The Hogwarts Lonely Hearts Club

Duck Soup

On Monday morning Harry went down to breakfast doing more swerves, ducks, dips, dives and dodges than he'd done in the entire of the Quidditch match on the weekend, such were the numbers of well-wishers and admirers who wanted to accost him and congratulate him on a game well played that he had to avoid, not to mention the string of requests to have a go on his Firebolt, if he was pliant to such plans.

Which, of course, he wasn't.

As such, he was grateful - as well as slightly miffed - by the time he reached the relative safety of the Ravenclaw benches and went to sit down. At first, he was going to plump for his usual spot facing towards the Slytherins on the next table, but then he changed his mind, stepping around to the other side so that he could look at the wider hall. This meant he would now be able to see the Hufflepuffs next door and the Gryffindors over at the far end.

His ulterior motive for this was to see if he could spot Hermione Granger anywhere, to try and get a look at her face. He'd been anxious over the way he'd ended his last letter to her and, as she hadn't sent a reply yet, he hoped he hadn't brought a premature end to their budding friendship before it had even really got started. It was a risk he had to take, because he was in grave danger of getting heavily invested into this relationship already. He had to know if all this opening himself up would ultimately be worth it.

Harry found Hermione sitting about half way along the Gryffindor bench, facing out into the Great Hall, which was handy for some subtle observation of her. She was chatting with the dark-haired girl ... who was called Ffion, or Fiona, or Febreze, or whatever her name was ... and Harry was warmed to see that Hermione wasn't on her own for a change. He watched her bright and cheery expressions for several moments, but she didn't look in his direction, so he soon stopped staring as it felt as though he were doing something illicit.

Which meant that Harry missed it when Hermione flicked her eyes to his face, at almost the exact same second that he looked away.

Harry's attention had been drawn by Luna, who was sat in his usual place on the bench and who he hadn't noticed earlier, such was his single-mindedness to secure the best spot for spying on unsuspecting Gryffindor witches. But he saw her now and noticed that she had prepared for his arrival.

"Morning Harry," Luna chirped. "I picked you out the biggest egg for breakfast and sliced you some toast soldiers to go with it. That's what you usually have, isn't it?"

"Er, yeah. Thanks," Harry replied cautiously as he sat down and looked at the neatly cut strips of crunchy toast next to the single brown egg, which did seem rather large. "I could have done that myself, you know."

"I know, but I thought it'd be a nice surprise for you."

"Well ... thanks," Harry muttered. "What are you having today?"

"Muesli," Luna replied, pointing at her bowl. "I thought it might be fun this week to have a different breakfast each day, one whose first letter is the same as the day. So, as it's 'M' for Monday, I'm having 'M' for Muesli. Tomorrow I'll have Toast, then Weetabix on Wednesday, then Fruit on Friday. Oh ... I missed Thursday. What can I have on Thursday, Harry?"

"Toad in the Hole?" Harry suggested with a grin.

"Can you have Toad in the Hole for breakfast? I do like a bit of Toad in the Hole, actually."

"Luna, we are in a school where we can brew fame and bottle glory ... I'm pretty sure we can stretch to sausages and Yorkshire pudding for breakfast!"

"But I was going to have sausages on Saturday," Luna mused. "Maybe I'll just have to have scrambled egg instead."

"And what about Sunday?" Harry grinned.

"I think on Sunday I'll have to go on a diet before all that rich food makes me big and fat," Luna giggled.