HARLOW TOOK OFF HER uniform, throwing it into the laundry basket. she threw on a black shirt and jeans. she walked over to the middle of the room and sat next to daphne on her bed. the two of them were facing pansy, who was also sitting on her bed.
"wait wait wait, you and cedric kissed?" asked pansy.
"no," harlow began, "i said we almost kissed."
"how do you 'almost kiss' someone?'" daphne asked.
harlow groaned, "it was so awkward please don't make me relive it."
"don't care." pansy said, "tell us."
"so we were dancing right?"
"right." daphne said.
"wait, why were you guys dancing?" pansy asked.
"we were talking about the dance then it just sorta happened, anyways not important." she explained. "and at the end he came close to me and was close to kissing me."
"and then what?"
"then he just didn't." she told them.
pansy gave her a look, "did you want him to?"
harlow shrugged, "i don't know."
ϟ
cedric and harlow were making their way over to the quidditch pitch. they hadn't talked about the events of last night, harlow tried her best to avoid it and cedric didn't bring it up.
cedric took a deep breath, "i love quidditch season, the school spirit, the excitement in the air-"
harlow cut him off, "the broken bones, potentially falling to your death."
he groaned and threw his head back, "you ruin everything, you know that right?"
"aw i love you too, ced." she joked, she looked over to cedric and his humorous face was gone. he stared at the ground while they're walking. "you good?"
he nodded, "yeah, why wouldn't i be."
"you're being weird." she told him.
"maybe we should talk about last night-" he was cut off by a blonde girl bumping into him. he caught her and stood her up, steadying her.
she took a minute and recognize him, "hey, ced."
"hi, stella." he said awkwardly, putting his hands in his pockets. "stella, harlow. harlow stella."
"hey," harlow waved.
stella gave her a soft fake smile and turned back to cedric, "it's been awhile ced, do you wanna sit with me and my friends at the game."
"yeah-" he began, then looked over to harlow. "actually never mind, some other time maybe."
"okay." stella said, annoyed. she turned around and walked to a group of girls.
"you could have gone you know, i don't need you to babysit me."
"hanging out with my best friend isn't babysitting, lo." cedric said, putting a little too much emphasis on the one friend.
they started to walk again, harlow looked at him, "old girlfriend?"
"stella?" he questioned, harlow nodded. "nah, just hooked up with her a few times over the summer."
"classy." remarked harlow. "anyways what were you saying?"
"oh," he shook her head. "nevermind not important."
harlow furrowed her eyebrows, "okay."
they began to walk again towards the quidditch pitch. cedric was walking ahead of harlow, she wasn't sure if it was unintentional because he was taller than her and just walked faster or if it was completely intentional. they finally got there and cedric looked around for a place to sit.
"ced!" a voice called out, harlow turned around and saw anthony sitting down a few rows up. "come sit with us!"
cedric gave harlow a look asking if it was okay, she nodded. "you wanna sit with us?"
"um, sure."
the two walked up to anthony, harlow sat between anthony and cedric awkwardly as the game began. harlow heard lee jordan ramble about the beginning of the game. harlow was too fixated on her nails to care, she heard cheers from around her.
she looked up and saw marcus flint pass the bludger through the hoop but he was stopped by gryffindor. gryffindor took the bludger and raced to the other side of the pitch, marcus flint shoved the gryffindor, sending the bludger out of his hand and landing into a slytherin's hand.
she looked next to her at cedric, who had a perplexed look in his face, as he was deep in thought.
"you good?" she asked, he nodded. "well you look a little-"
"handsome? hot?"
"constipated."
he scoffed, "i'm analyzing and taking mental notes of their play by play."
harlow furrowed her eyebrows, "you're so strange."
he ignored her and studied in on the game again. harry was racing marcus flint to get the bludger, harry wasn't fast enough and marcus managed to get it in the hoop. the slytherin students cheered.
