Starstruck

“To burn the witches is to admit magic exists.” 

Erin Anastasia 

       After the first time Harry stayed over at Cherry’s, he stayed over a lot more. Over the next year they had become closer than he was with his own family. He would stay over basically every other night except for when Mrs. Wood was home.

Cherry was very adamant about him not coming over when she was home, but apparently she wasn’t home very often so he wasn’t too concerned. Well, he wasn’t concerned about the times he couldn’t stay over, he was concerned about how long she was alone for. He never pushed her because the subject seemed sore and he didn’t want to ruin the fun they were having because he was curious.

When they would hang out it was so much fun but he really needed to talk to her about something. It had been happening more since he first met her in March. His aunt had always scolded him for it and whenever it happened she would lock him in the cupboard and not let him out. It happened with his glasses once or twice, they would break, then Harry would think about the cost to get the glasses repaired and they would fix themselves. 

The metal would bend and snap back into place while the cracks in the glass would seal themselves up, hiding his mistakes behind something he didn’t understand.

Harry may not have tried to talk to her about her mum, lately Mrs. Wood had been the furthest thing from his mind. He had been thinking about it. Cherrys voice in the back of his mind supplied him with her saying “It” with a funny voice and wiggling her eyebrows.

“Not like- like.. sex,” Cherry had given him a very uncomfortable talk about that. She made some joke he didn’t get, then she asked if he had ever been given “The Talk.” He wanted to erase his mind from the whole evening. Though it did seem to be important information. “Yea, not sex, but.. Magic? Not like, abracadabra.. well maybe abracadabra.” He was confusing himself.

Harry shook his head and sighed, Magic was something that kept coming up and it scared him. 

When he was with Cherry he noticed it happened a lot. He had very many instances, but there were only two where he wasn’t the one who initiated it. Their first sleepover last year had stuck with him. He was going to hit the ground but a pillow flew under his face from the couch, while being directed by Cherry's hand. He had to figure out how to bring up the topic, because he couldn’t just go up to her and be like- “Hey, do you think that magic exists, also are you a witch?” 

Cherry would think he was high. 

Speaking of getting high-

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“Happy Birthday to the both of us.” 

The two kids had been talking about birthdays. Neither of them had really celebrated ever, Harry just singing to himself and Cherry doing lines or going out to a party. They would never tell anyone else this though, just each other.

Harry’s birthday was July 31, 1980. Cherry was just a couple months before him, April first, 1980. Harry didn’t know what April fools day was so he didn’t make the awful joke of asking if she was a joke. Cherry was positively sick of that “joke” and welcomed his ignorance with graciousness.

The two, upon asking each other's birthdays, learned they met each other just after each of their birthdays. They still wanted to celebrate and couldn't wait that long, so on a random day in august the two baked a cake and got each other gifts. 

Cherry got Harry a new pair of glasses, which looked very pricey but Harry was assured by Cherry that she got the 5 finger discount, whatever that was. 

Harry had talked to Kyle and got her a pack of cigarettes. They both began to dig into the cake and enjoy eachothers company. 

Cherry paused for a moment.

“Since it’s our unofficial birthday..” She suddenly ran to the other side of the room and opened a draw. She rummaged through for a minute until she pulled out a small baggie. “I’m gonna have a smoke.” 

She smoked a lot, mostly just cigarettes. When at the playground and when walking into town, though never over at Harry’s house. Harry knew what weed was but he had never actually been around it. Sometimes he wondered about drugs. He had looked them up a few times but he didnt really understand them. Or why Cherry loved them. Personally he never really wanted to do them. 

However he’d make an exception for today. It was their birthday afterall. 

(Half a blunt later)

Harry loved this. They were on the couch, watching slime videos and giggling about nothing. 

“I think we should do this every birthday. Just like…” Cherry trailed off for a moment.

“For a ritual of sorts.” Harry nodded along and continued giggling. 

The two ended up baking and eating two more cakes. When baking the cakes he almost ate all of the batter before they could even make a cake. Somehow Cherry ended up with a singed eyebrow and cake batter on all of her ear piercings. Even though they were both loopy and losing it she was still so elegant and calm. Harry also remembered the way she seemed so happ- HARRY. 

