Harry received Annabel's message the day after Professor's Lupin resignation. He was happily surprised by the girl's inviting him as her date for her mother's wedding. Harry knew that he had nurtured feelings other than simple friendship for the muggle girl for a while now, and now she had implicitly said that she wanted to be something more than his pen-pal and friend. He was more than willing to try having something with her. For this reason, he just couldn't keep the silly smile off of his face.

"Harry, what's the problem with you today? You just let me destroy your queen in less than three moves," Ron asked incredulously.

"Ron is right. You've seemed a bit 'over the moon' since you received your friend's letter. Is there anything you feel like sharing?" Hermione, who had been watching the wizard chess game, had also decided to make a comment.

Part of Harry didn't want to tell his friends. The other part, however, wanted to shout it for everyone to hear.

"She asked me to be her date for her mother's wedding," Harry decided to say in the end.

"Wow! You are going to have a snog!" Ron said a bit loud, which made a few people turn their heads to their direction and giggle.

"Thank you for being so discrete Ron," a blushed Harry told off his best mate.

"It's great, Harry! You have been liking her for a while now, haven't you?" Hermione grinned.

"I guess so. I'm glad she did ask me though. I think I would never have dared cross that line unless I was a hundred percent sure that she liked me back. She's always been my friend and all…"


Despite the fact that he had to use metaphors in order to tell Annabel simple things about his daily life, Harry found out that sometimes it felt very comforting to read her letters and see her thoughts about his problems. He also enjoyed reading her problems and things about her daily routine.

On the other hand, it was very difficult for the muggle girl to fully understand everything that was going on in Harry's head and on his magical school's grounds. He couldn't really tell her anything about Voldemort and the true meaning of his scar. Because of this, it was really hard to make her realise the real danger that he was constantly facing. In the same way, it wasn't easy for Harry to comprehend the importance that ballet had in Annabel's life. He never really realised the amount of time that she had to devote in order to make her body perform a slightly more perfect leap. He didn't understand why she had panicked so much when she had to stay away from the dancing classes for three weeks because she had a very small injury to her left ankle.

However, despite living in completely different worlds – the magical and the ballet world – and being unable of fully understand each other's little problems, somehow they managed not only to preserve their friendship, but to deepen it even though they weren't able to see each other as often they would have liked. For Annabel, Harry was the friend that she had managed to stay in touch with on a regular basis outside her school. For Harry, she was the only muggle that had ever been friends with him.

Despite all the differences, they also had a nice dynamic that was based on a mutual respect for things they didn't quite understand the other, but they accepted that side without much questioning.

The other thing was the strong attraction that they had always felt for each other; even though in the beginning they were too young to realise and understand those feelings that they had nurtured, it was becoming more and more clear every year when they finally got to see each other during the summer breaks.

Annabel would always try to get back to her nan's every time Harry was on summer holidays from Hogwarts. During those days, most of the time Annabel was there alone, but sometimes she was accompanied by her cousin Jess, who also lived in Little Whinging, or more rarely, by Geoffrey.

One thing that Harry had learned about Geoffrey through her letters was that he was a very spoiled, arrogant brat. After meeting him for the first time, he understood completely what she meant by that. Geoffrey had the personality of Draco Malfoy and Dudley Dursley combined. When introduced to Harry, the muggle boy wouldn't stop making disguised jokes about Harry's lack of fashion or the fact that Harry's hair was so messy that it looked like a bird's nest.

It hadn't been a very easy task to convince the Dursleys to let their 'troubled freak nephew' spend a whole week at the girl's house in London. It took a great persuasive intervention speech made by Annabel's grandmother for them to accept. After the wedding, the Weasleys would pick him up so he would be able to attend the Quidditch World Cup. Harry knew that this would probably be the best summer of his life!

Annabel and her mother lived in a six-bedroom Victorian house in the borough of Islington, not very far from Angel tube station. It was a big house for only the mother, daughter and French au pair who lived with them, but Annabel's mother refused to move anywhere else. It had been her parent's house after all. The luxurious look of that place made the Dursleys look like poor people.

Harry had never been in a ballet studio, but he thought that Annabel's room probably resembled one. The room was all white with details in purple, and a big mirror that covered one of the walls and a ballet bar had been put in front of it. She also had a double bed next to the window, a desk and two wardrobes – one for her ballet costumes and another for normal clothes, she explained to him. Harry stayed in one of the guestrooms, which he thought to be much nicer than his actual room. The room in which Harry stayed was next to the room that was going to belong to Geoffrey once he moved to the house with his father.

During the days Harry spent in the company of the muggle girl, he got to see a bit of muggle London in a way he had never done before. They didn't do the touristic things because Annabel and her au pair Lauren were very busy organizing last-minute wedding details. But they got to go for nice walks and bicycle rides around the Regent's Canal and Angel area. Harry, who had never ridden a bicycle before in his life, - Dudley would have rather died than lent his bike to Harry –learned very quickly.

