Chapter 1: End of Summer Plans and Fiasco

There are some things that seem somewhat useless when one is first exposed to them at a young age that are actually quite purposeful. Take love for example, in the eyes of a 4 year old: you spend all waking moments thinking about, being with, writing to, and talking to someone of the opposite sex. Then one day that person stops liking you and the world ends: useless, huh? Well Harry Potter knows differently on this specific topic of love.

Harry Potter was a 15-year-old wizard. His room (when on holiday) was always adorned with his wand, spell books, parchment and quills, Firebolt broomstick, Invisibility Cloak, and (when she wasn't hunting or delivering mail) owl Hedwig. During the school terms Harry attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, headed by Albus Dumbledore. In Harry's opinion, Hogwarts was the best place to be. There were only 2 major imperfections in Harry's young life- his non-magic (muggle) relatives the Dursleys whom he lived with, and Lord Voldemort.

Lord Voldemort was the most powerful and dangerously crazy dark wizard the magical community had ever seen. Even thought he hadn't been seen for 13 years, most of the magical community still feared to say his name. Voldemort had killed Harry's parents, Lily and James Potter, and tried to kill infant Harry, but Harry was saved by his parent's sacrifice out of love. They died to save him, invoking a powerful bit of old magic that gave Harry protection from Voldemort, thus the curse rebounded on Voldemort leaving him less than a spirit, and leaving Harry with his unique lightning scar on the forehead.

Harry had met Voldemort three times since the night he got his scar, the latest being only a month earlier when Voldemort had used a potion involving Harry's blood to get his body and power's back. (The potion called for the blood of any enemy and Voldemort wished to use Harry's blood specifically in order to get the protection Harry had from his parents' sacrifice.) Harry was the only person who had lived after Voldemort decided to kill them, making him famous. Voldemort disappeared that same night, making Harry even more famous. Harry found interesting that every wizarding child grew up knowing his name and he had the pleasure of facing everyday torture from the Dursleys. Harry had concluded that the Dursleys were the biggest muggles one had ever meet, except maybe for witch-burners from the 14th century.

Harry also knew about the love in a friendship. His best friend Ron Weasley was a pure blood wizard and (after a good laugh somewhat at Harry's expense) was always willing to fill Harry in on something he missed out on from growing up with muggles. Harry's other best friend Hermione Granger was muggle born, and was the top witch in their year. She had a slight case of know-it-all-ism, but Harry and Ron got somewhat used to her perfectionism. Actually, it seemed that it was Hermione had gotten used to being called a know-it-all more than anyone getting used to her study habits; Ron still called her a know-it-all about once a week. The two of them often argued their strong opposing opinions on many topics. Harry knew all too well how they could forget their differences when he had bigger problems, usually when Voldemort was on his mind.

A large tawny post owl interrupted Harry's thoughts with a letter bearing the Hogwarts crest, followed by Hedwig. Harry opened the letter from Hogwarts first, and as he expected there was no new information except that dress robes were not needed. Harry held back a chuckle at the thought of Ron's second hand dress robes that could have easily been mistaken for Ginny's new dress. He put the letter aside and moved on to Hedwig. She had a letter that, after seeing the neat handwriting, was undoubtedly from Hermione.

Dear Harry,
Has Dudley received any packages that squirm lately? After hearing about what happened when you got home -Dudley had tried to take Hedwig to show his gang- I was so angry I sent him a cursed toy owl that screeches all night and only the owner can hear it. How's Sirius? The final plans for August are as follows.
-Ron arriving at my house by Floo Powder in the morning
-We pick you up at noon
-My parents take us all to lunch
-Return to my house and then travel to Ron's by Floo Powder
Either way we'll pick you up but make it look like you need their permission. See you 31-7!
Hermione

It had taken the better part of July to work out how to get Harry to the Weasleys'. They finally decided that it would be safest for Hermione's parents, being muggles, to pick him up, but Harry still wasn't sure. He'd ask the Dursleys' permission at dinner. Harry then saw a very small dark owl he didn't recognise sitting on the windowsill. He opened the letter and began to read. He recognised this handwriting as his godfather's.

