Chapter 1: A Forest and a Girl

Harry did his best to chew as quietly as possible, working the rubbery egg between his molars with small, careful movements, so as to not attract his aunt's attention and her inevitable chastisements. He also did his best to avoid looking at his cousin Dudley, who was staring at him with narrowed, piggy eyes from across the table, eyeing Harry's food enviously. His own plate was empty—despite it arriving with twice the amount of food as Harry's, he'd finished it twice as fast. Harry started sucking down the remaining egg as fast as he could before he could lose it. Dudley glared at him even harder but Harry kept his eyes down.

Aunt Petunia swept past his chair as she bustled around the kitchen and swatted the back of his head. "You're throwing egg everywhere eating like that," she snapped. "Eat properly or go back to your cupboard."

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," Harry said sullenly.

Dudley grinned at him from across the table. And then a mischievous look flashed across his face. Something banged into Harry's shin beneath the table, jarring it, jolting Harry with the sudden burst of pain—Dudley's foot. He tried to hide his grimace, but judging by Uncle Vernon's glare he hadn't been very successful. Vernon lowered the paper with an exaggerated flap, before reaching out with one meaty hand and swiping Harry's plate away, dragging it to the other side of the table.

"If you're going to act like an ungrateful brat and not appreciate Petunia's fine cooking then you'll just go without breakfast." He slid the plate over to next to Dudley's empty plate. "Here you go then, Dudley, eat up. A growing boy needs his food." He chuckled as Dudley eagerly started digging into Harry's purloined plate and ruffled his hair. Harry scowled across the table at his cousin, who smirked back at him around a mouthful of eggs.

Knowing any effort to leave the table or to get more food would be met with a negative and another scolding, Harry remained in his chair and sulked silently as his family finished their breakfast. Petunia continued rushing around the kitchen preparing lunches and cleaning up the mess from breakfast without serving a plate for herself, seemingly content with the few mouthfuls she'd grabbed before the rest of the house woke up.

Eventually Vernon finished reading the paper and vacated the table, finally giving Harry an opportunity to scurry back to his cupboard. As he slunk from the table a bony hand snatched the back of his collar and yanked him backwards. The violent jerk nearly made him lose his balance and fall over onto his aunt, but luckily he caught his footing and saved himself even more punishment. He kept his head down, refusing to look up into his aunt's pinched face and reveal the mutinous glare on his own.

"I need the garden weeded and the foyer dusted before the Mellings come over tomorrow. And don't you dare track any more dirt into the house, I've been working myself to the bone to keep it spotless," she hissed down to him.

"Yes, Aunt Petunia."

His chores were hardly needed. They were more of a symbolic statement from his aunt that he was to work to earn his keep everyday and also to prevent him from causing any trouble, which, in her mind, was a certainty should he be given a day to himself. She cleaned obsessively to keep the house spotless and orderly, stalking through the house and periodically rubbing away microscopic smidges of dust and dirt from furniture, while treating the garden with the same level of rigor.

He had already been roped into dusting the house three times that week and had worked all of Friday to rid the garden beds of their nascent weeds. However, Petunia would accept nothing below her impossible standards and any hint of him putting in an insufficient amount of effort would have her swooping down with harsh words and punishments, so Harry attended to his chores, carefully polishing every inch of the hallway with his cloth, tracing its designs with a firm hand and leaving no doubt of it being unblemished.

Then, under the watchful gaze of his aunt, he headed out into the garden under the hot summer sun and set about removing any last traces of weeds and pruning any dead twigs from their plants. The sun was still high in the sky as Harry stood finished in front of his aunt, sweat sticking his shirt to his skin, and a garden pristine enough that he was given the nod that released him from his duties.

A smile burst onto his face as he trotted away from his house and made his way down to the local park, the farthest place he was allowed to roam away from the Dursleys. The park often acted as a sanctuary for him, a quiet, green palace of relaxation, where he could sit amongst the trees and listen to the wildlife that inhabited it, basking in an existence away from his relatives. He would come here when he needed an escape, a reprieve from the toll his family took on him and find the calm to return for another day whenever he felt close to exploding.

He passed under the beginning of the treeline that marked the boundaries of the park and weaved his way through the lines of benches dotted with parents watching their kids run amok. They paid him no mind, invisible among the squealing crowd, as he continued past the playground equipment and entered the wooded area surrounding it. In a few steps he was no longer visible from the park, the density of the trees hiding him from view.

