Dance With Me Harry

DANCE WITH ME HARRY

By Aerie22

CHAPTER 16

Lavender Blue

The Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts were far from over, but Harry had seen enough. He looked around the bleachers surrounding the pitch. There was a smattering of onlookers, including a large contingent from Ravenclaw. But, unlike team practices, which were closed, or at least as closed off as you can get for a sport played at an average of 40 feet off the ground, House tryouts were open. So there were also interested representatives from all the other houses, including most of the members of the rival Quidditch teams.

Harry got up and made his way over to Angelina Johnson, Katie Bell and Alicia Spinnet, the Gryffindor chaser line, who were watching with interest. "What do you think?"

Angelina looked up. "Their chaser line sucks. I mean really. Kevin Entwhistle? Come on," she said with a chuckle.

Harry shared her chuckle.

Alicia shook her head. "Cho is really the heart of that team. But watch out for Morag MacDougal. He looks like a pretty good keeper."

Harry smiled. "Nothing you ladies can't handle, I'm sure."

The girls all smiled, and Harry nodded as he continued to make his way toward the exit.

"Harry!"

Harry turned and saw Parvati in an upper row, sitting by herself. She waved him up.

As he sat down beside her, she grabbed his arm. "What do you think of Padma?"

Harry shrugged. "Sorry, Parvati. No chance."

Parvati nodded. "I thought so. I don't think she even wanted to try out, but I guess some of her housemates talked her into it."

Harry leaned back. "Look, she's a strong flier, but her reaction time is poor and it's like she's not paying attention half the time. If she'd work at it, I'm sure she could beat out Entwhistle. But, as it is, I don't think she has a prayer of making the team."

Parvati nodded. "I was always better at Quidditch than she was. I don't think she enjoys the game as much as I do."

Harry looked at her in surprise. "Well, why don't you try out. We're holding tryouts on Friday. And I talked Angelina into fielding a full reserve team so we can have full-strength simulated matches in practice. The Hufflepuffs have been doing that for years. They say their practices are more fun than their matches. Come Patil. Go for it."

Parvati snorted. "What? And risk breaking a nail?"

The two of them laughed at her self-effacing humor. Harry gave her shoulder a squeeze and got up to leave. But Parvati grabbed his sleeve. "Talk to Ron, will you," she said with a smile. "I'm not going to wait for him forever."

Harry nodded. "Sure thing," he said and left.

As Harry mounted the stairs up to the castle entrance, he noticed Lavender sitting on one of the stone benches, her head buried in a transfiguration text. "Hey Lavender," he called out. "The library is inside, not out here."

She raised her head and made a face at him. "I hate the library. You can't discuss things or ask questions or explain things without old Pince rushing up and shushing you. If I don't understand something, I want to be able to ask someone for an explanation without that old bag of bones throwing me dirty looks all the time."

Harry chuckled.

"Is it almost over?" she asked.

"What, the tryouts?"

Lavender nodded.

Harry shook his head. "At least another half hour. More likely an hour. They'll be lucky to get to supper on time the way things are going."

Lavender heaved a sigh. "I told Parvati I'd would meet her out here if the tryouts didn't go on too long. But I've had enough. It'll be dark soon."

Harry nodded again, then got an evil grin. "Why don't you try out for the team?"

Lavender rolled her eyes. "Puh-lease. I took a bludger in the face when I was a kid. That was it. No more Quidditch for me. Ever."

Harry laughed. "Oh, is that how your face got all..." and he made an ugly face.

Lavender smacked him in the arm, then started laughing. "Yeah. I was on my way to being a hag until the bludger knocked all the warts off," she said, giggling.

"Going in?" he asked, joining her laughter.

She nodded with a smile. "Up to the House?"

Harry nodded.

"Good. Then you can carry my books for me," she said, draping her carry-all over his shoulder.

As they walked in companionable silence into the castle and down the corridor to the staircase entrance, he noticed Malfoy in the distance, skulking up the corridor and then turning through the staircase entrance. He made a face, then chuckled to himself. There was nothing down that corridor except the chapel, a few storage closets and the entrance to Ravenclaw House. 'So that's where he's sneaking off to. He's got a Ravenclaw girl. Or maybe a Ravenclaw boy,' he thought with an evil grin.

