Chapter 37 is here... Enjoy!

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Rdocjpo Rvs – 19919

John read the note he had received, crumpled the paper and threw it away.

It was finally the morning of Ron's arrival at 4, Privet Drive. With the assistance of Ron's father, they had arranged for a floo network connection to the Dursley's house. It was 15 past 11 in the morning when Ron appeared from the fireplace.

"Ron... you are here! Let me take that for you," greeted Harry and took Ron's trunk from him. Ron dusted himself and gave Harry a small hug.

"Hi Harry," said Ron with a mild smile.

"Hello, Ron... I am Petunia, Harry's aunt," greeted Petunia.

"Hi," replied Ron awkwardly.

"What are you wearing?" asked Dudley looking confused. Ron had arrived wearing wizard robes.

"Dudley... This is my cousin Dudley," said an embarrassed Harry pointing at him.

"This is Ron?" asked Daisy shocked.

"Yes," replied Harry bemused at such a question.

Daisy got close to Harry's ear and whispered, "you never told me he's cute."

Harry's face went redder with embarrassment and he glared at Daisy angrily and then glanced back at Ron.

"Ron... this is Daisy," he said. Ron acknowledged Dudley and Daisy with a nod but nothing more.

"Let's go upstairs," said Harry and guided Ron to his room. Ron was going to stay with Harry in his room. Daisy tried to follow them up but got a strong nod of disapproval from Harry.

A few minutes after they had entered Harry's room, Ron spoke up.

"You've got a nice house," said Ron sitting down on the bed.

"Thanks, Ron... it isn't much, but it's home," replied Harry taking a seat beside Ron. After a couple of minutes of silence, Harry continued, "I'm glad you came here," he said.

"To be honest mate, I wasn't going to... But Fred and George... according to them, I needed a breath of fresh air," replied Ron.

"Oh... well, that's what even my Aunt thought," replied Harry. Ron gave a puzzled look and Harry continued, "yeah... she was the one who gave me the idea to invite you over. I would have thought of it myself... but with what happened to..." he added but stopped mid-sentence. He had been meaning not to talk about Ginny, but that ship had already sailed.

"After what happened to Ginny... Why did you stop, Harry? Might as well say it, the whole world is talking about it anyway," snapped Ron.

"I'm so sorry, Ron... I didn't mean to," stuttered Harry.

"Compassionless gits... all of them," cursed Ron, angrily.

"How is she doing?" asked Harry.

"She's the same... nobody has a clue what to do," replied Ron, sulking.

Harry felt extremely sorry for Ron and more than that, he felt helpless. He wanted to cheer him up, but without coming across as insensitive. But for now, he left him alone with his thoughts. Harry decided to deal with another thing meanwhile.

"Daisy... there's something I wanted to talk to you about," said Harry as he walked into the hall.

"Are you going to do it?" asked Dudley.

"Do what?" asked Daisy, excitedly. Harry gave a confused look to Dudley.

"He likes you," said Dudley grinning at Daisy.

"Dudley, piss off," snapped Harry.

"If you wanted to be alone with her, all you have to do is ask nicely," trolled Dudley, frustrating Harry even more.

"Oh, Harry! You like me?" asked Daisy blushing.

"What? No... he's just being stupid," replied Harry with a red face.

"You don't like me?" retorted Daisy instantly with a mix of sad, serious and shock on her face.

Harry's stomach twisted for a second. He couldn't believe what was happening in front of him. But it only took him a second to realize. But by then, Dudley and Daisy had burst out laughing.

"Oh my god! Seriously?" exclaimed Harry holding his face.

"We got you..." said Daisy still laughing and proceeded to high-five Dudley.

"Haha... very funny," remarked Harry sarcastically.

It took a few minutes for the laughter and teasing to end. When it finally ended, Harry wasted no time in getting back to the topic.

"I do have to talk to you though," said Harry.

"About what?" asked Daisy.

"I was in trouble at school because of you," said Harry.

"Because of me?" asked Daisy, still giggling.

"Yes, because of you," replied Harry.

"What did I do?" she asked, surprised.

"Well, you told someone from the Ministry of Magic that you knew about us... I mean wizards and witches, magic, etc. There was this lady, sort of like the police who questioned me about it," replied Harry.

"What?" asked Daisy, shocked, her expression had turned serious.

"Yeah... Well, I tried to lie, but she saw right through it. Someone from the ministry is going to come to your house soon to wipe your memories," replied Harry, with a very serious face.

"They are going to do what? I won't let them," protested Daisy.

"Daisy... they are witches and wizards. How are you going to stop them? They will come to your house... Remove all memories of magic. They might arrest you too... There is this wizard prison far away. That's where they send the muggles," added Harry. He had not intended to make this conversation a prank, but he realized this was his perfect opportunity for revenge.

"Harry..." gasped Daisy. She was almost in tears. "They can't... they can't wipe my memories," she added, a few tears rolling down her cheek. "I never told anyone about you... I promise," she continued. But that's when she noticed Harry's face. There was an unmistakable twitch, one that he always had when he tried to control his laughter. Just as Daisy's expression started to change, Harry could no longer control and it was his turn to burst out laughing.

"Yesssss" exclaimed Harry, pumping his fists in the air.

Daisy dived at him in anger.

"Don't you..." she said punching him in the shoulder, "ever" she punched again, "ever dare do that to me again," she finished with another punch all the while Harry continued laughing.

