend watching."
Gabrielle however ignored her and only started getting into position as the dance floor became a dueling arena.
Apparently Gabrielle knew how to duel and so did Robert because they did everything right as far as he could tell...although he hadn't actually seen a formal duel since his 2nd year.
As soon as the duel began, Robert threw a couple spells in her direction which Gabrielle easily dodged.
She however appeared to be in her element as she gazed back at him.
At first he wondered why Gabrielle was not trying to fight back. The average person might simply assume it was because she was simply too concentrated on dodging.
Yet an amazing thought came to mind. She was actually just trying to give him a chance and not beat him too quickly.
However only 30 seconds in, she seemed to think this was long enough and she came out swinging with enough spells to make a person dizzy.
One moment, Robert the wizard was standing there and then the next what appeared to be a creature with a chicken's head and wings, but a lizard's torso and tail was in his place.
Gabrielle ran over to go pick him up, carefully approaching him so that he didn't try to run away.
"Isn't he cute?" Gabrielle asked as she held him up to show everyone.
"He's adorable," Luna gushed the way a person might over a person's cute pet, "can I pet him?"
"Nobody is petting my boyfriend," Gwen insisted angrily before she realized what she had just said.
"Are you sure? I think he'd like to be petted by you," Gabrielle answered as she held him out for Gwen.
"I'm sure he would but it's just not going to happen for him, what a shame," Luna said, shaking her head.
"Gabrielle! Turn him back right now!" Fleur yelled angrily.
"It's not like I really hurt him or anything," Gabrielle argued.
"I wouldn't have minded if you turned me into an animal Gabby," Luna chimed in, "it's actually a lot of fun."
"You remember that one time I turned you into a parakeet?" Gabrielle reminded her with a grin on her face.
"Now Gabrielle!" Fleur demanded angrily.
Gabrielle reluctantly put Robert onto the ground and then used her wand on him before he could get away.
With one final cluck, Robert appeared again as a human, only he was still on all fours as he still tried to run forward.
Yet as he became cognizant of his surroundings, he looked around and asked in confusion, "What just happened?"
"Gabrielle just beat you," Luna answered, "you made a fine lizardchicken by the way."
Robert blanched, possibly out of embarrassment and possibly it was just a residual side effect of his transfiguration.
"I think I'm going to go get some water...or maybe some chicken feed," Robert said as he got up and left the room.
"Thanks a lot Gabrielle, you just drove him away!" Gwen told Gabrielle unhappily before running off after him.
"Ah, they won't last anyway," Luna stated.
Fleur pulled Gabrielle a distance away to go talk to her, but he, now being the closest to them, could still barely hear their conversation.
"How many times have I told you not to try and pick fights? You always get into trouble and someone could get hurt," Fleur told her.
"I'm careful," Gabrielle said, "besides I let them decide if they want to fight or not. I even let them know what will happen to them if they lose and give them a good sporting chance. It doesn't get any more fair than that."
Fleur sighed and said, "I can't keep bailing you out every time like this. I know you can handle yourself but you don't need to keep proving it to everyone. I promised Mama and Papa that I would keep you out of trouble and you need to keep your promise that you'll try to stay out of trouble."
"I know, I'm sorry," Gabrielle apologized.
At that point, Padma said something to him and he was forced to stop eavesdropping and instead focus on her.
"Sorry what was that?" He asked her.
"I said do you want to dance?" She asked hopefully.
"I'd love to, but I'm not really sure how to dance to this kind of music," He admitted.
"Well I'm happy to teach you," She pointed out, considering this a very good problem for her to help solve.
As they went out onto the dance floor, she began giving him instructions but he still felt totally awkward trying to follow them.
Eventually however the rest of the party guests began to go out onto the floor.
With only one other guy left besides himself after Robert's departure, the Beauxbatons girls had to get a bit creative.
They however didn't seem to mind dancing with other girls especially with less formal dancing.
It was a quirk about girls he was just now learning. Two guys he was sure would never have been caught dead dancing with other guys, but girls didn't seem to have the same issue...or at least as far as he knew, which considering this was his first dance party ever wasn't a whole lot of experience.
As for his own dancing, he first started dancing with Padma.
He only stepped on her feet twice...which he supposed wasn't too bad.
Anymore times though and he would have to consider buying Padma a pair of boots.
When Fleur asked to dance with him afterwards, he felt even less sure of himself.
Nevertheless she tried to give him some pointers and some encouragement as well.
"Try to just move with the music," She suggested.
"I'm trying, but I don't think my feet like moving with the music," He answered.
After a bit more words of advice, he asked, "So how is Robert?"
"Ah, he'll be fine, his pride might be a little sore, but all right. Don't tell Gabrielle this but I really wasn't too upset. He's not too bad I guess around Gwen, but he wasn't all that great otherwise. He's tried to hit on me more than once while he was dating Gwen and he's kind of a jerk to everyone else. Gabrielle may like to fight but she usually tends to go after people that she thinks deserves it. I think she was hoping to goad him into fighting for Gwen."
