Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, though after HBP, I'm not sure I would want to. No, I take that back, I would want to own it, just not be the one to write it. No, I take that back too. I would want to. Then maybe HBP wouldn't have happened like that. I'll show you delusional. Oh, I'm wandering, aren't I? Where was I? Oh yes.... I'm just playing here.
A/N: First chapter post-HBP. I need a warm and fuzzy feeling. I must again acknowledge my wonderful beta, MapleMountain. Even your smart-aleck comments help make this story better... but you already knew that, didn't you? :-) Thank you.
Chapter 6. Settling In.
Harry stood there for a few moments, slightly amused seeing how excited Hermione was about the whole situation. Leave it to Hermione to get this excited when there's a fancy bit of magic involved.
Staring at the grin on her face, he literally jumped when the kettle started to whistle. He had forgotten that Emma put it on only minutes earlier until the water started boiling. Now, it was everyone else's turn to look at Harry with amused expressions. He tried as hard as he could to look offended at their stares, but even he thought his startle was funny. By the time Dan had taken the kettle off the stove and poured the water into a teapot, everyone in the kitchen was laughing, including Harry.
The effects of his laughter still not having yet worn off, Harry stared for a moment at the tea cup placed in front of him. He wasn't even looking at the cup; he didn't notice the Hogwarts crest on the cup and saucer. As Emma poured the water in the cup, he watched as the tea leaves absorbed the water. As the leaves began to swell, he realized he was feeling the same thing.
It was as though his own insides were beginning to swell. The empty hollowness left by Sirius's death was no longer quite as large. He had just laughed, really laughed. He could not remember the last time he laughed like that.
Before today, all there was was nearly three weeks of misery and emptiness. Before that was That Night (which he still called it) at the Department of Mysteries, and the aftermath that ensued. And before that was what seemed like unending months of haunting visions of dark corridors and locked doors.
There had to be some laugher in there, somewhere. Wasn't there? Harry asked himself. If there was, he could not remember it. All that he knew was that he was starting to feel better than he had in a long time. He knew it would be a slow process, but it would happen. Despite the fact that Voldemort was now more dangerous than ever, he felt as thought things could only get better.
As Mrs. Granger finished pouring the water into his cup, he lifted his gaze to see Hermione, who had sat down across from him at the table, quickly look down at her own cup. He was quite sure she had been watching him as he stared blankly into his cup.
Harry turned to Emma. "Thank you for the tea, Mrs. Granger," he said.
As she filled the other cups, she replied back kindly to him. "You're very welcome, Harry. And remember, it's Emma. Whilst you are here, Emma." Setting down the tea pot, she put on a most serious expression, one that Harry knew was just for show. "Or else I shall have to start calling you Mr. Potter. And I guarantee you don't want me doing that."
Harry could see Dan nodding his head most emphatically behind Emma's back. This was the second time Emma had asked him to call her by her first name. Knowing how insistent her daughter could be, he decided he would not try for a third.
"Yes Emma," Harry said with a sheepish grin. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Hermione smile.
"Good! I'm glad that's settled," Dan chimed in as Emma sat down to wait for her leaves to steep.
Fully agreeing with Dan's sentiment, Harry looked back down at his tea cup. "Hey, these have the Hogwarts crest on them. Hermione, you didn't-"
"No, I most certainly did not, Harry," Hermione retorted quickly, looking quite scandalized. "I found them in a shop in Diagon Alley. I bought them for Mum and Dad back in the beginning of second year. I sent them home as a Christmas present."
Harry smiled. He imagined that while Dan and Emma were trying out their new tea set, their daughter was lying in one of Madam Pomfrey's hospital beds trying to figure out how to sit comfortably with a tail.
Once everyone had finished their tea, Harry stood up and gathered all the tea cups. Immediately, Emma tried to reach out and grab her own. "Harry, dear. Please don't bother with that. You're our guest here."
