Chapter 1: Bad days at privet drive
The sunset had gone and the heaven became darker and darker. One by one the streetlamps turned on the light and showed huge, luxurious houses with expensive cars outside the front doors. A grey cat sat outside number 4 Privet Drive and stared with yellow eyes at the house as if it was looking for someone or something. Inside the house, at the upper floor in one of the rooms, lay a skinny boy with black messy hair, a lightning scar on his forehead and a moody expression on his face.
The dark seem to fit Harry Potter's mood perfectly. He lay on his bed and stared up at the ceiling with a glassy gaze and his Godfather, Sirius on his mind. Nothing was important any more, besides Padfoot's death. Every time Harry thought about the department of mysteries and last year's events, he felt sick and blamed himself for being a murderer. In the end of Harry's last year at Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, he rushed to the Ministry of magic to save Sirius from the most evil wizard in the century. But Sirius wasn't really There. The evil wizard named by Lord Voldemort, had planted a vision on Harry's head to make the boy believe it was true and come to Sirius's rescue. The last view on his memory who always appear in the end was a man with black, long hair, falling through a veil, surprise edged on his face, after a duel with his cousin, Bellatrix Lestrange.
The closest friends to him weren't important either. Hermione, Ron and Lupine had sent him many letters, telling him to be patient and don't causing trouble. Harry didn't need to be told twice. He was full with sorrow so it didn't matter anyway. The dursleys hadn't shouted at him or be impending him to clean, wash dishes or do some other occupations for the lazy relatives.
Don't you think you've got a bit of err, err saving people thingHermione's words echoed in Harry's head. "Everything is my fault!" he said loudly with frustration on his voice.
"I should have listen to her advise! But no, I am always acting the hero! why must always everything happen to me? How much am I going to suffer to be a hero everybody expect me to be? How will this war end? Why can't I just be a normal guy with a normal life without a dark lord tailing me or a prophesy to fulfil? What the bloody hell did I do in my previous life to deserve to be a marked man?"
The prophecy was also one of his sorrows. Last year at Hogwarts, Professor Dumbledore told Harry that a prophecy had made about him and Lord Voldemort. The dark lord will mark him as his equal The boy have power the dark lord knows not neither can live while the other survives Harry knew what these words meant, he must be murdered or be a murderer. The prophecy was his heaviest burden at the moment. He wanted to cheer his problem with someone, but was too afraid that something would happen to them if they new. I can't tell them, I just can't tell Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville and Luna. I'm going to put them in danger again, the death eaters will kill my friends one by one. Harry thought sadly. FUCK Voldemort, Fuck prophesy and fuck the stupid order! Harry picked up a book from the messy floor and threw it into a wall and it fall back at the floor again with a thud. Hedwig woke up because of the sound who still echoed loudly and hooted indignantly in her messy cage.
"I'm sorry Hedwig. I didn't mean to wake you up." Said Harry sadly. Hedwig's amber eyes looked at Harry's emerald green, and saw that the gleam on her masters eyes had gone.
Hedwig
What's wrong with him? Hedwig thought. He has been so quiet these days. Why doesn't he go out and enjoying himself and teasing that fat pig.
"Hoot, hoot!" hooted Hedwig as if she wanted to say. (It's going to be all right). What ever it is, I must cheer him up., she thought. And I am not going to giv up
Harry
Harry smiled a bit and thanked her for trying to cheer him up.
"Here is your reward." Said Harry and gave her some owl candy. "For trying to help me."
"Do you want to get out and hunt this night?" asked Harry. Hedwig answered a Yes with a loud happy hoot.
"ssh! Petunia and Vernon can hear you." Harry opened the cage and let her out. She flew to Harry and sat on his shoulder and waited for her master to open the window.
"Be careful out there" whispered Harry. She pecked him in the ear, took off and flew down too a shadowy thing on the ground and flew up again. The cat, Mr Tibbles who belongs too Mrs Fig, sat in front of the Dursley's fence and gazed at the teenaged boy.
"Spying for your mistress are you?" asked Harry when he had identified the animal.
"Miaoo!" He ignored the cat and looked at the sky and saw a starlit night.
