When We Just Began - *Prequel to Shy*

Bonding Over Blobs

Harry woke up a week later with a skull splitting headache. He squinted through the bright morning September sun that leaked in through the window. Rubbing the sleep out of his eyes he sat up, the dormitory was unusually quiet on a Thursday. So quiet that you could hear the mattress creak beneath him as he shifted his weight.  

 Harry looked around to see all of his room mates still sleeping. That was when he realized that the sun was just beginning to rise. He had waken up early again. He flopped back into his pillow face-first and groaned quietly. Was his body waking him up on purpose? Realizing that he wasn't going back to sleep any time soon, he got up.  

 Once Harry was ready he decided to reorganize his book bag so that all of his books would fit. Snape had assigned a large amount of homework as usual to prepare them for their exams. However, Ron reckoned that he just had bitter thoughts about the class.  

 A rumble erupted from his stomach when he slid in his Transfiguration notebook between his Charms and Potions textbook. He was really hungry. Harry glanced about the room once more before lugging his textbook all the way down the Grand Staircase and to the Great Hall. Portraits greeted him as he passed by and he gave them each a barely audible reply.  

 He thanked Merlin when the Great Hall had a small hum of noise. His head ache was getting worse and if he didn't do something about it soon he thought his skull would actually split. Harry gave the whole hall a once over before finding a familiar head leaning over the table and writing at the pace of a running cheetah.  

 His book bag fell to the floor with a loud thud as he sat down in front of the girl. Surprisingly the loud noise didn't break her concentration. He cleared his throat trying to get her to notice him but she still didn't look up.   

 Finally he spoke up saying "Good morning." she glanced up at him and nodded acknowledging his presence. He noticed that her eyes had dark circles and her face looked like the life had been sucked out of her.  

 "Didn't get much sleep?" he asked looking at her straight. She shook her head in response blinking away the heaviness of her eyelids. For a moment she looked quite sad.  

 "Why not?" he asked looking concerned.  

 "It's nothing." she whispered finishing what she was doing. Leah then folded the paper she had scrawled on and stuffed it in her bag.  

 "You can tell me. We're friends." Leah's body froze for a second taking in a deep breath and then gathering her things. For once Harry saw a different side of Leah. A timid and worried side.  

 "Did I say something?" Harry asked her as she began to get up.  

 "No. I should… get to class." Leah said hesitantly.  

 "There's still lots of time. You could stay a while." he said quickly trying to persuade her to sit back down.  

 "No it's okay." she said trying to walk away.  

 "I'll go with you then." said Harry standing up.  

 "No!" she snapped without turning to him. He frowned watching her scuttle out the great oak doors.    

 "Harry! There you are!" Ron exclaimed as he and Hermione came bursting into the hall seconds after Leah had left.  

 "I woke up and you weren't there." Ron then leaned into Harry his right hand cupping beside his mouth. "I thought that Crookshanks attacked you and you had to go to the Hospital Wing." said Ron not even trying to whisper.  

 "Crookshanks would never attack anyone!" Hermione protested.  

 "You're just saying that because you're the owner of the orange savage!"