On his third day in London, he went on a muggle suit hunt with Annabel and Lauren. The girl had decided to give it to him as an early Christmas present. Harry tried to protest, but the girl was determined to get him nicely dressed for her mother's wedding.

"I know that you don't own a decent suit, and don't you even dare show up to my mother's wedding wearing your school uniform!"

Harry kind of agreed that he needed the clothes, but it didn't feel right having her spending loads of money on him while he had a small fortune of gold buried somewhere not far from them. But as he didn't have a muggle credit card, he had to accept that he would need to pay her back another time. It took more than fifteen different tries of suits, shoes, shirts and ties until both females were satisfied with the final result.

Even though Annabel despised her mother's wedding, she was the one who was taking care of its organization because her mother was very busy working on a very important case. The only moment that Harry had seen her mother at home was when the woman stopped by to pack some clothes to take for a work travel that she was going to make. Only then did Harry realise that Annabel had not over-reacted when she had written to him telling him that it had been weeks or months since the last time she had seen her mother.

Little progress had been made on Harry and Annabel's dating so far. The only thing that had changed between them was that they were extremely shy around each other. Annabel seemed to be waiting on Harry to make the first move, but he didn't want to do anything with her au pair around, and he was sure that the woman was following them everywhere. The most that he had done until that moment was hold her hand and kiss her cheek when they were taking the bus back home after one of their walks, and it had taken him all his Gryffindor courage to do so. He was compensated for his gesture when Bel leaned her head on his shoulder for the rest of the journey, but no proper kiss had happened yet.

One of the things she had decided to make herself were some cupcakes to give as little wedding favour presents for the guests. It was two days before the wedding, and Harry and Annabel had spent most of the afternoon decorating the little cakes that she had made. Well, she was decorating… Harry was 'testing the flavours.'

"Those are looking like professionally-made ones, Bel. Your grandmother will be very proud when she sees them."

"Yes, they are looking good, aren't they? Harry, can you please help me put these I've finished in those little plastic boxes? When Lauren comes back with the ribbons she can finish them with you. She is very good with it." Bel pointed to the boxes while she carried on putting the icing on the cupcakes.

"Sure…"

Harry was about to start to transfer the little cakes when she went running on his direction.

"Wait! Wait! Wait, Harry! I completely forgot!" she said while she sprinted to the sink to wash her hands.

She got a little box from a top shelf and went to where Harry was waiting.

"I completely forgot that I ordered these personalized chocolates to go on the top of each cake."

"Mr and Mrs Harrison? So is this going to be your mother's last name?" Harry asked, interested.

"Yes, and I'll proudly carry on being the only Morelli in the house. Why does the woman need to add the name of the man and not the other way around? It's such an ancient rule."

Harry had decided to make the most of the rare moment where her au pair wasn't present and moved a bit closer to the girl.

"Well, if you prefer you can keep the Morelli. But I would love to call you Annabel Potter one day," Harry said, taking her chin, making her look up, straight to his eyes. She was one head shorter than him. He could see every single inch of her face.

"Harry! Look what you are saying! We're only fourteen!" She sounded overwhelmed, but she was still smiling. She put her hands on his hair.

"A boy can dream, right?" They were centimetres away from each other. Harry could hear her heartbeat.

"You got icing on your lips." It was the last thing Harry heard her say before their lips touched for the very first time.

It was at this precise moment that they heard steps coming from the front door. They broke up the un-started kiss immediately, and Annabel went running back to work on the icing. Harry wondered if Lauren would be able to notice that anything different had happened between them.

"I 'ad to go to three deeffrent stores, but I did get zee pur-pell ribbons," the au pair said showing it to them.

"Nice job! Maybe you could help Harry box up those that are ready," Bel said.

Harry was impressed at how she had managed to keep her expressions hidden so well.

"By zee way, I 'ave just received a call from your mére. She told me zat she took part in the… 'ow do you say…the detainment of an international trafficking gang in Greece. She asked me to inform you zat she ees getting the first flight back home. She mentioned zat she should be 'ere before midnight."

"How kind of her! She decided to join us on her own wedding day. I was seriously thinking that I would have to call everyone and tell them that it would have to be cancelled because she couldn't be bothered to attend her own wedding. I must say that I was actually quite happy with this prospect," Annabel said sarcastically.

"My mother is really unbelievable! What woman goes to another country a day before her wedding to hunt and arrest a bunch of criminals? Please tell me because, as far as I am concerned, she is the only one!" Harry had never seen Bel so angry with someone before.

