Chapter 7 – Summer of 69
Harry sat at the table in the dining room, lapping up the atmosphere of total calm. It was the night before Hogwarts. The fire was roaring making the room warm and sleepy; Hermione was reading beside the fire, one hand was absent-mindedly stroking Crookshanks who was stretched out beside her. Ron was admiring the Chudley Cannons annual that his mother had bought him to congratulate her son for such wonderful results. Lupin was pouring his attention into a document of some sort and Chris and Harry were lounging about, beside each other.
"Jen's been chirpier than usual," Harry muttered to Chris, his head lolling back in the chair.
"I wouldn't say chirpier," Lee frowned, "She still doesn't want to go to Hogwarts, but she's kind of come round to the idea…but whether she accepts it or not she's still going to be a hellraiser." Harry chuckled, Chris paused to think for a moment, "But don't think you can join in her mischief, I'll be there to keep an eye on you."
"What?" Harry and Ron looked up at him. Lupin muttered from the table,
"Chris is your new Defence Against the Dark Arts tutor."
"You are?" Harry asked. Chris nodded, modestly,
"Yeah…that's probably why Jen lightened up about the whole Hogwarts thing, the fact that I'll be there too…"
"Where is Jen, anyway?" Lupin asked, looking up from his work.
"I'm guessing in her room," Chris answered, "she's probably packing."
"Hmm…" Lupin thought for a moment, "She hasn't had anything to eat tonight…would someone go up to see her?"
"I'll go," Harry said, jumping in before Chris could go up. Harry left the room, trying to understand why he had been so jealous of Chris when it developed that he was the reason Jen was so happy about going to Hogwarts.
Harry climbed the staircase. He had never been up to Jen's room; he knew vaguely where it was. And when he reached it he was in no doubt that he had found it.
Hermione's room was beside it, the door a plain, finished mahogany. The door beside it was laden with posters of Muggle rock bands, Harry recognised from the snippets of Muggle television that he had managed to catch at the Dursleys'. There were pictures of the tv show, 'Buffy' and mixed in were smaller posters of Aragorn and Boromir from 'Lord of the Rings.' From the other side of the door, Harry could hear the music pounding through.
'Standing on your mother's porch, you told me you would wait forever…' Mixed in with the sound of Bryan Adams, he could hear Jen singing.
He was about to tap lightly when he saw a note scrawled across the space above the door handle, in red marker, 'HA HA HERMONANNOYINGLY!' Harry chuckled at the play on his friend's name and then took note of the laminated certificate above the door handle,
'Awarding Jennifer Miranda…' her surname had been scratched off, for some reason. 'the GCSE grades of…
History: A (star)
Religious Studies: A (star)
Biology/Chemistry/Physics: A (star)/s
Art: A (star)
Music: A (star)
English Language/Literature: A (star)/s
Classics (Latin/Greek language and literature): A (star)
Mathematics: A'
Harry looked at the grades in a mixture of awe and disbelief, then understood why she had chosen to rub Hermione's face in them. He doubted even Hermione could become fluent in Latin and Greek in just a two year course. Then there were the science grades with three A (stars), in fact it was all impressive, her only slight failing being mathematics, though Jen had muttered before how she hated basic addition and subtraction…in fact maths in general. Her profile was nothing short of spectacular and it was only the change of song within that snapped Harry out of his little world.
Harry listened to Jen singing for a moment, he had to admit she was a very good singer with a powerful voice. He was getting lost in the song when it stopped rather abruptly and the room was filled with low muttering. One voice was Jen's the other was a low, male voice that sounded vaguely familiar.
Jen's voice grew louder and more and more frustrated. Harry leaned against the door,
"Just get out of my life!" Jen shouted. Harry's heart soared, the voice that responded sounded like Chris'. 'Is it over?' he thought, then a loud laugh caused him to look down, Chris was still in the dining room, eating with the others, 'Dammit…who is it then?'
"Why don't you just leave me alone?" Jen murmured, somewhat quieter than the yelling, but still audible. There was a loud bang within and Harry thought this the opportune moment to enter the room.
Jen was standing at the fireplace, green flames were roaring wildly within and Harry caught a glimpse of black hair disappearing into the fire. She spun around when she heard the door open, "What?" she yelled, then immediately softened, a smile breaking across her face, "Oh, hi Harry."
