Disclaimer: Nothing's mine, all of its J.K's
Notes: Hi! This is my first HP fic I've ever posted and will contain slash in upcoming chapters. Think of this as a very long prologue ^.~
1 Chapter One
Harry awoke to find a large barn own sitting on his chest. His gaze shifted over to the clock, whose neon dials proclaimed 4:33. He looked back to the owl and murmured, "It's early… stupid owl." It hooted indignantly and shook its leg impatiently. "I got it, I got it." Harry took off the parchment and shooed the owl off to Hedwig's cage to rest.
Harry,
How is your summer? Have your relatives been treating you right? Anyways, I was hoping you and Ron could come on vacation with me. I've convinced my mum and dad to go to our family's summerhouse on a lake instead of Romania. Please ask.
Lots of love,
Hermione
"Lots of love?" he whispered before slumping back into his pillows to sleep.
***********
He looked up and saw Hermione looking much older. She was shielding her eyes and looking dreamily out at the water. The he noticed what she was, or rather, wasn't wearing. It was a very skimpy red bikini with a top that tied loosely in front. He felt his face redden and moved to turn away.
"Isn't this beautiful, Harry?" she asked turning around. "Just me and you, alone at the beach… like a dream, huh?"
He nodded and put his hand on her shoulder wordlessly, staring out at the water as she was. When he spoke, his voice was deeper than he thought it should. "Well what do we do then?"
A mischievous grin lit her face and she pushed him down on to the sand. She then slid down next to him and whispered, "What do you want to do, Harry Potter?"
********
When he woke up, two hours later than before, the letter was still clutched in his hand. Downstairs he could hear Aunt Petunia bustling around the kitchen and Uncle Vernon reading the newspaper, rumbling remarks occasionally. "Bloody postal workers! Boy, where are you?" he roared.
Harry sighed and got up to get dressed. Dudley's hand-me-downs still hung loosely on him, making him seem smaller than he already was. His hair still stubbornly stuck up a bit in back.
"I really should start working out," he said thoughtfully. When the mirror remained silent, Harry shook his head. "Forgot these mirrors didn't talk."
As he opened the door Petunia yelled, "Are you up yet boy? Get down here!"
"Yeah, yeah, miserable hag," Harry muttered feeling moody for some reason. Suddenly his dream came back to him and his cheeks reddened. They were still a bit tinged as he began dishing out eggs.
"What's wrong boy, fever?" Petunia snapped.
"No ma'am."
"You're thinking about a girl, eh Harry?" Dudley drawled coming down the stairs. His jaw dropped when he saw Dudley. The boy had lost what looked like two hundred pounds so that he was skinny now. His mousy brown hair had been died a white blond with streaks of blue running through it and spiked up. He was dressed in huge baggy, black pants and a gray hoodie (sweatshirt with a hood).
"What the hell?" Harry yelled.
"Don't use that language!" Vernon growled. Although when his son came down, Harry noticed that he had flinched and paled a bit.
"Good morning Duddy-kins! Would we like some breakfast?" his Aunt asked sweetly holding up the pitcher of juice. Even with his odd appearance, she treated him like a fat, spoiled prince.
"Call me Ley damn it!" he grumbled pronouncing 'Ley' as 'Lee'. He then slumped out the back door and appeared to pull out a cigarette and take a long drag from it. The boy from last year had disappeared leaving a punkish boy who was actually, almost cool to Harry.
"Er-right," Harry mumbled diving into a surprisingly good breakfast of toast and cold tomatoes, bacon, and eggs. He thought out the best way to ask his Uncle about going on vacation with Hermione and Ron while eating. Finally, he cleared his throat and stammered, "Uncle Vernon?"
His uncle merely grunted to show he was listening.
"Well, one of my best mates from school, Hermione Granger, has asked if Ron and I would like to go with her on vacation. It's her family's summer house." He had carefully tried to avoid using the word magic at all.
"Granger eh? Are they like that Weasley family that you're so fond of?" He spat the word Weasley as if it was something disgusting on the bottom of his perfectly polished, normal shoes.
"Ah no, actually. Her parents are dentists."
"Hmph. Dentists hmm? Do they have proper degrees?" Vernon grumbled, trying to find some way to hate Hermione's parents, or find anything abnormal about them.
"Oh yeah loads," Harry quickly replied, probably not lying.
"Well boy… If I do let you, and I'm not completely sure if I even will or not, you'll have work to do around here before you go. Like fixing the guest bedroom's sink for instance. Or, rearranging the attic, yes… then you may go."