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Harry was shocked out of his memory by his aunt's shrill voice. He went back to the task at hand, breakfast. He was going to tell his aunt that he was gonna hang out with Cherry today. He doesn't know why he still tells her because he goes practically every day now. He was making oatmeal for everyone, and brought it over. He made sure each of them were perfect and he noticed his aunt was in a good mood. 

“Uhm.. Aunt Petunia?” Her mood suddenly turned sour. 

“What.” She didn’t look up at him, and ate her oatmeal with a look of discomfort at him talking to her. 

“Well uh.. I uh.. nevermind. Sorry.” He took a step back and went to the kitchen to start on cleaning. 

“Boy!” His uncle’s voice scared him a bit, “Where is my coffee?” 

“Uh, sorry, it's on Auntie's placemat. I miss-”

A groan came from his aunt, “Auntie? Absolutely not. You can call me Aunt Petunia around others, but since you’re only here for shelter, food, and to leach Vernon's money then it’s Ma’am or Mrs. Dursley. Got it?” She took the coffee cup off her placemat and passed it to Vernon who had a look of shock on his face, but not a look of alarm. 

Dudley snickered but coughed up a chocolate chip that was in his oatmeal. 

“Yes, Mrs. Durley.” He finished cleaning quickly so he and Cherry could go out. He put on his shoes and some clothes he had stolen from Cherry. 

He could hear her voice right now, “Harry you whore, I gave you the damn clothes so suck it up.” 

He shook his head and laughed, before grabbing a bag and putting his phone in his pocket. When they had seen him with the phone Cherry got him; Dudley sobbed and begged his aunt to take it. 

Since it was his, his aunt couldn’t get in without the password. If Dudley had the phone Cherry “bought” him then Cherry would be mad at Dudley. His aunt would never risk Dudley and Cherry's relationship. If you could even call it that. 

“Harry? Get over here.” His aunt called over to him. 

He slung his bag over his shoulder and walked over to them, “Yes?” He felt his phone buzz in his bag which he knew was Cherry since that was his only contact. 

“You're talking Dudley with you today.” 

“Pardon?” 

“Do I need to spell it out?” She rolled her eyes and got up, grabbing Dudley and her bowls. His uncle was still eating. 

It was his 7th bowl. The bowls were especially small to be more aesthetically pleasing or something. Could you really blame it on the bowls after the 8th serving though?

“Me and Vernon have to go into town for shopping, and whatnot. Dudley’s 12th birthday is coming up!”

Harry checked his phone and saw the date. It was June 10th, 1989. He was suddenly aware Dudley’s birthday was coming up. 13 days. Ugh.

“Oh ok. But why is he coming with me though? I’m not staying here,” He gestured to the door, “I’m gonna go out with Cherry.” He really didn’t want Dudley tagging along with them, he was always handsy and rude to her.

“I know,” She groaned, “You're going to bring him along so he and Cherry can properly meet.” She helped Dudley out of his seat and delivered him to Harry while wiping chocolate off of his face with a napkin. 

Harry sighed and gestured to the door, which Dudley forced Harry to open for him. They waddled down the stairs and began to walk to the playground as they were meeting there today.

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The sky was covered by clouds making shade everywhere you looked. The area surrounding the playground was quiet and non-moving, void of any people. However the small area of grass with a tiny playground in the middle held three kids. Cherry and Harry were on the swings; whereas Dudley was sitting on the grass and pulling it out. 

Cherry shuffled her feet and pushed her swing to the side. Harry did the same so their swings were right next to each other. Cherry looped her arm around the chain of his swing and he did the same so they could talk without Dudley hearing. 

Cherry whispered to Harry while side-eyeing Dudley, “What do we do with him?” 

“I say strangle, then dump him over the town bridge.” 

“I got the rope, you got a bag?” 

“Count of three.” 

Harry broke first and started giggling. Dudley looked up and sneered before going back to his grass. 

“Maybe bring him into town.” Cherry turned back to Harry, trying to ignore Dudley ruining the grass and making a sort of bird's nest. 

“It’s a really long walk though..” Harry rubbed the back of his neck.

“Oh I know.” She smiled at him and winked.

Cherry looked over at an unhappy and unsuspecting Dudley with a look of mischief and Harry felt giddy. 

