Chapter 4: What You Mean To Me
Harry yawned, scratching at his head, getting stuck in the mass of tangles that lay atop his brow. His breakfast still lay untouched in front of him. The daily eggs, bacon, and orange juice just didn't have the same affect it did the first time he tried it. A bored look adorned his face, and he drummed his fingers on the table.
Suddenly, Petunia rushed through the kitchen, the click of her heels sounded loudly in the quiet house. Harry watched as she grabbed her purse from the counter, throwing it over her shoulder, not even looking Harry's way. When she was nearly through the doorframe she stopped and stared, as if for the first time noticing Harry.
"What in bloody hell's name are you doing Harry?" she shrieked, her lips curled in a sneer. Before Harry could answer that he had indeed been eating breakfast, not sitting idly by it, letting it get cold, Dudley ran through the door, a flushed look on his face.
"Mummy, let's go, we're going to be late!" He screamed hoarsely. Harry was getting further and further befuddled by the minute. Dudley had his shoes on a tied, dressed in proper jeans and a t-shirt. With him, he held a piece of paper.
"What do you mean 'Let's go'?" Harry asked, dropping his silverware with a sharp clang. Petunia nearly jumped, her nerves were so edgy.
"Harry, I told you a million times last night that today we were going out to get yours and Dudley's school books." She looked exasperated. "-But of course, you weren't listening to me, just sitting there with a slightly dazed and glazed-over look on your face." Petunia rolled her eyes and continued. "You have three minutes to get ready!" She held up three of her bony, white fingers. "That's THREE Harry. No more, no less." She stomped off leaving Harry to listen to the fade of her clicking heels. The room was once again, filled with silence, and yet also filled with another boy.
Dudley glared at him once Petunia was gone purposely and obviously, visibly wanting some kind of reaction or attention.
"What's that look for Dudley?" Dudley still looked huffy, and crossed his arms and upturned his nose.
"I'm not talking to you, Mr. Slightly Dazed and Glazed-over." Dudley snarled with a childish defiance.
"And just why aren't you, not that I mind…" Harry said, thinking the possibilities of Dudley not talking to him over.
"Ha. Wouldn't you like to know?" Dudley scoffed and started muttering to himself. "Mr. Slightly dazed and glazed over. Hah. More like Mr. Slightly In Love!"
Harry caught the tail wind of this comment and instantaneously scraped the chair back to look his cousin in the face.
"What did you say?" He asked with a vicious, furious whisper.
"I didn't say anything at all." Dudley said, with equal force back.
"Yes you did. You said I was more like Mr. Slightly In Love!" Harry's hands slammed down over the table, his face bent in a frown.
"So what if I did?" Dudley asked, sarcastically. "It's true anyways. You and Draco, hell, even I can tell. You're sucha…sucha…friend-stealer!" Dudley burst, unable to figure out a better insult for people of Harry's caliber.
"Friend-stealer, what are you talking about you idiot?" Harry bantered.
"Draco and I were friends FIRST." Dudley roared. "Now you two whisper behind my back, send me off to get you two food so you can frisk in his bedroom…I'm not oblivious Harry!" Harry was shocked at the amount of emotion bared on Dudley's face and his jaw dropped.
Suddenly, Harry panicked as he heard the familiar sound of heels on wood. He swiftly fled the kitchen, diving into his cupboard to find his shoes, momentarily forgetting about Dudley.
He luckily landed softly on his winter jacket, which was buried under another some-odd mountain of clothes. He cursed his messy habits, as he retrieved only one shoe.
"HARRY!" came the familiar screech of his Aunt.
"I'm coming!" He said, pulling out his other tattered shoe, only glad it was summer and not winter, and pushed it on his foot.
There was an unusual tense silence in the Dursley's car. Harry busied himself by looking out the window, and listening to the car engine hum. Thought it was a little too unsettling for him.
"Dudley, can you turn on the radio?" Harry asked his plump cousin, who was sitting in the front seat. He waited patiently for a response, but never got one. The car continued to drone on.
"Mummy, did you hear something?" Dudley asked sarcastically. Petunia kept focus, and the only way you could tell her acknowledgement of the question was the flit of her eyes over Dudley, then back on the road.
"Because I sure didn't hear anything." Dudley continued, not caring if Petunia ignored him.
"And I suppose neither did Aunt Petunia, huh?" Harry said, mocking Dudley with a laugh.
"Be quiet you!" Dudley twisted himself around in his seat, looking back at Harry.
Petunia turned the wheel and they pulled into the parking lot of the shopping center and Dudley nearly fell over in his seat. Harry smirked and felt the balloon of happiness inside of him growing, just realizing the feeling had stayed with him since last night.
They stopping in a parking spot right outside the bookshop they were about to enter.
