5. A Busy Mind
The next day, Harry had gotten up early, not wanting people to look curiously at him after the show he had put on in the Common Room last night. Ron saw him as he walked out of the dormitory and decided to get up as well and talk to him, got dressed quickly and run downstairs.
To his relief, Harry was sitting by the fire. Ron wouldn't have fancied looking for him all over the castle. He went ahead and sat in the chair next to where Harry was sitting. They were the only two people in the room.
After a couple of minutes of silence, Ron was first making sure Harry's temper was calm so Harry wouldn't start yelling at him too, Ron spoke.
"Are you alright mate?"
Harry looked at him realizing for the first time that Ron was there. "Yeah," said Harry softly. He wasn't quite sure if he was alright. He still had a lot of things in his mind.
Ron saw Harry's mood was calm, so he decided it was safe enough to push things forward. "What happened last night... you know, with Hermione?"
"I don't know Ron. I seriously don't know what happened to me," said Harry honestly, while looking intently at the fire crackling in front of them.
"We were talking just fine, next thing I know, you were at the other side of the room, yelling at her."
"I was such an idiot!" Harry stood up. He passed a hand through his hair. "I shouldn't have said that."
Harry started pacing in front of the fire. This was just what he needed, someone to talk to get out all the things he had in his mind.
"I talked to her last night, you know, after everyone was gone to bed."
"And…"
"Well, she didn't say much. She didn't look good, though," said Harry as he stood by the fireplace. "But she didn't argue with me or anything. And you know what?" he said as he went back to the couch and sat down. "I think I would have preferred her yelling at me, telling me what an idiot I had been, or … anything, you know. So that I could know what was on her mind."
Ron looked at Harry for a few minutes then said, "Well you know she's been a little weird lately." Harry looked at him remembering that Harry himself had been wondering about that just a few days ago.
"And then after Malfoy…" realizing he had almost said what Hermione had asked not to, Ron stopped.
"After Malfoy what? What did he do?" demanded to know Harry.
"Uh, uh… I was going to say… that after Malfoy, nobody has made her feel so bad before." Ron felt silent, he had almost blown it. Then thinking about what he had just said, Ron added, "Well, now that I think about it, I also have made her feel bad. Remember that time first year I told her she was a nightmare? And then that crookshanks-eating-scabbers episode, third year. And then…" Ron was shaking his head by now, "Blimey Harry, I have upset her quite a few times. It's a miracle she's still talking to me, you know."
"Yeah," said Harry now feeling a little better about his messing up. "We're both lucky to have her."
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Harry was glad to see that Hermione didn't seem angry with him at all the following days. She hadn't even mentioned their argument not even once. Even when Harry still felt bad about the whole thing, her ignoring it made him feel a bit more relaxed.
There was something else that seemed to be going around his mind lately. It was about Angie, but not in the typical way a boyfriend would think about the girl of his dreams. He had been mostly wondering why he was dating her in the first place.
When they had started the school year, Harry began to notice that Angie was paying a little more attention to him than before. In fact, he had never before crossed more than a hello with her the previous years. But suddenly, he really had no idea why, she had started flirting with him.
That had taken Harry by surprise. He had never had a girl flirt with him like that. Angie found a way to get in his mind. He could not believe a girl like her was interested in him and that was quite flattering.
For that reason, eventually, he was able to get the courage needed to ask her out. Now, however, he wasn't sure he had done the right thing. Harry could not point out one thing that he and Angie had in common, other than attending Hogwarts.
At that time, Harry was at The Three Broomsticks with Angie. It was the last Hogsmeade visit before the end of term. In two weeks, Christmas would be upon them. Angie had been talking all morning to Harry about a Christmas party her parents would be hosting. It was supposed to be quite an event. The Minister himself would be among the guests.
However, Angie had not mentioned, not even once, anything about inviting Harry to the party, not that he wanted to go, but at least he'd know that she remembered he existed. Harry was pretty sure Angie knew that he'd be staying at school during the holidays, almost everybody knew that.
"Harry? Harry!" said Angie.
Harry had been deep in his thoughts he had not heard she was talking to him. Well he knew she was talking, she had been doing most of the talking all morning, but he hadn't realized she was asking him something.
"Oh, sorry. You were saying?"
"I was asking you which of this two robes you like the most," she said while pointing to two pictures she had on the table. In the pictures, witches were modeling some nice evening robes. Harry could not see any difference between the two except for the color, one was a soft lilac the other was pink, of course.
"It's for the party," said Angie. She seemed very excited about it and was anxiously waiting to hear Harry's opinion.
"Well," Harry wasn't sure what to say. To him both robes looked great, but obviously that wasn't what Angie expected to hear. "Why don't you ask one of your friends? A girl would know more about this than me."
"I want to know what you think," she said. Then leaning closer to Harry she pointed out some of the differences to Harry.
"I like them both," Harry finally said.
"You do?" asked Angie a little disappointed.
To Harry's great relief, at that time two of Angie's friends walked in and sat down with them at the table. As soon as they saw the two pictures on the table, they jumped with excitement and started asking Angie which of the two she had decided to buy.
All of Angie's attention turned to her friends. Harry couldn't feel happier about it.
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Later that night, Harry and Ron were in the Common Room playing wizard's chess. Harry's attention was definitely not on the game. He had made a couple of moves without paying much attention to which piece he was moving or in which direction.