"Please, Emma," Harry replied, "it's the least I can do. The three of you rescued me from the Dursleys and have graciously offered to take me into your home for the time being. Clearing away a few tea cups seems only fair." Harry noticed that Emma and Dan both smiled slightly when he said "three of you rescued me." He assumed they were just remembering the "drama" of his rescue.
Emma didn't protest, this time. To be honest, she was pleasantly surprised that he used her given name so quickly. If the three of them were going to provide Harry a warm and safe environment, one that they and many other people felt he needed after recent events, the first thing that had to go were the formalities. If Harry didn't feel comfortable around them, or worse, felt anyway intimidated by them, then there was little chance he would be able to assimilate this latest loss.
Emma smiled at Harry. If Emma was anything like Hermione, he knew it meant, Fine, but don't think you're doing the dishes later.
Once the table was clear, Dan stood up and walked towards Harry, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, Harry, let's get you settled in." As they walked back into the living room, Harry noticed that Hermione and Emma had remained in the kitchen, still sitting at the table.
Back in the living room, Harry went over and picked up Hedwig's cage as Dan reached for Harry's trunk. "What do you say, girl? Do you like it here already?" Harry asked his winged companion. Hedwig stared back at him with her large amber eyes, hooting quite contentedly.
"Yeah," Harry continued wistfully, "I suppose you do. You've already been here before, haven't you?" He reached into the cage and stroked her head several times. She tilted her head up to nip at his fingers affectionately.
"We have a guest room upstairs, Harry," Dan explained as he started up the stairs. "That's where you'll be staying."
"Okay," Harry acknowledged. "You'll probably get tired of hearing me say this, but thank you. Thank you for picking me up and thank you for offering to let me stay here."
As he and Harry walked into the guest room, Dan chuckled slightly. "You're welcome, Harry. You know, I probably shouldn't tell you this... but this was all Hermione's idea. Earlier, when you said 'three of you,' it just struck me as amusing. Our only involvement was driving the getaway car. We agreed of course, but Hermione was the mastermind behind it all. Listening to her... convince... your headmaster was all the convincing we needed. And don't feel bad about saying 'Thank You.' Good manners are never to be ashamed of," Dan said pleasantly, watching Harry very carefully.
"Well, to be honest Dan, I haven't always shown them. For much of last school year, I felt the whole world was against me. On more than one occasion, most regrettably, I wasn't the most friendly person to be around."
Harry's eyes were beginning to get warm again as he recalled with shame his behavior. He blinked a couple of times. "Your wonderful daughter, I feel, bore the brunt of it. Not because I was really upset at her, but because she always seemed to be there at my side."
It was starting to become difficult for Harry to see clearly as his eyes started to water. He did notice, however, that Dan seemed to conveniently turn around right after he started blinking. As Harry was talking, Dan wheeled his trunk into a corner and placed Hedwig's cage on the table nearest the window. Dan kept his back to Harry until he finally finished talking.
Dan turned around just in time to see Harry quickly pull his hand down after brushing away a tear. "Yes, Harry, I know." Dan said in a very quiet voice. "She actually writes home a lot during the school year. She wants us to be involved in her life as much as we can, even when we're down here and she's up there at school."
Moving over to the bed, Dan sat down on the end of it. "We always seem to find out whenever you make some spectacular grab to catch the Snitch or when Draco Malfoy, is that his name-" Harry nodded, "when he said something particularly mean to you. You've made quite an impression on our daughter. And yes, we heard about most everything you went through last year."
Harry sat down on the chair Dan had waved his hand towards. "Now that it's come up, that is something I wanted to talk to you about."
Uh oh, Harry thought to himself. Here it comes. 'How dare you be so cruel to my daughter?!'
"As I'm sure you know, Hermione is our only daughter. She means the world to us. I'm sure you can imagine how protective I am of her. I know there are things she hasn't told us about what happens up there at your school." Dan's expression was very guarded. Harry could not tell what he was feeling. "If we had known then what we know now, we might not have let her go off and join your world. But, at the time, it seemed like such a wonderful opportunity, so how could we have refused?