Lavender paused. "What's so funny," she asked with a curious expression.

Harry shrugged. "Oh, nothing."

Lavender looked down, then suddenly looked at him with a frown. "Harry, tell me something. What's wrong with the boys in this place?"

Harry, who was about to resume walking, stopped in mid-step to look at her. "What do you mean?"

Lavender shook her head sadly. "Look. There are 53 boys in fifth through seventh years here. At least half of them are trolls or oafs. Then there are a few real thugs, like Malfoy and his friends or that Smythe guy in Ravenclaw. And of the rest, about half are spoken for like Ernie MacMillan. And you're crushing on Hermione and Ron...well, Ron just sits there like a lump, watching Parvati and then running for his life whenever she looks at him. That doesn't leave a girl much of a choice."

"Me? Hermione?" Harry gasped.

Lavender rolled her eyes again and grabbed his arm to lead him to the staircases. "Oh, come on, now. As if..."

Harry hung his head and nodded as they mounted the first of many steps of stairs to the Gryffindor Tower. "Well, I do like her, sort of..."

Lavender shook her head. "And she's the only one who hasn't seemed to have gotten the message. I swear, she is the thickest girl I've ever met."

Harry sighed. "Maybe she doesn't like me that way."

Lavender snorted. "Oh, she probably does," she said in exasperation. "Only you'd probably have to hex from here to Halloween and back to get her to realize it. Not that she'd ever say anything to Parvati or me. We're merely the house elves in her castles in the air."

Harry paused. "That's not nice," he muttered.

Lavender shot him a look. "Oh, and ignoring her roommates half the time is? Disappearing every year on Potions' Day when there's work to be done is? Not telling us about all the adventures you guys have had is? I've heard more about the three of you from Fred and George than I have from her, and she's my roommate, for Circe's sake."

Harry made a face.

Lavender sighed and began walking up the stairs again, pulling Harry along. "I'm sorry, Harry. I didn't mean to insult her, or you. But she gets me so annoyed sometimes."

Harry tilted his head in acknowledgement. Hermione annoyed him at times, too, never giving him a hint about her feelings toward him. He sighed. "What about Neville?"

"Neville?"

Harry grinned. "Sure. He's available."

Now it was Lavender's turn to sigh. "Neville's the sweetest boy there is. But he's definitely in the oaf category. Look, if he'd lose a little weight, he'd be pretty good looking. But I really don't want to spend all my time cleaning up after the disasters that seem to follow him around. I'm the first to admit I'm not that patient. Maybe Parvati might be, but not me."

Harry was a little annoyed, but he gave an internal shrug. 'At least she's honest,' he thought.

She sighed. "Anyway, I think Moira likes him."

Harry blinked. "Moira Duffy? In fourth year?"

Lavender nodded.

"But...but she's so...high spirited."

Lavender shrugged. "Opposites attract. I don't know. We heard Rachel and Ginny teasing her about 'her teddy bear' Neville. Whatever."

Harry chuckled, then looked at her.

"Dean?"

Lavender shook her head. "He's dull as dishwater. The only one he really talks to is Seamus. I suppose he's kind of broodingly romantic, with his painting and stuff. But he's not very interesting. Plus, I think he's kind of prejudiced. I think he only wants to date black girls. Not like Lee."

Harry nodded. Dean had grown up in Muggle London and had seen racial prejudice first hand and seemed reluctant to date white or Asian girls. The only girls Dean had dated so far was Sandy Williams, the fourth year Hufflepuff who he took to the Yule Ball, and Megan Jones, a fifth year Ravenclaw. Sandy had been a self-absorbed disaster who had screamed at him in front of everyone at the Castle entryway after last Christmas' break when he didn't ask her out on a follow-up date. But Harry thought Megan was bubbly and funny and nice and couldn't figure out why Dean wasn't seeing her more often.

Harry shook his head. "Well, if you want interesting and fun, why not Seamus? After all, you two seemed to have fun at the Yule Ball together."

