UnExpected

Chapter 13

Bicker. Bicker. Bicker. That's all they ever do. Didn't they realize how irritating it could be?

Huffing loudly, the cold feeling of guilt suddenly rushed within him. It wasn't even one of their worst arguments. They were only going on about Snape and his part in the Order, and whether Dumbledore should trust him. Harry knew he shouldn't have yelled at Ron and Hermione like he did, but he couldn't take it anymore; it was a row too many for the day. Their shocked faces after he let them have it still danced before his eyes, even after he stormed out of the Hall during lunch; leaving him to end up sitting underneath the trap door at the top of the North Tower alone. Grumbling and seething. His fuming anger rising again at the memory of it.

The bell signaling the end of lunch finally rang and Harry quickly made his way up the ladder, taking a shadowed seat in the corner of the room. Brooding as he waited for the class to start. Then a minute later his anger was momentarily forgotten. His body remaining perfectly still, watching anxiously as a delicate blonde head pulled through the classroom opening.

She was dreading coming to this class. Professor Trelawney maybe a loon but she did hit things on the mark at times. Took Buffy a few years to figure that one out. She remembered laughing it off when Trelawney had predicated monsters and darkness in her future – well, who's laughing now? God only knows what she would say to her this year.

There was a sudden prick at her mind, and Buffy realized someone was watching her. And she found him sitting in a darkened corner. Standing perfectly still, she let her eyes linger on him. He was alone. The air seemed to thicken slightly and the shadows appeared brighter. There was so much she wanted to say to him. So much that had gone on in her life since the last time they spoke. Not noticing she was moving, she watched as he rose from his chair. His eyes fixated on her. She was getting close to him now and her palms began to sweat, and she tried reading his eyes again but they were still as unclear to her as before.

Then a sudden rush of oncoming noise filtered their minds, breaking them out of their trance; shaking them up for a moment, before leaving them to feel awkward. Buffy was the first to look away, and without word, she walked to the opposite end of the room. Taking a seat far from his. Harry didn't know how to take that; was she trying to get away from him? Before he could delve deeper into his wondering, the onslaught of students walked in. Earning the return of his annoyance. Plopping down into his chair in frustration, he let his eyes hover on her unabashedly.

"You're looking at her like that again," Ron said, sliding into the seat beside him.

"So, what if I am," Harry bit out.

Giving a heavy sigh, Ron already didn't like where this was going. Something very strange was going on between Harry and Buffy. Not once had he heard his friend complain about the girl, like everyone else had been since she arrived, and he kept looking at her in the most odd of ways. Hermione had even mentioned it to him, but they both chalked it all up to the recent problems Harry had been having. Their dark-haired friend wasn't really in the keenest of moods lately, so they figured that his mood must be the reason for his behavior. And it wasn't like they were going to ask, he might just bite their heads off or something.

"Hermione and me have stopped arguing," Ron confessed.

"Good," he grunted.

"But Hermione thinks it would be nice if you stopped taking out your anger on us."

"I'm not –"

"I'm just passing along the message."

And before the conversation could continue, Professor Trelawney had started the class.