Chapter 3

Hermione paced anxiously in her lavender coloured bedroom, wondering whether Harry was all right.

CRACK

"Harry!" Hermione burst out, and immediately relieved him of his trunk and sat him down on a chair.

Carrying big objects whist Apparating was exhausting.

"Are you ok?" she asked sitting opposite him.

"I'm fine… just worn out. I had to keep Apparating to avoid my Uncle." He explained, running his fingers through his messy black hair.

"Let me get you a glass of water. I'll be back in a minute."

Harry took off his round glasses and wiped them on his blue t-shirt then, as Hermione retuned he slipped them back on. Harry surveyed her, glad to see her thin, pale, kind face.

"Thanks," he said when Hermione handed him the glass. "When's Ron coming?"

"In two days. I could send Gaia to ask him if he could come sooner, seeing as they don't have a telephone, but it would take a whole day to get a reply."

The bedroom door opened and Hermione's mum, Melinda came in. "Oh, Harry you're here, Hermione told me you were coming early." She turned to her daughter. "I'm just going out for and hour or two and your Dad will be home soon. I need to hurry because the car hasn't got much petrol. You can both go to video Blitz if you like, so you can rent a DVD out. I'll see you both later and I have my phone on." With that she hurried out of the room brushing her curly brown hair, almost identical to her daughters.

"D'you want to get a DVD out?" asked Hermione. "My treat, and we have popcorn downstairs!"

At four o'clock Hermione's dad came home, and poked his head through the door.

"Hi sweetheart, ah Harry you're here already, I thought we were getting you tomorrow!" he leaned across and shook Harry's hand.

Harry looked into Neil Granger's kind face, with laughter lines around his mouth. Very much the opposite of Uncle Vernon, Harry thought.

"Cor, I'm exhausted, the traffic home today!" he said cheerfully. "I see you're watching 'City of Angels'. Good film that." Said Mr.Granger, walking out of the room.

Hermione stood up and closed the door. "Sorry," she apologized.

"That's ok," said Harry. "Your Dad's a barrel of laughs compared to my Uncle. Did you know, that counting this is the third film I've seen in my life? Ever?"

"Really?" said Hermione, surprised. "Yeah; remember, two summers ago us three met up and went to the cinema, and last year too. You had to pay for me because I couldn't get the money."

"Oh yes of course," said Hermione, "Shall we continue watching our film?" Gesturing towards the frozen TV screen. "We only have fifteen minutes left."

"Nah, Dudley told me the ending years ago so there's not much point. You've seen it before haven't you?" he asked.

"A few years ago." She sat down, picked up the remote and pressed 'stop'.

"So," she turned to face him. "What do you want to do?"

Harry sat back and put his hands behind his head. "Dunno… How long 'till dinner?"

"Probably about two hours." She answered.

"Well," said Harry smiling, "Why don't we go and see Ron by Apparating?"

"Ok, sounds like a great idea!" Hermione said brightly. "Shall we go tell my Dad? Then he can tell my mum when she gets back."

"Yeah, sure." He replied.

They jogged up the stairs and knocked on Hermione's parents bedroom door.

"Come in," called Neil. "Oh hi you two," he said tiredly.

"Dad we're just gonna go to Ron's for an hour or so. We're Apparating. Is that ok with you?"

"That's fine sweetheart, just be back for dinner at,"

"At seven." Finished Hermione. "Don't worry we'll be back before then." She smiled. "Come on, we'd better go Harry. See you later dad!"

They went out into the hallway and Hermione closed the door behind them.

"Ok," said Harry. "Let's go!"

there were two loud CRACKS, and they were gone.