Changing Ideals

Body



Disclaimer: *pouts* I still don\'t own Harry Potter or anything you might recognize. Oh well. On with the story.

Chapter 14: Costumes, Bookshops, and Butterbeer

The school year was steadily moving along, and Harry had never felt so at peace with his surroundings. Halloween was coming up soon and support from his new friends was abounding. Sitting in the common room, Harry chatted with his friends about how well their study sessions were turning out, Quidditch, and the upcoming Hogsmeade visit. They all planned on attending together, although they would have to split up part way through the trip. Headmaster Dumbledore had decided that instead of just a Halloween feast, they would have a Halloween ball as well. Everyone that came was required to dress up in a costume. Although dates were not required, many people were already asking, or had asked, someone to the dance. Harry had already had to turn down offers from quite a few girls, not to mention a few boys. He simply wasn\'t y toy to put himself in the dating game. He appeared to be more interested in finding out who his dream lover was, this was due to the number of dreams the man had been featuring in lately. He could only pray that they would continue.

\"Harry...Slytherin to Harry! You there?\" Draco inquired, while he waved his hand in front of Harry\'s face.

\"Huh?\"Snapping out of his daze, Harry gazed at his friends, wondering what he had missed out on. \"Did you say something?\" Blinking owlishly, he awaited their reply. Through the snickering of his friends, he found out that they had asked him what he was going to come as to the dance. \"Um, I don\'t really know,\" he said with a puzzled expression on his face. \"Guess I haven\'t really thought that much on it. I\'ll just have to look around at Hogsmeade to see if there is anything that catches my interest.\"

\"Hmph. Well, I know what I\'m going as,\" Pansy then went into an elaborate description of what her outfit would look like. She appeared to be going as some famous witch from the mid evil era. Harry thought that was a nice idea for her, but it still didn\'t give him a clue as to what he would come as. Tuning all his friends out, Harry continued to ponder on his outfit while he thought they were discussing theirs.

\"You know, Harry puzzles me,\" Blaise said. \"I mean, here he is, looking the way he does, and yet he turned down every single offer he has had to the dance. I mean, come on! Some of these people, guys and girls, were hot\" Throwing his hands up in a frustrated manner, Blaise continued, \"What is he? Someone that has absolutely no sex drive? Or does he go for ugly? He doesn\'t seem to like anyone in that way!\"

\"Blaise, calm down. Harry has his reasons.\" Seeing the questioning looks he was receiving, Draco raised an eyebrow. \"What? You think I\'m going to tell you what they are? Are you kidding?! He\'d kill me!\" Sounding slightly hysterical, they noticed Draco\'s frantic gestures towards their newest friend. \"I mean, I\'m not dumb enough to pit myself against someone who can go against the Dark Lord, and come out with only minor injuries. I\'m not stupid.\" Emphasizing the last word, Draco made sure that he had made it clear that this was a subject that needed to be dropped. Especially if they valued living. \"So, what are you going as Vince?\" Purposefully changing the subject, everyone let it drop, continuing their talk about costumes.

After the finished their discussion, they headed to the Great Hall to see if they had permission to leave for Hogsmeade yet. Eagerly anticipating the go ahead, the Slytherins were practically bouncing with happiness. Radiating their anticipation, it was all the teachers could do to avoid being trampled by the stampeding masses of exiting students intent on their destination and nothing else.

Quietly Harry followed his boisterously, bouncing buddies bounding to Hogsmeade. He shook his head and rolled his eyes in mock exasperation, pretending to be at his wits end with their antics. \"You don\'t have to go so fast, you know. Hogsmeade isn\'t going anywhere!\" Harry had to yell the last of his sentence to the rapidly retreating backs of the other students. Sighing when they didn\'t head what he had told them, he continued to trail behind them, lagging more and more with their growing excitement. Although he was following behind, Harry wasn\'t being idle with his time. He spent it thinking up various costumes. Coming up with and rejecting ideas, making his mind not to stop dwellin the the subject until he had a costume picked.

