On with the story!
Chapter 4: Pools, See-Through T-shirts and How to be an Attentive IgnorerHarry walked groggily out of his room. It had taken him several minutes to register his surroundings when he'd first woken up. Two weeks into their stay, he and Emily had gone on a room painting binge – or rather, Emily had insisted on painting her room (Harry privately didn't see what all the fuss was about – he'd had to live in Dudley's second bedroom full of peeling wallpaper for years) and Harry had decided he might as well paint his room. So, several cans of paint and ruined shirts later, Harry finally had his new garnet red and white room across the hall from Emily's rather girly one. He padded over to Emily's door and knocked lightly before going in slowly.
"Um-wha-go-ugh-go-away-umm..."
Harry grinned as he shook himself awake. Despite the fact that Emily had surprised him by being up early that second day, she had since consistently failed to voluntarily leave her bed until at least ten in the morning. Unfortunately, as she pointed out to Harry, she had an early morning class full of four year olds who, at the unearthly hour of eight, were full of realms of boundless energy with which they greeted their beloved teacher, a very tired Emily.
"Sorry Em," Harry began, moving into the room as he blatantly ignored Emily's mumbles, groans, and the occasional pillow which came flying in his direction. "but you threatened to slip pineapple into my mouth while I slept if I didn't wake you up so..."
He crossed the room in couple steps and flung open her curtains, turning triumphantly as she let out a yell and dove under the covers. Harry grinned wickedly and quietly left the room, slipping downstairs to the kitchen where he filled up a glass of water before quickly going back upstairs. Standing beside her bed, he noted that she'd pulled the curtains back together again with her telekinesis. "Come on, Em, don't make me do this the hard way..."
Harry grabbed the edge of her covers to pull them back, and, as he'd expected, Emily squealed and held tightly onto them. "What?" he said, sounding exasperated.
Emily tentatively poked her head out from under the covers. "I'm naked." She explained, holding the covers tightly to her neck as if to keep Harry from seeing anything. Harry rolled his eyes; the top of a t-shirt was clearly visible at her neck but he still found himself hard pressed not to think of a naked Emily while raising the glass to his lips.
"That's low, Em. You know I won't yank them off you now, that's not fair!" he paused in the act of taking a drink. "But then again, neither is this!"
Before Emily had time to react, Harry had dumped the entire contents of the glass onto her face, the icy cold water soaking her as it ran down her pajamas. "HARRY!!" she shrieked "HARRY-HARRY...YOU...HARRY- uh, whatever your middle name is- POTTER! YOU LITTLE...UGH!! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!"
Harry took several steps back, laughing. "You'll have to join the line, then – and I have to warn you, it gets longer by the day."
He would have gone on laughing forever – the look of utter shock on Emily's face as she spluttered was priceless – but the current murderous glare that she was sending in his direction as she sat bolt upright in bed, her hair and shirt drenched was making him more than a little bit nervous and he distinctly began to get the uneasy feeling that he'd rather face Voldemort than Emily when she got out of the bed. He began to edge towards the door, but in his mirth he'd stepped back to the far corner of the room and horror of horrors – the maniacally grinning Emily was now between him and the door.
"Harry," she said, her voice sickly sweet. "You know, Harry, it was so very nice of you to wake me up so very efficiently this morning. And you know what else? You look like you still have a little sleep left in you – did you wake up and come straight here?"
Harry nodded, eyeing her warily as she took a step closer to him. "Yeah, I did."
"Well, then, why don't we get it out of you then? You know what I think will do it?"
"No." Harry said, not at all sure that he wanted to know. Suddenly, however, Emily's eyes flashed and he found himself upside down, hurtling through the air as she maneuvered him down the stairs and towards the back of the house. Harry, with his distorted perception of the world, didn't realize where she was flying him until he saw the tell tale pattern of water reflecting on the wall. "EMILY!!!" he yelled, seconds before he was raised higher into the air and then let go, plunging several feet through air before landing headfirst into the deep end of their pool. As he broke the surface, spluttering and choking, he heard laughter and turned to see Emily doubled over with laughter at the doorway.
"Harry, oh, Harry..." a fresh burst of laughter erupted. "Oh, that was priceless..."