"A shooting star!" muttered Harry when he saw it. Wish something. He thought. Why wish anything? It wont work anyway. That's rubbish. Professor Trelawney's predictions didn't fulfilled all my deaths so why should a idiotic wish fulfils. But he did it never the less. "Time to clean up my bedroom. I must at least clean Hedwig's cage."
Since Harry came back to Privet drive, he didn't care to clean up his room. Scrolls of parchment lay spread out on his desk, books, wizard and muggle clothes, and other strange things, for a muggle, lay everywhere at the floor.
"I'm finally done." Harry said tired after three ours when he had cleaned his room. He looked at his alarm clock and saw that it showed one a clock. Without changing his clothes, he threw himself at the bed and fall asleep.
Harry woke up next day and felt very gloomy. He lay still on his bed for a few minutes, thinking about a nightmare he had that night. Sirius was once more in Harry's dreams. But this time, his godfather didn't fall through the veil.
"Harry! Harry! Harry!" whispered Sirius in the dream. "come to me, help me, save me! Please!"
"I'm coming, Sirius!" Said Harry desperately and ran towards the veil, but the voice stopped him.
"Nooo! Not this way! An other way, an other path to save me!"
What did that dream mean? Harry thought for himself. Is there a way to pull him back from the veil? Why can't I just walk through it and take him away from that horrible place? It didn't like a dream, more like a message. Harry thought miserable. He sighed heavily and pushed the thought out of his mind and left it to deal with it later.
He looked out through the window and saw the sun shining brightly. Some of the neighbours was on their gardens too water plants and flowers.
"Why bother to go out and do nothing? I can do the same in here. I don't feel to go out anyway." He said to himself. Harry opened his wardrobe and changed into other muggle clothes. When he had changed, he picked up a book from the Hogwarts trunk and tried to read too distract his mind from Sirius. Harry had just opened the book when he heard his uncle punching the door with his fists.
"Boy! Send a message to your insane friends right now! It has gone a week now and We don't want to have freaks outside our door! If you don't, Dudley will come up to your room and turn you inside out." Uncle Vernon threatened. Harry laughed out loud and said:
"He, turn me inside out? He is so thick and can't see any difference between me and a spider." The thought of the memory made Harry laugh louder.
A few days ago, Harry teased Dudley for losing a boxing match.
"Have you lost again, Dud? That must be three times in a row or maybe more." Harry said delighted. "I'm surprised. You always have a bad temper in a match, and when you have a bad temper you always win."
"shut up!" Roared Dudley.
"Did you lost against a smaller opponent?"
"no!" Dudley yelled.
"You didn't?" Asked Harry, raising his eyebrows in false surprise. "I heard your conversation with your mum and dad yesterday. You boxed against a 14year old girl and you lost it? You must be weaker then I thought. Perhaps you have to train more and eat less food.
"I said: Shut up!" But Harry just continued.
"If you haven't realised that, it is your one kilo candy every day who make you the worst boxer in the world." Harry saw that Dudley had an enormous effort to control his temper.
"I, AM, NOT, THE, WORST, BOXER, IN, THE, WORLD!" growled Dudley.
"Hmm, maybe not." said Harry and put up a false thoughtful facial expression. "You just have to eat more and be like a ball so you can roll around the stadium and pulp your opponent." Harry sniggered." "You know that girl you fought against? Was she pretty? Did you lost just because she was a girl and you thought you have to go easy on her? Tell me, are you going to merry her? At that moment, Dudley's effort disappeared and his temper exploded like a bomb. He ran straight to Harry, like a cheetah running amuck, who leaned towards the wall with a lamp above him.
"You! You're going to pay for that! Said Harry's cousin furiously. Dudley tried to squash Harry, but the black haired boy was too quick. Bang! Dudley crashed into the wall and with a boom he landed on the ground. The partition shook violently and a second later the lamp above touched down at Dudley's head. Stars erupted in front of Dudley, his sight became blurred and he passed out. Harry stood and gaped at the scene. He looked down at his unconscious cousin and saw a squashed, bloody spider, paste at Dudley's white Sweater.
The vigorous Vernon flung open the door, grabbed a grip on the skinny boy's collar and holding a fist an inch from Harry's nose. "Don't talk about my son like that!" snarled
Harry's uncle.
"Who decided that?"
