Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
xiv.the half-giant
ϟ
Everybody got up late on Boxing Day. The Ravenclaw common room was much quieter than it had been lately, many yawns punctuating the lazy conversations. Everyone was back to their normal selves. Padma sat curled up under a knitted quilt on one of the blue-colored couches in her pajamas, completely unphased by Bentley Morgenstern's presence across the room. He sat with his twin brother, Asher, laughing at him because Matilda had beaten him terribly in a game of Wizarding Chess.
Luna wanted to know everything about the ball and Padma was happy to fill her in on the night's events. Telling Luna about how it looked as though Cho might explode when Matilda brought Harry onto the dance floor.
"But I thought you went with Ron?"
Matilda shrugged, "I did."
Padma grinned. She had convinced herself that Matilda had growing feelings for both Ron and Harry, her problem though is that she is new to feelings and can't sort out which one she might have romantic feelings for. Padma knew about the kiss – the only one who knew about the kiss. Matilda didn't know why she had decided Padma was the one to tell, but she did, and Padma about passed out at the news.
She had a million questions that Matilda didn't know how to answer. It was her first kiss after all.
"It was just a peck on the cheek," said Matilda, shrugging. "It wasn't that big of a deal."
"Maybe to you it wasn't," said Padma. "But to him, that peck probably meant the world, Tilly."
Matilda scoffed. How could a peck on the cheek mean so much to someone, "And why is that?"
"Because he's in love with you, Tilly," said Padma.
And she spoke as if it were common knowledge – as if the entire castle was in on the secret besides her.
ϟ
The first day back to lessons finally rolled around and Matilda couldn't have been more happy about it. She missed the scheduled days that provided structure in her daily routine. Spending the days with nothing to look forward to made it drone on and on. She most of her time after Christmas, with Harry and the egg. She begged and pleaded with him to take Cedric's advice but he refused. Matilda knew it had something to do with his ego, and the fact that he hadn't been able to pluck up enough courage to ask the girl he liked to go to the ball with him or ask the other girl before had a date.