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Footstep patterned against ground on the side of the road to god knows where. Cherry was in the lead and hadn’t even broken a sweat yet. She turned around and saw Dudley hunched over, huffing and puffing, while Harry was wiping away a few beads of sweat. She smiled and gave Harry a quick pat on the back.

“Come on, Duds!” Harry tossed the words behind him and reached into his backpack, “Only a few more miles then were home!” He got out his water bottle and drank a little more than half, then passed it to Cherry who finished it. 

“Is this what you two freaks do all day!” Dudley screamed with tears threatening to pour down his face. Not only the running, but the swapping spit with the water bottle made him want to choke Harry out or something.

“Yup! Every other day we run. I'm sorry you have to be dragged along but we can't just go off schedule, that's how you break habits and hurt routine.” Cherry smirked as she saw Dudley reaching for his pocket. Harry gently smacked her and Cherry went back to a neutral expression.

“Please let's go home..?” The blank stare on Cherry's face made a tear slide down his cheek. Or it was sweat, nobody wants to know! Cherry and Harry were gearing up to start running again before Dudley screeched.

“Money? I’ll give you sixty dollars! Hey, I’ll make it a hundred, two hundred! This is torture..” Cherry strutted over and swiped the two hundred something dollars he had been holding, then pulled out her phone. She opened up her maps app and saw that they had only run halfway around the block.

“Just through here then we're home.” She hopped over the fence on the side of the road and both boys followed. 

In less than six minutes they were in Cherry’s backyard, Dudley ran- lets be so for real he slowmo walked- back to his house. Cherry took half the money, well a little less than half since she couldn't split it evenly, and passed the rest to harry. 

Harry did some quick maths, and found it was equal. He’s shitty at maths, and he got almost sixty dollars more. Things like that were hilarious to Cherry so she did it all the time.

He snickered and looked over at her, “I told you, give him a problem and he throws money at it.” He rolled his eyes and ignored Cherry fanning herself with the money. 

“You will never catch me complaining at money being thrown at me!” Harry grabbed the money fan from her then filed all the bills to fit better in her pocket. However she had no pockets. She stuck her tongue out at him like a child. He stuffed it into the side of her bra as Cherry normally did with other money she got. Harry wiped his hands on his pants then rolled his eyes at her eyebrows wiggling. 

He turned on his heels and heard her shoes clicking behind him, “Let's go get some boba, to celebrate!”

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Sweetness and cool air made for a wonderful aroma. Chatter filled the small boba shop as it was pretty busy. Cherry and Harry were tucked into a small corner away from windows and other people. They didn’t come here very often because it was a long walk, it was past town and into the next one over. There was a small square with shops lining it. There was a cookie shop with a rival bakery next to it, a bookshop, a laundromat, the boba shop right next to a dispensary, then a coffee shop and a tech repair shop. 

The seats were cosy and soft, lined with fur and having plush seats. Cherry always propped her feet on the chairs to make herself comfortable, so she swung her feet up and put them in Harry's lap. He didn’t protest vocally, but in retaliation he reached over to grab her drink. The Oreo flavour of it reminded him a little too much of Dudley so he gave it back to her. He could practically hear her eyes rolling. The drink lingered so he took a sip of his matcha latte to get rid of it.

She took his drink right out of his mouth and tried it. Her face scrunched up in disgust and she gave him a look of disappointment, she loved the sweeter things in life. His matcha drink reminded her of the bland taste of her old medication for some reason. Cherry’s disappointment made Harry look upset and glance at his drink with a pout. 

“Oh- Harry I’m sorry it’s not that bad!” She gently patted his shoulder.

Kyle, the barista, had been glancing over at them randomly from their spot at the register for the past hour. Finally, they had a quick break as nobody else was in line.

They walked behind all the displays and to the bit out counter where online deliveries were made, which happened to be right near Cherry and Harry’s table.

“Hey Cherry? I got like… 2 questions for ya.” Their voice was raspy with smoke and had a tone of curiosity, 

“Shoot, KyKy.” Cherry threw her arm over the chair to look up at them.

“Ok ok, one, I thought you were a lesbian?” They pointed between Harry and Cherry who were practically sitting on each other's laps.

“He's gay.” 

“Oh aight.”

“I'm not gay!”

Kyle ignored that. If Cherry said he’s gay.. he’s probably gay.

“Second question, he's got the lightning shaped scar, is he the one that fat….” 

