A year in the life of Harry Potter

Chapter 2: July, 29

Harry did not get up until after lunch. His aunt had gone up to his room and asked if he is okay, but he'd told her, a bit aggressively, that he wasn't in the mood to talk. So, after hours and hours of sleep, two packets of wafers and a long shower the young boy made his way downstairs into the living room where his relatives sat, watching TV.

"Do you want something to eat?" Petunia asked, already standing up.

"No, I'm alright," Harry muttered, sitting down next to Dudley who stared at the television screen as if in trance, stuffing potato crisps down his throat. He took one and bit into it, the crisp crushing between his teeth.

"Harry," Vernon warned, looking away from the TV. "You know what Ted said. Nothing that contains too much calories."

"I know, I know," Harry said in a low voice, staring up at the ceiling, annoyed. For the last half a year he had gotten more food, but none of the fatty luxuries Dudley had grown up with. The only reason he was allowed to eat packets and packets of wafers was because, at the beginning, he'd said he'd tell someone that they made him do modeling against his will and about what they'd done to him before. After a bit of time and after getting to know Ted and Phoebe and some other models, he started to enjoy it though. However, he made sure that he still got enough wafers to last him a life time.

"Anyway," his uncle changed the subject, taking the TV control and turning the television off.

"I was watching that!" Dudley exclaimed, his mouth full of crisps. His father gave him a warning look and he shut up, still sulking.

"The day after tomorrow is your birthday," Petunia finished where Vernon had stopped.

"Oh, really?" Harry said, his voice breaking with sarcasm.

Vernon gritted his teeth and glared at his nephew. He hated him no matter how much money he brought in, but he needed to be nice to the boy in order to make him feel welcomed, to make him feel as if he did what he did for a good cause. The packets of wafers he ate sometimes cost more than he brought in with his modeling, but it was necessary to give them to him.

"Yes," Vernon said, forcing a fake smile. "But I think we should leave the subject for now."

He'd known it. It would be another year without presents for him. Harry wondered if he'd ever get used to the fact that watching his whale of a cousin unwrap his presents was present enough for him.

"Harry!" Petunia called upstairs from the entrance hall. "Your girlfriend is here! She wants to talk to you."

Harry sighed heavily and got up from his bed. Nothing that had happened so far that day had lifted his bad mood, and the last thing he wanted to do was talk with Josy.

"Hi, darling," Josy said, flying into Harry's room as if she never had heard of the phrase "knock on the door before you enter". She flung her handbag onto his bed and sat down on it. She looked around, looking for something. Then her eyes brightened. "Oh!" she exclaimed as she jumped up, leaped to the desk and took a still closed packet of wafers, ripped it open and took three of the rolls. "To get me calmed down, you see," she said happily. It was clear that she was hyper.

"What are you doing here?" Harry grunted, sitting down on his desk and looking with sad eyes at the wafers in Josy's hand, hold by fingers which nails were neatly painted in a bright pink color. He hated sharing them with people he didn't ask if they wanted one, especially if they had opened a brand new packet without asking.

"Oh, are you not happy to see me?" Josy asked, curling her bottom lip which was covered in rosa lip gloss downwards to show that she wasn't happy at his reaction to her surprise visit.

"What do you want?" he asked, trying to hold himself from shouting at her.

She drew in breath as if she was preparing to dive into a deep pool. "My friends grow tired," Josy suddenly said, turning into the chatterbox she usually was in school. She looked at her fingernails, inspecting them carefully one by one. "They want us to move on, Harry. Holding hands and so isn't enough anymore. They need to get what they want, which is kissing and so on."

"I told you from the day I gave in to your request to be your boyfriend that I don't want anything serious!" Harry exclaimed.

"Times change," Josy said carelessly, standing up. She looked at the bookshelf above the bed, her fingers moving from one book back to the other, acting as if she was reading the titles. Josy drew a random book out and opened it somewhere in the middle, reading the first sentence she saw.

""I can see that you are not satisfied.""

Harry gave her an irritated look. "What?!"

Josy let the book fall down on the bed and moved to Harry. "The meaning of the sentence is that you know I'm not satisfied with what you give me," she purred, stepping towards him.

Harry had had enough time to read the title of the book, and he did not have any idea what that sentence from The Return of Sherlock Holmes : Black Peter had to do with their love life.

Josy leaned forward, gripping his wrists tight. "Kiss me," she whispered.

Harry gave her a bewildered look.

"Piss off!" he yelled, pushing her away from him.

"You know what?" Josy screamed, taking her handbag off his bed. "You're dumped. All the boys in the school would give their lives to go out with me!"

"Fine! I'd have left you anyway," Harry shouted at her.

"We'll see how fast you come crawling back to me," she sneered, slamming the door behind her.

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