Lavender smiled brightly when she saw Harry sitting in the common room as she descended the stairs. "Hi Harry!"
Harry looked up and smiled softly. "Morning Lavender. How was the feast?"
She sat beside him on the couch. "It was fun. Would have been more fun with you." She patted his hand. "Not to make you feel bad, just saying I missed you there."
"Oh? That's so nice of you to say." He looked embarrassed and happy in equal measure. "I'm glad you had fun."
"How are you feeling?" she asked, peering at him closely.
"I feel okay," he said truthfully. "I slept alright surprisingly."
"That's good. Oh, the stew was so good, thank you so much."
He brightened. "You liked it?"
"It was delicious," Lavender said emphatically.
"I'm glad," he beamed.
"Hi Harry," Parvati greeted after walking up to them. "I saved some candy for you from the feast last night." She gave him a bag of brightly colored candies.
"Hey, some of those are ones I saved for him," Lavender protested.
"And I'm giving them to Harry," Parvati said smugly. "To prove I'm the better friend." She ducked when Lavender threw a couch pillow at her.
Harry laughed. "Thanks, you two, I really appreciate it. Shall we go to breakfast?"
"We're waiting for Hemione, if that's okay," Parvati said.
"That's fine," Harry said, pleasantly surprised. He smiled at Lavender. "You talked to her?"
"I said I would for you," Lavender said primly. "She's not actually that bad. We reached an understanding and we're going to try and be friendlier with each other."
"That's really good," Harry said.
Hermione came down the steps. "Morning," she said. "Thank you for waiting." After the quartet left the tower and were on the way to the Great Hall, she awkwardly cleared her throat. "Thank you, Harry," she said. "For asking Lavender to talk to me."
"You're welcome. I'm glad you guys talked," Harry said.
"Yes, it was nice," Hermione said.
They sat at the Gryffindor table and breakfast appeared before them. They started serving themselves and the morning owls came flying in, filling the air with the sound of hooting and barking and flapping wings. Hedwig circled in and landed in front of Harry. She looked at him carefully before nuzzling his face with hers, cooing softly.
"Good morning to you too," he smiled and rubbed her head. He fed her bacon after she finished her nuzzling and she sat beside him at the table, pressing herself against one arm.
"She's really affectionate today," Parvati said.
"I'm not complaining at all," Harry said happily.
Hermione was the first to finish and left for the library, needing to do something before their first class. Parvati watched her go. "I have to introduce her to Padma. I bet those two would get along."
"I'm honestly a bit surprised she didn't get sorted into Ravenclaw," Lavender said. "Don't they love to read and study too?"
"I don't think she'd have it any better," Parvati said frankly. "Padma says it's pretty cold in Ravenclaw. They like to debate and talk about theory and studies and stuff but it's super cliquey and not terribly friendly."
"The Hufflepuffs look pretty close most of the time," Harry mused, looking over at their table. "They're pretty friendly in class I think."
"More friendly than the Slytherins, that's for sure," Lavender sniffed. "They're mostly so rude and you can see them separate themselves into groups at their table too."
"Do you think the Sorting Hat puts all the rude people in Slytherin for convenience's sake?" Parvati whispered and giggled.
"No, because then Seamus would be there too," Lavender said. She and Parvati erupted into even louder giggles and even Harry fought hard to join them, but he smiled broadly alongside. When Lavender looked at the Slytherin table, she saw someone looking back at them for a moment. "She's looking over again."
"Hmm, I'm really curious why," Parvati said as peeked over at the other table.
"Who?" Harry asked.
"Parkinson," Lavender and Parvati said.
When Harry looked over, Pansy looked away. "Oh, she might be looking at me."
"Probably trying to help Malfoy mess with you then," Parvati sniffed.
"I don't know," Harry hummed. "I gave her a muffin after our club that night."
"You gave Parkinson one of your muffins?" Lavender asked, surprised. "Why?"
"I found her by the Owlery. She was crying," he replied.
"Wow, you weren't kidding when you said you don't like hearing people cry," Lavender said. "To be nice to her when she's been so rude to you."
Harry shrugged sheepishly. "She sounded and looked really upset."
"Do you think that's why she's been less rude to us lately?" Parvati asked.
"I don't know," Harry said honestly. "I'll take it though. Malfoy is plenty rude."
"That's like saying water's plenty wet," Parvati snorted.
"Or that Hedwig's feathers are very soft and pretty," Lavender smiled as she watched Hedwig pull a piece of bacon off her plate.
Hedwig cheeped thickly with agreement; her beak full of bacon.
.....
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