Eternal Patience

Festival of Romance

(A/N: Again, I've already written this TLSQ from Sarah's POV in my story "Romance Festival - Hogwarts Mystery" so I'll try to keep it short here. Only a few more chapters and this story will be done!)

"No, thank you," said Barnaby to the hundredth person that week. "Sorry, it's not that I don't like you," he said to the caramel skinned, curly haired Ravenclaw that he was pretty sure he'd never seen before. "It's just that I'm probably not even going to the festival. I'm really busy studying for exams and everything."

Barnaby left the crestfallen girl and headed to the sanctuary of the library. He found Rowan at their usual table and plopped down in front of her. "I think this is the first time I've been happy to study."

"Still getting asked out by every person that looks at you?" she asked. 

"Yeah! I don't get it, half the people that have asked me are the people that call me 'Troll' or 'Death Eater' all the time."

Rowan shrugged. "Love is strange, I guess." Barnaby caught her biting back a smile. 

"You're in a good mood," he said. He hadn't seen Rowan looks this pleased all year. "Excited for a Saturday to study together without distractions while everyone else is out having fun at the festival?"

Rowan had forbid him from attending, telling him he'd already lost too many precious study hours on "frivolous activity."

"Yes, about that..." she said. "I may have been too hasty on that decision. I think it would be alright if you wanted to go to the festival."

"Why?"

"I'm going!" said Rowan, nearly forgetting to whisper in her glee. "I've got a date and everything!" 

"Nice, who?"

Rowan blushed. "I can't tell you, because I'm refusing to tell Sarah and I know you can't keep a secret."

"Um, okay. Why won't you tell Sarah?"

"I suppose you heard that Sarah doesn't want to go?" 

"Yes," he said miserably. 

It had been a rough week for Barnaby. He'd wanted to ask Sarah to the festival as soon as it had been announced, but he'd been bombarded by invitations from other people. He'd tried to ask her in potions class, but she'd been distracted by a gobstone someone had left her with a note asking her out. Barnaby cursed himself after he'd pointed it out to her. Then, he heard that Sarah didn't want a date, so she probably wasn't going to the festival at all. 

"Well, we're all trying to convince her to go. I told her I wouldn't tell her who my date was, she'd have to come the festival to see them for herself," said Rowan. 

"Hmm," said Barnaby. "Did she ever figure out who sent her that gobstone?"

"No, but she's on the lookout," said Rowan. "She's going to the Three Broomsticks this afternoon to see if she can find them."

"Why?" he blurted, earning a "SHHHH!" from Madam Pince. "I thought she didn't want to go."

"She didn't, because she didn't want to be the only with a date. But now, most of us have dates."

"And she's going to go with this secret admirer person?"

"Maybe," said Rowan. "If she can't find someone else to go with."

Barnaby stood. "I fancy a butterbeer."

Rowan nodded. "I figured as much. Oh, by the way, there's another reason I think you'll be okay to miss one day of studying."

"What's that?"

Grinning, she reached into her bag and pulled out his latest practice exam that she'd graded the night before. Again, he'd barely managed to procure As in every subject, but this time there was a large E written next to his Transfiguration score.