Dear Harry,
I'm sorry about not writing for so long. We have reason to believe that Death Eaters are being retrained around here because of the excessive amount of deaths and strange injuries that look like unsuccessful attempts at the Killing Curse. I still can't say exactly where I am, but I think you'll remember Dumbledore telling me where to "lie low for a while," When you write try not to use the same owl every time, it could get suspicious. Hope you're well.
Sirius

Sirius' letter reminded Harry of a few things. One way Dumbledore had devised to keep him safe from Voldemort was to be in a relations' care. The Weasleys weren't a relation, but they were pure bloods. It would only be for a month, and Voldemort was rumoured to be retraining the Death Eaters around Lupin's house, but where was that? Voldemort didn't have a problem killing the innocent, so would he really be any less safe with the Weasleys? He decided to risk it and go, but decided against writing it to Sirius in case the letter was intercepted.
Harry pulled out fresh parchment and his last quill that was on its last leg.

Dear Sirius,
Good luck in everything you have to do, I hope you won't need it. Be careful. As usual I'm counting the days until Hogwarts (32 days). We're all wondering who the new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher is. Hermione said there was nothing in the Daily Prophet about it yet. I think I speak for the whole of the school when I say 'We want Lupin back!' I have to go to dinner now or Dudley will eat mine for me. I'll send this next week to avoid the full moon.
Harry

Harry proceeded then to dinner. Aunt Petunia's cooking had gotten, if anything, worse. For Harry, that is; Dudley still got gourmet meals to make up for last year. Harry had for every meal some colour lumps and occasionally a sauce. He decided to ask Uncle Vernon about going to Hermione's at the end of dinner, just in case it got him banned from the table. Not that Harry liked his Aunt's cooking, he was starving and had already emptied his secret stash of sweets from his friends except for the trecle tarts that he was certain were alive. Harry asked after pudding.

"Uncle Vernon?"

He grunted.

"My friend Ron invited me and our other best friend to spend August at his house," Harry explained cautiously.

"You've got another friend?" snorted Uncle Vernon.

"She's top in the year."

"She?" mused Dudley.

"You're not going," said Uncle Vernon finally. Harry figured his Uncle must have still been having mental pains thinking of last year when the hearth had been blown across the room.

"Oh, they aren't coming by- er, wouldn't be coming that way, Hermione's parents would be picking me up. They're mugg- er, normal. They'd be coming by car," Harry explained.

"No."

"Then you'll have to take me to London pretty soon to get my stuff- you've never been to my part of London," he tried.

"Find your own way to your London, and to that ruddy school."

Harry was getting desperate.
"I guess I could always have our house connected to the Floo Network again, that's the thing that blew the hearth across the room."

"They wouldn't listen to you, you're underage."

Even thought Uncle Vernon was right, Harry was getting extremely annoyed. He knew one more scam to try.

"Well, if you won't take me to Diagon Alley, I guess Sirius could always take me. Or maybe that muggle-hating dark wizard, the one who gave me this" Harry pointed to his scar "will figure out where we live. He's really mad about me depriving him of his body for all those years, but he got it back last month."

Dudley started teetering on his chair at memories, and he'd only met the nicer full-grown wizards.

"They haven't caught that murderer yet?" asked Aunt Petunia, obviously shocked.

"Nope, not Sirius, nor Voldemort come to think of it."

"Why not?"

"Well, Sirius is quite sneaky to say the least, and as I said Voldemort hasn't had a body for thirteen years," Harry answered mildly.

Petunia shivered.

"Fine, you can go, but they better-"

"-Come by car? I already said they would be."

"If they don't, I'll have your head."

Harry, rather than argue about his head, left for his room to write Hermione.

Dear Hermione,
You really didn't have to do that to Dudley, but I'm glad you did. 31-7 sounds great, I'd love to see your house. Uncle Vernon approved, but something tells me he'll regret it later. I think he forgot to weigh the fact that your parents let you go to Hogwarts, but oh well. Sirius is fine; but I can't tell you where he is in the event that this is intercepted, but he said that Death Eaters are being retrained around there. Oh, by the way, I hope you understand the Potions Essay: I'm oblivious. Can't wait until 31-7!
Harry