How You Get the Girl |Harry Potter|

Chapter Five

Elizabeth sat on her favourite windowsill with her favourite book open in her lap. She was comfy and warm, away from the promising breeze of a soon cold winter that November brought. She felt, in other words, perfectly at home. She had stopped coming to the windowsill sometime in her second year, but since all she heard from any of her friends was drama involving the TriWizard Tournament, she decided it was a perfect excuse to go there again.

There was loud laughter and footsteps coming in her direction, causing Elizabeth to bury her nose deeper in her book. The footsteps stopped, and she sighed in relief, pulling her head back up so she could read properly.

"Oi, Gingabeth!" a voice said from beside her. She cringed; only two people in the entire school called her that name. Based off of the heavy accent that laced the nickname, she knew who it was without even looking.

"What do you want, Seamus?" Elizabeth asked as calmly as she could.

"Nothing, really," He said innocently, "was just wondering why you aren't with Malfoy."

"I thought you were tied to his leash," Seamus' best friend, Dean added. Elizabeth was certain that later Seamus would high-five him later for saying that.

"For your information, my universe does not revolve around Draco," Elizabeth rolled her eyes, still not turning away from her precious book to look at the two devils in Gryffindor clothing.

"It certainly seems like it, with him controlling your life and all that," Seamus said, almost positively with a grin.

Elizabeth gritted her teeth, holding back the urge to cast spells upon the two. "He does not control my life, just is a good friend and looks out for me."

She must've blinked, because the next thing she knew, her book was in Dean's hands and the two were forcing her to look at them.

"A friend doesn't seem like the kind of person who would threaten your boyfriend to break up with you or else," Seamus said, his voice a deeper and more animal like tone than she thought was humanly possible.

"A friend does make sure that their friends don't date gits," Elizabeth shot back, standing up from her windowsill and crossing her arms defensively. "I suppose I have to thank Draco for ensuring that."

If steam could blow out of people's ears, Dean would be a volcano. He hated Elizabeth calling his best friend a git, so without a second thought, his two hands gripped the page that Elizabeth was on and began pulling. The sound of ripping paper felt like torture to Elizabeth's ears. She had no regrets about pouncing on the Gryffindor. She landed on his back. He winced on impact but kept the book safe in his hands, if safe means being able to destroy it.

"Leave my book alone, Dean!" She yelled into his ear, reaching for his chest area to get her book back.

Seamus rolled his eyes, before muttering a paralysis spell at her. Elizabeth fell backwards like a brick and yelped when she impacted the cold stone floor.

"Shred it," Seamus told Dean, "and make it quick." He looked down at the unmoving Elizabeth and smiled a smile that you might see on a villain. "If you tell Malfoy, we'll do much more than ruin your favourite book," Seamus promised, reaching down to pet her strawberry blonde hair.

Elizabeth's fudge brown eyes narrowed, filling with so much hatred that it almost made Seamus wince. Dean ripped every page and tossed the ruined book down to her. The pair left Elizabeth paralysed on the ground, with nothing to stare at but the ceiling and a book in pieces that once brought her so much joy. She did everything in her power not to cry at the sight.

ϟϟϟ

Harry was wandering the castle alone, trying to ease his mind with no luck. He was worried about the coming challenge, one where he has to face against a dragon and steal its egg. He was beyond angry with Ron, his best friend who had turned on him and called him a cheat just because Harry's name was somehow placed in the Goblet of Fire. And, most of all, he was worrying about his Lizabeth. To anyone else, it would seem like it would be the least of stuff he needs to worry about, but Harry hadn't seen her in so long that he couldn't help but wonder if she was injured or worse, avoiding him.

He turned down an unfamiliar hallway, feeling uneasy by how empty it was. He shrugged the feeling off; he was the Boy Who Lived, was he really going to be scared of a hallway in the safest place for wizards? His logical side of his brain pointed out that he had seen a lot of deadly stuff in the school in his five short years there. His other side of the brain pointed out that the other side should avoid overthinking and shut up. That side of the brain won.

He continued walking, passing through some windows that let in sunlight. He stopped for a moment to admire the castle grounds that were visible from the windows. It looked peaceful outside with hardly any wind. Harry just watched for a while, letting his mind settle and calm down. He turned his gaze back to the hallway to discover a silhouette of somebody lying on the floor.

"Are you alright over there?" Harry called out to the form as he walked with purpose closer to it. It wasn't until he saw the hair that fell like a blanket around the form that he began to run. "Elizabeth!"

Elizabeth, after being frozen for over an hour with no sign of help coming, had come to the conclusion that she would be stuck in lonely solitude until the spell wore off. That is, if the spell ever wore off. When she heard the voice call out if she needed help, she felt a flash of hope, a flash that turned into a constant flare when she heard the owner of the voice running towards her.

Harry kneeled down beside Elizabeth, stroking her hair as he tried to determine what happened. He saw no clear injuries: no cuts, no bruises. He was utterly confused of what to do. His mind was racing about, thinking of spells that could help her frozen state.

Could she be paralysed? Harry asked himself, looking down at Elizabeth with her brown eyes that made him melt. They were beautiful, even when they were pleading. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to try.

He pulled his wand out of his robe's pocket and casted the antiparalysis spell that Hermione insisted that he should learn. To his relief, Elizabeth sat up in a daze. He watched as she scrambled to grab a book that looked like a mess.

"Are you ok?" Harry asked.

Elizabeth sniffled as she shook her head. She was stroking the pages of the book and turned to Harry. The look that her face held was enough to shatter his heart into a million pieces and put his heart back together just to break it again. Harry opened his arms, letting Elizabeth have the option to be hugged or not.

Without a moment of hesitation, Elizabeth crawled towards him and let him hug her. Harry let one hand remained solid, protecting her from whatever tragedy was playing through her mind, while the other hand drew patterns along her back.

Elizabeth was quiet for a moment before sobbing, "They... they ripped my book. My favourite book."

Harry considered what she said for a moment. She was tearing up over a book? Not the fact that she was paralysed by someone? If she wasn't crying into his shoulder, he would've laughed. Out loud he said, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Seamus and Dean... They found me and decided to irritate me by saying how Draco controlled my life. Draco doesn't control me, if he was controlling me he would be beating himself up over it. Seamus pointed out our breakup last year, as if it was Draco's fault that Draco warned me that Seamus was a git and acted on it. I called Seamus out on it and... Dean took my book. I tried getting it back just to be paralysed by Seamus and for Dean to rip it to shreds," Elizabeth cried. "Seamus told me... That if I told Draco... They would do much worse things that ruin my favourite book."

Harry couldn't help it; he held on to her tighter and planted a kiss on the top of her head. "You told me, and I promise that I won't let anything bad happen to you, especially not from them."

"Thank you, Harry," Elizabeth couldn't help but mumble.

Hearing her say that and his name, Harry grinned despite the situation. He didn't even realize what he was saying until after it came out, "If you date me, even if it is for one day, I will be plenty more grateful than Seamus ever was."

Elizabeth pulled back, her brown eyes narrowing, "My 'Harry's about to ask my out' sense is tingling." Harry didn't even try to deny it, causing Elizabeth to huff in disbelief. She wiggled out of his embrace and stood up before he could even feel the heat gone. "If the only reason why you're nice to me is because you want a date, you might as well not waste your time or my time at all."

She left him, leaving Harry to question what he did that was so bad.