Dumbledore and Harry's Adventures

Let Them Have Cake

A tired Harry trudged down the hallway of Grimmauld Place to get some much-needed lunch. The past few hours had been exhausting. Not that they had been exhausting from a magical or physical sense, but he was mentally worn out from three straight hours of being both on edge and utterly bored. Given his current mental state, he was rather unhappy with being forced back into Sirius's gloomy old childhood home.

Harry sighed.

He was being unfair. Grimmauld Place could hardly be called gloomy. With all the cleaning he had done, the place was bright and airy. The sunlight streamed in through the windows, the air was fresh, and all the dark artifacts had been moved into storage at Gringotts. Walburga's portrait was also pleasant to be around (Harry suspected that the limited consciousness of the painting had somewhat forgotten why it had decided to be nice to everyone, as it had stopped asking about when they were going to sacrifice Remus). Walburga's good mood, of course, meant that Kreacher was often in a good mood (especially after Harry had supplied the House Elf with a small and comfortable chair, in which he could sit and spend most of the day next to his beloved mistress's portrait). If it wasn't for the fact that Sirius's mood always became slightly subdued in the house, the place would be downright homey. Except, a subdued Sirius felt so unnatural that it was impossible for the house to completely lose its initial gloomy impression.

Tacked onto the slightly off vibes of the house, there was the fact that two days ago Harry had been on a beach in Hawaii mutually flirting with a very pretty muggle girl named Sarah. Honestly, the house could be the homiest home of all the homes that have ever homed, and it would still be a let down from chatting up a pretty girl in a swimsuit.

Harry's lips turned up slightly at the memory of his stay in Hawaii. There was nothing quite like relaxing on a beach after a hard morning of training. It was both relaxing and allowed him the opportunity to expand his skills in the field of flirting. He had initially been very tentative when it came to talking to members of the opposite sex. Sirius had taken it on as his duty to train Harry in all the things dating-related, and while the man was enthusiastic, he was not a very good teacher (or very good at the activity itself). Albus and Remus were of even less help in teaching Harry how to not be incredibly awkward around pretty girls.

Surprisingly (or retrospectively unsurprisingly), it was Gilderoy who became Harry's best tutor in the art of flirting. Say what you will about the man, when he wasn't being forced to back up his boasts with proof, he was downright charming. While the man wrote voluminous letters about the art of charming others (and was currently contemplating the best way to monetize his volumes of advice), it had mainly boiled down to two main takeaways for Harry. The first was that people respond well to confidence, so pretend to be confident until you really become confident.

The second takeaway went against Sirius's teachings. Sirius apparently based his teachings on his understanding of Harry's father's technique. That being, once you decide who you want to be with, pursue them doggedly no matter how much the person displays their disinterest. Harry suspected (or at least hoped) that Sirius didn't fully understand the courtship between his mum and dad.

Gilderoy's advice was that there was no point in flirting with someone who didn't respond positively to one's advances. While it was true that you had to prove that you were worth talking to and pursuing, it was equally true that the object of your affection had to prove that they were worth pursuing as well. As Gilderoy said, "if they aren't smart enough to see how amazing you are, then they aren't smart enough to be worth pursuing". Harry could easily see how the advice could be used to play games with people, but by itself it was a great mindset that took off all the pressure and transformed his approach from walking into a high stakes job interview into simply having a fun conversation between equals. He had yet to stay in a place long enough to bother with pursuing a date, but the flirting with various girls had been innocent fun, and he did have Sarah's phone number if he ever found himself in Duluth (which is where her family was visiting from... wherever that was).