There's Something About Mary

There's something about Mary

Chapter six

The sun was bright, causing Mary to shield her eyes with her hand. She sat up from her bed, and, with her hair ratted all around in every which way, sat on the edge of her bed. She looked down at her clothes, and noticed she still wore her clothes from the night before.

She stood up and slumped out her bedroom. She stumbled into the bathroom, and almost shrieked aloud when she saw her hair. She grabbed her brush and began brushing, wanting above all else to get her hair not to be frayed.

She sighed ten minutes later. Her hair finally tamed, she walked out of the bathroom and into her room. It took one full bottle of hair spray, two tubes of gel, and at least two gallons of water to get her hair to finally be straight, just the way she liked it. She would've used her wand, but it was still in her room.

She quickly changed from her shopping clothes to something more decent: her everyday clothes.

She patted her owl on the head, waking her by accident. "Go back to sleep, Destiny," she whispered. The owl quickly obeyed, and Mary walked out of the room, her hair a stiff wreck.

A sudden burst of laughter by more than her mother, brother, and granddad caused her to stop midway down the stairs.

"Oh, Harry, you're so funny," her mother said. "I wonder, what did Ron do then?"

"Well, Hermione's cat then jumped at him, and he yelled at it," Harry said, his voice carrying up to where Mary stood. "He yelled so loud, I wouldn't have been surprised if the whole castle heard him. Of course, it wasn't funny then, it was pretty scary. Hermione got the weirdest cat. At times, we didn't even think it was a cat. But, now that he's got old and tired and lazy, we laugh at his past younger years. Even if they were painful."

They laughed a little bit at that. Mary took a step down. She decided she would apologize to Harry and ask him to dinner just because of her rudeness last night. She took a deep breath and...

Mr. Lenerd looked towards the stairs as he heard heavy footsteps rushing upstairs and into Mary's room. Why won't she come down? he thought.

Mary paced her room, mumbling to herself.

"Harry," she said, "I'm sorry about last night. To make it up to you, I want to take you to dinner."

Then, she said, trying to sound like Harry the best she could, "Well, I don't think I want to go with you. You blew me off, and I didn't even know about it!"

In her normal voice: "I'm so sorry about that, Harry. I had something to take care of."

"What?"

"What does it matter?"

She stopped pacing, looking at her owl, who woke up and was watching her. Mary shook her head. "Doesn't work, does it?"

Destiny hooted, and shook her head, sort of. Unless she was just trying to look somewhere else, not wanting to be under Mary's gaze.

Mary sighed. "Okay, how about this." She cleared her throat. "Harry, I'm really sorry about last night. Can you ever forgive me?"

"How can I? You ran off last night. It doesn't take too long to throw away your ice cream, does it?"

"I got lost."

"Are you sure? If you went to Hogwarts, then you shouldn't have got lost."

"I didn't go to Hogwarts."

"Well, that adds another lie to your list!" Mary said, almost a little too loud for her liking. She gasped and turned around, hoping beyond all hope no one was outside her door, listening in on her.

She turned back around and faced Destiny, who was sleeping soundly, noisily snoring with hoots.

Mary growled at the stupid bird. She never listens to Mary when Mary needs her most!

Mary sighed, and decided to go with the first one. Hopefully, Harry won't take the conversation she thought it would go. She stood up straight, brushing her robes, and smoothed her hair, which was starting to come apart in some places. She sighed in frustration and grabbed her wand, pointing it at her hair. She muttered a hair cleaning charm, then straightened it better than before. She held her chin high, and walked to the door. She grasped the knob, turned, and...

I can't do it!

She let go of the knob as if it burnt her. She walked back to where she stood before, and began pacing again. What would she tell Harry? What if he did take the conversation where she thought it would go?

Ha! Bad chance; she never was good at predicting the future. She stopped abrubtly in front of the door, and decided she would do it. She wasn't the only female who works for Draco because of nothing!

She walked up to the door, reached for it and...

Knock, knock, knock...

Mary stopped dead in her tracks. She tried to ask who it was, but her voice was stuck in her throat. She was frozen.

Knock, knock..."Mary? You in there?"

Mary gasped. Harry!

