The whole class of history of magic seemed brighter, Professor Binns seemed not as boring, and the birds chirped merrily outside. John wondered if Mary was feeling the same way or regretting everything she had done. He really hoped it wasn’t a joke. When History of Magic was over John pranced to Herbology, where even the dirt and plants were beautiful, and even when he was sprayed by some type of plant puss, his smile didn’t fade a bit. By dinner Greg was getting a bit worried about John, who was only smiling and looking at everything a lot more positively than he would normally.
“John, why don’t you stop smiling, it’s very unnatural.” Greg insisted.
“But I’m so happy!” John defended.
“Yes, I got that the first thousand times you said it.” Greg pointed out. John frowned, which actually pleased Greg, so he went back to his mashed potatoes. John ate his pork silently, taking the hint that Greg was done hearing about his success with Mary. When dinner was done, Greg and John walked out of the Great Hall a voice emerged from the shadows.
“John?” it was Sherlock, standing near the door way. The two stopped and looked at him, but he looked different.
“Hey Sherlock? What are you doing here, that’s a little bit creepy.” John pointed out. Sherlock smiled guiltily, but there wasn’t any humor in the smile.
“Could I talk to you for a second?” he asked. John glanced at Greg for a second before nodding with a welcoming smile.
“Ya, sure. I’ll see you at the common room Greg.” John agreed.
“See you later.” Greg agreed. He walked up the steps rather quickly.
“What’s on your mind then?” John asked. Sherlock started walking outside, so John didn’t have a choice but to follow him. The sun was setting, casting the landscape in red and gold, beautiful reflecting over the lake. John’s eyes wandered to the tree where it happened and his heart flip flopped.
“Before you say anything, guess what?” John said excitedly. Sherlock was taking his dear old time picking his words anyway.
“What?” he asked.
“I asked Mary, you know the girl with the gorgeous blonde hair in your house, and she said yes!” John said excitedly, practically bouncing up and down on his feet.  Sherlock smiled, but his eyes didn’t, they were cold and sad, as if John’s happy news had just ruined his entire day. John hoped Sherlock hadn’t had a crush on Mary too, because the way he looked after his smile faded looked like his heart had broken.
“That’s great, now you can show off your own dancing skills.” He said with another obviously fake smile.
“Sorry, you were saying something?” John asked.
“Oh, um, I forgot to ask you if you got your broom back from yesterday’s incident.” Sherlock said quickly.
“Ya, Greg brought it.” John said simply.
“Good, because, you know, that’s an expensive broom, and I was more focused on getting you to the hospital wing instead of the broom. It’s not broken is it?” Sherlock asked.
“No, it’s fine, unlike that school broom. What happened to that anyway?” John asked.
“Well, it’s practically fire wood now.” Sherlock said simply.
“I hope they don’t blame you?” John said.
“No, I’m off the hook, they know accidents happen and blah, blah, blah, you’re lucky you were unconscious during the little speech.” Sherlock said with boredom.
“What was the speech?” John asked curiously.
“It was just about how they hope we are okay, and how you were a brave and caring friend, it was rubbish.”
“I was the one that pushed you to go faster, it’s kind of my fault anyway, I’m not brave and caring, I’m an idiot who doesn’t want stuff on his conscious.” John pointed out. Sherlock’s face fell.
“So, you only rescued me…”
“That’s not what I meant, of course not, I wouldn’t ever let you get hurt if I could help it, what would I do without you?” John pointed out.
“I don’t make that much of an impact.” Sherlock pointed out. John pulled Sherlock into a sort of one armed hug/head lock, laughing. As if he didn’t make an impact, John’s life had completely turned around when he entered, good and bad.
“You are oblivious aren’t you?” he asked.  Sherlock laughed, trying weakly to push John away. John released him almost immediately, his hair up slightly.
“I’m oblivious to what?” Sherlock asked.
“I’m pretty sure we went over how you affect our lives, but without you a lot of good things wouldn’t have happened. And you’re my friend, and it’s always good to have more than one friend.” John said, not wanting to sound like his sister, but, he didn’t want to admit it, Harry was right. Ouch, that hurt his self-confidence a little bit. Sherlock smiled shyly, as if he just thought John were saying those things to make him cheer up. Sherlock’s self-esteem was really lacking wasn’t it?
“Oh, I forgot to ask, but there’s a small detail in this whole dance thing, I have no idea how to dance, and I’m pretty sure its formal.” John pointed out. Sherlock’s smile was gone at the mention of the ball.
“Would you like lessons?” Sherlock asked.
“As long as they don’t require me going haywire and crashing into stands sure.” John decided.
“How about, tomorrow night?” Sherlock decided.
“Sure, and uh, let’s do it somewhere out of the public eye.” John pleaded.
