The Summer had gone like this:
Wake up at 6:15, make breakfast, do chores, try and do his school work (He had shrunk his trunk and Vernon had only seen Hedwig, he had lied and said that his things were at a friend's house, he had the response of 'what freak like you has friends?') make lunch for them and do left over chores till dinner. The evenings were his, he normally went on a run or read a few of his books that he had brought over the year previously.
"Boy! GET DOWN HERE NOW!" Harry didn't even jump, he was used to the shouts now. But Harry had been good this Summer, so why was he in trouble now? Two days before going back to Hogwarts? He put his book down 'The mind arts: how to use Occlumency' and put it back in his trunk, using wandless magic, he shrunk said trunk and placed it in his back pocket of his jeans and then sprinted down the stairs. He always kept his things with him in case of an emergency and he already had sent Hedwig back to Hogwarts. He learnt to always have a back up plan.
"Yes Uncle Vernon?" He asked as he got to the sitting room, he saw they had guests over, he vaguely remembered Vernon saying that but he just learnt to zone out every time Vernon talked. Dudley was sitting with an older girl with blonde hair and brown eyes and Harry frowned, Dudley looked smug. He turned back to Vernon.
"You need to do us a favour. Considering we've let you have more freedom this summer -" Harry held in a scoff. He should have known something like this would come up. "This is Rachel and this is her Father Joe Grey," Vernon explained and Harry raised an eyebrow, nodding.
"This is what's going to happen, you are going to let Rachel do whatever she wants to do with you for a day, while we take Joe, Petunia and Dudley out to town."
He nodded. He didn't know what was going on in his Uncle's head, but, he knew it wasn't good. He was scheming. He could tell. But while he was under their roof, while he was 'safe' he had to what his guardian's told him to do. Which was a bummer. He could easily run away but Dumbledore would find out the moment he left the house and Harry still had the trace on him. He saw no way out of this one.
"Why don't you two get to know each other this evening? We are going out to dinner," Vernon said with a smirk and again Harry nodded. He still stood by the kitchen counter and Rachel was staring at him with a smirk on her face as the others left with the door slamming behind them. He sighed. Here goes nothing.
{Warning: skip scene if it's too much}
"Harry is it?" She asked sweetly, a little too sweet. Harry nodded. Not speaking. She got up and walked confidently over to him.
"Now now, don't be shy..." She said getting closer to him. Harry rolled his eyes.
"Look, whatever he told you to do, you don't -" She put a hand over his mouth and tutted at him. He frowned, didn't she just want him to talk? Bipolar much. He thought as he could feel her breath on his face.
"What do you think he told me to do, freak?"
His eyes widened as she walked over to the drawer in the kitchen, picking out a sharp knife, she rolled up his sleeve. If he wasn't scared before, he was fucking frightened now. He had had a break from Uncle Vernon's beatings this summer, but maybe this is what his Uncle had planned. Well played. He thought bitterly.
"I feel we need to let everyone know how much of a freak you are, don't be afraid," She said with a grin, "This won't hurt... Much"
The knife pressed into his skin and he tried so hard not to scream out in pain, what was the point in that, no one would be there to help him. Even his so called best friends. They hadn't written to him. Not once. It made him re think everything, he should have shook hands with Draco. He should have gone into Slytherin like the hat had wanted.
"Arghh!" He screamed out, she was getting deeper into his wrist as she went on. His eyes were watering, how was he going to hide this at school? Imagine the questions!
"There, have a look Harry, look at how beautiful your wrist looks now!" She said cheerfully and a hand was placed on his head to force him to look - his eyes trailed down to his wrist and tears fell down his face. Blood was everywhere but there, on his wrist, clearly said ' F R E A K'.
"What do you think Harry?" She asked and Harry glared at her.
"I think you're fucked in the head!"
He shouted at her, which was a mistake.
"Oh darling, we haven't even got started."
{Line break}
He curled up on his bed, his eyes red from crying. When the Dursley's and Joe had got back from their meal he had no top on, his jeans were half way down his legs and there was blood all over the counter. He had bruises over his back and she had raped him til he was unconscious. He didn't know who carried him back up to his room but someone did. He also knew he had to do something to hide this from school. He couldn't let the Dursley's win.
Then he remembered something he had read at school, he had spent a lot of time in the library towards the end of term, those few days before he had to get on the train. In there it said about Glamour charms, sort of like projecting an image so that people didn't see what was really underneath. Harry blinked a few times. He could do that. The only reason he was overall 7th in the year standing was so that Ron wouldn't get jealous that Harry was smarter than him, as Ron was somehow 6th thanks to Hermione. She was second before Daphne Greengrass. He could easily be first but he had been faking his grades so that they wouldn't argue so much. He shrugged, that was going to change. Anyway, he slowly got up, he didn't know how and focused on his wrist, silently casting the charm.
