Chapter Twenty
Dinner was quite uncomfortable. Harry avoided looking at Ginny as much as possible. Hermione was sympathetic to Ginny. She would give her quick hugs. She even opted to sit away from Ron. “You’ll distract me!” she’d hissed. “I need to be with Ginny. We can sit together another time!”
After seeing how Harry was reacting to the situation, Hermione began shooting disgusted looks at him. Harry chose to ignore both the girls and have at private conversation with Ron instead. His friend kindly lowered his voice and asked, “Did you read the letter yet?”
“The one from Luna? No,” he replied, just as quietly. There was a difference between not talking to Ginny and purposely upsetting her.
“Whaddya waiting for?”
“A time when they,” he nodded toward the girls, “aren’t around.”
“Let’s leave early and go to the common room.”
“Right,” he said. They both looked at the girls expectantly, and caught the tail end of their conversation. Harry was happy to see Ginny have a hopeful smile on her face. Hermione was radiating with excitement. “-Tonight! We’ll use the Room of Requirement!” Hermione said.
She then noticed her two best mates staring at her, eavesdropping. “Care to share with the class?” Ron asked curiously.
“No. What do you want?”
“I’ve got to say, I really love the constant adoration I receive when I have a girlfriend . . .”
She flushed. “Ok. Sorry. What is it you need, my darling?” she asked sarcastically. Under it, Ron could tell that under it all, she was genuinely being sweet, but trying not to look like she was.
“I just want to let you know that we’re going to the common room.”
“Ok. See you later. We have some things to do too.”
“Obviously,” Harry smirked. As he stood, he eyes flicked over to Ginny’s. He wanted to talk to her normally. He wanted to ask her what Dean had said, and about seeing auras, and about her classes. He just didn’t want her to cry, because he had no idea how he felt about her or Luna. He was even a little perturbed that he was feeling pushed into deciding. He felt as if she could see every thought running through his harassed mind.
Her face changed during that momentary connection. Before, her brow was furrowed, and she seemed unbearably full of anxiety. Now, her face fell into a relaxed, gentle smile. “Ok,” was all she said, but Harry felt like it meant more than that. “Maybe we’ll see you later, right?”
“Right,” he nodded back. Ron clapped a hand on his shoulder. “We have matters to attend to, Good Sir. ‘Tis time we departed.”
As they walked away, he distinctly heard Ginny say, “Is it just me, or is Ron reminding you of the twins more and more everyday?”
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Open it!” the common room had been found, thankfully, empty.
“All right! Geez, I think you’ve been hanging around Hermione too much. You’ve acquired her taste for being pushy.”
“Oh, whatever. Get to it!”
Harry felt mildly nauseated opening a putrid pink envelope. A stronger scent of lavender invaded his nostrils. “Ouragh! You think she stunk that thing up enough?” Ron hacked and covered his nose.
“Maybe she’s trying to knock me out.”
“Ah, so she can take advantage of you. It’s a conspiracy! Oh, how romantic.”
“Shut it. I don’t make fun of all the ogling you and Hermione do.”
“Yes you do!”
“It says!” Harry interrupted. “Dear Harry, I think you’re a git. I really fancy Ron . . .”
“It does not! Let me see,” he said as he grabbed the letter. Ron cleared his throat and read it aloud.
“Dear Harry,
I am glad about what happened between us the other night. I’d like to have a talk about it. Meet me in the Room of Requirement at 11 pm. I’ll be waiting. Don’t be late.
Yours,
Luna Lovegood”
“Well, well, well, we have ourselves a Romeo. You going to kiss her again?” Ron asked.
“I don’t know. I kind of liked it.”
“Liked it, or liked her?”
Harry looked stumped. “I don’t know. What’s the difference?”
“Well, when you kissed Cho, you didn’t really like the kiss, but it was ok, because you liked her. Was it like that with Luna?”
Harry shrugged. “Hm,” said Ron.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. It’s just that I think that’s something you have to know if you’re going to deal with Luna any time soon. You don’t want to be a heartbreaker, would you? Rita Skeeter would go mad!”
“I need Hermione to help with this stuff . . .”
“We don’t need her. I can help you!”
Harry raised an eyebrow. “You?”
Highly affronted, he said, “Yeah! What’s wrong with me?”
He smiled uneasily. “Ok. Go at it, I guess.”
“Well, did you get all queasy before it happened?”
“You’re supposed to feel like vomiting?”
“Yeah,” Ron replied with a lopsided smile.
“Well, it happened really fast. I don’t think I felt anything, really. Surprised . . .”
“Did you . . . uh . . . feel like . . . touching her?”
“Ron! Why should I answer that?”
“Just answer.”
“Yes, ok?”
“Did you feel bad about it?”
“Like how?”
“Like, guilty?”
“No, why would I feel guilty?”
“Then you don’t like Luna. You just liked kissing her.”
“How do you figure?”
“Well, you said you didn’t feel queasy-“
“I do now, thanks-“
“I always feel like my stomach is digesting itself when I kiss Hermione-“
“I’m sure she’d like to know that-“
Ron gave him a shut-up-I’m-trying-to-be-serious look. “And I always feel bad about wanting to do more, because I don’t want to make her uncomfortable, or scared, or anything.”
“Wow. You’ve changed, Ron,” said Harry, impressed.
He grinned, and decided to hammer questions at Harry to get honest answers. “So you know now, right?”
“Right.”
“You only are a horny git who wants to ravage girls.”
“Right,” he laughed.
“So how did I do?”
“You make an all right Hermione. Maybe while you were in her mouth, you sucked part of her brain into your head.”
“Hey!”
Harry shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”
“You fancy Cho anymore?”
“No. You know that,” Harry said, and threw the letter into the fireplace.
“And you do you fancy?”
Harry opened his mouth, and slammed it shut. “Good try,” he smirked.
“What were you going to say?” he asked slyly.
“None of your business, prat.”
“Oy! A prat, am I?” Ron lunged at Harry and tackles him to the floor. They tried bending legs backwards, and twisting spines, but in the end, Harry got Ron in a headlock. It was that moment the portrait opened and in walked an unending line of Gryffindors. “Be careful, before I tell your girlfriend you were Muggle dueling, Ron,” Katie Bell said, standing over them with a large pile of books.
“You want to watch where you hover those?” said Harry, out of breath and eyeing the stack cautiously.
“What? These?” she asked casually, and let the pile drop a foot or so.
“Let me up!” said a red-faced Ron. Harry complied.
“Hey, Ron. Do you want to Keep for me this Saturday?”
“This Saturday’s tryouts.”
“Oh? I didn’t see it posted.”
“Oh, I forgot, sorry,” Ron said. He fetched it from his bag and fastened it to the notice board.
“What time?” she asked Harry.
Ron attempted to mark it on the signup sheet as Harry said told her the time (where Katie couldn’t see). They didn’t want to seem ill prepared. “Two O’ clock,” he said.
She turned to Ron. “How about ‘round noon then?”
“Yeah, sure,” he said, pleased that someone wanted his help.
“By the way, congratulations on the co-captain thing. I think you two were good choices,” she said diplomatically.
“Thanks,” they replied in unison.
The two boys spent the next few hours attempting o come up with a list of things to teach the member of D.A. They had to do a bit of review, of course. He’s settled on teach them some of the curses he’d learned for the Tri-Wizard tournament, and more shielding charms. Harry was sure that much could tide them over until he got a clearer picture of what he should teach. After all, they had Lupin back, and he was a brilliant professor. Surely he’d help in training them for the war.