Emma Potter

104: Brain vs Heart

THANK YOU SO MUCH @__bxcktovampyrs

"Well" said Zoe smirking as I buried my head in her shoulder after dinner "you and Malfoy looked pretty cosy."

"Zoe, please" I said "I'm dating a guy." Well, does three dates so far count as official "dating"?

"Right" said Zoe, rolling her eyes "A guy you don't like."

"Zoe--" I mumbled.

"Come on Emma" said Zoe "don't lie to me. You didn't see yourselves. You had chemistry. You felt it, he felt it. Everyone saw it. And I think your just dating Isaac to make Malfoy jealous. Which isn't fair to anyone. Him or you."

Damnit, I hate when I'm proven wrong. 

"Well, what do I do?" I said "Malfoy doesn't care about me."

Zoe looks at me with a fond exasperated expression. " Honestly, how are you so oblivious? Did you or did you not dance flawlessly with him even if you haven't even tried before?" 

"I did."

"Do you or do you not miss him?" 

I stayed quite. Yes, I miss him. I miss his company, I miss annoying him, I miss his laugh. But was I admitting that? No. I'm too stubborn, and too proud. 

"You don't have to say it" says Zoe reading my mind " I know you do."  

I groaned. 

The next day I was walking with Harry and Ron. I had never known so many people to put their names down to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas; I always did, of course,because the alternative was usually going back to Privet Drive, but I had always been very much in the minority before now. 

This year, however, everyone in the fourth year and above seemed to bestaying, and they all seemed to me to be obsessed with the coming ball — or at least all the girls were, and it was amazing how many boys Hogwarts suddenly seemed to hold; I had never quite noticed that before. Girls giggling and whispering in the corridors,girls shrieking with laughter as boys passed them, girls excitedly comparing notes on what they were going to wear on Christmas night. . . .

 "Why do they have to move in packs?" Harry asked Ron and me as a dozen or so girls walked past them, sniggering and staring at Harry."How're you supposed to get one on their own to ask them?"

 "Lasso one?" Ron suggested.

"Talk to one privately." I said. 

"Yes, but how?" 

"God, I don't know. Give them a note with a time and place to meet, tell them to come alone. They come, you ask."

"Got any idea who you're going to try?" Asked Ron

Harry didn't answer. I knew perfectly well whom he'd like to ask, but working up the nerve was something else. . . . Cho Chang was a year older than Harry was; she was very pretty; she was a very good Quidditch player, and she was also very popular.

"Listen, you're not going to have any trouble." Ron nudged Harry "You're a champion. You've just beaten a Hungarian Horntail. I bet they'll be queuing up to go with you."

 In tribute to their recently repaired friendship, Ron had kept the bitterness in his voice to a bare minimum. Moreover, to Harry's amazement, he turned out to be quite right.

 A curly-haired third-year Hufflepuff girl to whom Harry had never spoken in his life asked him to go to the ball with her the very next day. Harry was so taken aback he said no before he'd even stopped to consider the matter. The girl walked off looking rather hurt. I couldn't help laughing