Dudley and Harry both made to grab the handles of their doors at the same time, but Petunia auto-locked all the doors in the car with a resounding click.
Harry and Dudley, startled turned their heads to look at Petunia who held a stern gaze.
"If you would both kindly tell me what this is all about?" Her eyes bounced from Harry to Dudley, bath and forth.
"All what about?" Harry asked with a panic, wanting to avoid the subject badly.
Petunia sent him another glower. Harry sighed, lowering his head. Dudley quickly took the initiative.
"Draco likes Harry better than he likes me!" Dudley whined loudly, giving Petunia his best puppy-eyes. Harry was amazed as he watched Petunia sputter, left flabbergasted. He had never seen her speechless before.
"Well Dear, I'm sure Draco likes you. He just wants to be polite to Harry…" She made up lamely. Even Dudley seemed to notice how unconvincing it was and his face fell. As she saw her son's grimace, her own face seemed to express resentment towards Harry and sympathy to her boy.
She unlocked the doors.
"You have your book list right Duddles?" She asked trying to be cheerful, and held out her hand. He roughly stuffed a piece of paper into her outstretched hands, pushing past her, obviously livid and very irritated by the both of them. A bell rang when Dudley pressed against the door, walking through and leaving his family.
Petunia sighed.
"Look what you've done now Harry." She said, clicking her shoes on the cement.
"I swear, Dudley, is just reading too much into one visit." Harry countered, trying to redeem himself.
"Oh, just shut up!" She snapped, and entered herself, letting Harry come in behind her.
The bell rang again, Harry looked up to see it tied to the edge of the door with yellow ribbon. He stepped into the enormous shop, in awe at the sheer amount of rows and rows of books. In front of him was a smiling cashier sporting a blue baseball cap and a white over shirt, who smiled at Harry, waving. Harry tentatively waved back, wondering if the man knew him. There were not many people in the shop, it was quiet, just like the car ride, and Harry itched to make some noise.
"Harry I have your list right here." He looked up at Petunia, who was glancing around, looking for her enraged son. She held out his list without interest and he grabbed it out of her hand, walking away from Petunia as quickly as he could.
He went down the first row he could find and looked at the lines and lines of books, all different sizes and colors. Harry decided to take a look at the list in his hands, and read to himself the first book on it. "The Short Stories by Ernest Hemingway." he read aloud to himself. He shrugged. It could be worse. Checking the labeled shelves he followed the alphabetical order until he found the one he was searching for.
His hand grabbed onto the end of the shelf, swinging himself down the row and he stopped, gaping slightly and his eyes went wide. Down at the other end was quite possibly one of the prettiest girls he had ever seen. She had long brown-blonde hair that framed her face in curls. Her brown eyes and long dark lashes were intently studying the inside covers of one of the books she had taken down from the rack. Harry held his breath as he walked closer to her, watching the light from one of the windows cast shadows all over her pale, smooth face.
"Excuse me…" She started, making Harry jump backwards in surprised, having gotten use to the door-pan stillness. She looked up at him and her eyes lit up and pink mouth spread in a smile, revealing sparkling white teeth.
"Oh, Harry!" She squealed, and Harry promptly recognized the sound. 'Hermione,' he thought, utterly surprised that such a beautiful girl could have such a strange personality on the phone.
"That's such a coincidence we met here!" She clutched the book she was paging through, to her chest, bending her knees and straightening them in excitement.
As she did this, another boy appeared from a row over, speaking to her. "Hermione, I couldn't find…" He paused, looking at Harry warily. Harry's eyes went right to the boy's glowing red hair, noticing his face was splashed with freckles. He too, was pale, but also had deep red lips, to match his hair.
"Oh Ron, hello," Hermione said, looking as guilty as if she was just caught taking a cookie from the cookie jar. "This is Harry, from school." She said proudly as if displaying an award of trophy. "I was just asking him where a certain book was from our list, but I stopped mid-sentence," she said thoughtfully.
She replaced the books and folded her hands in front of her, looking at Ron.
"Hello Ron." Harry said, holding out his hand in greeting, trying his best to smile at Ron. Ron was still looking at him with an extreme expression of doubt, yet took his hand.
"Hullo Harry." He said in a quiet, toneless voice. Harry thought it was rather nice.
"So Harry," Hermione cut in, watching as the two boy's hands dropped from each other. "What are you doing today?" Harry opened his mouth to tell them about how strict his Aunt Petunia was, and he probably wouldn't be able to go anywhere with the two. She didn't let him finished.
"Ron and I have been going around shopping for school, you know, this and that. You should come along." She smiled again, and Harry watched the gold flecks in her eyes waver back and forth with a sparkle.
"Well…" Harry said in a faint voice. "If you insist." He scratched the back of his head nervously.
She laughed, and Harry found it contagious.
