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Unsurprisingly, Zinnia was abruptly woken the next morning by the vigorous shaking of Hermione. Her mumbles of order were hazed out by Zinnia's unaware morning brain.

It was only a moment when she woke that she forgot the events of last night, forgot of the boy's trials and tribulations. That one moment of morning bliss was the one thing she hated the most when being in an unfortunate situation. Sure there is that feeling of complete oblivion that soothes the mind for a second, but it only makes it harder when just like that you're met with a downfall of utter disappointment. That downhill ride from bliss to hard hitting reality was despised by Zinnia.

Nonetheless, she crawled out of bed with groans and dressed for the day. Of course she was ready early, as Hermione insisted on being ready at least an hour before they had to. Zinnia decided on filling her morning gap by getting four slices of toast from the hall and bringing them to the bottom of the stairs to the boys dormitory.

After only a few minutes of waiting and strange stares from the boys descending to the common room early, Zinnia was met by the frowned face of Harry thumping down the stairs. He almost didn't notice her as he had opted to keep his head low, but couldn't mistake the intoxicating smell of apricot shampoo he knew all too well.

"Brought you breakfast" Zinnia timidly spoke, not wanting to scare the boy, knowing how much his mood can fluctuate. He stared at her for a moment with tight lips, then without a word he took two of the pieces of toast out of her hand. She smiled at him as he took a bite out of it.

"Next time I want a breakfast in bed, or at least some butter on the toast" He remarked jokingly

"Well now you're asking too much, be grateful shithead" Zinnia bashfully replied to him with a sigh of relief, glad that his mood wasn't too cranky.

"Wanna take a walk? We still have 30 minutes before class starts" Zinnia questioned, looking at her watch.

"Sure" he said, turning around and catching up with the girl who had already gotten a head start out of the portrait doorway.

They walked in silence for a couple of minutes as they finished off their dry toast. As they approached the black lake, they both sat down on a patch of grass, watching over the sun gleaming on the water's surface.

"Ron thinks I did it" Harry blurted out after listening to the birds morning songs echo across the empty body of water.

"You're kidding me" Zinnia asked, shocked with her mouth hanging open. "He'll come around Harry, you know sometimes he just gets like this, and understandably so" Zinnia reasoned

"What do you mean by that?" Harry shot back, voice slightly raised.

"Well it's only that, well he's in a family of seven siblings, I know first hand that it's hard to feel like an individual when you're lumped in with your siblings. It's like a constant competition of who gets the most attention. Being the youngest boy can't be easy either." She explained only to be met by Harry's silence.

"His best friend is also one of the most famous wizards of all time, you can imagine it might get on his nerves a bit" Zinnia uttred, trying to get him to understand.

"Well that's not my bloody fault is it, didn't ask for this" He retorted sharply

"I know that, no need to snap at me. You've just got to see things from other people's perspective for once rather than sulking about yourself." she replied, not wanting to take any of Harry's inconsistent moods. He simply looked at her for a second, then let out a small chuckle laugh.

"What , what are you laughing about?" she asked, frustrated with his weird nature.

"It's just, you can always count on you to tell it how it is. No matter how it might come off" Harry laughed. Surprisingly he wasnt mad about her being hard on him, he kind of enjoyed it as everyone else seemed to be stepping on eggshells around him. But she was always honest. If it were anyone else he might get mad, but not her.

"Come on, we have potions." Zinna said, standing up and laughing. She brushed the grass off of her robes and held out her hands for Harry to take. He looked at her for only a moment, taking in how she looked as her head blocked the sun that created an angelic haze around her. He gently placed his warm hands into her ice cold ones as she pulled him up from the ground.

In the midst of their potions class that was filled with nothing but the sound of scratching quills as the class copied the notes, Harry was called on by the small figure of Colin Creevy to the trophy room. Much to the annoyance of professor Snape, he was led out of class, sharing a small pleading glance towards Zinnia as he left.

"What's that all about?" Zinnia whispered to Fay sitting beside her

"No clue, maybe your boyfriend is in even more trouble?" Fay whispered back to her in a giggle.

"Boyfriend wh-" Zinnia harshly whispered to Fay before being interrupted by a disapproving scowl from Snape, to which she lowered her head back to her paper and continued to write, sending a nasty look to Fay.

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The weekend approached much to the relief of Zinna who thought after a week of chaos, the school was in need of a break even if it was only two days. Zinnia rugged up on the cold September afternoon and headed to the owlery, a brown wrapped parcel under her arm which contained bags of Honeydukes sweets for Daisy's birthday.