As he walked he brushed his hand along the trees on either side of him, feeling the coarseness of the bark beneath his fingers. He liked to imagine that he could feel the trees answer, responding to his touch with a slight shiver and twist to brush his head lightly with their leaves, a gentle caress that he knew was only a be product of a breeze. The branches swayed around him in a silent dance as they slowly parted to reveal a path through the woods, unmarked but notably less clustered compared to the impenetrable wall of trees around him.

He followed down the path without hesitation, oblivious to the movement of the tree branches behind him as they slowly moved back into position, concealing the path. A few minutes of walking led him to a clearing within the woods where a small stream gurgled peacefully as it flowed down into the ground beneath a rocky outcropping.

Harry paused for a minute and stood still. A wave of calm washed over him, soothing all the aches in his body and releasing the tension in his muscles. In a second his shoes and socks were off, strewn haphazardly along the bank of the stream, and he stepped carefully into the cool water. He made his way to the center of the stream, enjoying the feeling of the loose grit underneath his feet and the cold water kissing against his legs.

The snapping of branches wrenched him back to reality and he whirled around in time to see a girl who looked a little older than he stumble into the clearing. She swung her gaze around the clearing with an expression of wonder as she knocked the dirt from her clothes.

She turned and met Harry's eyes, her own sparkling in excitement. "Oh wow, this place is beautiful. How did you find it?" she asked. Harry stared at her mute in confusion.

"I—uh, well how did you find it?" he responded, a hint of his irritation at her presence slipping into his tone.

She rolled her eyes at him, "I followed you here of course, silly. It really is pretty, I had no idea there was a pond back here—I don't think my parents did either. I can't wait to show them."

Harry's eyes widened and felt his heart squeeze painfully in his chest. "Could you maybe not tell anyone about this place?" he asked hopefully. "Also, it's a stream not a pond, ponds are much wider, and they don't move."

"Why can't I tell my parents?" she asked, purposefully ignoring his correction.

Harry shifted awkwardly from foot to foot as the girl stared at him intently, "It's just, I come here whenever I want to be alone, and relax a little. It's really nice here and if other people start coming here they might ruin it and I won't have it to myself."

She bit her lip and tilted her head to the side as she thought about it. "I guess that makes sense. Mum and dad used to take me to this really good restaurant in London but then a magazine wrote an article about it and we stopped going cause they said, 'the crowds ruined it'," she finished in a mocking squawk, drawing a giggle from Harry. The sound prompted a large smile to break out across her face and she beamed at him from across the clearing. "I guess I can keep it a secret between us," she said as she bent down to pull off her shoes.

Harry grinned. It was too late to keep it to only himself—but perhaps it wouldn't be too bad to share his sanctuary with this stranger; she seemed like a decent enough sort and decidedly un-Dursleyish. Soon her shoes and socks joined his along the bank and she was wading into the shallow stream. She slowly made her way over to him, taking careful measure of each step so as to not slip and drench herself. As she approached she gave him another beaming smile and outstretched her hand towards him.

"I'm Kat." He hesitantly grasped her hand in his.

"Harry."

"Harry, okay." She muttered to herself, trying out the name. They stayed in silence for a while, content to wade around in the stream.

"So, how did you find this place? It was pretty tough just following you here."

Harry blinked and gave her a shrug, "I just followed the path, it leads right here." She stared at him suspiciously, unsure if he was making a joke.

"Path? What path? I had to push my way through tons of branches and trees, and they were so tight I could barely see you most of the time."

Harry frowned. "There's a big path that leads right here, you must've missed it."

"I think I would have noticed a path."

"Well, I would have noticed walking through branches don't you think? It's just right over there," he said, getting slightly annoyed. As he pointed towards the edge of the clearing the trees shook in an invisible wind and the branches slowly swayed apart to reveal the path. He grinned triumphantly at Kat, but she was too busy gawking at the trees to notice.

"How did you do that?" she exclaimed excitedly.

"What are you talking about?" he responded, somewhat puzzled.

"The trees!" At his blank stare she elaborated, "You made the trees move! The branches all started moving like there was a wind, but there wasn't! And then they all parted and there was a path through the trees and it definitely wasn't there before." She started bouncing on her heels as she worked herself up.

He shook his head. "I didn't make the trees move, that's impossible. It was just a bit of wind." She was already shaking her head defiantly before he had finished speaking.

