7 – Take a chance
At platform 9¾, Louis meets Niall again.
“Hey Louis, hope you had a great time at home.”
“Hi Niall, very great. Kinda missed you guys though.”
“Aren’t you sweet? Missed you too mate.”
They hug and look for a free seat in the train. There they find Zayn and Harry already sitting together. Louis hasn’t seen the two of them together very often but they seem to be having their fun.
“Harry, Zayn! Long time no see!”, Niall opens their conversation.
The two of them say hi back and hug the blonde too. Louis joins the train compartment with the thought that he will probably hug Harry next.
“Hi guys, nice to be back!”
“Hi Louis, did you have a great birthday?”, Zayn asks.
“Very, thank you for the present Haz.”
Louis realizes he used the nickname when Harry takes him in his arms and practically double blushes.
Harry is a great hugger. He kind of doesn’t make Louis feel small, just really comfortable. And he smells nice, it reminds him of a day lying on the grass of a summer meadow just sunbathing and having fun.
“Hey Lou, did you like the picture?”
“It was really cute.”
Only when Louis hears Niall’s not so subtle “ahem”, they break apart and sit down. At this point, Louis’ face is probably back to being a tomato.
At the train ride, the boys exchange their stories about Christmas with their families and everything that happened through the time out of school.
Between Niall’s love for his grandma’s food and Zayn’s sisters attacking him with hair ties and make up, Louis’ favourite story is Harry’s, because one of his nifflers got three babies shortly after Louis’ birthday.
Honestly, it’s not just his favourite because of the niffler babies. Harry’s eyes are shining so beautifully in the daylight and he looks so cute talking about the creatures.
Zayn has to elbow him in the ribs to stop him from ogling. Louis thinks, he definitely figured out his crush on Harry.
And if he figured and Luna could see it, who else knows? Hopefully not Harry.
He decides, he can’t just do nothing about it because look how disgustingly fond his thoughts are. It's starting to be annoying because he has noone to share them with.
^-^-^-^
“Luna, do you have a minute?”
It’s Friday and currently, Louis is running back to the castle after his Herbiology class with the Ravenclaws, trying to catch the girl with the pink, fluffy earmuffs.
“Sure, what’s got you so out of breath?”
“Oh, I just tried to talk to you, ask you something actually.”
“Is this about Harry?”
“Uh, yeah. Do you mind looking for a silent spot?”
The two of them walk back to the place from last time, where they had their first talk about Harry.
“So what’s wrong?”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“About?”
“The whole Harry thing. I realized that I can’t just do nothing but I don’t know what the right thing to do is.”
“How about you talk to him about this? I’m sure, he’ll have some ideas.”
Louis shakes his head. “I don’t want to risk our friendship with my stupid feelings.”
“Listen to me, first of all, feelings are never stupid. And secondly, why don’t you just ask him out on a date? He’ll say yes or no and that’s that. You can think about what to do after that.”
“But what if he thinks, I’m weird? He’ll never talk to me again. He won’t even be able to look me in the eyes again.”
Luna snorts at that. “Do you really think, he is that kind of guy?”
“No, but-”
“Then just ask him, you don’t even have to call it a date if you don’t want to, yet. Ask him if he wants to come to Hogsmeade with you next weekend. Just you two alone. You can see what happens from there.”
Louis thinks about the suggestion. “That’s actually not that bad of an idea, thank you. But how do I ask him?“
“That you have to figure out alone, otherwise I could ask him out myself, right?”, Luna laughs.
Why does she always have a point?
“You’re a genius Luna, really. Thank you so much.”
“No problem. Sometimes you just have to talk about a problem so that the solution finds itself.”
Okay, mission 'ask Harry out' starts from now on.
Now that he’s made up a plan how to solve his situation, Louis is really invested in the idea. He doesn’t think about what to say though because he figures that it won’t be, what he will turn out to come up with in the end, either way.
Louis knows, that he won’t have a chance to catch him alone at the weekend. Being part of a group means that you will spend most of your time with either everyone or alone.
So he will use the break after his potions class to take his chance.
^-^-^-^
“Hey Zayn, you know about my feelings towards Harry, right?”, Louis asks him this evening when they are alone in their common room.
“What, you mean your undying, disgusting crush on him?”
“Well, I wouldn’t put it that way but yeah, I figured, you’ll know by now.”
“You’re really not subtle at all. But why do you ask? Is something wrong?”
“No, not yet at least. Luna actually persuaded me to ask him out on a date next weekend. I just wanted to tell you. Maybe you can make plans with the others that we can go without you guys.”
“So you finally talk to him? I’m in. Don’t want to watch this shit anymore.”
“I won’t call it a date straight away but it would probably be just like one if he should be interested in that.”
“I’ll manage the others. Thank god you finally do something. We all should invite Luna to eat with us if she’s the reason for your courage.”
“You make it sound like it’s nothing to ask the person you like out.”
They go on bickering a bit just for fun and Zayn, like Louis but with other reasons, really can’t wait for the weekend to come.
^-^-^-^
Monday arrives quicker than Louis thought and now he is sitting next to Harry in his potions class. Next to the boy he is about to ask out. On a date. Well, a not-officially-called-'date'-date.
He can’t help being nervous and constantly wiggling his leg. Even Harry catches on to his changed behaviour.
“Everything alright Lou?”
Now or never.
“Yeah, do you mind talking a bit after this lesson?”
Okay, I asked. I asked to ask, but at least I asked something. And I will ask-ask. The word starts to sound stupid anyways.
“Sure we can. Why wouldn’t we?”
“Don’t know, I’m just thinking a bit too much.”
“Alright.”
The lesson ends and Louis is quickly packing his things. He waits for Harry to join him on his way out and pulls him behind a corner where they are alone.
“You sure, everything’s alright?”, Harry asks because of course he does, it’s Harry.
“Yeah, just wanted to ask you something.”
Harry looks expectantly and Louis forgets how to speak for a second. He blushes and continues.
“I just thought that maybe you want to come to Hogsmeade with me this weekend?”
Harry looks confused. “Of course we’ll go, we always go to Hogsmeade when we get the chance.”
“No, I mean yes but- I meant just you and I, like without Niall and Zayn and Liam?” Louis looks down because that wasn’t smooth at all and also he literally feels his face going red again.
When he looks up again, he surprisingly sees an equally red faced Harry looking back at him, his mouth hanging slightly open. He doesn’t answer though.
“I mean, you don’t have to. We can go with the group too, if that’s what you want- please say something?”
“I-yes. I’d like us to go. Alone, I mean. That’d be fun.” Harry starts smiling at him and Louis is relieved. He smiles back at him and inside, he swears he can feel butterflies. Or maybe he swallowed one of Lunas fireflies.
Louis’ heartbeat noticeably quickens when Harry hugs him goodbye and he doesn’t regret melting into it and sighting a bit because he will go on a maybe-date with Harry next weekend.