Chapter 9

Harry

When I woke up, it was 8:37. After having a quick shower and getting dressed, I realised - to my complete surprise - that Teddy was still asleep, so I decided to check up on him. Considering that he was a three year old boy, I found him in his cot, a toy truck driving around. A mini broomstick was floating around, as he tried to catch it, and it reminded me of when I was a Seeker, trying to catch the Snitch that hovered just a few centimetres too far away from my outstretched hand.

After dressing and bathing him, and giving both him and myself a spot of breakfast, I at down on the sofa and put on the T.V.

"What we gonna wat' Harry?"

"What do you want to watch?"

"Ummm... FIREMAN SAM!"

"You wanna watch Fireman Sam?" He nodded, "Okay, I'll see if it's on." It turned out that it wasn't, but to prevent any tantrums or anything like this from happening, I had long ago bought a video tape for the mini-metamorphahgus.

"When he hears the fire bell chime,

Fireman Sam is there on time.

Putting on his coat and hat

In less than Seven seconds flat

He's always on the scene, Fireman Sam!

And his engine's bright and clean, Fireman Sam!

You cannot ignore, Sam is the hero next door!

Driving down the busy streets,

Greeting people that he meets

Someone could be in a jam

So hurry, hurry, Fireman Sam

He's always on the scene, Fireman Sam!

And his engine's bright and clean, Fireman Sam!

You cannot ignore, Sam is the hero next door!" Sang the "magic muggle box", and a three-year old who only knew parts of the tune.

I watched in amusement as Teddy stared at the screen in amazement and awe when Sam rescued a cat from a tree.

"Harry?"

"Yeah buddy?"

"When I'm older, I want to be a fireman like Sam."

"Really?"

"Yeah. What do you want to be when you're an adult?" I chuckled slightly.

"I am an adult Ted."

"No you're not." He insisted, a serious edge to his tone.

"Um... yes am."

"But you don't look like Sam or Bob the Builder! Or any other adult! So you're not an adult yet!"

I accioed my Auror hat which we only had to wear when there was an inspection, or when we had to go out in public to arrest someone or do field work (it looked like a black police hat), then put it on.

"How about now?"

"Now you're an adult." He said seriously.

"Okay... do you want to wear it?" I paused the T.V whilst he debated. Then, he nodded his head.

"Yes please."

"Here you are then." I gently placed it onto his head, and smiled as he giggled when it covered his eyes.

"Hey, who turned out the lights?"

I laughed. "Is it dark in there?" He nodded again, making it wobble. If Ginny was here, she'd be going on about how adorable it was. I got my camera and snapped a picture of it - I was sure that Andromeda would appreciate it. Before he hurt himself (i.e. Before he wandered off still wearing it), I took it off and sent it back upstairs. Then, I resumed the show. The day passed smoothly, although in was unsure why Ginny wasn't back yet - it was 5:30, and she said she'd be back before 4!

No sooner than the worry started to ease it's way into my mind, I heard a loud CRACK come from the living room. Hurrying in, I found Ginny, Angelina, Katie, Alicia, Hermione, and Luna. All of them were giggling and holding a lot of shopping bags... uh-oh...

"So Katie, how was your date with Rob?" Hermione asked, giggling and nudging the dark-haired girl who resembled a tomato with a wig. I looked between then all, confused. Then it dawned on me; Hermione said Rob, not Ron. I had been wondering why she would ask how someone else's date with her boyfriend had been...

"Uh- it was good. He is nothing like Malfoy! He was so kind, and sweet, and charming, and all gentleman-like..." The usually down-to-Earth girl was now drifting off, her head with the clouds.

Wait, Malfoy?! He was kind, and sometimes sweet, and charming, and could be gentleman-like...

No. Stop right there. Hinny, not Drarry. Bad Harry.

"Aww, it sounds great! I can't believe we all judged him so quickly though..." Ginny exclaimed.

"Yes, it sounds good. But I guess that it shows that no matter how much you don't want it to be true, you're always gonna be slightly judging, and sort people just by looks. We always get told that we should never judge a book by its cover, but we do anyway. It's like... I might not buy one mobile because of the keyboard colour, but I might buy a different one because it's a colour I like. It's like Harry, who's confused about what we're on about and is secretly judging us right now - even if he doesn't realise it. We categorise people all the time without meaning to." Luna said, going into a lot of depth.

When she mentioned me, the girls all turned round, looking for me, yet only spotted me when I caught Ginny's eye - I guess my shirt blended in with the old-fashioned wallpaper.

Ginny

I caught the eye of a raven-haired, emerald-eyed boy who was casually leaning against the doorframe. I strode over to him, and hugged him.

"Hey there, what's that for?" He asked gently, stroking my hair.

"I just missed you." My voice was muffled again this shirt, "Can't I miss my fiancé? Can't I hug you because I feel like it?"

"Of course you can, love. I just thought that perhaps you were upset about something, and needed comfort." I pulled away from him, and he looked down to me, breaking into a smile.

"Well I'm fine, thank you very much."

"Glad to hear it. Although, I'm not sure I'm going to be alright - look at all these shopping bags! What have you been doing, seeing who can buy the most clothes in a certain amount of time?!" At this, Ange, Katie, Alicia, Hermione, Luna, and myself laughed.

