Easy Mistake ; Harry Potter

E I G H T Y O N E | Unless They Did?

Eleanor woke up to the sound of her phone ringing. She was still half asleep and it took her a few seconds to comprehend that the loud constant ringing was her phone.

Grumbling, Eleanor rolled over in bed and reached for her night stand where she knocked multiple things off in the blind search for her phone. She managed to find it and just about swiped her finger to accept the call before she missed it. She put the phone up to her ear.

"...Hello?" Eleanor said groggily.

"Merlin Eleanor, did I wake you? It's one in the afternoon, what are you still doing in bed?" The sound of Harry's voice at the other end of the line woke her up more. Eleanor sat up in bed. And was it really one in the afternoon?

"Harry, what are you doing ringing me? You should be at school, and I thought the schools magic interfered with technology too much?"

The sound of Harry's laughing confused Eleanor. What was so funny? "El, it's saturday. I'm in Hogsmeade."

What? It was Saturday? Eleanor looked over at her alarm clock where the date was displayed. So it was a Saturday.

"Oh." A moment of silence filled both ends of the phone as Eleanor tried to think of a reason why Harry was calling her. They hadn't planned the phone call.

"So, why are you still in bed this late?" Harry asked again, not bothering to hide his curious tone.

Eleanor pretended to heave an annoyed sigh. "Always so nosy, aren't you Potter? If you must know I-"

Eleanor suddenly stopped, embarrassed. The reason why she was in bed so late in the afternoon was because she stayed up half the night.

She hadn't done it on purpose, she just had someone on her mind and she couldn't sleep. The person on her mind may or may not have been the boy she had gone on constantly about to Cass....and that boy may or may not have been Harry.

"You what? Stayed up watching twilight?" Harry said, chuckling. Oh, he thinks he's so funny, Eleanor thought with an eye roll.

"Hey, fuck you, Harry. I knew I should have re-written that letter. You're never going to let me live that down, are you?" Eleanor said half annoyed, half embarrassed and half amused too.

"Nope, never going to happen."

"Oh, I hate you." Eleanor grumbled.

"Do you?"

Eleanor knew Harry was only messing but it momentarily brought her to silence, unsure of how to answer because honestly Eleanor was the complete opposite to hating Harry.

"El, you still there?"

"Hm? Oh yeah, I am." Eleanor said, being brought back down to earth. "So why did you phone?"

"Er, well-..." Silence filled the other end of the line. Eleanor could tell that Harry was embarrassed.

"What is it, Harry?"

"...It doesn't matter anymore."

"Yes it does."

"No it doesn't."

"Go on, you know you can tell me anything."

"It's stupid..."

"Harry."

"Eleanor."

"Stop bluffing. You phoned me, now talk to me."

"We are already talking-"

"Don't get smart."

"You said 'my Seeker.'"

"What?"

"In your last letter, you said 'my seeker'."

"..."

"So, yeah..."

"No, I didn't."

"Er, you did."

"Did I?"

"Yep."

"I didn't?!"

Harry laughed, getting over his initial embarrassment. "You really did. I can send the letter back to you if you want."

Harry heard a string of curse words coming from the other end of the phone. "Hey it's only your choice of words anyway. They didn't mean anything." Harry said this to try and make Eleanor feel less embarrassed, after all this wasn't the point of the phone call. Harry wanted to phone to talk to her about what Umbitch had most recently done to make Harry's life hell.

Silence.

Harry realised that maybe he had been wrong in what he said.

"Unless they did."

"..."

"El?"

"..."

"..."

"You said you were jealous that I kept talking about this boy to Cass."

"What?"

"They were only words right?"

"El..."

"They didn't mean anything, did they?"

"Eleanor..."

"Unless they did?"

More silence filled the phone line. Both teenagers pressed their phones tighter to their ears, their hearts pounding, waiting for the other to make the first move. Waiting for the other to admit defeat and confess.

"Ellie..."

"Oh, would you look at that? I need to go. My dad is calling me."

Harry hadn't heard anyone shout Eleanors name at the other end of the line.

"El, wait!"

"Bye, Harry."

"Wait, Eleanor! This wasn't the point of the phone call. I called to tell you I've been kicked off the Quidditch team, that's why I brought it up. I was trying to make a joke to make myself feel better. I thought you would laugh and make a sarcastic remark. I didn't mean to-"

But the line had already gone dead.

(Did they both just manage to confess their feelings for each other without actually confessing? Did you enjoy this chapter? I had fun writing it. I wonder what will happen next.)