Harry faked a smile and thought bitterly, "Stupid old man, I'm not a bloody slave you know." Deciding to get his tasks done right away he jogged out to the backyard shed and got what tools he thought he would need. There was a manual called, "Bathroom Projects- Do it Yourself!" So, he grabbed that too and stomped up to the bathroom. Dudley walked by as soon as he had just started, watching him.
"What 'cha doin' Harry?"
"Fixing the bloody sink, what does it look like?" he snapped.
"Need help?"
Harry sat up so quickly his head banged into his sink. "What did you say?"
"I asked you if you needed help," his cousin repeated, as if talking to a three year old. He shifted from foot to foot, looking a bit reluctant, but still willing.
"Um- no… thanks for offering though… Ley?" Harry managed to stammer out before returning to the task at hand.
Dudley shrugged and walked away disappearing into his room where loud, punk rock music began playing. Harry looked at the sink again and shook his head. He had no clue what the hell he was doing. Dejectedly sighing, he picked up the wrench and pointed at the sink like a wand before muttering, "Fix the sink."
He yelled with surprise as the wrench slowly floated out of his hand where it began loosening screws. Harry pointed at the other array of tools and said once again, "Fix the sink." They all floated up and joined in with the wrench.
"Bloody hell!" a voice breathed from the doorway. Harry whipped around and saw Dudley staring at the scene with wide eyes. "That's… that's… magic!" he sighed actually looking impressed. Just a year before he would have ran from the room screaming for his mummy.
"Shit! You won't tell them, will you?" Harry shouted leaping forward to shut the door behind Dudley.
"No way, this is too cool." Harry looked at him shocked for what seemed like five minutes, his eyes huge, until something tapped him on the back. He spun around to see the wrench floating behind him.
"Thanks," he croaked watching all the tools settle back into the toolbox and the manual to gracefully fall shut. His cousin still looked at them as if they were about to leap up and dance the flamenco in front of him. The tools, unfortunately, remained stationary.
"Well, better start on the attic then, " he said uncomfortably. Dudley still followed him though as he released the pull that brought down the stairs to the cramped attic. He still followed him when he went up the stairs to look around.
Thinking that he could give magic a chance again he first pointed to an overturned trunk of baby clothes. "Organize." The clothes flew up, folded themselves in air and landed neatly in the trunk. Without a noise, the trunk slid back against the nearest wall.
Harry strode about the room pointing at things and making them clean themselves. With magic, the attic only took ten minutes. Dudley shook his head and said softy, "I though you weren't allowed to do magic out of school.
He shrugged, answering carelessly, "Haven't got a letter yet, I guess wandless magic doesn't count." Really though, Harry was worried and a bit shocked. He had never seen anyone do wandless magic but professors, and even then, it was rare. He gave a mental shrug before wandering off to tell his Uncle that he was done.
"What do you mean you're done boy?" Vernon snarled, looking up from the TV.
"Er- yeah, I… yeah," Harry replied intelligently.
Vernon Dursley stood up, now only a couple inches taller then Harry and growled, "If you're lying boy, you'll really get it." Harry smirked as a picture of his Uncle chasing him around, his fat ass all over the place. His uncle was just an annoyance to him. Not intimidating, not one to be feared. Just plain annoying.
"Go ahead." He watched amused as his uncle marched up the stairs looking around. A moment later Vernon thundered down the stairs, looking absolutely livid.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing. Just what you told me to, sir." Harry's voice practically oozed sarcasm on his last remark. His uncle's hand rose as if to hit him, but Harry calmly grabbed it. "Wouldn't do that." Trying to look sinister and evil, Harry willed his eyes to go red.
It must have worked because his uncle staggered away in fear. "Looks like you've seen a ghost… or perhaps a monster," he said softly, staring him down. "Everything all right?"
"Mmmmm… mmmmm…. magic!" His mouth worked soundlessly, too scared to even piece a simple sentence together. "Go with your friend Potter. As soon as you can."
Harry smirked. It was rare he ever got to strike fear at his uncle, and god did feel good when he was able to. The phone rang and Harry picked it up, keeping eye contact with his uncle as he said silkily, "Hello Dursley and Potter residence. May I ask who is calling on this fabulous day?" With satisfaction he noticed that his uncle was furious, but still too scared to do anything about it.
An all too familiar voice asked breathlessly, "Harry? Is that you?"
"Hermione?"
"Uh huh!"
"Really?"
"Uh huh!"
"No lie?"
"Yes already! Silly boy!" Hermione tried to scold, but ended up bursting into giggles halfway through.
Harry couldn't help it, he laughed too. "So what's up?"
"Can you come? Ron already wrote me saying he could. He's showing up tonight, what about you Harry?" her voice practically bubbled with hope.
"Yeah I can come."