"No way that was just wind. I walked in from that side and I definitely would have seen a path like that!"

"Was too! Look, I'll have to go back to my aunt's house soon. I'll show you when I leave."

Kat seemed to accept that peace offering and went back to splashing around in the small stream, dragging her hand through the ripples and marveling at it through the clear water. Harry sat down on a rock and closed his eyes, letting the stream run over his legs. It was blessedly cool—he felt his breathing slow, the scent of the forest filling his nose, earthy and full. A whiff of sweetness reached his nostrils—faint on the wind but occasionally it would pick up and fill them with a pungent butterscotch-like odor. The sun burned comfortably on the back of his neck, drying the splashes on his clothes with its heat. He opened his eyes and realized the clearing had gone silent.

Kat was staring at him from where she had taken her own seat on a rock. She held a pair of water-smoothed pebbles in her hands, sliding them over each other in a repeating movement, her knee bouncing beneath her elbow.

"You're a strange boy," she said with an odd seriousness that was ruined by her playful smile.

Harry frowned, somewhat offended. "That's a rude thing to say!"

"No—not in a mean way," she said hurriedly, shaking her head. "I just don't think you're very much like the other boys I've met."

"I haven't even done anything!" Harry protested.

"I know!" she laughed, pointing at him accusingly. "You haven't. Boys are always doing something!"

"I'm relaxing. That's what I do here—until you showed up," he said pointedly.

"You're like an old man!"

"Am not!"

"Are so! Grandpas relax!" she crowed, her face lit up with mirth. Harry scowled but there was no real heat behind it. As she continued to laugh at him he felt a small smile tug on his lips.

"Well—at least I don't run through branches because I can't find a path!"

Harry yelped as cold water splashed him. The water in front of him rippled, the surface trembling from where the stone Kat had thrown had landed.

"There wasn't a path! I'm not dumb!" Kat said, scowling at Harry. He felt his chest squeeze at her upset expression.

"Sorry, I—I didn't mean you were dumb. Look, I'll show you where I came in from, okay?"

At her nod they both sloshed their way to the bank and pulled their shoes back on. He strolled back the way he came, Kat hovering over his shoulder with a nervous energy as if she was worried she would miss whatever trick he was about to pull. He gave one last glance around the clearing with a half-smile before ducking under the low hanging branches marking the tree line. He emerged into the welcoming dusk of the path and heard a gasp behind him as Kat entered behind him.

"See," he said with a victorious grin, "it was right here all along."

"No, it wasn't," she whispered back as she stared around in shock. "Look at the trees Harry, look at them. They've moved. Look at the marks in the ground. They've shifted over a bit and the trunks are leaning away from us. Look how they're bent away to make the path!" He followed her finger and noticed that it did seem like the trees were almost shifted away from them—but how could trees have dug those ruts in the dirt? Trees moving on their own power? Ridiculous.

"And the branches too, look at them. Everywhere else they hang low and make it hard to walk around but here they move up above us in the wind and stay away from the path," she said. Harry looked up and couldn't deny that the branches did seem to reach up and away from the path, floating unnaturally in the air in defiance of gravity.

"Well," he stated after a moment of silence, "now that you mention it, that does seem kinda weird. But I'm not doing anything to cause it, I promise."

"No?" Kat drew the word out into the air. Then her eyes widened in realization. "It's backwards! You're not doing it to the trees, they're doing it for you. They led you to the stream. That's how you were able to find it, the forest wanted you to!"

Harry shifted uncomfortably at the thought of how he'd sometimes vented to the air among the trees and how he had been amused by how the wind blowing through their branches had animated them with an almost lifelike quality.

"Why just you though?" Kat pondered as she prodded one of the trunks with her finger. She quickly recoiled, her face grimacing in disgust at the sap on the end of her finger.

"How could trees do this by themselves?" Harry wondered as he gazed around at the trunks around him.

"Well they're alive, aren't they? Maybe these trees are just smarter than usual," Kat offered with a shrug. Harry didn't respond, instead he stepped up to the tree she was inspecting and laid his hand on its bark. This time he paid attention to the shiver that ran through the trunk as it vibrated lightly against his hand. A branch swung down on a nonexistent breeze, seemingly more brazen as if aware of the children's speculations, and gently caressed its leaves across the top of his head, ruffling his hair, before trailing off down his cheek. He stared, startled, at the coarse grain of the bark beneath his palm as the branch swayed back up into its place above their heads.

