Realizing what time it was, Harry hoped that Professor Flitwick wouldn’t notice him running in late. He threw everything into his bag and ran off back to the castle. There were only a few students left in the hallways, and Harry was still miles from his classroom. After taking a few select shortcuts he found himself outside the class, just as the bell rang, and snuck into a seat next to Hermione in the back of the room.
“Where have you been?” she asked, in the usual scolding tone she used whenever anyone was breaking rules. Hermione had a way to make anyone feel like a tiny little first year when she was telling them off.
“I was just thinking and lost track of time I guess. Anyway, I wasn’t even late.”
Hermione rolled her eyes and went back to her reading. As much as Harry tried, he just couldn’t concentrate on the letters and words that he was supposed to be reading; to him it was all just blurs of ink. Try as he might, he just couldn’t get the letter out of his mind. It almost seemed as if there was an enchantment placed on the bottle, and considering the world that he was living in, there probably was.
As everyone else in the class was busy trying to learn some very advanced charm work, he took his opportunity and looked around the classroom wondering, “Could she be one of these girls; one of the girls in this very room? Is she even here at Hogwarts? Oh, God, what if it is Lavender Brown, what in the world would she call me? Harry-poo? Yech! Or even worse, what if it was Pansy Parkinson, or Eloise Midgen?” With that, Harry visibly shuddered. Thoughts like these ran through his head all day. No matter what he did though, he couldn’t focus on his school work.
He tried to figure out how the bottle worked. Could it really sense when two soul mates have opened it? Or was it some joke that a student had played seventy years ago? He thought that that was probably the most plausible explanation, but it didn’t explain what he felt after he read the letter. The whole situation was too much for him to grasp.
After all their classes were finished with for the day, Ron, Harry, and Hermione headed to the Great Hall for dinner. As usual, Ron and Hermione began to bicker and argue about something or other school related, so Harry began to look around the room at the other students, trying to find the girl that wrote the note that had rocked him so. As he searched, he saw Cho Chang sitting with the Ravenclaws, but she didn’t look preoccupied at all. Seeing that, Harry was actually slightly relieved; he didn’t want to believe that she was the one for him after they had already tried it out - with such catastrophic results. What would that say for their future together? He was glad that she wasn’t the one who wrote the letter; their situation was awkward enough at this point. He also saw Lavender and Parvati, as usual, whispering to each other, but that wasn’t anything out of the ordinary, so he disregarded it and resumed scanning the large room. Harry was trying to look for other girls that he knew to see if they looked distracted at all. Surely they would if they felt what he had this afternoon, especially if they knew what it meant, wouldn’t they? In his perusal he didn’t see Ginny anywhere, which struck him as a little odd. She rarely missed dinner, for she did have some things in common with Ron. At least, in her case, everyone around her was not punished by her habits, she was a neat eater. Why Harry knew this he had no idea and tried to pay no attention to it. She also had manners, unlike Ron who had never heard the word in his life. Harry decided she was probably at the library studying; it was her OWL year after all. Harry was confused as to why he was giving it so much thought; what should he care that Ginny isn’t at dinner?
His search was fruitless; there was no girl that seemed to be doing the same thing as him. He began to resign himself to the fact that the girl had probably graduated years ago. He couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed; opening the bottle earlier that day had made Harry realize that he was not as happy as he could be. With all that was happening in his life he could use some relief from it all, and the letter gave him some hope, but now, it was beginning to dwindle.
As Harry was thinking and searching, Ron and Hermione were still at each other’s throats about something, and apparently Hermione wanted to hear Harry’s opinion on the matter.
“Isn’t that right Harry? Harry?…Harry?!?” Hermione nearly shouted.
“Hmmm? What?” Harry said, distractedly.
“Don’t you think that we should have a study session tonight and review all the charms we were assigned today and to work on what we’ve had this year? Goodness knows that you two need it!”
“Yeah, great idea ‘Mione,” Harry muttered still looking around the room.
“At least one of you has some sense and can see how important it is that we get enough studying in each week,” Hermione said to Ron.
“Oh, yeah Hermione? He’s kind of out of it right now. I don’t think he knows what he’s saying. Do you, mate?”. Harry didn’t respond.
“Ron, he is perfectly fine, and is aware of what he is saying. Don’t be ridiculous!” she argued, but Ron didn’t miss the skeptical look that she shot at Harry before she returned to her dinner.
