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Sorry for the long wait, I hope to get more regular again soon!

Harry slept almost till noon. He had a quick lunch of toast and eggs and spent the day wandering around the almost completed house, feeling like a tiger in a much too small cage. Did he love Hermione? It was so unfair! How should he know anything about love? Of course, she was very pretty, and fun to be around, well most of the time, actually, she could get quite exhausting when she felt that he and Ron were slacking off, or when she got on her high horse – like with the house elves – but she was always there for him.

"You don't need to marry every girl you kiss, you know, Harry? Just because your father had decided on your mother so early, there is no reason that you need that, too. I have had several boyfriends, and none of them wanted me to be some else." Tonks lifted her eyebrows. "Not that they objected when I suggested it."

Harry shivered. "I didn't need that image, Tonks."

"You're a prude, little boy. Tonight, you are with Ernestina, and I will personally kill you if you let your musings about your best female friend influence this evening. You'll be the Boy-Who-Was-Ripped-Apart-By-Tonks, oh boy of too many hyphens."

"Tonks, please."

"Promise me to keep an open mind. You are not going steady with anyone, so let the night just come up on you." She stared in his eyes.

Harry sighed. "I promise."

At three p.m., they arrived at the Greengrass apparation point a few yards out of the Greengrass grounds. Two wizards in formal robes stood at the entrance gate, and in the distance, some more could be seen, obviously guards. Behind which they could see a wide, well kept lawn and a white-gravel path leading up to a late Tudor manor house with several small towers. "Good afternoon. I am Harry Potter."

"Indeed, sir. If you would wait for a moment, Mrs. Greengrass will be here momentarily."

A few seconds later, an older woman appeared out of the thin air. It took Harry a second to understand that he stood in front of Ernestina's grandmother, not her aunt. He took in a breath, then bowed before her. "Master Potter. None of this. Pleased to meet you. She extended her hand, and Harry kissed it. When their eyes met, it became clear that his behaviour had met her approval. "You look a lot like your father at your age. I hope you are not as much a rascal as he was." Her words were stern, but her eyes gave her humour away.

"Thank you for inviting me here, Madam."

In this moment, the air in front of them flared, and Ernestina appeared, completely at ease and in a beautiful dress. She started to Harry, but caught herself when she recognised her grandmother. She drew herself up, and Harry had the time to really look at her. Her long hair was sleek and framed her face in which a little lipstick and mascara accentuated her beauty. Her dress was even more beautiful than in the picture. She sank into a small curtsey.

"Master Potter, I think you should remember to breath."

"You look great, Ernestina."

"Thank you, Harry. May I show you around?"

She led him up the path, and along the side of the manor house into the park. At the back, there was a flight of three terraces, and below that, another lawn with white tents, open to the warm afternoon air. From one of them, music sounded over the lawn. "You are among the first. Now come on, I want to introduce you to the family." She took his hand and pulled him through the open back doors into a huge hall. Two girls were sitting on chaise-lounges, dressed up almost as pretty as Ernestina herself. "Master Potter, may I introduce you to my cousins Daphne and Astoria?"

Harry bowed to them. Daphne grinned. "Master Potter. A pleasure." She rose and presented her hand, which Harry kissed. "So you are the one who set me up to correspond with Hermione Granger, hm?"

Harry nodded.

"She's not as bad as I thought she was. But she can be exhausting."

Again, Harry felt it safest to just nod.

Astoria, however, looked a bit pale. "Did you write to me, too?" She cupped her head in her hands. "There you go. Harry bloody Potter writes to me and I tell him to shut up." She shot a look through her hands at Ernestina. "You're not going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Are you going to show some manners to our guest, Astoria, or are you going to spend the night at your room?" A regal voice enquired. Harry turned, and bowed again in front of an older woman. "Aunt Clarissa, may I introduce my date for tonight, Master Harry Potter?"

The woman nodded. "Harry, this is my aunt."

"Madam, how do you do?" Harry still felt slightly ridiculous with this motion, but what could he do?

"Very well, Mr. Potter, and I hope you enjoy yourself."

"Very much. How could I not, with such a wonderful date?" He shot a short glance at Ernestina, and was rewarded with a slight blush.

"Is grandfather still upstairs?"

"No, he is down, greeting the first guests. Master Potter will have to wait till later. Now, why don't you just take a little walk and be back at the tents around four?"

Ernestina nodded at the dismissal and let Harry out of the house into the gardens. "You wanted to see how we wizards keep our gardens, didn't you?" The garden had much in common with the formal baroque gardens of France and Southern Germany, with elegantly kept roses, low hedges in geometrical figures and a small labyrinth, which Harry did not really want to enter. Ernestina seemed a bit disappointed about that, until he explained with two words: "Triwizard's Tournament." Then she hung her head in shame. Harry however, did not let this small event shadow the afternoon. When they arrived in a water garden behind the labyrinth, he quickly looked around. No one was in sight. Hesitantly, he turned to the fountain in the middle of a small basin, took her hand and pulled her closer to him. She didn't hesitate, and stood close to him. Harry took a deep breath, let go of her hand and put his arm around her waist.

"That feels good, Harry."

He nodded and turned to her. "You will tell me if I do something wrong, won't you?"

"I will, and you won't. It's relaxing, isn't it?" She nodded to the fountain.

