"Sera."
Harry thought he was in a dream. Or looking at a picture from the wizarding world. There was his friend, standing right across from him, with the trees behind her and the sun shining down on her bright blonde hair. Harry could still see the brightness and purity in her eyes, after all those years. At sixteen, she still had an angelic way about her. She wasn't smiling, though. Her hands covered that part of her face.
"Harry?" she said in disbelief.
Harry smiled in approval and nodded. He expected her to run over to him and give him a big hug like she did on his ninth birthday, but it was nothing like that at all. Her eyebrows furrowed in confusion and she stomped, rather than ran, over to him.
"Where in the world have you been!" she screeched.
Harry was completely taken aback. He was about to say something back, or try to, when she started up again.
"How could you forget about this place? About me?" she said, with a bit of difficulty, "I've been waiting her for five whole years, hoping you would come back! I don't understand how you could just leave me here all this time!"
Tears were forming in her eyes.
"Trust me," he said quietly, "I have a very, very good reason."
She raised her eyebrows in reply, as if to say, "I'm listening."
Harry took a deep breath, and started the whole long story. From his eleventh birthday, to Hogwarts, to Ron and Hermione, Voldemort, his encounters, and everything in between. Normally, Harry would never tell any muggle about his secret world, but Sera had a right to know. She was also his best friend.
Sera's expression didn't change. Every now and then, her raised eyebrows would quiver, but her mouth remained open, making it possible for any insect that wanted to, to just fly right in.
"And so every summer, I come back to the Dursley's house, or go over to Ron's or Grimmauld Place," Harry finished.
"I see," Sera said, her expression now changing to plain, obviously uncomfortable with this information, "So your excuse is that you discovered a whole new world? A magical one?"
Harry realized he wouldn't get off so easily with just his word.
"You don't believe me?" he asked.
Sera only had to give him one look to know that she didn't believe him, so of course, he pulled out his wand.
"I want you to know, it is illegal to do magic in front of muggles, but I might be able to get by with something small, since you already know about the wizarding world, anyway," Harry explained.
"Muggles?" Sera asked.
"Non-magic folk," Harry replied.
He pointed his wand at the lake, and circled it around a few times, until the lake was in a huge whirlpool.
Sera stared at the lake in shock. She tried to think of an explanation for this magic, but nothing came to mind.
"Believe me now?" Harry said, a smile creeping up his face.
His friend just stood there silently, still staring at the lake with an emptiness in her eyes that Harry had never seen before. Tears began to fall out of the blue.
Harry's smile quickly faded.
"Who are you?" Sera asked shakily, and looked at Harry with a blank, unfamiliar face.
"I'm Harry Potter," he said, beginning to feel worried as well, "Your old best friend."
"No," she said, shaking her head and stepping toward the path, "no, your not."
At that, she ran out of their secret place without a word more. Harry sunk to the grassy floor. The only sound was the birds chirping and her voice still ringing in his ears, after he stopped the whirlpool with his wand. He sat there for hours, staring at his tree. He saw the spot where he and Sera carved "HP + SF Friends Forever" in a heart. That was the day elementary school ended. He stared at it for four hours.
When the moon began to shine overhead, he stood up and walked home, beginning to cry himself.