Heading into various costume shops, Harry thought that he would never find a costume that suited him. It was almost as if everything was pointing towards some bad omen. Maybe he wasn\'t meant to go, but he sure as Hell was going to try his best to get to the dance on Halloween. Finally inspiration struck, and grinning wickedly, Harry started to buy various things from different stores to make his outfit. With the perfect outfit in mind, it became easy and fun. His only problem was to make sure that nobody saw what he was buying, he wanted to surprise everyone with his costume.

When Harry left the store he was currently in, he was accosted by two of his friends from Gryffindor, Ginny Weasley and Hermione Granger. Smiling up at the girls, he said, \"Hi there. Buying stuff for your costumes, ladies?\"

Laughing at the way Harry addressed them, Hermione replied, \"But of course. We can\'t very well show up naked.\"

\"Oh, I don\'t know. You could be the center of attention. Everyone would want to dance with you...\" Harry was saying why he had a contemplative expression on his face. \"Hmm, I just might have to dance with you if you showed up like that. And you know just how terrible I am at dancing!\"

Rolling her eyes, Hermione smacked Harry lightly on his arm. \"Look, you made poor, innocent Ginny blush. Whatever will I do with you and your evil Slytherin mind?\" she asked in a mock stern voice.

\"You could turn me over your knee and beat me,\" Harry ventured to say, leering and winking suggestively at Hermione and Ginny. \"Just kidding! But you should see your face, Ginny. It\'s beat red.\"

\"Yeah, well, uh, I\'m not use to you talking like that,\" Ginny answered a little shrilly. Trying to calm herself down, Ginny looked at anything but her two friends.

\"Harry, I\'m actually glad I ran into you. Are you finished shopping?\" Hermione asked, while she had her head tipped to the side. Receiving an affirmative, she continued, \"Good. How about you shop around with Ginny and me? We could go to a few stores and then maybe have some butter beer. I haven\'t gotten to do anything with you in a while.\" Turning her head towards Ginny she said, \"You wouldn\'t mind, would you?\"

\"Of course not! I mean, that is if Harry doesn\'t. I-I\'d like to do something all together. It\'d give me a chance to rag on my brother,\" Ginny answered.

\"Great then! It\'s settled.\" Linking her arms around them, without waiting for Harry to give his okay, Hermione started to drag them down the street. \"I found this great bookstore that I didn\'t notice until a couple weekends ago. I\'ve been dying to take some other people there!\"

Seeing Hermione\'s gigantic smile, Harry decided to allow her to drag him around, he just grinned ruefully at the Slytherins he passed and shrugged his shoulders. What was he suppose to do? Hermione could be quite domineering when she saw fit to be. After being dragged into the bookstore, Ginny and Harry found themselves abandoned by an over zealous Hermione.

\"Well, I guess that it\'s just the two of us now, Gin.\"

\"I don\'t mind, if you don\'t,\" the young witch said. \"If you don\'t mind, I\'d actually like to become your friend. You know, chat together, write letters to each other, and maybe spend some time together.\" Ginny said all this without looking at him. Rushing on she continued, \"Of course, if you don\'t want to that\'d be fine. I mean, I can totally...\"

\"Woah, woah! Slow down! You want to be friends? Even though I\'m in Slytherin and completely different?\" Shaking her head to Harry, she peaked through her fringe at him.

\"You and I can relate better. I\'ve never been able to get too close to anyone in my year because of what happened my first year. You can look passed that.\" Gathering her courage, she looked him straight in the eyes. \"If you\'ll have me, I\'d really like to be your friend.\"

\"Sure. I could use all the friends I could get right now.\" Grinning slyly at her, he said, \"Of course, I\'ve viewed you as a friend ever since your first year and what happened in the Chamber of Secrets. We both had to grow up faster than other people.\" Looking around, Harry spotted Hermione. \"Look, there\'s Hermione. Hermione!\" Waving his arms at her, he and Ginny made their way over to the girl.