"Now tell me! Tell me if she knows the type of flowers that she is having at the church? Tell me if she knows anything about the table settings, the music that is going to be played… pick anything about the wedding, and ask her to see if she knows. She won't know, and do you know why? Because I've done most of it on my own! You know what? I don't know why I even care… nothing I do seem to be good enough for her anyway."

Harry didn't dare make any comment about it, nor did Lauren. For a moment, Harry was certain that Bel would start to cry, but she started to work on the cupcakes again, which made him feel very glad. The three of them carried on working in silence for awhile, and when all the cupcakes had been neatly placed in their boxes and all the washing-up had been done, Lauren approached Annabel.

"Bel… you know zat tonight was supposed to be my night off…" she started. "I believe zat your mére thought she probably would be back at zis time. I know zat I shouldn't leave you alone… but tonight ees my friend's birthday. I thought zat maybe zis could be our little secret?" the au pair asked, feeling slightly bashful.

Annabel was grinning from ear to ear and looked like Christmas had arrived early.

"Of course! I promise my mom won't know a thing about it!"

"Merci beaucoup! You're ze best! I am going to order a pizza for ze both of you. It is my treat."


Annabel watched her au pair Lauren leave the house by the window on the TV room. She had planned to watch a movie with Harry, and maybe do other things in between every other boring scene. She knew that the kiss that she had been imagining for the past couple of months was finally going to happen.

"She is gone!" Annabel smiled, looking at Harry, who was serving the soft drinks on the coffee table in front of the sofa.

He smiled back. "So, which movie do you want to watch?"

"I really don't mind. You can pick anything you want from that shelf," she said, walking towards him.

"Right." He was reading through the titles when he was surprised by her hand touching his.

"Actually, you don't need to choose anything. Just kiss me."

Harry didn't feel like he needed a second invitation, and he started kissing her straightaway. At the first moment, their kiss started a bit clumsily, filled with clashing teeth and awkwardness of unsure tongues that had never kissed before. However, they quickly figured out how to do it properly, and as their snog session progressed, they began learning their ways around each other's bodies. Harry had one hand caressing her hair and the other rested at Annabel's waist. He thought that her skin was the softest thing he had ever touched, while her hair smelled like oranges that had just been picked.

Annabel fastened the pace bringing him even more closely to her body, even daring to stroke his chest under his t-shirt. Harry responded eagerly and saw this as an invitation to also explore some parts of her body. Harry wasn't able to tell how long they had been kissing before Bel decided to grab his hair with such a possessive grip that hurt, but in a nice way. She then guided him to the sofa and made him lie down and placed herself on top of him. But it was only when Harry realised that his hands were trying to open her bra from under her shirt with wandless magic that he realized that it was probably time to break down from their embrace.

"Stop! Please, Bel. Stop. Bel, we need to stop!" he said firmly pulling her away while she was trying to remove his t-shirt..

"Stop!? Why do you want to stop? Don't tell me you are not enjoying it, because I'm sure you are." she asked mischievously while looking at the increased volume on his crotch.

"You are such a naughty girl, Merlin! But if we don't stop now, I don't think I'll be able to control myself," he said, sitting down on the sofa as far away from her as he could and helped himself to some apple juice.

"So what?"

"So what? You were the one that was telling me that we're only fourteen less than one hour ago!" Only then Harry realised that his vision was completely blurry. He wasn't wearing his glasses anymore, and he didn't have a clue of its whereabouts.

"Well, this is what happens when you start saying silly things that involve me having your surname."

"Do you dislike 'Potter' that much?"

"No, I think that Potter is kinda cute. But this is nothing related to your name." She stopped trying to find the right words. "I just… I don't think I like the idea of marriage at all. You see how my parents ended up... I don't think that I believe on that old-fashioned marital institution anymore. I mean... this thing about promising to love one single person for the whole eternity doesn't attract me. I feel like the idea of a commitment in a single monogamous and boring relationship may not be right for me."

"Right," Harry said while trying to digest this new piece of information about her.

"You look so sexy without your glasses! Your eyes are so beautiful; has anyone ever told you that?" she said, hugging him.

"What people usually tell me is that they were my mother's eyes," Harry said simply. "Talking about that, do you know where my glasses are, by any chance?"

"Yes. I took them off. I kept them very safe here on the floor." She picked them up, but instead of giving them back to him, she decided to try them on. "Wow, you're blind. How do I look?"

"I have no idea. I'm blind, remember? Can you give it back so I can see you too?"

"How about we play a game, and if you win, I give them back to you?"

"How about you give them back to me now, and if I win the game, you will dance for me?"

"And if I win?"

"Well, then you can choose whatever you want."

She inclined to his ear and whispered something that made Harry blush.

"Okay, I can give you that. But it must be the best of three. And I'll choose the game."

"It's a deal." she said smiling while giving his glasses back."