Harry sat alone curled in a ball on his bed at the Dursley's. Summer was almost half way over with and Harry hadn't received any letters from his friends.
I wonder why no one is sending me letters, I've sent them tons.
It was as this thought ran across Harry's mind that there was a tapping on the glass of his window outside. He rolled over onto his other side to look out the window, what he saw made him spring from his bed. There was a scrawny looking owl struggling to hover at his window. He recognized it immediately as Pig, Ron's owl. He had a parcel tied to his left leg as he swooped into the room he lost his balance and went face first into Harry's bed. Pig sat up and presented its leg to Harry.
"What an odd little creature." Harry smirked to himself as he untied the parcel from the poor bird's leg. Before he could set the parcel down to give Pig a snack he was out the window heading home. "That's rather odd he didn't wait for a reply. I'll just have to send Hedwig when she comes back from hunting."
Sitting down on his bed he broke the seal on the envelope, on the front was Harry's name in the familiar messy scrawl of Ron's. When he unfolded the letter he was surprised to see it was rather short, only a few sentences long.
It read: " Dear Harry,
You're not allowed to come to the Burrow for the rest of the summer. We don't want you any were near us. Stay away from us you're a murderer and you put our family in danger. Leave us alone.
Ron Weasley.
Harry had to read the letter over again before he registered what the letter said. He didn't understand what happened to cause Ron to be so angry at him. He was mulling over what could have caused this kind of reaction from Ron, before he could get very far in his dark thoughts there was another tap on the glass of his window. His eyes automatically snapped to the window where another unfamiliar owl hovered.
Harry got up feeling as though everyone of his limbs weighed ten pounds each. He was sluggish and his eye sight was going blurry. He slowly opened the window for the unknown owl. It flew in and perched itself on the desk that was situated next to the window. It stuck it's leg out where a parcel was tied. Harry untied the parcel and turned to throw it on his bed, as he turned around to look back at the brown owl there was a gust of wind and it was gone into the night back to wherever it had come from.
"I wonder why this owl didn't wait for a response." Harry thought to himself aloud. He turned to his bed and sat on the edge with the letter in his hands. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath then looked down at the name scrawled on the front, it was his name in the familiar neat script that was Hermione's. Letting out a deep breath he opened the letter. He noticed this letter was shorter then Ron's had been.
Dear Harry,
I am writing to inform you that we can no longer be friends and I would appreciate it if you left me and my friends alone. You're dangerous stay away.
Hermione
Harry felt as if his world was crashing down around him, he didn't understand how his friends could be so cold to him all of a sudden. What had he done wrong? Harry laid his head down on his lumpy pillow and closed his eyes trying not to think of the horrible things he'd done to innocent people to deserve this type of treatment from his friends. I mean look at Cedric Diggory, he was trying to be nice by letting them tie at the Tri-Wizard Tournament and he ended up getting the boy killed.
Harry slowly drifted off into a dreamless sleep, when he woke in the morning it was to his Aunt screaming his name from the bottom of the stairs. He quickly got up and changed his clothes heading down stairs to start on breakfast. When he got to the bottom of the stairs the entire family was packed up and getting ready to leave.
"We are going away for the weekend you will do this list of chores and eat only the food that has a yellow sticky note on it. Eat off of and drink out of the plate and cup that are sitting on the counter." Aunt Petunia said to Harry as she walked out of the house.
Harry was excited they'd never left him alone in the house for more than a few hours. If they were going away they'd send him to the neighbors house for the weekend. He didn't like her much she had lots of cats and her home smelled of pine.
Looking at the list of chores Harry decided to get a head start on them after he had grabbed something to eat and brushed his teeth. Going to the fridge he opened it to find there were only a few things with yellow post it's on them. There was some lunch meat and bread, there was the egg carton and the butter. The water faucet had a sticky note as well and he found an old cup and plate that had dust on them on the counter. He searched the rest of the kitchen to find that the only things with sticky notes on them were the peanut butter and an old stale pack of crackers in a cabinet.
Making up some eggs and toasting a piece of bread Harry scarfed down his breakfast and then ran up stairs to brush his teeth. He then began his lengthy set of chores. He cleaned the entire house from top to bottom, he wasn't allowed to clean his Aunt and Uncle's room, they didn't trust him enough. But he cleaned up the rest of the house, as he started on his cousin's room he found there was a floor board loose by his bed.
Harry being as curious as he was went to lift the piece of wood where he found a large stash of different packs of cigarettes and alcohol he also found something that looked like grass and some brown paper, which he recognized to be weed, he'd seen some of the high school kids smoking it once.
