(Harry)
"Get up pup."
Sirius was glaring at me. Even with my parents experience, Sirius and Remus could still get the upper hand on me. The two of them were very skilled, though Sirius took a week to get used to dueling again. I thoroughly enjoyed my training with Sirius and Remus, though they still beat me nine times out of ten.
We had been training for the past month, and I was getting used to not doing all the chores in the summer. I had come down stairs early one morning and started cooking breakfast, as I was used to, when Dobby showed up and asked what I was doing. I explained that I was making breakfast, to which Dobby started fretting. At first I defended myself saying I was a good cook, but it turned out that Dobby was upset because it was his place to make sure I was taken care of.
I told Dobby that I was used to making breakfast and had started on habit. This calmed Dobby a little, but he wanted to take over the cooking. I agreed and asked if he had found other house elves that could use better homes, to which he replied, "some free house elves would like to work for Harry Potter, but Dobby not know of any that need help."
"You going to lie there all day cub or are we going to continue?" Looking at Remus brought me back to the present. We were now practicing how to use apparition in dueling. In this I could hold my own. While Remus and Sirius had to try and not hit each other, I simply aimed at anything that moved.
At the end of three hours we all conjured chairs to sit in. I had begun to use the ring I had gotten in the summer last year. I could now cast two separate spells at once. I was still refining my aim, but I made a fierce opponent. Remus and Sirius gave a clinical summary of my various failings, which mostly consisted of refining my quick apparition so that I stayed on the ground.
We went down for lunch that Dobby had sat out for us. We chatted about various things, mostly about what plans had been setup for Remus, Sirius, and my trip to the World Cup. Sirius and Remus had begun showing me how to apparate using various methods: line of sight, place recognition, and coordinate based. Thanks to my parents knowledge, it took little refinement for me to reach a fairly high level. We had gone and gotten me a license so I could apparate with them to the game.
It had been fun watching the faces of the workers when I showed up. They argued that I was underage, but my emancipation allowed me full adult rights. While my inheritance hinged on my completion of school, nothing else was restrained. I passed with flying colors.
Hermione had written, apparently Hedwig knew when she wanted to send me a letter, a couple of times. She had said that she hoped we would be joining the Weasleys at the world cup and gave constant updates on various things she was studying.
Ron used his new owl Pig, which he got from Sirius because of Peter. It was still the same ball of fluff that it had been the last time. Ron was mostly talking about the teams that had made it to the finals. Apparently the entire Weasley clan was firm supporters of the Irish team since England's team was out.
I sent a couple back and forth to them from time to time, which made Hedwig very happy. Hedwig preened her self a lot when she delivered a letter, since it was basically to Hermione and back. I got a sneaky suspicion that Hedwig knew how important Hermione was to me.
My birthday crept up on me, which made me thankful I placed detection wards on my room. Early that morning Sirius had apparated in and tried to pour a bucket of ice water on me. When my alarm had been tripped, I apparated out of bed and across the room. I glared at Sirius while he just laughed.
"It seems that your reflexes have improved cub." Remus walked in smiling. I had asked why Remus called me cub, he said that each of them had their little nickname for me. Remus called me cub, Sirius called me pup.
I stared at them a minute before asking, "what are waking me up so early for? Practice doesn't start for two hours." They both looked stunned for a moment before I cracked up laughing. Realizing they had been had, they both launched at me, which prompted me to dodge out of the way. Ten minutes later found me downstairs with a large plate of food in front of me. I quickly began eating as we discussed plans for the morning.
Apparently Sirius was unhappy with my wardrobe so he decided that I needed to get a lot of robes and muggle clothes. No matter my protest that I was fine in the clothes department, Sirius wouldn't have it. Remus laughed at my predicament until Sirius said the same went for him as well.
Remus argued that he was fine, which prompted a laugh from everyone but Remus. We would be spending a great deal of time in Diagon Alley picking out clothes. When we arrived in Diagon Alley we immediately went to Gringotts. Sirius walked up to a teller and said, "I would like to make a withdrawal," and handed his key over. The Goblin inspected it and waved another goblin over to take us down.
