Norman's Pov
Before they returned to Hogwarts.
We're in Honeydukes looking for Ray and we can't find him anywhere. Malfoy suddenly yells from across the room.
"Wait a minute, where's Y/n?!" Emma and I look at each other and we realize that we haven't seen Y/n anywhere. So now there was a missing Y/n and a missing Ray. That's strange... Malfoy comes over to us and asks if we have seen Y/n. Emma and I shake our heads and he sighs. Emma suddenly perks her head up, as if saying she just got an idea.
"Hey, what if they went outside? Maybe we could split up and find them?" Malfoy and I nod and we split up.
After a bit of walking I come across a pet store. I decide to look inside since Y/n mentioned something about her liking animals so I go in to see if she's in there. When I get inside I hear a bunch of meowing and squeaking from all around the store. I walk around the store and a certain cat catches my eyes. We have a mini staring contest with each other before I realize.
"Y/n would love you." I tell the cat before reaching into the cage and picking it up. The cat struggles against my arms then settles down as I bring him up to the counter.
"How much for this one?" I ask the person behind the counter.
"He is twenty galleons." That's surprising, I thought it would be more. I give the bag of galleons over to him. I walk out of the store and hide him behind my back so that Emma doesn't see him and want a cat as well.
At Hogwarts
I walk through the halls of Hogwarts to try and find Y/n and give her the cat. I eventually see Emma hugging Y/n and Y/n trying to escape from her.
"For the last time Emma, let me go! I despise this affection!" I hear Y/n yell as I get closer to the both of them. I chuckle and they both look up at me.
"What's going on?" I ask them.
"Y/n won't admit she likes being hugged!" Emma shouts and pulls Y/n closer.
"I don't like being hugged! Honestly, you're even worse than Draco when he found out I cried about a story that was about how a dog waited for their owner to come back, only to die waiting!" Y/n exclaims as she tries to struggle out of Emma's grip. Emma looks down at her with a sad look.
"You cried about that?" She whispers in a meek voice.
"Yeah, I did. Now what are you- ugh!" Emma starts sobbing and pulls Y/n even closer to her if that is possible. Y/n looks like she is turning purple.
"Emma, you might want to let go of Y/n. I think she is suffocating." I inform her. She looks down at her and gasps and quickly lets go of her. Y/n immediately starts breathing heavily and crouches down to get some air back in her system. She glares at Emma in the process.
"Remind me to never let you hug me like that ever again. Unless I somehow change my personality." Emma just smiles sheepishly and rubs her neck.
"Aha, sorry about that Y/n..." Y/n just huffs and looks away from her. Y/n glances at me and then my arms.
"What's behind you?" She questions me as she stands up properly. I sigh and smile at her. I show her the cat that I got earlier at Hogsmeade. Emma and Y/n both gasp at the sight of the cat and Y/n runs up to hug him.
"He's so cute!" She cheers while holding him to her chest.
"That's the one time you hug someone?! He's not even human and you're still hugging him but you won't hug a person!" Emma shouts. Y/n nods and goes back to paying attention to the cat.
"He's for you Buttercup." I say to her, causing her to gasp in surprise.
"No way! Really?!" She exclaims. I nod and she grins at me.
"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She runs up and hugs me with the cat between us. I giggle and hug her back while making sure not to crush the cat.
Emma's Pov
I watch as Y/n hugs Norman and he hugs her back. I frown. Why? Why her? Among all people it had to be her... Was Ray even right? Does Norman even like me?? I know I'm in the 'Ray x Y/n' operation and that they're just friends but... Why does it hurt?? No wait, I have to be happy for her, she's been super nice to me this year and she's even giving me money whenever we go to Hogsmeade. Besides, her and Norman are close friends so it's probably just a friend thing. Y/n reaches out and pulls me into the hug.
"Wha- YOU'RE HUGGING ME!!!" I shout.
"Of course I am dumbass, now be quiet. Don't get used to this. This is the only time it'll ever happen." I smile softly and hug them. Even though she can be an ass I'm glad she's my friend. We stay in the hug for a while before Y/n speaks up.
"I'm naming him Norman Jr!" I giggle and Norman makes a sound of shock.
"Yes! You should totally name him Norman Jr!" I feel like someone is looking at us from a distance but I can't be bothered to look up. I wanna savor this moment.
Time skip to Monday
I'm in the library with Norman, Ray,and Y/n. We're meant to be studying but Y/n keeps banging her head against the table. Norman is trying to get her to stop because he's scared that she might hurt herself and Ray is just watching in amusement.
"Y/n! Stop it! You're going to get a concussion!!" Norman whisper-shouts.
"At least if I get a concussion I won't have to do the Astronomy quiz!" Y/n cries while still banging her head against the table. I can see Ray's eye twitching because of the sound of Y/n banging her head on the table so he sighs and pulls out some flash cards, catching Y/n's attention, making her stop hitting her head on the table.
"What is the solar wind?" He asks her.
"The Sun's outer atmosphere, the super-hot corona, is the source of the solar wind, a steady outflow of charged particles from the Sun. These particles have gained enough energy to fill the heliosphere, a region of space that extends well past the orbit of Pluto. As these particles flow past Earth's orbit, they're traveling at an average of 400 kilometers per second. Though the Sun can lose more than a million tons of material each second, the amount is still negligible compared to the Sun's total mass." Y/n answers with half confidence.
"How many stars does it take to make up the constellation of Aries?"
"Four to nine?"
"Are you asking me or answering me?"
"Four to nine."
"Better, last question. What phase of the moon do werewolves turn?"
"Full moon!" Ray nods in approval and ruffles her hair.
"Good job. You have improved." I can see Y/n's eyes sparkle in joy at his praise... Strange, was she expecting something else?? Ray smiles proudly at her and she smiles back.
