Chapter 29

You want to explain what's going on?!" Gwen hissed once she, Harry and Peter had managed to get a corner table in the canteen.

"She's the thief from the party," Harry whispered, looking around the room in case she happened to be nearby. When he couldn't see her he turned his attention back to his friends. "She stole the stuff and I chased after her, it lasted longer than I thought it would to be honest."

"Then what happened?" Peter asked.

"Well, we got into a bit of a fight," Harry explained.

"Did you win?"

"Of course he won," Gwen cut in.

"Umm..." Harry coughed.

"You lost?!" Gwen gasped. "How the hell do you lose? You've got spider-powers!"

"Bit loud," Peter whispered.

"Oh sorry," Gwen quickly apologised before looking around once more to make sure nobody had overheard her. "But still, how did you lose?" She asked Harry.

"I wouldn't say I lost," Harry frowned. "Just that I am not entirely sure that I completely won. Though, I did complete my objective, so yeah, I won. I beat her." He smiled just as a tray of food suddenly was placed on the table.

"Yes, you did," A voice purred just before Harry felt an arm wrap around his back while another wrapped around his stomach. He jumped slightly in his seat and looked to his right to find Felicia had sat next to him. "You big, strong, bad boy." She purred before kissing his cheek, she smiled at the surprised look on his face before looking at his two friends. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend," She said in a conversational voice as she looked at Gwen.

"We're not together," Harry and Gwen said in perfect sync.

"Wow, did you practise that?" She asked in an amused voice.

"Are you two together?" Peter asked, pointing between Harry and Felicia.

"No," Harry said just as Felicia responded with a "Yes,", she have him an exaggerated pout when he looked at her.

"Oh, are we not together?" She said, pretending to be sad. "You just used me and threw me away like I'm nothing,"

"I'm going to actually throw you in a second," Harry warned, sounding irritated.

"Why? I'm just here to get to know you and your friends," She said innocently.

"You don't even know their names,"

"Well, in that case, perhaps introductions are in order," She smiled.

"Fine, I'm Gwen, Gwen Stacy." Gwen started in a polite voice, trying her best to not show any negativity towards the girl.

"And who is this handsome one?" Felicia asked, staring at Peter.

"I'm Peter, Peter Parker." Peter introduced himself with a blush on his face.

"Aw, your friend is cute," Felicia told Harry.

"Who the hell are you?" Harry couldn't help but ask.

"Were you not paying attention earlier?" She sighed as she finally let go of him so she could pick up her knife and fork and start eating her food. "That's quite disappointing, but anyway, just like I said earlier, my name is Felicia Hardy."

"Not what I meant, what I want to know is why the hell you were at my father's party and why you were stealing shit?" Harry asked in a quiet voice. "And why the fuck are you in my school?"

"I'll answer your questions if you answer mine," Felicia replied calmly.

"What questions?"

"Oh, I have a lot of questions," Felicia chuckled before looking at Harry. "For starters, perhaps you could explain to me how someone, who by all accounts is just another rich boy, is so comfortable jumping around and flipping off rooftops? Or perhaps you want to explain to me why you're so good at fighting?"

"I watched the Karate Kid," Harry answered in a serious voice with a straight voice. "Along with the legendary works of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee."

"If you don't want to give me a straight answer then don't expect one back," Felicia shrugged.

"Why are you hanging out with me?" Harry asked.

"Because you smell nice," She answered in a dry voice before she continued eating.

"Fine," Harry said through gritted teeth. "When we have a free period then you and I are going to find a spot together."

"Oh?" She asked in an intrigued voice, licking her lips.

"To talk," Harry added.

"Oh?" She said, sounding undeniably disappointed. "Well, if that's all you want to do when you're alone with a pretty girl then maybe you're a bit more messed up than I thought," She said in a thoughtful voice before she went back to eating, ignoring Harry's glare drilling into the side of her head.

"I'll have my wallet back by the way," Harry said, holding his hand out expectantly.

"What?" Peter asked as Gwen blinked and caught on before giving Felicia a disbelieving look.

"Hmm," Felicia smirked before pulling out Harry's wallet, she dropped it into his hand before leaning forward and whispering into his ear. "I like it when you get all demanding." She reached forwards and playfully bit his ear.