Once we got there I asked the goblin who I vaguely remembered, "how do I contact the executor of my accounts that aren't under my control?"
The Goblin thought for a moment and said, "you would simply ask to speak with him."
"Can I appoint a particular individual to that position?" The goblin nodded. "Thank you Griphook."
The goblin acted surprised. I guess not many wizards remember individual goblins. Once above ground I appointed Griphook to the position, as it was soon to be emptied as the former was a very old age. Once we left Gringotts Remus asked me, "why that particular goblin?"
I shrugged, "why not? Besides he was the very first goblin I knew their name and he came and provided a way for me not to have to go back to the Dursleys." Sirius and Remus nodded and we began clothes shopping.
At first Remus and I thought it would be three hours tops to get all the robes and muggle clothing, until we realized that Sirius was not going to settle for seven comfortable robes and seven complete sets of muggle clothing. We spent three hours just on robes, and we were both going at the same time.
I caught a smirk from Sirius to Remus that gave me the idea that this was on purpose. I had no clue as to why the sudden need to get clothing, until I thought about it being my birthday. They couldn't possibly be planning a surprise party could they? I kept a watch to see if I could tell but I couldn't.
Once we had Dobby take our purchases home, we went out into muggle London and spent the next three hours going to various stores buying clothes. We all had a good laugh at this side of Sirius, as he was overacting a lot. Finally we returned home.
Sirius sent me upstairs to drop off my packages and then come down to supper. Once I dumped them in a pile I used a quick spell to put everything in its place. Heading downstairs I walked quietly to the kitchen where we usually ate. I opened the door with my wand out ready in case something happened.
Next thing anyone knew I was no longer there, I apparated to the back of the room. Everyone, save Sirius and Remus, wondered where I went. I caught Remus and Sirius's eye and we all began to crack up.
Hermione whirled around saying, "its not funny where did he," she saw me standing right next to Remus. The three of us started howling at the expressions on everyone's face. Everyone now noticed that I was here and said happy birthday.
I looked to see all of who were here. Hermione, Dobby, the Weasleys minus Percy, and Tonks.
There were a lot of questions about how I did that and I simply shrugged my shoulders, if they didn't need to know then I wasn't going to tell them. Mrs. Weasley had cook a very large cake of dark chocolate with me name and 'happy 14th birthday' on it.
The twins were rather loud and boisterous , thankfully taking the attention off of me. Everyone was laughing and enjoying themselves, though I couldn't shake a feeling of dread. Everyone watched me open my presents.
Remus gave me a book on the enchantments on brooms and other things. Tonks, who was introduced earlier in the summer, got me a book on enchantments used in duels. Mrs. Weasley gave a dark look when I opened it but said nothing. The Weasleys got me a collection of various candies. Sirius gave me a piece of blank parchment with the note: For the benefit of the next generation, for mischief is their gift. I smirk at Sirius, I had a good clue what it was, and it wasn't a map.
Hermione's was the last gift I opened. It was Curses and Counter-curses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and Much, Much More), which caused me to start laughing. After several minutes in which I was given odd looks, I explained that it was the first book I wanted to buy that had nothing to do with school.
After eating the cake, showed everyone around ending with my room. It had been Sirius's room when he grew up, but he said that he had bad memories about the room. Hermione and Ron joined me as I put my things away. Ron asked, "why did Sirius give you a blank piece of parchment?"
I shrugged, for some reason I didn't want to say why. We sat and talked for awhile. Eventually we started to talk about the Quidditch World Cup. Ron's dad had gotten enough tickets for the family, but not enough for anyone else. I noticed that Hermione seemed sad about this until I said Sirius had an extra one. I had actually told him to get a few extra incase we wanted to bring other people. He had gotten three extra and had already given one to Tonks.
Hermione asked, "who was that woman who gave you that dueling book?"
I smiled, "That's Sirius' cousin Tonks."
"What's her last name?"
"Tonks."
Ron looked puzzled, "Then what's her first name?"
I laughed, "Nymphadora, but if you don't want to be hexed to oblivion then call her Tonks."
