AN:I haven't deviated too much from canon in this first chapter so there's a lot of quotes/paraphrasing the last chapter of PoA and the first few chapters of GoF. For the most of the story, 4th year happens the same, so I'll be glossing over a lot of the major events that go the same.
As the Hogwarts Express left Hogsmeade station that morning, Harry watched as the Castle grew smaller. Two months with his relatives was putting Harry in a dour mood.
"Do cheer up, Harry," said Hermione gently.
"I'm alright," responded Harry, "just been thinking about the holidays."
Ron, catching Harry's changing mood, quickly said, "Yeah, me too. Harry, you've got to come and stay with us. I'll fix it up with Mum and Dad, then I'll call you. I know how to use a fellytone now –"
"Telephone, Ron," interupted Hermione. "Honestly, you should take Muggle Studies next year..."
"It's the Quidditch World Cup this summer!" continued Ron, ignoring her. "How about it Harry? Come and stay, and we'll go and see it! Dad can usually get tickets from work."
Harry quickly cheered up at this idea.
"I bet the Dursleys would be glad to let me come...especially after last summer with Aunt Marge."
With the compartment in more cheerful mood, Harry, Ron and Hermione turned to playing games of Exploding Snap and talking about more mundane topics. When the witch with the trolley arrived to ask if they wanted anything around lunch time, Harry eagerly bought a rather large lunch for them all.
Late in the afternoon as the train was approaching London, something arrived to make Harry truly happy...
"Harry," said Hermione suddenly, peering over his shoulder. "is that an owl outside your window?"
Harry turned to look outside where a very small and gray owl was struggling to stay close to the glass. As he looked closer, he realized it was carrying a letter and quickly opened the window to let it fly in. The owl dropped it's letter on Harry's seat and began zooming around their compartment in a delighted manner. Hedwig hooted her disapproval at the little owl and decidedly ignored it. Crookshanks sat up in his seat, following the owl with his great yellow eyes. Ron, noticing this, snatched the owl safely out of harm's way.
Harry picked up the letter. It was addressed to him. Ripping it open, he let out a surprised, "It's from Sirius!"
"What?" Ron and Hermione let out. "Read it aloud!" continued Ron.
Dear Harry,
I hope this finds you before you reach your aunt and uncle. I don't know whether they're used to owl post.
Buckbeak and I are in hiding. I won't tell you where, in case this owl falls into the wrong hands. I have some doubt about his reliability, but he is the best I could find and he did seem eager for the job.
I believe the dementors are still searching from me, but they haven't a hope of finding me here. I am planning to allow some Muggles to glimpse me soon, a long way from Hogwarts so that the security on the castle will be lifted.
There is something I never got around to telling you during our brief meeting. It was I who sent you the Firebolt –
"Ha!" said Hermione triumphantly. "See! I told you it was from him!"
"Yes, but he hadn't jinxed it, had he?" said Ron. "Ouch!" The tiny owl had nibbled his finger in what it seemed to think was an affectionate way.
Harry rolled his eyes and continued to read aloud.
I had Crookshanks take the order to the Owl Office for me. I used your name but told them to pay for it from my own Gringotts vault. Please consider it as thirteen birthdays' worth of presents from your godfather.
I am enclosing something else for you, which I think will make your next year at Hogwarts more enjoyable.
If ever you need me, send word. Your owl will find me.
I'll write again soon.
Sirius
Harry looked curiously into the envelope and found another piece of parchment. He read it quickly and felt warmth spread through him.
I, Sirius Black, Harry Potter's godfather, hereby give him permission to visit Hogsmeade on weekends.
"That'll be good enough for Dumbledore!" Harry exclaimed. He looked back over Sirius's letter. "Hang on, there's a P.S."
I thought your friend Ron might like to keep this owl, as it's my fault he no longer has a rat.
Ron's eyes widened.
"Keep him?" he said uncertainly. He stared down at the owl as he considered it, then held the owl out to Crookshanks to smell. At Crookshanks purr and relaxed state, Ron decided it definitely wasn't another animagus.
