Untitled

Harry's revenge, with a little help from Prongs

AN. This fic is the result of my muse suddenly turning up whilst I was on holiday, stupid thing. This is not going to be a long fifth year fic; it is only a little thing intended to satisfy my morbid curiosity on one issue. Disclaimer: I own none of the characters and situation mentioned in this fic. They belong to J.K. Rowling OBE (we cannot even comprehend her greatness etc.) and her publishers. No money is being made from this story (unfortunatelyL ).

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Harry Potter slowly followed his Uncle Vernon out of King's Cross station and to his car. He didn't want to think about what he had recently been through during the last few weeks of his fourth year. Voldemort was back with a vengeance and he had killed Cedric Diggory, a seventh year student, right next to Harry. Harry, brooding on these events must have seemed uncharacteristically grim to Uncle Vernon because he grunted nastily,

'someone died, have they?' Harry felt the heat rising inside him. How dare his uncle say this in such delight? He forced himself to look at Uncle Vernon without showing his anger.

'Yes,' he said flatly. Uncle Vernon began to smile even more nastily.

'One less of your lot' he crowed with unpleasant emphasis on the last part, 'you should be happy, one less to better your pathetic little self. You should have asked him to take a message to your dear parents.' Harry felt a ringing in his ears, his emotions about what his Uncle had just said were beyond fury. His green eyes, already a startling colour, flashed at his Uncle who was too absorbed in twisting the barbs he was laying to notice.

'Probably killed him yourself,' said Uncle Vernon triumphantly. As soon as he had said this, all the windows of his Uncle's car exploded outwards scattering shards of glass everywhere. Steam began to rise from the engine and all of the tyres went flat with a bang. His Uncle sat there, his face livid with shock; it slowly turned brick red as he turned on Harry who was taking deep breaths in order not to cause any more damage. Uncle Vernon was just about to scream at Harry when two owls flew through one of the wrecked windows; they dropped a latter on Harry's lap and a letter on Uncle Vernon's. Uncle Vernon's face went blotchy as he opened the parchment envelope; he then turned the colour of snow as he read the letter before falling backwards in a dead faint.

Staring at his Uncle, Harry slowly opened his letter, terrified that he was being expelled for his use of magic.

Dear Mr. Potter,

Due to the rise of Lord Voldemort and the school's break with the ministry of magic, it has been decided that Hogwarts students are to be allowed to use magic during these holidays. This will of course be subject to the international statute of wizarding secrecy and does not cover curses and charms stipulated as illegal by other statutes of the international confederation of warlocks. Your parents/guardians have been informed of this in a separate letter. Enjoy your holidays, you will receive the standard letter in due course.

Yours truly,

Albus Dumbledore

Harry's heart leapt, no more would he have to endure the ill-treatment and taunting of the Dursleys; now, they would be so terrified of him that they wouldn't dare say anything nasty. Grinning, Harry reached for his wand, pointed it at Uncle Vernon, and said 'Ennervate.' Uncle Vernon immediately sat bolt upright and straightened his cloths. When he saw Harry, he leapt into the air and put on a sickly smile. He reached into his pocket, brought out a mobile phone, and dialled a number with a shaking fat finger.

'Hello,' he said in a shaking voice when someone had evidently answered the phone, 'I'm on the A405 near Putney Bridge. My tyres, radiator, and windows have all just blown out on me.' Silence, his Uncle was listening intently to what the person on the other end was saying. 'What do you mean you can't get here for two hours?' He bellowed, 'your adverts say one hour or less.' More silence, Uncle Vernon's face was now scarlet. 'Just get here as soon as possible.'

Harry got out of the car and opened the boot. He found his trunk, unlocked it using the alohomora charm, and took out a book of curses he had got out of the library before he left school. He got back into the car with Uncle Vernon and began to read.

~

Four hours later, at around eleven p.m., Uncle Vernon and Harry pulled up outside number four Privet drive. The curtains were all drawn and only the light in the hallway was on; Aunt Petunia and Dudley were obviously in bed. Uncle Vernon and Harry wordlessly entered the house, Harry's trunk and Hedwig carried with them. Immediately they were inside, Harry began to levitate his trunk up the stairs; Uncle Vernon started but said nothing. Harry pushed the door of the familiar room open and walked inside. It was full of the usual broken toys. He put his trunk down gently and fell full-length on the bed. Almost immediately, he fell asleep.

~

After a quiet night, he awoke as usual with his Aunt screeching at him at six-thirty.

'I'm not getting up to do your dirty work,' he said to her. Aunt Petunia went scarlet and began to yell at Harry,

'when I tell Vernon about this, he'll give you the most pain you've ever felt in your life. You'll learn who's boss around here. How dare you speak to me like that?'

'Fine,' said Harry, sitting up, 'tell Uncle Vernon; do you really think he can cause me more pain than I've ever felt? I have been subjected to the worst pain in the world by the master of torture himself, I watched him kill somebody just because he was in the way, I had blood taken from me to resurrect him, and if you think that anything Uncle Vernon can do with his belt can compare, you are mistaken. And another thing,' he said, as his Aunt shrank away in fear at the cold fire in his eyes, 'I'm allowed to use my magic these holidays, and I know some very good curses, nasty little things they are.' His aunt turned the colour of old milk,

'You… you wouldn't,' she gasped, 'we're your family.' Harry laughed bitterly,

'and when did that stop you ever treating me badly?'