He found about ten packs of cigarettes of all different brands, he found two bottles of vodka and one of Jack Daniel's Whiskey. He also found a giant wad of rolled up twenty's counting it he found there was over a thousand dollars in the stack.
Pulling everything out he went to his room and place it in a secret compartment of his trunk that could only be seen by him. Going back into Dudley's room he replaced the board and finished up his room.
By the time he was done with all his chores it was about noon. He was surprised by how fast he'd gotten everything done. He went into the Kitchen and looked at the items he was allowed to eat, as he pulled out the lunch meat to make a sandwich he noticed it had mold on it. He threw it away and sat his butt on the kitchen counter.
After sitting there for a little while he got an idea and ran back up to his room where he grabbed a couple hundred dollars from the wad of cash a pack of cigarettes and a lighter from Dudley's stash. Grabbing the spare key the Dursley's leave on the hallway table he walked out the front door locking it behind him.
The Dursley's didn't live very far from town, it was walking distance. So Harry went into town and looked around. The first thing he saw was a giant strip mall filled with all types of stores and places to eat. Walking around he found many clothing stores which held different types of clothes that interested him.
He went into one going in to just look but when a sales lady came up to him and asked if he needed help, he decided he'd try on a few things just for the fun of it. As the sales lady looked him up and down she told him to go stand by the dressing rooms and she'd bring him clothes to try on.
He thought this was odd since every time he'd gone with his Aunt to buy clothes for Dudley Aunt Petunia had to pick out her own clothes to try on. But he listened to the lady and went to stand next to the changing rooms.
When the girl came back she had a huge pile of clothes in her hands, she went to the last door at the end of the hallway and opened it setting the clothes down on a chair and hanging up a few of them.
"Try these on, when you're done trying them on throw them over the door, If you like them then I'll put them in a different pile for you to sort out later." She smiled at him pushing him gently into the changing room.
He looked at the pile of clothes and the chair and shrugging his shoulders began to try on clothes. He must have tried on twelve different pairs of pants, twenty shirts, and at least four pairs of shoes, when he went out into the hallway where the girl was standing with his clothes he noticed there was only one pile.
"You liked all of them," The lady told him, "Want me to ring these up for you?"
Harry looked at the pile of clothes and nodded his head at the lady. She smiled and began to ring up all his items. When she was done she leaned over the counter and smiled at him, I'll give you an employee discount my treat." She said to him.
He felt kind of bad because he had the money to pay for it but she wouldn't take no for an answer. Handing her the money he walked out of the store with two heavy bags on his arms. He walked further down the strip till he found another clothing store similar to the first but this one held mostly band t-shirts. Walking in he found tons of t-shirts of bands he knew and liked and others which he didn't know but the t-shirts looked cool.
Once he had tried on and paid for all of the t-shirts he kept walking, where he stumbled upon a food court of sorts. Walking in he was overwhelmed with the fact that he was the one who was getting to choose where he ate and what he ate. Looking around he found a burger place and ordered their biggest burger, with their largest fries and vanilla milkshake. He sat down and ate the entire meal in record time.
Once he was done with his meal he got up and kept walking down the strip, he walked passed what looked like a tattoo and piercing shop. He went in curious to see what they could do for him. He looked at many of the books on the table full of different piercings and tattoos and decided he was going to get a few.
When he had finally decided what he was going to get he went up to the counter and told the scary looking tattoo artist standing there.
He had decided to get his lip pierced twice on one side, which the guy informed him was called spider bites. He chose to get his anti eye brown pierced, and his cheeks pierced like dimples. He also got his tragus pierced and an industrial bar put in. As the guy started doing his piercings he joked that he was surprised he didn't want a tongue piercing too, which made Harry go ahead and ask for a tongue piercing as well.
The guy was surprised to see Harry's high pain tolerance, he didn't flinch once or complain about the pain for any of the piercings that were done. Harry then asked for a tattoo across his waist, which read 'Slytherin'. The guy thought it was some form a latin so he didn't ask the meaning of it.
When everything was done Harry walked out of the store a new person. He decided it was getting late that he would grab something to eat and begin his walk home. As he rounded the corner to the food court a smell hit him. He thought it was the most heavenly smell ever. He followed the delicious smell to a taco stand where he got four tacos and a soda.
When he got home he ran up stairs and placed his bags in the secret compartment of the trunk, which he was surprised to find fit all of it with space left over. He smacked his head on his forward forgetting his trunk was charmed.
