Harry glanced at Neville, then his godfather. Sirius gave him an encouraging smile, so it must be all right.

He hoped.

Harry had never had any friends before. Kids played with Dudley, but they were as mean as his cousin was. They pushed him, tripped him, pulled his hair. Aunt Petunias and Uncle Vernon (especially Uncle Vernon) laughed and told them to keep at it.

But Harry learned how to run, fast, and they were almost as fat as his cousin, and it became harder for them to catch him.

Unless they cornered him.

Neville didn't seem like Dudley or Piers or any of the other boys. He looked almost scared.

If Neville tried to hurt him, Sirius was in the next room. He would stop him.

"I have a puzzle we can play with," Harry offered, slowly. "Do you want to see?"

Neville's face broke out into a smile. "Okay!"

Harry walked over to the half-finished puzzle, Neville following behind him. He half wanted to run away, but didn't. He would be brave.

The puzzle didn't show the full picture, of course, but it was on the box. It was of a meadow, with a waterfall and the sun and happy clouds in the background. Sirius said it was two hundred pieces, which sounded like a lot, but then Sirius had chuckled and said that there were puzzles that didn't give help and were over a thousand pieces!

"I started this yesterday," Harry said, as they sat down. "The puzzle pieces are magical and give help."

Neville nodded. "Gram gave me one of those for my birthday."

"When was your birthday?" Harry asked, picking up one of the pieces.

"July 30th," Neville answered. "I turned five."

"I turned five on July 31st," Harry volunteered.

"That's very close to mine!" Neville laughed. "Only a day apart!"

Harry grinned. Yes, they almost had the same birthday.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Harry asked.

Neville shook his head. "No. And you don't either."

"Just a mean cousin, but I don't live with him anymore." Harry made a face. "He has two bedrooms!"

Neville looked aghast. "Why?"

"He has a lot of toys, but he breaks them," Harry explained.

"Is he clumsy?" Neville asked, his voice soft.

"No, he just gets angry whenever my aunt and uncle say no," Harry clarified. "Or if he feels like it."

"That's...very bad," Neville murmured.

Harry nodded. Now that he had his own toys, he wanted to take very good care of them. He even felt bad when he hugged his stuffed animals too tightly, but Sirius had promised that stuffed animals liked big hugs from little boys who loved them.

Between the two of them, and the help from the puzzle pieces, Harry and Neville finished it in almost no time. They stared at it for a bit, admiring it, before getting a little antsy.

"I don't know what we should do next," Harry admitted. "I have other toys upstairs, but I think we're supposed to stay here."

"We could ask?" Neville suggested. "Maybe your godfather would say yes."

Harry chewed on his lip. Uncle Vernon would have been furious (and so would Aunt Petunia) at being interrupted, especially when other people were there. But Sirius never got angry.

"I think we should stay here," Harry decided.

Neville looked a little disappointed, but he didn't object. "We could try working on the puzzle, again. Maybe, we won't need any help this time!"

Harry smiled. "Okay!"

They took apart the puzzle, and worked on it again, trying not to listen to the puzzle's advice. Neville thought there must be a way to make it stop giving advice, but neither had wands, and besides, they didn't have enough magic to be able to do charms on a puzzle.

Once they were finished for the second time, Neville glanced at Harry, as though looking for something to say.

Harry, feeling rather the same way, broke the silence. "Does your Gram live with you and your parents?"

Neville shook his head, then nodded. "She and Gramps take care of me. My parents can't-Gramps says they're too sick. They live at St. Mungos, and we visit them a few times a year. They-they don't remember much, and think I'm still a baby."

Harry swallowed hard, then impulsively hugged Neville. "Maybe, the Healers will be able to help them feel better soon! Then, you can all live together."

Neville hugged Harry back. "I hope so."

They were quiet for a few minutes. Harry, once again, spoke first.

"Sirius says that wizards like us do accidental magic. Have you ever done any?" he asked, curiously.

But Neville shook his head. "Not yet. Gramps says not to worry, I've only just turned five, and lots of kids don't do any accidental magic until they're six. My uncle Algie says that if I don't do any by then, they'll have to test me, make sure I'm not a Squib."