"Smashing!" Harry couldn't believe Hermione had said such an… Un- Hermione like thing. She continued on, now almost shouting, "This is great Harry! You'll never believe how great the lake is! A fabulous view from all of the balconies! And we got a boat we can take out. Oh my, this will be fun! Swimming every day… the water's very warm by the way. Oooh! We could walk to town too! Mix it up with the muggles, Harry!"
He stopped her chatter, which threatened to continue on by saying, "Sounds fun, and are you guys going to pick me up?"
"Of course! Be ready early in the morning, we can get to the lake by three that way! This is so great!" Chuckling softly, Harry grinned at how enthusiastic Hermione could be about her emotions.
"Better get packing then, bye Hermy!"
She giggled, "Bye bye wonder boy, love you!" She hung up the phone.
"Hermione's been awfully odd lately," he said out loud to himself, forgetting that Vernon was still cowering on the floor.
"So Potter, are your friend's parents picking you up?"
"Yeah Dursley, they are."
"Alright then, I'll just be off then."
"Uh huh," Harry muttered not really caring at all. He practically skipped up to his room to find Dudley sitting on his bed flipping through Flying with the Cannons.
"Oh! Harry! Sorry 'bout looking at your book, it was sitting here and it looked sort of interesting. Ya know?" he stood up as if to leave, but Harry shook his head.
"No no, that's fine." He rifled through his trunk and pulled out Quidditch Through the Ages. "Here read through this, but I'll need it back in the morning, I'm leaving.
"Thanks Harry. You're leaving?" his cousin had already begun reading the book hungrily.
"Yeah, I'm spending the summer at my friend's house."
"Cool. Although I sort of wanted to make up with you for being such a lousy git for fourteen years."
Harry felt touched. His cousin who he had thought was nothing but a spoiled fat ass actually had feelings. "Well why don't we start now as I'm packing up. Ask me anything you'd like."
"What's it like to do magic?"
"Well, I don't really think about it anymore, but when I did my first spell, I felt so… I dunno, powerful? Or maybe it was more like special. I grew up hating myself, but when I came to the school, I was famous. Everyone knew who I was because of this scar. And nobody shunned me or bullied me except for a few miserable gits. It made me feel accepted."
Dudley nodded and whispered, "Sorry. I never thought about how bad we all must have made you feel."
"It's okay, the past is the past eh Ley?"
"Yes but… no one deserves to be treated as we treated you."
Harry placed a hand on his shoulder after getting up from the piles of robes he was folding and said, "Hey, I said it was okay. You're cool now, no longer a lousy git."
Dudley smiled and asked, "Do you have a girlfriend at school?"
"Er- no actually."
"Hmm, I'm surprised. Next question anyways, do wizards learn black magic? Do they turn people into toads like in the fairy tales?"
Black magic. The word made Harry shudder and thoughts of Cedric looking up at him, accusing him. Voldemort, cackling as he rose from the cauldron and dueled with Harry. Finally with a choked voice, he whispered, "Yes there is black magic. That's what killed my parents. The killing curse, Avada Kedevra."
"Oh, I'm sorry Harry, really." Dudley said earnestly. "That's horrible."
"Yes it is. That's why I will never turn into one of them. A Death Eater. I will fight the bastards who took away my parents."
Dudley nodded. "Good for you Harry go for it. I'll let you pack, be back with your books later." He walked out of the room and turned around before going into his room, smiling. "Thanks. Oh yeah, Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Well I was thinking. You know how I wanted to apologize? Do you think we could go into London today? Maybe go shopping, get you out of my ugly whale sized clothes?"
Harry laughed. "Yeah hold on…" He searched through the wardrobe and pulled out a black drawstring bag. It held floo powder that Ron had given him at the end of the year. He had told him to use it anytime to get away from the muggles. "Mind traveling by magic?"
**********
The two spun into the Leaky Cauldron, Dudley clutching his stomach and Harry earning smiles.
"Hello Mr. Potter. All right?" Tom asked.
"Blooming. We'll be off then." With that, the two teens walked out of the door and into muggle London. Dudley took the lead while chattering on about a new punk band he had heard about from some of his friends. Harry listened with interest, but didn't say much.
"Here we are!" He announced stopping in front of a store with horror story letters proclaiming, 'Pyro Punks' Inside the store, Harry saw stacks of baggy clothing like Dudley wore, CDs, and hair dies. He even thought he saw a piercing booth in the corner. Looking around, Harry extracted the muggle money he had a stash of from when he had exchanged galleons in the third year. So far, he hadn't had a chance to use any of it.
Dudley suggested clothes to him and the two went up to pay. "You gonna get a piercing?" he asked as the cashier handed him his change.
