Last First Kiss {HP Next Generation}

Chapter Seventeen

Henry wasn't much in the holiday mood for the remainder of the Christmas break, even if he and Hope did have some good times sharing in a snowball with their fathers like they had done every year as part of a tradition. Since the day of Christmas, Stella had put on a permanent damper on his Christmas spirit when she decided to announce to the Weasley, Lupin and Black family about Hope's newest admirer and possible boyfriend, Benjamin McGregor.

Normally, Henry had never had a problem with the boy. Benji was a nice enough boy and often spoke to him and Hope in classes they shared but now just the mere mentioning of the boy's name put Henry into a bad mood. Hope seemed to  notice the change in her friend's demeanor but she was clueless as to why he was upset and whenever she tried to approach the subject he would just brush her off and say he was fine.

Not convinced he was fine, Hope did her best to cheer up her friend as they were heading back to Hogwarts for the second half of the year.

Instead of traveling back with their families by arriving in Hogsmeade, Hope suggested they take the train to head back to school and Henry agreed liking the idea of it just being the two of them. And not having Teddy tease the living hell out of him.

Kissing her parents goodbye at the station, Hope gave Fred and Eleanor one last hug before climbing onto the train, only to hear her father's warning of telling McGregor to keep his hands and lips to himself unless he wanted to lose them.

Henry smiled brightly at Fred's threat before following Hope onto the train and finding an empty compartment.

"Oh yes, this is nice."  Hope said resting her legs up on the empty part of the seat opposite of her while Henry sat beside her taking the window seat.

"It was a good idea." Henry said.

"Thank you. My brilliance is-"

"Don't push it, Dopey Hopey."

"Let me have a shining moment here, GuppyPuppy." She suddenly pushed herself up and stood on the seat, holding her head up in a proud stance. "I, Hope Margaret Weasley, declare this moment a proud moment in history where Henry Black acknowledged my level of genius."

"Merlin, Hope, get down from there!" he laughed before grabbing her hand and pulling her back down to sit.

As soon as he let go of her hand, she shot back up. "And furthermore-"

'Hope!"

"Alright, alright." she huffed sitting back down. 

"Oh!" she suddenly exclaimed.  "I forgot to tell you...look what I snagged from the shop."

She began rummaging through her bag.

"Is it more yarn?" he teased her. 

Hope glanced up at him with a flat expression. "No."

She searched a bit more before finally pulling something out and quickly dropping it. Suddenly, something was bouncing all over the place.

"What is that?" Henry said as it nearly hit him in the face.

"The Forever Bouncing Bouncy Ball!" Hope grinned.

"How do we stop it?"

"What part of forever do you not understand, Ry?"

"And of course you thought it would be a good idea to let it go in here."

"That was not intentional, but it's turning out to be fun!"

Without warning the compartment door opened and suddenly someone yelled out as the bouncy ball made direct contact with their forehead.

"Ooooh." Henry and Hope said together while scrunching their faces as the person went down. However, when Henry saw who it was, he didn't feel so concerned anymore.

Hope was on her feet and made her way to Benjamin's side as the boy was sitting up on the floor.

"Practicing for the next match?" Benjamin smiled at her.

"Sorry!" Hope apologized quickly. "Are you okay?"

"Oh yeah, I'm fine. That was nice compared to the bludgers I've taken from you in the past."

She laughed as Benjamin picked up the bouncy ball that rested in his lap.

"What is it?'

"The Forever Bouncing Bouncy Ball."

"That's really neat."

"That's really neat." Henry muttered under his breath before rolling his eyes and looking out the window.

As Hope helped Benjamin up to his feet, Henry stood up to leave the compartment.

"Henry, where are you going?" Hope asked him.

"I..um...have to go...but I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

Leaving Hope with Benjamin bothered Henry greatly, but he also didn't want to be around the boy either.

He grumbled to himself as he paced back and forth at the end of the train trying to figure out why he suddenly hated Benjamin so much.

"Are you okay?" a voice asked him. He quickly turned around to see Tori Thomas-Finnigan standing in the door way of one of the compartments with her young sister, Alyssa.

"Uh yeah, I'm fine." he said. "How are you?" he asked the fellow Gryffindor and the Hufflepuff girls.

"Fine as well." Tori replied. "Where's Hope?'

"What?"

"I said, where's Hope?" Tori repeated. "Normally where there is one of you, the other one isn't far off. And normally means something is up..."

"Something is up?"

"Either you're up to no good, or she's up to no good." Tori chuckled.

He grinned. 'Sounds about right. She's back in the compartment with Benjamin."

"Told you that's where he was going to go." Alyssa called out proudly.

"Shut up, Aly, no one asked you to begin with." Tori's fiery temper appeared.

"But I was right, wasn't I?" the little curly black haired girl grinned. 'He does like Hope."

"Shut. Up."

"Uh... is everything okay here?" Henry said taking a step back from the females.

"Everything is okay.' Tori reassured him.

"Yeah, Tori's just madly in love with McGregor, that's all. No big deal."

"Aly!"