Chapter 6

She had grown her hair out since he had last scene her during Christmas. What had once been short hair that stopped exactly at her shoulders was now down just a few inches past them. She had also styled it into princess curls, which Harry actually thought looked quite nice on her from an objective standpoint.

"Hey, Harry," Lisa greeted with a bright smile before the two shared in a quick hug. It was actually becoming much easier for Harry to show the girl physical affection these days. Ever since Christmas when he realized that he had not been the best friend he could be to his best friend, Harry had made a concerted effort to treat the girl better and not just show her affection on rare occasions.

When they broke apart, Harry offered the girl another smile as he complimented her on her choice of wardrobe.

"Those clothes look good on you," he said, grinning just a tiny as he saw Lisa's cheeks flush with red as blood rushed to them. It was always interesting to see the normally confident and loud Lisa Crawft embarrassed. Such events only ever happened during moments like these. He had actually read about it in some of his psychology books, how even some of the most confident people became inexplicably shy when they are complimented or praised by people who are important to them.

Well, so long as those important people aren't parents at any rate. He had actually read that most children tend to get annoyed when their parents compliment them. Of course, it was usually produced by embarrassment of a sort as well. It came about when children wanted to be seen as adults and didn't want their parents coddling or embarrassing them in front of their peers. He had seen many examples of this on his way to school when children would be dropped off by their parents.

Of course, all of this was second hand knowledge he learned from a book or observed from Lisa's interactions with her mother. Since his parents had died when he was one, Harry had no real experience with embarrassing parents.

"Thanks, Harry," Lisa mumbled, her head tilted down as she stared at her feet, the left of which was currently making circular patterns on the ground.

"So is your mum ready?" asked Harry, bringing Lisa out of her embarrassed state and focusing on the present.

"Almost," Lisa said, taking Harry by the hand and pulling him inside. "She's still getting dressed, I think."

Harry shut the door behind him with his free hand as his best friend proceeded to drag him into the living room. The pair sat down on the couch and Harry proceeded to listen to Lisa as she told him everything there was to know about the second half of her semester at school.

"So how was it at your boarding school?" Lisa asked carefully, her voice suggesting she was still a bit put out by him going to a school that was not hers. He understood her feelings, even shared them to an extent, though he did not regret going to Hogwarts.

"It was enjoyable," Harry replied, earning an eye roll from Lisa at his use of a word with more than two syllables. "I learned a lot, more than I would have at any other school I should think." At least he learned more than he would have at any non magical school. Harry was unaware of whether or not there were any other magical institutes aside from Hogwarts, though he assumed there were at least a few in other countries.

He looked back over at Lisa to see her frowning a little. Guessing that it was because of him actually enjoying school without her, Harry scooted a bit closer, close enough that he could wrap an arm around her shoulder.

"I did miss my best friend very much though," Harry added in a slightly softer tone. And it was true. While he had actually made a number of people he considered friends, surprising since his initial plans for his friends was to simply use them in order to cement his power base within Hogwarts and beyond that after they all graduated, that did not change the fact that he had missed his best and first friend terribly. "School wasn't quite the same without you."

Lisa gave him a grateful smile before leaning her head on his shoulder.

"I missed you lots too," she said, her tone and way of speaking sounding a bit more childish than it normally did. It just went to show Harry how much she had really missed him. Thanks to his continued presence, Lisa had quite the vocabulary, and was normally a bit more eloquently spoken than the average twelve year old because of it. That changed when she was experiencing strong emotions like now. Unlike Harry, who was quite literally a walking dictionary, thesaurus and encyclopedia all in one, Lisa tended to forget the more complex words she knew during occasions like this.

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