"Umm…"
"Nose rings are cool."
Harry looked doubtfully at the booth. 'Well, it would be a statement. Perhaps people won't think of me as such a clean cut little boy anymore.' His face broke into a grin and he strode purposefully over to the booth where a selection for first time piercing was set up. Having decided to get a simple silver stud for now he stepped in. A young girl, no older than twenty one smiled at him.
"First time eh? Silver would suit you you're rather handsome. I suggest spiking your hair up, that would make you even hotter!" she said all this as she sterilized the post. "Okay here goes." The stud went in with only a minor amount of pain and he took put the clasp on immediately. "Nice." She commented as he walked out.
"Cool," Dudley commented.
"Would you mind if we went into the Wizarding World for a sec?" Harry asked in an undertone after paying for the piercing. He wanted to stop by Flourish and Blotts for a moment to pick up a book.
"There's a place like that?" his cousin asked, eyes going huge.
"Yeah, c'mon." The two headed back to the Leaky Cauldron where Harry stepped out back and opened the portal to Diagon Alley. He thought that Dudley's eyes would pop out of his head as he looked around. Harry led him over to the bookstore with a few galleons he had left over in his pocket smiling as people from school called out to him.
When they entered Harry looked around for a beauty section, feeling sheepish. When he found a book entitled 'Capital Charms for Capital Hair', he took it off the shelf and leafed through it. Sure enough, there was a charm for spiking hair. Paying the man at the counter five galleons, Harry ushered Dudley out.
The trip took two hours and Harry still had to pack.
**************
The next day Harry woke at five thirty to shower. After picking out a pair of black baggy jeans and a black shirt with a red anarchy sign on it with his hair all spiked in with the nose ring in place, he headed down. Earlier he had willed his glasses to change, now having more square frames that were black. The Grangers, in a black mini van pulled up at exactly six forty five. Hermione shot out of the car with Ron following closely, the Grangers having a more normal pace walked up last. When they reached the door, his two friends gawked at him stupidly. They rang the doorbell and Harry immediately opened it. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon followed close behind smiling falsely.
"Hello Mrs. and Mr. Dursley, lovely day outside. Hello Harry, all packed?" Hermione's mother said, reminding him surprisingly, of Mrs. Weasley.
"Yes ma'am." He answered politely.
"Young Harry has been most excited about this trip with you all," Vernon added, acting like he always said things such as that.
"Yes he has. Just a bubbling ray of sunshine since your daughter's letter came," Petunia chipped in.
"Is that so?" Hermione's dad asked kindly.
"Um- yes sir. That's me! A little ray of sunshine."
"Oh yes! Harry's always enthusiastic!" Hermione giggled.
"Well then, let us be off."
"Good bye Harry, behave yourself." To his utter surprise, Vernon patted him on the head and Petunia swooped down to give him a hug. Turning red he stood there and muttered, "Right then, good bye."
"Nice meeting you!" they called out to the Grangers as they put Harry's trunk in the back, along with Hermione and Ron's. He had also brought a suitcase filled with muggle clothes, but he put that in the back himself.
"What was that? And what are you wearing? Is that a nose ring?" Ron sputtered as they all scrambled into the back seat.
"I thought you told me they were horrible! By the way Harry, you look awesome. You look nice as a punk, just add a skateboard, and you would be a full on muggle." Hermione added casually propping her legs up on Harry and Ron's laps and leaning sideways.
Blushing with Hermione's tanned legs on his lap, Harry just managed to stammer, "Well I bet they only wanted to put on a show for your parents. You know the caring relatives act? But, Dudley has changed. He's cool now, not a miserable git like before. He actually borrowed my books on Quidditch yesterday and read them. And then we went shopping and got you know, the nose ring."
"Whoa."
"Yeah I know he lost two hundred pounds or something. Dyed his hair too, looks like a punk rocker or something now!"
"Punk rocker? Skateboard?" Ron repeated.
"Never mind," Harry and Hermione said at once. They both laughed as Ron clearly muttered, "Nutters, both of them."
Soon the topic changed to what they had done over the summer, and Harry told them about the wandless magic.
"How many tools were going at once?" Hermione quickly asked as he told them about the tools flying around, fixing things.
"Um, I'd say about seven or eight, not sure."
"Wow Harry! Doing a levitating charm on that many objects at one time with a wand is almost unheard of. But without a wand? Jeez Harry, you must be powerful!" Hermione whispered in awe.
"No big deal," Harry said uncomfortably.
"No bid deal?" Ron squeaked, "Harry, I doubt even Dumbledore could do that!"
"Oh… well, can we not talk about this? I want to have fun, not worry about magic this summer."
