Chapter 53: Frozen

                                    

                                          
On Saturday afternoon I went over to the Ravenclaw tower. The first time I ever went over there, I had trouble figuring out the answers to the riddle. One time, I even got into a debate about the answer to one of them, with a girl who was just trying to get into her own common room.
                          
That's how I became friends with Jenny. Sometimes I forget it because it was so long ago; way back in our fourth year, but I didn't know then that she would end up becoming one of my best friends and start dating my cousin. It's weird how much your life can change within just a few years.
                          
I finally answer the riddle and get into the common room. The people inside don't seem too surprised that I walk in, I suppose it would be different if I was wearing my school robes with my Gryffindor colors, but just like in the Slytherin dungeons, I'm sure they have gotten used to seeing me barge into their common room. And if they haven't, I have the advantage of being head girl on my side.
                          
I go up to Jenny's dorm and knock on the door. I would just walk in, but I know that some of her roommates are quite annoying and I'm pretty sure they think the same about me. Luckily though, Jenny answers, and she's the only one in her dorm.
                          
"Hey!" She beams. "Did you bring them?"
                          
"I did!" I hold up the tubes of paint that I found in the room of requirement. Jenny had all the other supplies.
                          
It was her idea for us to have a fun painting day, just the two of us, so we could hang out and catch up on each other's lives. I don't paint much. In fact, the last time I painted was when I was 10 years old at Lorcan and Lyssander's eighth birthday party. Jenny paints all the time though. She hasn't shown me much of her paintings. She says that they're terrible, but that she doesn't mind because it's fun.
                          
I walk into her room and she takes the paint tubes from me and sets them down on her bed. In the center of her dorm room, are two easels set up with canvases on them. "Wow, these are nice," I say. "Where did you get them?"
                          
"I ordered them from an ad I saw in the Prophet."
                          
I smile at her. "I love you."
                          
"The feelings mutual," she laughs. She holds up the paint brushes. "Now I hope you don't like that shirt too much because this might make a mess."
                          
"I am totally okay with that," I say, looking down at my faded Chudley Cannons t-shirt. I pull my hair up into a ponytail and take one of the brushes from Jenny. "So how do we do this?"
                          
"We just take some paint," Jenny dabs her brush into some of the blue paint that she had poured out onto a pallet. "and we just, go." I watch as she strokes her brush across the canvas.
                          
"Oh, so this is like, abstract painting?"
                          
Jenny nods. "Well mine is, but you can literally do whatever you want. Be creative."
                          
"Okay." I'm not too sure where to start. I try to copy Jenny by dipping my brush into the red paint and just swiping it across the canvas. From there I just keep going, adding lines and dots and different colors.
                          
"Oh, so I have something to tell you," I say.
                          
"Yeah?" She doesn't look up from her painting, she's far too focused.
                          
"Mike Finnegan asked me to the ball."
                          
Now she looks up. "Really?" Her eyebrows raised and eyes wide. "What did you say?"
                          
"I said I'd go," I shrug. "He was nice, seemed happy. And it's not like we're dating now or anything." Although, he has been trying to find me whenever he can.
                          
"Well yeah, but I think he really likes you," Jenny says.
                          
"Really?"
                          
"Rose you're blushing!"