Together (A Harry Potter love story) 3

17

"Erm," I mumbled, still in a state of surprise. Why were they all of a sudden acting friendly with each other? Elwood was normally too shy to smile at anyone, let alone Harry. "You know...Dervish and Banges...places like that..."

The small group looked at me hesitantly.

"Oh, nice," said Dean slowly. "What did you do, Harry? When everyone was at Hogsmeade?"

"Did you get any work done?" Mione asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Nah," said Harry, laughing slightly. "Lupin made me a cup of tea in his office. And then Snape came in - said he made him some kind of potion thing because Lupin hadn't been feeling well. I tried to hint to him that Snape had probably poisoned it, but he drank it anyway."

"Lupin drank it?" Ron gasped. "Is he mad?"

"But surely - you know -" Neville dropped his voice, glancing around, "if Snape was trying to - to poison Lupin - he wouldn't have done it in front of Harry."

"Yeah, maybe," said Harry absentmindedly, his green eyes landing on me again. I quickly looked away, spooning some pumpkin pie onto my plate.

The food was delicious; even I managed second helpings of everything, despite being full to the brim with Honeydukes sweets. Harry and I didn't talk to each other directly during the Feast, but we both spoke with the group as a whole.

The feast finished with an entertainment provided by the Hogwarts ghosts. They popped out of the walls and table to do a spot of formation gliding; Nearly Headless Nick had a great success with a re-enactment of his own botched beheading. A particularly funny moment was when the Bloody Baron appeared unexpectantly from underneath the Slytherin table, to which Malfoy screamed loudly.

I began making my way to Gryffindor Tower with Ron and Seamus, when Harry appeared by my side, gently pulling me back to walk with him.

"Hello," he began, grinning.

I paused. "Erm - hi?"

"The weather was nice today, wasn't it?" he breathed casually, nudging my shoulder with his as we walked alongside one another.

"I-I guess-"

"Okay, enough with the small talk," he said abruptly, stopping to face me. He had an excited look on his face. "Will you come with me?"

I tilted my head in confusion. "Where to?"

"It's a surprise," Harry said quietly, jerking his head down the corridor. I hesitated. "Mills, please. Do you trust me?"

My stomach flipped as he sent me his familiar lop-sided grin. "Yes, of course-"

"Why isn't anyone going in?"

Ron appeared next to us, staring curiously up the corridor. Harry sent him an annoyed look, while I peered over the heads in front of me - it was jammed with students.

"Let me through please," came Percy's voice, and he came bustling importantly through the crowd. Harry grabbed my arm and pulled me towards him so that I didn't get trampled. I looked up at him, to find his green eyes glued to my face. He cleared his throat, before releasing his warm touch completely.