A/N OK, first I want to thank you guys for all your nice reviews. You really have renewed my enthusiasm for writing some more parts. AND learning HTML, I'm independent! But haven't forgotten my friend who made me get Summer organized,and did the HTML, even though I know he must have wanted to shake me! And to my other friend who added my fave font and color Love you guys. To the rest of you groovy Guys and Girls- this was started for an 11 year old, but now that the audience is aging, I'll try to give you a little more romance. Honest! Working on Part 25 now,listening to BBMAK and making progress.Thanks for the E-mails from some of you, love hearing from you & writing back.
~Love from Circe~
Now , what you came for:
Summer Part 20
Crookshanks Meets the Dursleys - Two
On the way back to Privet Drive, Harry thought his Aunt Petunia would never stop talking, and asking questions. Hermione didn't seem to have a problem listening, and asking questions of her own. They were changing subjects so fast, he had stopped trying to keep up.Then he heard his aunt begin to tell Hermione about the school they had planned to send him to before the letters from Hogwarts began to appear, and Hagrid had come to take him to Diagon Alley for his supplies.
" We always felt Harry could have been happy nearer home, but that man came to take him, and we had no choice but to let him go." Aunt Petunia was saying sadly .He saw Hermione beginning to get that look on her face that he remembered so well from the year before, when she was involved in her campaign against enslavement of house elves.
Harry prodded her in the back of her neck from where he sat in the back seat, making her jump and look reproachfully at him. " just ignore her." he mouthed silently, and reluctantly, Hermione nodded .He breathed a sigh of relief, but wondered how things were really going to turn out. He looked down at the box beside him and realized he was really counting on Ivy's Coaxing Charm to get them through the evening.
After they arrived on Privet Drive, Dudley insisted on showing Hermione his collection of CD's, and to Harry's surprise she had heard of most of the music, and was soon expressing her opinions very strongly. He suddenly found himself feeling totally left out of the conversation, and dirty besides. Mumbling something about getting cleaned up, he moved toward the door, but immediately heard Hermione say, " Yes, you go get cleaned up, and I'll come help you pick out a good shirt from the ones Mom got for you." then to Dudley she said, " Harry really looks cool in his new clothes, doesn't he Dudley? EVERYONE at our school thinks he's so great!"
Harry had to swallow hard,and move fast before a huge snort of laughter escaped from him. Not fast enough to miss Dudley's reaction though. He saw Dudley's eyes narrow, though all he said was " Oh yeah, sure."
Harry tore into the bathroom, jumped into the shower, and took a faster shower than he usually did even after a Quidditch match, before a victory celebration. Coming out of the bathroom, he heard Hermione saying, "I'll just check on Harry now." a bit louder than was really necesary.
" Um, ready in a minute, Hermione....." he called, as he unintentionally slammed the door to his room.'Oh, no," he groaned to himself, "now she'll think I don't want her help.' As quickly as he could, Harry dressed, except for his shirt,and threw his towel around his neck as he opened his door. To his surprise and relief, Hermione was standing there, leaning against the wall by his door, looking very smug.
" That took care of him- for a while anyway", she said as she came into the room, looking around her. "Ooh, Harrry this is AWFUL. Even if you're hardly ever here, we have to do something about this room. Tonight -you, your aunt and I are going to make a list of all the things you need in here. Dudley has a computer doesn't he?" Harry nodded, wondering what she had in mind. " Before Mom and Dad pick me up tonight, we're going to do some shopping by computer. If you have to stay here, they're going to spend some money making you comfortable."
Harry grinned as he thought of the way Hermione had been spending the Muggle money when they went food shopping before. The need to watch what she spent had apparently not occurred to her. "Well, I'd better finish getting ready, " he said, moving toward his closet.
Hermione reached out and took the towel from his neck and rubbed it across his back." You're still all wet, Harry. You'll get cold if your shirt gets wet." This was not bad, Harry thought to himself, even though he couldn't quite get any words to come out of his mouth. A guy could get used to this. At the same time they both seemd to realize she had been drying the same spot for several minutes.
Harry cleared his throat and said,"Well,let's see what shirt I should wear." He went to the closet and pushed a lot of very ugly and very large shirts to the side then held up two for Hermione to see." Like either of these?" She nodded and took the one that was blue with a lighter blue block stripe around the chest.handing Harry the towel.
" This one's really nice. Soft and a nice color." She unbuttoned the three buttons and handed it back to Harry, who quickly slipped it over his head.
