Chapter 234: The Date: Second Half (2/2)

”Lavender,” she called to the rubenesque one of the Gryffindor duet who worshipped the paper on which Witch Weekly was printed.

Lavender Brown turned back, and so did her exotic partner of Lavender, Parvati Patil.

” ”Hello, Hermione~,” ” they said in a sing-a-song duet.

”Yes, hello,” Hermione subtly jutted to the subject of her query. ”Those two. What's the deal there? Did they come alone, or are they with others?”

”You don't know?” Lavender said and then giggled along with Parvati. ”They're here on a date~,” she stretched it long, ”everyone knows it.”

”I was there, you know,” Paravati dreamily sighed, ”Quinn arrived in the entrance hall and started with gifting Daphne the most beautiful sapphire flower that, with a touch from Daphne, turned into a stunning wrist ring band,” Parvati glanced over Hermione's head and suddenly said, ”Oh hey, Ivy.”

Hermione jerked her head back and felt a quiver in her stomach. She turned to see standing behind her was her best friend with a tray in hand.

Ivy wasn't looking at Hermione; her eyes were solely focused on the pair sitting a distance from them. She watched the two laugh and giggle; the boy she liked was clearly leaning forward — she could tell that he was enjoying herself. On the other side, she could see the relaxed shoulder of Daphne Greengrass — for her(Daphne), it was a big deal.

”Ivy,” said Hermione with a pained gaze.

Ivy set down the tray on the table, her movements deliberately slow. With her hands free, they went up to her chest, grabbing a fistful of her cardigan and shirt. Her eyes were still checked on to that table. Ivy took an uneven step back, her head finally tearing away, but now her head hung low. She spun away and hastily rushed out, leaving behind a lingering grimace. Hermione hurriedly got up from the table and chased after Ivy, nigh close to stumbling as she pushed out of the door to the inn.

”What was that?” said Ron.

”I.. . I don't know,” Harry stared at the inn door as if waiting for Hermione and Ivy to return any moment. When the door didn't open, he turned to Quinn and Daphne's table. She hadn't told him anything, he thought, not liking that he didn't know something about his twins. But, what if? Harry gazed at Quinn, wondering — what if.. .

Outside, Hermione came to a heaving halt. She panted with her curly hair hanging down as she gripped her knees. Hermoine pulled her gaze from the spot of brown peeking through the snow and looked at Ivy.

Ivy was gazing up at the sky, her hands clenched into fists, arms stiffly stuck to the sides, rigid like steel rods. ”I thought this might come someday,” she said, ”I was preparing for it, you know. And I just got something great, something even she didn't know about, though it would pull him closer.” — but she was too late! Daphne had clenched the chance before her.

No, she wasn't late. It was only the first day. She thought, as for the wrist ring band that she had clearly seen sitting on Daphne's wrist. Quinn had a tendency to give gifts — he had made Fleur a necklace, and look how that turned. Yes, everything wasn't over yet. She had her trump card, and there were plenty of chances to apply.

But then her knees went weak. She ended up on the ground, with her legs folded backward. Despite the speech of the grandees in her thoughts, seeing Quinn enjoying himself no a date with someone else did her squeeze on her heart, raising a burn up her body.

”It's nothing,” she said, ”I just need to try harder. It's only one.. .” For now, she wanted to go back to Hogwarts and crawl into her bed.

.. .

After spending some time talking, Quinn and Daphne exited the Three Broomsticks. They continued on their Hogsmeade crawl, with Daphne buying supplies for months in preparation for her OWLs and Quinn tagged along with her, keeping her entertained. By the time Daphne had checked everything in her head checklist, I was already late, so both decided to return to the castle.

”It turned out to become a shopping date,” said Quinn.

Daphne nodded. ”That it did.”

Going around the village with company (friends) was nothing new for both Daphne and Quinn, they did this every time they came down to Hogsmeade. It could be said, that the date was uneventful, even a bit boring, but both were fine with it. They were worried in their hearts that it might go the wrong way, but boring meant that nothing went wrong. For them boring was good.

”Then, how would you rate me and today?” asked Quinn as they walked at a sedate pace on the Hogsmeade tiled roads, ”what was that you liked?”

”Hmm, that's to be something to be thought more,” said Daphne coyly.

She wasn't expecting for the day to turn into a shopping date. Her thoughts were that they would go straight to Three Broomsticks and spend time there and nothing more, but roaming around with Quinn, listening to his stories was surely the highlight for her.

As they moved closer to the castle, the distance between the two also became closer. From standing a couple feet apart from each other, they slowly inched closer to each other, soon they were walking with shoulder nigh from touching. The distance was important to both; neither allowed just anyone to enter their personal space, and were only open to their close friends. Right now, there was no sense of discomfort.

Between the two, no one knew who it was, but it started with the side of their hands touching — they immediately pulled away. But then their hands came close again, and this time, their pinkie fingers intertwined, and soon they were holding hands.

Neither knew who it was, it may have been Quinn, or it might be Daphne, or may be both, but their hands touched each other. Both pulled away immediately. They looked at each other, searching each other's eyes.

They removed their eyes and looked to the front, but they had smiles on their faces. Their hands met each other again, this time they didn't pull away — both gingerly intertwined their pinkie with the others before Quinn took the lead and took Daphne's entire hand into his.

They had held each other's hand before while dancing, but this felt different, this felt different.

Quinn beamed brightly as Daphne to his side looked dazzling with a brush of ethereal red on her cheeks. No words were exchanged as after a day of talking, the pair decided to opt-in for silence, enjoying the moment and making a memory.

”Quinn!”

”Daphne!”

Their hands slipped out of each other's soft grasps as they turned to the familiar voices to see Eddie and Tracey walk their way, joining them at the end of the day.

Tracey and Eddie eagerly exchanged what they did today, making them impromptu judges for their two-part date. While they did that, Quinn and Daphne listened to them with one ear and let it from the other as they got themselves busy stealing small glances from each other.

The date had come to an end.

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Quinn West - MC - Maybe keeping it simple isn't bad.

Daphne Greengrass - Ice Queen - 'His grip is firm,' she thought.

Ivy Potter - Needs some time alone - Want to go burrow into her bed.

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