Chapter Three
The Invitation
Harry shifted in his bed, his covers in a knot around his feet. His stomach was throbbing with hunger because he hadn't eaten since breakfast the day before. It had been nearly a week in a half since 'River Jacobson' had almost been hit by the black car and gotten help and since then she and Dudley had been going out meaning she was at the house every day with his cousin. It was a bonus when she was here because she always tried to include him on things, watching movies with Dudley, going to the park to play football, having pizza at her house and the Dursley family found it increasingly hard to say no to her, which was odd to Harry but at times he didn't care.
The memories of River unnerved him still and he had almost written to the Order about her but then decided that if the Order didn't want to come get him away from the house (as he had pleaded for the third week of coming back from Hogwarts) then he would simply ignore the letters they sent back if they said nothing about getting him out. Ron had not written him a letter yet and Hermione's normal three letters a week went up to four as to his non-response and reluctantly he sent her short, abrupt, and rude responses, most of which telling his bushy-haired friend to leave him alone.
Harry was in trouble though, with the Dursleys. He had lost his temper the afternoon before when Dudley started to insult him and his nightmares—which had been happening every night—and the glass in River's hand exploded, sending Coca Cola spraying all over her, staining her white shirt. She hadn't minded, saying 'she had a faulty glass break on her by just holding it before'. (Funny didn't Aunt Marge use the same excuse? Harry had thought at the time).
His uncle waited till she had left with Dudley to go to the movies before punishing him. His jaw still hurt from the swift half-slap half-punch in the jaw he received from his uncle the moment he got back from dropping them off. He had been slammed into the wall and, luckily, his glasses fell off. He had been grateful for at least that much so the beating wouldn't break them. There was a knock at the door the moment Harry had been shoved causing Vernon to drop him. Unfortunately it had been into the corner of the couch.
Harry touched his face gingerly. He could feel pain on his cheekbone under his left eye and sighed, knowing he now had a bruise on it. River's father had come by to bring her purse. He seemed a might awkward and slow outside of River's presence but he gave Harry the time he needed to slide by Vernon and hurry up the stairs. His uncle, obviously not wanting to alert anyone or something, locked him in but due to Harry's pounding on the door unlocked it later, allowing him out only to use the restroom.
Harry slid his glasses up his nose and looked at the time. It was nearly noon and he had had neither dinner that previous night nor breakfast. He sighed and looked at Hedwig. She hooed at him as he heard a slight rapping at the window, alerting him that someone or something was there. He rolled off his bed painfully, his back and side aching slightly, and looked at the window. Pig was flying around in circles rapping on the window with its head and beak. He opened the window and Pig flew in, dropping two letters down on Harry's desk.
He sighed shut the window. He opened one of the letters. It was from Ginny. He didn't read it, only skimmed it. He shook his head, Ginny was asking, as usually, how he was doing, if he was doing all right, if he needed anything, why his letters were so short to the Order and so on. Harry had half a mind to write back that he needed Sirius back but no matter how upset he was he could never take it out on Ginny. She had been there for him more than he was willing to admit.
He tossed the letter aside and opened the other letter. It was from Hermione. Her neat writing took up nearly three pages of the neatly lined white paper. He skimmed her letter as well shaking his head. She was asking the same questions, saying as well that Voldemort—or You-Know-Who as she put—hasn't done much of anything since the Ministry of Magic. She commented on missing hearing from him and said several "encouraging things" but that was all.
He shook his head and opened the window for Pig. Pig stared at him expectantly. "Go on." He said motioning out the window. Pig still stared at him, letting out a hoo. "GO! Get out of here! I don't have any letters! I'm not writing any! Get out of here!" he exclaimed.
Pig hooed angrily before flying out. Harry shut the window and looked at Hedwig. He shook his head at her. "Don't give me that look! I don't want to talk with them." She hooed at him and turned around. "Fine, be like that." He threw himself onto the bed shaking his head. His head was throbbing slightly and his stomach ached. He had gotten used to getting food because of River and now it hurt when a meal (or in his case three meals) were forced to be skipped.
He rolled over and reached for the album that was under his mattress when there was a knock on the bedroom door, a soft one as if someone was afraid to disturb him. Harry made a face, who would knock like that? He wondered throwing his legs over the side of the bed and getting up. He shuffled to the door in his sweats with one of Dudley's navy-blue shirts on (the shirt hung nearly to his knees). He opened the door and blinked as the person on the other side giggled.
"Wow, Harry, you were serious that your bed hair is worse than your normal hair."
