"But... what if she says no?" asked Neville fearfully.
"But what if she says yes? You'll never guess what it took for me to admit I loved Hermione, Neville. I was an idiot for not doing it earlier. And with Luna, you know she'll never just say no even if she rejects you. It should be interesting!" Harry laughed at his own memory. As long as it doesn't take poisoning himself with basilisk venom and going back in time, Neville should be fine.
"You're right... I should ask her, at the very least. Maybe at the beginning of winter break... I can get ready..." Neville said to himself.
"Why not now?" asked Harry. "We're all friends in this room. You won't have to do it in front of the school. Besides, even though there may not be many other people who like Luna as much as you do, if you don't ask her now someone else might." As he said this, he had an epiphany. Is this why Hermione wanted us to skip the announcement? So she could set up Luna and Neville? He looked over at the girls, who by then had stopped swimming. They were talking to each other, occasionally glancing at him and Neville.
"Do they have to keep looking at me like that?" Neville walked to the edge of the pool. Hermione gave Luna a nudge. The small blonde witch bobbed over to Neville, staying in the pool and looking up at him. Neville fidgeted for a while as Harry and Hermione moved off to the side to watch from a distance.
"You planned this, didn't you?" Harry asked.
"What? Me?" Hermione asked innocently. "They're the ones who are setting themselves up. Haven't you noticed how much Neville watches out for Luna when we have our practices with Moody?"
Harry shook his head dumbly. "I thought it was just because the two of them expected me to pair with you for all the exercises anyways..."
"No, not like that! It's the little things, like how he can't stop himself from wincing every time Luna gets a bruise, or how he hesitates whenever you stun her..."
"You notice these things? I kinda noticed he hesitates, but I just consider that an opening. I usually end up stunning him two seconds later."
"Well, yes, but when he wakes up the first thing he does is check on Luna as well," explained Hermione. She was interrupted by a fearful scream. Luna had leapt out of the water and hugged Neville's legs, causing him to lose balance and fall into the pool. "I guess that's that. Let's hope he doesn't regret what he just got himself into," Hermione said as she pulled Harry to the sputtering Neville.
Two days later they saw a very irritated Fleur walk through the Great Hall for breakfast. There was something about her that seemed very odd, much like a model with too much makeup on. They could practically smell her from across the room, and it didn't smell like high-quality perfume, either. Her Beauxbatons uniform was a shade of pink instead of light blue. When she spotted Harry, she made a beeline straight for his seat.
"J'en ai ras le bol! 'Arry Potter, I was told you may 'ave an idea who made zis despicable powder?" She tried brushing some of the stuff off her uniform, but it just caused it to spread, while producing a few dull sparks and foam when she did.
For something that looked like an obvious prank, Harry knew exactly who would have done it. Then again, the twins didn't seem to be pranking all that much this year, concentrating more on their products for their new business. Since he missed the show in Gryffindor Tower, he actually didn't know what it was, but he was curious to find out. "I have a guess, Fleur. Could you tell me what happened?"
"Well, I 'appened to run into Cedric in ze 'allways. I could tell 'e was interested in asking me to ze ball, but he was a little nervous, even if 'e hid it well. I decided to 'elp him along..."
"With your Veela powers, you mean?" asked Hermione dryly.
"Of course," answered Fleur. "If you 'ad a skill zat set you apart from ze others, would you not use it?"
"It's only good for a superficial, temporary infatuation. It's so shallow."
"I know exactly what my allure is good for. It is simply ze best makeup and perfume zat even money cannot buy. A girl like you 'as never even attempted to find yourself a boy, 'ave you?"
"I don't need to. I already have Harry, and he's the only one I'll ever want in my life," Hermione affirmed.
"Do not denounce ze... techniques ozzer girls use when you are simply lucky to find the man of your dreams. Some of us must work to get the attention of our intended..."
Harry cut in before the argument could escalate further. "I'll have to admit I'm really lucky and I don't know the first thing about asking a girl out, but could we get back to the matter at hand? What happened after you turned on your allure with Cedric?"
Giving an unfriendly look to Hermione before answering, she scowled as she turned to Harry. "I was besieged! Before Cedric could answer, I was pelted with zis powder from all ze 'ogwarts boys around me! Now it is in my 'air, my clothes, and I dare not risk anything more potent zen Scourgify on my uniform."
"I'll be right back," Harry said as he got up and jogged down to the other side of the table, where the twins were sitting. "Hey guys, you wouldn't happen to be responsible for a certain pink powder, would you?"
"Responsible? Harry, my friend, our little product is raking in the coins this week!" Fred answered gleefully.
.
.
.
.
🎉The novel is available in PDF, visit us in our Ko-Fi store🎉
🎉ko-fi.com/madarasama125🎉