"Ready to go down" he asked. " We need to make sure each of them gets some of the stuff your Mom sent, otherwise Dudley will eat it all, then Petunia and Vernon might not be so easy."
"Dudley!" Hermione exclaimed with a sniff, "I don't think I've ever met anyone so obnoxious . He's just as bad as Draco, in his way, and he's big enough to do his own torture to people."
" Yeah, "said Harry with a grin. "If nothing else he can just sit on them" They laughed together and went back down the stairs to the living room where Vernon was sitting with his evening paper. When he lowered it to look at Harry and Hermione, he still had that look of fury mixed with terror and he said as litle as possible to them. Hermione, getting her first look at Uncle Vernon's face without the frizzy hair, suddenly seemd to find something extremely interesting out the front window, then she exclaimed" Crookshanks ! He's still in his basket!" and she darted from the room
" Attractive girl." muttered Uncle Vernon. " Can't imagine why you've never brought her 'round before."' Maybe because you've never alowed me to have a friend in this stupid house.' thought Harry. Then something occurred to him. Why not give Ivy's rolls a try?
"Say, aren't you hungry? I saw some rolls out for dinner. Why don't I bring you one?" Harry asked, trying very hard to keep his voice casual and his face pleasant, as if offering to bring food to his uncle happened every day. While he looked a bit suspicious, Vernon grunted a yes, and went back to his paper.Harry sped into the kitchen, and quickly picked up one of Ivy's rolls in a napkin.
"Now Harry, don't spoil your dinner. All your favorite foods tonight, in honor of our guest." said Aunt Petunia, giving him a look he supposed was intended to be affectionate
'How does SHE know what I like?' thought Harry, but he only turned to her and said,as pleasantly as he could," Oh, this is for Uncle Vernon.You should have one too, it's very light, dinner won't be spoiled." Then he turned and left the kitchen ,shoulders shaking with silent laughter,and put the roll he'd brought by Vernon's glass of sherry.
"Thanks, " Uncle Vernon said , not too rudely, and he picked it up and began to eat. Harry went over, sat on the couch and folded his arms. 'Now, for the fun to begin.' he thought. Hermione came back into the room, holding Crookshanks in her arms, and looked at Harry with a question in her eyes. He nodded and pointed to the table beside Vernon, where all that remained were a few crumbs.
Hermione grinned, and moved toward the chair near Vernon, but Harry, found himself shaking his head at her, and pointing to the spot on the couch beside him. Hermione's smile got bigger and he thought again what an amazing difference there was since she had let Madame Pomfrey alter her teeth. But there were a lot of amazing differences, like the way she felt, sitting just a little closer than she would have a few weeks ago .
"Ready?" he whispered and she nodded. " Hey , Uncle Vernon," Harry said in a much louder and more forceful voice, "Hermione brought her cat along. I know how crazy about cats you are, don't you want to hold him?"
Vernon lowered his paper with the beginning of a scowl, but when he looked at them sitting on the couch, a strange calm came over his face. "Oh, nice kitty,here kitty, come to Vernon....." said Uncle Vernon in a voice that made Harry and Hermione look at each other and roll their eyes. Hermione got up with Crookshanks, took him over and dropped him into Uncle Vernon's lap.
With his usual charm, Crookshanks wasted no time in stretching full length across his lap, kneading his claws in and out. Vernon winced at each movement, but seemingly unable to move, he gripped the arms of his chair with white knuckles. After a moment, he was able to take one hand off the chair arm, and began to rub Crookshanks' back. Immediately huge handfuls of fuzzy yelllowish - orange cat hair came out in his hand and began to drift across the furniture,clinging to the plush plum colored velvet that Harry had always hated, but that was Petunia's pride and joy.
As if she had been called, Petunia appeared in the doorway,"All right everyone....." she began in a shrill voice, but broke off in mid- sentence. 'Oh, no- ' thought Harry,' she never ate any of the rolls!' This thought was quickly removed when Aunt Petunia squealed "Vernon! What are you doing to that poor cat? Trying to make him lose all his hair? Poor thing, here I'll take him in and get him some supper. Vernon! You clean up this mess. What will Hermione think of us? "
"Actually I think this is pretty hilarious , don't you?" Hermione said into Harry's ear.He nodded, but felt a little shiver go up his spine. Was it because of something that was about to happen or because Hermione had somehow stayed leaning against his shoulder after she finished speaking.Should he move, or whisper something back? Deciding caution was the best course of action, he slowly leaned back against the couch again, relaxing a bit as he felt Hermione lean back with him. At least he knew that was where she wanted to be.