"I'm so glad." She said, turning to Ron, who had a glower on his face. "Aren't you Ron?" She asked, oblivious to his unhappy face.
"Ecstatic." He said in a dull and apparently unexcited voice. He delved his hands into the pockets of his khaki shorts. Harry couldn't help but notice Ron's legs were every bit as white as himself, and every bit as freckly. Harry was too busy looking at Ron's pasty legs to notice Hermione bustling through a book she had already picked out earlier.
"Well actually I should ask my aunt…" Harry started to say, knowing that Petunia would never let him go.
"Harry?" Hermione interrupted, suddenly standing much closer to Harry than he had previously remembered her being.
"Yup?" He squeaked.
She held out a book in her hands, open to the third page. "What does this word mean?" She asked, pointing to the word, and bending her head slightly nearer to Harry's own.
"That word." Harry said dumbly. Hermione laughed, eyes sparkling, finding this incredibly funny.
"Yes, Harry. That word." She pointed again, this time her eyes locked with Harry's. He gulped.
"Perfidious." Harry stated and Hermione nodded.
"Well it means unfaithful, or disloyal…I think." Harry's brow furrowed pensively.
"What about inamorato?" Hermione asked, pointing at a word in the same sentence, unmoving.
"It's like someone you're in love with, but male." He informed her.
"Oh wow, thanks." Hermione looked at the book again, turning it the front cover. "It's one of the books on the recommended reading list." She explained. Harry moved to take a closer look.
"I take it the book is about an unfaithful boyfriend?" Harry guessed, smiling at Hermione. She grinned widely back.
"Well I don't know…why don't you find out?" She handed it to Harry. He sputtered.
"I'm not exactly the love story type." He defied, grasping the book and trying to hold it out for her to take back.
"What Harry?" Hermione asked, appalled. "Are you saying you don't believe in love?" Harry's head turned to look away, embarrassed.
"Well I've never really thought about it." He said with a shrug, letting the book rest in his hand at his side.
"Maybe you should look into it." She tried again. "You never know what you may find." She sent him a smirk. Harry glared at her in a friendly manner, and opened to the last page of the book.
"…We sat side by side in the morning light and looked out at the future together." Harry read, unimpressed.
"Wow…" Hermione murmured. "Com'on Harry. You can't honestly tell me that you aren't the least bit curious…"
"I am honestly not the least bit curious." He said closing the book, watching Hermione's face turn from a smiling one to a pouting one.
"Let me see it." She said opening the book again, reading the inside of the front cover aloud.
"Love feels no burden, thinks nothing of trouble, attempts what is above its strength, pleads no excuse of impossibility…Wow, this is amazing." Her eyes scanned the pages.
"What's amazing?" Harry asked, trying to reach back for the book.
"Oh, no you don't." Hermione held the book to her chest. "Only a second ago you were keen on getting rid of it. I think I should like to read it."
"Then let me just look at it." Harry asked again, trying his hardest to be sincere. "Please?" He asked again, the tone of his voice began to grow whiney.
"Oh, alright." Hermione said calmly, as if this was just what she wanted to do. "Read the first paragraph." She instructed. "If you want to read it, read it. If you don't, I will." She offered.
"Fine." Harry sighed and paged the book open.
"What You Are To Me, by Barbara Moss." Harry read, looking up at Hermione skeptically.
"Go on." Hermione said, folding her hands together in front of herself.
Harry cleared his throat. "We all want to fall in love. Why? Because that experience makes us feel completely alive. Where every sense is heightened, every emotion is magnified, our everyday reality is shattered…" Harry paused, and swallowed loudly. "…And we are flying into the heavens. It may only last a moment, an hour, an afternoon. But that doesn't diminish its value. Because we are left with memories that we treasure for the rest of our lives…" Harry trailed off, blushing a furious red.
"Be careful Harry, or your face will start to match with Ron's hair." Hermione said, highly amused.
"But I don't understand love." Harry said, in a last ditch attempt to throw off Hermione's persistence.
"You will." Hermione said, drifting off in her own thoughts. She glanced over at Ron who was paging through a Star Wars book. "Someday you will…" She turned her head from Ron's direction to Harry's.
"We should get going soon." She said quietly, lowing her eyes. Her demeanor changed from the perky small girl to a silent beautiful woman. Heading down the row, her outstretched fingertips brushed against the binding of each of the books.
"Hermione." Harry said, calling her to stop, but she didn't. "I haven't even gotten my school books yet," he murmured to himself, looking at the book in his hand and he turned it over.
On the cover was a smiling young girl, bright blonde hair illuminated in the sunlight. She had her hands clasped in a boy's, and he was spinning her around. He too, had white-blonde hair and a tall thin frame. Harry was startlingly reminded of Draco.