Notes: Hi! This is my first HP fic I've ever posted and will contain slash in upcoming chapters. Think of this as a very long prologue ^.~
1 Chapter One
Harry awoke to find a large barn own sitting on his chest. His gaze shifted over to the clock, whose neon dials proclaimed 4:33. He looked back to the owl and murmured, "It's early… stupid owl." It hooted indignantly and shook its leg impatiently. "I got it, I got it." Harry took off the parchment and shooed the owl off to Hedwig's cage to rest.
Harry,
How is your summer? Have your relatives been treating you right? Anyways, I was hoping you and Ron could come on vacation with me. I've convinced my mum and dad to go to our family's summerhouse on a lake instead of Romania. Please ask.
Lots of love,
Hermione
"Lots of love?" he whispered before slumping back into his pillows to sleep.
***********
He looked up and saw Hermione looking much older. She was shielding her eyes and looking dreamily out at the water. The he noticed what she was, or rather, wasn't wearing. It was a very skimpy red bikini with a top that tied loosely in front. He felt his face redden and moved to turn away.
"Isn't this beautiful, Harry?" she asked turning around. "Just me and you, alone at the beach… like a dream, huh?"
He nodded and put his hand on her shoulder wordlessly, staring out at the water as she was. When he spoke, his voice was deeper than he thought it should. "Well what do we do then?"
A mischievous grin lit her face and she pushed him down on to the sand. She then slid down next to him and whispered, "What do you want to do, Harry Potter?"
********
When he woke up, two hours later than before, the letter was still clutched in his hand. Downstairs he could hear Aunt Petunia bustling around the kitchen and Uncle Vernon reading the newspaper, rumbling remarks occasionally. "Bloody postal workers! Boy, where are you?" he roared.
Harry sighed and got up to get dressed. Dudley's hand-me-downs still hung loosely on him, making him seem smaller than he already was. His hair still stubbornly stuck up a bit in back.
"I really should start working out," he said thoughtfully. When the mirror remained silent, Harry shook his head. "Forgot these mirrors didn't talk."
As he opened the door Petunia yelled, "Are you up yet boy? Get down here!"
"Yeah, yeah, miserable hag," Harry muttered feeling moody for some reason. Suddenly his dream came back to him and his cheeks reddened. They were still a bit tinged as he began dishing out eggs.
"What's wrong boy, fever?" Petunia snapped.
"No ma'am."
"You're thinking about a girl, eh Harry?" Dudley drawled coming down the stairs. His jaw dropped when he saw Dudley. The boy had lost what looked like two hundred pounds so that he was skinny now. His mousy brown hair had been died a white blond with streaks of blue running through it and spiked up. He was dressed in huge baggy, black pants and a gray hoodie (sweatshirt with a hood).
"What the hell?" Harry yelled.
"Don't use that language!" Vernon growled. Although when his son came down, Harry noticed that he had flinched and paled a bit.
"Good morning Duddy-kins! Would we like some breakfast?" his Aunt asked sweetly holding up the pitcher of juice. Even with his odd appearance, she treated him like a fat, spoiled prince.
"Call me Ley damn it!" he grumbled pronouncing 'Ley' as 'Lee'. He then slumped out the back door and appeared to pull out a cigarette and take a long drag from it. The boy from last year had disappeared leaving a punkish boy who was actually, almost cool to Harry.
"Er-right," Harry mumbled diving into a surprisingly good breakfast of toast and cold tomatoes, bacon, and eggs. He thought out the best way to ask his Uncle about going on vacation with Hermione and Ron while eating. Finally, he cleared his throat and stammered, "Uncle Vernon?"
His uncle merely grunted to show he was listening.
"Well, one of my best mates from school, Hermione Granger, has asked if Ron and I would like to go with her on vacation. It's her family's summer house." He had carefully tried to avoid using the word magic at all.
"Granger eh? Are they like that Weasley family that you're so fond of?" He spat the word Weasley as if it was something disgusting on the bottom of his perfectly polished, normal shoes.
"Ah no, actually. Her parents are dentists."
"Hmph. Dentists hmm? Do they have proper degrees?" Vernon grumbled, trying to find some way to hate Hermione's parents, or find anything abnormal about them.
"Oh yeah loads," Harry quickly replied, probably not lying.
"Well boy… If I do let you, and I'm not completely sure if I even will or not, you'll have work to do around here before you go. Like fixing the guest bedroom's sink for instance. Or, rearranging the attic, yes… then you may go."
Harry faked a smile and thought bitterly, "Stupid old man, I'm not a bloody slave you know." Deciding to get his tasks done right away he jogged out to the backyard shed and got what tools he thought he would need. There was a manual called, "Bathroom Projects- Do it Yourself!" So, he grabbed that too and stomped up to the bathroom. Dudley walked by as soon as he had just started, watching him.