Don’t get fired Kyle.

“Round.” They stated with wide eyes then chuckled at Cherry giggling, “Is he the one the round one is always bitching and moaning about?”

“Yup, trust me anything you've heard about him isn't true.” Cherry bit the tip of her boba straw and smirked up at Kyle. Kyle snickered and reached out to pat her hair.

“Yea I figured the fatass was nuts after he said you were his girlfriend.”

“...Pardon?” Cherry voice cracked halfway through the word. The side eye she gave Kyle was so scary, even from Harry’s perspective. He noticed something weird though. The eye he could see, the red one, was.. slightly glowing green? And the other was slightly glowing red- 

She turned her glare to look at Harry and suddenly he remembered that she was absolutely livid at the fact Dudley had been spreading the rumour that he and Cherry were a couple.

Harry looked out the window at the birds. They chirped.. and flew.. and woah! That one just landed on a tree! Such a beautiful thing to look at other than Cherry’s murderous face!

Kyle slowly turned to the side and stared at the wall. They then proceeded to pretend to greet an invisible customer, and take their order. 

“Ah! Yes yes, of course, we still have the “oh god what have I done” croissant.” They tapped the screen next to them which was turned off, “Ooh, good choice, one of the “I’m gonna go now” cookies! Let me go get those for you!” They quickly retreated to the back of the shop to make a cup of “I fucked up and said something I shouldn’t have.” 

Cherry gently massaged the star shaped scar on her cheek, while simultaneously massaging silly’s forehead. Harry glanced at it, and silly winked at him, her tongue flicking out. Oh yea, magic. God how does he keep forgetting! Glowing eyes, alive snake, maybe that scar-

“Harry James Potter.” 

Harry choked on the air in his throat,  “Cherry.. Crux.. Wood?” 

“I’m going to gouge out his eyeballs and replace them with fireball jawbreakers.”

Harry was going to try to dissuade this line of thought but it did sound tempting. However.. as good as the revenge sounded he didn’t want Cherry getting arrested again. 

“Ok, that sounds wonderful, but..” His speech was drawn out while he thought for a second, “How about we wait 13 days for his birthday?” Harry didn’t know much about revenge and had never cared for it.. but oh.

Oh. 

How delicious it would be for the Dursleys' favourite day of the year to be ruined. 

Just the thought of it made him push the thought of magic to the back of his mind. Revenge was something he had dreamed of for years, and the girl sitting in front of him was someone Harry knew made dreams come true.

“My family might kill me if I ruin it, but Dudley is in love with you so he might not want to blame you, maybe if we,” The words he spouted out were not very convincing. The blank look Cherry was making made him say the first things that came to mind, “find a way for someone else to bring him bring your boyfriend up then you could act clueless and yell at him or-” 

Cherry’s hand lowered from the scar on her cheek, and grabbed Silly. She brought Silly up to Harry’s face and made her give Harry a smooch on the nose. When Cherry gets excited about things she shows it in such weird ways.

“Harry. You… you are the best living thing on earth and I would die for you.” She smiled and gave him a small face pat. A face pat meaning she just smacks him in the face gently. Ow. 

“Are you high right now?” He rolled his eyes and shooed her hand away. 

“No… But someone’s gonna be, in 13 days.” 

“Oh my god.” 

Oh god.  

“Oh Kyle!” She yelled with a sing-songy voice to the cashier who was scrolling on their phone in the back. 

“Yo? You gonna kill me?” They looked a bit sceptical, but walked back out anyway. 

She stood up and slipped 40 dollars to them. 

“Could you go next door and get a bag of weed for yourself and a…?” She whispered the last bit to them with a huge smile. Harry strained to hear it.

“Oh hell yea!” They took the money then ran next door. As long as Kyle got his weed she could get them to go buy the stuff for her. They were twenty two and legally allowed to buy from the dispensary next door whereas Cherry was eleven and could not. Sometime’s Harry forgot she was the same age as him, despite the way she carried herself. It would also be Harry's eleventh birthday too, though Cherry’s had already passed. 

Cherry did what she normally did when Kyle ran next door and bounced over the counter to take their place for a few minutes.

Harry rolled his eyes and ignored it, turning to his phone where he was doing duolingo lessons. He was working on his English as he stopped going to school a couple years ago and wanted to keep up. He began to pay attention again when a customer walked in. Oh this was gonna be good.

