LEAVING THE DURSLEY'S

Nikolett and Hermione met in the town square again the next day, their bags packed and waiting for a coach that would take them to the train station that was fifty miles away.  "Why don't we just Apparate?"  Hermione asked as a horse-drawn carriage pulled up in front of them.

"Because it's not safe.  The people of this town only obey the rules at night.  If they find a witch, they'll be braver and try to kill them.  It's just easier this way, trust me.  We could do it at the train station."  Nikolett said, climbing into the coach with Hermione following.

Harry ran down the stairs as he heard the doorbell ringing.  He had been waiting up in his room and he had already begun to pack, but he was just so anxious that he couldn't do it by himself.  He approached the front door, but he was stopped from opening it by his Uncle Vernon.  "Oh, no you don't.  It may not be this ruddy godfather of yours… I'll get the door."  Harry just nodded and waited for Uncle Vernon to open the door.  When the door opened, he saw his godfather's smiling face.

"Hello, Dursley."  He said, kindly. 

"Oh, it is you.  Well, let's get this over with. The sooner you come in, the sooner you can leave."  Sirius wanted to say something offensive, but he was trying to remember to have good manners to others.  It was very difficult for him. 

Sirius entered the house as Uncle Vernon let him inside.  Harry saw his uncle give Sirius a once-over, trying to pick out something that offended him about the way he was dressed, but he couldn't find anything.  Sirius was dressed in a pair of black pants, a white shirt and a black vest over it.  He looked very sharp.  "Hello, Harry."  Sirius said and gave him a hug.  "Well, let's go get you packed." 

"Okay."  Harry said and led Sirius up to his bedroom.  "So, how did you get here?  Did you Apparate?"

"Um, no.  I actually bought a muggle car.  I thought it might be useful."  He said, helping Harry to drag out his old school trunk.  Sirius looked down into it and shook his head.  "This isn't big enough to fit everything."

"That's okay.  We can make sure everything fits in it."  Sirius nodded. 

They had gotten through half of Harry's things when they heard the doorbell ring.  "Who's that?"

"Probably Hermione.  I told you she and Ron were coming to help.  But, Ron said that he would come and help unpack.  He's got training all day today."  They proceeded to continue with the packing until they heard two sets of footsteps approaching the room.

"Harry?"  Hermione called out, not knowing where to find the room.

"In here, Hermione!"  He called back.  He soon saw her enter the room and someone else he had not expected.  "Professor Bronte?"

"Oh, I brought her with me.  Is that okay?" 

"Sure.  The more the merrier."  Sirius said, not looking up at the women who had entered the room.  He was too busy with the floorboard under Harry's bed.  The women didn't need instructions.  They just started to take things out of drawers and his closet and put them into the trunk, which had an enlargement charm put on it so everything would fit. 

Soon, everything was packed and they were ready to go.  But, Harry and Hermione had both noticed something.  Sirius and Nikolett had not yet made eye-contact.  Whether it was on purpose, by Nikolett or just chance, they didn't know, but they figured that it was about time that they saw each other once again. 

"Um, Sirius, you remember Nikolett, don't you?"  Hermione asked.  She saw Nikolett give her an angry look out of the corner of her eye.  She wasn't too pleased with this.  Sirius, who had been closing Harry's trunk and had his back toward the women, turned and looked at Nikolett.  They quickly made eye-contact and Sirius rocked on his feet as if he had just been spun around twenty times and was trying to stand still.

When he stopped rocking, he focused back on Nikolett.  But, what he said, none of them expected.  "You did it again, didn't you?"  He wasn't angry.  Far from it.  He actually thought it was funny.  Nikolett just smiled and nodded.  "It was the same hex, wasn't it?"  She just nodded again and didn't say anything.  "Why?"

"I-I didn't want you to worry about me, when Harry needed you more than I did."  He said, quietly.

"What did she do?"  Harry asked Hermione, clearly not knowing anything of what was going on.

"She erased his memory of her.  But, now that they've seen each other again, he remembers her… Oh, it's so romantic!"  She said.

"Romantic?"  He asked, giving an unsure look at the whole thing.

"Oh, you wouldn't know romance if it bit you on the butt."  She said and headed downstairs.  Nikolett followed her with Sirius and Harry following her, carrying the trunk down the stairs.  They approached the front door to see all three Dursley's lined up to bid him farewell.  Sirius, Nikolett, and Hermione headed outside to give Harry some privacy with them.

"Well, I'm leaving."  He said.

"Yes, well…"  Uncle Vernon began.

"You really are my sister's son."  Aunt Petunia said.  "She would have been proud of you."  She said, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks.  It was then that Harry figured that they weren't as bad as they seemed to be.  They just wanted to make sure nothing had happened to him.  They didn't want him to have the same fate as Lilly and James did.  Just as Dumbledore had.  That's why they agreed to take him in.  Harry now realized that, in their own cruel way, they did love him.  They just didn't like showing it.

He bid them good-bye and exited the house.  He approached Sirius' new car that he had bought with a reward he had gotten from defeating Voldemort and climbed inside.  He was now leaving the Durlsey's forever.  He had thought he would have felt better about it, but he knew that in some way, he would miss the way they treated him.  Of course, it was a very small way.