Five Days

Chapter Three

Day Four - consolidating the friendship

Now you're all wondering: What happened to day three? And I answer: it was the worst day I could have experienced, ever.

It started when I woke up and tripped on my bed covers and it went downhill from there.

I took such a long shower that I missed breakfast and had to run not to miss my first class, Charms. We were learning the summoning spell, and some funny git decided to summon me, which made me fly through the classroom to land on a Slytherin boy.

Then I saw Harry in the break between classes and he waved at me. Now I wish he hadn't, for the memory of him smiling and waving at me from the distance took away my concentration and made me accidentally transfigure Colin's hair into feathers. From my point of view it was brilliant, for we had never managed to transfigure human hair into anything before, but Professor McGonagall didn't see my point and gave me detention.

At lunchtime, I didn't see Harry anywhere, but Ron and Hermione were there, and they didn't have any argument - instead, they spent the entire time holding hands beneath the table, or playing footsie. It would have worked fine if they hadn't been sitting in front of each other, and me beside Hermione. To have Ron touching my leg with his foot is not a pleasant memory.

In the afternoon, Double Potions. Although Snape is not so unpleasant around us as he is around Harry, he doesn't like Colin very much because the boy has a picture of him itching his large nose that is very funny. But apparently, Snape didn't find it funny at all and now is trying to hurt Colin with psychological torture - which, may I say, is working.

But Colin is always sitting beside me, and he is my partner in Potions, so Snape's torture backfires on me sometimes, and lately we hadn't managed even one potion right.

I missed dinner comforting Colin down in the dungeons, where he was too petrified to even walk, so later I went straight to my detention.

I can say now from experience that I never ever want to be a house elf. Cleaning a bathroom is one of the worst things ever, especially with Peeves singing dirty songs about redheads.

So I was feeling terrible, thinking nothing could go worse, when I entered the common room to find Harry cornered by some fifth year girls who were demanding to know if there was anything between him and Cho.

He was so uncomfortable I pitied him. His mouth was opening and closing, but no sound was coming from it, and every once in a while he mumbled something incoherent that no one could hear, until he finally muttered, "No... nothing."

The entire common room was watching him, then he spoke more clearly, "Nothing's going on between me and Cho."

"But is there a chance of you becoming a couple?" one of the girls asked.

"Yes, is there? 'Cause we've heard you invited her to the Yule Ball last year..." another one continued.

I could see his eyes searching everywhere for help. Colin was taking pictures of the awkward scene and Ron and Hermione were in one of their studying activities somewhere in the castle, far from the common room. I could not even ask for help from Fred and George, for I had seen them both serving detention with Filch.

I cursed Ron for leaving his best friend alone at a crucial time like this, but I knew it wasn't his fault. But anyway, thinking of Ron gave me the craziest idea. I decided to take it at that exact moment.

I screamed as loud as I could until I sensed every pair of eyes in the room staring at me. Then I muttered, "I think I saw an aramantula."

The room went insane. Everyone went running to their respective dormitories and in five minutes there was no one there except for me and Harry. His face was flushed and he was breathing heavily like he had run a thousand miles.

I didn't want to hear anything from him; the thought of him with Cho Chang was too much for me to bear, so I ran to my dormitory as fast as I could, to the safety of my bed.

Where I still am. It's Saturday, anyway, so there's nothing for me to do out there.

Nothing, if you forget the fact that I lost an entire day yesterday and tomorrow I reach my deadline. Tomorrow is the day that I tell Harry what I feel, or let go for good.

The idea of letting go never seemed so tempting. I keep remembering Cho and her smile, Cho and her friends, Cho and her charm, Cho and... the way Harry looks at Cho.

So, he's fifteen, his hormones must be bursting inside of him all the time and he's probably looking at every girl like she is a possibility.

Every girl but me.

He still looks at me like I am his best friend's little sister. The stupid girl he had to save four years ago.

And although he is always so kind, I know it is because he is too polite to be anything else.

Stop the countdown, I said to myself while taking a shower.

It's the best thing you could do, I kept repeating to myself while I changed into my robes. Let go of this ridiculous idea of telling him how you feel.

It's not like he would ever love you back.

This sentence hit me. I can be so harsh to myself when I want to.

But then I returned to the common room to find him there, smiling at Ron and then walking straight toward me, looking more nervous the closer he got.

"Hello, Ginny," he said without looking me in the eye. What was going on?

"We were worried. You missed lunch already."

I wish I had missed the entire day, I thought to myself while I watched him standing in front of me, keeping a safe distance while burying his hands in his pockets.

But then again, he was so beautiful my heart seemed to shrink. I couldn't look at him anymore, so my eyes went to the floor and I could feel my face burning.

"Are you hungry?" His voice startled me, and I jumped at his question.

"A little bit." My voice was as squeaky as Hermione's had been that day in the Burrow.

"Do you want to get some food?" he asked, now watching me attentively.