"Damn girl," Harry pulled his head back. "Do I need to get a bucket of cold water?"

*Line Break*

"Hmm, this ain't bad," Felicia thought as she found herself alone on the school roof with Harry. She looked around, taking in the view.

"Glad you approve," Harry rolled his eyes. "So, what are you doing here? You came to this school for me?"

"Wow, someone's got a high opinion of himself," She chuckled as she finally stopped looking around so she could focus on him. "No, darling, I didn't come to this school 'just' for you, you being here is just a lovely bonus. And for your information, I was enrolled in this school before the party. Today is just my first day here."

"And why were you stealing from my dad's party?" Harry asked.

"I'm a bit of a kleptomaniac," Felicia admitted.

"Kleptomaniacs don't just casually sneak into an Osborn party," Harry replied.

"I'm a massive kleptomaniac," Felicia shrugged. "Truth be told, I figured that since I would come to school I'd have even less time to myself and I wanted to get in one big score before that happened."

"You're being pretty open about your choice of profession," Harry noted. "You ain't worried that I'd tell someone?"

"No," Felicia smirked. "Besides those two little friends of yours, and maybe one or two close people that you might have, you won't tell anyone. Because that could lead to you being questioned as well. Remember, you were jumping around rooftops with me, I'm sure people would be curious to know where you learnt to do all that. And you like your privacy,"

"Why would you think that? You don't know anything about me," Harry pointed out.

"Don't I?" Felicia chuckled. "You chased after me with no hesitation, no ordinary kid just jumps on a wire and slides down to foot chase a thief, you're a good fighter so you've had some level of training but I don't think you've been training long, seems to me like a lot of it is natural talent. You definitely value your privacy because the first thing you did was try and cover your face, why would that be? Why not take the glory of stopping a thief? If I am wrong then prove me wrong, go and tell everybody how you stopped me." She gave him a challenging look.

"What do you want with me?" Harry asked bluntly.

"I want to get to know you," Felicia answered, simply and honestly.

"Why?" Harry asked.

"What's up with all of the questions? Are you supposed to be Socrates or something?" She rolled her eyes.

"I ask a lot of questions because you are a very confusing individual," Harry said, resisting the urge to join her and roll his own eyes.

"Welcome to the female species," Felicia smirked as she stepped closer to Harry. "I want to get to know you because you're interesting, do you know what all of these other boys are like? Boring,"

"That's a bit sexist," Harry pointed out.

"Shut it, you know I'm right," She replied. "I've seen kids half as rich as you with an ego twice your size,"

"Oh, yeah, those are annoying," Harry commiserated.

"See, you understand, there's something off about you, Osborn, and I'd like to find out what," She grinned. "I love a good mystery."

"Take it from someone with experience, mysteries don't always lead to a good thing." Harry told her.

"Perhaps not, but I still want to find out more," She replied, stepping even closer and making sure he was looking her in the eye. "You told me that you had a soft spot for thieves, why does the rich as hell Osborn kid have a soft spot for people who steal?" She asked only to stop when Harry suddenly grabbed her hand which was reaching into one of his pockets. "And why are you so good at that? I've done that on old guys, rich guys, poor guys, young guys and even a boatload of girls but I was never caught before you, do you steal, Osborn?" She smiled up at him, Harry kept his face blank as he let go of her hand. Instead of backing away from him, she placed both of her hands on his chest and looked up at him. "Do you steal, Osborn?" She repeated. "Do you like the thrill of it? Do you enjoy it?" She whispered before she reached up to kiss him, unfortunately for her, she was stopped by Harry who gently pushed her back.

"You're trying to tell me that you're only goal so far is to get to know me?" He asked sceptically.

"Hey, sometimes people are needlessly complicated, other times they're as simple as water being wet," She shrugged. "I want to know you and I am interested in going out with you."

"My dating experience isn't great,"

"Mine either, but just give me a chance," She said, stepping back. "That's all I'm asking for, just think about it," She added before she turned and walked off.

