Harry tried to act like he was just asking Jen because he couldn’t think of anyone else to ask, but he knew Neville could see right through him, “Oh…err…that’s okay. I’ll… just ask someone else,” he said, looking at the floor. Neville looked even more apologetic.
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Neville said nervously.
“Yeah, it’s fine. Well, it’s getting late. I’m going to go up and get ready for bed,” Harry said, beginning to walk away. Neville still watching him, he walked up the stairs, thinking. It wasn’t like he was surprised. He knew this might happen, but it felt bad all the same. He trudged up the stairs to the dormitory. Ron was there, sitting on his bed, looking at something that looked like a homework planner, obviously perplexed. Harry over walked and sat down on his bed, and began slowly taking off his shoes.
“What does it mean I should to do three hours of homework on Saturdays?” Ron said to himself, glaring at the planner. It flashed one of its sayings, "Don’t get discouraged, homework should be fun!"
“Ah, shove it,” he said, chucking the book behind him. “I’ll never be able to use this thing, no matter how much Hermione wants me to,” he sighed, then noticed Harry. “Oh, hey Harry, I didn’t notice you there,” he saw Harry’s sorrowful face. “Hey, what’s wrong?” he said with a puzzled look at him.
“Nothing,” he said, obviously lying.
“Oh, come on Harry. I’m not that thick, what’s wrong?” Ron said staring at him knowingly.
Should he tell Ron? Ron was his best friend, but he was distressed and frustrated. He didn’t feel like talking, but he knew he would just have to accept Neville and Jen. Maybe letting it out would make it easier to let go. He sighed. “Well, I guess I really like Jen.” Ron gave him a look that said "Well duh, we all do," so he continued.
“No, more than a friend. I wanted to ask her to the dance, but Neville already had. I guess I’m kind of hurt.”
“I feel sorry for you, Harry, but we have only known Jen for a little while. You can’t like her that much already. It is probably just a phase, you’ll get over it, don’t worry,” Ron flashed encouraging smile.
“Yeah, I bet your right. I’ll probably be fine tomorrow.” But inside he didn’t think he would. He knew he couldn’t have known Jen long enough to actually love her, but he still felt it was something more than a little crush phase. He didn’t just like her for her beauty. He liked her for so much more. She just made him feel happy. He felt like he could be around her and talk to her for hours. He lay in bed and thought about her until he drifted into a peaceful sleep. He didn’t even bother changing.
The next morning Harry lazily woke up and winced at the sun’s blinding light peaking through the window curtains. Neville and Ron were just waking up too. He got dressed with them and they went down to breakfast together. He felt a little better than yesterday, and chatted almost happily with them as they went. He sat next to Jen, Ron sat down by Hermione and Neville sat on the other side of Jen. Jen said "Hi," to them then began talking to Neville, and putting jam on some toast. This dampened Harry’s spirit a bit.
“So, what’s on the schedule today?” Jen said to everyone.
“Hmm, looks like potions first. Then transfiguration,” Hermione said consulting her schedule. Jen suddenly looked sad.
“Great. My two worst subjects,” Jen sighed and bit her toast.
They all finished breakfast and continued down to the dungeons for Potions. They had it with the Hufflepuffs, thankfully. Harry did not feel like confronting Malfoy right now. They walked inside and sat down together in the back. Snape was up front looking through some papers on his desk as the chalk magically wrote ingredients on the chalk board. He stood up and walked in front of his desk.
“Settle down class,” he said loudly. “Today we will make a transformation potion that will turn a human into any animal, and any animal into humans. We will test your potion on these toads.” He pointed to a large cage of chirping frogs, then, looked at Jen and smirked. “We also have a new student, class. We will just have to see how good she is,” he added icily.
He instructed them to mix the ingredients on the board to make the potion. Harry noticed as he was powdering his dung beetles that Jen wasn’t lying when she said Potions was one of her worst subjects. He could see her sweating as she clumsily poured the ingredients into her cauldron. Of course, being the new student, she was stalked by Snape constantly. He didn’t say anything, but just sneered and shook his head. After a while though, when he came over, he looked like he was actually going to speak to her. Harry looked at her nervously; he knew she didn’t know how evil Snape could be.
“Well, well, well Ms. Lesley. He looked at her potion, which was obviously wrong because it was pink and Hermione’s was a royal blue. “This will never do. Give it to one of those frogs and it will explode,” he raised his greasy head and did the same thing he did to Harry’s potion the previous year. With one swift flick of his wand, her cauldron was empty. “Obviously we won’t be having a star student here.”
