Chapter 100: Lose!

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"Quit being silly." Hermione says, cheeks thoroughly tinted red by now.

"Are you being silly, William? I'm not," Harry says.

"Me neither. I got dibs on complimenting her first when she comes out," I say.

He gasps. "No way! She's my date!"

"Should have claimed dibs, then," I say smugly.

"She's my date so I automatically get dibs!" Harry looks confused a moment. "Whatever those are."

"I suppose there is some sense in that," I grumble. "How about this: you get overall first compliment, I get first compliment of a specific feature, area, or body part."

"That's a possibility," he says, "which one?"

"Well, obviously I won't know until I see her," I point out.

"That's awfully open-ended, but I suppose that is acceptable," he says. "I'm betting you'll go for the eyes."

"Oh, don't get me started on those deep, milk chocolate pools of wonder if you don't want me to melt right here in the corridor."

"Lucky bastard," he growls. "Well, I got dibs on the second compliment of a specific feature."

"Damn! Nice call. You know I'm going to swipe the second overall compliment, but all bets are off after that."

"I'm going to Silence the both of you as soon as I see you," Hermione says, her face now thoroughly red.

"Actually, she has a point, Harry," I say. "I'm pretty sure as soon as I see her I'll lose the ability to form any sort of coherent thought, let alone a string of intelligible words."

"Brilliant as always, Hermione," Harry says, patting her on the back. "But William, you, lose the ability to speak? I'll believe it when I see it."

I laugh right along with both of them at that.

"Yeah, he—" Hermione begins, but she suddenly goes rigid, followed by Harry. I turn and see Draco and his minions, along with Pansy and hers. 

Draco has gone as rigid as the two at my side, staring at Harry, while Pansy is splitting her death glare among the three of us.

I step in front of Harry and Hermione to break the staring match, then start walking forward, keeping to the right side of the corridor. 

Draco clenches his jaw and focuses his eyes down the corridor, then starts walking down the other side. 

Pansy snaps her eyes to Draco in surprise, but the rest of their group follows without a word. We pass without incident, and remain quiet for a full minute after their footfalls fade into the background noise.

"Looks like Ms. Parkinson doesn't get it yet," I say quietly.

Hermione lets out a relieved breath as the tension drains from the corridor. "Bloody hell, William, it's really true what Daphne said, isn't it? He's changed."

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"They're coming," Harry says, causing me to drop my wand. Since I can't actually use it for its intended purpose, I'm practicing twirling it around in my fingers because I think it probably looks cool. It probably doesn't. Undaunted, I pick it up and resume twirling.

"Will you stop that?" Hermione asks in an irritated voice. "Are you nervous or something?"

I wonder at that. "I don't think so. Hey, Hermione, pretend I'm good at this for a minute. Does it look cool?"

"What? No."

"Really? How about it, Harry? Pretend I'm good at it." I try to turn to him while I'm twirling, but the wand soon clatters to the floor once again.

"It's kinda hard to pretend that," he says honestly while I pick my wand back up and he puts the Map away, "because it looks really awkward right now."

"Screw you guys," I say with a sniff. "I'm convinced it'll look awesome once I get better at it."

Hermione scoffs, which draws my attention back to her and makes the wand slip from my fingers, but I trap it against my leg. 

When I stand back up, the tall, dark figure of Blaise is turning the corner, followed by Tracey and the pair of raven-haired sisters. 

I smile, which only grows when Blaise scowls. I'm pleased to see Astoria smiling as well.

"Thank you for passing along my message, Mr. Zabini, Ms. Davis. It's a pleasure to see you again Daphne, Astoria." The latter gets a wide smile from me. 

"Astoria, these are my dear friends, Harry Potter and Hermione Granger," I turn to them with a grin. "This is the beautiful young lady I couldn't stop telling you about, Astoria Greengrass." I turn back to see her blushing. 

"We are still on for the Ball tonight, aren't we?"

"We are," she says, "and it's a pleasure to meet you Mr. Potter, Ms. Granger." She gives an adorable little curtsey.

"And you, Ms. Greengrass," Hermione says.

"So William somehow swindled you into going, eh?" Harry says with a grin.

She laughs and the three of them begin chatting about me and about the Ball, but I turn to Daphne and my amused smile fades at her blank face. 

I step around Astoria and move closer to split our group into separate conversations. Daphne sends a quick glance to Tracey, who grabs Blaise and goes over to stand by Astoria.

"I'm sorry about last week, Daphne," I say without preamble.

She lets out a breath and looks away. "You just...I wasn't ready for that and you surprised me. I'm sorry I Stunned you."

We both shift uncomfortably, so I decide to lighten the mood. "I told Astoria that I'd ask before I do that again, and maybe I'll back away next time, too."

Daphne coughs to cover a chuckle, then surprises me by stepping forward and giving me an awkward hug, as if she's trying to make sure we're touching as little as possible. I'm shocked enough that I resist the temptation to squish her. "Be sure that you do."

She steps away with a barely perceptible blush. "Just to be clear," I say with a mock-serious expression, "you can do that whenever you want, though next time I can't promise I won't hug you back harder."

She tries to suppress a smile. "Don't hold your breath."

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