𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐓𝐄𝐍𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆 ── ʜ.ᴊ.ᴘ

13: 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗋𝗎𝗅𝖾𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝖿𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝖽𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀.

❥❥❥

𝗑𝗂𝗂𝗂. 𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗋𝗎𝗅𝖾𝗌 𝗈𝖿 𝖿𝖺𝗄𝖾 𝖽𝖺𝗍𝗂𝗇𝗀

"I don't know whether that's a stupid rule or not."

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He never really thought he'd see the day where he has to fake date his enemy. In fact, the idea never really crossed his mind at all, but life is just full of surprises, isn't it?

"Where'd you even get that absurd idea from anyways?" asked Y/n, storing the cauldron away in a secretive, dark place in the library since the following instructions were to 'remove it from heat and cover with a silk cloth in a dark place to steep.'

"Well -- er -- I was --" Harry stuttered as he trailed after her, trying to think of a way to phrase his next sentence, but Y/n had already beat him to it.

"It's about Weasley, right?" she said, turning around to face him after she finished storing the potion away. "You're jealous about the fact that she's dating Dean Thomas to the point you have to ask me to be your 'girlfriend' in hopes that she gets jealous, and ditches Dean for you."

It was like she read his mind and he couldn't have explained it better than she did. Looks like she still knows him quite well despite the circumstances between them.

"Well?" said Y/n, growing quite impatient with him.

He quickly nodded.

Y/n sighed, leading him back to their table where she took out a quill and a spare bit of parchment from her bag.

"Since you're so desperate to get the girl, we need to set down a few things first."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean we need to make rules if we're gonna do this."

Harry looked at her, his head tilting to the side slightly as if he were some lost puppy that had been found in the street.

"Rules?" he asked. "Why would we need them?"

"Because we all know that you're an idiot."

"That's quite a reasonable point. Anything else?"

"So we could stick to the plan and not have this fake relationship go all over the place."

"Another fair point." Harry noticed that she had already written something down on the parchment. "What did you put for our very first rule?"

She grinned and looked up at him. "Not to catch feelings."

Harry was sure that if he had water or juice in his mouth right now, he would have spat it out. It's not that he was disappointed or anything, he just didn't expect that. He expected something like 'act nice towards each other' or 'to stop trying to kill each other all the time', he expected anything but that.

It's not like he could ever catch feelings for each other, right? His eyes then slipped down to her hand, and when he saw that she still had the bracelet, he swore his heart started beating faster like he had just run a marathon.

He wouldn't fall for her, would he? Would he?

"I don't know whether that's a stupid rule or not."

Y/n pouted mockingly at him. "Awh, why? Is the great Mr 'Chosen One' afraid that he'll lose feelings for his dear 'Chosen girl?'"

He didn't know how to respond to that. Yeah, he loves Ginny, he really does, but is he really afraid that he'll stop liking her and move on? He's liked her for quite a while and had never let anyone get in the way of his infatuation for her. But this, this was different, this whole fake dating is new to him, and maybe to Y/n as well, but he doesn't know that. All he knows is that he needs her help.