Disclaimer: (although I forgot this last time!) I really don't own any of this (except for Emily and anyone else you don't recognize) – and I'm certainly not making any money off of it!
A/N: I said if someone reviewed that you'd get another chapter and you did! Although yes, it has been awhile, but that's because I finally got my network card installed so I can actually go on the Internet. So, I'm sorry about the wait, but here's the next chapter!
On with the Story!
Chapter 5: Of Roses, Body Pillows and Items of a Personal Nature.
Harry removed his face from the pillow and looked around the room, his eyes blinking as he took in his surroundings. Something was not quite right. Okay, so I'm in my room, no surprise there – but...something...EM!!! His eyes widened in horror as he looked at the clock in his room, which, despite his shaking it up and down several times, continued to read a terrifying 7:45. Harry sat bolt upright before yelling at the top of his lungs as he lunged out of his bed towards the door at the foot of his bed.
"EMILY!! EM, GET UP! GET UP, EMILY, YOU'RE LATE!!!! EMILY!!!"
Not bothering to knock on the door Harry barged into the room, jumping onto Emily's bed as he simultaneously pulled the covers back. A very flustered and startled Emily took one look at the clock beside him and promptly began to hyperventilate.
"Harry!" she shrieked between gasps. "Harry, Harry, I'm... I'm..."
"You're LATE!" Harry yelled back at her. "Quick!! Bathroom! NOW!"
Emily nodded dumbly, but did not move, her newly awoken muscles not responding to her command. Harry pulled her off the bed with him and steered her towards the bathroom, shoving her in and closing the door behind her. He had just turned away when Emily stuck her head out the bathroom door. "Towel!" she commanded. Harry nodded and turned back towards her room when Emily called him back. "My clothes are laid out on the chair by my desk, and third drawer down on the left has underwear..."
"Underwear?" Harry's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. Emily looked right back at him.
"What's the big deal, really, just grab one and go, you can even close your eyes if you want, there's nothing but underwear in there..."
Harry gulped.
"Look, it's not like you haven't already seen way too much than is appropriate at all, so look, just get it...I'm LATE!"
Emily promptly slammed the door in Harry's very stunned face. He remained unmoving until he heard Emily's voice over the now running water. "I said, GO GET IT!!!"
Harry ran quickly to her room and fetched the required items in record speed, running back to the bathroom and depositing them inside with his eyes tightly closed so as to avoid more embarrassing morning encounters. He had just settled himself at the kitchen table with a glass of pumpkin juice after coming downstairs for breakfast when Emily jumped down the last few steps to grab a piece of toast off of Harry's plate and run out to the living room.
"Thanks, Harry!" she called. "See you in a bit!"
"Bye! – Oh and I'm going to... Em? Emily? Em?" He peered into the living room but Emily had already gone through the fireplace. Damn, she's fast, Harry thought as he turned and walked back to the kitchen. Ron, a chronic late riser and last minute person, would be vastly impressed.
Ambling contented along the hallway towards the bathroom after a rather satisfying breakfast, Harry found himself feeling considerably better due to his sleeping in. He was in such a good mood, in fact, that he didn't even notice the strong scent of lavender that usually assaulted him when he went in the bathroom after Emily. Wait a minute...I don't smell it at all...but... Harry sniffed the air. What's that? That's not her usual...hey, she got new shampoo!
True enough, there on the edge of the bath stood a brand new bottle of NEW! Essence Herbale Rose Temptations Shampoo for Dry/Damaged Hair alongside a matching bottle of conditioner. The conditioner's label was similar, except for the proclamation that it contained 'Ylang-ylang' and was guaranteed to provide the user with an intensely mind-blowing hair-washing experience. "Oh Yes!! Yes!" were the words coming out of the girl's mouth on a picture caption at the back of the bottle, her head thrown back in ecstasy. Harry raised an eyebrow before running a hand contemplatively through his own hair.