“Look, Hermione, I’ll prove it to you. Harry, HARRY!!!” he shouted.
“What?” Harry responded, obviously not paying any attention.
“I just thought that you would like to know that Hermione and I are running off together because we’ve fallen madly in love with each other,” at this Hermione blushed deep red and gave Ron a scathing look. Not getting a reaction, he continued, “and Ginny is having Malfoy’s love child.”
“Hmmm, that’s really gre… GINNY’S DOING WHAT!!!!” Harry bellowed, drawing stares from nearly everyone in the hall.
“Bloody hell Harry, I was only joking. Calm down!”. Turning to Hermione, Ron said boastingly, “See, I was right. Harry you weren’t paying attention and you nearly agreed to an eight hour study session with Hermione tonight! But geez, I thought you would flip at the part about Hermione and me, not Ginny. Would you like to tell me why that is?” Ron asked Harry, with an all-knowing grin on his face.
“Oh come on, you and Hermione are inevitable, I knew it would happen someday so that’s just not very shocking. I’m really very happy for you” Harry joked.
Ron’s ears went scarlet and Hermione ducked her head and pretended to be very interested in the tablecloth. Harry chuckled. There was no better way to shut Ron up than to mention him and Hermione. Harry couldn’t understand why the two of them were so... well, dumb about it - in Ron’s case - and stubborn - in Hermione’s. All they had to do was talk to each other and then they would finally work everything out and get together; much to everyone’s benefit Harry thought, maybe then they would stop bickering all the time. But really, who was Harry to judge? He wasn’t very good with the whole feelings thing.
By distracting the two of them he was able to avoid the second part of the question. He didn’t know why he had such a violent reaction to what Ron had said about Ginny. Really, she was just Ron’s little sister, right? Harry found it disconcerting that he had to remind himself of that fact, but found himself having to do it more and more often recently. He couldn’t help noticing how much she had grown up since he met her. She was no longer the shy girl who ran from the room and stuck her elbow in the butter dish, but a confident and beautiful young woman who had an awesome personality once she opened up. She was kind, and brave, and funny, even scary at times. Everyone knows that they do not want to be facing the business end of a wand wielded by Ginny Weasley. She had a beautiful face, and hair that caught the sun so perfectly, that Harry often wondered what it would be like to touch.
“Whoa,” Harry thought, “I really needed to stop these lines of thought, it’s not right.” But why did feel so good to be around her and to just see her? Harry honestly didn’t know where these thoughts were coming from; it was almost as if someone had given him a whole new perspective on his life. In the end though, he figured that his reaction had to do with the fact that it was Malfoy’s involvement in Ron’s little game that made him so angry. Sure, that was a good reason. Wasn’t it?
After recovering from her embarrassment, Hermione looked at Harry and asked him what was going on.
“Huh? Oh, it’s nothing really, just a little distracted.”
“Yeah, we could see that, mate. You’ve not really been ‘here’ if you know what I mean,” Ron said.
“No, really Harry, what’s going on? You’ve been staring into space all day, ever since you were late to Flitwick’s. Is that what started all this? Where were you anyway?” Hermione asked.
“I was just walking around the lake, thinking. I told you that.”
“About what? What could possibly make you this distracted? You’ve barely eaten anything, and you didn’t even react in the slightest when Snape took points from you for, and I quote, ‘pointlessly using up good oxygen.’”
“Yeah, mate, you’ve been pretty out of it all day.” Ron added.
“Look, I don’t particularly want to talk about it, ok? And especially not here alright?”. He was starting to get a little annoyed.
“So you’ll tell us about it in the common room later then?” Hermione asked.
“Sure. Fine. Whatever.”. Why did he have to go and have a girl as his best mate anyway? They were always concerned about “feelings” and “emotions” and such. Guys were just easier, if their friend says that they don’t want to talk about it, they don’t talk about it. But with girls, oh no, they had to talk everything out. But now there really was no way to get out of it, so he resigned himself to a long, long talk once they reached the common room.
The trio finished dinner without further incident and headed up to Gryffindor Tower. They all sat down in a secluded corner of the common room to make sure that nobody overheard. None of them noticed that a certain redhead was sitting just a few feet away in a chair with its back facing them.
A/N: Thanks to my new BETA Gryffindor-Girl for sorting out all the knots along the way!! Please take a minute to write a review!!!!