Emily trailed off, evidently having noticed that Harry had stopped spluttering and was merely staring at her, his face very red. When Emily had straightened up Harry couldn't help but notice that her shirt, although beginning to dry off, was in fact still quite wet, clingy and completely see through. Emily stared back at him, confusion all over her face.
"Uh..." she began, apparently not realizing exactly what had Harry so transfixed.
"Your...shirt..." Harry managed after a few minutes, during which Emily's face had begun to show some gradual awareness as to what she was wearing – an oversized white t-shirt and nothing else. Now, however, the realization stuck home like a thunderclap, her face turning an impressive scarlet before she gasped and ran wildly out of the room, doors slamming behind her as she went.
Slowly coming downstairs from drying off in his room, Harry heard the whoosh! that told him Emily had just left for work. After seeing practically all of her - which he had to admit he hadn't really minded – Emily had made sure he hadn't seen her at all, locking herself in her room that morning and even eating breakfast in there before leaving early for work. Still, they were supposed to go by Grimmauld Place the next day together to pick up that week's supplies, so they'd have to see each other sometime.
"But how am I supposed to even look at her now – I mean – I can't....not without seeing....them..."
"Good thing I made Molly wait until tonight to see you, then, Harry – that did sound a bit worrisome."
Harry whirled around – and saw Remus Lupin standing behind him, a mischievous grin on his face.
"Professor Lupin!!" he said, shocked and slightly embarrassed. "I – uh – that wasn't what you think...I just..."
"I just thought I'd come by and say hello, as I'm going off to do some work abroad for a while. How are you doing, Harry?"
Harry's mood instantly went from embarrassed to sober. He knew Lupin was referring to Sirius. The two weeks after his return from school had been hell, despite the fact that the Dursleys were more scared and therefore nicer to him than ever. The new house, however, had kept him so busy with his cleaning that he'd find himself going half a day without thinking about the events at the Ministry.
"Better, actually." He replied truthfully. "What - uh – about you?"
Lupin smiled sadly. "I'm hanging on. I'm glad to hear you're alright, though- it certainly didn't sound as if you were thinking about Si-him right now."
Harry winced slightly – it still hurt him to remember, as it evidently did Lupin. He blushed, though, when he heard what Lupin had just said. "Oh – well – Em and I... I mean, Emily, I don't think you've met her... well we had a bit of a mishap this morning getting up."
The boyish grin returned to Lupin's face. "Oh?" he said, seating himself on a newly cleaned armchair by the fireplace. "Well, I'm all packed – this is my last stop – so please – do elaborate. I've plenty of time."
Harry fought another blush but began to talk nonetheless. He didn't really mind telling Lupin – it was actually nice to be able to talk to someone who he hoped would understand.
"Do you want anything to drink?" he asked gesturing towards the kitchen.
"Maybe afterwards," Lupin replied, smiling at Harry's attempts to distract him. "Then you can give me the grand tour of the new Potter residence."
Harry puffed up his chest slightly; cleaning the house and fixing it up the way he wanted – you mean the way Emily wanted – had given him more than a little bit of pride in what they now called 'their' house.
"Well," he said, plopping into a squishy chair. "Em's not so good at waking up by herself in the morning."
Lupin raised an eyebrow at Harry's nickname for his housemate, but said nothing. "And so she asks me to wake her up in the morning."
"That's nice of you, Harry." Lupin observed.
"Yeah, well, she threatened to slip pineapple in my mouth otherwise, so it's not like I have a choice." He grumped, scowling at Lupin, who was laughing heartily.
"Yes, I heard about that." Lupin replied, his eyes sparkling.
"Hey!" Harry said, indignant. Lupin promptly apologized and calmed down, gesturing for Harry to continue.
"Well, she's really hard to get up, so I dumped cold water on her."
"And the rather spirited Miss Gould got you back?"
"Yeah," Harry said, grimacing as he remembered his rather unpleasant early morning dip. "Well guess what? We have a large pool full of icy cold water."
He glared at his former professor, who appeared to be desperately trying not to laugh. "That's not the point though." He insisted, the blush reappearing. "I got her soaked – completely, and her shi-"
Lupin coughed slightly. "Ah, I see the problem. Does she... know?"
