SuperPotterLock - The Order of the Phoenix

Seen and Unforeseen

Dean was delighted when Cas appeared for dinner on the Monday night after their Valentine's Day date. Despite his fear of leaving the castle, he'd dealt with it remarkably well so far. He looked uncomfortable, and didn't eat much, but he smiled at Dean and held his hand under the table.

'Oh, I forgot to ask you,' Hermione said to Harry, glancing over at the Ravenclaw table, 'what happened on your date with Cho? How come you were back so early?'

'Er... well, it was a complete fiasco, now that you mention it.'

'Oh no, what happened?'

'Well, I told her that you wanted me to meet you at the Three Broomsticks and that it didn't matter if she came too, but then she started going on about Roger Davies asking her out, then she started talking about Cedric. She asked if he mentioned her before he died.'

Dean cringed.

'She started crying again, and shouting about how I obviously wanted to see you more than me. So then she jumps up, right, and says, "I'll see you around, Harry", and runs out of the place! I mean, what was all that about?'

Dean bit his lip, holding back his amusement.

'Oh, Harry,' Hermione said sadly. 'Well, I'm sorry, but you were a bit tactless.'

'Me, tactless?' said Harry, outraged. 'One minute we were getting on fine, next minute she was telling me how she used to go and snog Cedric in that stupid teashop-'

'Kinda feel like we missed out on a show,' Dean muttered in Cas's ear, who pressed his lips tightly together. 'Maybe we should have gone to the teashop after all.'

'- How was I supposed to feel about that?' Harry continued.

'Well, you see, you shouldn't have told her that you wanted to meet me halfway through your date.'

'But - but -' spluttered Harry, 'but - you told me to meet you at twelve and to bring her along, how was I supposed to do that without telling her?'

'You should have told her differently,' said Hermione. 'You should have said it was really annoying, but I'd made you promise to come along to the Three Broomsticks, and you really didn't want to go, you'd much rather spend the whole day with her, but unfortunately you thought you really ought to meet me and would she please, please come along with you and hopefully you'd get away more quickly. And it might have been a good idea to mention how ugly you think I am, too,' Hermione added as an afterthought.

'But I don't think you're ugly,' said Harry, bemused.

Hermione laughed.

'Harry, you're worse than Ron... well, no you're not,' she sighed, as Ron himself came stumping into the Hall, splattered with mud, looking grumpy, and followed in by equally muddy and disgruntled Ginny and John. 'Look - you upset Cho when you said you were going to meet me, so she tried to make you jealous. It was her way of trying to find out how much you liked her.'

'Is that what she was doing?' said Harry, as Ron, John and Ginny dropped onto the bench opposite them and started grabbing any food they could get their hands on. 'Well, wouldn't it have been easier if she'd just asked me whether I liked her better than you?'

'Girls don't often ask questions like that,' said Hermione.

'Well, they should!' said Harry forcefully, and Dean couldn't hold himself together any longer.

Dean burst out laughing. 'I'm sorry,' he said breathlessly. 'I've totally been there, man, but wow.'

'Dean,' Cas chastised quietly, though he too struggled to contain his amusement.