We sat around not do much else but enjoying the company. I noticed that Ron was sprawled in my only chair and Hermione was sitting very close to me. The reason I noticed this was that Hermione had just laid her head on my shoulder. Not looking at her, I watched Ron's eyes darken. I mentally started cursing. Come on! She was just leaning on my shoulder.
I realized we never talked about girls. Even when we were with the rest of the guys, it was always someone else that did the talking. It was almost an unspoken agreement not to discuss Hermione and our feelings for her, looks like this next year will be hell.
Ron and I talked about various things, avoiding the topic that was running through both of our minds. A couple hours later Ron had to leave. Hermione had gotten permission to stay over, to Ron's dismay.
After Ron left, I showed Hermione her room. I had decorated it with her in mind. When she walked around I felt nervous as she looked at everything. "Do you like it," I asked.
She turned to me with a huge smile, "I love it!"
I smiled back relieved. "It's similar to what my dad did for my mom." She looked surprised. "Sirius and Remus told me," I said as an explanation.
"Thank you." We stood looking at each other for awhile till Remus said that supper was ready. Once we entered we sat down and ate a wonderful meal that Dobby made. Hermione talked to Remus about some charm she was studying while I talked to Sirius.
"So is there anything between you," he asked softly.
I shook my head, "it's complicated." He motioned for me to continue. "I really care for her, but I think Ron has a thing for her."
He nodded sadly, "that's hard. I know that James and I had that problem once. It wasn't over your mother but a girl we both liked. Because we both knew the other liked her, we waited for the other to go for it. Unfortunately we never gave the other a clear go ahead."
"What happened?"
He hung his head. "She fell for someone else. Unfortunately that happens when you wait to long." He forced a smile, "don't wait for Ron to make a move, take the chance that she might reject you. I know the two of you are friends and you don't want to lose that, but you will strain your friendship by trying to not tell her. At the very least you can be honest with her."
I nodded silently, Sirius had given me a lot to think about. I watched Hermione's eyes light up when Remus explained something new to her. I remembered how Victor Krum had come to me and asked if there was anything between the two of us and how I said no. I hadn't thought much about it then, but wanted Hermione to be happy, which dictated my answer.
Then I thought about Cho Chang. It always struck me as odd that she was my first crush. I realize that it was because she had seemed so nice. She was jealous of Hermione. When I thought about it, it made sense. I was always around Hermione and Ron, we were very close as friends, Cho must have been afraid that Hermione would take me away from her.
After supper I showed Hermione the library where she walked around for hours, leaving me to my thoughts.
(Hermione)
I had noticed Ron's eyes darken when I laid my head on Harry's shoulder, I wonder why? They both were acting odd, like they wanted to talk about something but absolutely refused to. I've slowly realized that Harry acts differently around me now, it's much more relaxed.
While I wandered the library, I noticed that Harry was lost in his thoughts. I figured that he was thinking about that girl that had attracted his attention. Thinking about this girl that he was so wrapped up about made me mad, though I can't for the life of me think of why.
Ever since I first saw him, I could just tell that there was something different about him. After the troll I realized what, he was somehow nobler than anyone I knew.
When the past year started, I felt as if something in him had shifted, and it got more pronounce as time went on. I found it interesting that he suddenly appeared in my Ancient Runes class when I knew that he had registered for Divination. He told me he switched that summer.
When had gone missing, I felt a great feeling of dread that he was hurt. When we found him I felt like I could pass out from relief. I was realizing that I had feelings for him, more than just being friends.
This was ridiculous! I knew that he had his eye on a girl that he realized he liked. I knew that it most likely was someone in Gryffindor, as he hadn't had much contact with the other houses, unless you count Slytherin.
I walked out of sight of him as I felt tears in my eyes. I had done the dumbest thing in the world, I fell for my best friend.
A/n: 2756 words. Things will pick up soon. A little dense aren't they? I want things to come to a head soon, but the tension is not to the right level yet.
Questions:
Athenakitty: naw, don't know, definitely.
Maxennce: you are kidding right? Please tell me you were joking, I was being obvious.
C. Rose: Easy, he lived with the Malfoys. Do you really think that Dobby would let him?
Things to Remember:
Ron's look. It will play out through out the year, but not in the way you might think.