Page 207 of Plug and Drain

Susie rolled her eyes, feeling more and more like Sarah with each passing second.

Harry dug his elbow into her ribs. “Maybe a badminton romance? An unwitting heroine who needs the swoonworthy male love interest—who, incidentally, looks an awful lot like Arken—to teach her how to handle a shuttlecock.”

“Enough,” she hissed, but she couldn’t stop herself from smiling.

“Still reckon you could ask for some tips and pointers from Arken. Just the tip, you know.”

“Harry…”

“Sorry, sorry, I’m talking too much shit, I know. but you’ve been hogging Sarah all these weeks, and the jokes have just pent up inside me.”

“It’s fine,” Susie laughed as they rounded the corner.

“How are things between you two anyhow?”

Susie shot him a sidelong look. “Good. How are things between you two.”

“Whaddaya mean?” Harry frowned.

“You and Sarah.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, his frown deepening as he avoided her gaze. “I mean, fine, obviously. We’re friends.”

Susie grinned. “That’s good.”

Harry scratched his nose. “But just to clarify.”

“Yes?” she asked innocently.

“When you say, ‘you and Sarah’, do you mean…what did you mean by that?”

Susie laughed non-stop for the next minute, and every time Harry spoke to her, she laughed harder. Finally, she was forced to halt in the middle of the corridor, doubled over and breathless with silent laughter.

“For the record, this is not the mature Susie I know,” Harry grumbled, arms folded, his weak one tucked in protectively.

“Sorry,” she wheezed, tears springing to her eyes as she sank low.

“Get a grip, will you?”

“You’re blushing!” she breathed, staring up at him gleefully.

“I’m just embarrassed for you is all. Laughing and…looking…happy.”

“Right… right.”

Harry sighed and extended his hand, and she let him pull her up. He held her hand a moment longer, his voice low. “Please don’t tell her.”

Susie snorted softly. “I won’t. But maybe you should.”

Harry shook his head as they set down the corridor. “Nah.”

She peered at him. “Why not?”

“Things are good the way they are. Why change them?”

She could tell Harry wasn’t being entirely honest, but he dodged her questions all the way to Professor Marmala’s classroom.

“So, Molly’s fitting in well with us,” he said, changing the topic deftly and abruptly. “Real trooper. Good listener. Asks lots of questions—weird questions if I’m being honest. Asked about you a lot.”