"That was so COOL!" Pepper gushed when they were back at her house.
"Tell us in the car. We have to go, Piper's expecting us in ten minutes," Phoebe said.
"I'm driving!" Pepper exclaimed, running upstairs to retrieve her car keys. She came back down the stairs and flew out the front door, yelling, "Come on!"
"Harry, would you like to sit in the front?" Paige asked.
Harry shrugged. "Sure," he said. "I like this car," he complimented once they were on the road.
"Thanks," Pepper said. "But, oh my god, you guys won't believe this, I'm rich!" Pepper told her aunts. "We went to this bank run by goblins and went in this cart and I have two vaults full of wizarding money!"
"How are you rich?" Paige asked. "Watch the road!" she warned, as Pepper almost hit a car.
"Harry will you tell them? I have to watch the road," she mocked her aunt. So Harry told them about her being the last heir in the Black line.
"It's so cool!" Pepper repeated. "And you won't believe this! I have a magic WAND! And they actually fly on broomsticks, too! There's this game that's played called Quidditch and - "
"Watch the ROAD!" Paige said again.
"Fine! Harry, explain Quidditch?" Harry went over a basic version of Quidditch. "And there was this broom that was awesome! It was called the..."
"Moonbeam Five Hundred," Harry finished for his god sister. "Best broom out there. It costs a bloody fortune, though."
"But it's so awesome! I'd really like one and I have a fortune, right?" Pepper pointed out, wanting to prove she deserved the broom.
"Pepper, I think you should wait to get a broom until you know if you can fly it or not," Harry said. "There are loads of people who don't like flying."
"But if I do like it then I might regret it if I don't get it. And if I don't like it then I can mount it on the wall over my bed or something because it's so cool!"
"Not many people get to fly at Hogwarts, it's really only if you're on a Quidditch team."
"Are you on the team?"
"One of the teams, yeah," Harry answered.
"Well I want to know more later, for now we're HERE!" Pepper cried, turning off the car and getting out. "Welcome to P3," Pepper said, welcoming Harry into her aunt's club.
Harry had never been to a club before, as he was underage. But the mobs of people, faint smell of alcohol, and loud music made him look forward to his 17th birthday in the magical world. They saw Piper at the bar and she beckoned them over. The four Halliwells sat on the barstools so Harry sat down too.
"How was school shopping?" Piper asked.
"Brilliant," Pepper answered, trying out a British word she'd picked up from Harry and his friends. "And to celebrate my new fortune I'd like a gin and tonic on the rocks with a twist of lime please...wait a gin and tonic already has lime in it, doesn't it?"
"You can drink?" Harry asked, astounded.
"Very funny," Piper said, answering Harry's question. "Wait, what do you mean 'new fortune?'"
"I'm rich! In wizard-world money." Pepper squeaked. "Last heir in the Black family line."
"One of the richest most powerful Pureblooded wizarding lines," Phoebe supplied, repeating what Harry had told her in the car.
"Pureblood meaning, of course, wizard marrying witch, no Muggle blood in the family line at all," Paige added.
"A Muggle being a non-magical person," Harry finished.
Piper raised her eyebrow.
"Can I have a ginger ale, please?" Pepper asked Piper. "Harry, would you like something?"
"I'll have the same, thanks," he said. That was the second new thing for Harry that night – ginger ale. He found he liked it though, and had two more glasses.
"Can we take a table, Piper?" Paige asked her sister. "So we can get some food – I'm starving."
"Sure," Piper said. "Take any one you want."
They chose their usual booth and waited for a waiter to come by. Harry looked at the menu on the table, protected by a sheet of plastic.
"Care to tell us more about Diagon Alley? That is what it's called, isn't it?" Paige asked them.
"Well I met Harry's friends, and I really like them. The one, Hermione, the way Harry and the other one, Ron, tease her, it seems she's as into reading and learning and studying stuff as I am."
"You like to study and learn, too? Oh no, not another Hermione!" he joked.
The three girls at the table laughed. "You wouldn't believe this girl, Harry," Phoebe said. "She decided to read all the textbooks you've gotten years one through six at least three times each in the last six months."
