A/N: I've been neglecting this sort of… and I'm trying to make my chapters a little more interesting… so it might take just that little bit longer to make 'em good. At least I hope they turn out good anyway. =/ Lily Dwarf, thanks, I wasn't sure whether or not to put in the kiss, but now I'm sort of stuck in what to do… but thanks! WOOHOO! I've been given a JKR comparison! =)

Chapter 10:

Harry and Miranda had been sleeping at various places, not wanting to go to a hotel or anything to attract attention.

"THIS bench looks more comfortable!" argued Miranda.

Harry seemed defiant about having the park bench near the light. Warmer or something. Harry shook his head. "It's too out in the open!"

"Oh, and you're light bench isn't," she retorted.

Harry sighed. "Ok, fine."

Miranda gave him a triumphant smile, trying to rub it in. For the past few nights she had successfully manipulated harry into agreeing to everything she said. "So… what's up for tonight?"

They had been spending the last couple of days walking around London, after their decision NOT to leave the country. They realised that there were quite a lot of people like them, kids who had run away from home for various reasons. Most were quite happy to let them share a cosy spot, but only for a night. They had had no luck tonight in finding a charitable friend.

In response to Miranda's question, Harry shrugged. "I don't know. You want to… um… talk?"

Miranda sat still on the bench. "You never tell me anything, so… I thought that you would have told me a LITTLE bit about you by now…"

Harry thought about this. He still wasn't sure if he could trust her yet, or whether he would be putting her in danger. He had been watching his back ever since he set out on this 'adventure', even more so now that he had to look after Miranda. He didn't give her a reply, just sat, silent, looking at his hands.

Miranda took his silence as a 'no'. She sighed, slightly annoyed. "Ok, no matter how much you don't tell me, I think I'll just end up speaking for the both of us. I don't like to keep things to myself. I need to talk about them. Usually, I would be talking to my best friend, Angie, but she's not exactly here right now. You know, she's probably the only reason why I DIDN'T want to leave, but I knew I had to."

Miranda continued her rambling, while Harry nodded occasionally, immersed in his own thoughts.

Ron and Hermione should be back at Hogwarts by now. Even if they don't tell anyone, it's going to be quite obvious that I'm not there. I wonder how Ginny is…

Stop thinking about her! You've got Miranda now!

Yeah, and I can't even trust her!

Harry shook his head, clearing his conversation with himself.

Miranda stopped and looked over at him. She gave him a quizzical look. "You ok?"

Harry nodded, a smile plastered on his face.

She accepted this, and went back to talking about her best friend, Angie.

Going back to his own thoughts, Harry pictured Ginny in his mind. No matter what happened with Miranda, who wasn't really the type of girl he's usually go for, he would always love Ginny. The first the thing that came into his mind was her long mane of fiery red hair. He imagined his hands-

Stop it, you perve!

No matter how much he loved her, he could never forget that Ginny was his best friend's sister, which made her something of a sister to him too. And, although he didn't have a REAL sister of his own, he knew that it wasn't right to love your sister in the way that he loved Ginny. Not to mention the fact that Ron would probably do something painful to Harry if he ever found out.

Harry tried to concentrate on what Miranda was saying, wanting to at least give her the courtesy of SOME input into the conversation.

"-and she's always so bossy. She's so smart and doesn't understand that everyone else isn't as smart as her! What I find so frustrating, is that when she gets stressed, she ALWAYS gets angry at me! I mean, I haven't done anything to her for her to get angry at me, but apparently my just being there is enough to drive her crazy! Now you understand what I've been going through?"

Harry nodded, her description reminding him of someone… "This is your sister, right?" he asked weakly.

Miranda threw her hands up in the air. "YES! I've only been going on about Janey for the past ten minutes!"

Harry let out a sigh of relief. It's not Hermione. It's Miranda's sister, Janey. "Sorry, I guess I sort of drifted off."

Miranda snorted. "You do it all the time. You want to know about me, I tell you, but you don't seem to want to know once I do." She shrugged. "Well, it's your loss. I'm not repeating ANY of it."

Harry rolled his eyes and yawned. "It's getting late. We really should get some rest, if we want to go and find John Smith tomorrow." Harry grinned, as he referred to the friend that they had found on their first name, who has used the somewhat familiar alias.

Miranda laughed. "Yeah, ok."

As they lay on the bench, their heads touching, Harry reached inside his bag for his Invisibility Cloak. He muttered a spell over it, so that Miranda wouldn't wake up and find that half her body had disappeared, and another spell, so that she wouldn't feel the cold. He handed it to her, saying, "Here's the blanket."

She grasped the edge of it, and pulled it over her, muttering something as she slipped into sleep.

Harry knew that he would probably freeze, but he didn't think he could go to sleep anyway. He took his jacket off, making it a blanket, thinking that it would feel warmer like that.

As he lay on the bench, he thought about what had happened so far. It had all started out as a big adventure, but he knew he would have to do something soon. He hadn't been feeling any pain in his scar, which was both a good and bad thing; good because he had no idea how he was supposed to explain to Miranda if he blacked out, bad because he liked knowing what Voldemort was thinking. Maybe if I just try Legilimency… he thought. No, he couldn't do that now. If anything happened, he wouldn't know how to explain anything to Miranda, just a lost Muggle girl.

Forcing all thoughts of Voldemort and his 'old' life, Harry slowly drifted off to sleep, no matter what he had thought about sleep that night. Ginny's smiling face appeared in his mind, and he smiled, not knowing that he would wake up like that the next morning.

A/N: There you go! =) Chapter 10 all done. Hope it satisfies your non-existent desire to read my fic! =) inandout