She gestured for Harry to sit, which he did, cautiously upon the end of the bed, looking around the room. It seemed like an odd combination, a cross between a boudoir and a mosh pit. The walls were an elegant pink, with silks draping around the room, silver Feng Shui symbols lined the upper walls with a faint smell of incense or scented candles lingering in the air. Over the elegance of the walls were black metal posters mixed in with the classics, Queen and Guns 'N' Roses.
"What do you think?" Jen asked, taking a seat on a plush armchair. Harry studied the posers,
"It's great," he said, grinning sheepishly, then he paused at one of the posters, "Hmm, A Hundred Reasons?" he asked, looking at the nearest posters.
"Yeah, I never liked them much either," Jen smiled, throwing a fireball at the poster and laughing in a falsely maniacally way as it burned.
The poster burning so close to him and the subtly psychotic gleam in Jen's eyes forced Harry to throw himself from the bed.
"Oh Harry, please, it's only a little fireball," Jen said, glamorously.
"How do you do that?" Harry exclaimed, watching the poster's remnants burn into nothingness. Jen smiled and almost winked at him,
"Oh, that's nothing," she smirked, rising she held out both hands before her and allowed a fireball to appear floating slightly above both, merging into one then separating then manipulated into different shapes as it moved above her hands. "And Ka Boom," Jen smiled, watching the fire explode in her hands sending glowing embers floating to the ground.
Harry lowered himself to the bed, once more slightly wary when Jen sat beside him. "I'm a sorceress," Jen told him, her voice taking a serious tone for a moment. "Well…half a sorceress, my mother was one, my father was not," she said, a tone of hatred creeping into her words, "anyway, my mother was a sorceress, you know a woman who could perform magic naturally, or control the elements or something. You get bad ones and good ones, the bad ones are usually in that book," she said, casting a hand over to the book she had bought in Diagon Alley, "Unfortunately for me, my mother was one of the nicest sorceresses around so I had to be good too…meaning I can never be selfish or use my power for selfish gain, but I'm sure they'll excuse me if I use them for world domination mwah ha ha ha."
Harry laughed with her and then they sank into an easy silence. "So where is your mother now?" he asked.
"Dead," Jen said, bluntly. Harry looked at her, regretting his words, "I was a baby, Voldemort took to killing her personally just to get at granddad…amongst other reasons. So she tried to save me, she could manipulate ice so she froze the door and the front of the house, but it didn't matter, he got in and killed her. Probably would have killed me too, but Granddad turned up and went a little mad at the sight of seeing his daughter dead and threw everything he had at Voldemort until he buggered off and went to kill your parents…funny old world isn't it?" Harry was struck dumb in silence, staring at her amazed at the similarities between them both.
"And your father?" Harry asked.
"Let us not speak of such evil people," she said, "I don't get on with my father…in fact I don't get on with him at all." She shook it off and turned to Harry, who had returned to looking around the room, his heart stopped when he saw a photo of Sirius and Jen on the wall. Jen followed his gaze to the wall and stopped when she saw the picture, "Oh," she muttered, rising and picking the picture from the wall returning to her place with it. She held it between herself and Harry and they both looked down at it, Harry with an expression of pained sadness and Jen with a fond affectionate gaze.
"It was taken just last year," she smiled. Stroking the edge of the picture, "I miss him," she murmured. Harry nodded and looked over at her, feeling the same way as she did, she looked back at him and they made eye contact, understanding blazed in that brief moment as they realised how much they had in common and she smiled back at him, nervously.
Feeling bold, Harry opened his mouth to speak, "Jen, I…"
"I wonder if Chris will take me in the car…I really don't want to go on that train," Jen breathed, obviously not hearing Harry's mutters. Harry turned away, somewhat bitterly,
"You and Chris are pretty close, huh?"
"Well duh," Jen laughed, returning the picture of Sirius to the wall, "He's always been there for me, he's helped me through everything…" she chuckled to herself, "he says I've never be rid of him and however much I protest or make fun of it," she turned back to Harry with a wide grin, "I'd never want to be rid of him, he's the best."
