CHAPTER FOUR:

The Boy With The Black Hair And Green Eyes

By the next day, all the packing was moving was entirely completed. Our beds were in the correct places rather than in the middle of the family room; our TV was in the family room and not in the kitchen; and Tina and my computer was in the guest room instead of in the dining room.

When I woke up that day, (at a normal hour, 9:00) the jet lag had almost entirely worn off. One of the best things about my room was that I got my own bathroom. I walked into my private bathroom, took a shower, dressed, and made my bed. I wore a pair of shorts from JC Penny and one of my many Old Navy tee-shirts. Old Navy was my favorite clothing outlet. After brushing my hair, I pulled on my favorite Old Navy ball cap. Looking out the window I realized that it looked like a nice day outside. Much better than last night, that is.

I was wrong.

As I pulled open my window and stuck my head outside, I realized why it was a bad idea. It was a lot colder than it looked. I heard distant thunder rumbling in the background and felt a few cold sprinkles on my nose. Freezing wind lashed at my face. I normally liked the wind. Not today.

Suddenly, in the house next to the one directly across from mine, I heard a window unlatch. I stared intently as the skinny boy from yesterday poked his head out the window. His untidy black hair became even more untidy as the wind whipped it all over his head. I pulled my head back inside the window before I got frostbite.

As I slammed the window shut, something occurred to me. The boy who had put his head out the window was in Number 4. That was the same lawn the fat kid, Dudley, was chasing him in. Hadn't Vernon said that they were from Number 4? Why didn't he come to greet us yesterday with his family?

I went down the staircase, playing with my yo-yo. Suddenly, I tripped and fell flat on my ass. Wincing, I decided that I shouldn't go down the staircase so fast anymore. In my old house, we didn't have any stairs. I had to get used to it.

Suddenly, my mom came rushing into the family room. "What was that noise?"

"What noise?"

"It was a kind of 'thump.'"

"That was me; I tripped and fell on my as- butt."

"Oh. Are you okay?"

"Of course I'm okay." I thought that was a silly question.

"I'm bored," I said. I don't know if I said that as punishment for my parents for dragging me all the way to England or if I really was. I think I really was.

"Go take out the trash."

"I don't want to."

"Go wash the car."

"It's too cold."

"Go read a book."

"I've already read all my books."

"Well, go to the library and find a book," my dad replied, reading the local newspaper that we ordered.

"Yeah, maybe you can find a good British comedy," Tina teased.

"I know! I'll ride my bike!" When I had explained about my bike to my friends at Sacramento Institution for Wizards and Witches, the school I went to in California, most of them were completely enthralled, as they grew up in wizarding families and had never heard of such a thing.

"Tina, do you want to come too?" I asked. I didn't really care if she came or not, but I thought it would be polite to ask anyway.

"Maybe later."

"I'm not going later, I'm going now."

"No, then."

As I got up to leave, my dad stopped me. "Wait a minute, Conrad. You'd better take this in case you get lost." He handed over a map which included the area we lived in.

"Okay, thanks." I turned to go.

"And if you still do get lost, just call for the Knight Bus to pick you up and take you back here. Here's some money." He handed over a few silver sickles.

"Don't worry, I won't get lost." I raced out the door before he could stop me again.

As soon as I had pedaled down the driveway, I raced back up to the door and entered. A few seconds later I emerged again, this time wearing jeans and a sweatshirt. The sweatshirt was from Old Navy. The jeans were from The Gap. I'm not going into anymore detail about my clothes.

I was riding down a very narrow cobblestone alley and I felt kinda lonely and missed California. Fortunately, the weather had not gotten any worse so I was still able to explore my new environment. As I turned a corner, I noticed there was a park up ahead. Naturally, in my American nature, I was riding on the right side of the rode. A compact, kind of ugly European car suddenly came around the corner. He was heading strait for me!

My tires skidded as I pulled my bike to the left side of the road and my rear wheel slipped sideways on the slightly wet cobblestone. I fell unceremoniously onto the ground. When I looked up, the driver was giving me the peace symbol. "Huh?"

Aching, but without any other injuries, I pulled my bike up and walked it to the park. I plopped down onto one of the swings.