After dancing with Fleur, he headed over to the punch bowl to get a drink when he spotted Pansy just enter.
Pansy he had to admit, didn't look too bad in a Slytherin green dress and her hair done up fancy in a style he had no idea what to call.
He was actually a bit surprised, not that she showed up so late, but that she actually showed up at all. Honestly he had completely forgotten that he'd even invited her.
Deciding that since he was the one who invited her, he should at least say hello, he went over to her.
"Hey Pansy, glad you could make it," He said.
"I almost didn't bother to show up figuring it might be a trap or something," Pansy confessed.
"Well the big tub of goo that I set up for when you arrive should fall on top of your head any second now," He answered.
She looked up, as if half expecting to see just such a tub above her.
"I wouldn't worry too much, just enjoy the party," He reassured her.
"Maybe I'll just get some food or something, I don't really know anyone here, I recognize you and Padma and that crazy blonde haired girl and that's about it."
"You can still dance," Harry offered.
"I don't know how to dance," Pansy claimed.
"Good, I don't either, I know how to do a basic waltz, but that's about useless with this kind of music," Harry told her.
He admittedly felt bad, especially since he had invited her and she looked like she might not have any fun.
"You want to dance?" He blurted out.
She looked totally surprised.
"You want to dance...with me?" She asked as if unsure if he might burst into flames at any second.
"Yes unfortunately I'm under an awful curse that will cause all my hair to fall out unless I dance with a girl named Pansy and you're the only Pansy I know," He claimed.
She let out a small smile and said, "Alright, I suppose I'll dance with you. I can't just let you be hairless, you wouldn't be Harry without it."
"You are quite right," He agreed.
After escorting Pansy onto the dance floor, they started dancing.
It soon became clear however that without a decent dancer to lead him in the right direction he really didn't have a clue what to do.
"This is why I don't like to go to dance parties," Pansy confessed, "everyone seems to think I should be a good dancer or something, but I'm not. We'll look totally foolish."
He thought about it for a second and then said, "Then let's just be foolish and do whatever we want, dance in whatever way we want to."
Pansy looked totally skeptical but he started dancing totally erratically, not going at all to whatever way he was supposed to be dancing or even really to the music.
Yet he had never felt so free as he made things up on the spot, jumping around and probably making a fool of himself in the process, but hey why not?
Several of the Beauxbatons girls stared at him, unable to believe their eyes.
While Pansy looked a bit freaked out by his dancing, he grabbed her arm and tried to swing her around.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Having fun," He answered.
She just shook her head and it looked like she was just going to walk off...and then...
Suddenly Pansy started dancing along with him.
Was it the best dancing in the world? Absolutely not, did she seem to be really getting into it? Yes.
They became two blurs of frenetic energy as they danced like crazy.
"Okay, I'll admit this is kind of fun," Pansy agreed.
"Yeah Prince Harry now that's my kind of dancing, I told you princes could dance," Luna said seeming thrilled as she came up alongside them.
Luna started dancing just as awkwardly as well, but seriously seemed to be having a good time.
He took the opportunity to dance with Luna for awhile as well as then Padma.
As he then got back to Pansy he noted that her hair had come out of it's fancy hairstyle and now hung loose and messed up as it flew about.
Admittedly she looked...well...kind of hot in a crazy kind of way.
He spotted something that he would have never expected either: a big smile.
Who knew Pansy could actually get this into it?
After dancing with them for awhile, he then felt tired enough that he went over to get another drink of punch and then spotted Gabrielle sitting alone on the opposite wall.
He went to go sit next to her after weaving his way through the dance floor over to her.
"You having a good time?" He asked over the music.
"Yeah, I was dancing with Luna earlier but she's now dancing with that other girl," Gabrielle pointed out.
From what he could tell, Pansy and Luna were now dancing together and seemed to still be having a good time.
He wouldn't have guessed it, but Pansy seemed to have come out of her shell a great deal. Perhaps music and dancing had a way of bringing things out in usually reserved people.
Or perhaps this meant the world was ending, in which case, he should really find Padma and kiss her so at least he could die happy.
"That looked like some really fun dancing you were doing," Gabrielle commented.
"Yeah, it was fun at least, probably made me look stupid, but oh well," He answered.
"I like people that aren't afraid to look foolish," Gabrielle told him, "as long as they have fun, I don't see what the problem is."
He could definitely agree with that and could also see that she had to have felt that way if she was friends with Luna.
"So do I," He suddenly agreed before trying to make further conversation, "those were some pretty impressive dueling skills."
"Oh, did you like them?" Gabrielle answered, sounding pleased, "for most guys it kind of drives them away."
"Why so?" He asked.
"It's no secret I like to fight and most guys are kind of scared I might want to fight them and they don't want to embarrass themselves by losing," Gabrielle said, "interestingly enough, both me and Fleur trained in dueling because we wanted to keep away guys that might try to pull something on us because we're veela, but Fleur says it might have worked too well in my case."