Mary backed from the door. "Uh, yeah!" she called, her voice coming back. "Just a second, Harry!"

She stood, looking at the doorknob, shivering, thinking it was going to bite her if she stood too close to it. Well, if that was the case...

"C-come in, Harry," she said.

Harry opened the door slowly and poked his head in. Once he saw her, he smiled. He opened the door all the way, and placed four bags on the floor. Mary looked at them. It was her shopping from the night before.

"I got more downstairs," Harry said. "Help me?"

Mary looked back up at him. She smiled and nodded.

Ten minutes later, Mary and Harry sat in her room, Mary sitting on her bed, watching Harry, who was petting her owl. She had to rest her arms. She had no idea she bought so much stuff!

Harry looked at the closed door, put his hands in his pocket, and looked down at his shoes. He let out a short, quiet laugh, and then looked back at Mary.

"Where'd you go?" he asked.

Mary's face fell. She knew this would come, any minute. She licked her lips, her mouth open, her looking for something to say. She decided to go with the sick excuse.

"I was sick," she said. "I wasn't feeling very well."

Harry nodded. "I wish you would've told me. Then we wouldn't have to do so much work this morning."

Mary nodded. "I'm sorry, Harry."

"It's okay," he said, smiling. He sat next to her on her bed. "Listen, you don't have to lie to me. I know why you left last night."

Mary's breath was caught in her throat. "Really? And, what would that be?"

Harry smiled. "You can't hide the fact that you felt uncomfortable around Hermione. You should've told me that you wanted to leave, not ditch me."

Mary smiled and chuckled with relief. If that's what he thought, so be it. "I'm sorry. I wish I would've thought to tell you." She looked at her bird.

Harry put his arm around her shoulders. "We're past that, right? If you don't like Hermione, I promise you won't have to speak to her. You may have to see her, but-"

"Why?" Mary asked, looking up at him quickly. Truth was, she really didn't like Hermione at all; such a jealous girl, too uptight.

Harry shrugged. "I've got an engagement party I have to go to, and I wanted to know if you wanted to come as well?"

Mary stared at him open mouthed. An engagement party? What was that?

"My friend, Ginny, is having a party to celebrate her getting married to my other friend, Neville," Harry explained. He shrugged one shoulder. "I gave her the idea, thought it be fun. Wanna go?"

Mary smiled and nodded. "Sure, why not?" Why not indeed.

"Well," Harry said, standing up. "I guess I better go. Got work to do."

"What work?" Mary asked, standing up as well.

"I help out with the twins every now and then. Nothing huge. Don't get paid."

Mary shook her head. "What a pity."

Harry smiled and made his way to the door. Now, Mary, this is your chance, ask him to dinner! Now!

"Harry," she said. Harry turned to look at her. The way he looked, she couldn't get it out. He gave her an eager look, like he was waiting for her to say something. He smiled at her. Mary shook her head. She couldn't do it, she didn't know why she was so nervous. Of course he would agree to it... "When's the party?"

Harry's face fell a bit. He shrugged. "Haven't planned that out yet. Don't worry. It'll be before you go home," he added when Mary opened her mouth.

Mary nodded and watched him leave. After he left, she walked to her muggle stereo, and pushed play on her CD player. She skipped the songs until she came to number nine. As soon as the music started playing, she blasted the music.

Good morning day

Sorry I'm not there

But all my favorite friends

Vanished...in thin air

It's hard to fly when you can't even run

Once I had the world, now I've got no one

---

Harry began nodding his head to the song he heard coming from Mary's room as he walked down the stairs.

If I needed someone to control me

If I needed someone to hold me down

I would change my direction

And save myself before I...

If I needed someone to control me

If I needed someone to push me around

I would change my direction

And save myself before I...drown

He wondered what band this was; they were very good, he had to admit. He hadn't heard any wizarding band play a song like this, or sound like this, so he assumed it was a muggle band.

He nodded at Julie, Judis, and Mr. Lenerd, and walked out as he heard the last verse.

Good morning day

Sorry you're not here

But all those times before

Were never this unclear

It's hard to walk when you can't even crawl

Once I had this world, but now I've lost it all