"Ouch... that hurts," said Harry but he didn't stop laughing. "You should have seen the look on your face... Absolutely priceless," remarked Harry as he finally stopped laughing.

"I'll get you back for this Potter"

"You started it," retorted Harry.

"It was technically Dudley's prank," argued Daisy.

"You were in on it," argued Harry back.

"Doesn't matter... Yours was much worse," replied Daisy.

"But seriously... I was in trouble at school. You did give it away that you knew about magic. And if my Professor hadn't interrupted, your memory would probably have been wiped," said Harry.

"Harry... don't joke about this," pleaded Daisy.

"I'm not joking... all of this actually happened," replied Harry.

"But I never told anyone," retorted Daisy.

"Did anyone ask you about magic or me or anything about this?"

"No"

"Well, either that woman came herself or she sent someone else, but she knew that you knew," replied Harry. Daisy sat in silence for a couple of minutes. So, Harry continued, "Be careful, that's all I can say," he added.

"I'm always careful," retorted Daisy but once she got a glare from Harry, she corrected herself, "I'll be careful."

"Okay... So I need your help now," said Harry.

"With what?" she asked.

"Remember when I told you someone attacked a girl in our school?" he asked.

"Yeah... that's why they cancelled your exams," replied Daisy swiftly.

"Right... So, that girl... Uh... she was Ron's sister," said Harry cautiously, partially whispering.

"What?" asked Daisy shocked. Harry nodded in response. "Oh my god, Harry... How is she doing?"

"She is alive... but still not conscious..." replied Harry.

"What do the doctors say?" asked Daisy.

"They don't know what's wrong with her... But that's not why I told you that... I need your help in making these few days that Ron's going to be with us, a happy one. I was thinking, maybe we can show him the non-magical world, you know roam around the city, have fun..." replied Harry hopefully.

"That's all? We can certainly do that and more," replied Daisy excitedly.

As it turned out, having a good time with and around Ron wasn't all that difficult. For one, Ron found the most basic muggle things like escalators and telephones fascinating. One day, Ron, Harry and Daisy spent an entire afternoon going up and down the escalator at the mall.

"These are like moving staircases, Harry," said Ron excitedly. Daisy looked bemused at his fascination.

"Yes Ron, they are," replied Harry going along with it.

"Are you sure magic wasn't used to do this?" asked Ron.

"No, Ron... it's just electricity and uh... technology," replied Harry. Unlike Ron's knowledge of how things worked in the magical world, Harry's knowledge of how muggle technology worked was scarce. And hence he used the word technology whenever he couldn't explain how something worked.

And on another evening, Harry and Daisy had taken Ron swimming. The concept of swimming was difficult for Ron to understand.

"Why would you want to swim?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't you?" retorted Daisy.

The fact was, Ron had never done it and nobody had ever taught him how to swim. In fact, swimming wasn't even something anybody did for fun in the magical world.

"Come on Ron, it'll be fun," reassured Harry.

Whether or not the swimming was fun, only Ron would be able to answer. But, playing and splashing the water around was definitely fun.

While returning from the nearby lake, they even got to play with a street dog. Enormously big, the black dog also happened to have really big eyes and it seemed to follow Harry around everywhere they went. And it only left Harry's side when they had to enter the house.

The other part that Ron enjoyed more than he cared to admit were video games. At first, he found them boring. But Dudley's definition of video games helped change that.

"You can do things in here that you can't do in real life... that's what makes it fun," he explained. "Like, you can't fly in real life. But if you see here," he added and pointed at his screen, "I can fly for as long as I want... Of course, I have missions and people to kill, but we can always restart."

Ron stared blankly at Dudley and then at his screen and then back again at Dudley.

"Dudley... we can fly," said Harry laughing.

"Yeah, we have brooms for that," added Ron.

"Brooms? The ones you use to clean your house?" asked Daisy, confused.

"They are like magical brooms... And we don't use them to clean stuff," replied Harry, struggling to describe the difference without sounding crazy.

And just like that, the 4 kids had a blast of a couple of weeks. From topics like Quidditch, Boxing, Football and other sports in both worlds, to foods that existed in one but not in the other world, from fashion styles to movies and entertainment, the 4 of them had indulged in discussing everything. And what Harry had wished for had been accomplished. He had somehow managed to make Ron keep aside the events of the Chamber of Secrets and enjoy his life a bit.

One afternoon, the 4 of them were in the hall playing cards. Ron had just gotten the hang of the game called "All of a kind". Right in the middle of the game, the doorbell rang and all of them looked at each other.

"I'm not going... It's not my turn," said Dudley.

"Daisy... open the door will you?" asked Harry, politely.

"Why should I open the door? You open the door," she retorted.

"Please? Just this once..." pleaded Harry. "I'll get you anything you want," he added. The doorbell rang again.

"Will one of you open the door?" came the voice of Petunia from inside.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," replied Daisy and got up. "I'll take that deal," she said looking at Harry and dashed to the door.

A few seconds later, Daisy's voice came from outside, "Harry... there is someone here to see you."

"To see me?" wondered harry out loud and went to the front door. "I swear Daisy if I don't see somebody standing there looking for me, you're..." said Harry as he made his way to the front door, but stopped mid-sentence as there indeed was someone standing.

"Hello, Harry... I am Remus Lupin... how are you?" greeted Remus.

PS - I tried to write something light-hearted for a change... Hope some of it brought a smile to your face...