"Wow," Kat whispered from beside him. The rest of their short journey back to the park was silent. Harry was lost deep in thought as he subconsciously traced his steps back, patting his hand against each tree he passed, while Kat was following half a step behind him, wide eyes flickering all around in an attempt to catalogue every sight. A yell brought both of their attentions back to the present as they cleared the trees.

"Look who it is guys!" a gleeful voice called out. Harry groaned. He had been so distracted that he'd forgotten his normal carefulness in making sure to avoid his cousin. One of Dudley's hangers-on was standing near their edge of the park, excitedly waving his arms in their direction as Dudley and the rest of his group stomped over. Harry met Dudley's beady eyes as he neared, cocky grin plastered on his face.

"I'm feeling nice today, so I'll give you a whole five second head start," Dudley started. "But when we catch you we won't hold back." His nasty grin was matched by the others around him as they hefted the sticks they had found around the park, showing them off to Harry. Harry's retort died on his lips and he froze as Kat shoved past him.

"Leave Harry alone! Why don't you find something else to do!"

Dudley stared at her, momentarily stunned by her appearance. His face quickly cycled through several emotions as his violent instincts warred against his hesitations about girls his age. Eventually his eyes narrowed and his face turned red in an impressive imitation of his father.

"Who are you? Get out of here or you'll get it too." The other boys shifted nervously, reluctant to use force on a girl.

"You're just a great big bully. Harry didn't do anything to you," she stated firmly.

Dudley sneered back at her, "Yes he did—he was born." Kat froze in disbelief as she processed that statement. Apparently deciding that was enough talking, Dudley shoved her with two hands into her midsection, sending her toppling backwards into a bench. One arm slammed awkwardly into the bench as it was sandwiched by her body. She landed on the ground with a thump and a squeak of pain, holding onto her arm. Harry met her eyes and as he saw tears slowly gather in the corners a cold fury started churning in his chest.

"Dudley, stop," he growled. The anger in his voice seemed to surprise the bullies and several took a worried step back. Dudley just laughed and started walking towards Harry, beating the stick against his palm.

"Her dad is a policeman," Harry spat. "If you hurt us he'll come and arrest you." Dudley paused, and the rest of the gang adopted nervous looks.

"Hey, D, maybe we should call this one off, yeah? No need to get the girl involved, they won't always be together you know," one of the boys called out. Dudley shook his head and screwed his face up into a tight scowl.

"He's lying, she would have said that earlier." Harry cursed in his mind at Dudley having a rare moment of cleverness now of all times.

"Go ahead then, Big D, see what happens. I really, really hope you do. Then maybe I won't have to see your stupid, fat face ever again!" Harry spat. The sheer venom Harry laced his words with froze Dudley in his tracks. He glared at Harry, who met his gaze evenly with eyes shining in fury. Dudley scowled and looked away.

"Fine, c'mon guys," he said waving them away. "I'll be waiting for you back at home," he shot at Harry before turning and shuffling away with his friends. Harry watched their retreating backs long enough to make sure of their departure before he stepped over towards where Kat was sitting on the ground. He heard a sniffle and saw her rub her eyes before looking up at him.

"That was a pretty good one, telling them my dad was a policeman," she chirped with a watery smile.

Harry gave her a small smile back before noticing how she was holding her arm. "Are you okay?" he asked worriedly.

She moved her hand away to reveal a bright red gash, small crimson trails running down her arm. "It's just a little cut. I'll be fine." The roiling anger in Harry's chest withered into a frozen pit as she sniffed loudly to hold back tears.

"Oh no, I'm sorry, Kat, I—"

"It's fine," she said, standing back up and holding her chin up. The back of Harry's neck still burned from the touch of the sun, and it felt like it was getting even hotter, beating down on him. "That guy is a real jerk," she said, glaring in the direction Dudley had fled.

"Yeah he is," Harry agreed. "That's my cousin."

"That's awful! Do you have to see him much?"

"I live with him."

"Oh!" she cried and then gave him a pityingly look. "His parents don't make him stop?" Harry shook his head with a snort at the idea of Vernon and Petunia doing anything of the sort. "That's awful," Kat repeated with even more emphasis.

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, but I'm kinda used to it by now."

"Well," Kat said firmly, "I thought I always wanted a sibling—but not if that's how they acted!"