I nodded, not understanding what his point was, but he told me to follow him and I did, so soon we were walking down the stairs side by side, while he told me how Hermione had found the way to the kitchen when she was trying to get the elves to fight for their rights.

Some minutes later we were inside the kitchen (please, don't ever ask me to make my way there by myself, for Harry had smiled, and had talked and had been there... so I didn't notice anything else) where a bunch of elves came running to ask what they could get for us.

I saw Harry talking enthusiastically to a particularly strange elf he called Dobby before turning to me and asking what I wanted.

There in the kitchens, with his face flushed and his concerned look, I just wanted to kiss him. But my dreams were quickly vanished by a couple of elves who giggled behind me, waking me up.

I looked at them and they whispered so only I could hear: "May we suggest a picnic by the lake, Miss?"

My eyes were opened wide and as I watched in terror, they ran to the other side of the kitchen without even waiting for an answer.

Harry was deep in conversation with Dobby, and I didn't even realize Dobby was talking when he turned to me: "Sister of Mr. Weezly, it's a pleasure to meet you, the sister of such a good and magnanimous wizard..."

I felt my face contort in disgust while he bowed before me. Was he actually talking about my brother? I could think of a number of things to describe Ron, but 'magnanimous' would never be one of them.

But then I saw the elf was wearing a sweater like the ones my mother would always send Ron on Christmas and I understood everything.

Soon the elves came running back to us, and put a large basket in Harry's hands. "Have a good picnic, sir," they said while bowing repeatedly.

"A picnic?" Harry asked, looking at the basket, but then he smiled and looked at me. "Great idea, Gin!"

I smiled back at him while he turned to leave, fortunately never seeing all those elves winking at me with wicked smiles on their faces.

I just kept smiling 'til we were out of the kitchens, and I realized he was actually going outside to have a picnic with me.

I love house elves.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Tell Dobby I will happily give him the sweater I will get for Christmas," I said, watching him bite into one of the sandwiches the elves had sent us.

"You can't imagine how thankful he would be," he laughed, assuming a different expression and then imitating Dobby's voice and manners, "Oh, Miss is the most magnanimous witch Dobby ever met..."

It was a perfect impersonation of the elf, and I couldn't help but laugh quietly while taking a sip of my pumpkin juice. But then he was serious again and whispered my name. He coughed and then said:

"I want to thank you for saving me yesterday."

My face went red and I told him to forget it.

"No, really. Last night, the girls decided to joke around with the tarot cards and they decided to read it to everyone in the room, and that blasted Lovers card appeared to me again," his face was flushed, and he seemed very upset. "So they kept insisting on me telling them if I was in love with anyone and... well, someone remembered..."

"Cho Chang," I completed for him, feeling very embarrassed myself.

"Yes," he whispered, taking a sip of his juice.

"These things happen..." I tried to comfort him, as he seemed very upset.

"I don't think that's the kind of joke you play on anyone, you know?" He sighed as if he was finally letting go of that. "It's not just embarrassing, it's... humiliating. No one deserves that."

"Maybe they do," I tried to cheer him up, smiling.

And then he smiled back, nodding. "Yes," he cheered, "let them taste a bit of their own poison."

So we stayed several minutes just paying a lot of attention to the basket of food beside us, not knowing what to say. My heart was hurting a bit. That was why he had wanted to go to the kitchen with me: to thank me.

"You didn't need to... you know," I started, not sure of what to say. "You don't have to stay here just because you're thankful..."

"Oh, no, that's not it, Ginny," he interrupted me, shaking his head vehemently. "I'm not here with you just because I'm thankful, I'm here because I like being here with you. Really."

"Thanks, Harry." He was so lovely. "But if you want to go to your friends you can, you know..."

"No," he said, smiling. "Today I decided to give Ron the day off... You know, he and Hermione have a lot of studying to do..." His tone was hilarious. "And the boys are so... How can I explain?" he continued, now thinking of how he could say it. "It's like Seamus once said, until last year, there was no girl at all, and then all of a sudden, they're everywhere. So Seamus and the others are everywhere too, trying to meet the girls and... that's not me."

He seemed so embarrassed I had to joke with him: "Because you don't like girls."

He laughed, forgetting his embarrassment for a while, "No, I like girls. I do like girls, it's just... I'm not good at this."

"Maybe you just need practice... like Seamus. He's practising, right?"

Harry laughed even more and finally looked at me and said, "That's why it's so nice being with you, Ginny. We can talk, you know?"

"Yes," I said, my face flushed now, "talking is good."

Oh, no. Not again.

"Just like friends," he teased.

I was so embarrassed I rushed through the words, "Yes, and when we're talking to friends, it's like..."

"Very good," he finished my sentence, and we both laughed.

"Do you know I actually have a brain?" I said, praying for the earth to swallow me right there.

"I know," he answered, gazing at the ground as if he was too embarrassed to admit it.

But even still, I couldn't have been happier. The Heaven and Hell feeling was there, but it had much more Heaven than I've ever experienced.

And it was enough so far.