Last First Kiss {HP Next Generation}

Chapter Thirty Eight

Hope sat in Professor Dover's class, glancing down at the quill she twirled about in her hand back and forth to keep herself entertained. Students were pouring into the classroom, along with Fergus, who sat beside her to keep her company.

"You okay, Hopey?" He asked with a worried look as she rested her chin in the palm of her hand with a bored and distant look.

"I'm fine." She replied. "Just ready to get class started and over with."

He frowned as Hope didn't sound like her usual and bubbly self, he could only wish that Henry hadn't been so stupid and hurt the poor girl. Hope just seemed all too confused with the situation before her, she had come to terms that perhaps there was something there between her and Henry but Henry had fumbled all of it in her mind by kissing Alyssa and holding hands with Tori.

The class was just about to begin as Nixie took to the front of the classroom, with a book in hand, requesting that the fourth year students as they were learning about Cross-Species switches. The professor began to explain how the switching of species was much easier if the species were similar in appearance and size, however, mid sentence, the door opened causing all the students in the room to turn around.

Henry stood in the doorway of his mother's classroom and turned a bright red as his mother gave him a look as she peered up from her book.

"Sorry." he muttered to her.

"Take your seat." she told him, eyeing the empty seat near the front of the room.

Hope and Fergus watched as Henry kept his head low as he walked towards his mother and quickly settled down in the seat.

"I wonder where he's been." Fergus whispered to Hope. She gave a quick shrug.

"Probably got caught up holding hands with Tori, or maybe snogging Alyssa." she replied with a slight bitterness to her tone.

Fergus turned to her and watched as she blinked several times, surprised at her own self for saying such a thing.

"Sorry," she muttered to him. "I don't think I'm feeling very well today. My head hurts."

"It's okay, maybe it's a bug that's going around the castle."

"Yeah, maybe."

Fergus knew all too well that it wasn't a bug going around the castle unless the bug had been called jealously. But it appeared it was going around and biting everyone. From what he had gathered, Henry had been the first to fall jealous over McGregor's interaction with Hope, then Tori became jealous over Hope's interaction with McGregor. Currently, Hope was feeling the jealously finally as she really didn't seem alright with Henry being around Tori or Alyssa, no matter how hard she tried to put on a fake smile.

As he tried to focus on the lesson, Fergus saw Henry trying to grab his and Hope's attention several times, but each time was foiled by his mother who believed he was attempting to disrupt the class. Hope didn't seem to notice Henry's attempts to grab her attention or if she did, she wasn't giving him the response he was looking for as she continued to ignore him.

Eventually, Henry found himself in trouble after interrupting his mother again, as Nixie was not allowed to play favorites to her son if he was misbehaving.

Class ended and Henry quickly jumped up from his seat, anxious to talk to Hope about all the misunderstandings that had come between them. But before he could escape, his mother grabbed him by the back of his robes, keeping him in place.

"Not so fast." she said as the other students filed out.

"Mum, wait! Please!" He struggled against her hold but he had forgotten how strong his mother really was. He nearly flopped in defeat as Fergus and Hope left the classroom together.

"Mum!" He rounded on her. "What are you doing?!"

"Me?" Nixie gave him a look as her lips parted. "What are you doing interrupting my class!? We had an agreement. You bother your father and Remus!"

"I know, I know!" Henry said growing even more flustered. "But I had to talk to Hope!"

"Then you should have arrived to class early. Besides, couldn't it have waited until after? You two are in the same house!"

"No, it couldn't have waited." Henry groaned. "Because I made a huge mistake and now Hope hates me."

"She hates you? Oh come now, Henry, now you just sound completely silly. That child is incapable of feeling hate, especially towards you. The two of you have been friends since you since she was born a few days after you."

"But Mum! I screwed up. I screwed up big time."

Nixie sighed as she sat her son down and pulled up a chair to the table. "What did you do, Henry?"

"I made Hope think things when I should have just been honest with her from the start." he admitted.

"Sounds like something I told you to do but I won't hold that against you. You get the stubborn streak from your father."

"Dad says I get it from you." Henry said.

"I'll be having a talk with him later."

Henry gave a small grin.

"Now, what did you make Hope think?"

"Well, I was talking to Alyssa and Tori and they were trying to think of ways to get Hope to notice the fact that I like her. But I didn't like any of the ideas, especially since they wanted me to pretend that I liked Tori to-"

"Make Hope jealous?" Nixie finished.

"Yes."

"That's a terrible idea."

"I know! That's what I said!" Henry said. "But before that, Teddy told me not to talk to Hope unless it was face to face, but I think she was upset that I didn't try to send an owl all summer. But she didn't send one either..."

"Why do you all listen to Teddy? I don't understand. Stop listening to him!"

"But he was right about one thing. He told me to talk to Hope now-"

"No he was wrong, because you shouldn't have been trying to talk to her in my class because you kept distracting everyone."

"MUM!" He whined before dropping his head down to the table.

Nixie sighed as she looked at her son. "Look, go find Hope and talk to her, but if you interrupt my class again because you weren't smart enough to listen to me the first time, I'm going to become your worse nightmare. Understood?"

"Yes."

"Good, now go on and talk to her and you better make things right. You two have class in a couple of hours and don't think I won't find out about you skipping!"

Henry smiled at his mother before standing up and leaning across the table to kiss her cheek.

"You're the best."

"Yeah, yeah, you don't have to kiss up to me anymore, get going."

Henry raced back to the Gryffindor Tower praying that Hope was there, as soon as the Fat Lady portrait opened to allow him, he found Hope sitting on the sofa with Fergus.

"Hey..." He breathed placing his hands on his knees as he attempted to capture his breath. "I...I...wooo...just give me a minute."

The two watched as he stood a little straighter placing his hands on his hips. "I am not built for running."

"No, you're built for swimming." Hope said.

He smiled in her direction before giving Fergus a look. The other boy took his cue and arose to leave to the boy's dorm.

"Hope, I need to talk to you." Henry told her as he walked over to her.

"About what?" She asked.

"About everything."