It worked, some how. So he went to sleep knowing there was at least something he could do to hide his real self from his so called friends. He needed to do something about that too. Make it clear he was not going to forgive them easily.
He woke up at 6:15 with a smile on his face - he was going to be at Hogwarts tomorrow!
He made breakfast, it was around 7 o'clock when the Dursley's walked down and he had already answered the door to Rachel and Joe. Harry had put on his mask for them because it took him every single bone in the body not to just answer the door. He felt like hurting them... But he couldn't bring himself to.
He ate with them at the table, something Petunia told him he could do since the beginning of summer, the letter from last year 'the cupboard under the stairs' was still playing in their minds. Which he was thankful for. It hurt, really fucking hurt when Harry tried to eat but he covered up his pain and when he tried to stomach the food it just didn't agree with him. He was in so much pain but he couldn't do anything about it until he got back to Hogwarts. Even then he was stuck.
"So boy, change of plans. We are taking you to London and dropping you off at the station. You can wait there til tomorrow." He said and paused for a second, studying him. Harry made sure he had no emotion on his face.
"Rachel will leave you be. She had enough fun with you yesterday. I will drop you off at 8 on the dot. So be ready."
Harry was inwardly cheering! He didn't have to see them again at all! He was free from them! He was trying not to bounce in his seat, he couldn't believe it. Harry nodded as an answer and Vernon grunted in return.
So, when 8 o'clock came, he was already at the door with Uncle Vernon as the man said goodbye. Harry limped out to the car, well, he tried not to show but he couldn't walk at all, yesterday took a lot out of him. Even breathing he found difficult. He couldn't let it show though. He just couldn't.
The car ride was silent.
Vernon put the radio on but that still didn't help with the awkwardness. The weather on the news said it was going to be raining all day and tomorrow and then that was when it clicked, where was he going to stay!?
He didn't have any money... Unless...
"What happened to that bird of yours?" Harry blinked twice. He was not expecting that.
"She flew to my school, she's taking a long trip. She wanted to exercise," Harry explained, his voice hoarse for some reason. Vernon nodded.
"And you won't come back here until next Summer, unless we say otherwise?" Harry then looked at Vernon, slightly confused. 'unless they say otherwise'!? What are they planning?
"That's the plan," He said focusing back to the road.
"Good. We are here"
He paused before getting out.
"Well, er... Bye"
No response. He figured that would happen.
{line break}
He decided to go to the Goblin's first, so that he could get some money out and buy the things he needed for school. He had the whole day ahead of him for last minute shopping to it should work out quite well.
He put his hood up as he walked through the Leaky Cauldron, he did not want to be recognised, especially after the first time he walked in there. He took his wand out from his inner thigh (he had brought a wand holster half way through last year and decided the best way he could hide his wand from the Dursley's was his leg) and quickly put the pattern into the wall.
He then walked through the street with purpose, even though there weren't that many people, he still needed to go places and he didn't want to be stopped and definitely did not want to have to answer questions.
He made it to Gringotts within five minutes and went straight to the Head Goblin, again, there was no one in there. He shrugged, never mind eh. He was getting strange looks by the creatures and he did not like that. He froze mid step, could they see past the Glamour?!
"Mr Harry Potter, how may we help you?" The Head Goblin snarled and Harry raised his eyebrows, bowing to the Goblin (he cringed, that hurt...) who in turn, looked shocked.
"Sir, I came here to get some money out, is that alright?" He asked in a small voice, he cracked towards the end. It probably was something to do with the amount of screaming from last night. He was amazed by how much pain he could put up with.
"Mr Potter we are a bank, it's what we do," The Goblin said with sarcasm and Harry tried not to laugh at his own stupidity, it came out like a snort instead.
"Griphook, take over this post for an hour will you? I need to have a private word with Mr Potter here," He said with a nasty grin and Harry shivered. Hang on a second.
"Griphook! You took me to my fault last year!" He exclaimed, making the Goblin's around him jump from surprise, "How are you? Did you get promoted?!" He questioned. Biting his lip, recognising the shocked expressions, had he done something wrong?
"Sorry Mr Potter, you did not do anything wrong. Wizards normally do not remember our names and try to forget about us," Griphook started to explain and Harry interrupted,
"That's horrible!" He blushed lightly and grimaced. "Sorry." He added, letting Griphook speak again.
"Not to worry and to answer your question, I am fine thank you and yes I have been promoted. Now if you would like to follow Froir he will discuss some things with you," Griphook explained and Harry nodded, bowing half way before he gave up from the pain, trying not to let it on to the Goblin's.
"May your gold flourish," The Goblin bowed his head and said the reply back to him.