"What 'cha doin' Harry?"
"Fixing the bloody sink, what does it look like?" he snapped.
"Need help?"
Harry sat up so quickly his head banged into his sink. "What did you say?"
"I asked you if you needed help," his cousin repeated, as if talking to a three year old. He shifted from foot to foot, looking a bit reluctant, but still willing.
"Um- no… thanks for offering though… Ley?" Harry managed to stammer out before returning to the task at hand.
Dudley shrugged and walked away disappearing into his room where loud, punk rock music began playing. Harry looked at the sink again and shook his head. He had no clue what the hell he was doing. Dejectedly sighing, he picked up the wrench and pointed at the sink like a wand before muttering, "Fix the sink."
He yelled with surprise as the wrench slowly floated out of his hand where it began loosening screws. Harry pointed at the other array of tools and said once again, "Fix the sink." They all floated up and joined in with the wrench.
"Bloody hell!" a voice breathed from the doorway. Harry whipped around and saw Dudley staring at the scene with wide eyes. "That's… that's… magic!" he sighed actually looking impressed. Just a year before he would have ran from the room screaming for his mummy.
"Shit! You won't tell them, will you?" Harry shouted leaping forward to shut the door behind Dudley.
"No way, this is too cool." Harry looked at him shocked for what seemed like five minutes, his eyes huge, until something tapped him on the back. He spun around to see the wrench floating behind him.
"Thanks," he croaked watching all the tools settle back into the toolbox and the manual to gracefully fall shut. His cousin still looked at them as if they were about to leap up and dance the flamenco in front of him. The tools, unfortunately, remained stationary.
"Well, better start on the attic then, " he said uncomfortably. Dudley still followed him though as he released the pull that brought down the stairs to the cramped attic. He still followed him when he went up the stairs to look around.
Thinking that he could give magic a chance again he first pointed to an overturned trunk of baby clothes. "Organize." The clothes flew up, folded themselves in air and landed neatly in the trunk. Without a noise, the trunk slid back against the nearest wall.
Harry strode about the room pointing at things and making them clean themselves. With magic, the attic only took ten minutes. Dudley shook his head and said softy, "I though you weren't allowed to do magic out of school.
He shrugged, answering carelessly, "Haven't got a letter yet, I guess wandless magic doesn't count." Really though, Harry was worried and a bit shocked. He had never seen anyone do wandless magic but professors, and even then, it was rare. He gave a mental shrug before wandering off to tell his Uncle that he was done.
"What do you mean you're done boy?" Vernon snarled, looking up from the TV.
"Er- yeah, I… yeah," Harry replied intelligently.
Vernon Dursley stood up, now only a couple inches taller then Harry and growled, "If you're lying boy, you'll really get it." Harry smirked as a picture of his Uncle chasing him around, his fat ass all over the place. His uncle was just an annoyance to him. Not intimidating, not one to be feared. Just plain annoying.
"Go ahead." He watched amused as his uncle marched up the stairs looking around. A moment later Vernon thundered down the stairs, looking absolutely livid.
"What did you do?"
"Nothing. Just what you told me to, sir." Harry's voice practically oozed sarcasm on his last remark. His uncle's hand rose as if to hit him, but Harry calmly grabbed it. "Wouldn't do that." Trying to look sinister and evil, Harry willed his eyes to go red.
It must have worked because his uncle staggered away in fear. "Looks like you've seen a ghost… or perhaps a monster," he said softly, staring him down. "Everything all right?"
"Mmmmm… mmmmm…. magic!" His mouth worked soundlessly, too scared to even piece a simple sentence together. "Go with your friend Potter. As soon as you can."
Harry smirked. It was rare he ever got to strike fear at his uncle, and god did feel good when he was able to. The phone rang and Harry picked it up, keeping eye contact with his uncle as he said silkily, "Hello Dursley and Potter residence. May I ask who is calling on this fabulous day?" With satisfaction he noticed that his uncle was furious, but still too scared to do anything about it.
An all too familiar voice asked breathlessly, "Harry? Is that you?"
"Hermione?"
"Uh huh!"
"Really?"
"Uh huh!"
"No lie?"
"Yes already! Silly boy!" Hermione tried to scold, but ended up bursting into giggles halfway through.
Harry couldn't help it, he laughed too. "So what's up?"
"Can you come? Ron already wrote me saying he could. He's showing up tonight, what about you Harry?" her voice practically bubbled with hope.
"Yeah I can come."
