Chapter 1 THE PLAN

It was a nice warm August-the-first evening. Green-eyed, seventeen- year- old, jet black haired Harry Potter was lying down on the Dursley's front lawn. He didn't want to waste this beautiful, golden evening by being locked up in his room as aunt Petunia yells at him from the bottom of the stairs saying things like: "Potter, you better come down here and clear the table off the dishes Dudley has broken!" or "What are you doing, you lazy pig? We clothe you and put a roof over your head and this is the thanks we get?! Now get down here and clean up Dudley's broken lap-top! When you're finished you can clean out the cupboard of any cobwebs!"

"Geez," thought Harry, "if that's what could be happening right now then obviously she doesn't know I'm out here."

At this thought Harry felt a bit uncomfortable so he decided not to think about his aunt and all of her demands. Instead, he went back to looking at the clouds. He enjoyed looking at the different shapes they took, and so far he had seen a giant squid like the one in the lake at Hogwarts, a cotton ball, a hippogriff, another cotton ball, a dragon like a Hungarian Horntail burning a thestral's tail, and a cotton ball that happens to be stuck to a blast-ended skrewt's tail. Apart from the cotton balls, Harry realized that he was thinking too much about Hogwarts and the Wizarding World.

He couldn't stand it! He had to talk to someone about Hogwarts. He could recall so many days this summer were he was very close to mentioning something to do with Hogwarts in front of the Dursley's but just managed to bite his tongue and change his mind. Unfortunately there was no one around for miles, from what he knew, that go to Hogwarts. No, actually there was Hermione but she was most likely out camping with Krum or something. "Wait!" he whispered to himself, "There is someone; Mrs. Figg!"

Now this was entirely true, but there was only one problem: how would he be able to go to her house without making the Dursleys think that he would enjoy visiting her? If they find out that he enjoys visiting Mrs. Figg, they will never let him go to her house. He could make the Dursleys go out on some sort of a vacation, and since they hate it when he has fun, they can send him over to Mrs. Figg. "That's perfect!" he exclaimed. "But how will I make them leave?"

This was a problem. If he couldn't get the Dursleys to leave, his whole "plan" would go down the drain. Then it hit him, "What am I doing? Of course, it's simple! All I have to do is trick them into going on a camping trip and they'll have to leave me behind!"

So Harry got up, a bit reluctantly, and started into the house.

As he went through the living room, Aunt Petunia caught one glimpse of him and, as Harry had presumed she would, she screamed, "Where in tarnation have you been? We've been looking all over for you! Diddykins has accidentally broken his X-Box and we need you to clean it up!"

I knew Dudley couldn't go throughout a whole day without breaking at least one thing, thought Harry to himself.

"Well hop to it, boy!" shouted his Uncle Vernon, making him jump. "Quit standing around and listen to your aunt!" "Yes sir," replied Harry trying his best not to ruin his "oh-so perfect" plan.

When he finished picking up every little bit of the remains of Dudley's X-Box it was already dinner time. He felt confident that this would be the time to put his plan into action.

During dinner, which consisted of a lean rump roast and mashed potatoes with fat free gravy, all of which Harry had none and Dudley had most of, Uncle Vernon was talking about drills- again.

"...and this one young man came and asked me if the 12mm drill came any cheaper, and I told him 'If it did, I would have such a profitable job' and do you know what he told me? Well, that no good adolescent said he saw the same drill at Darren's for five dollars less! And I said to him, 'If you wanted a cheaper drill, then why in heaven's name did you come all this way to bother me?' And all he did before turning around was yell, 'Yeah, well, thanks for nothing you purple wind-bagged creep!' Can you believe it Petunia? He should be glad I didn't go after him! I have the right to sell my drills at a reasonable price in order to be able to live a comfortable life right?" Uncle Vernon complained.

"Right, dad!" said Dudley with his chest out looking proud.

"Exactly what I think my son!"