"As the years went by, and we read more and more about what went on in your world, as we started seeing less and less of her on holidays, we knew that the day might come when we truly regretted letting her go. But it had already been done. She was now a part of that world. Taking her away might have killed her." A muscle in Dan's jaw twitched.
"Not physically, of course. But mentally, emotionally, spiritually, yes. We might have gotten her back alive, but SHE would've been dead." As Dan paused for a moment, he shifted uncomfortably on the bed. Harry could tell that his eyes had gone out of focus; he was staring at some nonexistent point on the wall behind Harry.
"She took last year pretty hard, Harry. She did her best to keep it hidden from you, but we could tell. It was hard for her to watch you go through everything you had to endure. You are her best friend, Harry. Every time you weren't the most friendly person to be around, it hurt her."
Feeling even worse after hearing what Hermione had really gone through, Harry looked down and started staring intently at his trainers. Seeing the expression on Harry's face before he looked down, Dan quickly clarified.
"Harry, you are wrong about one thing. She did not have to bear the brunt of it all. You did. It hurt her... not because she was near you during your outbursts, but because she could do little to help make it better. About the only two things I remember her getting truly excited about were that study group the two of you led and that interview you gave in that magazine."
Harry suddenly lifted his head. "But she did, Mr. Granger - er - Dan," Harry quickly corrected himself after seeing the mock evil glare Dan had given him. "She did make things better. She was there. She was always there with me. She always has been. Even when Ron and I didn't see eye to eye during the Triwizard Tournament, she was there." Harry felt betrayed by another tear falling from his right eye. Dan, however didn't seem to notice it.
"You should probably tell her that, Harry. I think deep down she knows it, but it would probably make all the difference in the world for her to actually hear you say that. I know I've said this several times now, but, Harry, you are her best friend. She needs to know that she was able to help you."
Dan's expression lightened slightly. "She's happy now, now that you're here, but she'd been in a right state ever since she came home three weeks ago. When you didn't answer her first letter, it really worried her. After waiting for three days for your response, she immediately sent letters to both your Headmaster and Professor McGonagall. I don't know what was in them, but when their replies came back... well, let's just say she wasn't at all happy with the responses she got back." Dan smiled slightly.
"The female Granger temper?" Harry asked with a smile, his eyes still watery but at least no longer leaking.
"Ohhhh yesssss," Dan confirmed in a whisper. "That's when she started writing that second letter. I don't think I've every seen her put so much time and effort into anything she's ever written." Dan smiled again. "Then again, I don't get much opportunity to see her homework, other than what she has over the summer, so I haven't much to compare it to."
Harry smiled again. "Well, I can tell you that I've read her class notes for the last five years and read many of her essays. Even I was impressed by that letter. And that's coming from someone who was so mad when he first read it that he almost tore it into a thousand pieces."
Harry took a deep breath. "You know, I think that letter may've saved my life. I doubt I was in any mortal peril, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually, yes. I quite possibly may have just sat there, locked away in my room all summer. Who knows what would have emerged on September first. I mean, I did after all manage to ignore nine letters over the course of about two weeks."
Dan's attention snapped back onto Harry. "Nine letters?" he asked, surprised.
"Yes. It seems you and Hermione weren't the only ones to write me letters." Harry pulled Hermione's letter and Dan and Emma's letter out of his pocket. "The others are in my trunk. Somehow, I managed to never get around to writing replies to them. But then she sent me that second letter. After a very long night, I finally felt as though I had finally come out of a long, dark tunnel that I had been trapped in."
Harry paused and took another deep breath. "I was quite sure that that letter must have been hard for her to write, so I knew I had to let her know what it meant to me for her to do that."
Remembering how he had felt before and after reading that letter, Harry's eyes again began to water again slightly. He tried blinking to reduce the effect, but his attempt was futile.
Dan, who by all outward appearances still seemed to not have noticed Harry's difficulty, surprised Harry by pulling a tissue from a box on the bedside table Harry hadn't noticed.