\"Um, Hermione? Are you planning on buying all those books?\"; Ginny asked why she eyed the stack of books the resident bookworm had brought up.

\"Of course not! I expect you guys to buy some of these as well! Especially Harry! These books will help us in our OWLS! These are very important tests! We have to be ready for them. Now, I found these books on...\" Hermione went on and on about which books were for what. Nearly the entire pile had been bought, after they had picked them over and argued points as to whether they should be bought or not. Paying for their books, the trio made their way to the Three Broomsticks.

\"You guys go ahead and get the seats,\" Harry said. \"I\'ll get the drinks. PUT YOUR MONEY AWAY! This is on me, for being such a bad friend and ignoring you for so long.\" Grinning, Harry stepped up to the bar.

\"Harry, dear! What can I do for you?\" came Madame Rosmerta\'s enthusiastic greeting.

\"Just three butterbeers, my good lady. They\'re for me and my two lady friends.\"

\";Why you lucky bastard! Two women?\" Here she raised her eyebrows, eyeing him in an odd way.

\"Yeek. No! They are nothing like that! They\'re my friends. One of them is my best friend.\" Looking over at them, Harry continued, \"Besides, they\'re like family. Family doesn\'t date family. They don\'t do anything like that together.\"

\"Of course not, honey. I didn\'t mean to upset you! I just figured a looker like you would have some hot date with them,\" she said.

Rolling his eyes, he replied, \"There are more important matters than dating. I prefer to worry about my studying. Dating can come later, when I\'m not so busy trying to raise my grades.\" Quickly paying for the drinks, Harry grabbed all three and headed to the table with the girls.

\"What took so long?\" Hermione asked.

\"Oh. Madame Rosmerta wanted to talk. We chatted for a bit and now, here I am.\" Looking pointedly at the drinks, he said, \"Well? Drink up!\"

Laughing merrily, they grabbed their drinks. Swigging them, they chatted about how things were going and how their summers went. They told of the funny things that had happened so far and a few not so funny things. Shortly after finishing their drinks, Ron, Neville, and Seamus showed up.

\"Hey! Harry, Ginny, Hermione! We didn\'t know you\'d be here,\" Seamus cheerily called. Waving to them, the three made their way over to were Ron, Seamus, and Neville were standing.

\"Yeah, we are actually just leaving. You guys can have the table we were at,\" Ginny offered to them. Trading greetings and saying a few pleasantries, they parted ways.

\"Well, I hate to do this, but I\'ve got to head back. I\'ve got to see what all I bought. I need to start on my costume.\" Seeing the questioning looks, Harry shook his head at them. \"Nu-huh. I ain\'t saying nothing! You\'ll just have to wait. Bye!\" Waving as he left, the girls watched as Harry departed from their company.

\"You know, I\'m glad you talked me into coming, Hermione. If I hadn\'t, I wouldn\'t have got to spend such a fun day with Harry.\" Contemplating the time she spent with him, she yelled, \"Damn it! I forgot to get in my rant about Ron!\"

Laughing, Hermione said, \"You can rant at me!\" Listening to the girls continuous rant, Hermione and Ginny also made a leisurely pace back to the school.

Well, I had fun today. I\'m just glad that Hermione still accepts me. Man, I can\'t believe that Ginny didn\'t think of us as friends already. Guess I\'ll have to start making sure that my friends now I\'m their friends. Damn, that means I\'ll have a lot of bloody gifts to buy for Christmas. Sighing to himself, Harry made his way to the Slytherin dormitories.

TBC

A big thanks to my beta reader for her wonderful work and coming up with the glorious title. I was a little lost as to what to call it. Hehe. Luckily, she\'s around to save my ass.

Please review.

Review! Please?! I\'m a review whore.