"I did!" howled Vernon. His face looked like a strawberry with brown beard, sideburns and blond hair as dirt. His body swelled every time he breathed heavily and an vein in uncle Vernon's fist in front of Harry, pounded violently. "And I told you to not aske questions! Obey now before I give you a crooked nose!"
"If all of you touch me once more, I'll report to my friends and that man who threatened you at the train station. teased Harry calmly. Vernon looked as if he wanted to cut of his Nephew's head, but he looked also frightened. He panted a few times before saying to Harry with narrowed eyes and a growling voice like a hungry bear.
"You do exactly what I'm telling you to do."
"All right! I'm doing it!" He was to tired to have a word war with the enormous man. Harry's uncle looked around the room with a disgust expression on his face, before storming out and slamming the door afterwards. Harry went to his desk, took a parchment and wrote a message on it.
Dear Ron,
I'm fine. Nothing have happened here.
Hope to see you soon!
Yours
Harry
I hope that's enough. Thought Harry. He copied the words to two other parchments and wrote on top with the names, Hermione and Lupine. Harry didn't wrote any long letters since he came to his aunt and uncle's house. There was nothing to write about in a Dursley life.
Harry went downstairs and into the kitchen to make himself a toast. None of the Dursleys seems to realise that he had joined them. Dudley, Petunia and Vernon was looking at a
Television program. It was a revival of a boxing match from yesterday so Dudley enjoyed it very much while he ate a fifth cream bun in a row. Scorn sprinkled the floor every time he slurp a bit of it. His face was very odd. He had small pig's eyes and a double chin. How can they love him like that? He is so spoiled, so fat, so ugly and so thick. Thought Harry. But Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia must be thicker. They can't se any difference between fat and thin, thick and smart, ugly and beautiful and normal and abnormal. They don't look normal either. Petunia have just bones under her skin, and Vernon looked more like Dudley, but taller and less fat. Harry thought.
"Come on! Tuyson!" Dudley shouted encouragingly. His both buttocks hung outside the edge of the chare, his eyes resting on the television, full of glee. "Beat him, squash him, pulp him like a fly!"
"That's my Boy." Said Dudley's father proudly. "Cheering his idol , like the other boys is cheering their football teams when they is watching TV. He is so normal, like the other guys, so handsome, so brilliant at school and so kind to everybody." Harry rolled his eyes at these words and snorted:
"He, kind to everybody? Didn't you remember a weak ago when Mark Evans's mother screamed at you two because your son and his gang forced him to eat sand, buried him with mud in the sandpit and punched him because he said his opinion about these gargoyles? She did it in front of the whole neighbourhood, didn't she?
"She lied! Shouted Aunt Petunia with her squeaky voice.
"Oh yeah? Why should anyone lie about something like that?
"I don't know. Maybe she wants attention or something."
"But I saw Your Duddey press a spade to the Evans-boy's mouth. I saw when he turned the boy's nose inside out. It was so bloody, like your face, uncle. What happen if I told the woman?" But Mr Dursley didn't seem to be angry of that comment about his face and said unaffected:
"No one will believe you, and if you do that, we're going to bury you in the graveyard alive."
"Are you afraid to stain your reputation? Don't worry, your son had already done that with his bad temper, his bad grade, and his bad appearance. I mean, can it be worse?"
"How dear you talk about us like that, you spoiled little kid! We gave you a shed, a room, clothes, somewhere to sleep and eaven eat our food! What did you expect? We have not so much money for you. We took you as our own son and you're cropping after more?" Said the adults in chorus. The growling voice of uncle Vernon's had suddenly changed, from calm to a thunderous one. Harry was tremendously effected about the last comment and didn't realised that his fuse had caught fire.
"Me, spoiled?" said Harry much louder than he thought. He could feel hatred beyond all the words who could describe his emotions to these family. "You gave me a cupboard to sleep in and locked me in there when ever I did mag... I mean..."
"Don't say such things like that in my house! Interrupted Harry's uncle furiously. His strawberry face was back again with narrowed eyes. "You know very well that you can't say any of your freaky words in here!" Petunia went to the window and checked anxiously if someone were looking into the Dursley's kitchen or had a ear pressed towards the glass as if they were listening to their conversation.
"Why can't I? I can do that right now if you wish." Said Harry gleefully. His temper dropped into a teasing level again as before. "Wizard, owl, charm, cloak and..." Smack!