"Well," Harry began, feeling rather disgruntled. "Seeing as I was staring rather obviously for a good five minutes and she was watching me staring before she caught on."
"Five minutes?" Lupin enquired, clearly amused.
"Yes." Harry stubbornly said. Well, you would've too, if you'd been there. You can't resist...that.
Lupin leveled a long, appraising stare at Harry, causing him to squirm awkwardly in his seat. "Uh, why don't I get you that drink and give you the tour now?" he said, rising to his feet.
The older man followed him into the kitchen. "Thanks, Harry, but I'm fine – I just ate before coming here. Molly insisted on stuffing me before I left. I wouldn't be too worried about Emily, Harry; she's bound to be embarrassed, of course, but I'm sure you'll work it out."
Yeah, sure, after weeks of awkward silence and avoiding each other, Harry thought, but merely nodded his head.
"So!" Lupin remarked. "I guess that was your living room, then?"
Harry grinned at him. "Yeah, it was." He gestured towards the yet to be cleaned dining room and porch. "We haven't got around to cleaning the dining room and porch – there's a table in the kitchen, so we really don't use those rooms. Uh, and down here is the pool."
Harry led his professor upstairs, pointing out their rooms as well as the light filled attic.
"You two have been working hard!" Lupin surveyed the roomy attic, clearly impressed.
"No, actually, this room was the only one that was clean from the start." Harry corrected him. "But we cleaned the kitchen, bathroom, living room and bedrooms."
"And you painted them, too." Lupin pointed out. "Well, it's good to see that you're keeping busy. So, this morning's incident aside, are you getting along well with...Emily? Dumbledore said she was a nice girl."
"Yeah, she's nice." Harry said, not trusting himself to elaborate at that particular moment in time.
"She's a muggle, right?"
"Yes, but she's telekittic or something like that." Harry grinned as he remembered his embarrassment the first day he'd met her when she'd cleaned her room abnormally fast. It soon faded as he remembered how she'd used it to dump him in the pool. Lupin raised an eyebrow.
"I was wondering how she'd put you in the pool – telekinetic, you say?"
"That's it." Harry confirmed.
"Interesting." Lupin sighed, and then clapped a hand on Harry's shoulder, a brave front on his face. "Well, I'm glad I got to see you Harry – hopefully I'll be back before you head off to school. I must be off now, though."
"It was good to see you too." Harry replied awkwardly. Lupin looked so sad at having to leave him there that he felt the need to reassure him. "I'm fine, really."
Lupin looked surprised for a second before a genuine smile broke out over his face. "You can't put anything past you, can you?"
"I dunno," Harry dully replied, staring at a black spot on the rough wooden floor. "Voldemort managed to pull the wool over my eyes, didn't he?" Emotions that he thought he'd dealt with came flooding back, guilt overwhelming him. Lupin seemed to sense this and enveloped him in a quick hug before pulling back to look Harry eye to eye. Harry was surprised and strangely relieved to find his emotions mirrored in Lupin's dull blue gaze.
"I think it's my fault, really." Lupin said wryly. Harry shook his head violently.
"No, no, if I hadn't been stupid enough to run off-"
"And if I hadn't been so weak that I couldn't stop Sirius from running off."
"If I had only used the mirrors-"
"If I'd only kept track of what Kreacher was doing.'
Harry stopped and stared at Lupin. "Are-we're- we're fighting over whose fault it is!"
Lupin laughed, his eyes still sad. "That, Harry, is exactly the point." He looked down at a watch before quickly straightening up. "Ah! I really do have to go now, Harry. If I don't see you, have a good term at school and enjoy the rest of your summer. Your pool looks quite refreshing."
"Not when you're dumped in it without any warning!" Harry joked, his heart feeling a little lighter as Lupin disapparated. His good mood continued throughout the day, even extending so far that Harry wrote lengthy letters to Ron, Hermione, and Ginny, for Mrs. Weasley to give them when he saw her later on.
Harry had just finished his letter to Hermione when he looked at the clock beside his bed that told him Emily should be arriving home soon. Turning back to his desk, he nearly dropped the letter in shock when he heard someone knock on his door. "C-come in!" he called, his voice more than a little shaky.
Emily came in, resolutely plopping down on Harry's bed the way she'd come to in the past couple of weeks, as if valiantly trying to ignore the fact that Harry had seen through her shirt that morning.