"Smashing!" Harry couldn't believe Hermione had said such an… Un- Hermione like thing. She continued on, now almost shouting, "This is great Harry! You'll never believe how great the lake is! A fabulous view from all of the balconies! And we got a boat we can take out. Oh my, this will be fun! Swimming every day… the water's very warm by the way. Oooh! We could walk to town too! Mix it up with the muggles, Harry!"
He stopped her chatter, which threatened to continue on by saying, "Sounds fun, and are you guys going to pick me up?"
"Of course! Be ready early in the morning, we can get to the lake by three that way! This is so great!" Chuckling softly, Harry grinned at how enthusiastic Hermione could be about her emotions.
"Better get packing then, bye Hermy!"
She giggled, "Bye bye wonder boy, love you!" She hung up the phone.
"Hermione's been awfully odd lately," he said out loud to himself, forgetting that Vernon was still cowering on the floor.
"So Potter, are your friend's parents picking you up?"
"Yeah Dursley, they are."
"Alright then, I'll just be off then."
"Uh huh," Harry muttered not really caring at all. He practically skipped up to his room to find Dudley sitting on his bed flipping through Flying with the Cannons.
"Oh! Harry! Sorry 'bout looking at your book, it was sitting here and it looked sort of interesting. Ya know?" he stood up as if to leave, but Harry shook his head.
"No no, that's fine." He rifled through his trunk and pulled out Quidditch Through the Ages. "Here read through this, but I'll need it back in the morning, I'm leaving.
"Thanks Harry. You're leaving?" his cousin had already begun reading the book hungrily.
"Yeah, I'm spending the summer at my friend's house."
"Cool. Although I sort of wanted to make up with you for being such a lousy git for fourteen years."
Harry felt touched. His cousin who he had thought was nothing but a spoiled fat ass actually had feelings. "Well why don't we start now as I'm packing up. Ask me anything you'd like."
"What's it like to do magic?"
"Well, I don't really think about it anymore, but when I did my first spell, I felt so… I dunno, powerful? Or maybe it was more like special. I grew up hating myself, but when I came to the school, I was famous. Everyone knew who I was because of this scar. And nobody shunned me or bullied me except for a few miserable gits. It made me feel accepted."
Dudley nodded and whispered, "Sorry. I never thought about how bad we all must have made you feel."
"It's okay, the past is the past eh Ley?"
"Yes but… no one deserves to be treated as we treated you."
Harry placed a hand on his shoulder after getting up from the piles of robes he was folding and said, "Hey, I said it was okay. You're cool now, no longer a lousy git."
Dudley smiled and asked, "Do you have a girlfriend at school?"
"Er- no actually."
"Hmm, I'm surprised. Next question anyways, do wizards learn black magic? Do they turn people into toads like in the fairy tales?"
Black magic. The word made Harry shudder and thoughts of Cedric looking up at him, accusing him. Voldemort, cackling as he rose from the cauldron and dueled with Harry. Finally with a choked voice, he whispered, "Yes there is black magic. That's what killed my parents. The killing curse, Avada Kedevra."
"Oh, I'm sorry Harry, really." Dudley said earnestly. "That's horrible."
"Yes it is. That's why I will never turn into one of them. A Death Eater. I will fight the bastards who took away my parents."
Dudley nodded. "Good for you Harry go for it. I'll let you pack, be back with your books later." He walked out of the room and turned around before going into his room, smiling. "Thanks. Oh yeah, Harry?"
"Yeah?"
"Well I was thinking. You know how I wanted to apologize? Do you think we could go into London today? Maybe go shopping, get you out of my ugly whale sized clothes?"
Harry laughed. "Yeah hold on…" He searched through the wardrobe and pulled out a black drawstring bag. It held floo powder that Ron had given him at the end of the year. He had told him to use it anytime to get away from the muggles. "Mind traveling by magic?"
**********
The two spun into the Leaky Cauldron, Dudley clutching his stomach and Harry earning smiles.
"Hello Mr. Potter. All right?" Tom asked.
"Blooming. We'll be off then." With that, the two teens walked out of the door and into muggle London. Dudley took the lead while chattering on about a new punk band he had heard about from some of his friends. Harry listened with interest, but didn't say much.
"Here we are!" He announced stopping in front of a store with horror story letters proclaiming, 'Pyro Punks' Inside the store, Harry saw stacks of baggy clothing like Dudley wore, CDs, and hair dies. He even thought he saw a piercing booth in the corner. Looking around, Harry extracted the muggle money he had a stash of from when he had exchanged galleons in the third year. So far, he hadn't had a chance to use any of it.
Dudley suggested clothes to him and the two went up to pay. "You gonna get a piercing?" he asked as the cashier handed him his change.
