Well, this is the third chapter of Darkness of Days! Yay! I'm sorry that I haven't been updating all that often. I haven't had a whole lot of inspiration on the writing, so I don't want to get ahead of myself with the posting. I hope to get out of this Writer's Block soon...Until then...Enjoy!

They arrived at the playground. Nick looked over at Harry and grinned.

"I'm still a child, aren't you?" It was weird sort of question, but Harry couldn't help but suspect that maybe there was something deeper to it, just as there appeared to be something more to the questioner. Harry watched as Nick went over and sat on one of the swings. He looked up at Harry expectantly, yet said nothing. Harry joined him.

They sat in silence for countless moments when Harry finally noticed it was beginning to get darker. He looked up to the moon. It was glowing palely, but in some odd way it was beautiful. Harry felt eyes on him, and he looked over to find Nick smiling at him.

"I enjoy the night far more than the day, don't you?" Once again a question that seemed to come from a child and yet had a deeper meaning. Nick looked up at the sky as if he really hadn't expected an answer. Again moments passed.

"Harry, can I ask you something?" Harry looked over to see Nick's face even more serious than it had been the entire time. Nick looked at Harry, who only nodded slightly.

"Your parents. How did you cope with that?" His voice told Harry that he wasn't messing around or meaning to hurt him, but that he did, in fact, wish to know and understand. And there was a certain light in Nick's eyes something akin to awe. This was a question, Harry knew, that Nick would wait for an answer, but Harry knew that he couldn't answer it, not in the right light. Muggles believed that his parents had died in a car accident.

"I was only one. I didn't know them. It really doesn't matter." Harry tried to keep the hurt from showing, and the tightness from his voice, hoping that Nick wouldn't catch it. He looked up at Nick, who Harry was surprised to see smiling, a twinkle in his eyes.

"You're lying." Harry felt a rush of anger come through him even though he knew it was unfounded. Nick stood up.

"Don't worry about it. I probably shouldn't have asked you such a personal question to begin with." He held out his hand, and Harry took it. "Come on, it's getting late. We'll both be in trouble." Nick grinned, and Harry couldn't help but grin back.

After that day Harry and Nick spent most of their time together, from a little after dawn till way after dusk. They raced, they joked, they played pranks on Dudley and his gang, they went to the stores with Mrs. Llwelyn just to get away from Privet Drive, but mostly they talked. They talked about sports, cars, school, and Harry had to admit he had some trouble talking about most of the things they did talk about. He wasn't all that up to date on the current Muggle sporting events and didn't really want to be. He didn't have a car, and neither did Nick, who seemed to know a lot about them. And it appeared that both of them had difficulty in talking about school.

Nick also seemed to have a fascination with magic and creatures of fantasy, and though he appeared quite Muggle Harry couldn't help but think that Nick had been born into the wrong world. He talked about Muggle fantasy and science fiction literature, like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stoker's Dracula, dragons, unicorns, werewolves, and banshees. Nick's knowledge seemed endless and genuine; he quoted from many Muggle books that Harry had only heard of. Every now and then Harry would speak up and add to the conversation, and Nick reacted with authentic interest and fascination.

But at times the talk turned dark whenever there was news on the television or in the paper of dark disappearances and unsolved murders, deaths that seemingly had no cause. At these times Harry would act as if disgusted but on the inside he could feel anger rising, knowing that it was because of the Dark Lord. Only a curse could kill without leaving a mark or trace.

If asked, Harry would have to say that from that day he met Nick Llywelyn his summer turned into one of the best he had ever had. Having a friend near, even one as new as Nick, seemed to lessen the pain and push the memory of losing Sirius to the back of his mind, where it would only torture him when it only became unbearable. And Nick took his little bursts of anger quite calmly, and Harry honestly didn't know how he could. He hadn't asked anymore questions about Harry's parents or about why Harry felt so angry or alone. Harry respected Nick, and was thankful for having him as a friend.

Harry just didn't know how he was going to say good-bye.