Authors Note: - Hello FanFictioners - Firstly thanks for persisting with my story so far. I know a lot of you might be thinking, "Jez just get to Japan already I thought this was what it was meant about".

I promise it is coming but I'm trying to lay some ground work for the rest of the story as well as I'm trying to develop relationships etc. I'm trying to write and post as quick as I can and so far, I think I've been doing alright but I'm trying to move away from just giving the story from Harry's point of view but bringing in other characters' thoughts as you might have noticed over the last ten or so chapters.

Also just quickly I really appreciate the kind reviews and pointing out stuff that I've not explained properly or was inaccurate.

Thanks

Craggle

Chapter 37 – Arcade Escapades

Tuesday 6th July, Longbottom House, Little Somerford, Chippenham

"So it's your birthday is it?" Harry asked Susan as he took a seat next to her at the breakfast bar and poured himself and Neville a cup of coffee before adding the milk to his and the milk and sugar to Neville's who he passed the cup down the bench to as he had taken a seat on the other side of Hannah.

"Yep, eighteen today, so my next big birthday is twenty, but the years seem to be flying by at the moment, so that will be here before you know it."

"Well happy eighteenth. You know in the muggle world turning eighteen is when a person comes of age, so it's kind of a big deal."

"Hannah said that to me earlier and that was how she convinced me to come over here as we didn't celebrate my coming of age last year because of what happened at the ministry." Susan said as tears started welling up in her eyes.

"Because of what happened at the ministry?" Harry asked taking a sip of his drink

Yes, you know what it was overthrown by the Death Eaters….my aunt was killed that day as they also attacked our home." she replied tears starting to fall from her eyes.

Harry kicking himself for being so stupid for upsetting her by starting the conversation, he got up and wrapped her in a hug as she softly sobbed into his shoulder as Hannah reached over and rubbed her back and silently mouthed to Harry that Susan would be alright and gave him a small smile.

"I'm sorry Suzie. I really didn't mean to upset you and on your birthday of all days. What a prat..." he said planting a kiss on her temple.

Susan pulled herself together after chastising herself for getting upset and crying onto Harry. 'God he must think I'm such a little girl considering how he's coped so well with losing people he had loved in the past.' Susan thought to herself.

She pulled back from Harry's embrace seeing the concern all over his face and her heart melted being on the receiving end of one of Harry's look of concerns.

"I'm really sorry Suzie I'm such an idiot as I should have thought. I really didn't mean to make you upset." He apologized as he placed his hands gently on each side of her face while slowly using his thumbs to softly wipe away her tears and being very careful to not smudge the eye makeup she had delicately applied. "Let me make it up to you by taking you out for a great day, hmmm?" Harry asked.

"You don't have to do that. It's really ok Harry, I know you didn't mean to upset me, it's just still kind of raw you know. I'm just glad that she managed to take a few of them out with her and went down fighting like the rest of my family did in the first war." she replied receiving a nod from Harry.

"I completely understand. Maybe better than you can imagine. But I still want to make it up to you. Plus, I've a weakness for pretty girls crying and I hate that I upset you." Harry said giving her a smile.

"Are you sure you want to spend the day with me? Hannah just said that to Neville's gran as an excuse to see him."

"Absolutely, although I'm going to have to go home and change first as I look like crap," he pointed towards his t-shirts with the bubble gum blue spots on his top, "are you alright waiting here ten minutes while I quickly floo home and get changed?"

"Sure, I can't wait so hurry." Susan repliead excitedly as Harry grinned at her and got up and told Neville he'd be back in a minute and to allow him to come back by floo. Neville a bit stunned by Harry's sudden standing up and telling him he was leaving told him that he'd changed the wards last night to allow Harry through whenever he wanted.

Harry left the room and they heard the floo go as Harry left through it to Potter Manor. Susan jumped up with a squeal and stamped her feet and clapped in excitement causing Hannah to smile and Neville's look of confusion to deepen.