*Line Break*

"So, what happened?" Gwen asked as she, Peter and Harry were in Harry's bedroom. Peter was sat on Harry's bed, Gwen was sat at his desk and they were both facing Harry who was hanging upside down from his ceiling.

"A tale as old as time," Harry said, "Girls continue to confuse the fuck out of boys,"

"It's hardly our fault you boys are all such simpletons," Gwen said with mock-superiority.

"That's sexist," Peter accused, playing along.

"She said that she was interested in me," Harry continued. "Apparently, I am interesting,"

"You? Really?" Peter asked sarcastically, staring at Harry who was hanging from the ceiling just by his feet. "So, are you going to date her?"

"I am thinking about it," Harry admitted.

"So, you're first choice of girls ended up being a gold digger, you're second choice is a theif who stole from your father's party?" Gwen asked, raising an eyebrow.

"First of all, they weren't my choices, they chose me and I just didn't say 'no'," Harry argued. "Second of all, I said that I was thinking about it. Now, can we discuss something else besides my love life?"

"I am more than fine with discussing something besides that disaster," Peter agreed, ignoring Harry's half-hearted glare. "What do we want to talk about?"

"How about your magic?" Gwen asked Harry, causing him to freeze.

"Magic?" Peter asked before remembering their earlier conversation. "Wait, you think that magic is real?"

"I think it could be real," Gwen answered honestly. "We live in a world where people can turn into lizards and crawl walls, my disbelief is nearly all but permanently suspended now."

"Yeah, but those are all things that come from science," Peter argued. "Doc messed around and ended up experimenting on himself and becoming a lizard, Harry got bit by a radioactive spider that had been subjected to a crap ton of experiments, that makes much more sense than magic. that's just pure nonsense."

"Peter, these days we can store the entirety of human knowledge into a small rectangle that we can fit into our pockets," Gwen said pointing at her smartphone that she had left on Harry's desk. "We can travel hundreds of miles an hour in a giant man made machine that can fly through the air whilst transporting large amounts of people and we can send messages to the other side of the country in a second, all of that would be indistinguishable from magic a few hundred years ago, it would be unreal a hundred years ago and today that's just the norm."

"I get what you're saying, but that's all still science," Peter pointed out.

"Magic is just science that we don't understand yet," Gwen argued.

"That's according to Arthur C. Clarke, who if I remember right, wrote science 'fiction'," Countered Peter.

"And like I said, a lot of the stuff we have today would fit into what people of the past would only imagine," Gwen smirked before she looked up at Harry. "You're being awfully quite, aren't you?" She asked.

"I don't know if I can do magic anymore," Harry frowned.

"What?" Peter asked but Harry ignored him and continued.

"I don't know if it's a change in my body or something else, but I don't know if I can do magic anymore," Harry sighed. "I wish I had my wand right now."

"A wand?" Peter repeated with disbelief. "You used to have a wand?"

"Yeah, it helped focus my magic,"

"Wait, hold up a sec," Peter interrupted. "Are you trying to tell me that magic is actually real? Let's say for a second that I believe that, why would you have kept it from us and where the hell would you even have learnt magic?"

"I still have some secrets that I'd like to keep to myself," Harry answered honestly. "Before you ask, it's not that I don't trust you, it's just not something I like to look back on. Either way, I don't think I can do magic right now, I don't have a wand."

"Do you definitely need a wand?" Gwen asked, Harry could tell that she was resisting the urge to question him about his secrets and he was very grateful for that. He knew that if it was Hermione then he'd likely be getting badgered into revealing something.

"Why do you ask?" Harry frowned.

"Isn't there anything else you can use instead of a wand?" Gwen asked.

"Like what?"

"I don't know," She said in an annoyed voice. "What other things do magical users use?"

"Hmm," Harry looked thoughtful, the other two quickly became quiet when they saw that he was thinking. It was about another minute later when Harry's face lit up as an idea came into his head. "Idea!" He smiled before he dropped down and flipped in mid-air to land on his feet. "Gwen, you're brilliant!" Harry said, he quickly kissed her on the head before he grabbed his notebook and a pen.

"What's going on in that crazy head of yours?" Peter asked, still feeling confused by his friends belief in magic while Gwen was blushing slightly.

"Runes," Harry grinned