Cherry had a bright smile as she spoke, “Hello hello hello! Welcome to the-” 

“Mango pineapple milkshake no tapioca pearls.” The woman didn’t look up from her phone and ignored Cherry completely.

“Oh I’m sorry I couldn’t quite catch that, could you speak up?” Cherry kept her cheerful tone.

The lady repeated it slowly, still without looking up from her phone, “Mango, Pineapple, milkshake, no, tapioca, pearls.” Her voice was layered with venom yet she still hid her face in her phone.

“Right so that’s what I thought I heard, but I’m gonna need you to say it one more time, yell right over your ego so I can hear you please.” 

“Mango! Pineap- excuse me?!” The lady looked up from her phone and smacked it on the counter, “Oh my god? That is so rude!” 

“Oh woah, what pretty eyes you have now they're not hunched over with the rest of ya avoiding me!” Cherry clasped her hands and leaned on the counter looking right into her eyes. Harry snickered and gave her a thumbs up.

The woman turned around and pointed at Harry directly, “Shut up!” Harry was confused as he didn’t even say anything, “If you won’t serve me I’ll take my service’s elsewhere.”

“Bye bitch!!” 

“I'll report you!” 

The second she walked out the door, Cherry yelled a faint, “I don’t work here!” Just quiet enough for her to not have heard her. 

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A few minutes and a few pissed customers later Kyle came back with a rainbow designed bag. They passed her a small bottle then hopped over the counter and took her place. 

“How’d it go? Any tips?” 

“You may hear some complaints from your boss.” 

Kyle cackled and shook their head, “Well thanks for the weed, Cher.” 

Cherry giggled and leaned on the counter and grabbed the hem of their apron to pull them down. She placed a kiss on their cheek, leaving a sparkly pink kiss print on their cheek. She then turned on her heels and gestured for Harry to follow her. Kyle went to address the customer that had walked up and waved goodbye to Harry and Cherry. 

“It’s a good thing that you can charm your way into getting free stuff cause if you tried to get a normal job you would suck!” Harry smiled and opened the door for Cherry.

“Suck what?” 

Cherry cackled at Harry’s annoyed groan and looped her arm around his and interlocking their fingers. Cherry loved physical contact, and Harry never got enough of it. Perfect combination! He looked over and saw a devious look in Cherry’s eyes. 

“Ok so, here’s the plan..”

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13 days later and lots of debating before it was Dudley’s party. 

It was a large party with a lot of people, mostly family members, but also some of Dudley’s friends. 

Cherry tried to stick with Harry for the party but the plan involved her being around Dudley mostly and sucking up to him.

Making a good rapport and getting him to warm up to her meant that his lips would be loose and he might trust her. The party involved presents for Dudley, talking with people and loads of activities. Cherry made polite conversation and was as kind as she possibly could be. 

The party had mostly died down and people started heading home, so Cherry was sitting on the couch on the back porch with Dudley. 

“Did you know that this morning my mother got me 36 presents!” Dudley shoved more of the candy from the bowl into his mouth. He grabbed another CapriSun.

“Oh that’s wonderful!” Cherry grabbed a blue candy from the bowl, it was her favourite flavour. 

“No no no, that’s 2 less than last year!” Dudley wailed. 

“Oh that’s terrible..” 

Cherry sat beside Dudley, leaning towards him in a way that their knees touched. She had to stop herself from gagging. 

“Hey duds! Quit flirting with Cherry and come play!” 

Cherry looked over and the boys were setting up wiffleball. She thought about it, then decided to ignore the plan for a second and play. 

“Guys I wanna play!” Harry looked up from his book when Cherry ran over and grabbed him. 

“I don’t wanna run though, I have heels on, so I’m gonna bat but Harry’s gonna run for me.” She pointed to her cute red heels.

“Oh thank god, I cannot hit, like, at all..” Cherry snickered and cracked her knuckles, strutting over to where the boys were.

The party has basically been over so it was only Cherry and Harry, then Dudley and his group. 

The outfield held Jerr on the pitcher's mound(A pillow from the couch) with Millie to his left between first and second; then Dudley to his right on third. First base was a picnic table, second was a tree, and third was the steps to the porch. 