"Han, we were just talking about my birthday and missing my coming of age last year and Harry said that he's going to take me out for the day for my birthday." Susan beamed at her friend who couldn't help but smile seeing her best friend so happy. "He's just gone home to change and then he said he's coming straight back!"

"Oh that's brilliant Suzie, what are you thinking then? Do you want me and Neville to come with you or do you want to go on your own?" Hannah asked her.

"Ooooh I don't know. I'd love to be alone with him…. but what if we run out of things to talk about? I don't want things to be awkward. Would you two mind coming along and then we can go off on our own for a while and then meet up again maybe?" Susan asked hopefully looking at Neville and Hannah in turn.

"That is of course unless you've already got plans today. I'm sorry Neville we just completely gate crashed on your day and invited ourselves over and here I am assuming you want to spend the day with us or Han at least."

Neville held his hands up and replied "Don't worry about that I had no plans for today other than to water some plants in my greenhouse and then maybe go for some lunch or something, so I'm happy to have my day improved." giving a shy smile to Hannah and felt his face coloring

"Aww Neville you're so cute, it's very sweet of you to say that I've improved your day." Hannah said to him, giving him a peck on the cheek.

"Well…. you have improved it. You're both welcome over anytime you like although maybe next time let me have a bit more of a lie in yeah and make it around ten o'clock instead of eight." he said getting a laugh from the girls.

"How come you and Harry got so drunk you ended up face down in the bath tub anyway? Celebrating or Consoling?" Susan asked curious as to why Harry was here as they had planned to get Neville and then go to Harry's, but that changed when they found out Harry was already at Neville off Neville's grandmother.

"Definitely consoling." Neville answered remembering the conversation he and Harry had last night about being able to have multiple wives and consorts if they wished.

"Why what happened?" Hannah asked concern on her face thinking something bad had happened to the two boys that had a hard enough life growing up.

"Are you both ok? Was he consoling you or you him?" Susan asked while biting her lip with nerves hoping that Harry was ok, not that she didn't want Neville to be ok but she thought Harry had been through even more hardship that she and Neville had.

"Oh I was consoling him, but don't worry I think he's ok now. It was nothing serious just Harry worrying about upsetting people as per usual. Seriously don't worry about it he seems fine now. He came over last night and we got to talking and I had to break a few pureblood customs to him and give him some information about being head of multiple houses and what that could mean, if he chose to that is and that's what I had to console him over." Neville explained taking a sip of his drink that had cooled enough for him.

"What you mean like the Wizengamot paperwork he's going to have being head of four houses you mean?" Susan asked.

"No I mean more the number of wives and line continuation and how he could potentially end up with seven wives and seven children or four wives and seven children or one wife and four or five children depending on whether he wanted to continue all those family lines." Neville explained as Susan and Hannah exchanged a look that they didn't think Neville had noticed.

"And errrr… what was Harry's thoughts on it?" Susan asked trying not to sound too obvious, but failing to hide the slight blush appearing on her cheeks.

Hannah stepped in to try and help her friend who really didn't have a poker face. "Is Harry thinking about having multiple wives in his future and continuing all the lines that he's Head of House for then or putting them into one or two?"

"He doesn't know. I think the poor bloke is still trying to wrap his head around not having a murderous psychopath trying to kill him at every opportunity. He's just trying to adjust to being normal or as normal for Harry anyway as his life never is what anyone else would class as normal is it….

I mean I can't remember ever having heard of anyone being Head of four houses before. Can you imagine the pressure that puts a bloke under and let's face it it's not like there just normal houses, I mean the Peverell family are infamous, Ravenclaw is iconic and the Potter and Black families are two of the oldest families around?"

"Hmmmm when you put it like that it must be a bit of a burden." Hannah replied.

"It really must. I know I feel pressure having to continue my family line as it was almost completely snuffed out during the first war." Susan added tears threatening her eyes again.

"I agree, it's not easy at all Susan. My Mum and Dad are still alive, which makes having to be in charge and try and continue my family really hard as I want nothing more than for them to get better, so my Dad can take over running the family again.

