Chapter 5: Susan

—

The scene with Hermione paused and another widow began to play. Seventeen year-old Harry adjusted his attention to the new scene, which he could only assume was a different simulation.

—

Harry and Neville entered greenhouse four and split off from Ron and Hermione as they got ready to start their project for the day. Harry was happy to be in the warm greenhouse and out of the windy and cold late October chill.

"Go on, Neville, just ask her," Harry grinned, giving Neville a little shove. Harry was pushing Neville to ask Hannah Abbott if she'd partner with him today during class. Normally, Ron would monopolize Hermione in practical lessons and they would always partner in both Potions and Herbology classes. This meant that Harry partnered with Neville in both classes usually.

However, Neville had been talking about Hannah for weeks and Harry had heard enough. "You talk about her all the time, Neville, just go tell her you want to work with her today. It's not like you're asking her to Hogsmede. Besides, the worst she can do is say no thank you."

"I don't talk about Hannah all of the time," Neville said defensively. "I talk about Herbology all the time."

"You just spent all of lunch telling me about how you love volunteering to help in the greenhouses after classes and how you always make sure to sign up for the same times as Hannah. It's always 'Hannah said this' and 'Hannah did that'. I'm dying here, Nev."

"It's, uh… nice to do my volunteer work with someone I know," Neville said sheepishly.

"Yeah, sure, whatever, look," Harry said. "You two are the best in our year in Herbology and Herbology is, like, your favorite thing ever. It only makes sense that you'd like her. You guys share a special interest. Just go ask her to work with you today."

"Harry, I can't!" Neville said, now panicking. "I want to but I just can't!"

"Alright, well, you've left me no choice," Harry smirked. He then walked around Neville and went right up to Hannah and Susan who appeared to be getting ready to partner together.

"Hello, girls," Harry smiled, putting on a bit of that Potter charm. "Susan… I was wondering if we could work together today. I was really impressed with your work with the belladonna last week and I was hoping maybe working closely with you might result in me improving a bit."

Susan and Hannah shared a wide-eyed glance. "Oh, Harry… I… um…" Susan hesitated. Hannah, however, gave her a little nudge with her hip to push her towards Harry. "Y…yeah, sure," Susan said finally.

"Great!" Harry smiled. "Hannah, you don't mind working with Neville today, do you?"

"Not at all!" Hannah smiled. "See you later, Susan!"

Harry grabbed a dumbstruck Neville by both shoulders and steered him into Susan's vacated spot before gesturing for Susan to follow him to the table he usually shared with Neville.

"He's been driving me nuts," Harry whispered once he and Susan were out of earshot. "I think Neville's in love with Hannah by the way. He won't shut up about her… but you didn't hear it from me."

"Oh my gosh, that's amazing, because she can't seem to stop talking about him. I'm worried she's going to start planning the wedding soon. They should probably go on a date first though, don't you think?" Susan whispered back as she got really to start their planting project. A moment later, however, the smile slowly faded from her face. "Wait… so you didn't actually want to partner with me? You just said that stuff so Neville would work with Hannah?"

"That was the goal, yes, but I did mean what I said," Harry smiled back, opening a bag of dirt and getting several pots layed out. "Neville, Hannah, and Mione may perform the best in our class in Herbology normally, but your belladonna was fantastic last week. Regardless, I'm not so interested in the plants. Neville never wants to chat while we work. I figure you might be more my speed in that regard?"

"I… oh," Susan smiled again. Her voice grew a little more bubbly as she continued to speak.. "Well thank you for the compliment, Harry. Sorry if I don't do as well today as I did last week. I can't promise my apparent skills with belladonna will translate over to aconite. I'm not Little Miss Green Thumb over there," she added, pointing a thumb at Hannah's back. "Also, I definitely won't do as well if you keep me distracted by talking like this," she added with a smirk.

Harry laughed. The words Susan was saying weren't exactly hilarious… it was the way she was saying it. Harry hadn't really talked to Susan much, but he was quickly finding out she was very sarcastic. He found it endearing and very funny.

"Oh, come on, I'm sure you and I could be top of the class if we both tried," Harry replied, fumbling his trowel and flinging dirt everywhere.

Susan laughed. "Yeah, okay," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Hey, do you think you can convince Hannah to ask Neville to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Harry asked. "Neville's too chicken to ask."

"Oh, Hannah loves chickens!" Susan smiled. "Her mum has a coop. They have about thirty chickens."

"Oh good, she should take Neville home to her mum then," Harry laughed. "He'll fit right in!"

They both laughed.

"Well, Harry, the only problem with Hannah going to Hogsmede with Neville is that I won't have anyone to go with."

"Oh, yeah, you might want to give those lovebirds some space," Harry grinned. "Why don't you come with me then?"

Susan's jaw dropped. "Was this all an elaborate Gryffindor plot for you to ask me out, Harry?" Susan asked jokingly.

"If it was, is it working?" Harry joked back.

"Oh, Harry, you're such a tease," Susan blushed. "I'm sure you're like this with all the girls."

