A/N: Bad fanfiction author. No cookie. It's been way too long since I updated this story. School, work, and my hard disk being corrupted (and therefore everything on my computer got deleted) got in the way. I have appreciated any favorites, reviews, story alerts, etc. I hope to be better at updating this so hopefully chapter 5 will make it's way in soon. And if you couldn't tell, then yes, all the chapter titles (besides for chapter 1) are song titles. =)

"Where've you been?"

Jenna ignored Derrick and pushed past him to the sweeping stairs.

"Hey," he said, reached out and grabbing her arm.

"Get off me," she said, pulling away from him.

"You're not going to tell me where you were?"

"I was with Harry," she said. "Why do you care?" She started to walk up the stairs.

"I don't, but dad was asking where you were."

Jenna froze halfway up the stairs and turned around to Derrick.

"Dad? But he's not supposed to be home for another week."

"His business trip got cut short. He said he wanted to talk to you as soon as you got home." Derrick said, shrugging. Jenna walked back down the stairs, past Derrick, and down the hall towards their father's study.

The door was closed, as was usually the case. Jenna paused and then knocked hesitantly. She heard what sounded like an affirmation that she could enter so she pushed open the heavy wooden door. Her father was standing on a ladder that stretched from floor to ceiling against bookshelves that were just as tall. He turned to look at Jenna as she came in and looked her up and down, taking in the slight grass stains on the side of her white t-shirt.

"Hello, Jennifer. How are you?" he asked as he descended the ladder, a book in hand.

"Just brilliant. How was your trip?"

"Boring. So what does brilliant entail?"

"You know," Jenna said as she plopped herself into the padded leather seat in front of her father's desk. "Drugs, booze, hot babes."

"Oh, so the usual?"

"Pretty much." she said, playing with one of the many paperweights that lined her father's desk. Every year for his birthday she and her brothers got him paperweights and ties. He didn't really like presents, but he occasionally wore the ties and he kept the paperweights on his desk. The one she was playing with was blood red with a vein of gold color running through it, twisting through the stone. Almost like a lightning bolt, Jenna thought, smiling as she thought of Harry's scar.

"So why did you want to talk to me?" Jenna asked.

"A father can't just chat with his daughter?"

Jenna gave him a look that clearly said that she thought not.

"Well," he sighed, seating himself in his own leather chair. "The truth is I wanted to discuss this whole Stonewall issue with you." Jenna set the paperweight back on the desk with a heavy thump.

"There's nothing to discuss. I've been going there for a year already. I thought we got past this."

"I was hoping I might be able to change your mind. I don't think you're getting the education you could get at a more prestigious school like Wellington"

"I'm not going back there." she said resolutely as she got off of her comfortable seat and left the office, not wanting to hear more. She pulled the heavy door closed behind her with a light click before leaned back against it, eyes closed.

* * *

Harry lay back on his bed, hands tucked beneath his head, completely and utterly unable to sleep.

This was to be expected, he supposed. Insomnia had come with his infatuation with Cho Chang. And he hadn't even really kissed Cho, at least not the way he kissed Jenna. Snogging Jenna was like snogging a force of nature. Like lightning. Absentmindedly, he traced the length of his scar with his finger.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by a insistent tapping on the window. Opening his eyes he saw what looked like a white moon fluttering out side his window. He grabbed his glasses of his bedside table and shoved them on his face.

"Hedwig!" he whispered. He jumped out of his bed and opened the window open to let her in.

"Be quiet, will you." he whispered as she swooped in. "Do you want to wake up the Dursleys?" Hedwig hooted as though she didn't really care about the Dursleys. She stuck a leg out to Harry. There was a letter attached to it and she waited patiently as Harry removed the scroll from it's ties. He'd already recognized the hurried handwriting of his best friend. He unrolled the parchment quickly as Hedwig ruffled her feathers and settled herself atop a bookshelf.

The letter read:

Harry,

Just wanted to let you know that we haven't forgotten you over here. It's just been a bit busy. I can't say much in this letter in case of interception. I hope the muggles are treating you well. Or I at least hope you haven't murdered them yet. Hermione's come to stay at the burrow. She feels it'll protect her parents if she doesn't stay home. I don't know if she's right. It seems like hardly anyone is safe these days. The Order says that you can come to the Burrow right after your birthday. Mum begged them to let you come sooner, but they insisted you stay until then. I thought this was really unfair so me and Hermione were talking and we thought maybe we could come visit you and keep you company until it's time for you to leave. I don't know if the muggles would be okay with this, but I don't really care much. Write back soon, mate.