He sat down on his bed with nothing to do for a while. He ignored the two letter that lay opened on the floor next to his bed, as the sun went down and the moon came up Harry had decided to go for a walk to the playground. He was just getting up and changing into a pair of his new skinny jeans and a white Hot Chelle Rae band t-shirt, when there was a tap on the glass of his window. Turning he found Fawkes Dumbledore's phoenix at his window. He went to open the window to let the red orange bird in. It flew in and landed on his shoulder presenting it's left leg to him. Untying the parcel that was obviously from Dumbledore he was going to feed the giant bird some water and treats but it flew out the window before he could.
Sitting down on his bed he opened the thick envelope and began to read the letter:
Dear Harry,
I regret to inform you light of certain events you will be coming to Hogwarts early this year, as well as their will be a house change for you in the very near future. You will be sent for early tomorrow morning please be ready to leave.
Dumbledore
Harry decided to instead of ponder over the letter to go on with his plans for a walk to the playground, but first he picked up his room placing what he was taking with him into his trunk to be ready for tomorrow.
He walked out of the house and down the block towards the old swing set that lay on the outskirts of the playground. Sitting on the swing he pulled out the pack of cigarettes, he pulled one out and stuck it between his lips. Lighting it he took in a deep drag of the cigarette. He sat there for a little while smoking on his cigarette and thinking about his new look and the information Dumbledore told him about.
As Harry pulled another cigarette out and placed it in between his lips he lit it and took a drag of it as a voice spoke up behind him. "You know those aren't very good for you." The deep voice was unmistakable.
"I figure wizards can cure cancer, so what does it matter." Harry said to the man dressed completely in black as he walked around in front of Harry so he could see his pale face.
The look on Snape's face when he got a look at Harry was one of shock; it was the only real emotion that Harry had ever seen on Snape. But it was only a brief glimpse, before Snape's mask came back into place over his features. Harry smirked up at Snape laughter dancing in his eyes.
"Why are you spying on me anyways?" Harry asked nonchalantly flicking his finished cigarette to the ground and lighting another one. He vaguely realized he'd already smoke five cigarettes since he'd been sitting there and he hadn't coughed or hacked on the smoke once, it was like he was meant to smoke.
"Dumbledore, he thinks his Golden Boy might off himself or something." Snape said as if it meant nothing to him.
Harry didn't say anything after that he just sat there smoking another cigarette. When he finally looked up again he could tell he'd been sitting there for a while because Snape was sitting on the swing next to him and he didn't remember seeing him sit down. He looked around him and noticed that the sun was coming up slowly.
Harry stood up stretching his arms out, he looked at Snape and give him a small genuine smile.
"Goodbye Snape." Was all Harry said as he walked off back towards the Dursley's. He could tell Snape was following behind him all the way back to the Dursley's home but he didn't say a word to him. When he got up to the door and Snape was still following him he decided to ask if he wanted to come in.
"Snape, would you like to come in?" Harry said as he turned to face Snape.
"I am supposed to be bringing you back to Hogwarts in a few hours anyways." Was the only response Harry got. So Harry unlocked the front door and left it opened for Snape to come in. There's the living room, I'll be back down in a minute.
Harry ran upstairs and grabbed a towel and some clothes from his room, and went into the bathroom he washed his hair and finished up his shower he came out and looked at himself in the steamy mirror. His limp black hair was in his face it covered over his lightning bolt scar. He decided when he got the chance he would get his hair cut and dyed, to match his new look.
He moved his fringe and looked at the scar across his forehead it made him angry that all this horrible stuff had happened to him, his friend and all those innocent people. Faces started to flash across the mirror's image, all of them damaged in some way, mangled or scared, burned or gauged. They were all the victims of the war innocent and not, wizards and muggles alike. All of a sudden Harry pulled back and swung as hard as he could at the mirror, it shattered and broke into tiny little pieces. When Harry pulled back and looked at his hands he was surprised to see a large shard of glass in his hand. It didn't hurt as much as he thought it did, it almost felt good. The adrenaline running through his veins made him feel alive somehow.
He pulled the shard of glass out of his hand and cleaned the wound he wrapped it in some gauze he'd found in the medicine cupboard that was situated over the toilet. He got dressed in a black Rise Against t-shirt, and bright red skinny jeans. You could see the tattoo on his waist between his pants and the t-shirt.
Once he'd cleaned up all the glass and blood from the bathroom he went into his room and threw his dirty clothes into his trunk. He then collected a few more of his things then began to drag his trunk and Hedwig's cage down stairs to Snape who was standing awkwardly in the Dursley's living room.
"Do you have everything?" Snape asked looking uncomfortable in the Dursley's cheery living room.
"Yes this is it." Harry said not really making eye contact with him.
"Then let's go," Snape shoved a handful of floo powder at Harry before throwing his own handful in the fireplace and muttering The Leaky Cauldron.