Nott Your Boyfriend | A Slytherin/Hufflepuff Romance

Bonus chapter: Justin Finch-Fletchley Scores a Date

"What are you doing?" Justin hissed as Zacharias and Ernie pulled him along towards a corner of the Room of Requirement.

The corner were Michael Corner and his Ravenclaw friends were talking.

Yes, he was happy that Hannah had invited Michael to this party to cheer Susan up, but he hadn't actually thought of approaching the boy. Justin was more of a 'admire your crush from afar' kind of guy.

"This is the perfect moment for you to talk to him," Ernie whispered in his ear. "You haven't had a good excuse since Dumbledore's Army ended."

"He's STRAIGHT!" Justin seethed, but he quickly shut up once he realised how loud that last word had come out.

Michael Corner, Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein all looked up and stared at him. Great, Justin thought. This is just great. Why don't I just go ahead and embarrass myself in front of his friends? That's a sure way for him to like me.

Anthony leaned towards Terry and whispered something into his friend's ear. Terry smirked. What were they saying about Justin? It couldn't be anything good. Michael continued to stare at Justin and when their eyes met for a brief second Justin blushed.

"Hi," Justin heard Ernie greet the Ravenclaws when they reached their group in the corner of the room. "Thanks for coming, guys. I'm sure Susan appreciates it."

"No problem," Anthony replied. "We should support each other in these dark times."

"How is Susan doing?" Terry asked. "It must be hard to go through another break-up so soon after Seamus cheated on her."

Rumors traveled fast around Hogwarts, so Justin wasn't surprised that the Ravenclaw boys knew about Seamus and Lavender.

"Yeah, but I don't get why she was dating that Slytherin," Anthony said. "They can't be trusted. Not one of them was in Dumbledore's Army last year."

"Susan has a tendency to fall for lost causes," Ernie shrugged.

 Justin tried his best to focus on the conversation, but it was really hard since his arm was pressed against Michael's. The Ravenclaw hadn't said anything yet, but Justin could feel his gaze settle upon him from time to time.

He sipped his drink and let his fellow Hufflepuffs do the talking for him. They had moved on to the subject of Quidditch when Justin drank the last of his pumpkin juice.

"Let me get you another one," Zacharias suddenly said while he snatched the cup out of Justin's hands.

"Oh no, it's fine," Justin tried to say, but Zacharias had already moved towards the table with all the drinks at the center of the room.

When he came back he pushed the now full to the brim cup of pumpkin juice back into Justin's hands. Without thinking, he took a sip from it. He paused. Something tasted different from his previous cup, but he couldn't quite place it. Surely he was imagining things. He shrugged and downed the whole thing in one go.

Zacharias gaped at him, which Justin thought was a bit weird. "How do you feel?" his friend whispered.

Justin shrugged, but then he did start to notice how his insides were tingling and he just felt that bit more ... confident about the evening. He straightened his shoulders and cracked his neck. That felt much better.

"You did well during Ravenclaw's last Quidditch match," Justin heard himself say to Michael. He was the Ravenclaw Keeper this year and with how Michael looked in his Quidditch uniform Justin could definitely agree that he was indeed a keeper. "That moment you stopped the Quaffle with the tip of your foot."

Michael laughed and Justin's stomach responded with a flip. He had done that. He was the cause of that smile.

"That was pure luck," the gorgeous Ravenclaw responded. "But I'm glad someone pays attention to my Quidditch skills."

Justin turned bright red. He burrowed his face into his cup to hide his blush, even though the cup was already empty. So far for his confidence ...

"I'll get some more drinks," Justin said as an excuse to get out of this awkward situation with Michael. "Who else wants refills?"

Everyone murmured at once and put their cups into Justin's hands. He let Ernie's cup fall on the ground.

Michael bent down and picked the cup back up. When he straightened he smiled at Justin who couldn't help but gulp at the sight of Michael's gorgeous face and long dark wavy hair. "Let me help you with that," the Ravenclaw said. Justin only nodded.

Justin handed him two more cups and together they walked to the table to refill the drinks of the group.

"You know, I haven't talked a lot to you throughout our six years at Hogwarts," Michael said. "Why is that?" The Ravenclaw tilted his head sideways while he waited for Justin to respond.

"I don't know," Justin replied while filling his cups. Even though he felt a bit more confident after drinking his second cup of pumpkin juice, his hands were still shaking. He spilled a tiny bit of pumpkin juice on the white table cloth.

Justin wanted to wipe it down, but Michael grabbed his wrist and stopped him. "I'll do it," he said while pulling out his wand. "Scourgify!" the Ravenclaw said and the table cloth was clean again. All the while his hand was still resting on Justin's wrist.

"Thank you," Justin said. He made no move to pull away from Michael. The warmth of Michael's hand on his skin was nice. Way too nice.

"You're welcome," Michael smiled and to Justin's regret the boy pulled his hand away.

"You know," Justin then said, still feeling the burst of confidence soaring through his body. Had Zacharias put something into his cup? He couldn't really be bothered. If it killed his nerves enough to finally talk to Michael Zacharias could put tons of the concoction into his drinks. The more, the merrier. "You're right. We haven't talked much at all. Maybe we should fix that and hang out sometime. Get to know each other a bit. I'll buy you a drink in The Three Broomsticks."

A hint of surprise appeared on Michael's features. The Ravenclaw studied Justin for such a long time that Justin started to regret speaking out. God, had he really just asked a straight boy out? How utterly stupid of him.

"Okay," Michael finally spoke. A tight smile played on the corner of his lips. "Why not?"

"Really?" Justin asked in surprise. Maybe Michael had misunderstood him. Maybe he thought he just wanted to get some drinks with him as a new potential friend. Maybe he didn't think of it as a date.

"Yeah, you're kind of cute," Michael replied and he winked. He actually winked at Justin. Was this a dream? Was he about to wake up in his dorm bed, all turned on because of the look this dream boy had just given him?

 "I'll see you next Saturday then?" Justin asked.

"It's a date," Michael replied before he walked away with his hands full of cups.

Justin stayed at the table for a moment, completely flabbergasted. Michael's last words echoed in his head. It's a date.

Maybe he should stop assuming people were straight.