Hey Jealousy

"Knight to E-7."

Harry glowered at the chessboard. He had thought this time he might just win, but Ron's move had blocked his bishop's path to put Ron's king in check. And he couldn't see a way past it.

It didn't help that Ron was giving him "the look."

That look meant only one thing. Harry had already lost, he just didn't know it yet. All that was left now was to go through the motions. Sighing resignedly, Harry instructed his bishop to take out Ron's knight. The bishop cast him a small glare before carrying out the order, and Harry could have sworn he heard him mutter something about Harry being "bloody thick."

As the pieces from the crumbled knight were removed from the board, Harry heard a familiar voice behind him. And just what do you two think you're doing?"

"We're pruning rosebushes. What's it look like we're doing?" Ron replied dryly.

Readjusting her stack of books to assume a better glaring stance, Hermione said, "Honestly, Ron! How do you expect to get a decent number of O.W.L.s when you're wasting valuable study time?"

Ron opened his mouth to issue the usual protest (the O.W.L.s were 5 months away, after all), but before he could utter a word, there was a sudden commotion of people coming down the stairs from the boys' dormitory.

Colin Creevey came barreling into the common room as if he were being chased by a rogue bludger. But when Harry saw who was really chasing him, he realized Colin might have been better off if it really was a bludger.

"C'mon, Colin!" Fred said in an all-too-friendly voice. "This is for posterity! Don't you want to do your duty as a brave and noble Gryffindor?"

Fred and George were, undoubtedly, trying to get Colin to be their newest guinea pig. After a toad taffy backfired on Neville and he was forced to eat nothing but flies for a week, he refused to accept anything the twins innocently (or not so innocently) handed him.

"Yes," George piped in. "Be brave, like your hero. Would Harry Potter ever back down from a challenge?"

Harry made a mental note to raid George's "secret" stash of chocolate frogs.

At the mention of Harry's name, Colin instantly searched the common room for his aforementioned hero. But this momentary distraction was all the twins needed. Muttering, "Get him!" George and Fred quickly rounded each side of the table that was separating them from Colin. Before he could make a move, George hoisted Colin into the air, while Fred tried to pry his mouth open and force-feed him their newest creation. After shoving something into his mouth, the boys stopped squirming and watched for the results with baited breath.

After a few moments of suspenseful silence, Colin's face began to redden. At first Harry thought he was simply embarrassed by being so closely scrutinized by everyone in the common room, but as the color started to deepen to the shade of a boiled lobster, Harry realized what was happening. Colin's face turned from red, to purple, to a pale blue.

"Needs a touch more moloch root. The blue's not quite deep enough," George said before dropping Colin quite unceremoniously to his feet. As the twins walked off debating how best to tweak their newest "product," Harry noticed Colin had turned a touch green.

Hermione rolled her eyes and sighed melodramatically. "I swear, if those two put half as much time into their studies as they do into their pranks, they'd be earning more N.E.W.T.s than they could count."

For once, Ron agreed. "They're taking their jokes entirely too seriously," he nodded.

Harry was only too happy that the twins' diversion had distracted his two best friends from their impending row. And he was quite sure the rest of the nearby Gryffindors agreed. Just the other day he had overheard Dean and Seamus plotting to body bind them both and toss them into the closet if one of the pair's noisy rows interrupted another nap. Quite honestly, Harry figured that if he could find a way to keep them from squabbling for so much as a week, he'd be the hero of Hogwarts. "Well, more so than I already am," he thought, with a glance towards Colin's now lemon-yellow face.

After he and Ron had cleared the chessboard, the trio headed down to the Great Hall for dinner. Halfway through his rant about the Chudley Cannon's latest losing streak, Ron paused. Leaning across the table towards Harry, he whispered, "Don't look now, but I think you've got a new Ravenclaw admirer."

Harry turned, hoping to see Cho Chang gazing back at him. Instead, he spotted a pretty blond girl he didn't know. "Who is she?" he asked Ron, turning back to face him.

The redhead shrugged. "Don't know. She looks familiar, though."

"Yes," mumbled Hermione thoughtfully. "Perhaps we've seen her in the halls."

At the sound of giggling, Ron cast another glance behind Harry. "Uh, oh." Ron rolled his eyes. "I think she's headed over here, Harry."

Without turning around to look behind him, Harry unconsciously ran a hand through his unruly hair, pushing it off of his forehead. He thought he heard Ron mutter, "Yes, give here a clear view of that scar," but it was difficult to tell with and entire pumpkin pasty in his mouth.

Harry felt his palms get sweaty as he quickly smoothed his hair back down over his forehead. "Funny," he thought, "I've only been this nervous before when I talked to Cho."

Just then, Harry heard a voice behind him. "Hello," the girl said rather shyly. "You're Ron, right? Ron Weasley?"

At the mention of his name, Ron's head snapped up, and he froze, his mouth quite full. Glancing from the girl to Harry, his eyes wide and confused, he seemed to be asking, "Is she talking to me?"

Harry gave a small shrug and nodded his head, indicating that Ron should answer here.

Looking back up to the girl, Ron nodded his head in affirmation before swallowing (with some difficulty) the mass of dessert in his mouth. "Y-yes. And you know my friend, Harry Potter?" Ron emphasized the name. He seemed quite convinced that the girl was really there to talk to Harry.

The girl, however, seemed completely undeterred by this odd exchange. Flashing a brief smile at Harry and a quick, "Hello," she turned her attention back to Ron. "My name's Natalie. Natalie O'Connor." At this another fit of giggles erupted from the Ravenclaws. Harry noticed Hermione shot them a glare from her seat beside Ron. Hermione, he noticed, did not look at all pleased by this discussion.

"I seem to be having trouble with my divination assignment," Natalie continued shyly, "and I heard you were quite good at it."

"Well, uh, I really just make things up. Trelawney gives good marks to students who predict their own deaths, so, uh..." Ron still seemed a bit bewildered by this conversation. "I don't really know what I'm doing, either."

Harry had enough sense to kick Ron under the table before he could say anything else that was stupid. Ron clearly had no idea that Natalie wanted to ask him for a study date.

Luckily, Natalie simply giggled, earning an icy glare from Hermione. "Well," she said, "and help would do wonders. I'm really struggling. Would you like to meet in the library after class and help me?"

If at all possible, Ron seemed even more baffled than before. "Uh, er... well, I..."

Harry decided to interrupt his incomprehensible babbling. "He'd love to."

Natalie giggled again. "Great! I'll see you then, Ron." After that, she returned to the Ravenclaw table, long blond curls bouncing all the way.

For a few silent moments, Hermione scowled after her, Harry tried desperately to hide his smirk, and Ron simply stared into space blankly. Finally, Hermione broke the silence. Standing abruptly, she announced, "I'm going upstairs." And with a deadly glance at Ron, "I've suddenly lost my appetite."

Her absence seemed to snap Ron out of whatever trance he was in. With still glassy eyes, he turned to his best friend. "Harry," he muttered, "what just happened?"