Chapter Four

A Moment for Friendship

She watched as Dudley fell asleep next to her, his snore giving away that he had finally gone to sleep. She got up and carefully climbed over her father and sat in the empty seat next to Harry on the train. He looked at her sharply. She gave him a small smile and offered him part of her bag of candy (M&Ms). He smiled back and took some looking away. She shook her head. She knew how Harry got the bruise on his face, the truth and not the lies he had been spinning. She was watching it in the 'powder room' of the movie theatre and sent her 'father' to there. Luckily just in the nick of time but if Harry would only tell her, or say something to anyone she could do something but she refused to help until it escalated. It was his secret to tell and she respected that as long as it didn't become life threatening.

But she also had to stay true to the character River Johnston had become. "Harry," she said softly, forcing herself to seem nervous. He looked at her, those green eyes burned a hole in her. "Um…" she pretended she chickened out, quite obviously. "Are you coming to my concert the Sunday we get back?"

"Me?" he whispered, his brows arching. He shrugged. "I doubt it."

She acted like she was hurt. "Why not?"

"Because I doubt Vernon and Petunia will let me." He answered simply.

"I'll ask them myself, then, I think it'd be fun if you were there." She said looking at her fingers.

"You can ask, it's not like I don't want to go, they just don't like taking me places." He explained genuinely sorry.

She nodded. "So…" she swallowed hard looking down. "What really happened?"

"Pardon?"

"What happened? I know for a fact that it can't be you tripping or else you wouldn't change your story twice as tripping. Did someone hit you? Jump you? What happened?" she asked softly.

He studied her. "What do you care?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why do you care how I got this?"

She looked eluted and confused "Because," she said peering at him. "I do care about you. I mean, you are my boyfriend's cousin and though you have weird tendencies and a short temper you seem relatively nice. Anyway, isn't is human to care about some who is hurt?"

Harry shrugged looking away. "I was hit," She studied him. Is he really going to tell me…or tell River? She asked herself silently. She knew how Harry got the bruise on his face. She was watching it in the 'powder room' of the movie theatre and sent her 'father' to there. Luckily just in the nick of time but if Harry would only tell her, or say something to anyone she could do something but she refused to help until it escalated. It was his secret to tell and she respected that as long as it didn't become life threatening. "I was out late last night and ran into a couple of guys in the park," he looked back at her. She was careful to keep the part of River."I spotted them roughing up on of my neighbors cats and tried to get them to stop."

"Why didn't you just tell me?"

"Because one of the guys was Peter," he said, his eyes never moving from hers.

She wasn't sure how to react so did the first thing that came to her head. "Peter, Dudley's friend?" her voice was raised and squeaked.

His hand flew up and covered her mouth. She recoiled startled, this time not acted. "Sshh," he hushed her. "Yes, that Peter, I may not like him but if Dudley knew I ratted out his best friend…" She nodded and his hand slid from her mouth onto her shoulder. He smiled at her. "Don't worry about it, River, other than throbbing every once in a while it's fine."

She made a small 'oh', sound and hurried over to her bag. She could feel his eyes on her as she pulled a magical herbal cream (one that was mass produced and sold in Muggle stores, it would ease the swelling and pain causing the bruise to disappear sooner not as powerful as some of the normal healing potions or creams used but enough to allow people to enjoy it). She sat back down next to him.

He studied the container. "What is that?"

"The cream I told you about earlier, it will heal it faster." She said smiling. "It works wonders, almost like magic." He coughed looking away. "If you'll let me," he glanced back. She pulled his glasses off. Harry made a move to stop her. She put his glasses in his hand and didn't move. "It'll only take a minute and I swear the pain will be gone."

"A-all right." He said after several minutes.

She smiled and opened the container. "It'll be a little cold when it first touches your skin," she warned taking some of the cream onto her fingers. Harry closed his eyes as she spread it onto his face. She fought the urge to sigh. She wish she could make him forget about the pains in his life but she knew that it wasn't possible. "Harry?" she said his name softly after rubbing the cream in.

He opened his emerald eyes and looked at her, completely content it seemed. "Hm," he mumbled.

"You asked me earlier why I cared," she said softly sliding the cream back into her bag. She knew his full attention was on her now. "Well, I care because I think of you as a friend." She said glancing at him. He stared at her. "Also your sort of like a brother to me, it's a nice feeling." He studied her with an expression that she couldn't read. "Get some sleep Harry, we'll be there in two hours." She said giving him (more on an impulse than anything else) a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Sweet dreams," she said climbing back over her 'father' and sitting back down. She knew Harry was staring at her as she curled into a small ball, her teddy bear clutched in her arms, and fell asleep.