For batting it was Cherry and Harry who were basically one person, then Collin who insisted that he was all the team needed to win. Cherry kinda liked Collin, he was cool. He carried himself well and didn't always follow Dudley blindly. He also had gorgeous dreads that Cherry so badly wanted to draw. Oh yea! She had to update her notebook for all the new kids shes met. 

“Ok, I’ll go first, then Cherry, but you’re gonna hit and he runs?” Collin seemed pumped about the game and he grabbed the taped up yellow plastic bat and stepped up to the square drawn into the ground.

“Yep! Let’s do this!”

“All right..” And the first ball was hit. 

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Hours went by and everyone was having fun. Cherry savoured the moment when she hit the ball right into Dudley’s stomach. Harry was really quick and managed to not get hit even once. Then they swapped infield and outfield.

Cherry was on second, and Collin was on first. Harry was pitching because he was the best, which was not a very high bar because both Cherry and Collin sucked so bad the ball went backwards when thrown. For both of them. 

Dudley was up first because it was his birthday and he hit it straight at Harry. Harry ducked and Cherry almost caught the ball but it dropped.

Cherry threw it to Collin and he walked back to first. Dudley was wheezing halfway to the base. He tagged first and Dudley went back to home and sat down on the grass. 

Millie  hit the ball next and nobody could see it because of the sun. Harry noted that it was going Collin’s way.

Cherry looked up and ignored the stinging, then ran backward with her arm out and caught the ball somehow. But it was going to Collin.. how did she.. magic.

“Awe man!” Millie’s annoyance rang out, but the others were shocked. This snapped Harry out of his trance. He seriously needed to talk to her about that; and stop forgetting about it. 

“That.. was.. epic!” Collin yelled out, pumping his fists into the air and whooping. Cherry tossed the ball back to Harry and the game continued. 

Team Breakfast ended up winning, which was Dudley, Millie, and Jerr. The other team let them win because it was Dudley’s birthday. 

Mrs. Petunia called out to everyone that it was time for dinner, and Cherry looked at Harry with a smirk. 

“Hey Dudley, good game!” She held her hand out for a dap up, but he shook her hand. Cherry had to hold back a snort. 

“Thanks, you- you too Cherry.” He stuttered and turned away. Cherry wanted to roll her eyes, keeping this up was hard!

She saw Harry’s aunt had begun to put out plates and food on the plates. Then she saw the cake in the kitchen. She smirked and stuck to Dudley’s side through dinner.

Aunt Petunia led them in a prayer, Cherry looked lost and confused so she just followed what Harry did, which was apparently the wrong thing because Millie side eyed her. 

Dinner was actually delicious and was the best meal Cherry had in a while. The group laughed and joked around, and Cherry snuck glances at the silent Harry throughout the meal. She felt horrible everyone was excluding him but for the plan to work she had to be a suck up to Dudley. 

Cake time. 

Cherry smiled as everyone got served a slice of cake, Harry getting none and Cherry not wanting any. Even Harry’s Aunt and Uncle had a slice. None of them would notice the slight change in taste because of the extra vanilla added to combat the THC oil. 

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In about 15 minutes Cherry and Harry were laughing their asses off. 

Mrs. Petunia was frantically cleaning the kitchen, not wanting someone who was coming over to think the house was a mess. The kitchen had already been cleaned by Harry and was spotless. She sprayed cleaners and wiped down the counter over and over again, as if trying to clean the paint off of it.

Mr. Dursley was grumbling and mumbling, something about exhaustion and fatigue, most likely going to bed. He stumbled and walked upstairs. Him flopping onto his bed was heard through the entire house. Cherry was genuinely surprised the house didn’t collapse the second he got into bed!

Jerr and Millie were fighting because they kept accusing the other of cheating again.. in Mario Kart. 

First, how do you cheat in Mario kart? Do you like, hack into the code? 

Second, the TV was turned off.

Third, they had never played Mario kart before. The Dursley’s didn’t even own Mario kart. Or any sort of device to play it on.

Collin was just chilling under the table, playing around with the random board games. The Dursleys did have quite a few of those. Collin was sorting the Monopoly money by color, then by number, then swapping it back to color. 

Dudley had been poking Cherry for the past 5 minutes non-stop, blabbering about the most random things like cars and random animals he thought were hot. 

