She Is Love

As the sun began to retreat and the once warm summer days turned into cold winter mornings, Lola began to pull back from the people she had once counted as her closest friends, and spent more and more time with Harry without any semblance of regret or guilt about her actions. Hermione was more than supportive of this decision.

“ Oh please, please ,PLEASE ,Lola? I promise to not make any romantic implications for the rest of the week if you do!” The bushy haired genius pleaded with her reluctant friend on a darker Wednesday morning as they fought their way through the crowded corridors to the Charms classroom. Hermione had been quite insistent for Lola to come and sit with the other Gryffindor’s ever since she had decided that Lola and Harry were destined to be together.

“ Hermione, I’m quite certain that the wonderful house of Gryffindor does not want to be bothered with the presence of a lowly Hufflepuff such as myself” Lola scoffed as she dodged past a group of giggling and gushing second years, all of which seemed to be gazing longingly at the emotionless and blank Viktor Krum. Lola honestly did not see what the big deal was about Krum, sure he was the best seeker in the world and those muscles did make her mouth go dry a little, but apart from that, the hook-nosed champion held no appeal for Lola.

“ I bet I can think of one Gryffindor who would be thrilled if you sat with us at lunch breaks.” Hermione smirked at her as Flitwick practically floated into the classroom and began the particular lesson in which they were all still learning how to master the Accio charm.

Lola’s eyes flashed to the opposite side of the room where she could see Harry and Neville practicing, the raven haired boy dodging objects expertly as the kind, round-faced boy attempted to master the spell. He was so different from the other boys, not just in their year, but boys in general.

“ So Harry and Ron are still being stubborn as mules,eh?” Lola asked the intelligent girl in front of her, twirling her wand around her fingers absent-mindedly as she gazed across the room at her previous line of sight, her eyes shifting slightly to where Ron and Seamus were practicing almost as unsuccessfully as Harry and Neville. She couldn’t for the life of her understand why they couldn’t just kiss and make up already, they were best friends and were behaving like worst enemies, and it was simply ridiculous!

“Ugh,yes! It’s getting to the point of being frustratingly aggravating, and, as per usual, I’m stuck right in the bloody middle! I wish I could just split myself in half and smack some sense into the both of them ... hang on a minute, maybe there’s a spell for this sort of thing ..” she trailed, no doubt raking through her photographic memory in an attempt to remember if she had every read about such a spell.

Lola rolled her eyes, “ Genius, there is possibly a more logical solution than trying to split yourself in half with a spell” she giggled at the rare look of confusion on her best mate’s face, “ Look, i’ll talk to Harold, and you talk to Ronald, okay? I’m sure that between the two of us we can talk some sense into the two thickheads.” She offered, raising her eyebrows at the girl in front of her as the realisation set in and the two girls broke into peels of giggles simultaneously.

“ Sounds like a plan, you absolutely must call him Harold though!” Hermione fought out through the giggles that had overtaken their capacity to speak coherently, tears of hilarity leaking from both of their eyes. Eventually, they calmed their selves down and by that point the class had ended and it was time for Lunch break, “Okay, here’s the plan; catch Harold before he gets into the Great Hall, and give him a good talking to, oh! And work those pretty blue eyes, that’ll get him everytime.” She rushed out before running after Ron, and leaving Lola pretty damn confused.

[&&&]

It took Lola a little bit of time to locate Harry but she eventually found him outside the one-eyed-witch passage way, looking extremely bored as Neville chattered away to him about some new variety of Venomous Tentacular, no doubt.

“ Harry!” she shouted, a large smile spread across her face as he turned around and grinned at her, walking away from Neville and making his way towards her. She realised as she came to stand in front of him, that she was considerably tiny in comparison to him, and for some reason that made her smile more. “Can we talk?” She asked him, biting her lip as she glanced up at him through her thick eyelashes shyly.

He grinned at her and offered her his arm, which she took gratefully, hooking her own coat sweater covered through his and allowing him to lead the way.

“ So what did you want to talk about?” He asked as they got a variety of mixed looks from students and teachers alike. Harry wasn’t stupid, he knew when there was something bothering her and it scared her that he could read her that well already.

“ When are you and Ron going to kiss and make up?” she questioned, her cold hands intertwined as they both looked out at the black lake, the ice over it making look even more magnificent and intimidating than it had before.

“ Lola” Harry started, a small smile on his face, he had known that she would bring it up eventually, because that was the sort of person that Lola was. She didn’t like it when people she cared about were being discriminated against the way the majority of the school had been doing to Harry, and although she may have seemed like a harmlessly sweet and innocent young girl, she had a fiery temper when paired with her compassion for people.

“ Harry, please.” She pleaded with the stubborn boy in front of her, in the short time that they had known each other, Lola had learnt a couple of vital things about Harry, one of which was that he was stubborn as a mule but also, he was extremely grateful for the people he held close to him, like Ron and Hermione.

“ I tell you what, I’ll try to reconcile things with him, if you agree to sit with us like I know Hermione has been pestering you for weeks now, you shouldn’t have to sit alone, Lola.” He teased her with a small grin. Harry found that, with every moment he spent with the shy girl, he just wanted to spend more time with her and know more about her. He didn’t know a lot about her, other than the fact that her mother was a widow who worked as a healer at St. Mungo’s, and he didn’t want to pressure her into telling him her life story, but he wished that she trusted him like he trusted her.

[&&&]

When Harry arrived at the Gryffindor table for dinner, he smiled in relief at the sight of Lola sitting in between the Weasley twins, before deciding that it would probably be a prudent time to go over and rescue the petite Hufflepuff from the clutches of the two master pranksters.

“ Why, hello there, young Harry! Don’t mind us, we were just chatting up your bird here, weren’t we , Fred?” George grinned devilishly before standing up from his current seat next to Lola and gesturing for Harry to sit down. Lola was blushing something dreadful, which
Harry found incredibly endearing, and mumbled out some excuse about them just being friends. Harry tried to ignore the plummeting in his chest from the classification she had just placed them under inevitably.

“ Don’t mind them, Lola, they only do it for a laugh” he smiled at her in what he hoped was an encouraging fashion, but in reality it may have come out as more of a grimace. He would hate for dumb and dumber to completely drive the young Hufflepuff away from them, if nothing, he hoped that they could become close friends.

Lola smiled sweetly at him before going back to stirring her tea contemplatively, there had been something on her mind for the whole afternoon, and, no matter how hard she tried, she could not seem to shake it. She had always been good at hiding her emotions and thoughts from other people, a skill which she had inherited from her mother at an early age, but, somehow, Harry managed to see right through it.

Nudging her lightly, Harry grabbed her hand softly, so as to not startle her. Lola tore her eyes away from her fascinating cup of tea before meeting the worried expression on the young wizard’s face, the fact that Harry could read her so well after such little time seriously unnerved her and she knew that there was feelings were growing in her heart for him.

And that scared the living shit out of her.