"Hey." She said, flipping her hair back out of her eyes. Harry felt sympathetic; he too, knew what it was like to have hair that refused to cooperate and lie back on command.
"Hullo," he responded, turning around in his chair so he faced her. "Good day at work?"
"Ugh." Emily snorted, waving her hands around dismissively. "I am never ever ever going to have kids. I'm going to be cool Aunt Emily, and spoil 'em rotten and then give them back at the end of the day. No way am I –ugh! Harry, seriously, I have a theory about all these summer activity things. The parents can't stand the kids themselves, so they send them off to some kind of activity – and so we get all the brats."
Harry smirked. "I thought you said they were cute."
Emily scowled at him. "I said they looked cute." She sighed. "There are some really sweet ones, though. Anyway, about this morning..."
Harry's head shot up - he'd expected Emily to avoid him and the subject like the plague, not act totally normal and then bring it up in normal conversation, like 'Oh, Harry, I read a good book today – yes and, remember when you saw through my shirt this morning?'
Emily noted Harry's rather obvious shock and continued. "Look, I don't mean about – you know what – and if you mention that to anyone don't even get me started on what I'll do to you, but honestly, something ridiculously embarrassing and awkward was bound to happen, but let's never bring that up again, okay?"
Harry nodded vigorously, feeling much relieved.
"I meant about dumping you in the pool – look, I overreacted, and I'm sorry."
Harry shrugged. When it came down to it, he really didn't mind so much – it was only to be expected after waking her up with cold water. "Not a problem." he smirked at her. "It was only fair, really."
Emily mock glared at his smirk before sighing and lying down, evidently enjoying the large body pillow Harry had rescued from the attic one day. "I love this pillow." She mumbled, her voice obscured by the material. She seemed to sense the skeptical look Harry was directing at her back as she quickly sat up again, smoothing her hair and looking more than a bit ruffled.
"Yes, yes, well, uh, anyways, I meant, that, um..."
"I was saying that it was only fair for you to dump me in the pool after I soaked you." Harry helpfully supplied.
"Oh, yes, well, no, I meant that I asked you to wake me up – oh bloody hell, so, yes, I'll probably be continually crabby in the mornings but I won't take it out on you anymore." Emily still seemed more than a little bit flustered, and Harry began to catch on that maybe she wasn't so unruffled by the whole affair as she appeared to be.
"Yeah, right," Harry replied, rumpling his hair.
"True, okay, so I'll try not to harm you. Too badly." She added, obviously feeling as if she should be honest. Harry quite appreciated her truthfulness, although he already knew that he should have run out of the room the moment the water hit her.
"So." Emily reclined on Harry's bed again, earning herself a rather wary look from Harry. Emily looked entirely too comfortable on the bed – his bed – for his liking. Harry had never really shared a living space with anyone other than the Dursleys or the boys at Hogwarts, (by which he meant Ron), and he wasn't quite sure if Emily should be so very at home in his room. Granted, it was also her house, but Harry felt that their – well, housemateship was moving a little too fast. But it's not like there's anyone else around to be all chummy with. And I can't spend all summer in my room. Harry reasoned, only vaguely registering that Emily's mouth was moving, and therefore she was presumably talking, but as she appeared to be holding the conversation up quite well by herself, there was no need for him to spoil it with an unnecessary comment. Suddenly a small voice piped up unbidden and very much unwelcome. But at the Dursleys you were perfectly happy to stay in your room all summer.
Harry started, then shook his head violently to rid it of any unwelcome visitors.
"No?" Emily said, confused. "But, - I thought you said that you liked – quidditch – right? Oh! Am I – yes, I'm saying it wrong, aren't I?"
"No, no," Harry hastily assured her. "You're saying it just fine."
Emily looked at him curiously, suspicion creeping across her features. "Harry," she began. "Were you listening to me at all? Even one little bit?"
Harry considered lying for a second but dropped the idea after realizing that Emily, who had some suspiciously Hermione-esque traits, would probably find out that he wasn't listening after all. Smiling sheepishly, he confessed. "Sorry," he said. "I just got caught up in something for a moment."
Emily glared at him for a couple of seconds before sighing and sitting up to look earnestly at him. "Harry, I'm about to let you in on a secret."