"We haven't used this guest room for quite a while. As a result, I'm afraid it may be a little dusty in here. It looks as though you may have gotten something in your eye. Here," Dan encouraged Harry as he handed him the tissue.
"Dust?" Harry asked. He looked around the room. It appeared spotless. The sunlight pouring in through the window illuminated no trace of dust in the air.
"Yes, Harry. Dust," Dan replied with an understanding look.
Harry took the tissue and cleared the "dust" away. "Thanks," he told Dan.
After pointing to a bin in the corner of the room, Dan again turned his attention to Harry. "If you don't mind my asking Harry, what was in that letter you sent her? She seemed so withdrawn until that letter arrived. And then it was like she just came back to life," Dan explained. "We could see her holding it, and it didn't look like there was much written there. We asked, but she didn't want to show us what was in it."
Harry seemed surprised and slightly amused by this revelation. "Actually, it was just two words. Well, now that I think about it, there might've also been a 'Dear Hermione,' and a 'Harry' in there too, but to be honest, I don't even remember. I spent so much time worrying about what to say in that letter that I didn't really focus on anything else."
Harry smiled slightly in an embarrassed sort of way. "It's funny actually. After all that thinking and debating and worrying about what to say, in the end, I ended up only saying two words. But they were probably the hardest two words I've ever had to say in my life."
Harry paused and thought a moment. "But at the same time, they were also the easiest two words I've ever had to say." Harry looked at Dan. He was quite sure every emotion known to man was playing out across Dan's face. But most of all there was anticipation and confusion. "I'm sorry. I don't suppose I'm making much sense here, am I?" Harry conceded.
"Well, it might help if you actually told me what those two words were. I can think of a lot of combinations of two words. Some good, some... not so good," Dan observed with a slight laugh.
Harry looked surprised. "I didn't actually say what they were, did I?" Dan shook his head, amused. "I'm sorry," Harry laughed. "We've been dancing around it the whole time and I never even said what it was. 'Thank you.' The two words I wrote were 'Thank you.'"
Dan's expression immediately cleared.
"I didn't know what else to say. Everything else seemed meaningless without that. After that one, all the rest were much easier. I started writing replies to all of the other letters. I got them all done, except for two." Harry again held up the two letters in his hand. "I had a hard time with these two. All of the others, I just sat down and started writing. Once I got started, the words just seemed to flow until I had said what I needed to say."
Harry looked down at textured gray carpet. "But with these two... I don't know. I know what I wanted to say, but I just couldn't. It was like I had so much to say that none of it could get out. Like a bunched up queue at a door. Everything tried to get out at once, so nothing ended up getting out. I-"
"Harry," Dan interrupted him. "I understand. I can't speak for my wife, but I think this little chat here has said more than any number of written words could ever say." Dan stood up and smiled.
"Though I will admit 'Thank you' comes pretty close," Dan said. "Powerful words, Harry, as powerful as most any spell you can think of. It's ironic. Sometime we can say more in two or three little words, words we've all heard a million times, than some public speaker and an army of speech writers ever could."
After a few awkward silent moments, Harry also stood up. After setting the two letters down on his bed, he started following Dan out of the room. Right as he reached the doorway, Dan suddenly stopped and turned around. It was so sudden, Harry nearly bumped into him. Dan seemed to be debating on whether or not to say something. After a moment, he finally decided.
"Speaking of thank-yous, Harry, there's something I've wanted to tell you for a long time. As my wife mentioned, it seems as though we've been intentionally kept from meeting you properly all these years. Fate can be a cruel mistress, Harry. At least now I can finally tell you. Thank you, Harry. Thank you for rescuing my only daughter."
Harry looked stunned, and then guilty. Realizing that Harry was about to say something to the effect that it was his fault for her needing to be rescued, Dan quickly continued to explain what he meant. "Thank you for rescuing her from herself. As you may or may not know, our little Hermione can tend to get a teensy bit carried away with her books and school work.
"She didn't really have many friends at her school before Hogwarts. When she got the letter, we were so hopeful that this exciting new world might help draw her out a little more." Dan paused for a moment and then sighed lightly. "Then we got her first letter after school started. She had found the library."