"I was impressed at least," He told her, "besides it doesn't hurt my pride at all to say I lost in a fight."
It really was true. After growing up with Dudley constantly beating him up as a child, losing more fights, even to a girl just wasn't that big of a deal to him.
Gabrielle seemed to study him for a few seconds and then said boldly, "You know, Luna was right, you are really cute."
Brave, but he wasn't about to be mad about a girl telling him he was cute.
Yet he struggled to come up with something to reply to that.
"Luna said the same thing about you and I have to agree with her," He said.
Maybe that wasn't the smartest thing to say, but he had still said it.
Besides it's not like she would likely be upset.
"What kind of cute?" She asked, "little girl cute or attractive cute?"
"Attractive cute," He answered.
While she was a very small girl, she was still quite gorgeous...even for a veela which was saying something.
"Will you marry me Harry?" Gabrielle asked.
Wow, that was...unexpected.
He struggled in fear trying to come up with what to say.
She however laughed and he realized she had been messing with him.
"I'm sorry, I couldn't resist," She said.
"You're mean," He told her.
"So what would you have said if I made you answer the question?" Gabrielle asked.
"I would have asked if you really wanted to marry me or if you were just teasing," He answered.
"I think I would want to at least date you for awhile before that," She pointed out.
"Yeah, so would I," He agreed.
"Then you should get started," Luna suggested as she came up to them and entered the conversation, "Harry will pick you up at 6."
"Luna, we were just joking," Harry told her.
"Wouldn't going on a date with Gabrielle be fun?" She asked.
"Yes of course but...," Harry tried to say.
"Then why don't you?" Luna pressed.
He sighed and said, "Since it doesn't work that way."
"Why not?" She asked, not seeming to understand.
He struggled to come up with an explanation that she would understand, but upon thinking of none he pointed with a false amazed expression.
"Luna! Look! A crumple-horned snorkack just ran out of the room," He told her.
"Really!" Luna asked excitedly.
She hurried out after it, leaving him alone with Gabrielle.
"Wow this is awkward," He said as he stared at her.
"I think this is the part where I'm supposed to say you don't have to if you don't want to or just ignore Luna or something," Gabrielle pointed out, "except I sort of loved Luna for doing that."
He tried to think of another good answer, but unfortunately his brain and his dating experience only applied to actually asking out girls and going on dates with them, not getting out of them.
Yet then a thought hit him.
Why not? Why not go out with a cute veela girl who obviously wanted to go out on a date with him?
"Would you like to go out with me tomorrow?" He asked.
"No," She answered.
So this was it feels like to get rejected, he thought in that brief second.
"I wouldn't just like to, I'd love to go out with you tomorrow!" Gabrielle declared excitedly, "I mean you seriously want to go out with me? Like on a real date?"
"Sure," He said.
He had apparently just made her day or even year because she gave him a big hug and then a kiss on both cheeks, causing both of them to burn with warmth.
Yet she got off of him and then apologized, "Sorry, too much?"
"I have no reason to complain," He claimed.
"Can we ride unicorns? Luna said you have unicorns we can ride," She said.
He was about to tell her that was preposterous...and then he thought about it...hmm...maybe Hagrid would have something they could ride, maybe not unicorns, but perhaps some hippogriffs.
Of course as he thought that he couldn't help but think of trying to ride blast ended skrewts instead.
That probably wouldn't be a good idea. The date would be a bit more action packed than he would want...although perhaps Gabrielle might be the type of girl to actually enjoy that.
"I'll see what I can do," He told her.
TOOMANYTOOMANY
When the night finally ended, he took both Padma and Luna back to the Ravenclaw common room.
"I trust you had a good time my princess and her maid?" He asked.
"I am most impressed my prince," Luna told him, "truly you are as handsome and noble as they say they are."
"You are most kind my beautiful princess," He answered.
"You may kiss my hand," Luna said extending her hand to him.
He did so as he knelt down and kissed her hand.
"Ahem," Padma spoke up.
Turning to her, he said, "Yet the princess would be far less without her faithful servant Padma."
"Oh, I'm nothing without my faithful servant," Luna agreed, "a girl born a servant but destined to become queen."
"Thanks Luna," Padma thanked her.
Figuring it was a good idea, he knelt down and kissed Padma's hand too.
"I promise I shall never wash it now," She promised.
He grinned and said, "then I shall never kiss it again."
She pretended to pout and then sigh and said, "If I must."
"Good night Prince Harry," Luna said goodbye.
"Good night Princess," He answered.
Both girls headed inside their common room, leaving him alone.
At least he had yet another fun filled night with Gabrielle to look forward to, he told himself.
At this rate, he'd have dated half the single girls in Hogwarts by years end.
While it was entirely ridiculous in all actuality, he supposed that wouldn't be too bad...
Author's Note: We finally get to meet Gabrielle and Luna's apparent first friend. In the next chapter we'll discover just how Luna and Gabrielle became friends along with seeing how Harry's date with Gabrielle goes.