Title: Silence is but a word
Notes: Work in Progress. No idea what pairings yet but I think I have an idea in there, I think I see the plot surfacing, I think it might be slash if you squint.
Disclaimer: I do not own this story of Harry Potter, it belongs to J.K. Rowling.
Summary: Harry had turned into a silent boy during the summer, can he be rescued? AU Probably slash, HPSS, no promises.
It was just like any other ordinary day. The sun was glaring very brightly. The landscape in Surrey was kept in its pristine state, especially along Privet Drive. On such a nice, hot and sunny day, most people usually love to do outdoor activities, trying to get as much sun as possible as well as working on their tan.
However on this occassion, on this high noon, where the sun is at its hottest, everyone in the neighbourhood was inside searching for a cold relief as the temperature was uncomfortably high and the air itself was very dry. There was one kid, one very skinny kid, who was still outside under the glaring hot sun, doing some weeding in the garden. Someone should have told the boy that to be out in such burning heat were to court trouble in the form of heatstroke. One such person was about to bravely venture out to do so when a bulky boy came out in a flower-printed parasol and punched the boy in the back. With the boy sprawled ungracefully on the flower beds he was tending to, the fat boy uncaringly dragged the unconscious boy towards the house. As this happened in the household, on such a hot day, no one was going to protest, thinking that that would be a good lesson for the small kid to learn not to be out under the hot sun.
The small boy was none other than Harry Potter. The boy who didn't know he was a wizard until he was eleven years old, an orphan living with his aunt's family. The bulky boy, or the fat boy, was Dudley Dursley, Harry's cousin.
Dudley left Harry lying on the kitchen floor. When Harry came awake later, Petunia Dursley screamed at him for drawing attention for working in the garden. Harry just took it with a pinch of salt since it was Petunia's order that he was to work in the garden earlier in the morning.
Mrs Dursley was venting her anger on Harry as she was frustrated that her Dudders had to go on a diet under the threats of that school nurse. The school nurse had insisted that Dudley was on a yellow alert health warning and would report the Dursleys to the child abuse authorities for over-feeding their child.
Therefore, with the impending threat hanging over their head, the whole Dursleys household was now on a strict diet regime to support Dudley on this almost hopeless venture. Mealtimes were a torture for those not needing this diet regime, especially for young Harry Potter. Dudley at least got to have two portions of broth or vegetables soup. Harry was only given half a portion. This was hard on Harry as a growing boy needed a lot of nutrients. He hardly got to eat anything during the day as the Dursleys gave him a lot of chores to do around the house. The chores seemed neverending. For all his painful efforts to finish the work on time, he only got a glass of water with very watery porridge in the morning, a slice of bread and another glass of water during lunch and half portion of what the Dursleys had for dinnertime. It was a wonder that Harry was not dehydrated from all the lack of liquids nor was he malnourished from lack of proper balance diet. Then again, he looked like a hale and hearty teenage boy.
Through the progress of this summer holidays, Harry had turned into a very quiet boy. He didn't even utter a single word. He had been speaking less and less during the last weeks of the school term since Sirius fell through the Veil.
He had a way of making people understand him without making a sound. Almost like a pyschic. Things get done without him lifting his wand to say the spell. Silent, wandless magic. The Ministry didn't even know that magic had been performed in number four, Privet Drive, since the day Harry had arrived back for the summer holidays.
It was almost like the first time he did magic when he was a kid. Things flew on its own. Things started on its own. Food were magically prepared. Dudley was a good boy then. He would watch Harry performed something magical and cheered him with clapping. However, this moment of camaraderie was broken by the Dursleys adults. They hated the fact that they were forced to bring up this nephew, no matter what they do, they couldn't give the boy up for orphanage, or for adoption, or to throw him away. They did tried to dump him, but somehow, the kid managed to arrive home before they were back. It was freaky. They didn't want their kid to be contaminated by whatever freakiness in the boy. That was the reason Harry stayed in the cupboard under the stairs before the Hogwarts letter arrived. They were stressing the fact that Harry was not normal to their son.
Curious be the fact that magic was never detected until one House Elf came to create chaos just before Harry's second year at Hogwarts. Magic was always there even before the Hogwarts letter first came to Privet Drive. Magic was always present during Harry's summer holidays. There was a query once on how the underage magic usage was regulated by the Ministry of Magic. No answers were forthcoming at all.