Zinnia pulled out the walkman she had received from her brother last year and popped in a tape of Fleetwood Mac's 'Tusk' and prepared to brace the snow. She thoroughly enjoyed walking through the grounds simply taking in her surroundings. It calmed her beyond belief, it was almost a relief from everyday life for her.

As she approached the tall tower in shelter from the snowy white climate, she shook her coat and stomped her boots to rid herself of the remnants of the snow. When she walked in she saw the familiar face of Harry reading a letter next to an unknown owl.

"Harry" she said in order to catch his attention. He turned his head in shock and smiled when he saw her.

"Zinnia" he let out a breathily staring at the girl. Just when he was distracted, the bird next to him nipped his finger. The wound started to bleed, much to the worry of Zinnia.

"Oh god, Harry" she rushed toward him and reached out for his hand. Harry swiftly moved away sucking at the wound on his finger and wincing

"It's fine, Z, truly it's fine" he spoke, staring at the blood dripping off of his finger.

"Accept some help once in a while you pillock" she laughed as she grabbed his hand and looked at the deep cut made on his index finger.

"I would prefer not to be insulted by my voluntary nurse thank you very much" he sharply rambled out, quickly wincing as Zinnia poked at the wound.

"Hey this isn't for free, you still owe me a galleon remember" she remarked, retrieving her wand from her back pocket and placing the parcel on a ledge. He let out a breathy huff and she stepped closer to him,

"Episkey" she muttered as she placed her wand in front of Harry's finger and the cut closed up. Harry was all too aware of how close the two were at this moment and wanted to turn away so badly to not embarrass himself, but something drew him to stay there. It could have been the gentle touch of Zinnia's hand or the sickly sweet smell of her hair but he stood there. Staring at her. She too could feel his eyes burning into her but didn't look at his face out of fear he would see how red she was. She couldn't quite pinpoint why but touching him was intoxicating, she never wanted to stop inhaling the smell of sandalwood on his jumper and feeling his heavy breath on her forehead.

They both stood there for a moment before Zinnia turned up to look at Harry to find him already staring intently at her. She once again got a warm surge through her chest as she looked at his deep green eyes.

"Eyelash" was all he could say to her.

"What?" Zinnia whispered back to him, unsure of what he meant.

"Y-You have a snowflake of your eyelash" he stumbled on his words, he hesitantly but gently swiped his finger  across her eyelashes. Wide eyed, Zinnia and Harry stared for no longer than a second before Harry cleared his throat and bashfully looked down, stepping away.

"Um, what is the package for?" he asked, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"What? Oh, um, it's for daisy. It's her birthday on the 18th" she replied shakely, moving her hands an abnormal amount.

"Well tell her i said happy birthday." he replied back awkwardly

"I'll put it in a letter" she laughed back at him.

The two started to head out of the owlery once Zinnia had posted her parcel, only to be met with the surprised face of Cho Chang. They all muttered shocked profanities as they dodged one another in the stairwell. Zinnia laughed and farewelled the girl only to turn back and see Harry staring at her with the same toothy grin he used to give her.

Of course, how could she be so stupid she thought . For a fleeting moment there she thought that maybe just maybe that feeling in her chest could pull her somewhere. Maybe the thoughts she had about Harry were the same. No, of course not.. He likes Cho. He likes cho and there is nothing she can do about it.

As Harry caught up to the girl descending quickly down the stairs he shouted out her name.

"Zinnia, hey, Z!" he shouted clinging to the rails as they descended

"What?" she sharply said turning back around to him, but at that moment the slight movement of her shoe sent her slipping down the icy step. She let out a groan and a huff of anger as Harry carefully rushed to her aid.

"That's what i was trying to say Z, Cho said the stairs were icy" Harry told her lifting her up by the forearm.

"Yeah of course she did" she spat to herself.

"What?" Harry replied, confused at her sudden change in mood whilst making sure she didn't slip again.

"Nothing, Nothing Harry." she replied, thinking her response silly. They both moved back to the castle in silence, head abundant with thoughts.

Zinnia pondered on how stupid she had been for being mad, he deserved to be happy. Of course she knew he liked Cho, they're close as ever and she could tell from the slight quiver in his smirk what he was thinking. She thought it silly to hate Cho, she had done nothing. It was Zinnia's own jealous monster that kept her from playing nice. Why should she ever be jealous? It's not like she liked him. Of course not.

Meanwhile Harry scorned himself for the display he showed in the owlery, Eyelash? He thought with distaste. He definitely scared her off with that one. He asked himself how he could be so stupid to let his guard down like that.

They both continued the line of conscious stress in their walk back through the snowy fields and into the somewhat warmth of the stoney castle.

