𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐞 (𝟐) || HARRY POTTER LOVE STORY

15

Harry and Julie spent a lot of time over the next few days dodging out of sight whenever they saw Gilderoy Lockhart coming down a corridor.

Harder to avoid was Colin Creevey, who seemed to have memorised their timetable. Nothing seemed to give Colin a bigger thrill than to say, "All right, Harry, Julie?" six or seven times a day and hear, "Hello, Colin" back, however exasperated Harry and Julie sounded when they said it. Colin had also memorised Mason's timetable and was bugging him all the time.

Juniper was still angry with Julie about the disastrous car journey and Ron's wand was still malfunctioning, surpassing itself on Friday morning by shooting out of Ron's hand in Charms and hitting tiny old Professor Flitwick squarely between the eyes, creating a large, throbbing green boil where it had struck.

So, with one thing and another, Julie was quite glad to reach the weekend. Harry, Ron, Hermione and she were planning to visit Hagrid on Saturday morning.

Julie, however, was shaken awake several hours earlier than she would have liked by Angelina Johnson, one of the Chasers of the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Angelina," Julie yawned, as her teammate shook her awake violently. "What are you doing here?"

"We've got Quidditch practice," she answered.

"Has Oliver lost his mind?" Julie croaked, "it's the crack of dawn!"

"I know," Angelina said, also yawning. "Hurry up, he's already angry."

Yawning and shivering slightly, Julie climbed out of bed and tried to find her Quidditch robes. When she found her scarlet team robes, pulled on her cloak for warmth and braided her hair very quickly, she went down the spiral staircase to the common room, her Nimbus Two Thousand on her shoulder. She didn't think she had ever been this tired and looked so messy before practice.

"Good morning," she said, trying not to yawn, as she saw her best friend, Harry, looking equally as tired as she was.

"Good morning, Jules," Harry said, as they walked towards the portrait hole. "You look good."

"Shut up," Julie shot back, reaching up to try and tame her wild hair. "I'm pretty sure I look like a walking disaster right now."

"You really do," Harry grinned, his tired eyes sparkling. "But you're still a pretty cute disaster."

"Ugh, you're the worst," Julie muttered, rolling her eyes.

They reached the portrait hole, and Julie and Harry stopped in front of it. For a second, she caught herself staring at him, and it took her a moment to realize how tired he looked—there was something oddly comforting about it, though she couldn't exactly pinpoint why.

But before she could stop herself, she smiled at him, and Harry's grin grew wider.

"I really mean it," he said, looking at her a little too seriously for someone who'd just made fun of her. "You look good."

Julie snorted. "Yeah, right. You just want me to mess up my hair again so you can laugh."

Suddenly she heard a camera flash. Colin Creevey came dashing down the spiral staircase, his camera clutched in his hand.

"I heard someone saying your names on the stairs, Harry, Julie! Look the picture I just took of you is printing right now—"

"That's so cool!" Julie said, trying to be nice, hiding her annoyance.

She looked at the photograph Colin was now holding. It was Harry and her smiling at each other. It honestly was the best picture anyone had ever made of them.