His face flushed as his hand went up and tried in vain to flatten his wild black hair. River stood in front of his door with an impish grin. Her brown eyes were sparkling and her hair was pulled into two braids. She had on a cute blue halter-top on and jean shorts that hung on her hips with a rhinestone studded belt. Her lips were tinged with a soft pink gloss and had glitter on them and her freckled cheeks were flushed slightly but her eyes were adventuresome.
"W-what are you doing here?" he said scratching the back of his head nervously.
"I was just—" a small hoo came from inside his room. Crap, Harry thought as she peered inside his room, around his body, which he was angling in the doorway, attempting to hide the cage from her. "You have an owl?" she gasped.
"Er, um, yeah, yes." He said swallowing hard, praying for once Dudley or Vernon would come up the stairs.
"May I see it?" she asked, looking like a hopeful five-year-old. Harry couldn't find his voice to say no and River took this as an affirmative, brushing by him in order to get into his room. He whirled around, scanning the room, making sure anything magical was hidden as River peered into Hedwig's cage. A smile was on her lips as she continued to stare. "It's beautiful."
"She," was all Harry could say. River looked at him. "She's a she,"
"Well, she is one of the pretty owls I have ever seen." River said to Hedwig before looking at him and smiling brightly, shrugging her shoulders cutely, a habit she had that was rather annoying.
"That's it?" Harry was caught off guard. "No questions about why, just that she's beautiful?"
"Well she is beautiful," River said blinking. "As for strange questions I traveled all over the place, Harry, and having an owl as a pet is defiantly not one of the weirdest pets I've seen…" she grinned at him, her hands behind her back and her head tilted causing her to look like an innocent girl. "Though it does rank on the top ten."
After staring at her incredulously Harry chuckled. "What's number one?"
"A sheep." She said matter-a-factually, with a straight face before bursting into giggles. He arched an eyebrow at her disbelievingly. "Seriously, my hand to God, I had a neighbor while I was moving about that owned a sheep, just one sheep that they treated like a dog."
It took him a moment before he full out laughed. "Interesting."
"I had thought so, he was house trained and everything."
Harry shook his head sitting down on his bed. "So," he swallowed hard. It had been a while since he laughed and actually felt that the laugh was real. "What, what are you doing here?"
She grinned looking at the owl once again. "My dad was taking Dudley and I to Waterworld," Harry stared at her. Water-what? What is that? He thought confused. "And we were wondering if you wanted to come with us, I mean, it's only for two days, go there, stay in a hotel for two nights and come back the next day but," she shrugged, her smile faltering. "I just thought you might not want to be left out…"
"You want me to come?" he said confused.
She nodded. "You see, it's my birthday tomorrow," she was turning shy again, he could tell. River was extremely comfortable with the Dursley family but when it came to inviting Harry to things she got a little shy. "And my dad is getting the time off and we have this coupon that is buy one ticket get one free for Waterworld and I just thought, well," she looked down at her feet. "That you might want to come,"
"What did my aunt and uncle have to say about it?" he asked warily. He knew they would have objections.
"They said they didn't want to trouble us but we told them it wouldn't be any trouble." She smiled sweetly at him. He glanced away, pushing his glasses up his nose, wincing slightly when he encountered the bruise once more. "Do you want to come?"
"Yes," he said, hardly able to keep the excitement from his voice.
"Really?" she said, her smile brightening.
"Sure."
"Awesome," she said with a giggle.
"You want to sit?" he motioned to the rather rickety chair. She shrugged and sat down, the smile still on her face but it faltered for a moment and wondered why as he sat back down on his bed. "What?"
"Can, can I ask you something?" He frowned and nodded. "What happened to your face? It looks horrible."
"Probably does," he muttered hearing someone walk up the stairs. "I, I tripped and fell down the stairs."
"Tripped?" she looked at him in disbelief.
"Yeah, Dudley left his shoes at the top of the stairs and I tripped, fell straight into the banister." He lied nervously.
The person walked towards Harry's room. "Oh, I'm sorry, that must hurt. Remind me when we're driving to London to take the train, I have this cream that should at least keep the swelling down along with take some of the pain away. All natural too," she said smiling.
He was taken back. "Oh, okay…thanks."
She nodded. "Don't mention it." She said as the person looked into the room.
"There you are, River." Dudley said while glaring daggers at Harry. "So, what did he say?"
Harry wished for a split second he had said no but then smiled. "I guess we'll have fun at Waterworld together, huh, Dudley," River got up smiling, oblivious to the tension between the cousins. "Maybe I can find a great girl by accident just like you did." Harry didn't know where the words had come from but he couldn't help but smile at the look on Dudley's face.
