Chapter 1: Welcome Home
"Boy! You listen to me when I'm talking to you!" Vernon sneered at Harry.
"Sorry" Harry answered automatically as they entered the house after the car ride home from the station. Harry hadn't said anything all the way. He'd just looked out the window, lost in his own thoughts. Beating himself up for what had just happened a few weeks ago in the department of mysteries.
"You are to behave yourself when Marge arrives tomorrow, do you hear me?" Vernon barked.
"Don't worry; you won't even notice I'm here" Harry answered back indifferently. "I'll rader starve for a month than seeing that old hag again!" he muttered under his breath so no one could hear him. A feeling of annoyance started to grow inside him.
"Don't you take that tone with me, boy! I won't have a scene like the last time she was here! You are to keep your freakiness to your self! Do I make myself clear?" Vernon said in a dangerous voice.
"Yes, uncle Vernon! I'll just remain in my room then, shall I?" Harry answered back irritated. The growing feeling of annoyance, now turning into anger, and he had to control himself not to shout.
Dudley, who always took joy of Harry being yelled at, looked uncomfortable for once. 'How odd,' Harry thought to himself. Dudley just stood behind his plump father, and Harry could almost swear it looked like Dudley was the one being yelled at, judging from the expression on his face. But he hastily brushed it off when he heard uncle Wernons voice again.
"You'd better! If Marge ever find out of that freakiness of yours, I swear you'll regret you've ever been born, boy!" Vernon snarled.
"Don't worry; I'm sure the ministry of magic--" Harry started.
"Don't you dare say those freak words in this house!" Vernon bellowed, his face turning a light colour of red.
"-- will come and modify her mind again if that should ever happen!" Harry continued as if not hearing his uncle speak.
"That's it, boy!" Vernon said angrily, his face growing a darker shade of red now. "It's only out of the goodness of our hearts that we let you stay here—"
"Yeah, right!" Harry interrupted angrily.
"WHAT!" Vernon now yelled. The vain on his for head now throbbing hard, and his face going from dark red to purple.
"For one, I'm not sure any of you have any goodness or a heart for that matter--" Harry began.
"I SWEAR YOU'LL REGRET—" Vernon started yelling. Petunia looked like she'd seen a ghost, and Dudley didn't quite know what to do.
"You know perfectly well that the only reason you let me stay here, is that Dumbledore says you have to, and you're to afraid not to do what he says." Harry now yelled angrily at his uncle. "And if you ever put as much as a finger on me, you'll have to do with the people you met at the train station today!" He added when it looked like Vernon was about to attack him.
At this point Vernon was so angry that, for the first time Harry had ever seen, he just walked away from an argument. Harry used the opportunity and turned on his heels, stomping up the stairs, showing his suitcase inside his room and slamming the door shut. He threw himself on his bed, fuming with anger. 'Great' he thought to himself, 'just what I needed right now! Another dose of the Dursleys.' Harry just lay in his bed staring in the roof for hours. The scene of what happened in the ministry that night, playing over and over again in his head. How could he be so stupid, and fall for Voldemorts trap? Hermione did warn him after all! And now Sirius, the closest thing to a parent he had, was dead. All because of him! Finally he drifted of to an uneasy sleep; filled with the same nightmare he had every night the last weeks.
Harry went through the same hallway he'd been through numerous times before. It was the same hallway he'd dreamed of all year, and the same hallway he and he's friends had entered a few weeks ago in the dungeons of the ministry. But this time he was alone. He was running towards a door that stood ajar. The hallway seemed endless, but he was determined to reach the end. He reached out for the doorknob, stretching his arm as much as he possibly could. He stumbled over the doorframe, into a room full of doors. Before he could do anything, the room started spinning so fast, he got dizzy. When it finally stopped, he was in the room of prophesy, surrounded by death eaters laughing at him for falling for their masters trap. Just as Harry was about to pull his wand, the room started spinning again, and when it stopped, he was in the big room with the archway. Sirius was there, still alive. He stood by the arch clinging on to his life. "Harry! Help me, Harry! Please don't let me die" Sirius pleaded. But Harry couldn't do anything; he was stuck. "Harry! Why don't you help me?" Sirius kept pleading, a disbelieving expression on his face. "I- I can't! I'm stuck!" Harry said desperately, struggling to get loose as if his own life depended on it. "How could you do this to me!" Sirius barley whispered. Tears started streaming down the face of a helpless Harry. "I'm sorry" he whispered looking at the floor. "Sorry won't save anyone," Sirius hissed, "how could you, Harry? The big hero of our time, wouldn't even save his own godfather? Why?" And then Sirius slipped trough the veil in slow motion. "NOOOOOOO!" Harry yelled.
"Harry? Harry! Wake up! You're having a nightmare!" Harry heard a familiar voice in the distance.
Harry snapped open his eyes, only to face his least favourite cousin. He'd entangled himself in the sheets from all the tossing and turning through the night. "What the hell are you doing in my room?" Harry spat, scrambling out of his bed. He didn't want the Dursley's to know anything about him having nightmares every night.
"Well, you were having a nightmare, so I thought—" Dudley began.
"You thought wrong!" Harry cut inn, putting on some jeans and one of Dudley's old t-shirts he'd inherited. He hurried out of the room, and down the stairs, leaving a puzzled Dudley in his room. He checked his watch, and knew that Uncle Wernon and Aunt Petunia were in London to pick up Marge on the train station, and wanted to use the opportunity to have a quiet breakfast. He made himself a ham and cheese sandwich, and poured himself a glass of milk before sitting down at the kitchen table.
"Err, Harry?" He heard the same voice that had awoken him.
"What do you want, Dudley?" Harry answered in a bored voice, without looking up from his meal.
"Err, are you alright, Harry?" Dudley asked with a mix of concern and uncertainty. He was standing in the entrance of the kitchen, leaning on the doorframe. His blonde hair reflecting a beam of sun coming trough the window.
"What?" Harry almost chocked on his sandwich, and looked up at Dudley in disbelieve. He couldn't believe his own ears. "Why do you care, anyway?" He added, eying his cousin suspiciously.
"Look, people can change, you know! Even you've changed over the past years, ever science you started at that school!" Dudley began.
"Oh yeah? How's that?" Harry interrupted, in an annoyed voice.
"Well, you never spoke back to mum and dad before! And look at you now! Just yesterday you were yelling at dad, and last time Aunt Marge was here you—" Dudley began ranting.
"Blew her up, I get the point. So, why the sudden change in mind, Dudders?" Harry asked sarcastically, finishing his sandwich and emptying his glass of milk.
"Let's just say I grew up, okay?" Dudley answered, sitting down at the kitchen table, as Harry got up and started to clean the dishes after every ones breakfast.
"You grew up?" Harry asked disbelievingly after a while, his back on his cousin. "Well, Dud, if you want me to tell you what's going on in my life, witch involves me trusting you; you'd have to earn my trust, wouldn't you? And if you want to earn my trust, you'll have to do a lot better than to tell me you just grew up! There has to be some sort of reason of the sudden change of heart!" Harry finished, putting everything back where it belonged.
"Fair enough," Dudley sighed, "but mom, dad and Aunt Marge will be back any minute now," Dudley answered, checking his watch.
"Great, then I'll leave the house, before I have to face any of them!" Harry muttered, moving towards the back door, just as he heard a car pulling in to their drive. He slipped quietly trough the door, and made sure his relatives was safely inside the house, before hurrying down the street.