Plus, the Gryffindor name is illustrious as well, so I don't know whether I should start it up again as I don't feel worthy of it." Neville said running his hand through his hair.

"That's bull Neville. You're one of the bravest people I've ever met and Godric Gryffindor would be more than proud for you to continue his family name, if he didn't think you were worthy you wouldn't have been able to pull the sword out of the sorting hat before decapitating that horrible snake last month." Hannah said putting her hand on Neville's arm making the butterflies activate in his stomach as Susan agreed with Hannah's assessment.

"I…. I don't know whether I'd want more than one wife though. Having two kids with someone I love and continuing the Longbottom and Gryffindor line is fine, but then if my wife was the last in her line then it would be a third child, which wouldn't bother me as I want a big family someday sure, but finding someone I love is more important than having different wives to continue family lines." Neville said noticing that Hannah's hand hadn't left his arm.

"Do you think it possible to love more than one person Neville? Do you think Harry wants a big family? Do you think he'd want multiple wives?" Susan asked eagerly as Neville now saw that Susan did want to be with Harry with the peppering of questions he was receiving.

"Well I suppose of course it's possible. I mean I love my Mum and Dad equally and my gran, even if she is a bit domineering sometimes, but hell she's nothing like Molly Weasley.

I don't know about the multiple wives' part but that's just me, but I know Harry would love a big family more than anything. He didn't have any family at all growing up. All he had was an Aunt and Uncle and a cousin that hated him and anything to do with magic and that was it no one else.

Then Sirius came into his life at the end of third year, but he didn't really get to see or spend any time with him other than in the summer holiday of fifth year and then he lost him at the Department of Mysteries.

I can't really say a lot more as me and Harry are becoming better friends and I know how hard it is for him to trust people and I don't want to betray his trust by telling people things about him I shouldn't or he wouldn't want me to about his life away from school." Seeing Susan's eyes drop to the floor Neville quickly continued.

"Please don't take that as in I don't want to tell you, because it's not like that at all. It's just his life and he'll tell you or us when and if he wants to." Neville finished torn between his loyalty to his friend and his desire to want to help Harry get more good people around him that care about him as it was obvious that Susan really did care about Harry.

"It's alright Neville, we won't say anything to him, right Suzie?" Hannah said giving him arm a gentle rub.

"Of course I won't say anything, I can understand how he feels and I won't press him on it. I want to make him happier than he's ever been not sad." Susan replied before putting her hand over her mouth quickly at Neville's raised eyebrow and Hannah's stunned face that Susan would admit something like in front of Neville.

"Please don't tell him she said that Neville." Hannah said "let him discover it on his own the next time they wake up together." laughing which Neville joined as Susan swatted her arm with a small smirk stealing onto her face at Hannah's remark.

Harry had got changed into a pair of knee length cargo shorts as he thought it was hot and the sun was shining hard and the temperature was rising so a coat wouldn't be necessary and it was warm enough to work around in shorts and t-shirt. Plus, he wanted room to carry his beseecher book and coin bag as well as his muggle bank card.

He pulled the t-shirt over his head and put on a pair of ankle socks that Hayley had picked out for him and a pair of low back white trainers. He gave himself a couple of squirts of the Scentaur potion he had brewed and went down to the kitchen to take his dose of Eagle Eye potion.

He styled his hair that was now a lot more manageable and easily styled after Sirius' Adonis potion he'd taken the day before. He looked pretty good. He put on a leather strapped watch with a large black face edged in silver and headed back for the floo deciding on the spur of the moment to pay a quick visit to Diagon Alley to get Susan a birthday present and ran upstairs to get his Dad's old cloak so he could get in and out quickly without being seen and stopped.

He wanted to get her something really nice for her birthday and as he grabbed the cloak he paused wondering why he wanted to make her happy so much.

As Harry walked down the sea front with Susan by his side with her arm linked through his and Neville and Hannah following them he couldn't help keep the smile off his face as Susan kept looking back at Hannah and grinning at her like the cat that got the cream.

