As the Sister of Harry Potter

When I awoke the next morning, I lied there with my eyes shut, thinking about last night. A lot of things had happened, and I wasn’t sure whether any of it could have been believed. I knew I had slow danced with Diggory. Oh gosh, had I really? It all seemed like a dream now.

I turned over and opened my eyes. Ophilia was sitting on my bed, looking at me curiously with her head tilted to the side, sort of like a cat.

“Finally! Happy Christmas!”

“Yeah, you too,” I said sleepily, stretching and yawning.

Ophilia handed me my stack of presents, and went back to sit on her bed, which was next to mine. I dug into my presents eagerly. Books from Launa and Ophilia, sweets from Harry, Sarlanda, and Ginny, a box of their latest prank sweets from Fred and George, a couple of Muggle CD’s from Hyden (he has good tastes in music), homemade fudge from Hagrid, (I set this in the ‘prank items’ pile) a card from Sirius, and the usual jumper (silver this year) and Christmas cake from Mrs. Weasley.

“Holy Fizzing Whizbees, is this what I think it is?” asked Ophilia, her eyes wide and mouth gaping as she pulled the final wrappings off my present to her.

“A new crystal ball? Yeah,” I said as I flipped through my new books. Amusingly, Ophilia had gotten me Transfiguration for Trolls.

“Merlin’s pants Jennifer! This is an Arkhine Mystic crystal ball!”

“Best in the business, aren’t they?”

Ophilia was gaping at me. “But Jen, they’re–”

“Do you like it or not?”

She merely shut her mouth and nodded.

I glanced at the clock. It was nearly noon. ‘Wow, we slept for a while…’ I got up and dressed in jeans, my new jumper, and my cloak.

“Hey, where’re you going?”

“I have a meeting with Diggory at noon.”

“Ooh, like a date?”

“No, nothing at all like a date.”

Ophilia giggled. “Well, you better not keep Prince Charming waiting!” she said as I pulled on my ancient trainers and ran a comb through my hair. Well, I only half looked like complete dragon dung.

“Shut it Ophilia!”

I grabbed my wand and threw my Gryffindor scarf around my neck.

“When’ll you be back?”

“No idea, bye,” I said, and dashed out the door.

Diggory was in the Entrance Hall, waiting patiently for me like the Hufflepuff he was. He was messing with his yellow and black scarf at first, but when he looked up and saw me, his face cracked into a grin. I frowned in confusion. Goodness, everything about him seemed to be so confusing.

“There you are Jennifer!”

“Here I am. Outside, shall we?” If it turned to yelling, I’d rather be outside, where we wouldn’t get in trouble. Correction, where I wouldn’t get in trouble. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Diggory yell, and I’ve gone to school with him for going on six years.

We walked out and into the maze of snow paths. It was well past my hips now, probably getting close to four feet deep.

“So Diggory… care to explain your reasoning behind your randomly asking me to the ball?”

He sighed.

“Well, I’m not sure how you’ll take it. I don’t know how you’ll react to anything I say, or do, for that matter.”

“Try me.”

“I did, and you freaked out on me.”

I looked down at my feet, watching it crunch the snow. “Erm… uh, sorry? I guess?”

He did his half-smirk. “Thanks, even though I know you don’t mean that…” I winced slightly. Well, I guess honesty always was the best. “Well, I erm… I like you. And I finally got the guts this year to ask you out.”

“Why in the world would you like me? There’s nothing to like,” I asked, confused.

“What isn’t there to like?”

“Loads on things. I’m such a… a banshee to you.”

“Which brings me to my question: Why don’t you like me?”

“Erm…” I bit at my lip. I guess I should have been expecting this question, but I wasn’t at all. “Look, Diggory, you’re just too… nice. It always seems like you’re trying to impress me or something, and you’re such a goody two-shoes. It’s like you’re a blind person following the rules without question, so you can’t even see if they’re leading you down the right path or not.”

He seemed amused. “And what’s the real reason Jennifer?”

“That is the real reason. And you never take me seriously!” I growled, kicking some snow. Diggory needed to stop prying, that was as much of the truth as he was going to get.

