DISCLAIMER: I, unfortunately, do NOT own Harry Potter….

Full Summary: During the summer after third year, Petunia arranges for Harry to spend the summer at the Leaky Cauldron, because she couldn't stomach Vernon's plans for Harry. While there, Harry receives a letter that would change his view of the Wizarding World and not only…

Main Pairings: will be slash, but undecided for now

Warnings: Dumbledore bashing, Molly, Percy, Ron & Ginny Weasley bashing; rated M for future mature content =)

"baka" – normal speech;

'ramen' – mental speech, thoughts;

$hiss$ - Parseltongue;

"argh" – beast-speech;

=point A= - location;

[A/N: Welcome to my second story. It's called "Harry Potter: Destiny's humor." I hope it's not too cliche =)]


PROLOGUE.

=Privet Drive, 4=

In many ways Harry James Potter was just your normal 13 year old child. He was slightly below average hight and very slim. His fragile constitution was enhanced by the his over-sized cousin's hand-me-downs. Whenever the neighbors saw Harry ourside the house, they were rather worried by the numerous bruises and occasional wounds the boy was decorated with. Apart from the obvious abuse that no one bother to do something about, Harry was a rather handsome boy. His emerald green eyes shone from behind the hideous round glasses and were probably the most attractive part of the child's face. His hair was always messy and black, though sometimes it had a blueish tint to it. All in all he gave an impression of mistreated child. However there was one big thing about Harry Potter that made him different from his neighbors – Harry Potter was a wizard.

Currently the boy in question was cooking lunch for his Aunt's family. And he was not doing so because he wanted to. No, this has been a chore he had to do since he was old enough to reach the stove. Along with cooking all the meals, Harry was seddled with weeding the garden, cleaning the entire house and the shed. The only thing he was not expected to do was cleaning Vernon's car, since the whale-like man did not trust his nephew to be anywhere near the vehicle.

Later that night Petunia Dursley was dosing off on the couch, when her husband entered the room. He was pacing and muttering to himself. If Petunia's hearing wasn't that well developed, she probably wouldn't have heard his ramblings, but fortunately, she did. As she listened to her husband plan out the 'birthday activities' for their nephew, she had to use all her strength, not give herself away. A few hours and at least 20 bottles of beer later Vernon was finally in the la-la land and his wife hurried to her nephew's room.

Her footsteps were very light, since since, like Harry, she was very slender, and one would have to specifically listen for noises in order to hear her footsteps. Petunia quietly opened the door of the smallest bedroom in the house and peered inside. Harry was still awake. By the looks of things he was attempting ot do his homework under the blanket, since she could see the faint light of the small flash-light. Her lips stretched into a small smile, as she sighed. This made the boy stiffen. Petunia knew that she's been spotted. She quickly walked up to the bed and spoke in a quiet, but firm 'no-nonsense' voice:

"Harry, I need to get up and pack your things. You'll be leaving tonight."

The boy threw off the covers and gaped at his aunt. To his surprise, the woman was very anxious. She kept glancing back from time to time. This behavior was most unusual, so Harry hurried to do as he was told.

'Merlin, what on Earth is going on? The Petunia I know would never allow me to leave the house just like that… Something must be terribly wrong here…' – he thought, as he busied himself with stuffing his scarce belongings back into his Hogwarts trunk. He then pulled out the books and other personal items that were hidden around the room and finally faced his Aunt:

"Aunt Petunia, what's going on?"

The woman looked positively ill. She sook her hand and picked up Hedwig's cage, hoping that the bird would stay quiet. Hedwig seemed to notice the seriousness of the moment and did indeed remain quiet. Harry picked up his trunk, for the first time in his life thanking Merlin for not having a lot of belongings. He followed the woman downstairs and out of the house. Harry wanted to demand an answer, to know what was going on, but he kept quiet, keeping his curiosity under control. Finally the strange duo reached the bus stop. Petunia placed the bird cage at the bench and sighed heavily. She checked the bus time-table and saw that they had an hour to wait. This wasm't very good, but the woman figured this delay would give her ample time to explain the situation to her nephew. She sat down on the end of the bench and motioned for him to do the same:

"Harry… there is no easy way to tell you this…" – she began, sounding very unsure, since she obviously had no experience in telling a soon to be 14 year old boy that her husband and his uncle wanted to sell him to some friends to make some money and then kill him – "See, it was dangerous for you to remain in the house… Vernon got demoted today…"

As soon as his aunt said that, Harry gulped. Vernon having trouble at work was never a good thing for Harry and suddenly the boy felt grateful that his aunt took him away. He now knew that whatever Vernon was planning was bad enough for his scared aunt to take action. He gave the woman a small smile:

"Are you sure it'll be OK if you stay here to wait with me? What if he wakes up?" – he asked uncertainly.

'I really wouldn't put it past the fat whale to take his anger out on her, if he realizes that it was her who helped me escape…' – he thought darkly, as he studied the nervous face of Petunia Dursley – 'Come to think about it, she's never been openly hostile towards me if Vernon wasn't there…' – the thought made the boy frown. He always thought the entire Dursley family hated him, but now he was discovering that his assumption may not be totally correct.

Petunia shuddered mentally. She actually didn't think about what to do if Vernon was awake when she got back and now going back didn't seem like such a splendid idea. Still, if she hurried things would be alright, she reasoned. The woman gave her nephew some money to get to the 'Leaky Cauldron' and hurriedly made her way back to Privet Drive, 4.


[A/N: to be continued =)

Please don't forget to review, people... It's always nice to know that I'm not wasting my time with thing...]