It's You | Harry Potter

15

"Well-"

"A thousand years or more ago-"

"Oops, guess I'm out of time. We'll chat after the sorting." Harry smirked before he looked towards the front of the Hall and listened to the Sorting Hat sing. I pinched his thigh under the table, and he swatted a hand back at me as he yelped quietly in pain.

"I hate you." I whispered to him, and he looked back at me over his shoulder with a knowing smile that could see right through me and my horrible lies.

"Oh, hush. You love me, Rubes." He winked confidently, and I let out a scoff.

"I do not." I argued, and his amusement grew even more.

"Yes, you do. Don't you remember what you said when you thought I was dying in the Chamber of Secrets?  H, please. You can't leave me. Don't die. I love you and I-" He rambled with a dramatic face, and I squeezed his knee harshly under the table to shut him up before he embarrassed me any further.

"Yeah, because I thought you were dying, dimwit!" I told him through gritted teeth, and he tickled at my side to get a laugh out of me.

"Admit it, Ruby Jade. You love me." He chuckled, and I let out a light laugh that I couldn't hold in from his tickle tactics even if I had wanted to. "Admit it and I'll stop tickling you. You love me like I love you." He teased further. Yeah, as friends.

"Alright, alright. I love you, now knock it off." My giggles were hardly subtle as the Hall was starting to fall silent. He gave me a nod of satisfaction before he scooped my legs over both of his under the table and let them rest in his lap— which ultimately let me move away from Ron. Although I— as I'm sure my nonbiological brother was as well— was glad to have more room, I was now closer to Harry than I would have hoped to be. This is not making things better.

The Sorting Hat had finished it's song, and the Great Hall erupted into cheers and applause. I lazily joined in, though I had hardly paid attention to the performance anyway.

"That's not the song it sang when it sorted us." Harry clapped along as he peaked around my back at Ron.

"Sings a different song every year. It's got to be a pretty boring life, hasn't it? Being a hat? I suppose it spends all year making up the next one." Ron shrugged. "Ew. Think of all the heads it's sat on. What if someone has lice?" Ron's casual expression had turned to one of panic and disgust as he looked between Harry and I.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool." Professor McGonagall told the first year students. "When the hat announces your House, you will go and sit at the appropriate table. Ackerley, Stewart!" She shouted. The scared boy walked forward and sat down on the stool with the Sorting Hat on his head.

"RAVENCLAW!" The hat shouted.

"You know why I like the first night feast so much?" Harry tucked his face into my neck to whisper the question to me, and his hot breath made me freeze in place.

"Why? Because of the all you can eat buffet?" I barely breathed out. He let out a deep chuckle before he leaned back and peered into my blue eyes.

"No, silly girl. Every year it reminds me of when I met you." He whispered sweetly with rose colored cheeks. My mind backtracked a few years, and I thought of that day as the words rolled off of his tongue.

~⚡️~

September 1, 1991

"Ruby, baby. You have to get a move on or you'll miss it." My dad tried to warm me while he pushed my cart through the station. My mother had barely stopped weeping since we had arrived at King's Cross to send me off for my first year at Hogwarts, and I had felt the urge to throw up for hours.