Harry POV
I walked quickly to the park, eager to get away from my so called relatives. Honestly, I thought to myself. I can't believe they even have the nerve to call themselves my aunt and uncle! I replayed the scene that I had just walked out of in my mind.
Uncle Vernon looked at me unpleasantly. 'Why are you watching the news again?' he asked. Actually it was more of a bark. I shrugged. I didn't feel like telling Uncle Vernon the reason. The fact that Voldemort would be indulging himself in Muggle torture, probably this very moment in fact, was sure to come on the Muggle news right? Not that they'd know it was Voldemort, of course. They'd probably blame any bridges collapsing or broken building on earth movements or something like that, but I, and hopefully the rest of the wizard population, would know the real disruptor. Vernon scowled. 'You should show me more respect,' he snarled at me. 'You show be grateful that your aunt and I even took your sorry little behind in from the doorstep on that night!'
I turned away. I didn't care what his uncle or aunt thought of me. 'Whatever.' I muttered. 'Don't you turn your back on me!' Uncle Vernon shouted, his face rapidly progressing to the puce coloured state that it seemed to spend half its time in. 'I'm not done with you yet!'
But I just shook his head and walked out.
The park was in sight now, and I bee-lined for the playground that was usually unoccupied, so that I could just think.
However, as soon as I was close enough, he could see that the playground was, for once, in use. A little girl with golden curls that bounced on her head, was giggling uncontrollably as a girl who looked to be in her late teens pushed her higher and higher on the swing set. Just as she got to the peak height, the little girl let go of the swing and pushed herself off, high into the air.
She went incredibly high and stayed up for such an incredibly long time, that it almost seemed unreal to me. Then again, I lived in a world of magic. Nothing was unreal. As the little girl started to fall towards the ground again she let out a shriek of glee and delight. She landed lightly like a butterfly and started to laugh, in a pretty bell-like laugh. She must have been at least 3m up but she was completely unharmed.
'Max! Max! I wanna do it again!' She shouted happily. 'That was FUN!'
'Aw, sorry Angel, sweetie,' said the teen, running over and scooping up the girl in a bear hug. 'I promised Gazzy that I'd give him a turn, but you can have a go after that!'
The teenager -Max- had long hair that looked as if it was trying to decide whether to be blonde or brown, beautiful chocolate brown eyes, and was very tall, taller than me by what must have been several inches. She's very pretty, I found myself thinking in some surprise. He continued walking to the park, trying to decide whether to stop there or to just keep going.
'Yeah!' Shouted a boy who had blonde curls and blue eyes just like the little girl (Angel, Max had called her). 'It's my turn!' Angel's face fell, and the boy (who could only be her big brother) softened. 'But I can give you my go if you want.' The tiny girl's face lit up again as she ran to hug her big brother. 'Thank you Gazzy! You're the best brother ever!'
Well that was a pretty weird name. Gazzy?
I took in the rest of the playground as he got even closer. Apart from the teen, Max, the little girl, Angel, and her older brother Gazzy, there were three other people occupying the space. Up on a raised platform was a girl with mocha coloured skin and wild extremely curly dark brown hair. She was chattering endlessly to a tall boy who looked like he was Max's age, with pale skin and strawberry blonde hair. He was surveying the scene that included Max with bright blue eyes that were slightly clouded over. I wondered if he had a sight impediment. I could tell that the boy was not really listening to the dark girl, preferring to tune her out instead. Finally, off to the side, with a laptop balanced on his knees, a boy dressed completely in black, with black hair and olive skin, was typing. I couldn't tell if they had come as a big group or separately. None of them looked related except Angel and Gazzy. All of them were pretty good looking though.
Just then, the dark haired boy glanced up from the laptop and looked at Max, then at me. Somehow, Max must have felt his gaze because she looked over at him, and then followed his pointed look to me. Her eyebrows instantly contracted and she put Angel down on the ground. Gazzy and Angel both looked at me, and I seemed to have attracted the attention of the remaining people at the park: the tall blonde boy and the dark skinned girl. The boy with the laptop, the girl and the other boy all got up to stand behind Max who was now looking at me warily.
As I watched them I couldn't help but think that they looked just like a family standing there. I felt a pang of loneliness, which I quickly shook away. I wondered what it would have been like if I still had my parents. But they were gone, murdered. They weren't coming back. No, instead I got to spend the holidays with Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley, which were about as bad as it got.
As I watched, Angel's face changed from one of wariness to sympathy as she looked at him. What?
Angel looked up at Max and whispered something. Max's expression also changed. She looked at I and stepped forward. 'Hey,' she said. 'I'm Max.' She still looked slightly suspicious, but nowhere near as much as before. 'Harry. Harry Potter.' I answered. The group all grinned and snickered, except for the dark boy who just smirked. 'Bond. James Bond.' Max whispered.
I shook my head and smiled slightly. 'This is Nick,' said Max, pointing at the dark boy. Harry noticed that his eyes were as dark as his hair and I was unable to make out the pupil from the iris. I supposed that if he was a girl then he would see Nick as pretty hot.
'Jeff,' Max indicated the tall blonde boy, who nodded his head and said 'Sup?'
'Tiffany-Krystal' the girl with dark skin waved excitedly and said, 'Hi! I'm Tiffany-Krystal, Tiffy for short; it's really good to meet you! OMG I love your accent, it's so cute! Can you say 'I like to jump on tables pat sheep'? Please, please, please, ple-' Tiffy was cut off by a hand that Jeff had placed over her mouth. 'Sorry, she likes to talk a lot.' He said apologetically.
'Anyway,' continued Max. 'This is Zac and Ariel,' she finished pointing to the last in the group. I frowned slightly. Hadn't they been called Gazzy and Angel? Again, Angel –or was it Ariel? - looked up at Max and whispered something to her. Max looked at me. She shrugged. What was going on here? They weren't a normal family that much was sure.