“I don’t take you seriously because you never tell me the truth,” he said, stopping and looking at me. He was frowning now, and his soft grey eyes were making me uncomfortable. His eyes were so different from the Malfoy Twins eyes. Theirs were darker, and harder, like steel. His were like a cloud thinking about raining on me. Liquid silver.

But the frowning was what really got me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about Diggory, I’ve been telling you the truth.”

“Not all of it.”

“Well, I’ve been telling you what applies to your business, and if I don’t tell you something it’s because it’s my business and mine only,” I snapped, continuing on.

“Alright, I guess that’s fair enough,” he replied coolly.

“Now answer my question. Why in blazes do you like me?”

“I dunno, I just have. And for a while too. Uh… I guess… you’re smart, and funny… this sounds really boring, doesn’t it?”

I half-smiled. “Just a bit. Go on.”

“Well… I told you, I don’t really know. Like, I could go on listing things, but I really don’t know. Other girls, I could just list what I liked about them, but with you… there’s just something about you, and I don’t know what it is at all.”

‘Well, this is awkward,’ I thought, watching my feet again while Diggory talked.

“And, what gets me, I guess, is you might be hostile towards people you don’t like, but then you just have this compassion and protective instinct, even towards strangers. Like when you saved me from Lance at the World Cup.”

I snorted. “That hardly counts, it was Lance.”

“Yeah, and he was trying to Cruciatus me, if I remember it correctly.”

I was starting to turn red. I couldn’t exactly think of anyone telling me these kinds of things so honestly before. It was kind of surreal.

“So… what exactly do you want from me?”

“Look, I don’t know exactly what happened, but I do know you’ve had, shall we say… less than pleasant past relationships. But if you just give me a chance, now until Valentines, let’s say, I can prove to you that I’m nothing like whoever it was that messed everything up for you.”

“So… you’re asking me to date you?”

“Yeah. Just give me a chance.”

I wanted to run away, or at least throw myself down in the snow where I could sink into the fluffy security. This was so confusing. He really liked me? What did I do? And… did I like him back?

“I erm…” He looked at me. Was it an expectant look, or a pleading one? “I… uh… Diggory… umm, I guess I could give you… one chance,” I said, defeated.

Diggory beamed. “Jennifer, thanks. And trust me, you won’t be disappointed!”

And he was off just like that, and I think he was whistling. He was so like his father; randomly happy. I, on the other hand, gave in and threw myself down in the snow, hoping I hadn’t just made a really stupid decision.

-

Walking down to dinner that night, I spotted the twins and Peeves having a tennis ball war on the first floor. I shipped out my wand and pointed it at the balls. “Oppugno!” The balls turned in formation to attack Peeves.

“Curse you Potty! You’ve—OW—spoiled my fun with Weasel One and—OW—Weasel Two!” Peeves also spewed out quite a long string of unkind words before finally giving in and flew off, pursued by the charmed tennis balls.

“Nice one Jen!” exclaimed George, hi-fiving me. I grinned.

“Ah, well, you know, gotta torture Peeves at least once a week, you know?”

“What would life be?” asked Fred, shaking his head.

“Horrible. Absolutely atrocious,” George said, and we all laughed and continued down to the Great Hall together.

“So Ophilia said you went on a date with Diggory,” Fred snickered.

“I didn’t go on a date, it was a meeting,” I said, frowning at him.

“And what happened at this ‘meeting’?” George asked, trying to resist a smirk.

“None your business. Maybe I shouldn’t have saved you two from Peeves,” I grumbled, sitting alone at the Gryffindor table.

I was just getting started eating when Hyden sat across from me. “What’s up, Jen?”

“Ah, nothing. Fred and George just making fun of me.”

“I’ll just sit here then. Thanks for the Aerosmith CD, I really wish my player worked here.”

“Same. And thanks for the Metallica ones, I’ve been wanting Ride the Lightning for a while.”

We ate in silence the rest of dinner, and I thanked whatever supreme being made Hyden a non-nosey kid. Maybe I’d just hang out with him for the rest of the year.