-Ron

Harry stared down at the parchment in his hands. The harsh reminder that there was a war going on beyond Privet Drive was evident in the letter. He had gone so long without having to really think about it that it felt strange now. Any other summer he would have been so grateful for Ron and Hermione's company at the Dursley's. And now that they both could apparate this was easier to organize. But this summer it might be… complicated. Still, Ron would be suspicious if Harry told him not to come.

Harry scrounged around in the drawer of his night table for a spare bit of parchment. He managed to find a small bit of unmarked parchment and a rather chewed up pen. He found that he liked using pens rather than quills.

He paused, pen poised dangerously above the parchment. And then he wrote:

Ron,

It would be great to have you and Hermione come for a bit. I'll work it out with the Dursley's. Maybe you could come for the week before my birthday? Tell you mum and dad I said hi.

-Harry

He rolled up the parchment tightly and coaxed Hedwig off of the bookshelf. As he watched her fly off with his message he wondered why he hadn't just told Ron about Jenna. It was almost like he didn't want to collide these two worlds. The wizarding world that he had tried so hard to avoid all summer and the newfound muggle world that included things like tacky movies and Jenna. Those worlds weren't meant to meet.

He had a few weeks to worry about it anyway. He lay back down on his bed, closed his eyes, and let his thoughts drift off to patches of grass beneath an old swingset.

* * *

Dudley wasn't sure whether to believe the rumors. Piers had told him that everyone was saying that Harry was hanging around that Jenna girl. Dudley was suspicious. Harry had never hung around with other kids in the neighborhood before. Especially not with ones from the richer side of town.

Dudley suspected the M word was being used in this situation.

He was sitting at the breakfast table, making his way through the fifteen pieces of bacon his mother had put before him and watching Harry pick at his own two pieces. He should just tell his parents. They would stop whatever Harry was doing. It wasn't like Dudley actually cared about this Jenna girl, but it made his skin itch to know that Harry was doing anything magical.

"Duddykins," his mother sat in the chair next to him, a cup a tea held lightly in her thin fingertips. "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to invite Katie to dinner tonight." She said it as though it were just a passing thought, but his parents had been trying to find a way to meet Dudley's girlfriend all summer.

"Mum," Dudley moaned. Harry had looked up, trying to hide a smirk that appeared on his face whenever there was a request to meet Katie.

"Dudley, I think it's time we met her." his mother stated.

"Well, if I have to bring my girlfriend then Harry has to bring his." Dudley said, smiling evilly at Harry, who had dropped the piece of bacon he had been clutching in his fingertips.

"She's not my girlfriend." Harry said, frowning. "At least, I don't think-"

"Dudley, don't be ridiculous. We don't need another of his kind around here. Especially not when Katie is here."

"She's not one of his kind," Dudley said, and Harry had murder in his eyes. "She's one of our kind."

Petunia froze, teacup halfway to her mouth.

"One of our kind?" She asked, looking at Harry finally.

"Yeah," Harry said, quickly trying to busy himself with his bacon.

"Are you," Petunia stopped, as though trying to decide how to word what she was trying to say. "Are you doing anything you shouldn't with her." Harry looked like he was going to laugh.

"I haven't had sex with her or anything."

"No!" Petunia said sharply. "That's not what I meant. I mean have you been using-" she coughed. "have you bewitched her?"

"Oh, because the only way I could get a girl is with magic?"

Aunt Petunia let out a low hiss at 'magic'. She took another quick sip of her tea.

"Well I don't see why else a normal girl would want someone like you. Maybe you should bring her to dinner tonight." she said, coming to a decision.

"So you can see if I've used a love potion on her or something?" Harry asked angrily.

"They have those?" Dudley asked, wide-eyed.

"Dudley!" admonished Petunia, looking shocked. Dudley retreated back to his bacon. His mother gestured at Harry with her teacup.

"I want to meet her. Tonight."

Harry groaned and looked back down at his own bacon. His appetite had vanished. It was going to be an awkward dinner.