Y/n's Pov
I'm so happy right now! I got all the questions right, and it was the first time it's happened as well! And when Ray praised me... I can't help but feel overjoyed! I don't know why but, I just do! I wish I could get his praise more often...I just need to figure out a way to though...
"Do you want me to quiz you more?" Ray asks me. Well I guess I don't need to think of one anymore.
"Yes please. Knowing my father, he'd be overjoyed! And maybe my mother will give me some praise too..." I mutter, trailing off at the end while coming up with an idea. He nods and takes out more flash cards from his pocket.
Time skip to Wednesday after the quiz
It's the day after the quiz and I'm anxiously waiting for my results to come back. Susan keeps looking at me like I've grown a second head.
"Are you ok?? You're never this anxious after a quiz..."
"I'm fine, I'm fine." I repeat, over and over. Susan just looks at me with a skeptical look.
"You're not fine, spill the beans L/n."
"I'm just worried about my results, that's all." Suddenly the teacher walks in, making everyone quiet. They then hand out the results and when they reach me, they give me a smile and pat my head. As they continue to give everyone their results, I look at mine and see that I got a 93%! Yes! Finally! I'm gonna get so much praise from Ray when I tell him! Wait, why do I want his praise again? Oh well, it doesn't matter..
After class
It was the end of Astronomy and I immediately rush out to find Ray. I then bump into Norman.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry Norman! I didn't see you there!" I exclaim, lending him a hand since he fell on the floor. He chuckles and takes my hand so I pull him up.
"What's got you in such a rush Buttercup?"
"I just got my test results back! So I wanna find Ray to tell him how I did."
"Really? How did you do? You must've done pretty well if you're acting like this."
"I got 93%!"
"I'm so proud of you Buttercup! You've really improved since last year!" Ray and Emma then come over to see what we were yelling about.
"What's all the noise about?" Emma asks as she stands next to Norman. Without thinking, I grin and show them my results. Ray smiles at me and hugs me.
"See?! I knew you could do it!" He chuckles while ruffling my hair.
"Haha! Hey! Quit it! It took a while to brush the knots away from my hair! I don't need more!!" I laugh while trying to get him to stop.
"I'm never going to stop! You're going to have to deal with me for the rest of your life!"
"Noo!!" I shout with fake despair. He squeezes me tighter while messing my hair up and lifting me slightly off the ground. We all laugh, unaware of a certain teacher watching from a distance. Norman and Emma join the hug, suffocating me in the process.
Time skip
I was currently with Pansy and she kept asking me why I was getting so close to Norman and his siblings. Or in other words, "The Mudbloods". I just keep ignoring her and now she is poking me everywhere (not like that).
"Ugh! Remember what I said back at the train?! This is a part of that plan!! So don't try to mess things up for me. Got it?!" I snap at her and she nods in understanding.
"Good, now if you'll excuse me, I need to borrow more books from the library's restricted section. I'll meet you back at the dorms." I say as I start heading there. Completely unaware of a certain trio who heard Every. Single. Word.
Harry's Pov
Ron and Hermione look at me in shock from what we just hear L/n say.
"To think that all this time we believed her..." Hermione says,
"Well the three of us weren't really friends with her..." Ron remarks.
"Yeah, but the others are Ron, could you think about that for a second?"
"L/n is probably bluffing because Parkinson was there. Remember what Norman and Emma told us about them not liking muggle borns. Also, their friendships seem too genuine to be fake." I try to reassure us all. Hermione nods in agreement and Ron shakes his head. Hermione sighs.
"Ronald, let's just think that Harry is right. It'll be better for everyone." Ron grumbles in annoyance and nods hesitantly and sighs.
We go to the Great Hall and I can feel the doubt in the air for whether or not L/n is being genuine. Emma and the others keep asking if we're ok and if something went wrong but Hermione, Ron and I silently agreed earlier that we wouldn't tell them about this until we were sure. We don't really want to crush their hearts at the moment.
"Are you guys sure you're ok?" Norman asks us. We just nod quickly and he looks at us suspiciously. We just smile at him nervously and he goes back to eating his food.
After class
We were in the halls, discussing whether or not we should spy on L/n to see if she was serious about this 'plan' she was talking about. We hear someone approaching us from behind, we look behind us and see Norman coming towards us.
"What's this about Y/n?" He growls quietly as he sits down next to Ron. Ron looks at him and chuckles sheepishly.
"Uhm, what do you mean...?" Ron giggles in a high pitched voice.
"Listen, no one talks shit about my bestie except for me. So if you are talking shit about her I suggest you spit out what you were saying." He hisses to us. But he's mostly looking at Ron when he is addressing us. We all look at each other and decide that we can't keep secrets from him because he will eventually find out.
"We overheard L/n talking about something yesterday..." Hermione admits to him quietly. He looks at us in confusion.
"What did she say?" Norman questions us.
"She was talking about how she is only friends with you, Ray, and Emma because she has a plan to do something bad with you guys." Ron drops the truth on him harshly.
"Who was she talking to when you heard this?" He narrows his eyes at us.
"Pansy, Pansy Parkinson..." I muster up the courage, afraid of what's to come. His eyes widen and he laughs.
"Is that all you guys are worried about?! I already knew all this!" Norman laughs out. The three of us just pause, confused that this was his reaction.
"What do you mean?" Hermione questions him.
"I already knew that she told Parkinson about having a 'plan'. She tells her Slytherin friends that so they don't get mad at her for being friends with Emma, Ray, and I." Norman explains to us. We sigh in relief at the fact he already knows.
"Is that all you guys had to say?" We nod and he looks at us.
I'm glad he isn't hurt
Chapter Thirty-Four End