This fic is rated R for future chapters. Do not read it if you are not of age!
This is my first fic, so feedback would be much appreciated. Be kind, but honest. Thanks!
It was finally time to get out. Summer heat was creeping under his skin, and life at Number Four Privet Drive was becoming more unbearable by the day. Though better than the past, the Dursleys were miserable creatures. They refused to accept Harry's wizarding nature, though they stopped trying to make it go away. The more courage Harry developed over the years, the more freely he talked about his school and his life around the home of the Dursleys. This, of course, didn't sit too well with his family. The only reason, Harry suspected that they didn't lock him away, never to be seen or heard from again, was that the threat of Sirius Black still loomed in the depths of their minds. It simply wouldn't do well for them to be murdered in their sleep by an escaped convicted criminal. The fact that he was Harry's godfather made them more uneasy and they gave up trying to suppress the magic that continually made itself known when Harry was around. They even gave up on preventing Harry from seeing his friends over the summer. Harry suspected that Arthur Weasley was to thank for Harry's ability to live a normal teenage life. After all, it wasn't every day when a Muggle has his fireplace blown clear from the wall by someone using a small wooden stick, and muttering some "nonsense words."
Harry, though, certainly didn't protest. In fact, this freedom gave him the chance to do some of the things that he otherwise wouldn't have gotten the chance to do for a while. Harry and his best friends, Hermione and Ron, got to go to see a number of Quidditch games over the season. Harry also was able to go to the Wizarding village of Hogsmeade several times over the summer. It was simply wonderful. Now, it was time to leave Privet Drive once again. Like he had been doing for several years now, Harry was going to Ron's home, The Burrow, for the last couple of weeks of summer. It was going to be a lot of fun. The past months had been wonderful; seeing his friends, and being able to live happily in the Muggle home that he had grown up in was something that Harry had taken full advantage of, but two weeks surrounded by his favorite people in the world . . . well, that promised to be the best part of the summer. Little did Harry know of the multiple threats that were soon to make themselves known in his, Ron's and Hermione's lives.
Of course, there was Voldemort, Harry's mortal enemy. The threat of the full and powerful return of Voldemort danced in Harry's mind all the time, but he had learned to deal with it. There was nothing to be done to prevent this return. He would simply have to trust that Dumbledore was doing everything in his power to keep the Wizarding and Muggle worlds safe from such a return. The Ministry of Magic, of course, had been under denial about Voldemort's likely return from that horrible day that had been burned into Harry's mind. Cedric's death had affected Harry in ways that most teenagers do not know, and won't until they grow into adults. Guilt was replaced by regret, which was in turn replaced with denial, then to fear, anger, pain, deep sadness, and, finally, acceptance. It had been a long, bumpy, and emotional path to accept that he wasn't to blame for Cedric's death. Much thanks had to be given to Ron and Hermione, who had helped him in ways he couldn't even begin to realize. But that wasn't the beginning of it all. More was about to affect Harry's life. Some of it he had planned on, some he had expected might occur, and other things would completely catch him off guard. They were all teenagers, after all, and hormones were about to have their way with Harry and his friends.