Chapter 114

Brown eyes eventually fluttered open and blinked several times as Lisa's eyesight adjusted to the darkness of the room. She looked around for a second before her eyes landed on her friend.

"Harry..." Lisa was stopped from saying anything else with a long, loud yawn. Acting on nothing more than instinct, Lisa's arms stretched out over her head while her legs began stretching as well.

Harry's lips twitched as he watched. This girl really was too cute for her own good.

"Good morning, Lise," Harry said. Lisa blinked at the new nickname. Even in the darkness he could see the flush on his friends cheeks. "I figured I would let you know your mother is making breakfast so you should probably get ready."

"M'kay. I'll be out in ju..." Lisa's mouth opened widely as she yawned again, stretching the vowel out for a good number of seconds, "...ust a minute," she finished, smacking her lips a few times.

Harry stood up as Lisa made to sit up on the bed. As the girl blinked her eyes blearily, a hand came up to cutely rub the sleep out of them.

"I kinda wish you were the one cooking breakfast," Lisa mumbled for a second as her hand absently went the strap that had slipped down so she could pull it back up. Obviously, his friend was not fully awake yet. "I always love your cooking, and since this is the last day we'll get to see each other until Christmas..." she trailed off a bit, not wanting to continue that line of thought.

"Sorry to disappoint," Harry joked, trying to lighten the mood. It worked, partially at least. Lisa cracked him a small smile. "Anyways, you should get ready. I'll meet you in the dining room."

"Ri...g...ht."

It was not long after Harry made his way into the kitchen and helped Misses Crawft set the table that Lisa came walking in looking much more refreshed. She gave Harry a grateful smile that caused a most unusual feeling to well up in his chest. It felt like a humming bird were beating it's wings in his chest. Lisa's books often called the feeling 'butterflies'.

Harry ignored the feeling as he had done every other time he felt it recently, and sat down next to her just as Lisa's parents came in, Misses Crawft with plates of pancakes and Mister Crawft with a cup of coffee and the morning newspaper.

Breakfast that day was not nearly as bad and dreary as it was the last time Harry was set to leave for Hogwarts. He and Lisa managed to keep up light banter without needing to force the conversation, his friend was even laughing and giving him genuine smiles instead of those watery I-might-cry-at-any-second smiles he had received from her last year. It seemed like she had grown accustomed to him being away for several months.

Harry was not sure that was a good thing, but felt that so long as his friend was hurting less it couldn't be bad.

The morning was made even better because not only did Mister Crawft simply pretend he did not exist, which was a right sight better than the man's usual baleful glare, the bank manager also had to get to work early.

With his new found thoughts on girl's, Harry was actually beginning to wonder if Mister Crawft was just being one of those 'overprotective father' types some of Lisa's stories contained. It actually made a lot of sense in retrospect. Lisa was a very cute girl as he could most certainly attest to. While it was still a year off for most people, other boys would no doubt begin noticing her in the same way Harry had.

That still didn't explain why Lisa's father was being rude to him though. This had been going on ever since they had turned ten. It wasn't like Harry had even thought of Lisa in any capacity other than a best friend until this summer.

Maybe all father's just became overprotective of their daughters once they reached a certain age?

Time past very quickly and before long, Harry found himself feeling a sense of deja vu as he stood in front of the door leading outside with Lisa standing in front of him.

"Well... this is it..."

"Yeah..."

Harry wondered if it was the curse of all people leaving the ones they cared about to have no clue as to what they should say. You would think that after already having gone through this once, he would have been able to think of something, but no, words just seemed to fail him.

Fortunately, Lisa was not at a loss for words.

"I expect you to send me a letter at least once a week."

Harry cracked a grin as Lisa crossed her arms under her chest and gave him an imperious glare that left no room for argument. Leave it to his friend that the first thing she would say to his leaving was a demand for letters. For some reason, it made him feel better that she could still remain herself this time instead of looking like she was about to break down and cry.

"I will."

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