A/N: PLEASE READ THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ...first off...I started writing this story at the end of seventh grade. In the fall I will start my sophomore year of high school. Therefore this story is very very AU. Sirius is still alive. Percy did not get into a huge fight with his family. Dolores Umbridge probably does not exist. I am rewriting this story...not updating it YET...I read over the whole thing and realized the beginning was absolutely horrible (its my then-seventh-grade writing skills)...so I'm editing and revising the few chapters I have up and then I will begin to re-type and add chapters...for those of you who read this story before ffn deleted my account for some reason (grr)...you will remember that it was about 40-50 chapters long and was novel length...each chapter will take some time to re-type so cut me some slack on the lack of updating please. In the meantime...review and push me to work on this or I will probably lose interest in it. I also realize that this chapter is particularly boring...so if you lose interest halfway through then feel free to skip over it. Its not very important, it just sets the scene.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters you recognize. I do, however, own some characters...but I don't think any are introduced in this chapter. Now read the goddamn story.
It was a lazy, hot summer day on Privet Drive. Children outside on the streets were having water balloon fights. Parents were lying out in their driveways on lawn chairs talking about who knows what. Everyone was having fun, except for the skinny, dark haired boy in an upstairs bedroom at number 4. Fifteen year old Harry Potter was sitting on his bed, looking at a letter that he had received from one of his best friends at Hogwarts, Ron Weasley. The letter read:
Dear Harry,
How are you? Okay here, but I hope the Muggles aren't treating you badly. I
would have called except, well, you know what happened last summer.
Anyway, I would have invited you over this summer, but Percy asked us
to go up to this Ministry Meeting he had in Russia. Said he wanted us to see the sights...Did I tell you that he was promoted to Assistant Minister? I'll bet you can only imagine what it's like living with him. Ugh.
Anyway, again, hope the Muggles aren't putting you down. Have a good
rest of the summer.
Your Friend,
Ron
Harry smiled at the letter, remembering Ron's stuck up older brother Percy. He folded the letter back up, stuck it in a drawer, and plopped down on his bed, but immediately started right back up again when he heard a shrill scream from downstairs saying, "Get down here now, boy!" Harry hurried to get downstairs. When his Aunt Petunia screamed like this, things usually weren't good.
Harry hurried downstairs to find Uncle Vernon, purple faced and looking very much like a large beet, along with pale, bony, horse-faced, Aunt Petunia, and big, fat, squirming Dudley, who was looking quite afraid at the moment. He was about to ask what was wrong, until he turned the corner and saw—
"Hermione!" he exclaimed. Hermione Granger was standing at the door glaring at Uncle Vernon until she saw Harry and then, a wide grin spread across her face. "Harry! How are you?"
Harry had been about to answer her when Uncle Vernon cut in. "Boy, one of your abnormal friends is here. Whatever her business is, I do not know, but I want her out of my house!"
"I was just wondering if Harry would like to come and spend the rest of the summer with me!" Hermione yelled back at Uncle Vernon, her face resuming the glare that she had had when he had first appeared at the door.
Harry's heart leapt. "Please, can I?" Harry asked with as much politeness and innocence in his voice as he could muster. He was extremely mad at Uncle Vernon for yelling at Hermione, and was finding it hard not to yell back at him.
"What, do you think I'm stupid?" Uncle Vernon roared, spraying spit all over the place. "You'll probably go to her house and have some sort of—fling with this girl!"
"Hey! Uncle Vernon, we're not going to do anything! I just want to spend the remainder of the summer with my friend."
"No! I am not as stupid as you might think," (although he had no idea exactly what Harry thought) "I know exactly how a boys mind works. I don't want you near her!" Suddenly, Harry had an idea.
"Oh, I see. You don't want me to spend the summer with a girl, because you're afraid I might harm her. You care about her." He put on a stupid grin. Uncle Vernon got a worried look on his face.
"Or maybe," Harry continued, "you don't want me to get into trouble. I could do some things that I might regret. You care about me too?" At this, Uncle Vernon turned a bright shade of scarlet. "Wow Uncle Vernon. I never thought you cared."
"That's enough!" Uncle Vernon roared, his face flushed. He stopped and looked like he was thinking, which Harry knew all too well that he was. He had a choice between letting Harry be happy, and go to his friends, or put the impression on everyone that he cared about Harry and Hermione.
"Very well. You can go. Pack up your things and get out of here boy." He shoved the keys to the cupboard under the stairs into Harry's hand. Under the stairs was where the family locked all of Harry's school things, like his books, his wand, and his Fireboat broomstick. He and Hermione ran to the stairs and got Harry's stuff, which he was able to bring out in only one trip, with help from Hermione. Once he had packed everything into Dr. and Dr. Granger's car, which was parked in front of the house, Harry and Hermione got in and they sped off towards the Granger's house, which, Harry remembered, he had never been in before.
They drove for about an hour and arrived at Hermione's house at around 3:45. It was a nice house, not too big, but not too small. The surrounding houses were not, Harry noticed, clones of each other, like they were on Privet Drive. Hermione's made with brick and had a black Manson roof. There was a single tree in the front yard, but as he looked around and up he noticed there were so many trees along the street that it was difficult to see the sky through them.
"So, Harry, how has your summer been? I'm guessing it wasn't all that great, being with your aunt and uncle. They're absolutely horrid!" said Hermione, pulling a face.
"You get used to them," said Harry, shrugging off the subject. He was away from the Dursley's now, and he didn't want to talk about them again.
Hermione must have sensed his indifferent attitude because she suddenly changed the subject by exclaiming, "Oh! Did I tell you? Ron is the new Keeper for Gryffindor!"
"Really? That's great!" said Harry, shocked. "But wait, there were no tryouts. How did he make it?"
"Well, Angelina was made the new captain. She held tryouts for Keeper at the end of last year."
"I never heard about them."
"She said no one went. Just Angelina, Katie, and Alicia."
"They went too?"
"Yeah. But that's it. No one else as far as I know."
Just then, Hermione's dad came in. "Mail's here. You two got your letters." He handed them both two envelopes with the familiar Hogwarts Crest on it. It seemed rather thicker than usual. Hermione's looked pretty big too. Harry opened his up. There were a number of pieces of parchment inside. He opened the first one. It was his regular list of school supplies that he would need for the upcoming year. Harry needed a new book for arithmancy, as well as his books for his other regular subjects. He looked over at Hermione's list. She needed plenty of books, and a prefect's uniform as well, as she had been made one recently. Harry hadn't, and he didn't understand why. Oh well. At least she wouldn't be as bad as Percy had been. He just really wished he had made it.
Harry folded up his list of supplies and opened the next piece of parchment. It was his course schedule. He quickly folded that up and put it away, figuring they could compare them later. He took out the third piece. It was a small note containing information about the OWL's. He hastily scanned through it, as that was not important right now, but would definitely be helpful come May.
Harry and Hermione spent the rest of the day together, lounging around the house and relaxing. At around ten o-clock, both teenagers decided they would turn in for the night.