Harry smiled in understanding; Dan sighed in defeat. "Her entire letter went on and on about all the new things she was learning, and all the new books she had found. We were worried that she would drive herself further into her books and studies, now that there was this whole new world for her to explore.
"I mean, out here, for example, she might not have known every little detail about the French Revolution at eleven years old, but she knew that it was there... waiting to be studied. She would get to it when she got to it. But in there, everything was new to her." Harry smiled as he remembered similar feelings.
"She didn't know what there was that she didn't know. Does that make sense? Out here, she knew the world was just one big puzzle, a puzzle with the edges assembled, but still a lot of empty places for her to fill in. But in there, not only was she given an empty puzzle board, but she didn't even know what the boundaries of that puzzle were. It only excited her even more. She wanted to learn about everything.
"Though, I must admit, we were surprised about one thing. Buried in with all the books and spells she was so excited about, in that letter there was actually a reference to another human being." Dan gave Harry a pointed stare, then smirked slightly. "Of course, we shouldn't have been surprised really. It was just some boy she met on the train, a boy she-" Dan nodded, "had read about in a book." Harry blushed for some reason; he didn't know why.
Smiling at Harry's reaction, Dan continued. "After the second letter, we were beginning to wonder if there was anyone at that school other than the teachers and the librarian." Dan and Harry both chuckled for a moment. Once he had stopped, Dan's face dropped slightly. "Then she wrote us about Halloween. She told us how someone had said some mean things about her, and how she had... well, not reacted well to it. She told us how she came out of the toilet stall and looked up to see what was in there with her."
Dan's face paled slightly, but then quickly returned to normal. "And then she told us how you, and your friend Ron too, had saved her life. From that point on, her letters started sounding less and less like book reports, and more like a child spending time with her friends. Over the years, we heard all about the trouble the three of you would get into, all the confrontations you had with, what did she call him, the 'foul, loathsome, evil little cockroach.'" Harry tried not to smile.
"She even told us about your Quidditch matches. You know, before she went to Hogwarts, I don't think Hermione knew the difference between a football and a volleyball. I mean, they're both round, they're both white, and they're both about the same size. One just has black spots on it, right?" Dan smiled again.
"But ask her anything about the history of Quidditch, ask her what the final scores were in any of your games. Ask her how many times you've had some accident during a game, and she can tell you."
Harry looked surprised, to say the least. "As I said Harry, thank you for rescuing her from herself. If it weren't for you... and your friend Ron, she wouldn't be the person she is today. She'd have probably moved into the library by now, and not known the name of a single person at that school who wasn't a teacher.
"This may be hard to understand, Harry, but I'd rather her be out there, getting into a little trouble every now and then, than to be locked away in the library or her dormitory, isolated in her books from everyone."
Dan now turned his attention fully to Harry and looked directly into his eyes. "And YES, I'd even rather her live a full life and face a little danger everyone once in a while, than for her to lock herself away in a room where she won't live at all, even though she's perfectly safe."
Again, Harry looked like he wanted to say something, but Dan didn't let him. "Do you know why, Harry?" Harry shook his head. "It's because you've always been there by her side. We both know that the world is not a safe place for either Muggle or Wizard. She may conveniently leave out some of the details in some of her letters, but I think we've picked up enough here and there over the years to know that all of you are not as safe as your professors would like us to believe."
Dan took a step towards Harry. "But... but... I know that she will always be safe as long as you are there with her. She could just stay home and knit more of those hats she's always talking about, but she'd still be in danger... sometimes trouble comes looking for you. I'd rather her be somewhere where there are people-" Dan put his hand on Harry's shoulder, "who can help keep her safe. Thank you, Harry. Thank you."
Dan extended his hand to Harry; Harry reached out to shake it. As he did, Dan suddenly pulled his arm in and reached his other arm around and drew Harry into a quick hug. One pat on the back later, they separated, both straightening out their shirts trying to look nonchalant.
