𝐒𝐀𝐍𝐊𝐓𝐀 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐈𝐀

Chapter 15

"So you admit it now, do you?" Harry grinned.

"Damn you, Harry."

"He seemed fine about it last night, he's probably more into killing you if you hurt her, or at least ifhe thinks you hurt her."

"Harry, can I talk with you for a second?" Hermione called, as she walked up to them.

"By the way, Parkinson was looking at you too." Harry winked and then turned to Hermione, leaving Neville gaping to his back.

"Are you okay, Neville?" Hermione asked around Harry's shoulder.

"What? Yes, um, yeah, I'm fine, I just – er." And then Neville went up the stairs and was not likely to come down before someone made him.

"Is he really fine, Harry?" Hermione followed him with her gaze, looking concerned.

"Yes, I think he's just a little taken aback by the moment and needs some time to think."

"Okay, but nowwhat I really wanted to talk to you about." She looked around, to make sure that no one was listening, but Neville and Harry had been standing in a quite lonely part of the room. Hermione casted a Silencing Charm over them anyway.

"Okay Harry, don't get mad at me for telling you this," she started and now she was making him nervous, "but I read something in this book that I think you need to know." He saw now how she was clutching a really big book to her chest, holding it as if it was worth protecting.

"Hermione?" he prompted.

"Look, the book said that usually a certain person is chosen to be Staffan because he or she is the most likely to fall in love with Lucia, and the Goblet feels that this person can protect Lucia the best." she blurted out in a hurry.

"What?" Harry whispered, not entirely sure that he had heard right.

"It doesn't mean that you have to fall in love with Malfoy, Harry. It just means that you are likely to."

"Does Malfoy know?" He ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more, but he did not care at all.

"Not that I'm aware of."

"Good. Keep it that way."

"He has just the same right to know as you do, Harry!" she exclaimed.

"I can't do this right now, Hermione! So much is happening, and I can't..! God!"

Harry marched away from Hermione, not able to cope with everything that was happening now. All he really wanted was to go to his dorm and think, just like Neville. But he couldn't, because that meant he would have to leave Malfoy, and he would never hear the end of it.

So instead he dropped down in a armchair next to Ron, looking miserable.

"Wow, what happened to you?" his friend asked.

"What hasn't happened?" Harry sighed.

"Should I be worried?" Ron raised his eyebrows.

"I'll say no, but you're probably going to be anyway, because since when are people not worried about something about me."

"Okay, now. Let's take this from the beginning. What the bloody hell happened?"

"There are so many things happening Ron, I can't know with one I'll have to tell you!"

"How about all of them?"

"No definitely not." Harry balked.

"Why?"

"Because if I say it out loud it'll become reality, and not just some thing in my head, that's why!"

Ron sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Great Godric, I don't know what's worse. You coming up with insane conspiracy theories or you keeping your mouth shut when something is obviously bugging you."

"It's not so fun from this side of the fence either," Harry snapped back.

"Okay, I'll be nice for now and talk about something else, but don't expect that you're getting away from this!"

"Okay..."

"So. How's Ginny?" Harry froze in his seat, Ron had gone from skirting the possibly falling in love with Malfoy issue, and Malfoy being gay, to the Ginny issue. This was not his day.

"I don't know." Harry decided that he at least had to be honest with his best friend in this, and maybe that would feel better if he talked about it. "She broke up with me."

"She did what?" Ron's mouth fell open in surprise.

"Christ, do you want the whole common room to hear you?" Harry whispered frantically.

"When?" Ron completely ignored Harry's comment and was staring at him like his skin had gone purple.

"Yesterday, when she wanted to talk to me."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"I – I didn't know what to say, and then it just slipped my mind."

"It slipped your mind that the girl you had been thinking of to get you through war broke up with you?"

"I don't know, Ron!" Harry exclaimed defensively.

"Does someone else know?"

"Malfoy, he was there when it happened."

"So that's why you didn't come to class yesterday."

"I wanted to, but he made me come up here instead!"

"What did you do?"

"What?"

"What did you do when you came up here? I mean you were gone for quite some time."

"He fell asleep within minutes, and I stared into the fire."

"All the time?"

"Yes?"

"Do you realize how weird that sounds? You broke up with your girlfriend and then go to the common room with your childhood enemy to stare into the fire while he sleeps for hours."

"I had a lot to think about, okay?"

"Like why Ginny dumped you?" Ron pushed.

"Yes! Why do you have to be like this?"

"Okay, I'll stop, but I have to ask, you know?"

"Fine." Harry bit out.

Harry didn't know what to think anymore. Was he going to fall in love with Malfoy? No way. What did that git have that Ginny lacked? He looked over his shoulder, just to prove to himself that Malfoy was nothing like Ginny, and immediately regretted it. Malfoy was sitting with his head resting in his palm, reading and letting his hair fall down over his eyes. It made Harry think of how soft it was when he had touched it, and how Malfoy looked good with his hair like that.

With a jerk he turned his head again, he was not thinking that Malfoy looked good in anything, no. He was simply observing.

But somewhere deep down inside of him, he was getting tired of lying to himself.