falling ; hp

─── twenty nine

“Where are we going anyway?” Harry asked. “The Three Broom-sticks?”

It was the Hogsmeade weekend morning and the qaitret were out of the school's premises.

“Oh — no,” said Hermione, coming out of her reverie, “no, it’s always packed and really noisy. I’ve told the others to meet us in the Hog’s Head, that other pub, you know the one, it’s not on the main road. I think it’s a bit . . . you know . . . dodgy . . . but students don’t normally go in there, so I don’t think we’ll be overheard.”

They walked down the main street past Zonko’s Joke Shop and finally reached the destination. It was a bar but not at all like three broomsticks. The place was filled with black and grey theme which Willow liked personally.

The barman sidled toward them out of a back room. He was a grumpy-looking old man with a great deal of long gray hair and beard. He was tall and thin and looked vaguely familiar to Harry.

“What?” he grunted.

“four butterbeers, please,” said Hermione.

The man reached beneath the counter and pulled up three very dusty, very dirty bottles, which he slammed on the bar.
“Six Sickles,” he said.

“I’ll get them,” said Harry quickly, passing over the silver.

The quartet retreated to the farthest table from the bar and sat down.

“You know what?” Ron murmured, looking over at the bar with enthusiasm. “We could order anything we liked in here, I bet that bloke would sell us anything, he wouldn’t care. I’ve always wanted to try firewhisky —”

"Oh, me too!" Willow exclaimed excitedly as the duo received a pointed a glare from Hermione.

“You — are — a — prefect,” snarled Hermione. "And, we're just sixteen,"

Both of them remained silent. Willow sulked a bit which got noticed by Harry who bit back his smile and stared at his girlfriend's sulking face.

"Don't sulk, love," Harry said as he watched how her cheeks went red at the mention of love. She hastily nodded her head and looked at him.

“So who did you say is supposed to be meeting us?” Harry asked, wrenching open the rusty top of his butterbeer and taking a swig.

“Just a couple of people,” Hermione repeated, checking her watch and then looking anxiously toward the door. “I told them to be here about now and I’m sure they all know where it is — oh look, this might be them now —”

The door of the pub had opened revealing Neville, Dean and Lavender, followed by Parvati, Padma, Cho and her friends. And, Leo. Willow's smile faded at the sight of Cho as she averted her gaze from Cho to Harry, who seemed quite surprised.

And many people walked in which made Willow to smile in seeing how they respected her words and came for the support.

“A couple of people?” said Harry hoarsely to Hermione. “A couple of people?”

“Yes, well, the idea seemed quite popular,” said Hermione happily.

“Ron, do you want to pull up some more chairs?” Ron nodded and helped others.

“What have you been telling people?” he said in a low voice. “What are they expecting?”

“I’ve told you, they just want to hear what you’ve got to say,” said Hermione soothingly; but Harry continued to look at her so furiously that she added quickly, “You don’t have to do anything yet, I’ll speak to them first.”