"Aww, isn't that cute?" a voice behind them cooed. Both Dan and Harry jumped in shock. "Trying to wipe each other's boy-germs off themselves. Absolutely precious. Oh, I wish I had my camera with me." Emma started laughing.
"Hermione," she called downstairs, "you just missed the most adorable scene here a moment ago." She continued to laugh.
"Emma," Dan hissed, "you scared the living daylights out of me. How long were you standing there anyway?"
"Not long," Emma replied mysteriously, "but long enough," she finished with a smile. "I just wanted to check on the two of you. You've been up here for quite a while and we hadn't heard anything, so I just wanted to make sure you were both still alive, and to make sure you didn't read Harry the riot act about living in the same house as 'your only daughter.'"
"What'd I miss?" Hermione's voice called up eagerly from downstairs.
Seeing the look on Dan's face, Emma answered back, "I'll tell you later."
"No, you won't," Dan immediately told her in a whisper. Emma smiled deviously back at Dan.
Knowing that he already lost that battle, Dan turned back around towards Harry. "Well, dear, we never got that far in our little talk. Did we Harry?"
Harry looked confused and shook his head, unsure if he should or not.
"Right. But to be honest, after talking with him, even if I thought I needed to talk to him about that, I don't really think I'd need to."
Harry started blushing again. Why'd that have to happen? I didn't do or say or think anything off-color!
Dan had to bite his lip to keep from laughing. "I'm sure Harry here is quite aware of what our daughter is capable of. In the end, I'm sure he'd rather face an angry me than an angry Hermione. Isn't that right Harry?" Dan asked.
Thoughts he had never before associated with Hermione suddenly raced into his mind. Everything was swept away as the sight of an enraged Hermione appeared, with her wand pointed at him; Harry visibly shuddered. He wondered what might appear on his face if he ever did something dishonorable to Hermione... if he still had a face, that is.
Emma laughed slightly. "Yes, I can see what you mean, Dan." The sound of Emma laughing brought Harry back to room he was in. The amused expressions on Dan and Emma were hard to ignore. Harry couldn't help but give an embarrassed smile.
"Well boys," Emma started, "if you're all settled in up here, what say we head out for a little shopping? We've already taken the day off work, so we might as well make the most of it." Emma gave Dan a fleeting glance. "I dare say he could stand for some new clothes."
Dan clapped his hand on Harry's shoulder. "What do you say, Harry? Want to get out of the house for a bit?"
The idea of being anywhere other than back in his room on Privet Drive certainly appealed to Harry. But then a thought struck him. "But, I don't have any money with me. It's all back at Gringotts." For some reason, Harry didn't feel uncomfortable saying that.
Dan smiled kindly. "Don't worry about that, Harry. We'll cover everything while we're out, and then you can just repay us when we go to pick up your school supplies for next term. Deal?"
Harry felt greatly relieved. "Deal," he said with a smile. The three of them then left Harry's new room and headed downstairs. They found Hermione sitting on the sofa that faced the staircase. Not surprisingly, she was reading a book. At the sound of them coming down, she looked up and smiled. Harry was surprised by how comforting he found that smile. It was as though some things always seemed constant. What exactly those "things" were, Harry was not entirely sure. But they were comforting all the same.
Hermione set down the book. "So, are you coming Harry?" She looked genuinely excited. "I mentioned to Mum that your regular clothes were little more than your cousin's old hand-me-downs, so she suggested we go shopping." Emma tried to hide a smile when Hermione said the word "little."
"We needed to make a trip anyway, so I figured we could do it all at once," Hermione explained; Harry nodded.
Hermione jumped up and started towards the stairs. "I'm going to change real quick, and then we can go." Harry sat down on the same sofa Hermione had been in. Since it faced the staircase, he watched her go upstairs. He could not help but find it funny as she practically leaped and bound up the stairs. He held back a laugh and shook his head in amusement.
Harry turned towards Dan and Emma, who had sat down in the loveseat on his side. "So, are we going to be waiting here long?" he asked.