"No, actually, I don't know what you've done to me, but I'm not usually this goofy," Harry smiled. "I like talking to you though. I feel like I can relax around you."

"Okay, okay, be serious for two seconds and then you can go back to being a goofball," Susan said. "Is this a date? Are you asking me on a date?"

"Do you want it to be a date?" Harry asked curiously. Susan hesitated suddenly. She was starting to look nervous, so Harry spoke again. "It can be a friend-date… not a romantic one. Is a friend-date even a thing? Well, whatever, it is now. No pressure and no commitment, okay? You're not agreeing to be my girlfriend or anything. We're just two acquaintances becoming two friends."

That put a smile back on Susan's face once more. "Yeah…okay. Yeah, no pressure…" she said, mostly to herself. She turned back to him and smiled. "Yeah, I do want it to be a date."

"Great, then it's a date!" Harry smiled. "Do you hold hands on a friend-date? I've never been on one before."

Susan laughed. "You know, I think you do hold hands on a friend-date, but I'm not sure. We'll have to see how it goes. If we hold hands tomorrow… then I guess you hold hands on a friend-date."

"Mental note: Tell Mione and Ron I'm not going to Hogsmeade with them because I'm going on a date with Susan," Harry said out loud to no one.

"What are you doing?" Susan giggled. "What was that?"

"Oh, um… hard to explain. Hermione does that all the time. She goes 'mental note' and then says something she needs to remember to do later. Ron and I started doing it too to tease her… only she never realized we were joking and also I've now started doing it unironically."

"Ah, okay, let me try,"Susan grinned. "Mental note: If your friend-date goes well, don't forget to kiss Harry on the cheek. If he's a gentleman on the date, then he's earned a kiss."

"Oh, is that right?" Harry smirked. "Well, now I'll know I've fucked up if I don't get a kiss," Harry laughed.

Susan gasped. "Harry!" she giggled. "I didn't know you were a potty mouth!"

"Oh, I've been spending too much time with Fred and George," Harry said. "They make a game of cursing. Say, don't let slip to our mum that I said a no-no word. I'll be in big trouble then."

"You call Mrs. Weasley your mum?" Susan said sweetly. "Oh, that's so nice, Harry. I knew you lived with the Wesleys but I guess I didn't know how close you actually were to them."

"Yeah, they actually adopted me," Harry smiled. "Ron and the boys are my brothers, Ginny's my sister, Arthur's my pops, and Molly's my mum. They're all my family."

"I'm sorry, 'pops'?" Susan laughed. No way you call your dad 'pops'."

"Yeah, you caught me," Harry said. "I just call him dad."

Just then Harry lost control of his trowel and flung dirt everywhere again. This time he got a bunch on his face. Susan doubled over in laughter.

"Give me that, you klutz," she said, swiping the trowel from his hand. "You've been demoted."

—

Harry and Susan had just finished browsing sweets and joking around in Honeydukes. Harry had bought them both several bars of chocolate and several lollipops that were now distributed evenly between Susan's purse and Harry's pockets. They were now bundling back up with their cloaks and scarves so they could reenter the wind and snow. They were headed to Zonkos next.

"Harry, can you hold this for me?" Susan said, holding out her closed fist in such a way that he couldn't see what she was handing him.

"Sure," he said without thinking. He assumed it was a piece of candy in any case. He cupped his hand palm up to receive whatever she was handing off.

Susan opened her hand and placed it in his. She then gave his hand a squeeze and pulled him outside into the snow. It took Harry several seconds to realize what she'd done.

"If you wanted to hold my hand, you could have just asked," Harry laughed as they trudged through the newly accumulating snow drifts towards Zonkos. They passed several other Hogwarts students traveling every which way in the snow as they waded through the streets.

"I could have, yes, but this was more fun," Susan smiled. "You should have seen the look of confusion on your face."

"Was this your attempt at a prank?" Harry asked.

"Not very impressive, I know," Susan shrugged. "Especially compared to the pranks your brothers pull."

"Oh, yeah, Percy pulls all the best pranks. He got me a pen for Christmas last year… A pen! I didn't get the joke if I'm honest.," Harry joked. "I mean it was a really nice pen, it's just-"

"Oh, stop it!" she said, smacking his arm playfully with her free hand. "You're such a goober! Obviously I meant the twins."

"I'm still trying to figure out what it is you're doing to me, Susan, because I'm usually not this goofy," Harry smiled.

"So, what, spending time with me makes you silly?" Susan said.

"I think it's more accurate to say that spending time with you makes me happy," Harry smiled. "When I'm happy, I relax. When I'm relaxed, I'm apparently a… what did you call me? a goober?"

Harry and Susan entered Zonkos. They let go of each other's hands, shook the snow off their clothes, and removed their hoods and scarves.

"Harry, that was very sweet of you to say," Susan said. Harry looked down at her and realized she was blushing.

"What, that I'm a goober?" he asked.