"Good enough for me," Ron said happily. "I'll keep him."
Harry kept the letter in hand and read over it again as they pulled into King's Cross station. It was still clutched in his hand as he said his goodbyes to Ron and Hermione and headed towards Uncle Vernon.
"I'll call about the World Cup!" Ron yelled out as they parted.
"What's that?" snarled Uncle Vernon when Harry approached. "Another form for me to sign? You got another thing coming -"
"Oh, it's not," came a cheerful response. "It's a letter from my godfather."
"Godfather!? You don't have a godfather!" Uncle Vernon said.
"Yes, I have. He was my mum and dad's best friend. He's a convicted murderer, but he broke out of wizard prison and is on the run now, but he likes to keep in touch with me. Keep up with my news, check if I'm happy," Harry said with a broad grin at the look of horror on Uncle Vernon's face. Harry turned and made to head for the station exit. Looks like it won't be such a bad summer after all, thought Harry.
And for once, Harry was right. When he and Uncle Vernon got home to Privet Drive, Harry quickly unloaded the car and Uncle Vernon didn't try to stop him as he started to take it all to the smallest bedroom upstairs. Uncle Vernon led Petunia and Dudley into the sitting room, and Harry was sure that he'd be letting them know about his godfather.
The next morning Harry learned that Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had received a letter from Dudley's school nurse about Dudley's enormous size with recommendations of a strict diet. Aunt Petunia had decided that they would all go on a diet then to make it easier for Dudley. As Harry sat down to the kitchen table, Petunia gave him a quarter of a grapefruit, obviously smaller than the chunk of grapefruit Dudley had gotten. This was apparently to keep Dudley's motivation for the diet up by giving him more food than Harry at least, judging by the glee in Dudley's eyes looking at Harry's plate. Harry was glad that he had a stash of food and sweets in his trunk upstairs, and so resigned himself to their behaviour without comment. The Dursley's responded in kind and ignored Harry as much as possible. Not even demanding chores of him. Harry was perfectly content with this arrangement.
The week before his 14th birthday Harry awoke from a dream that seemed so real with his scar hurting. Rubbing his forehead he tried to commit to memory what he had seen.
There had been Voldemort talking with Wormtail and another man he didn't know. And an old man had been found listening outside the room. Harry had seen him get hit with the green light and knew him to be dead. They had been talking about someone they had to kill, but Harry couldn't remember if they had said who...and they had been plotting to kill him!
Harry laid in bed restless thinking about the dream and his scar. The last time his scar had hurt, it was because Voldemort was nearby, but he knew Voldemort couldn't be close now. Could he?
No, this had been something else, he thought. He wished he could talk to somebody about it. Hermione would just tell him to write to Dumbledore and would try to look in books he knew. But what would he write? Dear Professor Dumbledore, Sorry to bother you, but my scar hurt this morning. Even he realized how stupid that sounded. Ron wouldn't be of any help and the Weasley's would worry about me too much, thought Harry. He wanted to talk to an adult about it. And that's when he thought of Sirius.
Harry got out of bed and grabbed a quill and parchment to pen a letter to Sirius. It was a slow process as he thought about what to write, but several hours letter he had a letter updating Sirius on what has been going on in Harry's life and at the end had added a short paragraph about his scar hurting after dreaming of Voldemort and asked if cursed scars sometimes hurt afterwards for no reason. It was Neville's birthday today and Hedwig was gone to deliver his gift, so Harry wasn't able to send Sirius his letter right away. Harry spent the next few hours in uneasy sleep.
The next morning after breakfast, Harry went up to his room to send his letter to Sirius. When he walked in Ron's owl flew in through his window with an envelope. Inside was a note. Ron's dad had gotten tickets for the World Cup! The Weasley's were going to come pick Harry up on the 1st, the day after his birthday at 5 o'clock. The World Cup was to be held the next night – Ireland versus Bulgaria. Harry went downstairs to tell the Dursley's the good news. They were happy to be rid of him an entire month early.