“I was gonna feel bad about drugging him… but he’s like, genuinely sexually attracted to animals. I’m so glad they don’t have any pets.” His fingernail suddenly dug into her skin hard enough to leave a mark.

“Hey.. Hey Cherry.” The poking started to genuinely hurt Cherry's arm so she turned around to look at him. 

“What?” She sneered down at him. 

“I’m in love with you.” 

Jaw: dropped. 

“Could you say that one more time please? My hearing is not the greatest.” She said the last line pretty loud with a confused look on her face, she saw Collin looked up at them. He had begun sorting scrabble chips.

Harry pulled out his phone after hearing the code words.

“Awe, that's so sweet!” The other boys giggled and continued to play on the black screened TV, “Yall are the cutest couple ever!” Collin smiled at the two from under the table and went back to grab the A to put after the J.

“Couple?” Cherry feigned ignorance. 

“Oh no,” Dudley looked over at Collin and willed him to not have said that. 

“I'm sorry, have you been telling them that I’m your.. girlfriend?!” Cherry’s feet hit the ground with a stomp and everyone looked over. Mrs. Petunia even looked over as the freezing water ran over her hands. Cherry stumbled backwards, walking into the cords and unplugging them from the tv. 

“Come on man! We’re playing a game here!” 

“Not anymore!” She yelled as if trying to speak over really loud music, “Dudley, saying that is disgusting- no- you're disgusting. That’s awful!” She clasped the hem of her shirt in her hand, “I thought we were friends but no, you just wanted to brag about me to your friends and say I’m your girlfriend. How dare you. I hope you get three less presents next year.” 

Cherry turned around and stormed out with Harry hot on her tail. Harry remembered to end the video when they stepped in Cherry’s yard. He forgot to because he was preoccupied weeping with joy. Him and Cherry giggled and held onto each other while walking to Cherry’s porch. 

Harry opened the door for Cherry and she immediately hopped onto the counter, “I can’t believe that worked! God, that was such a good idea, you're like, a genius!” Harry sat down and leaned on the counter while laughing at Cherry’s exclamations. 

“That worked way better than I thought it would, can I see the video?!” She grabbed the phone and opened it up, “It worked like magic, somehow the second the stuff kicked in Dudl…” 

Everything Cherry said after that Harry turned out. She began to just blabber he tuned out her narration of the video, random stuff about shrimp, and the things about what Dudley said to her. He focused on the words she said before that as she went to get the both of them drinks. She poured cranberry juice into two cups, and walked back over to him, swiping his phone once again and swapping it with the cup.

Worked like magic… like magic… 

Her voice repeated in his head over and over again, making him want to curl up on the couch or run out of there. He had been avoiding asking about it all day. More like all year. Harry had so many instances that he could cite, and he really wanted to.

Was he seriously going to risk her thinking he was insane just to see if he wasn’t crazy? She was one of the best things in life he had, and he really didn’t want to lose that. 

She might question if he was right in the head and not want to be around him. Or she wouldn’t say anything and slowly lose touch with him before they drifted completely apart, Harry thought that would be worse than her just leaving. 

Harry thought about it for a second, but instead abandoned that train of thought and looked up at her. She was giggling and kicking her feet while remembering Dudley’s devastated face. She pressed the glass of dark red closer to him and sipped her own.

The way her lips curled into a smile because of their revenge plan made him pause. 

She hated Dudley for her own reasons, of course. She also hated him because Harry hated him. Their hatred intertwined and they shared the same feelings. 

He’d only known her for a year or so, and asking her if she thought magic was real was on the bottom of the list of their weirdest conversation.

So…would she really care? She did just drug his whole family basically because he said she should. 

“Hey Cherry?” 

Cherry stopped her rambling and looked down at him. 

“Yo.” She passed his phone back with a smile. He saw she had taken a screenshot of Dudley’s face and drawn tears on it. He smiled down at the phone and looked up again when she hopped off the counter, “You want actual, non drugged, desert?” 

“Uh, no, hold on, I have a weird question for you.” Harry grabbed her shirt sleeve to stop her. 

“Ooo, weird is my middle name! Shoot.” She quickly sat down in the chair across from him and put her elbows on her knees, and her fists under her chin to give him her full attention.

“…do you believe in magic?”