"Where are you mate?" asked Ron realizing that Harry's mind was far away from the game.
Harry let out a sigh and leaned back in the chair he was sitting on.
"Is it Angie?" pressed Ron.
"Why you think it's her?"
Forgetting about the game, Ron moved it to the side and leaned forward placing his elbows on his knees, one of the chess' pieces still in his hand.
"Don't seem as excited about her as before, you don't."
"Is it that obvious?" said Harry, a little more to himself than to Ron.
"Yeah." Ron scratched his head thinking.
"I don't know what's happening," said Harry looking intently at his shoes. "I've doing some thinking..."
"And..."
"I can't figure out why I hooked up with her on the first place."
Ron looked at Harry with a puzzled expression. "If I was the one with her, I could find loads of reasons."
"Honestly Ron!" said Harry while loosening his tie. "That's not all I care about."
Ron looked down. Even though he would give his right leg to be with a girl like Angie, he could still understand what Harry meant. "Yeah, I know. It's just... you were so excited about going out with her, and you've been together for like, what? Couple of weeks. I don't understand what happened so quickly to turn you down."
Ron started putting back the wizard's chess' pieces into their wooden box. Then, he remembered something. "Hang on, has this anything to do with that bloke she was with the other day?"
"Who?"
"You know, the quidditch captain, Rogers."
"Oh," Harry had totally forgotten about that incident. "No, it's got nothing to do with that."
"What is it then?"
Harry had asked himself that same question all day long, and he thought he had found the answer.
"We're so different."
"Course you are, she's a girl and you're a guy," said Ron trying to bring some humor into the conversation, but as soon as he saw the killer look of Harry, realized it wasn't a good idea.
"We just don't have anything in common. She's so... girly, you know. Don't give me wrong, I kind of like that, but sometimes it's a little too much. It's like... she never talks about Voldemort or anything that's happening out there as if by ignoring things, they'd just go away. I can't do that. I know I'll have to face them. And it's not like I'm looking for a partner to fight with, you know, but… I don't know, at least someone I can talk to about it."
Ron sighed. He understood how Harry felt. "I know what you mean," he said. "Well, what are you going to do about it?"
"There's only one thing I can do."
Ron nodded. There was no need for Harry to spell it out. He was going to break up with Angie. "Well, I reckon Hermione's going to be very happy about it."
Harry looked at Ron wondering what he meant by that. Ron realizing he was, once again, saying a bit more than he should, stood up and grabbed his chess set hoping to get away before Harry could ask anything more. But Harry wasn't going to let him go that easily.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, you know…" said Ron, trying to find the right words. "She's never liked Angie. Don't you remember that time you asked her what she thought? She didn't have anything good to say about Angie, did she?"
Harry's face turned into an understanding expression. Ron was right. Hermione had never liked Angie. "I reckon it must be some kind of a sixth sense that women have."
"That Hermione has, you mean. I don't think all women are as clever as she is," added Ron, relieved to see that Harry seemed content with that explanation.
Before he could get himself in hot water again, Ron got up and prepared to get away. "Hate to leave you mate, but I must get my beauty sleep, you know," once he said that, he run upstairs, leaving Harry with one resolution in his mind.
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Breaking up with someone was a lot easier said than done. Harry had had many opportunities to break up with Angie during that week, but at the last minute, he'd get tongue-tied. Still, he wanted to talk to her before she'd leave for the holidays on Saturday morning.
When Friday finally came, Harry realized he couldn't keep pushing it aside. He asked Angie to meet with him at the Entrance Hall after dinner. Harry was planning on taking Angie to the Room of Requirement, so they could have some privacy, and talk to her there. It was too cold to meet outside. It had been snowing all day.
However, things were not as difficult as Harry had thought. Once he got out of his mouth what he had been trying to say all week, he realized Angie wasn't surprised. She even seemed kind of relieved.
After Angie left, Harry stayed at the Room of Requirement for a couple of hours. Even though he had just taken a big load off his shoulders, he felt he needed some time to be alone. When he realized he it was getting late, he headed back to the Common Room.
Ron, who knew where Harry had been, was anxiously waiting for him. He had a couple of books spread on the table, a piece of parchment in front of him, and a quill in his hands. It seemed as if he was doing some work, but when Harry sat next to him, he saw Ron had been playing hangman.
"Is that what you're turning in for your potions assignment?"
"Course not, I was playing with Seamus, but he just went upstairs, he hadn't packed," said Ron while pushing away the quill. Then turning around in his chair to face Harry, he asked, "So, how did it go?"
"A lot better than I thought, actually." Harry leaned back in the upholstered chair and looked at Ron. Since it was Friday, end of term, the Common Room was packed with students ready to start their holidays by staying up late.
Harry searched the crowd looking for his brown bushy haired friend, but she wasn't in the room. "Where's Hermione?" asked Harry.
"She went to bed early," replied Ron, but he quickly changed subject as he was more interested in finding out about Harry's break up. "Why you said it went better than you thought? Wasn't she upset?"
"I think what really upset her," continued Harry forgetting about Hermione, "was that it was me the one breaking up and not her. Oh, and you know what? I think she's seeing that Rogers bloke."
"I knew it! Well… I guess it serves her right. He's as shallow as she is."
Harry chuckled at that. He felt more relaxed than how he'd been feeling all week, but there was still something there, in the back of his head, that didn't totally let him unwind.