"That was a pretty nasty fall you had there," a British voice suddenly observed.

Startled, I fell off the swing. Where did that voice come from? I looked around wildly and found myself staring into a pair of green eyes no more than a dozen feet away on another swing. "Hello, I didn't see you there."

I felt embarrassed for falling off the swing. It was almost like that kid just appeared there! I quickly got up. "I'm Conrad, just moved in yesterday." We shook hands.

"I'm Harry."

I soon realized that this was the kid that stuck his head out of Number 4 earlier today. "You live in Number 4, don't you? I saw that kid Dudley chasing you around yesterday."

"Yeah, that's me. The Dursleys are my aunt and uncle. Dudley is my cousin."

I didn't have the nerve to ask why he didn't live with his parents. As I was coming up with possible reasons why he didn't live with them, I got a pain in my side. I winced. "That guy was driving on the wrong side of the road."

Harry laughed. "No he wasn't. You were. This isn't the United States, you know. People here drive on the left."

I felt stupid for not remembering that. I blushed. "I knew that."

That made Harry laugh even harder.

"But why did he give me the peace symbol?"

"That was no peace symbol! He was flipping you off!" He was now rolling on the ground with laughter. I was appalled by his behavior.

He had finally calmed down about seven minutes later, when the rain began to pour. The rain totally took me by surprise. A few seconds ago, it was almost starting to become nice outside.

"Is the weather always this bad?" I asked Harry as I ran for cover under an overhang.

"Oh, no, it's not. This is just England's way of welcoming Americans to the country."

"Is it always this cold?"

"No, it's usually around 25 degrees."

"Celsius, you mean."

"Of course. You Americans use Fahrenheit, don't you?"

"Yep. What school do you go to?"

"Oh, I go to Hog –" Harry stopped himself and did what looked like some quick thinking. "I mean, I go to Smeltings."

"But you were about to say Hogwarts, weren't you?"

Harry whipped his head toward me so fast, I felt dizzy. "Are you a wizard?"

"Yeah, I am," I replied, my face brightening, "I'm going to Hogwarts on September first."

"Me too! I'm going to be a third year. How about you?"

I made a confused face. "I'm going into the eighth grade. . ."

"Well, over here we call it First year, Second year, Third year, so on."

"That's interesting. I don't know then. I turned thirteen in July though. What does that make me?"

"You'll be a third year too. I also turned thirteen in July. 31st July, actually."

"Well, happy birthday. Mine was on the 10th."

I was very curious about Hogwarts, and what a perfect person to ask, as he had gone there the last two years! "Tell me about Hogwarts."

Harry launched into explanation. "There are four houses: Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. I'm in Gryffindor, by the way. Gryffindor is the best house to go to. And I'm not just saying that because I'm in it, I heard that before I even got to Hogwarts in my first year, and I have to say, they were right."

I listened, my curiosity growing.

"Whatever happens, you don't want to be a Slytherin. Slytherins are Griffindor's enemy. Plus, most of them are really dark and evil. Of all the witches and wizards that went bad in Hogwarts, all of them were in Slytherin.

"Ravenclaw is where the intelligent ones go. All the rest get chucked into Hufflepuff."

Harry continued to talk about Hogwarts for another fifteen minutes and I told him about Sacramento. "California is the biggest state in the US, so Sacramento had six houses. There was one school in about every state, except for the really unpopulated ones like Wyoming, or small in size ones, like Rhode Island. Well, I take that back. There were only thirty schools in the whole country, and fifty states, so twenty states didn't get a school all to themselves. . ."

"Okay, so what was Sacramento like?"

"Well, I'll tell you this," I replied, "the weather there was a heck of a lot better than here!"

We both laughed for a while about that.

After a while, I glanced at my watch and did a double-take. It was already 4:30! Seeing that I left the house at one, I had a feeling that my parents wouldn't be too pleased about me being gone in a foreign country for three and a half hours. "I have to go, Harry. My dad is going to file a missing person report on me soon!"

"Okay, I'll see you around," Harry said.

As I pedaled home, I realized that I couldn't wait for September first to come and see what Hogwarts was really like.