The Curious Tale of Harriet Potter

4 - End Of Third Year

Harriet and Hermione had just made it back into the hospital wing after setting Sirius free and the thirteen year old girl was overwhelmed by everything she'd learned.

Hermione had been using a time turner all year, Professor Lupin was a werewolf, Sirius Black was innocent and wanted her to live with him, Snape was an arse who clearly wanted anything other than for her to be happy and Ron's rat was actually an animagus who had betrayed her parents to Voldemort.

Needless to say, a rest in the hospital wing was easily welcomed by Harriet. Ron had broken his leg so sadly hadn't taken part in her and Hermione's adventures through time, although maybe it was for the best since knowing Ron he would likely have messed something up.

They were locked in the hospital wing after midnight, and Harriet found herself lying awake and staring at the ceiling until way too late into the early hours of the morning, causing her to be the last of her friends to wake up.

By the time Harriet had woken up around an hour before noon, both Hermione and Ron had left the hospital wing leaving her alone.

Reaching over to pick up her glasses from her bedside table, Harriet noticed that they were next to a bouquet of flowers. With her glasses fully on, she noticed that they were lilies - her favourites.

Picking up the bouquet, she saw a card and smiled as she read it.

Harri,
How exactly have you managed to land yourself in the hospital wing yet again? Merlin, it's practically a personality trait at this point.
Your favourite Puff,
Pretty Boy.

Assuming that she was free to leave, Harriet did so a few minutes later. Picking up her flowers she walked out of the hospital wing, and over to her dorm, running into a group of Hufflepuffs along the way. Coincidentally, in the middle of the group of Hufflepuffs was the one who had sent her the rather large bouquet of lilies she was holding.

Seeing around half a dozen fifth years made Harriet bite her lip until Cedric noticed her awkwardly standing around and excused himself from the conversation.

"Hey." He walked over to her with his hands in his pockets and smiled at her.

"Hi. Thanks for the flowers, Pretty Boy."

"You're welcome. What did you do to end up in the hospital wing this time?"

"That, Mr Diggory, is classified information."

She lifted her head up causing them both to laugh.

"Well then, I suppose I'll never know."

There was silence for a few moments before Harriet spoke up. "Well, I should probably go, uh, find my friends."

"Right. And I should get back to mine." Harriet looked behind Cedric to see his fellow Hufflepuffs all looking at the two of them with a mix of amusement and confusion.

"Right." She looked back at him and smiled as she thought of something. "And Pretty Boy," she smirked up at him as he raised an eyebrow. "If you're going to give me flowers every time I'm in the hospital wing, it would save you money to start a garden now."

Laughing, she walked away from him to her tower as he walked back to his curious friends.

*time skip because i can't be bothered to read the book and find out what actually happens*

Ron was admiring his new owl when Hermione remembered something and looked at Harriet.

"Hey Harriet, who sent you those flowers?"

Harriet looked away from the Scottish Highlands and at her female best friend. "What?"

"The flowers."

Ron looked at Hermione in confusion. "What flowers?"

"The ones that were on your bedside table in the hospital wing. Who's pretty boy?"

"Pretty boy?" Ron looked at Harriet in disbelief who bit her lip.

"Oh, don't worry, it doesn't matter." Harriet waved off the topic, but Hermione didn't want to let it go.

"He's a Hufflepuff, right?"

"You're friends with a Hufflepuff called Pretty Boy?"

Harriet shook her head and sighed. "It doesn't matter. Really."

"I didn't know you had any other friends." Ron looked slightly offended, and on instinct, Harriet rolled her eyes.

"Like I said, don't worry about it." She stood up, eager to get away from the conversation. "I'm gonna go find the trolley lady. You want anything?"

"No thanks."

Shrugging, Harriet left the compartment and walked down the train to where the trolley lady was.

In the biggest coincidence of her life, the broad-shouldered handsome brunet in front of her was the very same one she avoided talking about with her best friends.

Smirking, she tapped him on the shoulder and he whirled around. "Have I seen you before? You look familiar."

Pausing for a moment before smirking, he replied with amusement in his voice. "I don't know, maybe in your dreams?"

They burst both burst out laughing at that for a soldi ten seconds. "Touché, Pretty Boy. Touché."

"Well thank you Pretty Girl."

She raised an eyebrow as he blushed, realising what he'd said on instinct. Harriet brought her hands to her chest and made a mock complimented face. "You think I'm pretty?" She said it in such a way that made them both laugh, as it was so sarcastic and overly sweet.

"Well, you call me Pretty Boy, so I think it's only fair that  I return the favour."

"You do think I'm pretty! Ugh, I'm honoured. Truly."

"Yeah well I don't just go around calling all the girls pretty."

"Are you sure? You're trying to tell me you're not the biggest heartthrob at Hogwarts?"

"I've been on a date with like one girl."

Harriet scoffed. "Oh please. I don't believe that for a second."

He just shrugged. "Well it's true."

At this point, Cedric had reached the front of the line and got his sweets from the trolley witch. When he was finished he hung around waiting for Harriet to get hers.

"I'll take a chocolate frog, two acid pops, three fizzing whizbees and a pack of Bertie Botts' every flavour beans please." Just as Harriet was getting out her money to pay, the exact amount was put down in front of her. She looked up at the much taller Hufflepuff and frowned. "I can pay for my own stuff, you know."

He just shrugged and smiled at her. "I know. But I wanted to do something nice for you."

Taking her sweets, she spun around and smiled at him ever so slightly. "You should write to me over the summer. I don't have a lot of people to write to, and I try and avoid my relatives at all cost."

He smiled back at her. "I will do just that."

She smiled a full smile at him this time. "I'm holding you to that, Pretty Boy."

"Good. What's your address?"

"4 Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey." She pulled out a piece of paper from her muggle notebook and quickly wrote it down with a pen. "Here."

He looked at the pen with confusion. "What's that?"

Harriet laughed. "Oh right, I forgot wizards have never heard of a pen. It's like a quill, but the ink is all stored inside it so you don't need to dip into an ink pot. It's a lot less mess and lot easier to use."

She started walking away, but turned around to look at him once again. "I await your owl, Pretty Boy." Winking, she turned again and walked back to her compartment, leaving Cedric very confused.

A/N: oof I'm so sorry i meant to update every Wednesday but i kinda forgot bc i went back to school last week and shit was hectic and i wasn't really thinking about writing, I've just spent the past week binging rupaul's drag race. Oh well, hope you enjoyed <3