beautiful - harry potter

chapter 12

Harry had his elbows on his knees and he leaned forward with his head down as he saw his black sneaker moving around as his foot nervously tapped on the floor. He was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with Hermione and Ron and all he could think about was Thalia.

He kept glancing at the clock, which read 4:15. When he met Thalia in the Astronomy tower, it was 8:22 pm. He had to wait 7 more minutes before he could seek her out and he wasn't allowed to go earlier because he knew that she would somehow know.

16 hours, he waited 16 hours. He didn't talk to her during class and he didn't stare at her in the Great Hall because he thought he would see her again later. But it was now 4:15 pm and he didn't think he could wait any longer.

"What's with the leg?" Hermione asked, frustrated. Harry's leg had been moving for a few hours and it was sending vibrations across the couch, making it impossible for Hermione to focus. She'd tried to ignore it for hours but this was the line. She was done. "Can you stop it?"

"Sorry," Harry mumbled, putting his hand on his leg to try and stop his foot from tapping the floor too much. "Just nervous."

"There's no way Forthing actually told you to meet her in 16 hours," Ron scoffed from his spot on the floor. Harry had told them what happened but to a certain extent, where they only knew about the Valentine's Day snog and Thalia's demand to meet in 16 hours.

"She did, I swear," Harry laughed. The prominent veins in his hands were more visible as he started to curl his hands into fists and released them, something he did when he was nervous. He glanced at the clock again and smiled. "5 more minutes."

"I don't think she needs you to be that exact, mate," Ron chuckled while shaking his head. "She could've just meant 'meet me at 4'."

"Oh no, she said to seek her out in 16 hours," Harry said. "She meant to be exact. I have to seek her out at exactly 4:22pm."

"What about my sister?" Ron asked. "You just snogged her to lead her on or something?"

"'Course not," the bespectacled teen huffed. "I told Ginny that I wanted to make someone jealous and it wouldn't mean anything and she was perfectly fine with it."

"Right," Hermione laughed. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Ron questioned.

"When someone says they're fine with it, they're clearly not," Hermione explained. "At least, not when girls say it."

"Girls are complicated," Ron said. Harry laughed and looked over at the clock. He waited a few more minutes until the clock struck 4:22 pm and he left the common room.

Harry walked through the halls as quickly as possible as he passed other students, trying to look as casual as possible. As he neared the library, he passed Thalia's friends, who were all exiting together, but he didn't see Thalia among them.

Harry flattened his crimson red sweater a bit so it didn't look as crumpled as he entered the library. The bespectacled Gryffindor walked along the aisles in search of Thalia and finally stopped at the table closest to the restricted section. 

He ran his hands through his hair, as if it was going to tame his messy curls, and he walked over to Thalia's table. Her homework was all splayed out across the table and she sat by herself as she scribbled down words. 

As if she sensed his presence, Thalia's head snapped up and she capped her bottle of ink. Harry slid into the wooden chair across from her and nervously sat there, waiting for her to say something.

Thalia remained completely silent as she rolled up her parchment and put all her items into her black tote bag. She stood up, causing Harry to stand up as well, and she eyed him suspiciously with a cocked eyebrow.