Emma turned and looked back at the stairs. "Well, it depends if she tries to do anything with her hair. If so, we might be here a while. If not, she'll be down in a couple minutes."
A couple minutes later, Hermione came walking down the stairs. Her hair was pulled back into a ponytail, and she was wearing a pair of jeans and a different T-shirt. A shirt he recognized... from television... a few weeks ago.
It was now Harry's turn to feel embarrassed by that shirt, which he noticed was curiously new-looking. "I'm sorry, Hermione. I was only joking about that shirt. I didn't realize he actually bought you one."
Out of the corner of his eye, Harry could see Dan vigorously shaking his head as if to say "Don't blame me for that."
Hermione, who seemed to have not noticed her father's reaction, slowly looked up at Harry with a guilty grin. "Well... it is a nice shirt, and I obviously can't wear it to school. Can you imagine Malfoy's or Snape's reactions if they saw me wearing this? Or Lavender's or Parvati's? Or worse, Ron's or Ginny's?"
Both of the teenagers shared a laugh. "Besides, we're going to be in the middle of a Muggle shopping mall. No one there knows you're Harry. So, are we all ready? Got your wand, Harry?"
Harry's face immediately blanched. He had forgotten his wand! It was still in his trunk. How could he have forgotten to take out his wand?!
Hermione immediately read the look on his face and her face changed into mothering mode. "Harry..." she lectured.
"I for- erm - sorry. It's still in my trunk." Harry leaned forward as he started to stand up.
"No, no, I'm still up, I'll go get it," she offered.
"Thanks, Hermione," Harry replied sheepishly.
Hermione stared at Harry for a moment and cracked the faintest hint of a smile. "Yes, well... I promise you won't be thanking me if there is a next time."
As she turned to go back upstairs, Harry could not tell if the look on her face was teasing or threatening. Probably a little of both, Harry decided wisely.
Harry looked back at Dan and Emma. Dan was wearing an I told you so expression. Emma saw this and elbowed him in the ribs lightly. "Professor Dumbledore seemed to think you should be relatively safe in the middle of a Muggle city for short periods. Who'd think to look for you in the middle of Wandsworth, especially since that spell precludes anyone from even thinking you'd be with us? But, there's never any excuse for being unprepared, is there?"
"No," Harry agreed. In all honesty, for the last three weeks, he really hadn't cared at all, about anything. That was why his wand was still tucked away uselessly in his trunk. In my trunk, Harry remembered. Harry was suddenly embarrassed at the idea of Hermione having to dig through all his dirty clothes to find his wand. He really wished he had put out some laundry back at Privet Drive.
Hermione soon came bounding down the stairs, obviously none the worse for her experience. As Harry stood up, she handed him his wand and shook her head in feigned disappointment. "Thanks," was all he could muster.
She smiled. "You owe me one," she warned.
Harry safely stowed his wand into his pocket as Dan and Emma stood up. As he watched Dan help Emma to her feet and saw her smile lovingly in return, Harry felt a twinge of... well, not jealousy, but longing, maybe, as he wondered what it would feel like to be able to help a special someone up like that and have her smile back at him like that.
His thoughts were interrupted by Dan's cheerful call of "Everyone ready?" Getting three nods in reply, they all headed for the front door.
As the four of them headed down the walk towards the car, Harry thought for a moment about the last twenty-four hours or so. A little over a day ago, Hedwig had delivered Hermione's reply that had seemed to set everything into motion: Dumbledore's letter, packing up to move out of the Dursleys', Dan and Emma picking him up, and finally arriving here, his new temporary home.
He could not ever remember feeling this excited. He should be miserable after Sirius's death. He should be scared with Voldemort on the loose. But instead, he was happy and care free... his only concern currently about actually having to choose his own clothes for the first time in his life. He didn't know what had brought about these changes in the way he was feeling. He promised himself, however, that if he ever figured out what it was, he wouldn't ever let go of it, for anything.
A/N: Check out an AWESOME photo-manip made by Evernight based on a scene in this chapter!