"That's would be so cool," River said smiling brightly. "Wouldn't it Dudley?"
"Sure," Dudley said through clenched teeth. "The show is about to start, River, we'd better leave."
"Oh, okay, Harry, be sure to be packed, my dad will be coming by around four to pick you and Dudley up. Be ready!" she said walking out with a little bounce.
Quick as a flash, Dudley was pinning Harry up against the wall. "Listen you little freak," the words were hissed softly as they heard River skip down the stairs. "You'd better not do any of your freakish business around my girl, you understand. One thing and you'll be deader than dead."
"Let me go, Dudley." Harry said clenching his fists to control his rage. Dudley didn't move. "Fine don't, I'll just write to all the fully-grown freaks like me, you know the ones allowed to do my freakish business about they way you're treating me," Dudley let go, paling and letting out a squeak. "Get out of my room, Dudley."
Without another word the whale left, shutting the door behind him. Harry looked at his room and then grinned grabbing a quill from the loose boards on his floor and parchment after a few moments of fishing around. He sat at his desk and quickly wrote: Leaving with Dudley and his new girlfriend for a few days don't bother writing. Don't give a royal shit if it's safe or not, you try to come and get me now I'll… Harry stopped and scribbled out the last sentence. He was too happy at the moment the be giving out threats. Don't bother trying to follow me, Dudley has a blood relation with me as well so I'm safe. –Harry. He made several copies of the letter and couldn't help but whistle a tune while he did so. He wrote a short letter to Ginny before adding the message being sent to all the others.
He let Hedwig out of her cage and smiled. "Hey girl, I have a few letters here, one is to Hermione, one's to Ron, one is to the order, and the last is for Ginny. They should know who is for who because I have their names on it," he said tying the letters to her leg. "Stay there for a few days because I'll be gone."
Hedwig hooed, she was happy to see her master smiling again allowing him to carry her to the window. "Go on," he said and then she took flight.
He spent the rest of the day 'getting ready' as it were. He showered and took a look in the mirror that was slightly foggy. He now knew why River was shocked and slightly afraid to ask what happened to his face. He had a vivid bruise across he cheekbone that was throbbing. He changed into a pair of baggy jeans and a clean shirt before hurrying back to his room. He had first considered using his school trunk for the trip but decided against it. He had just gather the courage to go down and ask the Dursleys for a bag when River had come back with two large sports bags, one red one for Dudley, and one green one for him (Petunia was quite sour when she handed it over to Harry who was ecstatic).
He slid his wand into his pocket as he packed. He was done packing within minutes of four and Harry shoved his invisibility cloak into his bag as he heard River call up to them. He was getting ready to leave when he stopped and on an impulse grabbed two more things from the room, shoving them into the bag as he went: the photo album and the melted knife that Sirius had given him.
He hurried down the stairs and saw Dudley giving his parents a hug. River's father, Jack as he begged them to call him, was standing by the door smiling as River thanked the Dursleys and said goodbye as well. "Harry, that's a nasty bruise on your face there, son, what happened?"
Harry could hear Vernon's breath stifle. "I, I fell," he stuttered. "Into a doorknob."
He felt a cold gaze on him as Jack smiled an apologetic grin. "Tripping over cracks in the carpet right? Happens to me all the time, tripping over nothing." He said as Dudley pushed out the door. Jack followed him out.
He turned slightly and realized the cold gaze was River's eyes study him. He then realized his mistake. He told her he had tripped on the stairs on Dudley's shoes. She stared at him but didn't say anything. "Come on," she said shaking her head as if to snap out of it. "Lets go, we're gonna be late." She turned to Vernon and Petunia. "I'll bring Dudley and Harry back in one piece, Vernon, I promise." She said smiling.
Harry watched his uncle's face break into an unusual smile. A realization swept over him. His uncle's weak spot was this girl. This was their idea of a 'perfect girl'. If he wasn't standing in front of them at that moment he would have burst out laughing. "I know you will, River. Just have fun, and if that one gives you any trouble just hit him in the head."
She giggled. "Bye, Vernon, Petunia, have fun on your get away weekend." She said waving and walking out.
"Boy, any funny business and you'll regret it." Vernon snarled.
Harry flashed him a smile. "Bye Uncle Vernon." He said teasingly before walking out and climbing into the car (him in the front seat, River and Dudley in the back).
"Are we ready to go have some fun for River's birthday?" Jack said pulling out of the driveway. River giggled but Harry could feel her eyes on him. "Off to an adventure!" he said playfully as they drove towards London.