Harry forced himself to look away as Jen laughed, "Oh my God, Harry you made me go all girly!" she sat down on the bed and the easy silence crept over them again, "Harry, I…" she began,
"Hey Potter!" a voice yelled from downstairs. Jen swept over to the door and swung it open,
"He's with me!" she bellowed, down to Chris, who had left the dining room and gone looking for the pair.
"Oh," Chris muttered, "Well, I did ask Potter to call you for dinner, but it's too late now. Are you ready? We better go!"
Jen turned back to look at Harry, she smiled at him, "We're going out, a new band – meant to be really good," she said, then she said quickly and with a hint of nervousnes, "d'you wanna come?"
"I don't think-"
"Please? It'll be fun!" Jen said, interrupting him, "Even if it not your thing, you know me and you can find something to do, what do you say Harry?"
"Come on Jen! We wanna beat the traffic!" Chris called from below and Harry heard the front door opening,
"No," Harry said, almost resentfully as he rose and passed her, "Three's a crowd."
"What?" Jen called after him, clearly not buying his argument, clearly hurt by his easy dismissal of her.
"Jen!" Chris shouted again.
"Alright!" Jen snapped, rushing past Harry, then at the bottom of the stairs she turned back to look up, "Hey Potter! Tell Ron that the Potions thing is sorted, Snape expects him in his class first day back but he better pass this year!"
Harry looked after her, wanting to ask her about it but she had already left the house with Chris.
Kicking the wall, Harry walked down, 'Dammit,' he groaned, hearing Jen and Chris riding off. He went back into Jen's room and turned off the stereo as it blared out more Bryan Adams. He took his time leaving, noting the posters again and painfully seeing the pictures of Sirius. He moved in for a closer look and found a much older one, with Sirius and his father dressed up in hippy style clothes. He couldn't help but laugh as he returned it and started humming 'Summer of 69' just as Jen had been.
He left the room and started down the stair, 'Standing on your momma's porch, you told me you'd wait forever. Oh and when I held her hand,' he slowed in his singing, 'I knew that…it…was…now or…never…Dammit, I gotta tell her how I feel,'
Harry paused as he got closer to his and Ron's door, he could hear shouting coming from within,
"Come on Hermione, don't be like this," Ron whined.
"Don't be like what! You're the one being unreasonable!"
"I'm not being unreasonable, I just think…"
Harry put his hand on the handle just as he heard a clap resonating from within. He paused, but before he could open the door, it was opened for him and Hermione stormed past him.
"Hi Harry," she said, surprised, "I better go to bed," she said, hastily when Harry opened his mouth to question her. She ran off before he could ask her anything, so he turned and went inside instead.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked Ron, "What was that clapping noise?"
"Oh…I…uh…stubbed my toe," Ron muttered, massaging his toe, revealing a red mark appearing on his cheek, "Hermione and I had a disagreement."
"About what?" Harry asked. Ron looked up surprised,
"Uh…you know?…the usual…?" Ron looked down at the bed, "We better go to sleep, yeah? I mean we gotta be up early for the train."
"Uh yeah," Harry frowned, unimpressed by the sudden change of subject, but not particularly bothered that they were keeping something from him, he'd find out eventually, he always did.
"Jen wanted me to tell you she got you into Potions."
"Oh, great!" Ron said, surprised but falsely happy, as he lay down on the bed. "How are things between you?"
"I love her," Harry sighed into his pillow.
"Huh?" Ron asked.
"Never mind," Harry muttered.
"I think she likes you, you know," Ron admitted, sparking Harry's attention, "Well, more than she lets on, at least. She's been asking about you a lot…what do you think about her?" Ron asked.
'I love her, I love her, I love her,' his thoughts screamed at him.
"Oh…I think she's cool," Harry shrugged, 'I love her I love her I love her.'
Ron shrugged and lay down, "That's cool," he sighed, slightly preoccupied. Harry shrugged it off and lay back down, he would need to get to sleep for the trip to Hogwarts the following day. As he drifted, his thoughts weren't just with Jen but with Sirius also, and the time they had spent together, but far from upset, Harry could remember it with a smile for the first time since Sirius died, he was happy, lost in nostalgia.
'oh and when I look back now, that summer seemed to last forever, oh and if I had the chance, I would wanna be there, those were the best days of my life.'
TBC