They sat there,watching Vernon scraping cat hairs from the cushions,. being careful not to move and disturb the closeness they had finally reached. Unfortunately ,Dudley chose that time to appear in the doorway. When he saw Harry and Hermione on the couch, a scowl appeared on his face."Mum says to come in for dinner. Say, Hermione why don't you come on in with me? I'll make you something to drink with dinner, and you can visit with Mum and I. I've been helping with dinner, but it's Harry's job to turn on the sprinklers in the yard each night. Right, Harry?' said Dudley in a smarmy voice that made Harrry want to stick some of Crookshanks' fur down his throat.
He made himself nod though,and said "Sure, Hermione, you go on in and get comfortable. I'll be along in a bit." She got up reluctantly, managing to put her hand on his arm for an instant and turning to him and rolling her eyes before following Dudley into the kitchen. As he went out the door,he could hear Dudley talking to Hermione in that same smarmy voice, but he grinned to himself as he noticed her replies were either unenthusiastic or sarcastic.
During dinner, Hermione managed to bring up the subject of Harry's room, after she had made sure each of Harry's three relatives had been supplied with more of Ivy's rolls. Harry wished he could have one, they still smelled awfully good, and somehow had managed to stay warm all this time They'd been warned though, and he knew now that Ivy had ben successful with her Coaxing Charm - Petunia was hanging on every word Hermione spoke and even Dudley and his uncle were listening and not interrupting - a first for either of them. To his great surprise she was talking very enthusiastically about Quidditch,and though most of herconversation involved telling about his own parts in the game, he was surprised to hear her chose this subject.
"So, since Harry is one of the best Quidditch players anyplace, wouldn't it be right to decorate his room with things about Quidditch?" He came out of his thoughts to hear Hermione say this and nearly fell off his chair!
WHERE were they going to get Quidditch decorations in a Muggle store? "Erm,Hermione, do you really think we can do this?" he raised his eyebrows and hoped she would get the message to move to another subject.
"Oh, no problem, Harry. Ron has a catalogue with all the team decorations. We can ask him to bring it along when he visits. Now, Mrs. Dursley, don't you think Harry could use some new furniture? I don't mean to sound rude, but that stuff is pretty old. Dudley, we can use your computer can't we.You have the Internet? We can look at furniture there. I know Dudley and Mr. Dursley will want to clean up the kitchen after that wonderful dinner you made Mrs .Dursley."
Hermione 's eyes were twinkling,and Harry gulped and said in a croaky voice"Um, sprinklersgottaturnemoff!" and he disappeared out the back door, where he bent over, shaking with laughter that he tried not to let turn into huge snorts.. Finally getting a little sobered, he made his way to the side of the house and turned off the water faucet. When he stood up, he realized the kitchen window was almost at this eye level, so he looked in. Hermione and Petunia sat at Dudley's computer desk. Hermione looked almost as small as Winky, sitting in the oversized computer chair his aunt and uncle had had to order specially because of Dudley's size. He knew he should get back inside, but he just stood there for a moment, looking at her. Would she want him to kiss her? Maybe tonight would be.........
"Harrreeee.....!!!" he heard Aunt Petunia's shrill voice,and realized he'd been standing there several minutes. Going in the back door he saw Hermione holding a list of some kind in her hand.He went over and stood beside her,and on a corner of the paper she wrote.MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! When he sat down beside her, she whisperd "Five hundred pounds!"
Since Petunia was now at the sink, pointing out to Vernon and Dudley all their mistakes, he whispered back" That's more money than they've spent on me in all the years I've been here, I bet!"
" And don't forget we still have the Quidditch decorations. " Hermione whispered back."We'll have to make another trip to Diagon Alley to get their Muggle money changed."
Thinking about the trip down to his vault made Harry come to a decision. "Let's go outside a few minutes." he said to her, moving the chair back and pulling her up from Dudley's huge chair. Before he could lose his determination, he turned and called across the room,"I'm taking Hermione out to show her the roses. They're looking really pretty tonight."
"Wait, I'll go too!" exclaimed Dudley. Harry felt his heart hit his feet with a thud, but it rose again when Aunt Petunia said quickly," You most certainly will NOT! You still have work to do. Here take the scissors ,Harry, and cut Hermione all the best roses.
To be continued.........