She hit him playfully on the arm again. "No, silly. You said I make you happy."

"Oh," Harry said. "I supposed I did say that."

"Well, you make me happy too, Harry," she smiled.

They made their way down the isles and began looking at all the toys and tricks for sale.

"Harry… I've had a lot of fun already," Susan said. "Thank you for a really fun friend-date. I was thinking… maybe we should end our friend-date here."

"What?" Harry said, looking very confused. "Why?"

"Well, I told myself I'd kiss you at the end of our friend-date if I had a good time," she smirked. "And I think I'd like to do that now."

Harry froze as Susan gently grabbed him by the coat with both hands and pulled him down into a sweet kiss.

"Would you like to go on another friend-date with me, Harry?" Susan asked sweetly after they pulled apart. "We could start now."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, Susan, I'd be very glad to go on another date with you. You're the goober, you know that?" Harry smiled. "You had me going there. For a moment I thought I'd done something wrong and you were going to leave me."

"No, not leaving," Susan smiled, finally releasing his coat and taking a step so as to resume their browsing of the store. "I just wanted to kiss you."

"You know, if you wanted to kiss me, you could have just asked," Harry laughed.

"I could have, yes," Susan grinned. "But this was more fun."

—

"Susan, I need your help!" Harry said, rushing up to her and Hannah in the hall. He'd caught them on their way from Transfiguration to Charms and he was out of breath because he'd just run all the way from Care for Magical Creatures.

"Oh my god, Harry, what's wrong? It is You-Know-Who or something?" Susan laughed. He was winded but clearly not in danger, so she thought he looked funny in his exhausted state.

Harry doubled over to catch his breath. "Okay, for starters…" he said between large lungfuls of air. "We agreed his name is Moldypants, so please call him that. You know, I think fear of a name increases fear of the thing itself…"

Susan rolled her eyes and giggled. "Out with it then, you goob. Why'd you run all the way here? Aren't you coming from Care?"

"It's… it's Ron," Harry said seriously, finally catching his breath, "He needs a date to the ball."

"No thanks," Susan smiled. "I'm already going with someone." This time Harry rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I know, and I'm looking forward to going with you. No, I meant… do you know anyone who needs a date?" Harry asked. He glanced over at Hannah who frowned.

"Don't look at me, I'm going with Neville," she said.

"I know that!" Harry groaned. "Neither of you know anyone who doesn't have a date then? I'm trying to find him a date before the end of the day. He's been so grumpy that he's the only one without a date. I think this will cheer him up. Even Mione's got some mystery date she won't talk about."

"Uh, why didn't you just wait to ask us at dinner?" Hannah asked suspiciously.

"Because I wanted to see my girlfriend!" Harry laughed.

"I didn't know you have a girlfriend, Harry," Susan joked. "Can I meet her?"

"Oh, haha, babe, very funny," Harry rolled his eyes. Susan blushed and giggled.

"It's good to see you too, uh… dear…," she said, stumbling over the nickname. They hadn't called each other 'babe' or 'dear' before. Harry had sort of just sprung that on her. "I know Justin hasn't got a date yet. Why don't you ask him?"

Harry rolled his eyes again. "Ron's straight, Sue," he huffed. Susan relaxed at being called Sue. That nickname was one she was used to.

"Are you sure?" Susan said jokingly. "I mean, have you asked him directly?"

Harry gave her a playful glare. "Okay, okay, you don't know anyone. Damn."

"Have you asked Lavender Brown?" Hannah said seriously.

"Yeah, I asked Lavender and Parvati just a few minutes ago if they knew of anyone who might want to go with Ron," Harry explained. "Lavender was insistent she didn't know of anyone who would like to go with Ron. Parvati kept giving her weird looks though. I feel like she was avoiding saying something…"

"No, Harry," Hannah laughed. "I mean, did you ask Lavender if she herself would go with Ron?"

"Did I not ask her that?" Harry said seriously. "Isn't she included in 'anyone'?"

"Well, the way you said it just now made it sound like you were asking if there were any girls other than herself that might want to go to Ron," Susan said, finally acting seriously. "I mean, at least that's one possible way she could have taken it if you said it to her the same way you just said it to us."

"Well, whatever, it doesn't matter," Harry said. "Lavender hates Ron. She won't stop calling him 'Ronnie.' I may have let slip that that's what mum calls him. "

"Harry…" Hannah said. "She calls him that because she likes him!"

"I… oh. Are you sure?" Harry asked, dumbfounded.

"Maybe," Hannah shrugged.

"Possibly," Susan said, shrugging as well

"You guys are no help," Harry complained.

"Look, I feel like Brown would want Ron to be the one to ask her," Susan said. "So don't go ask her for him. Go and tell Ron to ask Lavender himself. And hell, if she says no, make him ask Patil. He's not going to get a date unless he starts asking people himself."

"Yeah, okay,"Harry said. "I'll make him ask her. Thanks girls. Gotta run!" Harry kissed Susan on the forehead and then ran off towards History of Magic at top speed.