Jen and Harry continued the trek down to her house. The two had been careful to make sure that they wouldn't encounter Dudley or his crew on the way back. I hope Harry gets over this soon. She knew she was going to have to be patient, but patience didn't come easily to her. Harry still seemed really uncomfortable around her and at the idea of going to her house, even if it was just to eat a quick breakfast. She was about to walk past the house right before hers when someone grabbed her arm. She spun around while making a fist and punched at the person who had grabbed her. Harry ducked just in time. "Harry! I'm so sorry; that's the second time today. I didn't think it was you."
"Who did you think it was then?" he asked while standing back up. He seemed more surprised than angry, though.
"Dudley or one of his stupid friends. I was worried that one of them might have ended up behind us and was going to try to start something," she explained.
"Oh. Sorry, I wasn't really thinking when I grabbed your arm. It's just that the curtains are drawn and if Dudley is already up, he's probably eating something. You were about to walk right in front of the window, so he would have seen you," Harry replied. He appeared even more worried than Jen was about Dudley seeing her.
This left them in a tight spot. If they walked by, Dudley might see Jen. If they crawled under the window, they would draw attention to themselves from the other neighbors. If they stood there too long trying to come up with a way to get to Jen's house unseen by Dudley, he or one of his friends might show up. From the look on Harry's face, Jen could tell he was coming to the same conclusions. "So, what do we do?" she asked, unsure of what their options were.
"No idea," he responded. "We could go around through the back…but the he might see us through another window. We could just run really fast-"
"-but then the movement would just draw his attention to us anyway," Jen finished.
After a few more seconds of thinking, Jen was ready to just walk by and knock Dudley's lights out if he came within five feet of her. Probably not the best idea, but it would do wonders as far as anger management. She smiled evilly at this thought. She was about to start walking right in front of the window when Harry exclaimed, "I know: I'll walk in front of the window and when Dudley leaves to do one thing or another that doesn't involve seeing what's in this window, I can tell you."
Jen frowned slightly, liking her idea of simply decking Dudley if he was stupid enough to come anywhere near her much better than Harry's plan. Still, Harry's idea will probably end a little better. I need to keep up the cute and innocent charade as long as possible, even if it can't possibly last long. "Wait, wouldn't Dudley think it a bit strange if you just stand there staring at him?"
"Yeah probably," Harry answered, "but Dudley and everyone else I this neighborhood already think I'm a freak. I'll just be proving them right."
"But isn't there a chance that Dudley might come outside and ask you what the hell you think you're doing?"
"You're right," he muttered, "Guess we should just walk by and punch him or something if he comes out." He didn't seem to have a real problem with that, but he did seem to think that there must be a better option.
"As much as I like that particular idea, I think with a little tweaking that yours would end better."
"Tweaking how?" he questioned.
"Just walk by," Jen responded, "If Dudley's there, warn me. If not, I'll just walk by, too."
"But what are you going to do if he's there?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."
"That bridge might come up pretty damn fast. You have to at least have some idea what you'll do if I see Dudley. Come to think of it, how am I supposed to tell you whether or not he's there?"
"Simple, if Dudley's there, you tell me to watch my step because there's a crack in the sidewalk. If he's not, point out how nice the weather is."
Harry stood there watching Jen with a funny look on his face. After a few seconds, he opened his mouth as if to say something, but apparently decided against it. He shook his head as if trying to clear his thoughts, then walked past the window, casually looking in as he strolled by. Jen began walking as she heard Harry say, "Jen, watch out. There's a big crack in the-" he didn't have time to finish as Jen tripped and ended up rolling along the sidewalk until she was completely out of Dudley's line of vision and about to roll right into Harry. "Are you alright!" he asked, apparently concerned.
"Never better," Jen replied as she jumped up from the ground. She fell so often when she just wasn't paying attention that she had perfected falling a certain way and making it look like an accident.
Harry walked along and looked in the window as he passed it. Sure enough, Dudley was in the kitchen eating a large plate of food. To his surprise, his aunt and uncle were up as well. He continued walking and then turned to see Jen also walking and Harry called out that there was indeed a crack in the sidewalk just as Jen tripped and rolled until she was almost to his feet, a good distance away from the window. His eyes widened in shock and he was immediately worried about the peculiar girl. "Are you alright?" he asked as she lifted up her head and looked in the direction of the window.
To his great surprise she jumped up and said that she was fine. She had a smile of accomplishment on her face and he realized that she must have fallen on purpose. He rolled his eyes. There was no telling what to expect with this girl. "Nice reflexes, by the way," she said, sending him out of yet another trance. He had been zoning out quite often; it was the best way for him to deal with all the pain he had felt recently. He gave her a confused look and she continued, "Ducking when I punched at you. You must have pretty good reflexes."
She was definitely right about being random. "Er…thanks," he replied, unsure of what to say. The whole her-almost-attacking-him-again thing was surprisingly unsurprising. After her little incident with Dudley and his crew, it could be expected that she would be on her toes. The strange thing was that she had been like this before she had ever even met Dudley. He and the other boys had obviously never seen her before last night, but it seemed like she must have had similar experiences since she seemed to have been expecting the to act in such a way. Wait, when did Piers see her? If he had seen her with Harry, he surely would have told Dudley. "When did Piers see you?" he asked bluntly; there was no point in beating around the bush about this. They had both been continuing their short walk back to Jen's house, but as he asked this, they both stopped at her front porch.
"Last night," she said simply.
"When last night?" he asked curiously.
"A little after we both went inside. I saw a beautiful owl flying around and went outside to get a better look."
"Oh." Hedwig must have gone out hunting right after he'd gone inside. He hadn't really paid attention to his surroundings when he had gone back inside his room. He'd felt so tired that he had immediately gone to bed. Jen opened the front door and the two of them walked in.