"I don't know, I don't think anyone could be as bad as Dudley."

"Certainly not as big!"

Harry laughed and Kat beamed at him. She held up her arm and frowned at the trickles of blood that had dripped onto her clothes and stained them. "Oh—shoot. I better get back home and get a bandage. Mum's gonna kill me for getting blood on these clothes."

Harry's stomach twisted at the sight of the bright red on her skin. The heat on the back of his neck continued to grow, becoming uncomfortable.

"Wait!"

She paused and looked at him. "What?"

Harry reached out and touched her shoulder. The heat gathering along his neck flared in intensity and then vanished, rushing through his fingertips, leaving them tingling and flushed red. A bright light flashed beneath his hand. Harry blinked rapidly to clear the spots from his vision and stepped back, staring at his hand with concern. He looked up and saw Kat poking at her arm with astonishment. The cut had sealed itself back up, the blood washed away, leaving nothing but unblemished skin. He cringed at the wide-eyed shock on her face.

"I—I've got to go." He spun around and started walking away as quickly as he could.

"Wait, Harry! C'mon slow down," Kat called out from behind him. He kept walking towards the edge of the park, refusing to look back. A hand snatched his wrist from behind and forced him to turn around. "You can't just walk away after doing something like that!" Kat exclaimed.

"I didn't do anything," Harry muttered. "My family will be mad if I'm late for dinner."

She started in surprise. "Didn't do anything? What are you talking about, I know I'm not going crazy. You grabbed my arm and my cut went away. It doesn't even hurt at all." She emphasized by waving her arm at him.

He met her gaze and stared back into her wide eyes, searching for something he couldn't articulate, a reason to turn around and head back home to ignore any idea that he had done something unusual. He searched for more than a second but was unable to find a reason to leave in the wide smile pulling at her lips or her eyes shining in excitement.

"I don't know what I did," Harry said hurriedly, rubbing his hands together nervously. "But please don't tell anyone."

"Why? That was incredible! Why wouldn't you want people to know?"

"My aunt and uncle wouldn't like it. They'd get really mad if they heard about this and I'd get punished."

Kat frowned at him. "That doesn't make any sense. Would they really?"

Harry nodded morosely.

"Hmph. Well then I guess I won't tell anyone. But your family sounds very unpleasant!"

"They are," Harry agreed. Kat sighed and scuffed her foot against the grass. But when she looked up her smile was back in place.

"Well we should go back to my house and at least show my parents."

Harry gaped at her. "What? No way? I just said I didn't want anyone to know!"

"Yeah, I know," Kat shrugged, "but it's my parents. They don't count."

"Yes, they do!"

"It'll be fine," Kat said placatingly. "I'll tell them not to tell anyone—especially your horrible relatives."

"And what if they get upset about me doing weird stuff?"

Kat laughed and shook her head, curls of hair bouncing against her face. "Harry, that's silly. Why would they do that? They're going to be delighted."

And, it turned out, Kat was right. She had led him out of the park and through the series of sidewalks and crossings that led to her house, a mere ten minute walk from the Dursleys, until they reached her house—a modest sized home, similar in appearance to the primly maintained Dursley residence on the outside, but quite a bit different on the inside. Odd flowers and plants lined the walls and were stuffed into every corner, splashing bright green across the muted tones of the house, brightly colored candles and crystals dotting shelves around Harry as he was led into the warmly lit hallway. Pictures of people that Harry didn't recognize lined the walls, occasionally posing with a young girl Harry assumed was Kat, in-between richly detailed artwork of animals within forested landscapes.

Kat's parents had greeted him warmly, politely bending down to ask his name and offer him a snack. When Kat had proudly declared that he had powers they had smiled indulgently and nodded along, congratulating Harry absently, but as Kat went into detail about their escapades that afternoon their eyebrows had steadily raised, and Harry noticed a flicker of interest in their eyes from where he fidgeted at Kat's shoulder.

"Bun, dear?" Kat's mum asked gently as Kat took a breath to chug down a glass of water. Harry nodded nervously and took the offered treat with reverent care. The last time he'd had anything fresh-baked had been at one of Dudleys birthday's two years ago, when he had snuck into the kitchen while Dudley threw a tantrum in front of the TV. This one tasted even better—perhaps because he could actually savor it without the anticipation of being caught.

"And then there was a flash of light and the cut went away! Just like that! It doesn't hurt at all, and there isn't a mark. But look, you can see the blood on my clothes from where it was!"