Under Susan's other arm was a big purple teddy bear that Harry had given her that he'd won on one of the games at the arcade they'd been to on Blackpool sea front. Susan had decided to call the teddy bear Potty in tribute to Harry and kept laughing at Harry as he rolled his eyes every time she called the bear by its name, which she was doing a lot as she was being silly and pretending that the bear was alive and that it could talk to Harry.

"Look how happy they seem." Neville whispered to Hannah as Susan turned around again and gave them a goofy grin as Harry leaned in and whispered something to her that caused her to laugh out loud and whack him with the teddy bear he'd won her.

"Well, she really likes him and has for years. Every time we talk about boys or I push her on who she likes or suggest other boys to her she always says the same thing, that they'll never be as good as Harry."

"Well maybe she's got a point there you know. I mean who would get a second glance, when standing next to or around Harry. I can understand why Ron was always so jealous of him all the time and felt so insecure. Not that it was Harry's fault of course as he's a great guy." Neville said with a sigh.

"Well I can think of someone I'd give a second look to instead of Harry and my third and my fourth look." Hannah replied as she looked at Neville's face watching Harry and Susan. He'd completely lost all his baby fat on his face and body and his jaw was more defined and he'd really buffed up into a bit of a hunk.

"Oh yeah and who might that be? Please don't say Seamus or Dean because I'll never hear the end of it if they find out." he muttered dismissively as he gave a little smile as Harry scooped Susan up bridal style into his arms and spun her round in a circle causing her to squeal and laugh.

"No not Seamus or Dean, but he is a Gryffindor and a total hotty!" she replied trying to gauge if Neville could connect the dots quickly.

"Jeez, I've never heard Ron described as a hotty." Neville responded pulling a face like he was disgusted even thought he was only joking.

She stopped suddenly pulling her arm that was linked back causing him to spin towards her as he stopped to prevent himself from knocking her over.

"I'm not talking about Ron you idiot, come on Neville, I know you didn't study Arithmancy but surely you can work out the math on that one?" Hannah asked staring him in the eyes wondering why he was always so down on himself. She decided to just grab the bull by the horns so to speak.

"Oh sod it!" she said as she quickly stepped forward closing the distance between them and wrapped her hands around his neck and pulled him down and pressing her lips softly to his in a kiss before he had time to protest and she completely caught him off guard.

Neville tensed in surprise as he had never been kissed by a girl before…. Not properly anyway. He'd had a kiss on the cheek by Ginny, Luna and Hermione in the past when they had thanked him for something but never properly like this.

He was scared as he didn't really know what he was doing he just decided to go with his instinct and pressed his lips to hers more firmly and put his hands on her hips as they slowly started giving each other little kisses as Neville softly kissed her upper lip as she kissed his bottom lip marveling at how Neville seemed to be a naturally good kisser and she'd never had expected it.

Hannah moved one of her hands up into Neville's hair as he pulled her closer to him as one of his hands moved up between her shoulder blades and the other moved round to the small of her back that sent shivers through Hannah as she gave a small gasp at the feeling as he pulled her closer into him.

Neville hearing her gasp and growing with confidence slowly licked along her top lip with his tongue, which caused Hannah to open her mouth and snake her tongue out until it touched Neville's and started to stroke his tongue with hers as their mouths pressed against each other more and they started kissing each other with more passion and hunger.

Hannah reached back with her hand towards Neville's that was on her lower back and pushed it down until it his hand fully rested onto one of her bum cheeks and she gave Neville a soft moan in her kiss to give him encouragement and Neville having been given permission by her moving his hand onto her delicious behind.

Neville gave it a squeeze and getting a moan from Hannah who kissed him even more enthusiastically.

Harry put Susan down after sweeping her up into his arms bridal style and spinning her round as she had joked that he seemed to be a natural at sweeping a girl off her feet.

Susan had laughed so hard and he had spun her so around so quickly she had gotten dizzy and as he had put her down she was wobbly on her feet and leant against him for support.