"another goal for slytherin!" lee jordan announced. the score's was thirty, gryffindor to ninety, slytherin.
harlow looked up and saw that draco was saying something to harry that she couldn't make out. the bludger came rushing towards harry's face, he moved.
his face just in time for it to avoid slamming into his face. oliver wood flew near harry and said something, unknowing to oliver the bludger was racing towards him at a fast speed. harry shouted something at him, oliver turned around just in time to see the bludger crash into his broom, separating into two pieces, sending oliver down to the floor.
the bludger began to chance after harry, who was desperately trying to out run it. he went into the stands, zooming past harlow, cedric, and anthony. harry moved back into the pitch still trying his best to out run it.
"what's happening?" asked harlow, looking to cedric for answers.
"i don't know darling." he noticed harlow bouncing her leg up and down anxiously, "he'll outrun it don't worry."
the bludger creating a whole through four of the watching towers trying to catch up to harry. harry zoomed down trying to make it fall behind, he finally distanced himself from it. harlow saw draco smirk then say something to her brother. harlow then noticed the snitch flying around draco's head, from harry's body language harlow knew he saw it too.
harry heard a noise behind him and noticed the bludger rushing towards him once more, he ducked just before it could hit him. harry looked back at the snitch and followed it, draco noticed what harry was doing and began to follow harry. draco caught up to harry and slammed into him. draco was in the lead and closest to the bludger. they both dove down under the quidditch pitch.
harlow heard wood breaking and gulped trying her hardest to steady her leg and stop it from shaking. she saw harry zoom back up from under the pitch and she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding in. draco fell onto the floor of the pitch with a thud. harlow couldn't contain her laughter at the sight of the bigoted boy getting injured.
harry reached out to grab the snitch when the bludger came back around and hit him in the arm, sending a loud crunch sound out from where he was. harry kept going and was just about to grab the snitch when his broom turned over and he fell to the ground, scraping his body along the sand. he let go of his broom and slammed his head onto the sand.
harlow got up from her head, cedric grabbed her wrist, "you can't do anything to help him let the teachers handle it."
she yanked her wrist away from his hand, "he's my brother."
she ran down to the quidditch pitch floor and ran towards him, sitting by his side, "harry, are you okay?"
harry responded in a groan but lifted up his hand, in his left hand was the snitch. his victory was announced by a an ecstatic lee jordan. the bludger came down next to him, he rolled away in a different direction. harlow looked up seeing the bludger about to slam on her head, she moved out of the way swiftly. she heard a voice yell out a spell which immobilized the bludger.
harlow looked over to see ron, hermione, and hagrid facing them. they rushed over to harry, "are you ok?" asked hermione.
"no, I think my arm broke" harry told her, ignoring harlow's existence.
harlow stood up, brushing sand off her school skirt. she backed up, watching harry from a far as professor lockhart rushed over to them, along with a few students and teachers.
"do not worry, harry. i will fix that of your arms straight away." professor lockhart said reassuringly.
harry shook his head, "no, not you."
professor lockhart grabbed his arm, "you don't know what are you saying, now, this won't hurt a bit." he pointed his hand at harry's arm. "brakyamy imendo."
harry's arm flopped around, as if it were rubber. professor lockhart cleared his throat, "ah, yes, well, that can sometimes happen but the point is you can no longer feel any pain and very clearly, the bones are not broken."
"broken?" questioned hagrid, "there is no bones left."
"much more flexible though." said professor lockhart, smiling.
ϟ
after the game harlow hadn't followed harry into the hospital. a part of her was afraid of what he'd say to her, if he felt like saying anything to her at all. she'd gone back to her dorm room, drawing in her little black book to pass the time. before she knew it, it was already pitch black out.
she closed the book and got up, straightening out her school skirt. she opened the door to the dorm room and stepped out into the common room. harlow saw daphne and pansy hanging out with draco, crabbe, goyle, and blaise.
"harls!" daphne called out, harlow turned around to face them. "won't you join us?"
she smiled, "i will later, i'm gonna go visit harry in the hospital wing."
"oh do tell him i hope he feels better." daphne told her.
"i think daph has a little crush on your brother." pansy smirked.
"ew!" harlow recoiled.
"speaking of crushed." draco interrupted, "hopefully next time the bludger will finish the job."
harlow rolled her eyes and muttered, "dick-wad."
she began to walk away when draco called out, "i heard that!"
harlow didn't turn around to look at him, "good!" she shouted and left the common room.
curfew had not yet began, harlow rushed over to the hospital wing to see harry sitting alone staring out at the moon.