They walked through part of the Bank that Harry had never been through before. It was a long corridor with doors on either side, not too far from the main part of the bank. They stopped at a door which said 'Froir's Office' on in gold letters. Harry hoped there was a chair in their, he was struggling a lot at the minute.
"Take a seat, Mr Potter," Harry nodded great fully as he looked round the office, it was fairly big. Bigger than the dorm in Hogwarts anyway. As he sat down on the comfiest chair ever, he paid attention to Froir, who was looking at him closely.
"Now, I understand you have not received any of our letters?" Harry blinked once.
"The first time I ever got a letter was my Hogwarts letter last year. I never got any mail," He explained with a frown. Froir hummed. Harry didn't have a clue what was going on anymore. He decided to roll with it.
"We believe someone is intercepting your mail." He stated and Harry glared. Why would someone do that!? Mail is private for a reason!
"Why would they do that?" He questioned quietly. There was no point getting annoyed, he had no energy for that right now. But there was no reason why he couldn't stop his mail from being intercepted from this point on. He didn't care who felt important enough to read it. Froir chuckled and Harry raised his eyebrow.
"I have a vague idea why. But let's not get into detail about that just yet. We have a lot to talk about. Why are you wearing a Glamour, Mr Potter?"
Harry hesitated.
"I, well... It'll be easier to show you," Harry sighed heavily and wandlessly took his glamour down and stared at Froir, not sure what the Goblin's reaction was going to be.
Froir didn't know what to think when the boy who lived walked into the Bank this morning, the day before Hogwarts. He was even more surprised to see him in really good, too advanced for a second year, glamours. He was shocked when Potter had bowed to him, shocked when Potter remembered who Griphook was and even more shocked when he said goodbye with the property greeting. It was then he thought there was more to the boy who lived that met the eye.
As Potter lifted the charm his eyes widened, his mouth opening, overwhelmed. The boy looked like he hadn't slept in weeks, dark under eye circles, bruises on his neck and Froir could smell blood on him. He was about to open his mouth when the boy rolled his sleeve from his right arm up and Froir paled. His face lost all colour. The boys relatives did that to him!? How could they!? One person came to mind, Dumbledore.
Harry fidgeted in his chair, uncomfortable.
"We need to get a healer in -" Harry's eyes widened and he shook his head. He didn't want anyone to know about this. He didn't want to cause a scene. He just didn't want to cause any trouble.
"No, I don't want anyone else to know about this Froir," He said, staring right at the Goblin, who sighed deeply. Harry was not backing down. He could sort this out on his own.
"In that case, Mr Potter. I will give you some potions you have to take before breakfast, every day for a month. That should help you heal. How about that?" He asked and Harry closed his eyes, nodding. He felt relieved that Froir didn't force him to see a healer.
"Thank you."
{line break}
He was at the train station half an hour early. He spent the night in the Leaky Cauldron under a false name. Yesterday, he brought a whole new wardrobe, as well as his school books and luckily, no one made a huge fuss.
He checked the time and saw it was twenty five to eleven so he thought he might as well go through the barrier. His trunk still comfortably in his back pocket, he just had to walk through, without any need for a trolley. He started to sprint, holding his breath as he got closer and closer to the wall, ignoring his pain from the run up.
Opening his eyes, he grinned when he saw the shining, red train in front of him. There weren't that many people around, just those who preferred to arrive earlier. He recognised a few from his year, Draco Malfoy and a few Slytherin's were in a corner looking in his direction. This year, Harry decided was going to be different. He ignored them and tried to hide his limp as he stepped onto the train, looking for a compartment near the back of the train.
Meanwhile Draco Malfoy and his group were staring after Potter, shocked and if a little confused.
"What's Potter doing by himself?" Daphne asked first, breaking the silence. Tracey replied.
"Isn't he normally with Ron and Hermione?"
"No one going to comment on his limp?" Blaise questioned with raised eyebrows. Draco blinked a few times. He then looked to Blaise and Daphne.
"You two want to come with me? Find out what's going on?" He asked and the two nodded. They left Tracey, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle there. Too many would overwhelm Potter.
"Where would you most likely go if you were Potter?" Blaise asked as they walked down the train. Draco hummed.
"Probably to the back of the train, so no one would ask questions or see him..." He noticed the looks from Blaise and Daphne and Draco rolled his eyes.
"What now?"
"How would you know that?" Daphne asked with raised eyebrows. Draco blinked a few times.
"I just do. Let's get a move on," He said, dismissing the subject, walking a lot faster down the train. Daphne and Blaise smirked from behind Draco as they followed him.
This year was going to be interesting. Daphne thought with a grin.
A/N I haven't written a drarry story yet so uh, here you go...