After dinner (Which was a rather sad affair, seeing just how little Harry ate on a daily basis), mum sat Harry and Will down for a conversation while dad put Alice to bed.

"Okay, you two," mum said, "there's some things you need to know before going to bed tonight. I managed to convince the Dursleys that it'd be a good idea for Harry to spend part of the week with us. So Harry, you'll be staying with us on Wednesdays and weekends."

Will was elated. "That's awesome! We'll be able to hang out all the time now! Right Harry?" He turned to look at Harry, and saw a shocked look on his face.

Mum looked at Harry as well, and after a moment said, "Should I have asked first? I can talk to the Dursleys again if this isn't something you want to-"

"NO!" Harry almost shouted, "That sounds wonderful! I'd love to spend more time here!" And away from the Dursleys was implied, but not stated outright.

"Good, I was a little worried I'd overstepped for a moment," mum chuckled softly, "I made it clear that you're always welcome here to the Dursleys, so they can send you over on other nights as well if that's easier for them. Now, why don't the two of you get ready for bed. I'm pretty sure you two are about the same size, so Harry, you can borrow some of Will's pajamas. We also have an extra toothbrush somewhere around here. So get going you two."

As Harry and Will got ready for bed, mum got an extra mattress out and put it on the floor in Will's room. After putting sheets, blankets, and a couple pillows on, she called the boys in and tucked them both into bed.

"Night boys, it's a school night, so don't stay up too late talking, okay?" She said, turned the lights down dim, and closed the door.

Will wriggled under the covers, he was too excited to sleep. He hoped this was a good start in making Harry's childhood a little happier. If anyone deserved a little happiness, it was him.

"Hey, Will? Are you awake?" Harry whispered.

"Yeah? I can't fall asleep at the drop of a hat you know," Will answered dryly.

"Oh," Harry said, sounding a little embarrassed, "I just wanted to thank you for doing this for me, it means a lot to me."

"Don't worry about it." Will yawned, "This is the kind of thing friends do for each other. It's no problem. Besides, I like spending time with you."

"Still, it's-" Harry started, "I'm just-" He paused, then continued, "No one's ever done this for me before. So thank you."

Will felt a little bit like someone had punched him in the stomach. Emotionally, anyway. He tried to keep his voice light, "You're welcome, Harry. Now let's get to sleep. I'm exhausted."

"Okay," Harry yawned, and turned over.

Will had gotten better at Astral Projecting over the last week or so, and was able to do it on purpose now. He still had to be asleep to do it though. So once he was sure Harry had fallen asleep, he fell asleep as well and astral projected downstairs to find out what his parents were talking about. Hopefully something interesting.

As he hovered closer, he heard his dad say, "I still don't like it."

"We can't do anything about it without any proof, though." his mum replied. "This is the best we can do for now. The Dursleys know we'll be seeing him often, so can't leave any lasting damage, or anything that can't be explained away." It sounded as though they'd been talking about this for a while.

"But they really wouldn't let you get his things? Why would they do that?" his dad asked.

"I'm not sure, but I don't like the implications," his mum said, shaking her head. "They wouldn't even let me go upstairs to see his room. That whole house was strange."

"How so?"

"It felt too… clean. You know how movie sets and home staging photos have a sort of artificial feel to them? Like they're too perfect? It was like that. Real people don't live like that, there are signs of life like scuff marks, dirty laundry, books and newspapers lying where someone didn't finish reading them. It's like they were trying so hard to be perfect that it went all the way around the scale back to weird and bizarre."

"If they're happy that way, it's not for us to judge. I'm not going to fault them for that." his dad said, logically, "I will judge them for abusing a child under their care, if we can prove it."

"All I'm saying is that she has to vacuum at least three times a day to get the carpets that clean." mum added, "That much vacuuming will damage her carpets over time."

"Really?" His dad deadpanned, "This is about the carpets?"

"No of course not!" mum replied, seemingly surprised, "I'm just confused. Why would they spend the effort when it's just damaging them over time? And I'm not just talking about the carpets here. That whole family is strange. Like they're actors on a show instead of people living their lives. It's damaging their relationships as well, most of the people in the neighborhood that I've talked to have told me to stay away from them. So far, the only normal one as far as I've seen is Harry. He seems perfectly lovely, if a bit small and shy for his age. How he could end up fine after being raised by them," she spit that word with more venom than Will had ever heard from his mother before, "I have no idea, I'm just glad he did."

""You really don't like them, do you, Helen." His dad said, surprised.

"Oh Brian, you know how I feel about sycophants. You should have seen them when I first walked through the door. Ms. Dursley immediately fawned over my necklace as if the only thing I'm good for is the jewelry I'm wearing. And I swear that I saw her face change when she thought I wasn't looking. It looked like she wanted to snatch it right off of my neck. I'm never wearing something so expensive over to their place again. What was I saying? Oh, right. Anyway, as soon as I explained who I was, Mr. Dursley asked how much money I made. Like it was some sort of competition! His face was turning colors too, I was honestly afraid he was having a heart attack."

"You know, Will's tenth birthday is coming up." Dad said, thoughtfully.

"Don't distract me Brian, we can talk about that later." Mum replied.

"Sorry, sorry, go on," Dad chuckled, waving his hands in defeat.

His mum continued ranting and his dad nodded along as Will went back up the stairs. He could tell that they weren't going to talk about anything interesting after that. His mum and dad had a little ritual for his mum to de-stress after a long day. She'd tell him about it and he'd listen. Will didn't need to hear the play by play of his mother's meeting with the Dursleys, he could guess most of what went down. The only really important part he'd just caught the end of.

