Chapter 8: Is this Love?
Harry wanted to stay awake to apologize to Dean and Seamus for losing his patience, but he never made it. As soon as his head hit the pillow, Harry was asleep. He awoke the next morning to find that he had again missed his chance to say he was sorry for Dean and Seamus were already gone. So Harry dressed and went down to breakfast with Ron.
"Finally, our last classes before break, I hope we don't get too much homework for over the holidays", Ron said as he piled kippers and eggs onto his plate.
"Good morning." Hermione's voice came from behind Harry. Harry stiffened as Ron waved his spoon in greeting. He suddenly felt very guilty and was unable to look at Hermione even when she sat next to him and began munching on some toast. Harry suddenly felt as though he'd forgotten how to talk to her.
This is ridiculous. Harry berated himself as he followed his friends through the halls to their classes. Why do I feel like I should be apologizing to Hermione? As if reading his mind, Hermione turned to look back at him. Harry forced a smile onto his face but couldn't bring himself to look her in the eyes. They reached their first classroom and joined the queue waiting to enter the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.
Suddenly, Peeves appeared at the end of the hall. He began to float pompously down the hall calling, "Stand aside, there! Make way! The great Lord Vigo approaches!" He made shooing motions and rude gestures at the students that did not respond to him right away. Peeves was also taking great delight at shooting ink pellets at those that simply refused to move for him.
"Why all the shouting, Peeves? It's just Professor Vigo", Dean asked from closer to the door.
Peeves rounded on Dean at once. "Do you have any idea of whom you speak so casually?" Peeves continued shouting as he moved right in front of Dean and he got so close, their noses were almost touching. "He is VIGO! You are like the buzzing of flies to him! You should …", but at this point a shout cut him off.
"That's enough, Peeves" called Professor Vigo as he hurried to open the classroom door.
Peeves swept off his hat and performed an elaborate courtly bow, "As you command, milord".
"Off with you and no mischief". Professor Vigo walked into the classroom and Peeves straightened and set off down the hall, a maniacal gleam in his eyes.
Professor Vigo removed a large stack of papers from a drawer in his desk and began passing them back to the class. "I am handing back your papers on Ritual Magic but I see no point in starting anything new in our last class. Anyone with questions, please stay. The rest of you are excused, have a merry Christmas."
It soon became clear that not receiving homework for the holidays was to be the exception and not the rule. Professor Snape took great pleasure in assigning them two rolls of parchment on the use of milkweed in healing potions. Professor Anderson had assigned them a paper on the difference between Conjuration and Evocation and even Professor Flitwick assigned them an essay.
Harry found that Ron had been right and only a very few people tried to tease him about Parvati. Hermione never said anything to him about Parvati either, even though Harry was sure she knew. She did share the same dormitory with Parvati, after all. Who knows what else she had heard. That thought had Harry blushing and avoiding Hermione's eyes for the rest of that day. Dean and Seamus seemed determined to avoid him until after the holidays so Harry stopped trying to track them down. They would bump into each other eventually. Parvati was always with Lavender, her sister Padma and one of Padma's friends so Harry was unable to speak to her alone about how she felt about "the Pool" as Harry had begun to think of it. Harry was almost happy to be leaving Hogwarts for a few weeks of pampering by Mrs.Weasley.
Classes were over and Harry had finally had a chance to apologize to Dean and Seamus the night before leaving Hogwarts. Apparently, Dean was going to be spending the holidays with Seamus and so they had decided to try to save some time by placing an enlargement charm on the inside of Seamus' trunk so that they could pack all their things in one instead of both of them lugging their own trunks down to the train. Harry had just walked in to the room to begin his own packing when the enlargement charm expired with a loud crack and Seamus and Dean's clothes exploded out of the trunk landing all over their stunned owners. Any bad feelings about the other night were sorted out as quickly as the scattered clothing and Harry felt better having gotten the whole thing off his chest.
The next morning was very busy. He and Ron kept coming across things that they had forgotten to pack and had to keep opening their trunks to make the last minute additions. Finally, they were on the Hogwarts Express on their way to Kings Cross. Harry was flat out refusing to give any hints on what his friends would be getting from him for Christmas when he saw Parvati walk past their compartment door and she was alone. Harry quickly excused himself and hurried after her. He caught up to Parvati just as she was about to enter a compartment near the back of the train.
"Parvati, wait" Harry called as she reached to open the door to the compartment. "I really need to speak to you."
"What's up, Harry?" Parvati smiled. She had already changed out of Hogwarts robes and when she crossed her arms behind her back and leaned against the doorframe, her pink jumper conformed deliciously to her supple curves. Harry almost forgot what he wanted to talk to her about.
"Er," Harry began intelligently, and then remembering his purpose, he plunged on. "Oh well, I was just wondering, I mean, I wanted to know if you had heard about what Dean and Seamus had done and I was wondering how you felt about it." Harry felt the color starting to creep up his cheeks. He was finding it very hard to look her in the face and very distracting to look at her anywhere else.
"What are you … Oh, the pool!" Parvati exclaimed. "Yeah, I heard. Kind of hard not to since Lavender is dating Seamus and she's my best friend. It didn't bother me but I heard you were really pissed at him and Dean."
"Well, not really mad about the betting I guess. I was just mad that here was just one more thing about my life that I would have preferred to keep private but everyone knew about it anyway. Sometimes it seems like I can't even take a crap without the whole world knowing how it smelled." Harry grinned wryly but was finally able to meet her gaze. He stared at her for a few moments.
"Was there something else you wanted to ask me, Harry?"
"That obvious, am I?"
Parvati shrugged. "It just looks like you still have something on your mind."
"I do. Um, this is going to sound really stupid." Harry leaned closer and tried to ignore the allure of her perfume. "You and I, are we … a couple?"
Parvati looked at him strangely and crossed her arms in front of her. This caused some very distracting things to happen to Parvati's jumper. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."
"I mean are we a couple, you know, are we dating?" Harry blushed crimson.
Parvati silently mouthed, "Oh!" and gave Harry a calculating look. "Where are you going with this, Harry?"
Harry took a deep steadying breath and said, "Well we've sort of been seeing each other but we wouldn't have what I would call a relationship. Don't get me wrong, Parvati. I've had a lot of fun with you and I like you a lot but," He looked into her eyes and seeing her anxiety he leaned forward and whispered, "I'm not in love with you."
Parvati sighed with relief and covered her mouth to stifle a laugh. "I'm sorry, Harry," she whispered back. "I'm not laughing at you. I'm just relieved because I thought you were going to say that you were in love with me. The thing is, I don't love you either. We were just messing around, you know. It was just sex, Harry. No commitment or emotional baggage attached." She smiled. "Oh Harry. I didn't See that I would be your first love, I Saw that I would be your first lover. Big difference."
Harry smiled back. "So we're not a couple then."
"Does this mean we won't be getting together anymore?" Parvati asked giving him a calculating look.
"No, I don't think so," Harry frowned. "I still feel funny about everyone knowing that we did it. But the main thing is that I only want to be intimate with the girl I'm in love with. Does that sound too old-fashioned?"
"And who is that?" Parvati asked as she leaned forward slightly in anticipation.
Harry looked at her sharply, "What?"
"Who are you in love with?" Parvati's eyes were alight with mischief.
"Nobody, I was speaking hypothetically."
Parvati gave him a look that said she didn't believe him, "Sure Harry, if you say so." She smiled suddenly and leaned forward to hug him. "Have an excellent Christmas, Harry" She kissed him on the cheek, opened the door behind her, and went in.
Harry walked back to the compartment he was sharing with his friends feeling as if the weight of the world was gone from his shoulders.