Moments of "Time"

Tenth Story. 21^st Century Man.

You should be so happy, you should be so glad,

So why are you so lonely, you 21^st century man?

You stepped out of a dream believing everything was gone,

Return with what you've learnt, they'll kiss the ground you walk upon...

- Electric Light Orchestra, "21^st century man".

Justin stretched. Doing his Potions homework for so long made him stay in the library quite late, and the fact that Hermione wasn't there made it even worse. He looked around.

Aside from him and Madam Pince, the only other occupant of the library was a Ravenclaw girl whose name he kept forgetting. She had black hair and, however common they were, deep blue eyes... He rather liked such combinations, but never seriously thought of anyone else but Hermione.

"Margo... Mary... Oh, Morag!" he thought, trying to remember her name.

"Hey, Morag, you alright?" he asked. She was slumped across her table, her hands lying over the books and scrolls of parchments, both rolled and not. Apparently, she was doing homework as well, and it was History of Magic. It also seemed so that she fell asleep mid-sentence, for the writing cut off suddenly in the middle of a word.

She wrested herself out of the deep sleep that Justin just intruded upon, shrugged drowsily and started to pack up her books. Justin did the same to his, and, noticing that she still wasn't finished, quickly thought of helping her. After all she didn't seem to be awake enough to manage doing it herself, and Madam Pince surely wouldn't help anybody. Ever. Especially if they were prone to fall asleep in her library.

"Need help?" he asked quietly as he stood behind her. She turned around.

*****

There were three things Justin never understood about her.

One. Why was she so shy? And with a face like that!

Second. Why did Nature choose to give the gift of Really Unreal Beauty to such a shy girl?

Third. Why nobody before this had taken her as a girlfriend? Why? Otherwise Justin wouldn't be standing there like an idiot and staring her in the face...

*****

"Yes..." she replied shyly. As she timidly said it, Justin started to arrange her books so that she could easily put them into her bag. Once they were done, she muttered an ever more shy and quiet "Thank you..." and left before he could say anything.

"Oh, fool, what have you put yourself into?" Justin asked of himself in his thoughts.

Unfortunately, nobody answered.

*****

The next day went by in a whirl of emotions and feelings that Justin could not quite explain.

On one side, he felt bad for thinking of someone else other than Hermione, and kept telling himself off for thinking whatever he thought about Morag back then, in the library, when he stood and stared. On the other, he blamed himself for swooning over a dream never to come true and missing such an opportunity...

Apparently, the second half of his mind was either stronger or simply represented the bigger part of said mind, for after his lessons, he found Morag in the hallway again.

"Oh, it's you again..." she muttered. He had to strain his ears to hear her, and noted that her voice had a strange melody to it. It was almost otherworldly. And he felt that, however odd it was, it was also appealing somehow.

"Yes... Listen... Morag..." he stammered, searching desperately for words, "I... er... Hey, is that Ancient Runes you have there?" he asked suddenly, seeing that she had accidentally let a book fall out of her bag.

"Yes, seems so!" she replied, laughter in her voice. Somehow it made her even more otherworldly in Justin's eyes. He bent down, hoping to pick up the book and find something to say in the process.

Apparently, she also wanted to do the same, for their heads collided painfully when both reached for the Ancient Runes text.

"Ouch!" they both exclaimed in unison, straightening out at once and even rubbing the injured areas of their heads in synchronous movements. And they laughed out at this, also at once.

*****

Hermione did not even notice this, but she had lost one of her more constant and vigilant fans - Justin Finch-Fletchley, for he now was under the magic of Morag McDougal.

As he found out in the next week, she was shy only because of one thing - she was indeed Muggle-born, although not as good at class as Hermione to prove that she is worth something. By the sixth year, it got so discouraging that she almost became a piece of furniture in the Ravenclaw area of the castle...

*****

"There's one thing I like about you, Morag..." Justin said thoughtfully, but was interrupted with a decisive wave of Morag's hands.

"Only one?" she asked in surprise. They were lying on a hill on the school grounds, and the air of Spring was surrounding them from all sides. He had his arm on her shoulders, and she leaned her head onto his shoulder. They were both looking into the deep blue sky above them... Though Justin considered its colour not to be as deeply blue as the eyes of his beloved.

"Well, make that one thing I like most..." he corrected himself, "Know what it is?" he asked mischievously.

"How should I? You're the one loving me, not me..." she replied with a giggle.

"Oh, right. I like that you're mine... And no-one else's!" he replied as he kissed her.

"I like that too," she replied merrily, returning the kiss.

*****

...Until a certain someone ran into her in the library. One thing changed in her life - she now had someone to whom she was not an average Ravenclaw student (and being average meant being outcast for Ravenclaws), but the sole point of his life, as it seemed.

And she did not mind it at all... Neither did he.