"This is like the garden I would love to have. A bit smaller, obviously, but a lot like this." After quite a few minutes spent in companionable silence, Harry cleared his throat and reported his meeting at the seamstress. "Would you want to meet her?"

"Do you think I could function in your world well enough?"

"I am not sure. Right now, she would likely find you odd. You did well enough when we were shopping, but this would something different. But of course, we would mostly talk about the fantasy world we live in. So..."

"I would have to ask Uncle Raginald, but I think I would like to." They slowly walked back the garden path, down to the lawn, where by now quite a few people were standing between the tents, drinking tea and talking.

Daphne and Astoria were in a gaggle of girls and a few boys from school. With most girls, it took Harry a few glances to find out who they were. They looked quite different than in the robes they wore at school. He had never noticed how many pretty, even beautiful girls were at Hogwarts. A quick glance at his date showed him that he had scored very high, though.

"You haven't met any of them socially, right?"

Harry shook his head. He knew most of them, some were even Gryffindors, but they had not been introduced in the manner he had just met Daphne and Astoria. To his surprise, a few of them were half-blood, and even one muggle-born, Justin Finch-Fletchley as a date of Zacharias Smith's younger sister Zoe were among them.

"Then let's." Ernestina led him to the other youths and started to introduce him as her "very dear friend Harry, Heir Potter." Harry saw much more clearly why Ernestina had considered him aloft and a bit arrogant. He could not remember talking more than a few minutes with any of them, maybe with the exception of the DA-members among them. It was surprisingly pleasant to stand with them and talk about nothing more consequential than the chances of the Houses' quidditch teams, the speculations who would be the next defence instructor and how they looked forward for the dancing. Of course, holding Ernestina's hand for the whole time helped a lot, too.

At half past five, they disengaged from the others. Ernie motioned him to one of the terraces, where three young people stood, a bit apart from the many wizards and witches holding teacups, sandwiches and little cupcakes. "I thought you wanted to meet them, too."

Harry grinned and led her up the stairs to his friends. "Ms. Lovegood, Lord Longbottom, Lord Black, may I introduce my very dear friend Ernestina de Bokken?" Neville's teacup fell down and was only just saved from bursting on the flagstones by a quick spell by Luna. All three showed different stages of mirth, while Ernestina seemed to shrink a bit. Neville recaptured his cup, placed it on the marble balustrade and kissed Ernie's hand. "Ms. De Bokken, would you mind if I took my very old friend, Mr. Potter, with me for a second?" Ernie shook her head, still blushing, while Neville placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, still shaking with mirth.

Harry shook his head, dejectedly. "Ok. My very old friend translates as: This bloody idiot. So what does my very dear friend mean?"

"You are getting smarter, Harry. When a girl says that, she means: The guy I have the hots on. And don't even think of touching him. I have sharp fingernails. Do you want me to claw out your eyeballs? When a boys says it, it means: Leave your bloody fingers away, you shithead. She's mine."

"So how should I have introduced her?"

Neville turned back to Ernestina, who was animatedly talking to Ron and Luna and eyed her critically. Nonchalantly, he admitted: "You know, I think that maybe it was quite appropriate. But what you wanted to say, most likely, was: my dear friend." He smiled. "Meaning: Hey look, didn't I score a looker?"

"Will I ever learn?"

"Sure. But you being you, it`ll take quite long. Although, with an incentive as cute as Ernie, maybe quite a bit shorter." He motioned in her direction. "We should get back."

When they returned, Ron turned hesitantly to Harry. "Are we in the clear?"

Harry nodded. "Absolutely. So how is it?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Mum is angry. Mostly at Sirius, but some at me, too. I mean, it's not as if I had any choice? She is afraid that I will go dark now that I am a Black. Doesn't make for the best atmosphere at you-know-where. And Dad has turned completely mad. I spend the mornings with Diggle. You know, that old lawyer you bagged? He's teaching me deportment and pureblood politics. It's even more boring than Binns, and I'm not allowed to sleep through that class. I never knew that he could take all this so serious." He sighed. "You know Hermione at her worst?"

Harry nodded.

"Diggle's about ten times as bad, and he isn't even cute." He laughed. "Hermione is cute, Harry. Even I see that. Scary as hell, sometimes very much exhausting and much too much a nag some of the time, but she is cute."

"You may have something there, mate." Harry sighed.

"Did you know that there thirteen different kinds of knifes you can use at the dinner table? Not counting the serving silverware. And that the right way to eat a lobster is to float it and the lobster fork? Not more than three inches over the dish, mind you. And of course,..." He waved absently. "I spare you the rest, Harry. Believe me, it is not interesting at all." Suddenly, his face lit up. "Maybe I can invite you and Ernestina for dinner with Luna and me?" He then shook his head. "No, Mum would be against it. Maybe later?" He finished hopefully, and Harry grinned. "Only if you don't serve lobster. I wouldn't have the foggiest idea how to eat it."

Ron grinned evilly back. "That's the point, Harry, that's the point. And as a guest of honour, you would have to carve the duck." His grin grew to demented proportions. "What else? Oysters, of course, maybe..."

"I get your point, Ron. Don't let yourself be invited to Black Manor for dinner or you will be shamed mercilessly."

"Right." They both grinned, then stopped. It had grown silent on the terrace.