"Yeah that's very true," Harry said trying not to sound so out of place and failing miserably. They all stared at him. Oh great thought Harry, now they think I'm some sort of a lunatic.

"Well," Harry tried to redeem himself, "he does help out the family and I do get clothing, food and shelter right?"

"Rrrright," Uncle Vernon was very confused.

"Yeah, there are lots of people who don't think about others and how they also need to survive."

Aunt Petunia shrugged in a puzzled way. Dudley looked stupefied- which wasn't much of a difference because he always looked stupefied.

"What are you getting at, boy?" inquired his uncle in a careful manner.

"Well I was just saying that there are those who take advantage of their homes and the homes of others. And that well, we -well you- should go camping," Harry tried very hard not to sound so eager. Oh man they're staring at me, now what should I do? I need to save my butt, I'm dying out here! "Yeah, I mean...you know...it's like, people take advantage of little things like electricity and so it would be cool to go camping in order to live a natural life for a couple of days. That way we can see how much electricity is so valuable and things like that."

"You know what, Petunia?" said Uncle Vernon quite slowly, "I think Potter has a point."

"You really think so?" Aunt Petunia looked worried.

"Yes, we should go camping and get out of town."

"No!" Dudley cut in. "We can't go! There isn't television, how will I survive?!!"

"Come off it! We can still find a way to have fun," Uncle Vernon said.

"So does this mean we're going?" Harry persisted.

"Oh, no you don't! You will not be coming with us!" his uncle said getting all purple.

"What? That's not fair!" Harry tried not to sound sarcastic. "I thought that I would get to go swimming."

"Ha-ha! You're the only one you can blame because you're the one who suggested it in the first place!" Dudley thought he was making Harry mad, but he obviously wasn't.

"Well it's settled then! We will leave on Friday to camp down in, what is it called?" Uncle Vernon asked.

"Sunshine Valley?" suggested Harry's aunt.

"Yes that's the one!"

"Great I'll go and pack!" looking at Harry maliciously he hurriedly waddled upstairs.

"Aww man! Now I have to stay with Mrs. Figg and her cats. Yuck! I hate how her house smells so bad like boiled cabbage." Harry pretended to complain.

"You dumb boy, you! That's exactly where we're sending you!" Uncle Vernon gave a quick yet evil little laugh.

"I'll call her right away," aunt petunia had a fierce look in her eyes.

A few minutes later aunt petunia came in -the fierce gleam gone- looking as if she had just seen a repeat of "My Home Town".

"She's not home," she said in a long emotionally-drained voice. "There is a message on her answering machine that she away on vacation."

"That old goat is on vacation?!!" uncle Vernon boomed in fury.

"Yes," Harry's aunt's voice got smaller, "it says so on her answering machine she's gone."

"So now what are we supposed to do with him?!" said uncle Dursley oblivious to the fact that Harry was sitting there in the same room. "If we take him we'll have to be responsible for him. We'll have to feed him and he'll have to be with us the whole time!" at this point uncle Vernon was so purple you couldn't tell the difference between his throbbing veins and his skin.

"But I don't want him to go he'll just ruin the fun! Why can't he stay home?" Dudley was wailing at this point.

"Are you mad? If we leave him here he'll rip the place apart," uncle Vernon was so enraged he could barely speak.

"If I go I won't bother you. If you let me I can just use that old tent that you have and sleep in there," said Harry who was totally abashed at this horrible news. "And you don't need to feed I can cook for myself and I won't be anywhere near you, alright?"

All that the others could do was stare. They obviously didn't know whether this was alright or not but what else could they do? So they decided to take Harry with them "On two conditions," uncle Vernon said, his face a light puce colour now, "you must not be around us for a very long time and number two you must not embarrass us especially with that funny business of yours!"
"Don't worry uncle Vernon, I won't break the rules," Harry really did not want to go but since he had to he did not want to get on their bad side, so he obeyed.
"You better not!" Dudley wasn't very pleased by this decision, so after shouting this he stormed upstairs to pack his bags.