Suppression

A Boring Day

Harry decided not to question how he got a dreamless sleep for the first time in months but inwardly knew t that it was because of Hermione. He went to bed last night with a smile on his face as he remembered the day he spent with her. It was positively wonderful.

With a smile writ on his face, Harry rose from his bed and felt more energetic than he felt in a while. It was amazing how much one good night of sleep could do to the body. Checking his alarm clock, he noticed it was just after nine which meant Dudley was awake and expecting breakfast.

Harry rushed down the stairs, still wearing his goofy smile, and began to prepare pancakes for his cousin and himself. Dudley arrived shortly after and greeted Harry with a pat on the shoulder.

"My parents are coming home in three days, Harry," Dudley called while seating himself on the counter.

"Okay," Harry replied without looking as he flipped the pancakes expertly.

"They're not going to be as nice to you as I've been."

Harry knew this and accepted that his home life was about to be much harder when Vernon and Petunia returned. As it stood, though, nothing was going to wipe the perpetual smile off of his face. He needed only to think of Hermione to forget about his troubles and worries.

Once the pancakes were finished, Harry set his and Dudley's plate down before eating in silence. He watched as Dudley devoured six pancakes, burped loudly, and patted him on the shoulder on his way out to meet up with his mates. With him now left in solitude, Harry mentally attacked the problem of fixing his motorbike. With Hermione's visit yesterday, he figured he could owl her for help and hopefully convince her to visit again. There was just the small matter that she was sure to disapprove of his plans to ride the contraption. Oh well, he'd cross that bridge when he got to it.

Harry finished cleaning up his and Dudley's plates and did a cursory cleaning of the rest of the house before racing up to his bedroom to finally write to Hermione. As if she knew, Hedwig was already there and waiting for him to begin his letter.

"Hey, girl," he softly stroked her feathers, "I'm sorry I haven't wrote anything."

The owl pecked his fingers in response, causing him to wince in pain before grinning at her. She definitely was mad at him, smart as she was.

"Yeah, I missed you too." He stroked her head again before sitting down on his bed to write to Hermione.

Dear Hermione,
I've recently come into possession of a broken motorcycle and I was wondering if you could help me try to fix it. I understand you're no mechanic but you're also the brightest witch of your age and the most brilliant witch I know. I know that wizards use magic to fix all sorts of things and I was hoping you could help me find out how. I've managed to successfully repair all of the individual parts but there's still the matter of reassembly before I can even hope to ride it. If you're interested, you can visit me again sometime and we'll work on it together, or not, it's totally your call.

Yours,
Harry

P.S  My aunt and uncle return home in three days, so if you're planning to visit again, I would suggest doing it sometime before then.

He looked down at his letter proudly and smirked at himself. He certainly laid the compliments on thickly, but it was worth it to have her visit against. He hoped she wasn't busy enough to visit him and promptly attached the letter to Hedwig.

"Go girl," he petted her once more, "stay if she needs to reply."

Hedwig soared into the midday sky with Harry watching her as she ascended far above Little Whinging and set off to the Granger Residence.
                                            ———
That afternoon, Hermione was pouring over her summer assignments as she made revisions over them. Living up to her reputation as the brightest witch of her age, Hermione had completed her assignments on the first day of the summer before vowing to spend the rest of the holiday to make revisions as needed.

The witch didn't want to admit, but she was feeling quite bored throughout the day without Harry. Granted, she'd only spent one day with him, but that one day turned out to be the best one of the summer. Now, it seemed that any day without him was mere filler. Still, she reasoned to herself, she couldn't visit Harry again so soon after her last one.

The girl continued her revising until a sharp peck at her window alerted her to the presence of Harry's faithful owl, Hedwig. In a flash, a wide grin spread on her face at the thought that Hedwig was carrying a letter for her. A letter from Harry. The day, boring as it was, just got so much better.

She quickly retrieved and unfolded the letter before reading through it in blistering pace. As she scanned through every sentence, her smile grew even wider before she sighed happily and clutched the letter to her chest once she was finished. Harry had invited her over again to help him with his little project. While she didn't completely approve of it, she wasn't going to say anything to him.

"Hedwig, can you wait for me?" Hermione asked the owl who looked almost affronted at the request. She laughed at the owl and stroked her feathers. "He must have told you to wait, right?" The owl hooted. "Okay, just give me a bit."

She quickly penned her reply, a quick acceptance of his invitation, and attached it to the willing owl's leg. "Go girl," she called before watching as the owl soared into the auburn sky.

She thought herself a fool as her smile seemed permanently etched on her face, giving her the look of a clown. Even so, the girl did not care one bit. Nothing could ruin this day.

Hermione rushed down the stairs after taking a moment to compose herself and raced to her mother in the back garden. She was nervous at the prospect of asking her mother to visit Harry again right after visiting him yesterday, but she contained it well. Despite her nervousness, however, a jubilant smile kept creeping onto her face as she thought about spending time with Harry once more.

"Someone must have given you sugar, you're all hyper," her mom called to her without looking up from her hydrangeas, a smirk writ on her face.

"Mother," Hermione groaned.

"Well what is it dear?" her mother asked

"I was..." Hermione gulped nervously, "hoping you'd let me visit Harry again tomorrow." She smiled weakly at her mother.

"Hmmm, twice in three days?"

At her mother's strict gaze, Hermione blushed beet red and avoided meeting the woman's eyes. She shuffled her feet like the nervous daughter she was and waited for the response, hoping that it would be what she needed to hear.

"Well," her mother paused for dramatic affect apparently, "I suppose you can go to this boy's house."

Hermione nearly whooped in pure joy and made to race away before her wrist was clasped by her mother.

"Be home by nine, and no funny business."

Once again, the teenaged witch blushed and mumbled out a halfhearted denial to her mother, "Mother, I will do nothing of the sort." She removed her wrist from her mother and made to turn away once more.

"I'm sure you won't. One of these days you're going to have to bring this boy over," her mother turned back to her flowers, "I should like to meet this Harry Potter that my little girl has given her heart to," she added slyly.

"MOTHER, I HAVE DONE NO SUCH THING," Hermione exclaimed reproachfully.

"Sure you haven't, now off you go."

Hermione stomped away, not caring if she looked like a petulant child as she did so. The nerve of her mother to think she knew how she felt about Harry. He was just a friend. A devilishly handsome friend with wonderfully hard muscles, her traitorous mind called.

"Shut it, you," the flustered witch exclaimed to her treacherous mind that would not shut up.

"Dear, I just came home," her father said, alerting her to his presence and looking confusedly at her.

"Arghhhh," the poor girl yelled before retreating to her room with haste and leaving her beyond perplexed father in his wake.

"I'm not even going to ask," the tired man told himself after sitting down. "Not worth it."