"hey," she greeted.
he looked up at her and raised his eyebrows as to greet her back.
"i know you hate me right now." she told him, "but you're my brother and i'm not going anywhere. you don't have to talk to me but i'm not leaving."
he turned away on the bed as not to face her, in an almost silent voice he said, "i don't hate you."
a small smile formed on her face, "really?"
"no," harry turned to look at her. "i just don't know what you want me to say, you need to put an end to this madness."
harlow bit her tongue, even though she wanted to proclaim her innocents. "go to bed, you need your rest."
he nodded and put his head back on his pillow, drifting off into sleep a few minutes later. harlow sat on the chair next to his bed and brought her legs to her chest, burying her head into her knees. just as she was about to drift into sleep, she heard a noise behind her and shot up.
she got up hesitantly, "hello?" there was no response, she walked towards the middle of the room. "is someone there."
she walked through the door that led in and out of the hospital wing, she felt a hand yank her and slam her against the wall. without hesitation she kicked whatever had her pinned against the wall in the crotch.
"ow!" a deep voice exclaimed, harlow opened her eyes and saw tom clearly in pain.
"sorry!" she apologized, "oh my god i'm so sorry!"
"shhhh!" he hushed her. "i'll be alright harlow, follow me."
"why should i do that? It's late."
"you want to learn more about magic right? and how to control it?"
she scoffed, "when i agreed to this i thought it'd be over coffee not in the middle of the night."
"just follow me." he said and began walking towards the end of the hallway. at the end of the hallway there were two separate hallways to go through, but a door that usually wasn't there was smacked in the center of the dead end.
"what's this room?" she asked. "i've never seen it before."
he opened up the door and let her in first before closing the door behind them. the room was large with extraordinarily high ceilings, it was empty though, no furniture or even lights. the room was lit up with pale moonlight. "the room of requirement. the name is pretty self explanatory."
"okay, you didn't think one thing through though." she told him, "i don't have my wand."
"i do." tom pulled it out of his robe pocket and handed it to her, "snagged it from your dorm."
"how'd you get in?" she asked, then she realized who would let in a random hot guy in their room. "daphne let you in didn't she?"
he nodded, "hold up your wand." she did as she was told, pointing it at him. he moved behind her and grabbed her arm, pointing it where it was supposed to be pointed. "close your eyes and think of your happiest memory." he whispered to her.
harlow shut her eyes and began scanning her brain for a happy memory. all of the memories she thought of had one common denominator. cedric. a smile spread across her face, tom took this as that she had found the memory.
"now say expecto patronum." he instructed her.
she did as she was told, "expecto patronum." when she opened her eyes there was what looked like a horse with wings in front of her made out of blue light that reflected on her and toms face.
"interesting." remarked tom.
"what? what is that thing?" she questioned, turning to face him.
"a thestral." the thestral flew around them then disappeared. "those who have seen death can only see them, otherwise they are invisible."
"aren't those the things that pull the carriage?"
he nodded, "but how would you know that?"
"i've seen them," she confessed. "ever since halloween, i've seen them pulling the carriages from the students coming or going."
"what happened on halloween?" he asked, curiously.
she shook her head, "it doesn't matter."
"you can tell me." he told her.
"i remembered what happened to my parents, but it was like a dream. i don't know it sounds stupid saying it out loud."
"tell me about the dream." tom said.
harlow began telling him the story of what she had dreamt of. she told him what happened start to finish and tom gave her a sympathetic look. "that's horrible, i'm sorry."
she gave him a smile, "yeah it's fine, i should probably get back to harry though."
"let me walk you." he said.
harlow shook her head, "no thanks i'll be fine."
"very well then, goodnight harlow." he smiled.
she opened the door to the room of requirement and looked back at him, "night tom."
she shut the door behind him leaving tom alone in the room. he couldn't help but laugh to himself, how gullible harlow was he thought. tom smirked to himself pridefully, at least now he got the confirmation that the potion he had slipped into her drink worked.