Lily Potter (Harry Potter's Twin)

Chapter 65

Published July 15, 2016

Harry's POV

It was the day of Slughorn's Christmas party.

I had asked Luna Lovegood to go with me to stop the endless wave of girls in the hall that would be under the mistletoe, waiting for me. Romilda Vane even tried to poison me with love potion. And if I were to be poisoned, it's not like Ron or Hermione would even notice. I'm mostly being talked at, not with.

For example, Ron, whose hands and forearms still bore scratches and cuts from Hermione's bird attack, was being defensive and taking a resentful tone.

"She can't complain," he told me. "She snogged Krum. So she's found out someone wants to snog me too. Well, it's a free country. I haven't done anything wrong."

I didn't answer, pretending to be absorbed in the book we were supposed to have read before Charms next morning. Determined as I was to stay friends with both Ron and Hermione, it was tiring keeping my voice shut.

"I never promised Hermione anything," Ron mumbled. " I mean, alright, I was going to go to Slughorn's party with her, but she never said... just as friends... I'm a free agent..."

I turned a page, aware that Ron was watching me. Ron angrily muttered, I thought I heard "Krum" and "can't complain."

Hermione's schedule was so full that I could only properly "talk" to her properly in the evenings, when Ron was tightly wrapped up with Lavendar that he didn't notice I was gone Hermione refused to sit in the common room with Ron in there, so I generally joined her in the Library, which meant we had to talk in whispers.

"He's perfectly at liberty to kiss whoever he pleases," Hermione said. "I really couldn't care less."

She went raised her quill and dotted an 'i' so ferociously that she punctured the paper. I said nothing I thought my voice might vanish from lack of use.

I still had one more day of lessons then Slughorn's party tonight. Then Ron, Ginny and I would be off to Grimmauld place or the Burrow, I really didn't know.

I had hopped that Ron and Hermione might suddenly realized they both did nothing wrong and would become friends before holidays, but my little hope vanished in Transfiguration . We had just embarked on the very difficult topic of human transfiguration; working in front of mirrors, we were supposed to be changing the color of our eyebrows. Hermione laughed unkindly at Ron's bad first attempt, during which he somehow managed to give himself a spectacular mustache . Ron retaliated by doing a cruel but accurate impression of Hermione jumping up and down in her seat everytime Professor McGonagall asked a question. Lavender and Parvati found it deeply amusing, which reduced Hermione to the verge of tears again. She raced out of the classroom on the bell, leaving half her things behind; I, deciding that her need was greater than Ron's just now, scooped up her stuff and followed her.

"Hermione, you left your books," I said when I caught up to her.

"Oh, yes," said Hermione in a choked voice, taking her things and turning away quickly to hide the fact that she had been crying. "thank you, Harry. Well, I better get going..."

The news that I was taking Luna Lovegood to Slughorn's Christmas party finally made it around the school, thankfully. Girls stopped shoving themselves at me in the hallway and standing under the mistletoe.

"You could've taken anyone!" said Ron in disbelief over dinner. "Anyone! And you chose Looney Lovegood?"

"Don't call her that, Ron," said Ginny, pausing behind me on the way to her friends. "I'm really glad you're taking her, Harry, she's so excited."