Chapter 06

The library was not the largest in the world, with Surrey only being a small city the library reflected that size. It was still big enough that Harry doubted he could read everything in it before he managed to leave the Dursley's for good.

Grabbing a book, one that held historic battles of the Roman Empire, Harry made his way to the back where several comfy couches were for reading purposes. When he reached the reading area, he saw that there was somebody already there. A petite, cute girl around his age with short brown hair, brown eyes, and a look of slight impatience on her face. The girl looked up when she heard his footsteps and a smile lit her face.

"Harry!" she squealed, drawing a glare and "Sh!" from the librarian, which she basically ignored as she latched onto Harry in a hug.

"Lisa," Harry greeted with only the smallest of sighs as he returned her hug with one of his own, albiet, much less affectionately. Long time dealing with the girl had pretty much given him a handle on how to deal with her, but that didn't always make dealing with her any easier.

Lisa Crawft, he had met the girl somewhere around three years ago, about a year after he started his martial arts training. He had found her being bullied by Dudley and his friends for some asinine reason. At the time, Harry had still been a somewhat troubled youth. Despite his training with Master Wei, he had been quick to anger. Seeing Dudley picking on someone had reminded him of all the times his cousin would hit him, and he had seen red.

After what could have only been described as a beat down, Dudley had ended up with a broken arm, two broken fingers, and a bruised torso, and the only reason he had not gotten worse injuries was because a passing teacher saw them and broke them up.

The Dursley's had not been too happy either, but they had not been able to do anything due to their fear of him. Master Wei on the other hand had found out and made his displeasure quite clear. Harry still shuddered when he thought about his teacher's punishment.

In spite of the violence he had unleashed upon his cousin, Lisa had become enamored with him. The next time he had seen her at school, she had latched onto him, proclaiming that he was her hero and had proceeded to follow him around whenever classes ended. Harry hadn't been too pleased by that at first, but later on learned to accept it. He had even discovered that there were benefits to be had by her befriending him.

One of the many benefits was that people found him more approachable, this allowed him to learn how to interact with others. He would never befriend any of the children he went to school with, they were just too different, but that didn't mean it wouldn't be good to learn the inns and outs of school yard politics, which is the basis for how humanity interacted with each other as a whole.

It didn't matter how intelligent or driven someone was, without knowing how to properly interact with others one could only go so far.

Moments later the hug ended and Lisa pulled back, a scowl marring her face. "You're late," she huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and sending him a mildly annoyed glare.

"Sorry," Harry apologized with a shrug as he walked over to the couch Lisa had been sitting on. "I got caught up in my spar with Master Wei." As he finished speaking Harry sat down and opened the book to the first page. Lisa stared at him for a moment longer, before sighing and moving to sit down next to him.

"Honestly, I don't understand what a bookworm like you actually finds so fun about getting beaten up on by an old man," Lisa said, causing Harry to shrug once more. She was a girl, so of course she wouldn't understand what drove him to master his martial arts, nor could she understand the thrill he experienced while in combat. It was something most females just didn't seem to grasp, he noticed. There were plenty of benefits he gained from his martial arts training as well, a strong mind and body being just two of those things.

His thoughts were interrupted when Lisa leaned over his shoulder to look at the book he was reading and crinkled her nose.

"Ugh, history Harry? Really? Don't we read enough history at school?" she asked, her voice a tone of disgust. Lisa was never one for heavy reading like him, and what books she did read had absolutely nothing to do with anything school related.

"I like history," Harry replied without missing a beat. They had debated his choice of literature many times, and it always ended up the same, Harry not willing to give into Lisa's words, and Lisa shaking her head in dismay at his choice of reading material.

The last time they fought over what he read it had been when he found himself immersed in a book on psychology.

"I know you do," Lisa said with a tone of resignation. She perked up a second later however, and held out the book she had been reading. "Still, wouldn't you rather read something like this?" 'This' as his friend so eloquently put it was a book with a purple background covering. What really drew the eyes however, was not the color of the background, but the cover. On the cover were two half naked people, a man and a woman, their lower halves covered only by some kind of sheet. The male was on top of the woman, his hand resting against the lower left side of her back, while her hands were tangled through his hair. It was a rather erotic image, and unfortunately was not that unusual a covering for the books Lisa read.

It was titled Seduction of a Highland Lass.

"Why would I ever want to read something like that?" asked Harry, honestly confused. Why anyone would want to read some trashy romance novel about fictional characters that wouldn't be out of place in the Conan the Barbarian Comic books he had read once was beyond him.

Lisa didn't seem to like his tone and huffed. "You just don't know a good story when you see one. This isn't just some trashy romance novel, it's an epic tale about..." At that point Harry began reading his book and made it a point to pretend he was no longer listening. It was unfortunate, but with his eidetic memory, every word the girl spoke would still be imprinted into his mind, so all he could do was pretend and hope she got the hint and stopped talking.

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