Chapter 4

Cassie



"Well, you don't have be a gourmet chef to improve on that," she said, again indicating the frozen meals behind him. "Can you boil water, at least?"

"I think I can handle that much." Harry was quite nervous at talking to this girl. She seemed friendly enough, but Dumbledore had been pretty specific in his instructions the previous night.

"I know it will be difficult, Harry, to be alone for a while, but you just cannot tell by looking who is a Wizard and who isn't. Anyone who has associated with Wizards at all, even if they are Muggle themselves, will recognize your name and your scar. And even if someone gets suspicious at a boy as young as yourself living alone, it could cause all sorts of problems. . . . It will be best if you just avoid as much contact as possible with people, Harry."

Harry had thought at the time that this would not prove difficult at all. He knew no one in London who wasn't a Wizard and in his previous experiences in the Muggle world, he had never had friends. As for his living alone, he decided that if he said he was 17 rather than 16 and that his parents had gone on vacation for a week or two, leaving him alone, that would not seem unusual. He knew that children of 16 or 17 were old enough to live on their own for short periods at least.

So here he was, a mere few hours later, already being approached by someone he did not know. He remembered Moody's motto of "Constant Vigilance" and tried not to relax too much.

"If you can boil water and you have a pan . . . Do you have a pan?" Harry forced his mind back to the girl, who was talking to him although he had not heard what she was saying.

"What?" He wanted to hit himself in the head. So far, he had not exactly been making very brilliant conversation, and although he knew he really should just excuse himself from the situation completely and probably leave the store, he was going to need to eat something. Maybe she would have some ideas. He knew he sure didn't. If he just didn't let slip anything about himself, he could probably get a few hints. After all, she did not look any older than he was and yet she seemed to have some idea what she was doing.

"I asked if you have a pan . . . You know, to boil water in. Not that frypan that you are buying for your bacon." Harry tried to ignore the disapproval in her voice. It was obvious that she preferred the sort of whole-grain cereal stuff he could see in her own cart.

"No, I don't have anything at all at home. I've got to buy everything I need." She looked at him sideways, curious, obviously. So Harry quickly said, abandoning his thought-out story immediately and improvising on the spot, "I had to move into an apartment rather unexpectedly and there's nothing in it. This is my first place, you see."

"Oh. Well, look. Why don't I take you over to the pasta area and give you a few pointers? Plus, then maybe you can pick up a sauce pan, too." My name's Cassie, by the way. What's yours?"

"Harry." Uh-oh. He didn't dare say Harry Potter, it was just too well-known . . . "Just Harry."

She crooked up an eyebrow at him, a smile hovering around her mouth again, like she was trying really hard not to laugh. "Well, Just Harry, do you like pasta or are you more of a meat and potatoes man?"

"I'll eat anything that I can cook," Harry said, feeling like the world's biggest idiot. "That's kind of why the bacon . . . I can cook it, you see." She nodded. "Come on, Just Harry. Let's go see what we can do for you" and she pushed her cart down the aisle away from him, calling suggestions for possible easy meals over her shoulder as she went. He followed her over to a different area of the supermarket, hoping that he was not getting himself into a terrible bit of trouble with this laughing, chatting girl who really did have the most amazing blue eyes.