Lavender sighed for about the eighth time. "Well, he is fun and funny. But maybe too funny. I don't want to go out with him only to become the butt of some of his jokes and funny stories. Maybe if I knew he really liked me, I'd feel more comfortable going out with him."

Harry shrugged as they mounted the last stairway up to the Tower. "Okay, you want a good looking, nonmessy, fun guy who really likes you," Harry said with an evil grin growing on his face. "That leaves you with one choice. The obvious choice: Colin Creevey!"

Lavender shrieked. "That bloody pest!" she said, suddenly bursting into laughter as the passed through the door to the corridor leading to the common room. "I swear, I'm going to have to learn stronger hexes. He'd drive me crazy except that he follows Parvati around even more than me. And don't get me started on his little brother Dennis, who is even worse."

Harry and Lavender laughed merrily as they walked arm in arm down the corridor toward the common room entrance, not noticing that Hermione had been following them up the staircases and was watching them in annoyance now.

* * *

Ginny was leaning forward, her head resting on her right palm as she gazed with a bored expression at her Transfiguration text. She casually blew away a tendril of red hair that had fallen over her face. She gazed apathetically across the common room.

"I don't know why we have to read about all these spells. You learn them. You do them. That's it."

Moira Duffy, on her left, sat there, her hands in her lap, a similar expression on her face. Only Moira had her hair tied in a quirky topknot, making her look like an artist's paintbrush with freckles. "Tell me about it."

Rachel Weiss, Ginny's best friend among the fourth year girls, leaned over from Ginny's right. "Come on. You don't think we're learning every charm we're going to need in life in class, do you?"

Ginny shifted her gaze to Rachel. "Oh, please. You're starting to sound like Hermione," she drawled.

Rachel shook her head in exasperation. She had short, dark brown hair and glasses and, although not particularly pretty, always looked fresh and well-groomed. "Ginny, how many times will you be transfiguring a button into a bug, or a hedgehog into a pincushion, or a cat into a footstool?"

Ginny sighed. "You're right. I don't do those charms more than three or four times a week," she said in an extremely bored tone.

Rachel shook her head. "Look, most of what we do in class has no use in real life. It just shows us how to transfigure in general. It's the books that prepare us for real life transfigurations. The stuff our mums and dads do without thinking every day. If we don't study the underlying theory and practice, we'll have to go running to a reference book every time we want to try something we've never done before."

Ginny turned to Moira and shrugged. "Hermione?"

"They must be twins," Moira said with a lazy grin.

The door to the common room suddenly opened and Lavender and Harry walked in, arm-in-arm, laughing.

Rachel turned to face her best friend and involuntarily murmured quietly. "Uhhhhh ohhhhh."

Ginny's head snapped up and her eyes went wide as the couple passed by without a glance.

"I'll see you at supper," Harry said brightly, as Lavender gave him a wink and mounted the stairs to the girls' dorm.

Ginny turned and gave Rachel a wide-eyed, stricken look. Then she turned to Moira, who was looking at her in sympathy.

Ginny then looked down at her hands in her lap.

Rachel gently touched Ginny's shoulder. "I think we should go upstairs and talk." She then looked over at Moira, who nodded. The girls calmly put their books away and the three slowly made their way up to their dorm.

* * *

Ginny lay in her bed, frowning off in the distance as Rachel sat at the end of the bed leaning against one post and Moira against the other.

None of them had ever seen Harry laughing and joking with a girl like that before. Maybe he would tease Hermione and had been known to tease Ginny as well, usually at the Burrow.

But this was Harry. And yet he seemed so relaxed. And carefree. And happy. Ginny leaned back against her pillows. 'Oh, God,' she thought.

Rachel sighed. "Ginny. You always anticipated this, didn't you?"

Ginny's gaze didn't waver. "I kind of figured he would end up with someone else. But I thought it would be Hermione. He even wrote Ron this summer about how he was crushing on her. Somehow, I kept hoping that she would end up with Ron and I would have a chance with Harry. But then I saw how she looked at him when we picked him up and I knew..." She heaved a sigh.

