Last First Kiss {HP Next Generation}

Chapter Twenty One

Unsure of how to respond to the horrid advice given to them by Sirius and Remus, Henry and Hope were no closer to figuring out what exactly was causing the rift between them and their friendship. Despite Henry attempting to spend more time around Hope than he had been, whenever McGregor showed his face, Henry would take it upon himself and vanish, leaving Hope completely lost as she just couldn't put two and two together.

Their friends and Hope's family were absolutely no help. Stella and Eliza encouraged Hope to give Benjamin a chance as he was a sweet boy and obviously had developed a decent size crush on the younger Weasley. Elliot agreed to whatever Eliza said without question and Teddy just enjoyed teasing the living hell out of Henry, who was far in denial, the young Lupin wasn't sure if he could fish the poor boy out.

Rather than spending time with his usual friends, Henry spent his time with Tori and Alyssa. Tori seemed to be good company but to Henry, Alyssa was another Teddy. 

Always claiming things that weren't true.

He and Hope had been best friends, probably destined to be friends since they were in their mother's wombs.  They grew up together and knew everything about each other, and in all their years, Henry had never viewed Hope in that light. They were friends.

Just friends.

However, anytime he saw McGregor hanging around Hope or just talking to her, he could feel angry just swell in his chest. But he wasn't sure what he was angry at. He certainly wasn't angry with Hope, but he didn't understand why she just couldn't tell McGregor to go away. He wasn't angry with McGregor, but he wouldn't exactly be sad if the boy went missing for all of eternity.

It actually brought a smile to his face.

No matter how many times Hope asked Henry to spend time with her, whenever McGregor was involved, Henry made an excuse not to join them, but each time he could see the hurt in Hope's expression as he rejected the invitation.

Seated in the Potions classroom, waiting for other students to arrive, Henry focused down on his hands as he tried to think of something else than the situation between him and Hope when suddenly he was smacked upside the head with a heavy object.

"Ow!" He immediately jerked his head up to see that Kefira had entered her classroom and made her way over to her desk, before dropping the rather large book down with a loud thud.

"What was that for?" he eyed the red headed woman with a glare.

"That was a message your mother told me to pass along to you." Kefira smirked as she sat down at her desk.

"What? What did I do?!" Henry asked rubbing the back of his head.

"I dunno. Just doing what I was told to do." Kefira shrugged. "You must have done something wrong along with your father and Lupin."

"Why do you say that?" Henry questioned.

"Trust me, you're lucky I'm the one who hit you with the book. Your father and Lupin had to take the hit from your mother."

Henry grimaced lowering his hand back down and resting it on the desk, silently thanking his lucky stars that he had not met his mother's wrath.

"She also told me to direct you to her office after class." Kefira added.

"Aww noo." Henry groaned dropping his head down to the table. "I'm dead."

Potions was awkward enough with Henry and Hope sitting next to each other, stealing glances but neither one of them saying a word to each other. When the class ended, even Kefira seemed confused by the demeanor of the two as Hope quickly gathered her things and left, leaving Henry to frown as he collected his belongings and left to his mother's office.

He walked extra slow to put off any yelling that he was about to endure, but eventually he found himself standing in the doorway of the Transfiguration. His mother was sitting at her desk, reading over a piece of parchment in her hand as he knocked lightly on the door.

"Hi Mummy." he said flashing her the widest grin he could bear. "You look beautiful today-"

"Sit." she didn't look up from the paper.

Henry swallowed as he removed his bag from around his shoulders and placed it beside his seat before sitting down. He twiddled his thumbs nervously in his lap before his mother looked up at him finally.

"What is wrong with you?" she asked him bluntly. "And before you say nothing or claim that you are just fine, I'm going to stop you right there. You better tell me the truth, Henry."

"I...I...I don't know, Mum." Henry sighed heavily. "I don't know what's going on with me...but I'm not fine because I don't know what's going on."

Nixie looked at her son before her expression softened drastically.

"What is going on between you and Hope? You two haven't been hanging out and when you two are near each other, you both look miserable."

"It's all because of stupid McGregor." Henry growled.

Nixie's eyes widened at the mention of one of her students. 

"What did he do?"

"Nothing..he's just...around."

"Sweetheart, are you jealous because Hope has made another friend?"

"He's not a friend...at least that isn't his intention. He brought her...personalized quidditch gloves" Henry said in a mocking tone.".. and all this other rubbish! I mean...who does that?"

Nixie covered her mouth as she folded her hands together over it to hide her smile.

Henry leaned back in the chair, grumbling bitterly, not noticing his mother's growing amusement before she cleared her throat.

"Henry...Hope is your best friend. You two have been friends since you were days old.  It's alright to get jealous if she's hanging around other people, but you have to be supportive of her as well. I'm not saying you have to be friends with McGregor, but you need to respect their friendship...or whatever it is. For all you know...it may be very short term. You know very well that Hope is not easy to keep up with. So far you've been the only one to do so, and I don't think she wants to lose that and I don't think you want to lose her either...do you?"

"No. Never."

"Well then, show her that."