"Umm…"
"Nose rings are cool."
Harry looked doubtfully at the booth. 'Well, it would be a statement. Perhaps people won't think of me as such a clean cut little boy anymore.' His face broke into a grin and he strode purposefully over to the booth where a selection for first time piercing was set up. Having decided to get a simple silver stud for now he stepped in. A young girl, no older than twenty one smiled at him.
"First time eh? Silver would suit you you're rather handsome. I suggest spiking your hair up, that would make you even hotter!" she said all this as she sterilized the post. "Okay here goes." The stud went in with only a minor amount of pain and he took put the clasp on immediately. "Nice." She commented as he walked out.
"Cool," Dudley commented.
"Would you mind if we went into the Wizarding World for a sec?" Harry asked in an undertone after paying for the piercing. He wanted to stop by Flourish and Blotts for a moment to pick up a book.
"There's a place like that?" his cousin asked, eyes going huge.
"Yeah, c'mon." The two headed back to the Leaky Cauldron where Harry stepped out back and opened the portal to Diagon Alley. He thought that Dudley's eyes would pop out of his head as he looked around. Harry led him over to the bookstore with a few galleons he had left over in his pocket smiling as people from school called out to him.
When they entered Harry looked around for a beauty section, feeling sheepish. When he found a book entitled 'Capital Charms for Capital Hair', he took it off the shelf and leafed through it. Sure enough, there was a charm for spiking hair. Paying the man at the counter five galleons, Harry ushered Dudley out.
The trip took two hours and Harry still had to pack.
**************
The next day Harry woke at five thirty to shower. After picking out a pair of black baggy jeans and a black shirt with a red anarchy sign on it with his hair all spiked in with the nose ring in place, he headed down. Earlier he had willed his glasses to change, now having more square frames that were black. The Grangers, in a black mini van pulled up at exactly six forty five. Hermione shot out of the car with Ron following closely, the Grangers having a more normal pace walked up last. When they reached the door, his two friends gawked at him stupidly. They rang the doorbell and Harry immediately opened it. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon followed close behind smiling falsely.
"Hello Mrs. and Mr. Dursley, lovely day outside. Hello Harry, all packed?" Hermione's mother said, reminding him surprisingly, of Mrs. Weasley.
"Yes ma'am." He answered politely.
"Young Harry has been most excited about this trip with you all," Vernon added, acting like he always said things such as that.
"Yes he has. Just a bubbling ray of sunshine since your daughter's letter came," Petunia chipped in.
"Is that so?" Hermione's dad asked kindly.
"Um- yes sir. That's me! A little ray of sunshine."
"Oh yes! Harry's always enthusiastic!" Hermione giggled.
"Well then, let us be off."
"Good bye Harry, behave yourself." To his utter surprise, Vernon patted him on the head and Petunia swooped down to give him a hug. Turning red he stood there and muttered, "Right then, good bye."
"Nice meeting you!" they called out to the Grangers as they put Harry's trunk in the back, along with Hermione and Ron's. He had also brought a suitcase filled with muggle clothes, but he put that in the back himself.
"What was that? And what are you wearing? Is that a nose ring?" Ron sputtered as they all scrambled into the back seat.
"I thought you told me they were horrible! By the way Harry, you look awesome. You look nice as a punk, just add a skateboard, and you would be a full on muggle." Hermione added casually propping her legs up on Harry and Ron's laps and leaning sideways.
Blushing with Hermione's tanned legs on his lap, Harry just managed to stammer, "Well I bet they only wanted to put on a show for your parents. You know the caring relatives act? But, Dudley has changed. He's cool now, not a miserable git like before. He actually borrowed my books on Quidditch yesterday and read them. And then we went shopping and got you know, the nose ring."
"Whoa."
"Yeah I know he lost two hundred pounds or something. Dyed his hair too, looks like a punk rocker or something now!"
"Punk rocker? Skateboard?" Ron repeated.
"Never mind," Harry and Hermione said at once. They both laughed as Ron clearly muttered, "Nutters, both of them."
Soon the topic changed to what they had done over the summer, and Harry told them about the wandless magic.
"How many tools were going at once?" Hermione quickly asked as he told them about the tools flying around, fixing things.
"Um, I'd say about seven or eight, not sure."
"Wow Harry! Doing a levitating charm on that many objects at one time with a wand is almost unheard of. But without a wand? Jeez Harry, you must be powerful!" Hermione whispered in awe.
"No big deal," Harry said uncomfortably.
"No bid deal?" Ron squeaked, "Harry, I doubt even Dumbledore could do that!"
"Oh… well, can we not talk about this? I want to have fun, not worry about magic this summer."