"A squid?" Harry tried very hard not to laugh at the image of the boy taking on the form of a deep sea creature.

"Squib. With a 'B' at the end," Neville corrected, pronouncing the "B" in "Squib" with great precision. "It's someone who's from a magical family, but doesn't have magic."

"How do you know if you're a Squib?"

"You don't, not until you're at least six. If you haven't done any magic by then, you're probably one. And it's dreadful, because it's like being a muggle, only you're with witches and wizards all the time." Neville's face darkened, like he was about to cry.

"Well, I haven't done any magic, either, and I'm five years old. If you're a Squib, I probably am as well!" Harry reassured Neville.

Neville furrowed his brow. "You can't be a Squib. You defeated You Know Who as a baby."

Harry shrugged. "But I haven't done any magic since. Maybe...maybe it took all my magic to defeat him."

Neville considered this, then shook his head. "No, that can't be. If you had enough magic to kill You Know Who as a baby, you should have a ton of magic. Maybe, it's just resting for awhile."

"Maybe," Harry agreed. "And yours is, too!"

Neville laughed. "You're nice, Harry."

"So are you, Neville!" Harry decided. "I hope you can come back and we can play again. And I can show you my stuffed animals."

"I'd like that," Neville agreed. "And you can come over to my house, and you can see my toys, too."

They grinned at each other.

Sirius appeared a few minutes later, all smiles. "How are you two boys getting along? Having fun?"

"Yes!" they both answered.

"Sirius," Harry began, looking up at his godfather, "can I show Neville my stuffed animals?"

Sirius opened his mouth, then glanced at his watch. "Well, Neville's grandmother needs to leave soon, so why don't you bring your favorite down? He can see the rest next time."

Dudley might have thrown a temper tantrum-no, he definitely would have thrown a temper tantrum-but Harry wasn't about to misbehave in such a way. So, even though he felt a little disappointed, he nodded.

"Can Neville come with me?"

Before Sirius could answer, Neville's grandmother entered the room, with Uncle Remus behind her. "There you are, Neville. Are you ready to go home? Thank you, Sirius, this was such a lovely idea."

"Harry's just going to run upstairs and show Neville his favorite stuffed animal," Sirius explained.

The older woman's looked rather like Aunt Petunia's, just for a minute, but she nodded. "Very well."

Harry raced upstairs to his room, and removed the first stuffed animal he saw. The big brown bear might not be his favorite, but he didn't want Neville's grandmother to be angry at having to wait. Then, he ran downstairs, nearly tripping over his feet in the process, but regaining his balance at the last moment.

"This-" he said, panting a bit, "-is my stuffed bear."

He held it out to Neville to hold, and the other boy took it in his hands very carefully. "Can I give him a hug?"

"Sure!"

Neville hugged the bear with great care, and then returned him to Harry. "Thank you for showing me him." Then, he glanced up at his grandmother, and then at the two other adults. "Thank you for inviting us."

"Thank you for coming over," Sirius and Remus said, in unison.

"Yes, thank you!" Harry put in. "It was lots of fun."

With smiles all around, they led Neville and his grandmother to the sitting room, where the older woman lifted up the child, and they disappeared into the flames.

Author's note:

This chapter was rather difficult to write, and didn't go in the direction I had intended. Maybe, that's for the best. I anticipate Harry meeting Sirius' cousin Andromeda and her family, next.

I don't usually promote my works in other fandoms, but I'm going to make an exception this time. My mom recently gave me some VHS tapes that contained many (though, unfortunately, not all) of a TV show I watched as a "tween." It was a wonderful science fiction show that aired on Nickelodeon in the late 90's, called "Space Cases." My early works on this website were Space Cases fanfic-and having written them as a teenager, I'm sure they were really, really bad. But, having rewatched the episodes I have saved, plot bunnies overtook me, and I tried my hand at writing for this fandom again.

If you had any interest in the show, or want to check them out, they're called "Meanwhile, on Yensid" (incomplete) and "After 'A Friend In Need'" (complete).

Thanks, as always, for reading this far!