Chapter 3 – young love

Harry was now 8, and even thought he had all the knowledge of his previous 19 year old self, he still acted like an 8 year old, and as he was now finding out, the fancies of an 8 year old. He supposed he should be thankful for that, as it meant he wouldn't be trying to go after an 18 or 19 year old girl. He'd be going for someone more his new age.

In the past sixth months he'd spent in this world he had accomplished many things. First, after rigorous workouts every morning he had lost all the fat and had started to gain muscle. Second, he had managed to rebuild bridges with his family, and was especially close to his mom and youngest sister rose. Third, he had met Neville Longbottom on a family outing to Diagon alley. And boy, how he hated the smarmy git, him and his family.

Finally, he had met both Sirius and Remus (again) as well as their wives and children.

Sirius had married a beautiful oriental woman called Lynn, and they had a daughter a year younger than Harry and a son the twins' age. Remus, on the other hand, took longer to get back on his side. Apparently the old Harry kept insisting he was evil because of his 'furry little problem'. In fact, he had only just gotten into Remus' good books when he had saved their daughter Marie Lupin from falling 50 feet when she stole his fathers' broom.

This got him to his current predicament. Marie was 7, like Sirius' daughter May… and they both just happened to have a crush on him. He's 8 for god sake! And the girls just wouldn't quit. Every time they were around they vied for his attention. It was getting on his nerves!

"Harry, watch this!!!" – May

"No, Harry, watch this!" – Marie

He'd had enough… "Girls!!! Please, I just want to read my book. If your going to be noisy, can you please at least be a bit quieter so I can concentrate? Thank you…" he sighed and got back to his book. The silence seemed to last… for about 10 seconds.

"Watcha reading Harry?" Marie asked.

"Master level defence? Does it have any unicorns?" May added.

"Mom!!!" he moaned. The two girls faces fell.

"Harry, if you don't like us, you could just tell us…"

"Is it cos of that couties rumour going round? Cos I swear it's not true!"

"It isn't some damn couties rumour! For gods sake, can't you two shut up for one minute?!" he yelled. The two girls ran out the room crying and Harry felt miserable. He tried to turn back to his book, but he just couldn't concentrate knowing he'd made those two cry. He sighed and marked the page he was on before rushing outside.

After running around the house he came to the wood and went further in. About 5 minutes later he heard someone sniffling.

"…I mean, did we do something wrong? What did we do?"

"I don't know… it's the first time he's shouted at us since… well, since he started being nice." This made him feel even worse, and with a quick wave of his hand he summoned two roses.

He stepped into the little clearing and sat between the girls. "Look, I'm very sorry about hurting you, but sometimes you've got to give me some room." He handed them both a rose each. "I know that you just wanted my attention, but I want to learn as much as I can before Hogwarts so that Neville doesn't manage to flaunt what he knows in front of everyone… you don't want Neville to be the best student in the school do you?" he asked, faking horror. The two giggled. "If you two promise to give me time to read when you're over, I promise I will only read one chapter, then come and play. What do you say?" he asked.

"Okay… but you've gotta remember! You've promised!"

"Yup, no backing out of it!"

He chuckled and nodded. "No backing out of it." He then took their hands and stood up. "Now, since I've read a chapter today, what do you want to do?" after two hours of tag he knew he was going to live to regret ever saying this.