Before you Go
Chapter: 1
"Welcome to the Neighbour-Hood"
Summary: What seems like an ordinary family to the Durselys may actually be more then meets the eye. When the new residents of 5 Privet Drive move into the neighbour-hood, no one thought much about it, especially not Harry Potter, or at least he didn't until, well...You'll see.
Author's Note: I do not own Harry Potter or any of it's other counterparts and/or merchandise, not that I haven't tried. As a result of my non-ownership of said iteams that should be a realitively good indicaton of my identity, which at this point should register in your mind as not being J.K. Rowling, the true and real owner of said iteams. If for some reason you still insist that I am J.K. Rowling then you are an idiot and therefore should not be allowed to even cross the street without a "special helper" present.
The sky was warm. Warmer then the warmest smile that had ever been cast upon the sinful from the saint. The clouds were stretched across the atmosphere and if you closed your eyes you could of sworn that you could feel their soft carresses brush against your cheek.
He laid under the shrubs as he did for nearly every minute of every day. He let the emerald green foliage fall onto his face and arms as he extended his hearing to the news report coming from the living room television. As the living room was only a few feet away (due to the fact that he was hiding in the bushes under one of the front windows of the house) he didn't have to extend his hearing that much, but still an effort was made on his part.
Whilst in the midst of listening to daily news broadcast something interrupted his concentration. A noise coming from what seemed like across street was distracting him from the television and so even though he was irritated at the disturbance for pulling his attention away from what may of been the story that focused on the "mysterious" killings of muggles, he opened his eyes and pulled his hand up to seperate the bushes to reveal the commontion from across the street.
A moving truck was parked in the drive-way at 5 Privet Drive. There were people moving about like worker bees pulling things out of the truck and escorting them into the house. He squinted his eyes in an effort to adjust his vision and upon their adjustment he noticed people who stood out. Perhaps it was the fact that the people weren't wearing the bright-blue jump suits that the others who were ushering the big brown boxes into the house were wearing, but that's just a guess on my part.
He noticed a boy. Younger then him, but still old enough to carry one of the larger boxes, he observed. The boy seemed to be trying to pass the box off to a girl who looked about fifth-teen, but yelled at the pitch equivelant of an giantess.
"I'm not taking that box, Dylan! That's your box, not my box. If it was my box then I'd take it up to my room, but as it is not my box and instead your box then I'd hate to deprive you of the privelage of taking your own crap up to your own room." she bellowed.
They started to bicker again for a moment until a woman with lovely blonde hair, he assumed their mother, came and took the box away from the boy, Dylan, gave the two a dirty look, and walk into the house with the box. Right at the moment when the lady entered the establishment Dylan turned towards the girl and stuck his tongue out at her. She lunged at him and they spent the next four minutes playing cat and mouse on the front lawn. The girl finally stoped chasing Dylan when the he'd started to encircle the house whilst yelling an annoying melody that sounded something like "Sticks and stonse can break my bones, but you won't ever catch me!"
She leaned over a bit and put her hands on her bent knees as she tried to control her breathing. She lifted her head a bit and her eyes came next. Upon the two meeting at a unified time her eyes met the bushes that the boy had been hiding in. Under normal circumstances that would of been fine except for the fact that he had been leaning out of them for the past ten minutes watching the movers, mothers, and antics that had been going on in the neighbouring lawn.
Shocked and embarrassed he quickly jumped back into the shrubery and prayed to Merlock that she didn't come over and mark him as a Pepping Tom. With closed eyes and hardened hand in his pocket he heard with terror the sound of footsteps beckoning closer and dangerously closer still to the bush in which he had now holded himself hostage in.
In a last effort he crawled on his hands and knees to the next bush and then the next bush still. To his luck the second bush in which he'd crouched behind had curved around the house and in a matter of seconds he had managed to find himself on the other end of the house and therefore far, far away from the girl who had been dangerously close to finding him in the bushes.
Oblivious to his plan, however, the girl kept walking towards the bush. She'd reached the first patch of grass on the lawn when she hunched over a bit and tried to make her footsteps as quiet as possible in a 007-type move. She crept closer and closer towards the bush and when she reached it she ran her hand gently over the bristles and leaves of the shrub. Then, in one quick motion she jerked both her hands into the hedge and let a loud "Aha!" release from her lungs.
To her surprise, however, she felt nothing. Nothing but more hedge, that is. She thought she may of missed the boy by a few inches and so she started to swoosh her hands through the entierty of the shrub, but still felt nothing. Her face looked pain, but it wasn't that way for long as before she knew it a voice from the window she was facing came tumbling out and into her ears.
"What are you doing? What the bloody hell are you looking through our bush!" a boy asked hotly.
She looked up in startlement and upon her eyes meeting the boy she noticed his size. He was rather...round, to say the least. His head looked something like a beach ball and as he fixed his eyes on the girl in front of him it started to resemble something more like a very large cheery do to it's now crimson shade of coloring.
"Oh. I'm sorry. It's just that I saw someone in these bushes a moment ago and he'd seemingly been watching me on my lawn from over here." she said sincerely.
The boy's head, now considerably more red, began to look a bit panicky.
"Oh. D-don't worry about it. That's just Harry." the boy said.
"Harry? Who's that." she asked.
"W-well. He's sort of my, well...he's t-technically, my umm...cousin." he said nervously.
"Cousin? Soooo, your cousin likes to hang out in bushes?" she inquired jokingly.
He let out an uneasy laugh.
"Umm..Well, no. Well, kinda. Well...Um...My name's Dudley." he blurted out as he stuck his hand out of the window.
She looked at him curiously, but in an effort to be cordgial she stuck her hand out aswell and met the boys.
"Uh...Hi Dudfey." she said.
"It's Dudley, actually" he corrected her nervously.
"Oh..Sorry." she apologized.
"It's okay. What's your name?" he asked.
"Dawn." she replied.
"Dawn." he emphasised.
"Jacobs. Dawn Jacobs." she answered back.
It was at that moment that another voice eminated from behind the window...
So what did you think? Was it good? Was it bad? Do I deserve a metal or a quick blow to the head? You decide. Please review and let me know what you think...I promise that it won't go unnoticed. I mention all of my reviewers at the end of my chapters. Thanks.
-Hallowed Halls of Written Woes