"Oh my god I'm so dizzy." she said between giggles.

"Sorry, I guess I was a little too enthusiastic with the spinning." he responded with a shrug.

"Well at least I can say I've been swept off my feet if anyone asks." Susan beamed at Harry. "Thank you for today Harry. For everything I still don't feel right that you've paid for everything though."

"It's your birthday Suzie and you deserve to be treated…"

"Like a princess." she finished for him, "Well I certainly have been. Thank you Harry. You're so sweet." he pulled a face at this causing her to swat his arm playfully. "You are, first I get taken out for the day and bought a lovely present." she said touching the small diamond stud ear rings that he'd bought and he was delighted he'd done well as Susan had said she loved them and Hannah had pointed out that they'd look perfect on her.

"Then you take me, well us should I say for a wonderful lunch and then you take me to a muggle arcade, so we can do some research on our business venture and now you are taking me dancing, so I get to spend the night dancing with my prince charming." Susan finished putting her hand on his arm and kicking her foot out behind her playfully and making Harry smile as he found her very cute playing around.

"Well I wanted you to have a nice day as it's an important birthday. Plus, I'm sure Potty is very proud to be your called you Prince Charming. How do you know about Prince Charming anyway?" Harry asked surprised that a pureblood wizard would know a muggle cartoon

"Hermione told us all about it in Runes." Susan answered looking at Harry to try and gauge a reaction from Harry at the mention of Hermione's name.

"She never told me that she was friends with you, Hannah, Daphne and Tracey. I don't know why because you're all really nice. Maybe she just wanted to keep you all to herself." Harry said smiling at her and making goose pimples appear on her skin.

"Well I don't know why she never said, but it's probably because you and Ron would have gone mad if you'd known she was friends with people outside Gryffindor." Susan surmised.

"Ron might but I wouldn't have. Well I suppose we are programmed to instantly be suspicious of Slytherin's as of the feud the houses have had for so long and it didn't help that Malfoy was all up in my face, but I get on with everyone else from the other houses. Well when they aren't thinking I'm the Heir of Slytherin and attacking people or putting my name in the Goblet of Fire or thinking that I'm unhinged." He said recalling how he'd been alienated by the whole school in second, fourth and fifth year.

"You never did have an easy year at Hogwarts did you?" Susan asked sadly recalling how many times she'd seen him sad and being isolated by everyone.

"No, trouble always seems to find me. I'm hoping going to Japan where no one knows me will be good, because then I'll just be another student like everyone else." Harry replied.

"Hmmmm well firstly I don't think they won't know who you are. I mean you're famous all over the world I'd expect or at least everywhere they sell 'Dark Wizards of the last five hundred years' and secondly you aren't like everyone else. You're really special." She said looking him in the eyes thinking how she could lose herself in those eyes forever and never noticed how much they sparkle when he smiles.

"That's really nice of you to say Susan you are as well, but you should have realized by hanging out with me that I'm just a regular guy like every other one out there." he responded modestly shrugging his shoulders.

"Well, let's just agree to disagree on that one." she said before leaning in and planting him with a quick peck on the cheek. Harry wondered whether that was where Hermione had got the saying about agreeing to disagree as she'd never really said it before that he could remember.

"Is this the place you were thinking of dancing with me?" Susan asked her excitement building as they had approached a large metal tower with a sign saying Ballroom and she hopped up and down on the spot excitedly, while grabbing his hand and started pulling him towards the ball room as she looked back over her shoulder to see Hannah's reaction to the sign only to see her best friend and Neville wrapped so tightly around each other than it caused her to stop and a huge smile to spread across her face.

Harry surprised at her sudden stop turned to look what had grabbed her attention and his mouth fell into a smile as he saw Neville and Hannah kissing as passionately as he and Susan had at the ministry ball and in his cinema room.

"Good on them!" Harry said smiling and taking Susan's hand in his he said "Come on birthday girl, I think now's a good time to give them some time alone." and he pulled her towards the ball room.

AN- Thanks for Goldzar again for going through this for me.