“Why?” Sherlock asked.
“Well, I don’t want it to look like we’re actually dancing together because we want to.” John pointed out. At that Sherlock looked hurt, as if John’s words had a strong impact on him.
“Oh, sure, how about an empty classroom? I know a lot of empty classrooms.” Sherlock decided.
“That would be awesome.” John agreed. Sherlock smiled, but it seemed forced, as if something was in the way of a real smile, as if something was hurting him.
“Great, tomorrow night, after dinner.” Sherlock planned.
“Sounds good.” John agreed. Sherlock turned around, walking towards the castle now. They had wandered down near the quidditch pitch, and now it was starting to get dark.
“You seem sad.” John pointed out.
“Do I? Why would I be sad?” Sherlock asked.
“I don’t know, but, you just seem like something is going on, you can tell me if you need.” John offered.
“Really, there’s nothing to tell, I’m perfectly happy.” Sherlock assured, but his eyes were practically screaming sadness. John hated that he was hiding things from him, John really didn’t want Sherlock to be sad, he seemed to be sad every day, he doesn’t deserve it, he should be the happiest man on earth. It gave John a strange desire to give him a warm hug, tell him how amazing he was, how perfect a person he was. But that would be very awkward, John could never do that, Sherlock would think he was the weirdest person on earth. Sherlock seemed to be very delicate, one wrong move he might leave John forever, and John really didn’t want him to leave. For some reason John loved having Sherlock around, when he was at his side he seemed to pick up John’s mood, as if there was something he had in him that just made John feel important.
“Did you find out who put that rose on your bedside table?” Sherlock asked suddenly.
“No, but my guess is Mary, since I guess she must like me a little bit.” John guessed.
“Oh, maybe, I hadn’t thought of that.” Sherlock said. John still had that positivity that Sherlock was the previous owner, but he didn’t want to think that, there was no reason for Sherlock giving him a rose.
“So you think you and Mary are going to end up being, you know, girlfriend and boyfriend?” Sherlock asked. The words sounded very odd coming out of his mouth, as if he really didn’t want to know the answer.
“I have no idea, nothing is final yet, but I really hope so.” John said hopefully. How amazing would it be to say that Mary Morstan was his girlfriend? They walked through the oak doors and into the castle, which was lot warmer than it had been outside.
“Well, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” John decided as they climbed the stone step.
“Yes, I suppose you will.” Sherlock said.
“Don’t say it like it’s a bad thing.” John laughed.
“I’m not, it’s a good thing, a very good thing, don’t worry.” Sherlock said quickly.
“You stutter when you’re nervous, do you know that?” John added with a small laugh.
“I do?” Sherlock asked, as if it was new information.
“Don’t worry, it’s adorable.” John assured. “I mean not adorable, but, you know, adorable in a totally friend way, not like, you know what, just ignore me.” Sherlock smiled, now it looked genuine, which always made John happy to see that he wasn’t pretending to be happy for John’s sake.
“You’re awkward too.” Sherlock pointed out.
“Am I adorable?” John said, demonstrating his best puppy dog eyes. Sherlock laughed a beautiful sound that made John’s heart swell a size.
“Of course you are.” Sherlock assured. John laughed, and for a moment there was comfortable silence. They made it to the Gryffindor common room, where Sherlock stopped to say goodbye before leaving for the Ravenclaw house. John told the Fat Lady the password and entered the common room. The first thing he noticed was the silence; everyone was talking in hushed whispers and huddled around a sign on the notice board. Greg was in his usual chair, but he looked a lot less relaxed then what he normally was.
“What’s wrong?” John asked immediately.
“It’s Umbridge, apparently she works for the ministry. And guess what? She’s been named High Inquisitor.” Greg mumbled.
“What does that mean?” John asked.
“It means she makes rules and makes sure all of the classes are in order. Apparently ‘Hogwarts is much worse than both I and the Minister or Magic had expected.’” Greg said with a very high pitched, squeaky voice, trying his best to mimic her. John groaned, he could only think of the terrible rules she could make up, the possibilities were endless.
“Well it’s even better since we know she’s perfectly okay with student torture.” Greg mumbled. John’s heart sank, so now the Ministry was interfering at Hogwarts, how fun.
“Dumbledore wouldn’t let her do that; he still has a role to play in this school.” John pointed out.
“What power does he have against the Ministry?” Greg defended.
“I heard the Minister writes to him often, he needs help with his job.” John remembered.
“That’s just a rumor.” Greg sighed.
“Who’s side are you on?” John asked, sitting in the chair next to him.
“Logic’s, and logic says that this is going to be very bad.” Greg said.
“Maybe it won’t be as bad as we thought.” John hoped. Greg gave him a sort of false hope glance and went back to staring at the fire.