Jen fled into the dance unnoticed because of all the excitement. She ran out and up the stairs to the common room, her thoughts swirling sickly in her head. Tears streaming down her face, she sat in one of the chairs at a table in the common room. She buried her head in her arms and thought of what just happened. She had never thought of Harry like that, but then he told her he loved her and kissed her, and she kissed back. She felt something between them, maybe even more then her and Neville. She didn’t know. She didn’t want to think about it. She wanted everything to just stop. Everything to just go back to the way it was. She liked Harry, but didn’t think that was fair to Neville. She liked Neville too though. Her mind and heart felt like they were being pulled at two ends and about to rip.
A few minutes went by, but it felt like hours to Jen. After a while, she heard the portrait whole swing open and cautious footsteps come in, tearing her thoughts back to reality. Jen looked around and saw a younger girl with fiery red hair and a blue dress walk in.
Jen wiped the tears from her eyes. “Ginny! What are you doing here?” she asked. Then a girl with silky straight brown hair and a red dress walked around the corner. “Hermione?”
“We saw you come in from outside then leave. We thought you might have come here. What’s wrong? You look terrible,” Ginny said to her, looking at the make-up streaked down her face.
Jen managed a crooked smile, then started to leak out all her feelings too fast to understand. “I’msoconfusedHarrykissedmeandnowIlikehimtoobutthat’snotfairtoNevilletobothofthemwhatamIsupposedtodo?”
“Uh, we feel for you Jen, but can you repeat that slowly and in English?” Hermione said, as her and Ginny went to sit down in chairs by Jen.
Jen took a deep breath and said clearly, “I’m so confused! Harry kissed me and told me he loved me and now I think I love him too!” At this Hermione and Ginny raised there eyebrows in shock. "I may even love him more than Neville! But I still like Neville, and that’s not fair! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do!”
“Wow, Jen. That’s a tough spot. I don’t have much to say to that except, I know this might sound cheesy but, follow your heart. You either have to choose Harry or Neville, or neither. It’s that simple. I’m sorry,” Ginny said sadly. Hermione nodded in agreement.
“It’s not simple!” Jen wailed, beginning to cry again. She rested her head in her hands and cried into them. Hermione gently patted her back.
Soon Jen looked up and said sorrowfully, “Well, I guess I’ll go to bed. I’ll just have to think on this.” She sighed and stood up. Hermione and Ginny hugged her then she trudged up the stairs.
Harry just stood there, not moving from the spot. Why did he do that? What in the world was he thinking? I made her cry! Why am I so stupid? I hurt her so badly…, he thought to himself, hitting his forehead with the heel of his hands angrily.
You were just admitting your feelings to her. That’s no crime, another part of his mind said.
Yes it is! She’s with Neville. I just needed to butt out and forget it!
As he was battling with himself, he looked up and saw Ron looking around, standing in a doorway to the dance. Harry would have called out to him, but he couldn’t. He never wanted to speak again. But, Ron saw him anyway, and ran towards him.
“Harry! What happened out here? I just saw Jen flee out of the dance like a rampaging hippogriff attacked her. Hermione and Ginny went to see what’s wrong,” he said sitting down next to Harry. Harry groaned and put his face in his hands again. Ron’s expression suddenly changed to shock. “You didn’t!” Ron spluttered. Harry just groaned into his hands. “Harry! You don’t just go blurting stuff out like that!”
Harry lifted his head from his hands. “I love her so much! I couldn’t stop myself! I just…oh…I don’t know!” he groaned.
Ron sighed and stood up. “Well, you better go talk to Jen,” he said matter-of-factly.
Harry stood up too. “No,” he said, Ron gave him a puzzled look. “I need to talk to Neville,” he added hurriedly, then rushed into the dance.
Harry went to the table everyone was sitting at earlier. He found Neville sitting there alone. “Neville, I need to talk to you,” Harry said sitting down next to him.
“Harry, what’s going on? I couldn’t find anyone. Is there something wrong?” Neville asked, turning to Harry.
Harry gathered the courage inside him took a deep breath and said, “Ok, err, I told Jen I loved her then kissed her. She said she was confused and she ran away. I think we should let her choose, you know, between us,” Harry said in one breath.
“Oh. Yeah. O-okay,” was all Neville could say, staring blankly at the wall opposite.
“I’m going to go talk to her now. If you want to come you can,” Harry said standing up and walking away. He faintly heard Neville mutter something, but he just kept walking. When he walked up to the painting of the Fat Lady, it swung open write in the middle of the Fat Lady’s "Password?"
Hermione and Ginny walked out, going back to the dance. “Harry! You just missed Jen. She went to bed,” Hermione said, still walking.
Harry cursed under his breath and decided he would just have to talk to her tomorrow. The last thing he wanted to do is go back to the dance, so he just went upstairs to bed, even though he wasn’t tired a bit.
Neville sat at the table. His mind was blank; he didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know if he should be mad at Harry, Jen, or himself. He was confused and barley knew what just happened. Half of him wanted to go after Harry and half of him wanted to stay in that place forever. After long and hard thinking he decided that this all came down to Harry. His thoughts changed from confused to mad at Harry and he got up and went after him, ready to blow up at him, but when he got to the common room, neither Harry nor Jen was there. Still livid, he went up to the dormitory, and saw Harry asleep. He was about to wake him up, but he decided it wasn’t totally his fault and he shouldn’t completely hate him, so he went to bed.
The next day Harry didn’t get a chance to talk to Jen all through classes. He, Jen, and Neville barely spoke a word all day. At breakfast and lunch Hermione, Ron, and Ginny tried to strike up conversations, but soon gave up after getting many grunts and "I dunno's" in response.
After the last class, Harry went to the common room, and found Jen at a table with a book alone. He took a deep breath and walked over to her. He sat down across from her. “Jen, we need to talk,” he began. She closed her book and nodded. "Well, um…about yesterday I kind of-” but he was cut off by Jen.
“I have been thinking a lot on this, and,” she slowly leaned closer, and then hesitated. “I love you, too,” she breathed. Then she put her hand behind his neck and pulled him into a kiss. He wished they could just stay like that forever.
But, little did they know, a short stocky boy was peeking around the corner from the stairs and watching them, a scowl on his face. With one last dirty look, Neville Longbottom turned and went into the boy’s dormitory.
A/N: Dun, dun, dun (again)!