Moira fidgeted. "So...you knew it was coming."

Ginny closed her eyes in sorrow. The nodded slowly. Finally, she looked at her friends. "I guess I knew that he and Hermione would get together. I could deal with that. But Lavender? Lavender?"

Moira continued to fidget. "Lavender's not that bad," she whispered. "After all, she helped me with...those warts on my neck."

Rachel gave her a look. "They were just skin tags and I could have taken care of them with a razor blade and some alcohol."

Moira lowered her head. "Still..."

Ginny looked up at Moira with narrowed eyes. "She's a gossip. And she's mean. I don't trust her. And look at the way she dresses and wears makeup. All tarted up," Ginny spat.

Rachel shook her head. "Look, she's insecure. I think all the southern Browns feel like second class citizens compared to their northern cousins."

Ginny now turned her glare at Rachel. "Oh, and I'm supposed to feel sorry for her. Only a princess. Not a queen. They're the richest clan in England, and I've got to shed tears over the fact that she's only wealthy, not filthy rich."

Rachel shook her head. "Come on, Ginny. That's not like you. We don't even know if they are a couple. Maybe they were just talking."

Moira chuckled. "Yeah, Ginny. And you know how quickly she goes through boyfriends. I give them until...4:00 tomorrow afternoon."

Ginny suddenly giggled. "I don't know. Harry's pretty special. I'd say...7:00."

Rachel smiled and moved up the bed to Ginny. Moira followed. As they embraced their friend, she cried.

* * *

Hermione could not seem to concentrate on her arithmancy assignment. She gave Harry, who was sitting across from her at the table in the library, a surreptitious glance. She was glad to see he was taking his studies more seriously, following her without protest up to the library on a regular basis. But she was furious at him for flirting outrageously with Lavender in the stairwell the day before.

'So Harry likes Lavender,' Hermione thought. 'It was Ron who was supposed to like Lavender. Isn't that what Harry had said. But it was really Harry who liked Lavender all along.' She glanced up at Harry, who was now looking at her. He looked like he was about to say something. 'Oh, bugger Harry,' she thought stormily.

She cut Harry off before he had a chance to speak. "I'm leaving. I can't seem to get anything accomplished here," she said as she slammed her arithmancy book closed and stood up.

Harry looked startled. "I...I'll walk you back up," he stammered.

"Oh, don't bother. You stay here and keep working," she snapped as she threw her books and papers messily into her bookbag and, without another word, stalked out.

* * *

Harry flushed and took a deep breath. He shook his head sadly. 'Hermione looked like she was in a bad mood,' he thought. 'Maybe this was the ideal time for an unexpected compliment.' Harry had been working up the courage to say something nice to her for the last fifteen minutes and he was just about to take the plunge Hermione abruptly packed up and left.

He slowly lowered his head into his arms on the desk. He had to say something to her or he would burst. Why was this so hard? He found he could now talk to other girls. Even tease them, like Sara had taught him. Like Millie Bulstrode. Maybe there was some other way. Maybe some elaborate birthday present at the end of the month.

No. He couldn't wait that long. And he'd feel stupid if she rejected his grand gesture. No, he would follow Sara's advice and the advice from those Muggle girls' magazines and do something small but romantic. Yes. The unexpected compliment. That was the best way to go.

* * *

Harry walked listlessly up the stairs and was approaching the Fat Lady in Pink guarding the Gryffindor House entrance when the painting swung open and he was sent sprawling by a blond streak.

"Damn you, Potter..." and suddenly Lavender, who had been knocked on her seat, burst into tears, causing her already makeup-smudged eyes to run.

"Lavender! I'm sorry! Are you all right?"

She looked up at him, hiccuping between her sobs. "No, I'm not all right! Does it look like I'm all right!" she snapped.

Harry scrambled to her side. "Are you hurt? Do you need help? I can get you down to the hospital wing if you can't walk."

Lavender looked up, her face now a mess with running eye makeup. "No! I'm fine! I..." then she burst into sobs again.

Harry grabbed her shoulders gently. "Are you sure? Is there anything I can do?"

She shook her head morosely, still crying.

