Jarida Drabbles

Saying Yes {Part1}

It's another day in Hogwarts. Sunlight is filtering in through the windows, there is a hush in the library as Madam Pince keeps her eyes out for any troublemakers, Filch is prowling the corridors with Mrs Norris, McGonagall is scolding a couple of Slytherins, Snape is breathing down the necks of a few second-year Hufflepuffs and the house-elves are scurrying about the kitchen.

"C'mon, Merida! One date!"

"I told you, Frost, I'm not interested!"

A skinny, white-haired boy with bright blue eyes in a Slytherin robe is trailing after a redheaded Scottish girl with her Hogwarts robes lined in Gryffindor colours, her arms full of books. Next to her, a blond girl with bright green eyes has to bite her lip as she shakes her head, following her friend.

"It's not going to kill you!" With lightning speed, Jack Frost darts in front of Merida Dunbroch and her best friend Rapunzel Corona, causing them to skid to a stop. He holds up the flower he's picked from one of the greenhouses. "Please? One date? We'll go wherever you want to go! Zonko's, the Shrieking Shack, the Three Broomsticks, the Hog's Head if you want – "

"Frost." Merida says the name through gritted teeth. "I. Am. Not. Interested."

"You are," he says, instantly. "You totally are. Come on, the Hogsmeade visit is coming up! We'll go together, have fun, and you'll realise and admit to yourself how much you like spending time with me – "

Merida rolls her eyes and shoves her way past him, pulling Rapunzel along with her.

"You'll say yes one day!" Jack calls after her, as she disappears around a corridor. "I don't give up so easily, Merida!"

She doesn't bother to reply.

"You know, most girls would do anything to be in your position right now."

Merida raises her head from the parchment she's scribbling on. "Doing an essay for History of Magic?"

Rapunzel scoffs, and rolls her eyes. "C'mon, Merida. Don't play dumb. I'm talking about Jack Frost!"

"Yeah, yeah," Merida mutters, bending over her parchment again and deciding to ignore the Hufflepuff girl's last sentence.

"Merida!"

"What?" her head snaps back up again. Rapunzel is staring at her with those big green eyes of her, the stare that demands answers.

"Why won't you say yes?" Rapunzel wants to know. "He is only asking for one date. And it's Jack Frost we're talking about. At least three-quarters of the girls in this school are in love with him."

Merida sighs. "You know why."

Rapunzel bites her lip, and shakes her head. She lowers her voice: "You're not really still thinking about him?"

Merida shrugs her shoulders, and doesn't say anything.

"Merida – "

"C'mon, Punz, I have to get this essay done before Quidditch practice," says Merida, and she bends down over the parchment again.

Rapunzel sighs.

Quidditch practice is draining. It's exhausting, and it's tiring, and it's raining and muddy and Merida cannot wait to get into the locker room and change out of her clothes. All she can think of is collapsing into one of the armchairs by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, possibly with Astrid, who is scowling fiercely at anything that stands in her path to the locker rooms.

When she's finally changed out, and her broom stored in the shed, she walks out to find a familiar figure just coming in.

"Hey, Dunbroch. That was some nice stuff you did out there today."