SELCOUTH ⟶ Harry Potter ( ON HOLD)

Chapter Four

Excited to go downstairs and greet his uncles, Harry turned only to let out a small screech when he spotted Ilaria, sitting in the centre of his bed. She seemed pleased at his reaction as a smile spread across her lips.

"Ilaria, how long have you been sitting there?"

"Long enough," she answered, " what are you doing?"

"I was just looking out the window," Harry told her, " Zio Sirius and Zio Adelmo are here. What are you doing?"

"I came to see you!"

Normally, Harry wouldn't have questioned his little sister's company, in fact, he welcomed it all the time, however, there seemed to be something that she had yet to say as she continued to stare at him. Harry didn't want to be rude either as he loved his siblings dearly, so what exactly did Ilaria want? Was it the typical younger sibling wanting to spend time with their older sibling or something else?

"Oh, um, that's nice," he began, unsure of how to proceed," well, it's good to see you. I'm going to head downstairs-"

"Are you sad?"

Ilaria always had a way of delivering questions and statements and that morning was no different it seemed as Harry was caught completely off guard. It brought him to stop in his tracks and look back at her.

"Wh-what do you mean? Why would you think I'm sad?"

"Because sometimes when I'm around you, I feel really sad," Ilaria told him, " I told Mummy and Daddy about it."

Suddenly, Harry felt uneasy as their parents were mentioned, wondering what their reaction would be. "And what did they say?"

"They said that I'm pathetic."

"What?!"

Never in a million years would Harry believe that his own parents had dared to call Ilaria "pathetic" or anything along the lines. And after a couple of minutes of discussing it over with his sister, he finally came to realise that they were calling her "empathetic" rather than pathetic. It seemed it was a strong possibility that Ilaria shared the same abilities as their mother, being a natural-born Empath.

"Empathetic, I think is the word you're looking for, Lari, pathetic means something totally different. Something Mum and Dad would never call you."

"Oh," Ilaria said, thinking it over for a minute before continuing on, " so, are you sad, Harry?"

If Harry was being truly honest with himself, between the Dursley Incident and the lack of a Hogwarts Letter, he was sad or maybe just disappointment. And while he thought he could get away with a forced smile whenever needed, Ilaria had reminded him that he couldn't lie about how he truly felt. If it was true and Ilaria was an Empath, it meant that Harry's mood was capable of affecting both his mother and now his sister.

He couldn't hide his feelings and it would feel like he was lying to both of them if he said he was fine. So he actually had to feel fine and that meant getting over the little things that were bothering him. And if Ilaria was an Empath, he couldn't confuse her with lying, so he had to be honest.

"I'm a little sad," he admitted, " but it's just because I've been waiting on my Hogwarts letter, that's all."

Ilaria crawled over and then climbed off the bed to make her way over to him. She wrapped her arms around Harry's legs and squeezed them tight.

"Don't be sad, Harry."

With the promise that he wouldn't be sad for long, Harry made his way downstairs with Ilaria behind them. They had tiptoed passed Monte's room, where they could hear the boy snoring quite a bit from behind his closed doors. And as soon as they made their way downstairs, they raced to the kitchen to greet Uncle Sirius and Adelmo, who were settled at the table. There was the smell of breakfast foods cooking but rather than Renata cooking, it seemed James had taken the task upon himself.