Harry took a clean handkerchief out of his robe and gently began wiping some of the mess off Lavender's face. "Lavender, what's wrong?"

Lavender pushed Harry's hand away and turned away from him. "Nothing...I..."

Harry grabbed her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. "You want to talk about it?" he murmured quietly.

"I've...oh, bugger...I've got to...get to a ladies' room...wash off..."

Harry sighed. "Not the one in the House?"

Lavender shook her head sorrowfully. "I don't want to go back in there...ever," she said, beginning to sob again. "Where's Parvati? I need Parvati," she cried.

"Shhhhhh," Harry said soothingly, continuing to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly like Tony and Mae Strowbridge would do for him when he was upset. "I saw Parvati with Padma. They were on their way to the Ravenclaw common room."

Lavender continued to sit on the floor, her legs splayed out under her robes. "I need Parvati. I..."

Harry lowered his head. "Maybe I can help," he said quietly. "Here, get up and we'll take a walk."

Lavender slowly took his hand as he helped her up. He grabbed her waist and began leading her down the corridor, past the stairwell entrance to a quiet corner. The two sat down on the pedestal where one of several statues of lions in the corridor stood.

"Now, what happened?" he asked quietly as he began to daub away more of the running makeup from her face.

"I...I...overheard that jerk Turley making fun of the way I look...I was going to get up and break his nose like Parvati did...but Cassie...Cassie stopped me," she said in heaving gasps.

Harry put his arm around her shoulder to reassure her. "Dan Turley is a prat of the first magnitude. You shouldn't pay any attention to what he says," he said quietly.

"No...you don't understand...It's not Turley...It's Cassie...and Sam," she blurted out between sobs.

Harry started. "Cassandra and Samantha?"

Lavender nodded vigorously, loosening strands of blond hair from the clip that was holding it back from her face.

"What did they do...or say?"

Lavender hung her head. "Cassie said...I wear too much eye makeup...I'm not subtle. And Sam said her brother hated Muggle girls who wore too much makeup."

Harry tightened his hold on her. "They were only trying to tell you that you don't need makeup," he said softly.

She looked up and gave him a glare. "What...you, too? You're going to make fun of me, too?"

"No!" he said firmly. "Do you have a mirror?"

She continued to give him a poisonous look. "Yeah?"

Harry nodded. "Take it out and look in it."

She reached into her robe and pulled out a compact.

"Tell me what you see?" he said softly.

"A mess," she said, bursting into a new round of tears.

Harry grabbed her wrist to keep her from bolting. "No. Look at your eyes."

She looked up at him and then back into the small mirror. "They're bloodshot."

Harry sighed in exasperation. "Okay, take away the red. What do you see?"

Lavender looked again. "I don't know...they're blue. So what?"

Harry closed his eyes. "They're cornflower blue. And very pretty. But you don't notice them with all the eye shadow and other dark stuff. I never noticed how pretty your eyes were until just now when I was wiping all the makeup off."

Lavender looked up at him in surprise. "You think I have pretty eyes?"

Harry gave her another exasperated look. "Of course. Now what do you want people to notice? Your pretty eyes, or your makeup?"

Lavender blinked rapidly. "Uhhh...my eyes."

Harry nodded.

Lavender looked down, pondering. "But...but this is how my sister and my cousins taught me to put on makeup," she said quietly. "I'm not sure...Teen Witch Weekly has these columns, but...I don't know. I just don't know the charms or...Parvati said she could get Muggle makeup for me, but...I don't know what to do."

Harry paused and pondered, struggling with a thought. "Uhhhh...maybe I can help you," he said quietly.

She jerked up her head in surprise and suspicion. "What do you know about makeup?"

Harry blinked at her, then smiled. "Oh, lots. I wear it all the time. But it's very subtle. You never noticed, right? Without it, I actually could pass as Vincent Crabbe's twin brother. But with a dab here and a daub there..."

Lavender burst into giggles. "No really, you're just teasing me."

Harry took a deep breath. "You promise not to tell anyone?"

Lavender smiled. "What, that you're Crabbe with a glamour charm?"