"You'd really give Hermione a run for her money, then," he decided.
"I don't like the studying so much as the reading. Anyway, I just want to be prepared. Ooh, maybe they could come tomorrow and stay the night so we could all go to the train station together?" Pepper suggested, acting if it was the best idea in the world. "If it's all right with their parents and Harry, that is," she added.
"That could be a possibility," Phoebe said. "As long as you don't have wild sex or anything."
Pepper blushed and said, "Coming from the aunt who wondered if I got a vibrator for my birthday." Harry began choking on his ginger ale, much like Pepper had done, and Pepper patted him on the back. "Sorry Harry, I didn't know you'd go into a coughing fit," Pepper apologised, hitting his back again. "And you're probably really scared of my Aunt Phoebe now, aren't you?"
"A bit," he answered, composing himself.
"Oh well, now you know her true nature," Pepper teased. Their food came and the vibrator was dropped.
"More about your adventure?" Paige prompted.
"Oh, I also met one of Harry's enemies."
"Gave him a bit of a fright," Harry said, recalling the situation.
"He was rather rude, but quite good looking," Pepper admitted.
Harry nearly choked again. "You think Malfoy's good looking?!" he cried.
"Well, yes," Pepper said. "Anyhow, isn't that like, a rule or something: that all enemies are good looking. I feel like that's in all the books and movies. Don't you have a girl enemy?"
"Um...not really..." Harry responded hesitantly.
"Well if you did she'd be good looking," Pepper replied confidently, sipping at her own ginger ale. "That's your goal this year, to find a good looking girl enemy."
"Pepper, you're encouraging him to make enemies," Paige pointed out.
"Yes, I know," Pepper said. "But he needs a hot woman enemy he can pretend to hate but secretly lust for."
"Pepper, I think you'd better bring your head back down to earth where Harry's about to make you his enemy," Phoebe said.
"He can't secretly lust for me, especially because I now know he's going to do it!"
"Can I hit her?" Harry asked Phoebe and Paige.
"Please," Phoebe said. Harry smacked Pepper lightly on the back of the head, her hand flying to it immediately and rubbing the spot where he'd hit.
"Oww, that wasn't very nice," Pepper pouted.
"Pep, you're a bit too excited; calm down and finish your chicken," Paige said.
"Yes ma'am. Just so you know, Harry, I'm not normally this...um...frightening? Imposing? Whatever you think I might be." She paused for a minute. "Hey Harry, do you want to go dance?" she asked suddenly.
"I'm not much of a dancer," Harry said. The only time he'd really danced was two years ago at the Yule Ball, and it wasn't to this type of music.
"I'm not good at it but I do it anyway. Come on, I'm sure you'll be great," she said, pulling him out of his seat. "Coming?" she asked her aunts. She shrugged and led a reluctant Harry onto the dance floor. "I can't really tell you how to do it," she said, her hips beginning to sway with the music, "cos you'd look pretty strange dancing like a girl...all I can tell you is to go with the music. You have to be a part of it, sorta. Just feel it and you'll be fine."
Harry started moving to the music but he felt foolish and stopped. "Keep going," Pepper prompted. "You're getting the hang of it." He began dancing again, Pepper nodding her head. He looked around at what other guys were doing and tried to copy them.
"If you're not good then I must be a disaster!" he yelled to her over the music. "I think you're excellent!" he complimented. She really did seem to feel the music, as she'd said to do.
"Thanks!" she yelled back. "You're not so bad yourself!" A new song came on and she screamed, "I love this song!" She began dancing very smoothly to the song" her hands moved above her head at intervals, her shoulders shimmied at some points, her body moved up, down and side to side and her hips rotated rhythmically. She was mouthing the words, too, and her movements mesmerized Harry for a second before she took his hands and began moving his arms to the music. "Dance!" she shouted at him and he began to move again, with her still holding his hands.
When the song was done, they sat down at the table, both out of breath and overheated. Pepper grabbed Paige's water glass and emptied it. "Nice moves, Harry," Phoebe praised.
Harry blushed, not knowing he was being watched. "I need work, I don't dance all that much."