Well, he mused, Em's hair has been looking less...frizzy lately, and I guess I could do with a good wash... He continued to debate with himself for a few more seconds before pulling off his shirt and turning the water on. It's not like anyone will find out... he reasoned.
Harry's head snapped around as he heard the telltale 'whoosh!' signifying Emily's return. He'd been digging through some of the as yet unopened boxes in the attic when he realized that Emily would soon be home and proceeded to make his way downstairs to the living room. As he walked through the kitchen, he'd paused to look at his reflection in a pot on the stove. It is a bit shinier, Harry thought, desperately trying to smooth back an errant lock of his newly washed hair. And conditioned. He hadn't quite had the mind-blowing experience promised on the bottle, but it had been easier to comb his hair afterwards.
His attention, however, was quickly diverted away from his hair as Emily ran into the kitchen, eyes and nose red as she launched herself at him, her arms wrapping around his neck in a death grip that quickly threatened to cut off his air supply.
"Ha-ha-harry!" she sobbed into his shoulder. "Oh, Harry, I..."
Harry found himself being filled with alarm as Emily proceeded to soak his shirt. Emily had already burst into tears on him once, but he'd known what he'd done wrong that time. Now, however, she was just bawling away at the sight of him. Uh oh, his subconscious kicked in, that's what Cho did.
"Uh, look, Emily, I...uh...missed you too – it has been a long couple of hours, I guess."
Emily ceased sobbing long enough to look quizzically up at Harry, her face tear-streaked and eyes puffy. "Who said anything about you?" she asked him. Harry, feeling rather insulted, stiffened and began to pull away from her but Emily screwed up her face and choked out. "You didn't do anything – it was....him!!" and promptly burst back into tears. Harry, slowly beginning to understand the situation – he had a vague idea that someone had done something Emily really didn't like and that it was a member of the male species – awkwardly placed his arms around her, hoping that she'd laugh at him for doing so and stop crying or get angry at him and stop crying. Unfortunately, Emily only hugged him tighter and he heard a muffled "You're so nice, Harry" come from somewhere in his shoulder region.
"...Thanks..." Harry said, unsure as to whether or not she had just informed him that he had lice. Emily seemed to accept his thanks, so he decided that she had just complimented him after all.
"Uh, Em..." Harry tentatively began after a few minutes, during which Emily was showing small signs of somewhat beginning to calm down. "Look, Em, is there anything I can – uh – do? Get you?"
Emily raised her tearstained face, which Harry thought was dangerously close to his own, and sniffed tremulously. "Pillow?" she asked, her eyes wide and glistening. Harry was momentarily confused before he remembered Emily's deep love for his flannelette body pillow.
"Ah, yes, I'll be right back."
Harry very quickly ran upstairs and grabbed the rather large pillow off of his bed as well as a box of tissues from Emily's room before jumping down several stairs at once to land completely upside down on the kitchen floor, the wind knocked out of him. "Harry?" Emily's faint voice jolted him back to reality and he shot up and ran back into the living room, where Emily was sniffing away into a small armchair cushion.
"Here, Em." Harry held the pillow and tissues out to the crying girl, which she gratefully accepted. Soon she was installed on the big sofa with the large pillow and going through the tissues at an alarming rate.
"So," Harry reached out and lightly touched Emily on the shoulder in what he thought came somewhat close to a reassuring gesture. "What...uh...happened? I mean, if you want to tell me, I understand if you don't..."
Emily stopped sniffling long enough to look up and Harry and smile weakly at him. "Um...it's...such a girl thing, really...I should be happy it's over...wasn't going anywhere..."
Harry couldn't for the life of him begin to even remotely understand what Emily was going on about but carefully schooled his features into a look of supreme concern and sympathy, as she was obviously distraught. Emily, however, straightened up completely and peered suspiciously at Harry.
"Harry," she said, now looking rather concerned herself. "Harry, are you okay? You look like...you're in pain, or something." She reached a hand up to his forehead and felt him temperature before shaking her head. "Well, you don't have a fever. Weird. Are you alright?"