'You wouldn't kill us,' she quavered, shocked. Harry laughed,

'kill you? Why would I do that? Contrary to what you think, I am not evil. I may be powerful by your standards, but I am not evil.' His aunt sagged but leapt back as Harry drew out his wand and said, 'this is the best spell I know, enjoy, expecto patronum.' The silver stag burst from Harry's wand and began to canter round the house. Aunt Petunia shrieked and tried to jump under Harry's bed. 'Aunt Petunia, meet Prongs,' said Harry conversationally as the former tried desperately to make herself scarce, 'if you were soulless and evil, he would charge you down.' Prongs galloped headlong towards Harry, bowed its head, and vanished. Aunt Petunia picked herself up, took one terrified look at Harry, and rushed out of the room. The holidays were going to be good, now where was Dudley?

~

Harry still hadn't found Dudley so he went down for breakfast, wand in hand to scare the Dursleys. Dudley was sitting at the table looking morosely at the apple and rice cake which made up his breakfast. He jumped when he saw Harry's wand, 'Mum, mum, he's got his you-know-what in his hand.'

'You mean my magic wand, Dudley?' Dudley blanched and Uncle Vernon, who had just been walking into the kitchen turned white. 'Dudley,' laughed Harry pleasantly, 'I am allowed to do magic this summer, isn't that nice?' Dudley took a second to digest this and when he did, he turned a horrible grey colour. 'Watch,' said Harry relentlessly, 'serpensortia.' A black snake shot from the end of his wand and landed on the table, Aunt Petunia shrieked, Uncle Vernon looked pale, and Dudley began to cry.

'Hello, I am Harry Potter, who are you?' said Harry in parseltongue.

'You speak my language?' said the snake incredulously, 'I am serpens maximus *.' Indeed, the snake was twelve feet long.

'Could you please wrap yourself around the woman's legs?' asked Harry.

'Indeed.' Came the reply. Aunt Petunia's screams rattled the windowpanes as the snake wrapped itself around her legs. Harry then got rid of it with his wand.

'What were you doing, boy?' asked Uncle Vernon, obviously trying to keep his temper under control.

'I wanted to talk to someone,' said Harry, 'is that so wrong?'

'You can't talk to snakes,' said Dudley, obviously recovering himself. Harry looked at Dudley before turning his breakfast into another snake and asking it to nip Dudley's finger. Dudley began to howl.

'I can,' said Harry, he then turned Dudley's breakfast back. The Dursleys drew away from him and Aunt Petunia gave a small shriek as he summoned a knife from the other side of the table.

~

Thereafter, things improved for Harry, he no longer had to do any housework, he was allowed his school things in his room, and the Dursleys ignored any evidence of his presence. About two weeks later, Harry received a letter from Ron.

Dear Harry,

How are you? Isn't it great that we're allowed to use magic over the break? Fred and George have been driving mum and Percy mad by constantly enchanting or transfiguring things just before they use them. Yesterday, Percy was chasing them all over the house because they turned his latest report on wand length into a sparrow which then flew away and got eaten by Pig who was out hunting. I thought it was a bit unfair of him to blame me for Pig eating his report, how was I meant to know what would happen when I let him out?

I'm writing to ask if you want to come to stay with us for a week starting on your birthday, Dumbledore has given his permission. We could get our school stuff during that week if our lists have arrived. Send Pig back with your answer (unless you want to keep him for a while so that Percy doesn't hex him, hint) and we'll pick you up if it's okay, I'd better go before this letter ends up as a magical paper dart.

See you,

Ron.

PS. Have you heard anything from Hermione about whether she's going to Bulgaria or not? I'll owl her and see if she can come to Diagon alley with us.

Harry laughed as he imagine Ron's mum, who could shout for England, feverishly berating Fred and George who could probably blow up England. Having given them 1000 galleons at the end of the previous term, Harry had a vested interest in Fred and George's jokes. Harry hastily took his quill and wrote (AN. And if office assistant comes up again I'll kill it),

Ron,

Yep, I'd love to come over. The muggles are terrified of me ever since I 'accidentally' turned Dudley's breakfast into a snake and got it to bite him, unfortunately it wasn't poisonous. See you on the 31st then.

Harry

Harry grabbed Pig who had been hurtling around the room like a bolt of feathered lightning, wincing as Pig's wings bashed him in the face, tied the letter to his leg, and threw him out of the open window. He had a week left before he had the brief respite of the Weasleys.

~

The week went slowly for Harry. He was reduced to doing his holiday homework in an effort to save himself from thinking too much. Finally, it was the day of his birthday, he had conveniently forgotten to tell the Dursleys that the Weasleys were coming as he thought that this might spoil their unprecedented good will. He ate breakfast with the Dursleys as usual, summoning things to make sure that they remembered he was allowed to use magic. Aunt Petunia still looked faint every time his wand so much as twitched.

After breakfast, he went up to his room and began to read a book on Quidditch from the school library, he was just looking through seeker moves when an almighty crash came from downstairs followed by a shriek and loud voices.

Harry, who had packed everything he would be needing, got his stuff and went downstairs. There, he saw Dudley on the floor in a dead faint with Aunt Petunia wailing at his side. Uncle Vernon stood off to the side, his face was a colour Harry had never seen before, it looked like he was simultaneously trying not to explode and trying not to be sick. Mr. Weasley stood in the middle of the room clutching a toilet roll centre.

'Hello Harry,' said Mr. Weasley, 'are you ready to go?'

'Yep.'

'Grab on then,' said Mr. Weasley offering Harry one end of the toilet roll. Harry, taking his trunk, clutched the cardboard. He immediately felt the familiar jerk in his midsection and dimly heard Aunt Petunia scream blue murder. The portkey brought back memories of what had happened the last time he had used one, memories that he had been trying to forget.

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* Serpens maximus = the great snake

AN. Sorry about this going to more than one part, I was originally going to make it all one post but I'm going away for the weekend and I wanted to post it before I went. Enjoy. If you leave a signed review, I'll try to return the favour; there's an incentive for you.

Pax vobiscum, Nemo 31/5/01