"So what do your parents do?"

It was a hot day today. The sun was blazing in the perfectly clear blue sky, and the only means of shelter from the heat while outdoors was under the shade of a small tree at the bottom of Violet's garden. She lazed about on the picnic blanket, lying stretched out with her head stuck in the book, while Harry - who had managed to convince the Dursleys to let him catch a train to Guildford to see his friend - sat upright and leaned against the tree trunk.

Empty plates with bread crumbs were next to Harry's feet along with two empty glasses. Between the two teens was a large bowl of mixed berries they would occasionally pick from.

"Mum's an Auror. Dad's a Healer. They've both been part time since I was born, but I think they're both going back to full time in September," Violet replied from behind her book. "If you're allowed to stay for dinner, you'll meet dad this evening."

Harry shrugged. "I don't think they really care if I go back there or not."

Violet peered at her friend over the top of her book with her eyes narrowed. "They really are awful people."

"Tell me about it," he murmured, grabbing a fistful of grass and pulling it up from the ground, tearing it up slowly after the fact. "I don't want to go back there tonight."

"Feel free to stay if you'd like," she offered, putting her book down properly and sitting up. "But because Lupin is here, the guest room is out of the question, so that leaves either the sofa or my bedroom floor? Pretty certain we have a spare camp bed…"

Harry laughed. "A family of wizards and you're suggesting a camp bed?"

Violet rolled her eyes and threw a raspberry at the boy. He saved it from bouncing onto the grass and ate it. "Do you want to stay or not? I know it's your birthday tomorrow, and I got you something. I was going to send it with Astra, but…"

"Fine!" He held up his hands in protest. "I'll stay. I'll call the Dursleys and say I'm coming back tomorrow…"

"Good," Violet said firmly. "You deserve a proper birthday, Harry."

"Thanks," he smiled sheepishly at her. "How's er-?" He gestured vaguely at his own shoulder to indicate what he meant.

Violet - who was wearing a strappy sundress what with the weather being as lovely as it was - glanced down at her right shoulder as if to investigate the scars that were there. They were still a deep red, but not as angry as they had looked at the start of the summer.

"It's a lot better than it was. I didn't have proper movement in my arm for about a week, actually, I forgot to mention that in my letter..."

She glanced at Harry to find he was staring rather intently at her shoulder, and it made her wonder what was going through his head at that moment. Violet snapped her fingers in front of his face which brought him out of whatever stupor he was in. For some reason - even after clicking her fingers - Violet's hand lingered in front of Harry's face long enough for him to have to lower it.

A strange moment then passed between the two teens as they locked eyes, like something was there but not quite. An anomalous, brief feeling of mutual attraction passed between them, not that they were even aware that's what it was. Harry cleared his throat and Violet looked away from him, bashful.

"Shall we go back inside?" he then asked. "It's quite warm out, isn't it?"

Violet nodded and they started gathering up the remains of their lunch and the picnic blanket before heading back inside. They both sighed in relief when walking into the cool kitchen, refilling their empty glasses with water and leaving the plates in the sink.

"Back inside already?"

They turned to see Geniveve Merryworth wandering down into the kitchen towards them. At first glance she appeared to be a rather haughty woman taking into account her sharp facial features and narrow eyes, but there was a softness to her that became prevalent when she broke out into a grin on seeing Violet and Harry. She shared the same long black hair as her daughter, and the same hazel coloured eyes.

"It's really hot outside, mum, even under the tree," Violet explained quickly. She paused for a moment. "Is it okay if Harry stays over? It's his birthday tomorrow."

"Of course! We'll set up the camp bed in your room, how about that?"

"Sounds good, mum!"

"Give me the blanket, I'll pop it away," Geniveve said, taking the aforementioned item from her daughter and disappearing off upstairs.

Harry gulped down the rest of his water and set his glass in the sink. "Better call my uncle…"

"The phone's in the living room, come on!"

Violet placed her glass in the sink too before leading Harry down the hallway and into the cosy living room. She pointed to the corner by the window where there was a little table with the electrical phone on it.

"I'll leave you to it. My room's the second door on the right when you head upstairs."

She headed off up to her room after that, mostly because she realised it was a little bit untidy.

Violet's bedroom reflected her innate nature of quiet and calm. The walls were a cream colour with one a pale shade of lilac right where her bed was. Her bed had far too many pillows and the softest duvet. Bookshelves lined half the wall next to her wardrobe, and a desk sat under the window with a view into the back garden. The walls were empty bar the space above her headboard where there were a few photos and letters pinned to the wall in a neat order.

The only thing that would contrast with all of that were the ridiculous amount of books that had over spilled from the shelves and onto the floor; some of them half read, some of them just… there because they had no other place to go.