Harry blinked a couple of times. "Y-yeah." He stammered, now more confused than ever. He stared at her for a few more seconds before shaking his head and continuing. "No, Em, I'm fine – I was just – well you seemed upset about what happened..." he trailed off, indicating for Emily to go on.
Emily's face seemed to go from concerned to desperately upset in a matter of seconds. In less than a moment Emily was back at her tissues, crying again as Harry, still very perplexed, looked on feeling very useless. After a few minutes, Emily got up and Harry heard the water running upstairs. Soon she came back downstairs, her face clean and a good-sized stash of milk chocolate. Emily sat down in her original spot, saying nothing but offering Harry a piece, which he gratefully took – it gave him something to do while he waited for her to tell him what was going on.
"I dumped my boyfriend." She said suddenly, causing Harry to choke on his half-eaten piece of chocolate.
"Oh." He managed after a few seconds. Then, feeling rather stupid because he could think of nothing else to say, he added, "I didn't know you had a boyfriend." on. Emily nodded sadly.
"Well, now I don't."
Harry saw her eyes begin to water again and quickly told her to eat a piece of chocolate, which thankfully averted the near crisis. He watched her solemnly for a few more seconds before something clicked in his mind.
"Hang on," he said, his face brightening with the look of someone who has just discovered the answer to a very complex math problem. "If you dumped him, doesn't that make everything alright, then?"
This, however, turned out to be the worst thing he could possibly have said. Before he knew it Emily was fully on top of him, crying her heart out and re-soaking his shirt, which had only just dried. "No-noo." she mumbled, holding onto him tightly in despair. Harry decided he'd try the arm thing again and sure enough, Emily began to calm down as he awkwardly patted her back. "Harry?" Emily said quietly, the tears gone, but her eyes still looking horribly sad.
"Yeah?" Harry said, looking back at her. Emily was currently what could only be described as a mess. She'd cleaned her face before, but repeated sob episodes had taken their toll and her eyes were red and puffy, her lips turned down at the edges and her nose red and swollen from being blown repeatedly. All her frizzy curls were back in full force, a lot of them partially obscuring her blotchy face. Harry, much to his displeasure, had seen other girls cry, and they'd mostly just looked sad with tears streaming angelically down their faces. For the most part, they just annoyed him. Emily, however, made Harry feel upset, as if she was somehow transferring her emotions to him.
"I didn't want to dump him. We were together for...almost a year, now, and I thought it was going great...at least...I was so stupid! It's so obvious now...I don't know how I believed him...ugh, I'm so dumb." Emily buried her face in Harry's chest, but sounding more annoyed with herself than sad. Harry desperately fought an urge to squirm, rather aware of their position.
"You're not stupid, Em." he said, hoping that he'd got it right this time. The small smile that Emily gave him served to show that he had at least been on the right track.
"No? Look, I know you're just being nice. You see, Jared – that's his name-" Harry nodded. "Jared was cheating on me. Was for about six months now. Six months! I'm like, what, was I just not enough for him, so he had to go and top up with someone else. Why didn't he just break up with me, then, hunh? I mean, come on, that's just cruel, leading me on like that for ages while he has his fun with someone else! You know what, Harry, relationships suck. That's it. There's nothing else to it. I'm done with all of this stuff, Harry. I really can't be bothered."
Emily shook her head in disgust as she pushed herself off of Harry's chest. Harry tried to get up but found that Emily was still on his lap, making it too hard to get up from his lying-down position. "Em," Harry said, this time managing a consoling voice without Emily enquiring as to his health. "Em...uh...you know what? I'm sure she wasn't as pretty as you."
Emily gave Harry an I-know-you're-lying-cause-I-know-I-look-like-something-the-cat-dragged-in look before emitting a small snort of laughter. She looked at Harry again, obviously amused as she began to laugh fully, eventually doubling over as peals of laughter rang through the room.
Harry stared back at her, more confused than ever. Am I missing something? He thought, staring wide-eyed at the Emily's shaking figure. "Em?" he tentatively asked. Emily turned to him, eyes sparkling as she leaned down and jabbed her pointer finger into Harry's chest.