"Oh yeah?" Harry raised an eyebrow. I bet you anything even the smallest little piece of information about my life will blow your 'secret' out of the water.
"Harry, us girls," Emily patiently began, seeing the disbelief on Harry's face. "You know we sometimes get mad at you for not listening to us when we're talking."
Harry sat up straight. Now this was getting better. "But that's only because we're not really interested. Not that you're not interesting," he quickly tagged on at the thunderous expression on Emily's face. "Just that we're interested in different things."
Emily stopped just short of letting loose a verbal storm on Harry and instead eyed him thoughtfully. "Well, at least you're not a total loss."
"What?" Harry exclaimed.
"But honestly, Harry, don't ever, ever, ever tell a girl that you're not interested in what she's saying – even if you don't like her all that much."
"Why not?" Harry asked, curious, deciding to ignore Emily's insult of him. He was fully aware now that he was getting an insight to the female mind that Hermione never really had the patience to explain to him for more than a few seconds and was not about to ruin his good luck.
Emily sighed, obviously deciding against an alternate answer as she slowly spoke. "Well, she might be friends – or at least know a girl that you do like – and we do talk, you know."
"Ah," Harry said, nodding. "Well, that's a good reason, then."
"Anyway, as I was saying, so when you're listening to something that you really couldn't care about or even understand for that matter, you need to do three very important things."
Harry sat up even straighter, his attention held rapt by Emily's words. He only wondered if he should be writing this down. "What's that, then?"
Emily beamed at him. "Well, first, you need to identify if it's something that however boring, you really should listen to because it will contain really important clues like, what she wants for her birthday, or more important yet, when her birthday is."
Harry nodded. Emily made perfect sense – he'd had no idea when Hermione's birthday was for years and it was only through Ginny's help that he and Ron had even found out in time. "Also, you might want to listen if she's upset – you know, eyes glistening, or overly happy – you know, it might be some important moment in her life." Once again, Harry nodded, his look urging Emily to continue.
"Well, once you've done that, you either listen, or you don't. But if you don't listen, here's where the other two steps come into play. First, you've got to be an attentive ignorer. Have a general idea of where the conversation is going. At least look at the expression on her face, and the lilt of the voice – so you can tell when a question is coming and you won't have to worry about those horrible tell-tale silences that just scream you weren't listening."
"Right," Harry said, seriously. "So, first, to listen, or not to listen." Emily nodded encouragingly. "And then I have to at least fake listening properly – not just uh huhs now and then, but a little bit more involved."
"Yes!" Emily said, triumphantly. "That's exactly it Harry, a bit more effort, but..."
"It saves you such a row." Harry finished. "So, what's the third thing?"
"Well," Emily continued her lesson. "Now and then – especially if you have been doing a lot of fake listening lately – casually ask that person – or better yet, someone close to that person how they've been doing – you know, anything special, big, exciting, sad, life changing...just a bit of checking up, you know, to make sure you haven't been missing anything big."
"Oh," Harry looked thoughtful. "Oh, I see. Just, maybe, once a week or so, a catch up talk?"
Emily looked impressed. "Not a total loss at all! I'd love it if all my – well, male friends took the time to catch up with me on how I was doing every week! No, I was thinking more like every couple of weeks or so! See, Harry, its not a big deal, but we girls don't think you're stupid, even if it seems like we do, so we just get a little frustrated when you don't do something the way we want."
"All right," Harry said. "I can live with that. Can I tell Ron, or is this like some female supreme secret that you've just told me?"
Emily laughed and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. "Harry – I can't believe you guys don't know this stuff. It's so obvious! Yeah, sure, tell Ron – the world would be a better place if all you boys knew this." She grinned at Harry's outraged look before jumping off the bed and sauntering across to the door.
"I'm commandeering the bathroom for the next hour or so, just incase you want to use it."
"Nah, I'm fine." Harry said, knowing that he'd regret his decision when he had to get ready for bed and it would smell like Emily's favourite lavender shampoo.
"All right then. Night, Harry!"
"G'night, Em."
A/N: Any good? Don't like it at all? Review and let me know! (If you review there's another chapter that's already almost finished just waiting to be posted!)
-Laren