It was when he got back to his room that he was really surprised. Harry was awake, and looking right at him.

This wasn't good. Will paused at the door as Harry stared at him, eyes wide. He was standing near Will's sleeping body. It looked as if he'd been examining the glowing thread that attached Will's astral body to his real one. Will floated closer and Harry immediately jumped back and pressed himself against the wall. He was eyeing the door as if to make a break for it. Well. That wouldn't do, would it. Will didn't want him disturbing his parents and letting them find out about everything, did he? He gave the glowing cord a quick tug and was pulled back into his body at record speed. It was a bit like pressing the button on a tape measure, but it was a more violent way of entering his body.

Will slammed into his body and sat up gasping.

"It's okay, don't worry!" Will whisper-yelled to Harry, who was booking it to the door.

"WHAT," Harry whispered, probably freaking out, "The bloody hell was that! Nothing about that was okay." But he had stopped and turned to face Will instead of leaving, so it was a start.

"It was just me!" Will whispered, "I can leave my body when I sleep and go wherever I want to. It's called Astral Projection."

Harry paused, a strange expression on his face, "Really?" He asked, "How'd you learn how to do that?"

That caused Will to pause. Harry believed him, just like that? "You believe me?" He asked, surprised.

"I decided to believe you," Harry said, "All you've done since I've met you is try to help me. Besides, you wouldn't lie to me, would you?"

"Nope!" Will said, and meant it, "I'll never lie to you if I can help it."

Harry walked over and sat next to Will. "So," He said after a moment, "How'd you learn how to do that?"

"I don't know." Will said honestly, "It has something to do with my coma, I think." That was the truth, surprisingly enough. He didn't know how he learned to astral project. Nothing his Grandma said had indicated that he'd be able to. And it did have something to do with his coma, seeing as that was when he first inhabited this body. Will wouldn't lie if he could help it.

Harry scrunched up his face in confusion, "Coma?" He asked. Oh, right. Will hadn't told Harry about that yet.

"The reason I moved to this neighborhood and have to use a wheelchair is because I was in a coma for three months," Will confessed, "Apparently they found me unconscious on my way back from school one day, and I was brought to the hospital when they couldn't wake me up."

Harry winced in sympathy, "That's terrible." After a moment of pause, Harry tipped his head to the side, considering something. "Can I see you astral project again?" He asked finally.

"Oh! Um, sure." Will stuttered. This hadn't been the reaction he'd expected at all. "I need to be asleep to do it though." He lay down and covered himself in blankets again. "Uh, can you give me a couple minutes?" He asked, "It's kind of hard to fall asleep on command."

"Here," Harry said, and grabbed a book from the shelf, "I'll read to you." Will got comfortable, and Harry sat in the desk chair and opened the book.

He started to read, "In a hole in the ground there lived a Hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort."

As he read this, Will felt his eyes drift closed.

Will found himself floating above his body again, with Harry asleep at his bedside. He rolled his eyes fondly at Harry, he had wanted to see his astral form, but fell asleep before he could do it. Moving to wake Harry, Will found his arms passing right through him. Oh, right. Can't touch stuff in this form. Maybe this was a good time to learn how to talk in this form.

Harry, wake up.

Nope, nothing.

Harry, wake UP.

HARRY WAKE UP!

This wasn't working. Maybe he was thinking about this the wrong way. He had been pretending to have a mouth and make sound that way, but maybe it wasn't a physical sound. Maybe it was a mental one. Will imagined a link between him and Harry, one that would allow thoughts to be passed back and forth, but keep things private as well. Only the messages they wanted to send would get through. Yeah, that would work. Keeping that picture in his mind, Will sent a message down the line.

{Harry, wake up!}

Harry jolted awake, knocking the book off the bed. He turned to look at Will's astral body and froze again. He squinted at Will.

"Is that you, Will?"

{Yep, in the- well, not the flesh really, that's over there in bed,}Will replied.

"You look different." Harry said, surprised.

{What do you mean?} Will asked, somewhat puzzled.

"I mean, before you were just a distortion in the air, something I could only see while you were moving. Now you look like a glowing stick figure." Harry replied, walking around to look at him from different angles. "How are you doing the thing where you look the same from all sides?"

{I'm not sure,} Will confessed, {I think it's just something that happens in soul form. As far as I can tell, a soul isn't really in three dimensional space. It's just your brain trying to make sense of something that doesn't fit in three dimensions.}

"Hmm," Harry said, and Will wasn't really sure if Harry fully understood what he was trying to explain. Maybe nine was a little too young for this.

{Anyway, did you see what you wanted?} Will asked, gesturing with his pointy stick arms.

"You don't have any fingers," Harry noted.

{I think I can if I want to, hold on a minute.} Will focused, looking down at his glowing wrist-daggers. It took some doing, but Will was able to split the end of his pointy arms into a reasonable approximation of hands.

"Did that hurt?" Harry asked, moving a little closer.

{Nope! I'm fine.} Will said, {If that's all, you should probably get back to bed.}

"Oh, right." Harry said, climbing back under the covers. "What about you?"

{I'm already asleep, see?} Will said, pointing.

Harry smiled and shook his head. "Never mind, just get back in your body, we have school tomorrow." He flopped back down and pulled the covers over himself.

{Goodnight, Harry,} Will said, before laying back down in his body, immediately falling asleep.

"Goodnight, Will." Harry softly replied, before rolling over to get some rest himself.