"Damn right I'm prettier!" she laughed again. "Sorry, I sort of left out a big part. Jared's...gay. He was cheating on me with another guy."
Harry was stunned into absolute silence. His mouth opened and closed a few times before he grinned cheekily at Emily and grabbed hold of her jabbing finger. "Your boyfriend is gay and you complain when he wants to date another guy? Come on, Em, be a bit more open-minded! Really, in this day and age-"
Emily stared down at Harry incredulously before indignation appeared all over her face. "You – you little – you – you – I didn't know he was gay! Harry! That was not funny! Oh, you are so..."
Emily reached underneath them and proceeded to attempt to smack Harry over the head with the body pillow, which turned out to be an absolute failure as it was caught underneath them. That failing, she immediately turned her attentions to the various cushions around the room and proceeded to bombard Harry, using them to chase him all the way towards the back of the house.
"Oh no you don't!" Harry bellowed, turning back at the doorway to the pool. "You promised!!" Unfortunately, Emily came barreling through after the flying cushions at full speed. Harry began to step back, holding back his hands as if to ward her off. "Em, Emily, slow down. Come on, Em, you can stop now! Em! EMILY-"
"AHHHHH!" Unfortunately for the two, Emily had misjudged her speed and slid across the tiles in her socks straight towards Harry, knocking then both over backwards right into the pool. Harry came up first, spluttering and coughing as he flayed around wildly. Suddenly his hand connected with something solid. A second later, Emily rose from the pool, rubbing her now sore head. "Owww." She looked accusingly at Harry. "Good going, Potter."
Harry rather ineffectively glared at her as he couldn't exactly see her properly without his glasses, which he'd managed to lose during their plunge. "Sorry," he said unmeaningfully. "Do you know where my glasses went?"
"Uh," Emily treaded water as she looked below her. Suddenly she squinted down at a spot before looking up at Harry. "Yeah, just a sec, I'll get 'em." She dove beneath the water's surface, coming back up after a few seconds with the glasses held tightly in one hand. Harry swum over to her and retrieved them from her outstretched hand and promptly put them on. Now that he was fully able to see her, he glared icily at her.
"Good going, G-Gold? Goldstein? No, it only had one syllable."
"Gould." Emily called back to Harry from the end of the pool. She grasped the edge and pulled herself out. "Ugh!" she exclaimed, going to the poolside cupboard and grabbing a towel. "At least I'm not wearing white this time."
Harry's head snapped up to look at Emily, but she had already wrapped the towel tightly around herself. Sighing, he swam over to the edge of the pool and hauled himself out and took the towel Emily was offering to him. "Now we're all wet."
"And starving." Emily added. "Are you as hungry as I am?"
"Oh, yeah." Harry emphatically agreed with her. "Come on, I just remembered. I made fajitas."
"You made what?" Emily stared incredulously at him.
"Fajitas." Harry said more than a little defensively. "They were the only healthy food that Dudley would eat."
Emily laughed and shook her head. "Alright, then, don't get upset."
"I'm not upset." Harry huffed. "Why would you think that?"
"Forget it," Emily giggled. "Let's just go and eat."
Albus Dumbledore stepped out of the flames in the striped blue wallpapered living room to hear laughter and voices coming from the beyond the hallway. Well, that's good, he thought. Nice to hear that they're getting along.
He strode out of the living room into the hallway and made his way to the brightly lit kitchen. He had just opened his mouth to wish the teenagers a pleasant 'good afternoon' when he caught sight of them. Sitting opposite from each other at the kitchen table were a still very wet Harry and Emily, their towels trailing beneath them, absolutely stuffing their mouths with food in what appeared to be some kind of a race. Between them was a large pile of rapidly diminishing fajitas? that they were grabbing from every two seconds. As they got to the final ones, food was flying everywhere and laughter could be heard in between the sounds of eating. Harry had just grabbed hold of the final fajita when Emily looked shocked and cried out. "Oh my god, Harry, look! Pineapple!!"
