Chapter 3

"Thanks again for letting me stay for the rest of the summer," Harry said the next morning to Isabella, who was currently putting heaps of food onto the table.

"Come by more, Harry!" yelled Willow happily, just arriving back from her grandparents house a while ago. "We like it. You make mummy happy, 'cause you 'mind her of Mattie!"

Harry cast a quick glance at Isabella, who paled visibly. Ever since what happened awhile back, when she had gone a little… crazy… and was certain that Harry was Matt, Isabella had tried to put that in the past. She never brought it up once, until Willow had said that.

"Hush, Willow," Isabella scolded. "Eat your eggs before they get cold."

"But they hot," Willow said, frowning.

"Then blow on them." She turned to Harry, giving a small smile. "We should go get your stuff from Sirius's, Harry. If you're really certain that you want to stay for the remainder of the summer, then you need your clothes, your… school things, that sort of stuff."

"We can go now," Harry said, looking up at Isabella, wanting to get it over with quickly. "To get some stuff. I'll tell you what I need on the way over there."

Isabella poured herself a glass of water. "Aren't you going to go in yourself to get your things? Hey, if you and Sirius have a talk when we get there maybe you'll have a change of heart."

"I doubt it," Harry said, averting his eyes. "It was a pretty big argument, and I bet you anything that Sirius has Allyson over again today."

——

Sirius sighed as Allyson tried to get him up the stairs. How many times had he tried explaining to her that he was more concerned on learning where Harry was then going up to the room?

"Just ignore that," Allyson said with a small smile as the doorbell rang. "Probably somebody just selling something. Lupin can get it anyway, can't he, baby? C'mon, Siri…"

"Maybe it's Harry," Sirius said, pulling his hand out of her grasp. "I have to answer it."

"Potter ringing the doorbell?" Allyson said with raised eyebrows. "Come off it, Sirius."

Sirius cast Allyson another look before he went over to the door and opened it, his hopes lowering as he noticed that it was Isabella standing on the threshold and not Harry. But then again, maybe she was over because she had news about Harry… good news.

"Hi, Sirius," Isabella said, grinning. "Is it OK if I go get some things for Harry?"

Sirius looked at Isabella strangely. "Get some things for Harry? Why? Where is he, is he with you? No, never mind, stupid question. I heard him on the phone with you last night."

Isabella nodded. "I tried getting him to come back, but he wouldn't. He said he wanted to spend the remainder of the summer away from the house. You know, not away from you, but mostly away from your girlfriend—"

Then noticing Allyson standing behind him, Isabella flashed her a quick smile. "Sorry, Allyson. Nice to see you again, dear."

Allyson threw her a sarcastic smile. "Hi, Jessup. Nice to, ah, see you again too, I guess."

"Is Harry with you?" Sirius asked hopefully, but was disappointed when he saw Isabella shake her head.

"Well, yes he is, but I imagine he's halfway to Matt's ah… grave, by now."

Sirius's eyes widened. "Grave? He's going to walk there? That's… too far!"

Isabella shrugged, looking sorry. "He wanted to go while I got some of his things. He said the fresh air might do him a bit of good, you know, make him less angry. So I said he could, but only if he was back by a certain time. I'm sorry, Sirius, I shouldn't of let him… I mean he's not my boy, but I should've asked you first - Ah, I'm so—"

"No," Sirius interrupted quickly. "Not your fault. Go to his room, you know where it is, I have to go to him."

Once Sirius was at the door, Isabella smiled at Allyson uncertainly. "Uh… hi again."

Allyson gave a nod of acknowledgement, standing in the same spot.

"Hey Isabella," Remus said from the kitchen. "What're you doing here?"

Isabella walked into the house and smiled at Remus. "Just to pick some of his things up. Hey, Remus? I imagine you're uh… a, how do I put this? Um…" She looked at Allyson, who made no attempt to move. Finally, Isabella said,"Well, I don't know what to get for Harry for his school. I suppose you might know, right?"

——

Harry turned around quickly, surprised as he heard Sirius calling out his name. "Sirius? What are you doing here?"

"Isabella told me that you were going to Matt's grave," Sirius explained, stopping to catch his breath once he caught up with Harry. "I had to come find you and talk to you."

Harry, remembering the words that each of them had said the night before, turned around and started to walk away. "What? Did somebody offer to pay you double if you came here to find me?"

