Artwork [h.s]

sixty-three

Harry removed his hand from his eyes as soon as he heard the sound of the glass being put down on the wooden surface, and gave its contents a suspicious glance from where he was sitting.

"If you're feeling nauseous this might help" I told him quietly, tapping the side of the glass. "It's just water with lemon" I added, not wanting him to think that I was trying to give him something weird.

He nodded, leaning forward to get a hold of the glass before resuming his previous position. "Thank you" he murmured as he took a sip from it, scrunching his nose up a bit as the sour taste hit his tongue.

I gave him a little nod at his words, pulling my knees up to my chest and giving him a little glance as he finished drinking, standing up when he was done and taking the glass from him before going back into the kitchen and washing it quickly before returning to the living room.

The rest of the night went by equally as quietly, but for some reason, the more time passed like that, the more I got used to it again, discovering that I didn't really mind it by the time we finally decided to have dinner.

My attempt at making pasta ended up being a failure as it turned out to be a bit overcooked, but Harry didn't mind it - or pretended not to mind it - and he ate it anyway. Then I washed the dishes and he helped drying them and putting them back in their rightful place on the cupboard over the sink.

We went into the living room, where we turned on the television and watched a random movie we found, even though none of us really watched it. After a while we decided to go to sleep, and we headed upstairs.

I heard my mum enter the house and I told Harry to go ahead as I waited for her, and he nodded, quickly making his way upstairs.

I walked towards the front door just as she closed it. "Can Harry stay here for a couple of days?" I asked her quietly as soon as I reached her.

She stopped in the middle of taking off her scarf and gave me a suspicious look. "Why?" She asked, making it clear that she wouldn't have made it easy for me - understandably so. I just hoped I would've managed to convince her, because I couldn't have possibly made Harry go back to that house while he wasn't ready to.

"He's having some trouble with his family" I replied, supposing that, after all, it wasn't that far away from the truth at all. Other than that, I knew that would've been the only way I could've managed to get her on board with it.

She sighed, and I knew that she'd given up the will to fight against it. "Do you actually know him?" She asked me instead, the question coming quite unexpected.

"Yeah, we're quite close" I replied truthfully, hoping that she wouldn't have understood more than what it actually was.

She sighed again and finally took off her scarf, putting it on the hanger next to the front door, where it was quickly followed by her coat. "Alright."

I smiled, still kind of surprised that she'd actually agreed. I didn't have much experience considering that I'd never had someone over for the night - not that she'd previously agreed to, anyway - but I was quite sure it shouldn't have been that easy to convince her. "So he can?" I asked, trying to make sure that I'd understood her right, and she nodded. "I'll make the bed in the guest room then?" I said, wanting to go along with whatever she would've said, considering that she'd already agreed to let Harry stay for some days.

She shrugged, walking to the kitchen and getting herself a glass of water. "Don't bother, he can sleep in your bedroom."

I stopped in the doorway. "What really?" I asked, not believing what I was hearing, but also being glad that Harry wouldn't have had to sleep alone.