"Draco never looks this happy though…" Harry said to himself, running his finger over the hard cover, wrapped in plastic. The boy's mouth was open in a laugh ducking the sprinklers the two were running through in the hot day of summer.
"Do I ever look this happy?" he wondered desperately.
He placed his hand over the book, not wanting to look at the carefree faces any longer.
He walked out the row, leaving Ron to find him and Hermione later. Just as he turned the corner he ran smack into Petunia.
"Excuse-" she started to say, but her cold hard eyes lingered, realizing it was Harry. "There you are, I've been looking for you all over." She noticed that Harry only had one book in his hand. "Where are all you're things Harry?" Petunia asked in a highly annoyed voice. Harry opened his mouth to speak but never got the chance
"What is this rubbish? It doesn't even look like school material." Petunia said with a suspicious glare, reaching for the book Harry held under his arm.
"N-nothing." Harry said so quickly, pulling the book backwards Petunia was astonished.
She glared once more at Harry before sighing. "You better hurry up, Dudley is almost finished and he'll be wanting to go."
"No actually…" Harry said, reaching out a hand to her before she could move. "Some friends of mine are here…" Petunia was on the verge of laughing.
"You have friends?" She sneered.
Harry wanted to glare back at the bony face of his Aunt, but he knew that would only get him into more trouble. "I do, and they want me to spend the day with them." Harry pleaded.
To his utter surprise and disbelief she handed him his library card. "I believe it would be best for you and Dudley to spend the day away from each other. Besides," She smiled. "Dudley can go home and spend the day with Draco."
Harry's stomach turned with jealousy. He knew Petunia was only saying that to rile him up, so he merely nodded. He moved to find his other schoolbooks and watched as Petunia strolled out of sight.
Vanilla ice cream dripped off of Harry's grinning face, loving the way it melted in his spoon on the way from the cup to his mouth.
"This was a much better way to spend my day." He said, mostly for his own benefit.
"I bet." Ron agreed. "You're Aunt looked like a witch…if you don't mind me saying. And don't even get me started on that lump you call a cousin." Harry laughed; having long figured out he favored the company of Ron…Yet, none more than Hermione. She was extremely intelligent, stunningly gorgeous, and had the best sense of humor Harry had ever enjoyed.
"You two don't even know the half of it!" Harry exclaimed, causing Hermione to laugh, holding her hand to her mouth politely. He watched the strawberry ice cream dribble on her mouth.
"So the other day…"Ron began. "My brothers, Fred and George, you know them Hermione." She nodded curtly, urging him to continue. "Well they're the biggest mischief makers I've ever known in my life." He stated for Harry benefit.
"So yesterday they told Mum that she shouldn't bother taking out the trash, and that they would do it for her instead, because of how badly behaved that had been, or something."
"Oh no." Hermione said, chuckling.
"That's what I said." Ron sounded astonished. "I didn't know Mummy would be mad enough to trust the twins with anything, let alone garbage. They were up to something." Ron leaned over the table, closer to his friends as if telling them a huge secret.
"The next day, Ms. Wally's house was flooded with watery garbage!" Ron yelled. Harry's mouth gaped. He would never be able to pull something like that on someone, not unless he wanted a terrible punishment.
"They told me how they did it too." He said excitedly. "They filled the garbage can up half with garbage, half with water, put it at an angle against the door. All they had to do was wait until she opened the door to get the morning paper and-Bam!" Ron snapped his fingers in emphasis.
"Oh no." Hermione squealed. "That's terrible." She sounded horrified but a telltale smirk was evident on her face.
"Did they get in much trouble?" Harry asked, incredulous.
"Oh yea, they get in trouble all the time, but they don't care." Ron took another sip of his smoothie.
"Mum was absolutely infuriated. She's making them go over and weed her garden for her in a few days, but I wouldn't even trust them not to mess that up as well."
Hermione shook her head, muttering something akin to 'hopeless.'
"Hermione, they would probably think of that as a compliment." Ron said to her, obviously having heard her declaration.
Harry's wristwatch suddenly went off, beeping to high heaven. "Oh man." His head hung in disappointment. "I really should be getting back home, Petunia might have a fit if I miss dinner."
Both Ron and Hermione had similar looks of dismay on their faces.
"Understandable." Ron said shrugging and giving Harry a friendly wink. He pulled the car keys out of his pocket. "Okay, everybody to the car." He announced, pushing Hermione towards his parked car, tickling her sides as he went. Harry closely looked at the expressions on his new friends faces, the looks of elation, joy, and the laugh lines. He couldn't help but think of the cover of the book.
A/N: Thank god I finally got this done, right? ;)
I'll delete the notes as soon as people realize that I've updated a new chapter.
Check out my fan art! (Ch5 Note)
The love quotes are, obviously quotes and not by me. Heh ^_^