She was frantically trying to tidy up the piles of books by her shelves when Harry walked with his backpack in a few minutes later, highly amused by the sight in front of him.

"I was not expecting an exploded library at the end of your bed."

Violet jumped and accidentally knocked over the stack she had just created. Sighing, she took another look at it and waved it off, getting to her feet.

"Yes, well… that happens sometimes," she said. "Welcome to my humble abode," she then added, gesturing around the modestly sized space that was her room.

Harry stared around her room and then beamed. "It's very you."

"Thanks," she said in a strained voice, going over to her desk and straightening that up too. "Feel free to drop your bag anywhere…"

He did as he was told and awkwardly set it down next to the bookshelf where he knew it would be out of the way. "I won't lie, I did bring a change of clothes just in case."

Violet shook her head but found the prospect of Harry actually planning ahead amusing. "What did your uncle say?" She sat down on her bed, so he took the desk chair.

"As long as I could get back from the train station tomorrow, he really wasn't fussed. Made a comment about you being the "most normal" out of my friends that he'd seen so far…"

"I'd love for him to find out that my uncle is a Werewolf."

"I dunno, I think him knowing that Sirius is technically a convicted murderer has him pretty scared."

The pair of them laughed at that.

"You know what we should do?" Violet then said once they'd settled down. Harry shrugged. "We should watch The Great Escape! It's a fairly old war film, but it's alright. One of dad's favourites, actually."

"You mentioned that on the platform!"

She giggled. "I did. It made sense, all things considered."

The rest of the afternoon was lost in a war film. Thomas had been out for a walk when they had started watching so joined them for the remainder of the film once he returned home. It turned out that Thomas never knew Harry was a half-blood like Violet, so was less surprised when the boy knew what a VCR was. Violet was clearly painfully embarrassed and cheekily questioned how her father had ever been a Ravenclaw.

Dinner time was when Lupin joined them all. Now that was strange for Harry: he'd only ever been used to seeing Lupin in a formal educational setting and now he was being urged to call him by his first name. It took a good ten minutes before Harry was able to feel less awkward about it all. It felt good for the first time in a while to actually feel welcome at a dinner table with a small family, but there was a restraint in him: he knew tomorrow he'd be going back to the Dursleys until he eventually got to stay at Ron's for the rest of the summer.

Regardless, Harry pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind and enjoyed the rest of his evening.

In what would eventually be known as a very typical style for the two friends, they stayed up rather late talking about nothing and everything. It was eleven o'clock at night: Violet was in her bed, and Harry was in a camp bed on the floor. They were catching up on details that never made it into their letters, sharing secrets in whispers they might not have told their other friends yet, and giggling with naivety about the prospect of yet another new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher.

There were also other things spoken about - more serious things. Violet learned a fair amount about the Dursleys during that conversation and she grew to despise them more and more with every passing second.

"Why do you have to go back there every summer? Why not just stay with me, or Ron for that matter?" Violet questioned, leaning up on her elbow to look down at her friend.

"I don't know. It's never been explained to me. I wish I could stick around here though - I like it. It's…" He took a moment to find the right word. "Peaceful."

"Goodness knows you need some peace…"

"Yeah," he laughed quietly. "Yeah…"

They settled down to sleep shortly after that - supposedly. Neither of them knew that the other was lying there awake waiting for the clock to strike midnight. Violet thought it might be fun to poke Harry when it got to the right time and wish him happy birthday, blissfully unaware that he was waiting up too, blissfully unaware that he had a habit of doing that every year.

Tentatively, Violet reached out with her foot to jab Harry at the stroke of midnight, but was instead met with him tickling the underside of it. She was so frightened that she jumped right back into her bed, leaving Harry silently cracking up on the floor.

"You're awful!" she hissed at him, switching on the lamp but unable to keep a smile off her face. "Happy Birthday you - you prick!" Violet tried to go into a mock-sulk after that. "I can't believe you're still awake!"

He raised an eyebrow. "Violet Merryworth swears, does she?"

"Not usually…" she pouted, her arms folded. "But I've hung around Ron Weasley enough that I think I should be allowed. Anyway… do you want your present now or in the morning?"

"In the morning… why'd you stay up?"

"Thought it'd be nice for you. And funny. I was hoping you'd be asleep."

Harry rolled his eyes, but there was a grin on his face regardless. "Well, thanks. First birthday away from the Dursleys and I'm glad it's gonna be here. You can shower me with the correct birthday affection in the morning…"

"Such a way with words, Harry," Violet told him as she switched off the lamp for the second time that night. "Good night…"

"Night, Vi."

There was a stilted awkwardness in the room.

"More suited to Ron, I think," Violet said.

"Yeah, definitely…"

The following morning, Harry was pleasantly surprised to find that birthdays could actually be good.

