"Girl! Girl, you get down here right now!" I heard my uncle scream. I sighed and made my way down the stairs to the kitchen.
Dudley was still fast aleep upstairs, of course, and Aunt Petunia was out somewhere probably running errands. My extremely large uncle was seated at his usual spot on the couch and eating leftovers from last night. The television was tuned to the news with the volume up high.
"Your aunt has left you a list with your chores for today. Do everything and do it right, or else," he said menacingly and shaking a leftover chicken leg at me for emphasis.
"Alright," I sighed as I walked over and looked at the ridiculously long list of chores. This was going to be a long day, but at least it would get my mind off of things.
It was hot outside with the drought that had engulfed Surrey. With the chores finally done, which left me exhausted, I had decided to go for a walk. I saw few people out. Just a woman going jogging and a few young kids playing in their yard. Everyone so unaware of the eminent danger of Voldemort's rise. You would think that I'd be informed of what was going on at the moment, but no. It was the opposite. I was so mad at Ron and Heromione for keeping me in the dark about everything. Not a damn letter and I had written about a dozen times. I would have thought that Sirius would write to me but he had not either.
"Potter!" I turned around and saw Dudley coming up the sidewalk towards me.
"What do you want?" Gosh he was annoying.
"Just been hanging out with the gang. On my way home now." He was now walking alongside me.
" Well that would be in the other direction, Dudders," I replied sarcasticly.
"I know that! I'm not stupid! I'm just going the long way," I'd touched a nerve with him.
"Oh really? Not stupid? You sure did fool me," I laughed at his frustrated expression.
"Shut up."
We walked in silence for a while, making our way back to the house when it suddenly got very cold. The sky above us now an ominous grey.
"Wh-What are you doing?" asked Dudley as he stopped walking.
"Absolutely nothing." I was worried. It was getting darker by the second and colder too. I looked around and saw nothing by the houses to my right but saw something move to the left. I whipped out my wand, ready to fight whatever was there. "Stay near me Dudley. Dudley!" The idiot yelled and ran to the left down the sidewalk. "You're going right towards it, dummy! Turn around!" I saw a huge, black caped figure that Dudley was headed to.
He screamed and I ran as fast as I could towards it. Then I felt the cold, terrible feeling of being totally alone. Like the life had been sucked out of me. I knew exactly what it was.
"Expecto Patronum!" The bright, silver stag bursted from my wand and overtook the dementor. Dudley lay on the ground, crying on the sidewalk. I turned around and saw two more heading my way. "That way!" I yelled as I directed the patronus with my wand towards the oncoming dementors. They turned around and were off in the night, and the patronus slowly fading away.
"Dudley! Come on!" I yelled in his ear as I pulled him to his feet, which took a great effort. I hauled him down the street with him bumbling and crying like an idiot. We were almost home when I saw Mrs. Figg looking out her window at us with a wide eyed and worried expression on her face. Weird...I'd think about that later though.
We finally made it to the door and I dumped Dudley on porch. About three seconds after knocking, Aunt Petunia threw open the door and let out a scream.
"What is wrong with my Diddykins?" She pulled him into the house and I followed behind.
"He's just been scared to death. He'll be fine." I rolled my eyes at him, which was a huge mistake. My uncle was standing right inside the house and had seen my expression.
"This is your fault, you ungrateful brat!" He ran at me and BAM. Everything got dark for a second and I was on all fours with my hand on my cheek where he had hit me extremely hard. "Get upstairs right now! I don't want to even look at you!"
I slowly got up and made my way to my room. My head was pounding and my eye swollen. I didn't bother getting undressed or pulling back the blankets. I just collapsed on the bed and passed out.