Thursday

Journal,

Another day gone by and I'm sort of glad it's oversort of. You'll find out what that means later. Well, the day started like all the others did that got me into a bad mood. My mood lightened up when I saw the empty spot between my tent and my aunt and uncle's and heard grumbles from the campsite near us. It made me laugh for a second to think that Dudley still stank.

Of course, I remembered that today was the day of the big hike. I really wasn't looking forward to it, but I knew I had to go. Vernon didn't seem to want to go either. I could also tell that Petunia missed spying on the neighbors. Vernon came over to me as usual when they took me somewhere.

"Now, you know I don't want any funny stuff," Vernon said. "I've got myself a paddle and I'm not afraid to do it." As if a 15-year-old like me am afraid of a paddle and him "using" it. Sometimes I think Vernon has some marbles missing up there.

So we went on our way over to the campsite, Dudley way behind us. It turned out that Vernon's co-worker looked a lot like him, fat and purple-faced and all. It didn't surprise me much though for some reason. We walked up to him and Vernon shook his hand.

"Martin," Vernon said.

"Vernon," Martin said. "I see you brought your family andwho is this and where is your son?"

"Oh, my boy had an accident' with a skunk a night ago," Vernon said, pointing behind them.

"I seeand him." The way he looked at me really made me wanna just turn him into a warty toad, but I couldn't which made me hate him more. Almost likeVernon.

"Oh, he'sour neighbor's child," Vernon said. I half-grinned. It didn't surprise me that Vernon didn't want to be known as related to me. If he ever had to say I was related to me in public, he would probably kill himself, right there and then.

"Does this boy have a name?"

"YesHarry." I was wondering for a sec if he would use my real name. If he had given me a name like Donny I would have strangled him, but without magic.

With that, we started the hike. I must have had about 2 hours of boredom on that hike. I would have stopped and gone back but Dudley's stench kept me going and away from him. I must have gotten smacked in the face with branches 20 times between their campsite and the lake, which was about half the way.

"Hi," said the girl as we passed the lake. She surprised me so much that I jumped. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you."

"It's okay," I said. This was practically the first thing I said on the whole hike.

"You're pretty quiet for being so famous." This made me stop.

"How did you know I'm famous?"

"You're Harry Potter, right?" She pointed to the scar on my forehead behind my bangs. I nodded. "My brother's a wizard. He goes to the Scotsmith Wizarding School in Wales. I swear he must have about 12 books that have your name all in them." I chuckled. After that, we became fast friends. Her name was Alicia. We talked all through the hike about different stuff. I swear that I became attracted to her.

And you wouldn't believe what happened on out way back. She pulled me behind a tree for a moment andshe kissed me. It of course wasn't my first kiss but damn it felt good. The only reason we didn't continue for long was that Dudley was getting closer with his skunk smell and we rushed back to the adults and her brother. That was the best french that to date I've had.

When we neared her family's campsite, I told her I'd keep in touch. And I think I'll try. We came back to out campsite after we waved goodbye and ate something.

It's been about 5 hours since then and the Dursleys have kept to themselves. I've been working on my essays since then and am halfway through my last one. I'm so glad because I think there's only 2 weeks left before school starts. I'm gonna pack up and get to sleep.

Wait a second, I thought I just heard something. I'm gonna close my tent up and get some sleep. I don't want a skunk spraying me while I sleep and end up like Dudley. It's probably that skunk again. Well, I'm not gonna get sprayed. Good night.

- Harry