Friendship before Love
(aka Summer Fun!)
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot of this story, the rest is JKR's
It was only two weeks into the summer and it was already the worst Harry could remember. The weather was comfortably warm and it rained just enough to keep all the plants green and healthy. His Aunt, Uncle and Cousin were treating him with a kind of feared respect and let him do whatever he pleased. Hermione, Ron and Ginny wrote to him at least twice daily. He'd received a dozen parcels; Harry thought most of them must have been from the twins, many were stamped W.W.W. with a return address in Daigon Alley. However the parcels and letters all lay on his bedroom floor unopened. Harry took no pleasure in his new found freedom, and the good weather was the last thing on his mind, a drought would have been a better reflection of how he felt.
Harry had taken to lying in the garden of number 4 at night and staring up at the stars thinking about his past and what was to come.
Was his future really written up there? He could see forever, maybe his future was their to see as well, Mars looked so bright in the sky. Harry lay and thought about everyone he knew and wondered why he couldn't bring himself to talk or write to anyone. He hadn't uttered a word to the Dursleys in two weeks and had written only four letters since the beginning of his annual summer isolation, All were addressed to Lupin and each contained just four words, 'Tell everyone I'm OK' and were simply signed 'Harry'. He hadn't intended the letters to be so short, the first letter took him nearly a day to write, he just couldn't find the words. He still couldn't find the words. What could describe the complete loss and emptiness he felt, maybe this was what it was like to be kissed by a Dementor Harry wondered, do I still have a soul?
On the fifteenth gloriously sunny day Harry woke and felt the familiar sinking feeling in his stomach as he remembered Sirius. He got up and showered then he dressed putting on his jeans, t-shirt and a loose baggy shirt, that had once belonged to Dudley and was far to big for him.
Finally Harry trudged downstairs to eat breakfast in silence. All the Dursleys had given up saying anything to or even about Harry. Vernon, Petunia and Dudley all looked miserable, Harry was sure that they missed making their barely concealed attempts to hurt him.
As Harry was pouring his second glass of orange juice an Owl landed on the table with a newspaper attached to its leg, surprisingly the only indication that his Uncle even noticed the Owl was a sharp look at Harry before he picked up his briefcase kissed Petunia, squeezed Dudley's shoulder affectionately and walked out to his car.
Harry paid the owl opened and the newspaper and a shadow of a smile crossed his face. The headline, which covered most of the front page, read
'Minister of Magic Resigns'
A tired and old looking picture of Cornelius Fudge narrowed his eyes and frowned. Harry eagerly turned the page to the article and read on,
'Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, resigned today amid a vote of no confidence and looming criminal charges. Fudge, we can exclusively reveal, will be accused of the illegal suppression of the press and the encouragement of illegal activities of staff directly in his charge, for more information see the reported trial of Dolores Umbridge, the Minister's senior undersecretary, on page 18. Fudge spent the majority of his last year in office trying to destroy the credibility of Albus Dumbledore, and Harry Potter, the boy who liv...'
"BOOOOM!"
The kitchen was suddenly rocked by an almighty explosion, Harry seized his wand and stood up so quickly that his chair was thrown across the room and collided with small table 6' away, knocking off and smashing the three pictures of Dudley at various ages.
Dudley and Petunia were staring fixedly at Harry. Harry surveyed the room quickly, out of the window he saw smoke rising from the house that was opposite the Dursleys back garden.
"Stay here." Harry said to his Aunt and Cousin firmly.
As he rushed to the back door, and ran down the garden, his only thought was, 'No one else is going to die because of me'. Harry's Aunt and Cousin were both visibly shaken and could only gawp in shock after him.
At the bottom of the garden the fence that separated his Uncles house from the inferno in front of him was shattered. Glass was spread across the ground; bits of slate roof were embedded in the dirt and the wood of the fence. The neighbours' house was still standing but a large hole had been blown out of the rear wall and only remnants of the windows and doors at the back could be seen. Smoke was issuing from every available outlet and fire could be seen raging out of all the ground floor windows and doors.
Harry searched the sky, but he wasn't expecting to see the Dark Mark, this didn't feel like magic, his scar hadn't tingled or seared. Then he saw her, a woman lying face down on the grass, covered in broken glass and small pieces of brick. The dust that covered her made her difficult to see on the similarly dust covered lawn.
Harry leaped over the remaining bits of fence and ran towards her. Looking her up and down, the only injury Harry could see was a large and slightly bloody lump on the side of her head, he could see her breathing steadily.
As Harry crouched down and started to clear the larger pieces of masonry and glass off of her, she stirred.
"You'll be ok." Harry said softly.
Then quietly so that Harry could only just make out the words the woman said "Alice, my Alice..." before her eyes closed and she fell unconscious.