"What?" Harry said, his hand stopping. Emily, however, seized the opportunity to snatch the fajita out of Harry's hands and promptly stuff half of it in her own mouth. "Hey!!" Harry cried. "Oh, that's just low!!"
Emily, finishing it off in a couple of more bites just sat back in her chair, shook her wet hair at him and simply grinned. "I had a very rough day. My boyfriend was actually gay and cheating on me. I deserved to win." Oh dear, Dumbledore mused sympathetically, the poor girl.
Harry glared at her before his gaze softened and he too sat back in his chair. "You alright?"
Emily looked gratefully at Harry, smiling slightly. "Yeah, I'll be fine. I still feel pretty...used, I guess."
"I can understand that." Harry sympathized with her. "If it makes you feel better, I'm pretty crummy when it comes to relationships myself."
"Really?" Emily looked interestedly at Harry. "You're a really nice guy, though."
"Not really." Harry said, blushing under her praise. "I've got a bad temper. And I sulk a lot."
Emily snorted. "Shut up." She said lazily. "Who's put up with me all summer, then? Some Harry Potter impersonator? I don't think so."
"You are quite right, Miss Gould," Dumbledore said, stepping forward. Emily gave a startled gasp and Harry looked distinctly annoyed.
"Hello, sir." He said, with an undertone of you-just-interrupted-a-private-moment-that-I-was-really-enjoying that Dumbledore did not fail to miss.
"Hi, Mr. Dumbledore." Emily said politely, having recovered from her surprise. "Sorry about all the mess."
"Not at all, my dear, I'm quite sorry for interrupting your conversation."
"No problemo." Emily smiled pleasantly at the old man. Harry, on the other hand, was feeling no such love for his headmaster. Dumbledore, however, seemed to be valiantly ignoring this fact and smiled benevolently at the two of them, his eyes twinkling madly.
"Well, I am glad to see the two of you enjoying yourselves, but Harry, I do believe it is time for us to be moving along."
Harry groaned inwardly before getting up to join Dumbledore. He hated the weekly trips to Grimmauld Place. Everyone there was so...nice, but in a smothering, stifling kind of way. They still barely told him a thing, with the exception of Dumbledore, and Harry had the strong feeling that he was still censoring what he said. Most of all, the dark, damp house reminded him of Sirius at every turn and corner. Looking helplessly around the kitchen, Harry desperately sought an excuse not to have to go.
"Uh, Professor, sir, if it can wait a bit...Em and I made a bit of a mess here." He stammered, trying to catch Emily's attention.
"Oh! Yes!" Emily picked up, much to Harry's relief. "In fact, it's actually Harry's day to cook and clean – I did all the work yesterday."
Much to Harry's annoyance, Dumbledore merely smiled at them. "An admirable plan to keep the peace, I must say, but perhaps the mess could wait until Harry returns? I shan't keep him long, my dear."
Harry's face fell and Emily's mirrored his emotions. Dumbledore looked concerned and pulled out his wand. "If it is such a problem, then, well, Scourgify!" Suddenly everything was back in its proper place and Harry was forced to concede defeat.
"Oh, uh, well, thank you, Professor." Harry said, his voice rather dull. Dumbledore told him that he was quite welcome and bade Emily goodbye before turning to Harry. Emily gave Harry a sympathetic face from behind Dumbledore as Harry too turned and walked out of the room. As he walked into the living room he could hear the sounds of Emily's music turning on upstairs and wished he were there with her, carrying on their usual banter instead of going to the very place he did not want to go. Living with Emily was turning out to be far better than Harry had ever expected, but he couldn't escape the awful feeling of being caged. He glumly walked into the fireplace, well aware that he would actually have chosen to live with Emily if he'd known her they way he now did. But I didn't even get to choose, he thought miserably. For once, just for once, all I would like is to make my own choices.
A/N: You like? You no like? Will they ever actually get together or am I just playing with you all? Review and let me know!
-Laren