"We can come back tomorrow night if you'd like," Pepper said.
"We talked to Piper and she said it would be fine if Ron and Hermione stayed over tomorrow," Paige announced.
"That's okay with you, Harry?" Pepper asked.
"Of course," Harry said and Pepper smiled. "They're both staying at Ron's house, so if his mother says it's all right then it'll be settled. I can Floo him as soon as we get back." Pepper looked puzzled but Harry just told her she'd see later.
"Speaking of leaving, we should do just that. It's getting late," Phoebe said, looking at her watch.
As soon as they arrived at the Manor, Harry pulled a piece of parchment and a quill out of his bag and scrawled a quick note to Ron. Then he took some of the Floo Powder, threw the letter into the emerald flames and yelled: "Weasley House!" The letter disappeared a second later, as did the flames. Harry leaned back in the armchair he was sitting in and announced, "Now, we wait for his answer."
"I'm going upstairs to get our bed things," Pepper said. When she returned Harry was still in the armchair, reading a letter.
"He's replied," Harry said. "Says they can come, and if we'd like to stop by for lunch we can do that. His parents would like to meet you."
"Sounds good to me, let me go clear it with my aunts." After Phoebe said it was okay, they changed into their pajamas, and then they settled down in the living room with mugs of hot chocolate, only one light on, talking.
"Did you have a good time today?" Pepper asked, slightly nervous.
"Great time," he said.
"Like the club?"
He nodded. "And the dancing lessons, thanks. Is that place your aunt's?"
"Yea," Pepper said proudly. "You're welcome for the lessons, although I didn't do much."
"Yes you did. And you shouldn't criticize yourself like you did. You're the best dancer I've ever seen." She said thank you through flushed cheeks. "Did you have a good time today?"
"It was wonderful," she answered. "I can't wait to go to school, though some of your British-ness will have to rub off on me so I can talk the talk and walk the walk."
They talked a lot more before Pepper said hesitantly, "If you don't mind me asking, where'd you get that scar?"
"I don't mind," Harry said. "See, it was nice today, meeting you, and you not going 'Blimey! It's Harry Potter!' Well, you sort of did but not because I was Harry Potter but because you were excited to meet me."
"You mean people know who you are in your world?"
Harry nodded. "I've been famous since I was a baby, before I even knew who I was. It's all because of what your parents were fighting for...Voldemort killed my parents sixteen years ago, and he tried to kill me but all he gave me was this scar. I was the only one to ever defeat him and I was only a baby. So he weakened and ran off into hiding and I became famous. I was dumped on my aunt and uncle's doorstep - they're Muggles by the way - and for eleven years I lived there, not even knowing I was a wizard or that wizards existed until I got a letter from Hogwarts."
"So you've got an evil scar, then?"
"Sort of. I mean, it alerts me when he's near or he's going to attack or something: it burns until I can't see," he said with a slight laugh.
"So we have two things in common; both our parents are dead and we both have scars," she said solemnly, pushing up the sleeves of her nightshirt to reveal the scars that were still on her arms.
"Do you mind if I ask about yours?" he asked her.
"I'm afraid I don't have such an elaborate story as yours," she said, not really looking at him. Then her eyes drifted down to his. "It was a suicide attempt. After my parents died, I-I just wanted to give up." Tears sprung to her eyes and Harry battled whether or not to go comfort her.
"I understand," he settled on saying as comfort. "I've thought about it too, more than once. It's just like your life comes crashing down on you, you've nothing to live for..."
"And you want to just say 'hell with it, I'd be better off dead'..." They were both silent for a while until Pepper said. "While we're on a grim subject, would you mind talking about dad- I mean, Sirius? I'd really like to know what you knew about him and what happened, exactly."
The two had a long conversation about Sirius Black, which led both of them to tears. Then they moved on to subjects a bit lighter like Hogwarts, what exactly the Halliwells did, both Pepper and Harry's magical abilities and Ron and Hermione. By the time they fell asleep it was four in the morning. Harry was sprawled out in an armchair and Pepper was sitting on the floor, a blanket wrapped around her.