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Later that Night, when she was all ready for bed, Zinnia heard the disgruntled stomping and yelling of Ron and Harry from far outside her Dorm Room door. Concerned for the two friends she descended the stairs to see what the commotion was about, whilst rushing down she bumped into the disgruntled face of Ron. He took a quick look at her with furrowed eyebrows, scoffed and returned to heading up the stairs.

"What?!" she shouted at the boy, confused at his annoyance

"Nothing, go take care of Harry, why don't you?" He shouted at her as he stomped around the corner of the staircase. Zinnia stood there for a moment with a puzzled face. She found this whole fight between harry and Ron ridiculously stupid, it had gone on too far and was getting out of hand. She continued to go down the stairs and approached a mindful harry sitting on the couch.

"Harry what are you doing up, and fighting with Ron at this ungodly hour" She spoke to him. He whipped his head around to face her and lowered it. She sighed at him and went over to sit beside him on the couch.

"What's going on, Harry" She asked, staring at him in concern.

"Just had a chat with Sirius through the floo, but I don't feel any better. Somehow I feel even less safe, he thinks someone is after me" he hesitantly spoke, wanting to talk to someone about it and not bottle it up.

"I'm so sorry Harry, we can get you through this" she encouraged the dismal boy.

"Hey, I know what will cheer you up," she said. He raised his head at this notion with a slight smile on his face

"To the kitchens?" He asked her eagerly.

"To the kitchens." she repeated with a confident stride.

The two huddled under Harry's invisibility cloak as they walked the eerily quiet halls of the castle to the Hogwarts kitchen. Harry's ankles slightly peered at the bottom of the cloak as he had become almost too tall for it at this stage. They both hunched through the portrait that led to the kitchen and stripped themselves of the cloak as they entered. 

The room was only full of a couple of elves cleaning up after a day's work. The two looked around and suddenly stopped as they saw a recognisable small figure stacking plates in the corner of the room.

"Dobby?" Harry muttered, squinting his eyes at the small elf. Dobby turned around in fright, only to be relieved by the sight of harry.

"Oh Harry Potter, Dobby is so excited to see you again Mr Potter" Dobby exclaimed excitedly, rushing over to the boy and enthusiastically shaking his hand. 

"Dobby, what are you doing at Hogwarts?" harry asked

"Dobby works here now, and for pay Harry potter. Dobby found it hard to get work, but Dumbeldore pays Dobby to work here" Dobby rambled in a high squeaky voice. Zinnia looked up and down at the two in confusion.

"Zinnia, this is Dobby, remember?" he nodded to the house elf. Zinnia smiled, remembering how he had helped Harry in second year.

"Very nice to meet you Dobby" she held out her hand for the elf to shake it. He gleamed at her and took her hand into both of his, shaking it with what little might he had.

"Dobby is very excited to meet you, Miss." he exclaimed before disappearing back to his work.  As the two continued into the room, they were swarmed with the few elves left handing them all sorts of treats to snack on. They both graciously accepted them and plopped themselves down on a nearby table, digging into the delectables.

They both gorged on all kinds of baked goods and assorted sweets as they talked about their lessons. As the two continued to ramble on, Zinnia would let out the occasional yawn, which eventually led to her head falling on Harry's shoulder. Harry stared at her in amazement for a few seconds, watching her shoulders rise and fall with every sweet breath.

Although he wouldn't dream of waking her, he knew he couldn't carry her all the way back to the common room. He mumbled her name quietly but to no avail. He tapped her cheek and lifted her chin.

"Z you have to wake up" he muttered as she slowly opened her eyes. She was caught off guard at his hand still gracefully holding her chin up. Their faces were so close and their breaths so heavy. Zinnia quickly escaped her sleepy daze as all the blood rushed to her face, as did Harry's. They both thought at fleeting moments that they could never look away, wanting to stay in the quiet oblivion of the kitchen for a moment longer. The Silence of the room was deafening to the two accompanied by the thuming of their hearts that flooded their ears.

To their disappointment, they were broken up by the sound of a plate crashing on the floor and the scattering of the house elves to clean up the mess. Harry awkwardly coughed and stepped off of the table, offering his hands to Zinnia.

"Come on, let's get you to bed" he smirked at the tired girl. She took his hands and lifted herself off onto the ground. She groaned at the efforts and was met by the amused laugh of Harry. It was fair to say that the rest of the trip back to the common room was filled with silence. The two's heads once again filled with running anxious thoughts. They were so distracted that Harry almost forgot to put on the invisibility cloak.

But one thought seemed to stick out in Zinnia's mind.

"Shit, I like Harry Potter"

(A.N- this chapter is a bit shorter because i might be uploading again this week but i'm super exited because i have so many ideas for this year)