Violet got to jab him in the side with her foot as a means of waking him up; he allowed that much. The Merryworths went out of their way to set up breakfast outside as the day was just as warm as the one before it. Waking up at ten o'clock to find that fruit and pancakes were waiting to be consumed out on the patio in the morning sun was something that Harry decided was the best way to wake up. Owls had arrived that morning bearing gifts from Ron, Hermione, Sirius, and Hagrid - they all included an awful lot of cake that Harry was rather delighted to be taking back to Little Whinging with him (for the most part about going back there, anyway).

It was a Sunday, meaning the streets were quiet but the parks were full. Somehow - and somewhere - Thomas managed to find a good spot away from the masses to do some Quidditch. Even Violet begrudgingly got on a broomstick and attempted to throw her father's battered old Quaffle about with him and Harry. She was terrible at it and it didn't matter how hard Thomas tried to get his daughter to balance on the broom properly. She became rather huffy about it and eventually settled for doing laps around the small clearing they were in, with Harry joining her in a race. Thomas left them to it and said for them to be back at the house before two o'clock at the very least.

After a few races they collapsed down onto the grass, enjoying the hot weather and the soft breeze. There was a stillness to the world around them, perhaps a distant sound of a car or other people, but all that mattered was the gentle rustling of the tree branches behind them, and the company of each other.

"How much longer until we have to go back?" Harry asked, resting his hands behind his head.

Violet peered at her watch. "Half an hour. Why?"

"I almost don't want to go back."

"You'd rather have time stand still here, wouldn't you?"

"Something like that, yeah. Not a bad way of putting it, actually."

"You can always stay at mine longer?"

"I wish I could," Harry admitted. "I don't have my things though. Besides, I should be getting post from Ron over the next couple of days anyway. I'll need to get my stuff ready to go to his."

"Ah, of course," she said, a slight smile on her face. "I'll see you at the World Cup anyway."

"Definitely. It'll be great! Just… the time in between now and then won't be as much."

They fell into silence after that, just enjoying the sun for a bit longer before they decided to head back to Violet's house for lunch. Harry was also presented with a birthday cake in that time (and how bizarre but lovely it was to have people sing happy birthday to him too) before ultimately being indecisive with what to do for the afternoon.

If there was one thing he adored about the Merryworths that made them unique in their own way, was the harmonious mix of magic and non-magic in their household. It made him think that perhaps this is what his life would have been a mix of if he had grown up with parents. This is the sort of nice, quiet life he would have had. He didn't dwell on it too much, and spent the afternoon quietly perusing Violet's records up in her room while she lounged on her bed reading.

"You've got a lot of Kate Bush…"

"Hmm? Oh, yes, I suppose I have…" she said in an offhand way as she turned the page in her book. She was reading something on curses. It looked like a hefty volume that Harry wasn't sure if he'd be inclined to read.

"Like… a lot of Kate Bush…" He was trying to get at something and Violet shot him a quizzical look while going her usual pink colour when she was flustered.

"And I suppose you listen to a lot of the Pet Shop Boys?" she managed to retort.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry spluttered.

"And what's your Kate Bush comment meant to mean?!"

"G-girls?"

Violet sighed deeply and snapped her book shut. "I'm not a lesbian, Harry, if that's what you wanted to ask me."

"Oh, right, yeah - uh - cool." Harry scratched the back of his head awkwardly and immediately went back to flipping through her records. "Now that you've mentioned it, can we listen to some Pet Shop Boys?"

"Be my guest…"

That conversation wasn't even the weirdest thing to happen that day.

A few minutes into some Pet Shop Boys, both Thomas and Lupin poked their heads into Violet's room to investigate.

"This is rare," Thomas said. "Pet Shop Boys?"

"Harry likes them," Violet said simply. The boy himself was sitting on the floor cleaning up his Firebolt. "I think Harry likes Pet Shop Boys a lot." He rolled his eyes at his friend.

"Is that code for something?" Lupin asked.

"No more a code than Kate Bush being someone lesbians listen to a lot," Violet told them.

The adults stared at each other confused, and left them to it.

There was an unspoken agreement between the two friends not to mention it again, and the rest of the day passed by as relaxed as possible. Records were swapped out for cheesy hits from their childhoods, Violet gave Harry a list of book recommendations, and dinner in the evening was as magnificent as it could be for a birthday. Despite the fact Harry had to leave later on, nothing could dampen his spirits, not when Violet and her family had given him solace on his birthday for once.

He hugged his friend tightly when saying goodbye, and they promised to write to each other more before the Quidditch World Cup, which even Violet was excited for. That may have been because she'd get to see her friends again.

Harry's fourteenth had topped his eleventh birthday as the best birthday in his life so far.

Yes, I'm hinting at some Things I have in regards to Harry and Violet's characters... oop. Hope you all enjoyed!

Comment?

-OL.