Jen’s eyes filled with tears, and she ran from the room into the hallway. Everyone watched her with sad faces, and some threw some scolding glares at Snape. Snape just walked back up to the front of his room and told the students to continue with their work sternly. “Jen-,” Harry stuttered and ran after her. He stepped outside the classroom and found her sitting beside the door, her face in her hands and crying. Harry sat down next to her. She looked up at him and slightly smiled at him, her shiny blonde hair in her face. “I’m sorry, Jen. We should have told you how mean Snape could be,” Harry said smiling at her back.
She wiped her eyes on her sleeve and said, “No, I guess I deserved it,” she laughed lightly, “That potion was terrible!”
“Actually, I thought it was better than mine,” he said, staring into her diamond blue eyes. With one hand he gently pushed the hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ears.
Suddenly Hermione came out, looking for Jen, “Oh Jen! I’m so sorry that happened! Snape was totally out of line. That was not respectful for a teacher to do! Sending a student out in tears! We should complain to McGonagall, this can’t be-” as Hermione rambled on, Harry and Jen exchanged smiles and walked back into the class.
The rest of the class went fine, as well and the rest of the day. After classes were over Harry went to the library to study. When he came back, he found the common room unusually empty, except for Jen. She was sitting on the big red couch and playing a soft melody on her guitar. He walked over and sat down next to her. She noticed he was there and stopped playing. “Oh. Hey Harry. What’s up?” she said to him.
“Nothing, I just came back from the library and saw you playing so I sat down,” Harry said.
“Oh,” there was silence for a moment than she said, “So, can you wait for the dance? Hermione told me the decorations where going to be beautiful. Who are you going with?”
“No one, yet. I heard you are going with Neville,” Harry hesitated, “Err, do you… like him?”
She blushed. “Yeah, I think I do.”
The days went by and, as usual, Harry kept liking Jen more and more, and it made him miserable. He might even love her. He didn’t know, nor did he want to. He knew it would just make him sadder to admit to himself that he actually loved her. But soon, he couldn’t help it. He loved her. Everything she did was amazing. He couldn’t help himself.
Soon, it was the day of the dance. He didn’t have a date, but didn’t want one. He didn’t even want to go at all. He knew Ron would make him though, and for some reason he had a feeling he should.
The girls went up to the dormitory three hours early to get ready. Harry, Ron, and Neville heard squeals every now and then. Every time one of the girls squealed Ron would walk up to the foot of the stairs and holler something like, “Hey! Keep it down up there!” and the girls would just giggle. Soon, they boys went up and changed into dress robes. Ron still had better new dark blue dress robes that Fred and George got him for his birthday. Harry had gotten some new forest green robes when they were in Diagon Alley doing their school shopping. They went back down to the common room and waited some more. Then, the girls came down. Ginny came down first with a light blue dress (the girls were wearing Muggle dresses) and her hair in a tight, neat bun. Hermione came down in a red dress. She looked rather pretty. Her hair was down, but straight and shiny. She had a clip with a rose on it pinning her hair back. Then, Jen came down. She looked beautiful. She was wearing a silky light purple dress with a see-through mesh scarf around her shoulders. Her hair was curly and looked like she put a charm on it to make it slightly longer. It was piled up on her head with a few perfect ringlets hanging down. Harry gawked at her for a few seconds, then shook his head and came to his senses when she looked at him with a puzzled look. Harry felt awkward since he was the only one without a date.
They entered the great hall when Professor McGonagall opened the doors. The decorations were beautiful. Everything was decorated in gold. There were tables and menus on them, just like the Yule Ball. People began sitting down and ordering. They all sat at the same table and ordered their food. Harry didn’t talk much. He didn’t feel like it. He glanced at Neville and Jen sadly every now and then as he ate. After everyone was done, the tables went to the sides of the room and the weird sisters came out. Everyone clapped, and then they began to play. People gathered on the dance floor and began to dance. Harry stayed at the table, and the others went to dance. He watched them longingly. A few times some younger students came and asked him to dance, but he refused.
After a while Jen took a break from dancing to go see Harry. She sat down next to him and asked if he was ok. He said yes, then somehow it slipped out, “Wait, no Jen. I can’t lie. I’m not ok. Can you please come outside and talk to me?” Jen looked surprised but said ok. They walked outside into the flowers and bushes. There were faeries in the bushes and they were setting a gorgeous glow on everything, especially Jen. He took her over and sat her on a white stone bench.
He looked into her eyes and said meaningfully, “Jen, there is something I need to tell you. I have been keeping it in for so long and it is making me go crazy. I have to tell you. Jen…” he began to say, “I love you. So much. I'm sorry. I just can't help it.” Then without even thinking, he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever felt.
When they broke apart Jen just said, “Harry… you- you do? Oh, I’m so confused!” she blurted out, then her eyes filling with tears, she stood up and ran away leaving Harry sitting there, thinking about what he just did.