Harry smiled. "No. First you have to promise not to tell anyone...well, I suppose Parvati as long as you make her promise not to tell."

Lavender was now looking at him with real curiosity. "What am I promising?"

Harry widened his eyes in exasperation. "Promise me that if I give you something, you swear never to tell anyone where you got it."

Lavender gave Harry a sly look. "Depends on what you give me. If you give me a kiss, I may be forced to tell people where I got it from," she said, flirting outrageously.

Harry got up, looking down his nose in his best Snape impersonation. "Okay. If you don't want them," and slowly turned to walk away.

Lavender grabbed his robe and pulled him back, laughing. "Okay, okay. I promise."

Harry gave her a broad smile, then reddened s little. "Well, during the summer, I met this girl..."

Lavender's eyes widened. "It's true! I heard you had a Muggle girlfriend! Several, in fact! What's her name! What's she like!"

Harry threw up his hands. "Okay. I'm leaving."

Lavender gasped and grabbed his robe again. "Okay, I'm sorry. Tell me about this girl."

Harry got a sudden smirk. He remembered all the funny stories Peter Boyd used to tell him. He lowered his head. "Well, she was very beautiful. And we fell in love. And got married. And had a couple kids. But it didn't work out, so we split up. The divorce became final last week. But at least I get visitation rights to Congolia and Raul on Hogsmeade weekends."

Harry looked up to see Lavender staring at him, open-mouthed. Suddenly, she burst out laughing. "Harry! Where'd you come up with a story like that!" she exclaimed, practically falling off the pedestal.

Harry joined her laughter. "It's not original. A Muggle friend of mine was planning to break off his relationship with his girlfriend at his school. I asked him what he was going to tell her. And he told me he that story. I laughed so hard that my drink sprayed out of my nose."

Lavender continued to laugh and grabbed a hold of him to keep from falling out of her seat.

They sat there companionably for a few moments before Lavender looked up at him. "That's not really what you were going to tell me about, was it? You're not turning into another Seamus?"

Harry chuckled. "No. What I was saying is that I met this girl over the summer--an older girl--who decided to help me, well...to know how to act around girls. And she gave me all these Muggle girls' magazines to read to understand how girls think and what to do. But I was thinking. All these magazines have lots of stuff about makeup and how to wear it. I brought them along with me to study. But I didn't tell anyone. I'd never hear the end of it. You can borrow them if you like. They might help."

Lavender leaned back and looked at him. "You'd do that...for me?"

Harry shrugged. "Sure. Why not?" Then he turned to look at her with wide eyes. "Hey. You know what? There are a couple articles in those magazines that I wanted to show to Ron. You know, to encourage him with Parvati. But I couldn't figure out how to show them to him without him laughing at me. I'd never hear the end of it. But if you were to pass them along to him, maybe I could actually get him to read them without have to suffer a lot of abuse."

Lavender giggled. "What kind of magazines?"

Harry shrugged. "Well, about half of them are teen-type magazines, but there's some adult ones, too. And believe me, they're a lot more sophisticated than Witch Weekly. Really glamour oriented."

Lavender suddenly grabbed his arm and gave him a kiss. "Oh, Harry! You are the sweetest thing!"

Harry laughed and blushed. "Here's my handkerchief. Maybe you can clean off the rest of your face and we can go back and I can get them for you. And if anyone notices, just say we were working on some homework and I'm giving you some books and notes to help you."

Lavender quickly cleaned off as much of her running makeup as she could and jumped down from the pedestal. "I can show them to Parvati?"

Harry nodded. "As long as she doesn't say where you got them," he said with a smile. Then his face got more serious. "Oh, and try not to be mad at Cassandra and Samantha. I'm sure they were only trying to be helpful."

Lavender nodded. "I think you're right."

As the two walked back toward the common room, Lavender stopped. "Uhhh, Harry?"

Harry turned to her.

"Well..." she said shyly. "I think you're too good for Hermione. If things don't work out..."

Harry gave her a small smile. "Sure. It'll give me something to think about."

And once again, they walked arm and arm back to the common room. This time, nobody noticed.

* * *