"Quite a story," Kat's dad grinned as Kat stopped, staring at them expectantly.

"You don't believe me," Kat said plainly, her smile not wavering, unsurprised. In fact, Harry figured she looked a bit excited to be doubted. Perhaps because the reveal of her being right would be all that more satisfying.

"Well, I—not exactly—"

"Kat, sweetie, there are lots of things in this world we don't know," her mum cut in, smiling sympathetically. "But we can't believe everything we hear immediately."

"Yes, precisely!" her dad nodded in agreement.

"Can Harry perhaps show us some of what you saw?"

Harry could see it in their eyes. Neither of them expected him to be able to do anything—but both were willing to humor him for the sake of Kat. Just children playing make-believe. It was the perfect opportunity to pretend nothing had happened, that they had simply made it up, and the adults would smile knowingly and forget about it by the next day, with no chance of any of this getting back to the Dursleys. Only at the cost of embarrassing Kat and possibly losing her trust—a person he had only met not that long ago. But as he chanced a look at her and saw her beaming back at him expectantly, eager and warm, the idea lost all its lustre.

He found himself stepping over to the corner of the room, the movement not exactly conscious, his mind sinking into the current of his instincts. Without knowing exactly what he was doing he reached out and grabbed one of the leaves of the potted plant sitting in front of him. And for a second he was full of an overwhelming sense of rightness.

The leaf swelled in his hands and the plant rocketed upwards, twisting stems and shoots climbing up into the ceiling, scraping across the surface and bending out to hang over the room; leaves unfurled and dangled out overhead, massive waving fronds brushing against Kat's parent's heads. They gaped up at the living ceiling.

Kat put her hands on her hips and looked very smugly at her parents. Their gazes lowered from the green canopy and found Harry. Two smiles, reminiscent of Kat's, joined hers at beaming at Harry.

"Magnificent!" Kat's mum exclaimed. Her dad nodded rapidly in agreement, eyes shining in excitement.

"You're not—angry?" Harry ventured.

"Oh, heavens no, Harry dear," Kat's mum scoffed. Kat turned her smug look on him next.

"I told you!"

"None of that Kat," her dad chided. "Now, Harry—of course we haven't seen anything like this before. But humans have been to able to do very many incredible things, impossible things, before."

"But I imagine never so young! Usually it takes them many decades of study to become so skilled—but we've read many of their teachings before, and about the miraculous things they could do!"

Kat nodded along seriously.

Her dad smiled, looking slightly embarrassed. "We even dabble ourselves a bit—not too much to be unsavory, of course; but small things, simple readings of the world's energy. Star reading, crystal sensing, the like."

"And you can do impossible things with those too?"

"Ah, well," he rubbed his head ruefully, "not particularly successfully. Tricky thing, this, but then again we're hardly experts. But you—clearly you have an incredible talent for it. Here, read through this when you get a chance." He dug around in a drawer behind him, pulling out a few small journal-books and tossing them onto the surface of the desk, before finally pulling at a small red book. He handed it over to Harry.

Across the top, emblazoned in gold, read 'Master Warren's Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment: Steps to Personal Mastery'. Beneath it was a poorly cropped picture of a man in disturbingly ostentatious robes levitating off the ground. Small blurbs near the bottom promised the reader the secrets to telekinesis and mind-reading.

"I'm—not sure this is what I do," Harry said carefully, eyes darting around to find a place to inconspicuously dump the monstrosity of a book.

"Of course, of course, but perhaps it will give you some insight into your own power, no?"

"Maybe," Harry said skeptically. "I—sorry, but its getting late, I probably have to get back to my aunt's for dinner."

"Oh, that's a shame," Kat's mum sighed. At Kat's insistent glare she held back a chuckle. "Actually, Harry, would your aunt allow you to stay here for dinner? We would love to have you!"

Harry blinked. "Oh well, I'm not sure." Kat elbowed him in the side. "I think she'd probably be okay with it," he amended. More like overjoyed at the fact he would be gone for dinner.

"How about you give her a call."

"It's okay, she won't mind," Harry said, more confidently this time.

"Oh, very well then," Kat's mum said hesitantly, as Kat shook her head subtly. "Well, come along then you two, help me peel the vegetables—but not before you wash your hands! Hurry, chop chop!"

Kat grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him down the hallway as her parents followed laughing.