"No, silly! We've been wedding shopping. Well, wedding dress shopping."

"Have you got it then? The dress?"

"Nope. I've got a sombrero hat though."

"Ha ha ha. Very funny. But on a more serious note... what did I hear about Malfoy?"

"Oh don't worry love, we just ran into someone who looked like him."

"W-"

"But it wasn't actually him of course - it was just that he was blonde, pointed chin, pale face, and grey eyes." Angelina interject before he could say a word.

"Yeah, and he didn't have a Dark Mark, which is permanent, meaning that you can't get rid of it at all, not even with a concealer charm, or any muggle way. But anyway, then he asked Katie out on a date! And since when would Malfoy ask out a Gryffindor?" Alicia continued.

"Fair enough I guess. Anyway, how come you're back so late?"

"We lost track of the time... sorry!" I exclaimed.

"No worries. Hey, can I get you guys anything? Sorry, really impolite of me." I smiled at how gentlemeny Harry was, let alone Rob.

"Oh, I'm fine thanks." Ange said, shaking her said slightly. Harry gave everyone questioning looks, and went to the kitchen to get the "orders".

As soon as he was out of earshot, the girls started gushing to me.

"Aww, he's so sweet!"

"You're so cute together!"

"Yeah, checking that you're okay and everything-"

"And then smiling as soon as he looked down at you!" Just as this was said, the man himself walked in, laden with a tray if drinks.

"Of course I smiled at her." he said, setting the drinks down. "She's beautiful, kind, amazing, and mine." At the last word, he came to me, and put an arm around my waist, drawing me closer to him. However, it was only another trigger for the others (mainly Ange, Katie, and Alicia) to start talking about how "cute and sweet" we are together, and about how we're "a perfect match".

The comments seemed to make Harry all the more happy, and as we sat down on the sofa, I curled up to him.

"You okay love?"

"Never better. Well actually, I am a bit tired... shopping all day and a sleepover last night... not the best combination for my health, but at least we've got dresses sorted. That's one thing to tick off the check list."

"Hmm. Well I was going to get dinner on in a bit anyway, so you can just relax, and I'll bring it to you. Perhaps you can play with Teddy or something, yeah?"

"Teddy's round?"

"Yup, has been all weekend. He's been dying to see you, and I got the cutest picture ever!"

We stayed talking, and once drinks were finished, and everyone had gone, Harry - true to his word - brought the three year old to me. We played whilst Harry cooked, and eventually Harry brought through the plates and two glasses of Rosmerta's mulled mead.

"And here's some big-boy drink for Teddy!" He said, setting Ted's beaker down on the table. After feeding Ted, we put him to bed.

Then, we returned to the table where the food was still warm. I tried a bit of the salmon that Harry had prepared, and was amazed at how delicious it was.

"Wow Harry, where did you learn to cook this?! It's brilliant!" He blushed slightly, and shrugged.

"How'd you think Dudley became so uh... "rounded"...?"

"You cooked for them all?" Another shrug.

"I didn't really have much choice. It was either cook for all, or have no dinner and get locked in my cupboard."

"Hang on, you weren't kidding about sleeping there?"

"No..."

"Were you kidding abut having to do all those chores? Or-or any of those punishments?"

"No..."

"So you mean to tell me that you slept in a cupboard under the stairs until the age of eleven, had to cook or go without food, and were forced to do chores such as cutting a hedge, and cleaning with all sorts of chemicils and weird things, and that if you didn't, you'd get no meals, locked in a small, enclosed space, or hurt? Harry, that's child abuse!" All I could see was red.

"I know, but what can we do about it now?"

"Visit them? I'd like to give them a piece of my mind-"

"Calm down, love, let's decided tomorrow. Just enjoy the meal, and relax."

"But either way, I will see them. I've been wanting to for a while, but now I have different intentions."

"What were your original ones?"

"Just meet them really. I mean, they'll be my in-laws. But now-"

"Listen, calm down or you'll wake Teddy. But I promise that the day after tomorrow we'll-we'll sort out the date. But you're moving in tomorrow, so that's all I'm thinking about for now, okay?"

"Okay." I said grudgingly.

"Good." With that, we tucked back into the meal, yet I had only one thought running round my mind:

I'm meeting the Dursleys.

A/N: Yay, I got it up within the week! So, you guys asked for more Hinny moments, so I tried to add a bit if Hinny to it.

Anyway, I just wanted to say a humongous thank you to you all; last week on Wednesday, I reached 5,000 reads on this book! And right now, it's at 5,659! That's like 100 per day! So thank yooou!

Also, I'M GETTING A NEW PHONE! WHCH MEANS THAT I'LL BE ABOE TO WRITE/UPDATE MORE OFTEN! Whoooo!

Questions:

1) What did you like in the chapter?

2) Favourite part of the book so far?

3) What do you want more of?

4) What do you want less of?

5) I was thinking about maybe doing a contest thing at a certain amount of reads? Perhaps 10k (so not for a while). What do you think of this? How many people would actually enter?

6) Did anyone spot that Doctor Who reference?

7) I was thinking of doing a Scorose fanfic, whatcha think?

This is getting really long now, so I shall bid you all goodbye.

Farewell

I love you all!

-Alice xox