Something About Harry: The Lilia Watt Files

I woke up the next morning, sunlight streaming through the curtains of my four-poster. The room was quiet, and I was a bit disoriented. Then it all came flooding back...the dance...the kiss...Ginny shouting with tears in her eyes. I sighed and flopped back onto my pillow, looking up into the canopy. I could hardly bear to think of what I might face if I went downstairs.

But the common room was empty again. Must be a Hogsmeade trip, I thought. I sat down heavily in a chair.

"Hello," someone said.

I jumped and looked over. "You scared me, Harry." He was sitting sullenly on the small couch in front of the fire, his face in his hands.

"Why'd you stay behind?" I asked.

"Why d'you think?" he said sarcastically.

"I don't see how any of this has affected you," I replied, a little coldly.

"Ron hates me," he answered. "Because of Ginny. Fred and George are a bit miffed as well, and now everyone thinks I'm some kind of playboy or something."

"I've no best friend as well, I'm still glowing," I stood up and held out my hand, "and I'm horrible at magic. Are we even?"

He sighed and looked out the window. "I didn't mean to answer you like that. It just seems like before, I had friends but I didn't have you. But now that I have you, I've no friends. It's almost like...we're not supposed to be together."

I shook my head to clear my mind. "Harry, the only way we can get through this is together. If I didn't have you, I'd have...nothing."

He stood up too, and hugged me. "You're right." But something wasn't right, not right at all...

The weeks following Christmas Break stand out very prominently in my memory. Though painful, they were my last moments of ignorance.

"Hey, glow worm, why don't you light up the corridors for us?"

I rolled my eyes. I had gotten worse comments before the...erm -- incident. "Is that all you can come up with, Quinn?" I could hear remarks from Malfoy directed at Harry through the crowd, and the snickers of derision, and I couldn't help but feel that this was somehow entirely my fault.

I stumbled gracefully into Snape's class late, held back by the jostling people. "Miss Watt, you foolish girl, this is the fourth time this week you have been late for my class. Any more tardiness from you, and I shall notify your head of house -"

"But--" I protested.

"Sit down, Watt."

I closed my mouth and went immediately to work, as I seemed to do when I was upset. Even still, it was difficult not to let my mind wander, and the weight that had settled heavily on my chest begged to be lifted. Harry's comment earlier had almost seemed correct; everything was going against us.

"Miss Watt!" barked Snape.

I jerked my head up, my heart sinking. I'd done it again...

"Please kindly tell the class the name of the potion we've just been discussing." He stared at me, as did all the other eyes in the room.

"Er..." My brain wildly searched for something, anything... "Veritaserum?" I guessed.

Snape seemed startled. "That is...correct," he answered, sounding slightly bewildered, and continued the lesson.

I couldn't believe it either. The world certainly is a twisted place. Let what happened next attest to that...

I walked alone to lunch, watching my feet. A pair of hands pushed me roughly into an empty classroom, and I heard the door shut behind us.

"Harry, why - wha - what's going on?"

"I don't want the whole world around," he said. There was no warmth in his voice. "Lilia, I can't do this anymore."

I knew it was coming...and now there was nothing I could do about it...

"Harry, I -"

"Haven't you noticed?" he said, pacing around the vacant desks. "Ever since you came along, things I consider important lay in ruins...it can hardly be a coincidence."

In my pain, I lashed back. I wouldn't let him blame all of this on me. "Ever since I came along? You've hardly been my good-luck charm yourself! I was already infamous enough before all of this..." I began to shiver.

He threw his hands up in the air in exasperation, and let out a great angry sigh. "Go ahead, Lilia, turn on the tears. Turn on the charm. That's all you're good for, is it? Pretend to be helpless, and unsuspecting Harry will be there!"

It was at this point that my pain turned into anger. "Ugh! I love you so much I hate you sometimes, Harry! I never wanted your help in the first place, if you remember correctly. I could have gotten through it on my own, so don't you dare heap all of the blame on me, Mr. Potter!" I stormed out of the classroom, and as he followed me, determined to have the last word, I gave him a sharp whack in the chest with my fist for good measure.