He heard Sirius groan from behind him, and then felt Sirius's hand on his shoulder, stopping him from walking even farther.

"Don't do this again," Sirius said, looking Harry in the eye. "I only came here to apologize. Those things that I said last night weren't true."

"But you said them anyway," Harry argued, trying to squirm out of Sirius's grip on his shoulder, but failed.

"Yes, but you said things last night that weren't true, too. Did you mean them?"

Harry kept eye contact with Sirius as he spoke. "Some of the things were most definitely true," he said, ignoring Sirius's hurt look. "You barely have any time for me anymore, you don't care that I think your girlfriend is up to something, you're not there when I need you anymore because you spend so much time with Allyson. But what I didn't mean was when I said that you felt obliged to look after me and that somebody paid you to look after me."

"Since when did you need me and I wasn't there?" Sirius asked, his hands still placed on Harry's shoulders.

"A few times! When I just wanted to talk to you, you were on the phone with Allyson for practically the whole night."

With that, Harry finally pulled away from Sirius's grip and started to walk away again.

"Once," Sirius argued. "Come off it, Harry. This argument is ridiculous, and I would've made time to talk to you," he yelled, walking closer to Harry.

"You would've shooed me away!"

Sirius scowled. "I would not! I would've hung up and listened to what you had to say to me. I wouldn't of shooed you away. I'm not like that."

Harry opened his mouth to argue again, but he already felt exhausted from the yelling that he and Sirius had accomplished so far, so all he did was let out a sigh and walk past Sirius, completely forgetting to go to the graveyard, and walked back to Isabella's house.

——

"I can't believe that you and Sirius had this huge argument all because of his girlfriend," Isabella said to Harry with a shake of her head. She had found Harry in the guest room, staring at floor, and now she was squatting in front of Harry, trying to get him to talk to her.

"Neither can I," Harry replied softly. "It seems so silly. To him it probably is, but it's not silly to me. It's important."

"So talk to me," Isabella said in a gentle voice. "What is it about Allyson that you don't like?"

Harry shrugged his shoulders. "I just get a bad vibe from her. Don't you?"

"I don't get a bad vibe from her," Isabella admitted. "Well… I don't know. Something about her just doesn't feel right."

"Isabella?" Julian stood in the doorway, grinning at Harry. "Hi, Harry. Do you mind if I borrow Isabella for a second?"

Harry nodded. "Sure."

"You're home early," Isabella said as she stood up. "Lunch break?" She walked over to Julian, where they started to discuss something. When Isabella came back, she gave Harry a small grin.

"Harry, Julian's cousin is coming to stay with us. He's uh, a… wizard too. I think he goes to your school? His name's um… Jedediah Works?"

Harry frowned. The name remained unknown. He had no clue who this Jedediah Works was.

Isabella shook her head. "Anyway, he'll be staying with us. You don't mind if you share a room with him, do you?"

Harry shook his head. "'Course not."

Isabella smiled. "He'll be coming over tonight. His parents are going through a… tough time, so Julian invited him to stay with us for the rest of the summer." She turned to leave, then looked back. "Oh, and Harry?"

Harry raised his eyebrows at Isabella. "Yeah, Mrs. Jessup?"

"We'll talk after."

——

When Jedediah Works arrived, Harry found that he had a Slytherin-type look to him. He had dark hair that seemed to flop onto his head, and dark eyes to match. His voice was cool and slow when he spoke.

"Thank you Uncle Julian, for letting me stay with you for the rest of the summer," he said to Julian. "I'll be on my best behaviour."

Julian smiled. "I bet you will, Jedediah. This is my gorgeous wife, Isabella, and our daughter Nevaeda," Julian motioned to Isabella and then the baby, which Isabella had in her arms. "You've already met the oldest, Willow. Oh, and we can't forget Harry! Jedediah, this is our other guest, Harry Potter."

Jedediah's eyes swerved onto Harry. "Ah, of course. Who could forget you?"

There was an odd silence flowing through the house until Isabella spoke. "Harry? Why don't you take Jedediah to the room? I should have supper ready soon enough."

"OK," Harry agreed, turning down the hall to the guest room with Jedediah following.

"So… you're a Slytherin?" Harry said as they entered the room. Jedediah eyed him in amusement.

"And you're a Gryffindor." He started to smile. "We are going to have a very amusing time for the rest of the summer."

——

A/N: Review if you liked the chap!