Disclaimer: I hope everyone knows this, but just in case, the characters and places come from JKR. I am not making any money off of this story, as I wrote this just for fun.
A/N: A HUGE thanks goes to my GREAT friends, Alyssa and Claire, because without them this fanfic wouldn't be where it is today. An even BIGGER thanks goes to Mitzi, for becoming my beta. Another thanks to my dad for giving me the idea. Also, I know this is a little far fetched, but bear with me. And I know things aren't in the order they appear in the books. Sorry, but enjoy!
Chapter One- Counting Down the Days
Harry woke up with the mid-morning sun beating down on him. He hadn't slept well the night before. He kept tossing and turning until well past one a.m. He kept thinking back to the day that Sirius died. How he could have stopped it. He was also thinking how strange his aunt had been acting.
He would look up from his measly grapefruit quarter, and find her staring at him with an odd expression on her face. Then other times, she would yell at him without prevail, as if trying to make up for the look she had given him. He couldn't figure her out.
"Wake up, you bloody boy!" yelled Harry's uncle Vernon as he pounded on the door. "It's 10:30!"
Harry didn't know why his aunt and uncle even bothered to wake him up. They didn't pay any attention to him, unless they were making him do chores, or sending him to his room.
"Dudley has a wrestling match at 11:00. We're about to leave," Uncle Vernon snapped as he unlocked the door. "Go to the bathroom, I won't have you peeing in the corners of your room." He opened the door to let Harry out.
Harry got up and started shuffling to the bathroom.
"Hurry up! I haven't got all day!" Vernon said. Then he turned and stormed down the stairs.
When Harry returned to his room, Aunt Petunia brought him a plate with a quarter of a grapefruit without saying anything. She shut the door and bolted it when she left.
"What a wonderful breakfast," Harry muttered to himself.
When he was through with his grapefruit, he walked to the loose floorboard, grabbed a handful of chocolate frogs and went over to his calendar. It gave him quite a shock to realize he was sixteen. 'Now I've even forgotten my own birthday. Looks like everyone else did too,' he thought.
He popped his last chocolate frog in his mouth then picked up his quill and crossed out the box of the day before. Only two more months until he headed back to Hogwarts. He was counting down the days.
Harry went back to his bed and sat on the edge running his hand through his untidy hair. Just then, he heard a THUNK. His head spun to the window and he realized it was just Pig running into his window.
He looked up and saw Pig with a letter in his beak, he walked to the window and Pig hopped on his arm. Harry took the letter, and noticed Ron's writing on the outside. Harry tore the letter open and read:
Harry,
Blimey, I haven't written you in ages. I've been busy degnoming the garden. Mum is in a cleaning frenzy! She's going bloody mad. Fred and George say hi, they have a new product they want to show you. If I were you, I wouldn't be in a room alone with them. Also, I have something I want to tell you. But, I sort of want to tell you in person. Oh, ask the Muggles if you can come stay with us for the rest of the summer. Hermione is coming too.
By the way, Harry, Happy Birthday. I'll give you your gift when you come over.
Ron
Harry folded up the letter and stuffed it in the already large pile of letters that resided on his bookshelf.
'I wonder what Ron wants to tell me. I hope nothing has happened to anybody!'
Even though Harry was excited about hearing from Ron again, he was left feeling anxious with worry.
Petunia busied herself in the kitchen, preparing a healthy breakfast for her Diddykins. She glanced over at her killer whale of a son, and sighed. Though she never let on, she was sometimes very disappointed with him. A good son would be in the kitchen, helping her dry plates, but of course, Dudley was in the dining room, staring blankly at the television watching the Great Humberto lift a two-ton bus.
'Wonder if the Great Humberto could lift my son...' thought Petunia meanly. She shook her head. He was her son. Her lovely...Diddykins.
Petunia grabbed a paring knife out of the top drawer and starting quartering the grapefruit, since everyone was still on Dudley's diet. She felt guilty only giving Harry a quarter of a grapefruit. But she knew he had a stash of food in his room somewhere because she would occasionally find chocolate and sticky spots on his clothes when she went to wash them.
Even if she could give him more food it wouldn't change anything. Harry had been moping about since he returned from school. Weeks passed before she found out why. An owl had arrived from Dumbldore explaining what had happened to Harry's godfather. She knew that the guilt must be weighing heavily on Harry's shoulders and was even sorrier that she could do nothing to try to comfort him.
"MUM! I'm getting HUNGRY!" yelled Dudley, his voice echoing throughout the house.
Petunia sighed and placed the grapefruit quarters on separate plates. "Coming, dear," she shouted back.
She grabbed one plate and took it in to Dudley, giving him a kiss on the top of his head. He swiped at her since she was blocking the TV, so she headed back to the kitchen.
"Wake up, you bloody boy!" she heard Vernon yell. She grabbed another plate, and headed up the stairs to Harry's room, just as Vernon came storming down the stairs.
"Good morning, darling," she said with a fake smile on her lips.
"Mornin'," he grunted. "Is that for me?" he asked hopefully. Then he grabbed the grapefruit and shoved it in his mouth.
"Is that for me?" he asked hopefully. Then he grabbed the grapefruit, and shoved it in his mouth.
"Why yes, it was, dear," she said sarcastically, but Vernon didn't catch the sarcasm.
Then she turned around went back to the kitchen, grabbed the second-to-last plate, and headed back to Harry's room.
When she reached his room, Harry was standing there looking lost. Petunia's heart ached but she pursed her lips, handed Harry the grapefruit and left, bolting the door behind her. Once she was back in the hallway, she leaned against the door and buried her face in her hands, trying to hold back the tears.
When she had composed herself once more, she headed back down the stairs ready to face the hassle of trying to get Dudley to his wrestling match.