Back upstairs, Harry wrote a quick note, Ron, It's all okay, the muggles say I can come. See you 5 o'clock Monday. Harry tied the note to Pig's leg. As soon as it was tied on, Pig took off out the window and was out of sight in seconds. Harry turned to the recently returned Hedwig.
"Feeling up to another journey?" he asked her.
Hedwig hooted in cheerful way that Harry took as a yes.
"Can you take this to Sirius for me?" he said, as he added a note to the bottome letting Sirius know that he was going to the World Cup and would be at the Weasley's for the rest of the summer.
Mr. Weasley could not have come soon enough for Harry on Monday. The Dursley's had of course ignored his birthday the day before, but he had received cards and a note from the Weasley's saying that Hermione was arriving at The Burrow that day and so tomorrow when he got there they would do a big birthday dinner with cake for him. Neville had sent him Curses and Countercurses by Professor Vindictus Viridian along with a thank you note for his present. Ron had gotten him a quidditch book, Flying with The Cannons and Hermione had gotten him a book on quidditch tactics.
Shortly before 5 o'clock that day, Harry with his belongings packed into his school trunk sat in the living room waiting for Mr. Weasley to arrive.
"They are going to be driving, of course?" Uncle Vernon demanded.
"Er, I think so," said Harry.
He hadn't really thought of that. He thought Mr. Weasley might just apparate over to pick him up, but Harry wasn't about to mention a magical method of travel to Vernon now, so close to getting out of here. Don't want him to angry when he meets Mr. Weasley.
Harry, not wanting to make the tension any worse, left the room and went to wait on the stairs. Shortly after 5 o'clock there was a knock on the door. Aunt Petunia answered the door and ushered in Mr. Weasley and a tall young man with the Weasley red hair that was long and tied back into a ponytail. Harry didn't know him, but knew he had to be either Bill or Charlie. After they all gathered in the living room.
"I'd like you all to meet my oldest son Bill Weasley," said Arthur. "He agreed to come along and help me apparate Harry's trunk and belongings with us to the Burrow."
"Apparate? You didn't drive here?" Uncle Vernon was quick to demand.
"Oh no, we took the bus here," said Arthur, carefully avoiding saying it was the Knight Bus.
"We know where we are going now though, so we will just apparate back to the Burrow. You ready to go Harry?"
"Of course, Mr. Weasley, my trunk is just there," said Harry pointing to the corner where he had stored his trunk.
"I'll grab that then," came Bill's deep voice.
"Alright, Harry, if you'll grab hold of my arm, we'll be gone," said Arthur turning to face the Dursley's. "It's been a pleasure to meet you Mr. and Mrs. Dursley."
"Bye Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Dudley," said Harry. And with that, first Bill then Arthur and Harry turned on the spot and disappeared with a soft pop much to the Dursley's surprise.
The next moment, Harry and Arthur appeared outside of the Burrow, Harry gripping Arthur's arm to stay upright.
"Here we are Harry," said Arthur. "Molly is cooking up a feast for your birthday, but I imagine Ron, Hermione, and everybody else are waiting for you in the sitting room."
As they walked into the sitting room, there was a cacophony of "Happy Birthday" shouted from Ron, Ginny, the Twins, Hermione, and even Bill and the last red-head that had to be Charlie.
Harry burst into huge smile, "Thank you everybody."
"Harry," said Ron as he came up beside Harry. "This is my brother Charlie, he works at the dragon reserve in Romania."
"Pleasure to meet you, Harry," said Charlie shaking his hand.
"Great to finally meet you, Charlie," responded Harry.
"We got a full house, so we'll be eating outside tonight," came Arthur's voice from the doorway. "Bill, Charlie, will you come help me set up the tables and chairs."
"Sure thing, Dad" they responded and together they went outside.
After a wonderful dinner, Mrs. Weasley ushered them to bed, "You have to get up at the crack of dawn tomorrow to catch the Portkey to the World Cup so better get to bed early."