Key of Darkness/ waves at crowd timidly. / umm… Hi! This is my first straying in the big wide world of Harry Potter, so… umm… please be nice.
Justin: she always gets jumpy with her first story. / hand s her a cup of coffee to sooth her nerves/
Key of Darkness: thanks.
Justin: disclaimers?
Key of Darkness: none of the characters belong to me I only borrow them and return them, hopefully, in one piece.
Justin: warnings?
Key of Darkness: mild child abuse in this chapter. As o foot note, it's set after OotP.
Justin: and on to the story…
HD
Harry stared at the dark, cracked ceiling. He had been lying on the floor staring upwards for hours. I was night now and the Dursleys were finally asleep. His muscles screamed at him to move into a more comfortable position, but he stayed still. Maybe they would just forget about him and let him drown in his own misery instead of dragging him out and making him do chores all day.
A cat leapt lightly onto the window sill outside his window and his shifted his head to get a better look at it. It was a silver point Siamese. Silver blue eyes gazed in at him and locked with his own green ones for a moment before it started to play with an over hanging vine.
Harry smiled.
The cat turned back to him and meowed.
Harry jumped.
The cat sat down and stared at him again. Then it tapped the glass with its paw. It meowed again.
Harry stood and walked over to the window and unhooked the latch. He opened it and the cat jumped lightly onto the floor and rubbed up against his legs.
"You gotta stay quiet or you'll wake up the idiots down stairs." Harry muttered to the cat.
The cat just purred and Harry realized that it was stupid to talk to a cat.
"Like you understood that anyway."
The cat continued purring.
Harry reached out and rubbed it head gently. He sank to the floor, his back leaning up against the wall and the cat jumped into his lap, curled up and went to sleep. Harry sighed. At least now he had someone to talk to, whether it understood was an entirely different question.
HD
Sunlight steamed through the open curtains. Harry blinked.
The cat was gone.
The window was open slightly and Harry got up to close it. He glanced out, down to the road.
It was a nice day. Not to hot, not to cool, not to bright, yet not overcast. He leaned on the window sill and watched a mother with two children walk down the street towards the play ground.
He wondered what it would have been like to have grown up with proper parents, a godfather who loved him…
His heart jerked when he thought of Sirius. He missed him so much. Tears started to well up in the corners of his eyes and he let the run slowly down his cheeks.
"BOY! GET DOWN HERE NOW BOY!"
Harry turned, wiped away the tears and opened his door.
Uncle Vernon stood at the bottom of the stairs, glaring up at him.
"Get down here now!"
Harry did as he was told and walked calmly and slowly down the stairs. Just before he reached the last step, he stopped.
"What do you want?"
He was knocked sideways in response. "Don't you dare speak to me like that! You should be grateful!"
Harry could feel the bruise forming on his cheek and he tried not to react to the words or the blow. He pulled himself to his feet and stood in front of his uncle again.
"We have two visitors this afternoon. You are to clean the whole house, top to bottom by three pm. Get to it!" He turned around and left, walking out the front door.
Harry went into the kitchen where Aunt Petunia was making fancy sandwiches. She looked up at him, then back to the cutting board.
"Start in the garden, then work your way from the front of the house inwards. All the stuff is in the hall cupboard."
Harry nodded and went outside. He opened the garden shed and grabbed some pruning shears from the shelf and started on the hedge.
Half an hour later he was finished the hedge and onto the garden, pulling out the weeds and watering it. That quickly done, he mowed the lawn with a push mower and put everything back in the shed.
Inside he dusted, swept, cleaned polished and generally tided the whole house.
It was noon and he still hadn't had anything to eat. He wandered into the kitchen again and found his aunt still busy cooking.
"Over there." She said without looking up. "On the table."
Harry turned and saw a plate of ham and cheese sandwiches and a glass of water.
"Hurry and eat then go back to your room."
Harry drank the water, ate one sandwich and took the other with him up to his room. He locked the door to his room behind him and put the sandwich down the bedside table for later. He flopped onto the bed and stared at the ceiling again, and slowly, he drifted off to sleep.
HD
He was awoken again by the sound of the door bell ringing.
"GET THAT BOY!"
Harry darted down stairs, not wanting to aggravate his uncle again. He opened the door, expecting to see people dressed in suits from his uncle's work. But instead there were two kids.
A tallish girl of about fifteen with bright red frizzy hair and bright blue eyes stood talking to a tall, thin boy of his own age. He was very pale and elegant with a navy blue bandana that completely covered his hair. His eyes were almost silver and he looked hauntingly familiar, but Harry couldn't quite place him. They were both wearing a green and navy school uniform.
"… and the Protron…Hi!" Beamed the girl as she spotted him.
Aunt Petunia rushed forward and pushed Harry to the side slightly. "Get out of here." She hissed out of the corner of her mouth. Harry turned and walked back up the stairs.
Her voice floated up the stairs behind him.
"…come in come in! How was school..."
Harry shook his head and closed the door quietly behind him. Why the hell where to school kids here?
Five minutes later, there was a knock at the door. Harry got up and opened it. The red headed girl was there.
"Dumbledore wishes to send on a message." She whispered. "You will be out of here within the week. In the meantime, we will be watching over you every afternoon. I trust you met the cat last night?"
Harry nodded.
"Trust him. He's in the order."
"Why did the oh mighty ones down stairs let you in?"
"The powers that be tricked them into thinking that we are the children of friends who have no where to go after school. Lets just say… the order has gained mew allies." She winked and turned on her heal. "I better get back to the oh mighty ones down stairs as you call them. See yah!" she swung the door closed behind her and Harry heard her walk down the stairs.
He shook his head. The order? She didn't look a day older than fifteen. To hell with that. Even so, he gathered his stuff together and flung it in his suitcase, wanting to be safe rather than sorry.
HD
It was about seven thirty when he heard a car pull into the driveway. He glanced out the window and looked down. The red headed girl and her companion where getting into what looked like… a battered old blue Angela Ford! Harry grinned. It was the Weasely's old flying car! So he was going to be rescued! He opened his door and almost skipped down the stairs.
"Who said YOU could come out boy?" uncle Vernon roared.
"I noticed you guests left and I wondered if you wanted diner." Harry replied politely. Once again, Vernon struck him with a force that sent him to his knees.
"Get back upstairs! If we want something, WE"LL MAKE IT OURSELVES! OUT!" Harry dragged himself to his feet and hauled himself up the stairs.
So much for happiness. Almost instantly, the leapt on the window sill and mewed. Harry opened the window and the cat leapt into his arms and purred. Holding the cat to his chest, he closed the window and the door and sat on the end of the bed. He grabbed the sandwich still sitting on the bed side table and bit into it.
The cat sniffed the air and Harry pulled a corner off for it. It pounced on it and devoured it in three seconds flat then curled up, content at the foot of his bed. Harry flopped down on his belly facing it and the cat opened one silver blue eye to stare back at him.
"So you're part of the order huh?"
The cat nodded its head. Harry raised an eyebrow.
"Anyone I know?"
The cat nodded and curled up again, signalling the conversation was over.
HD
This routine of the strange kids coming over, Vernon hitting him any chance he got and the cat visiting him at night went on for three more days before the plan unravelled. It was the night the cat didn't show up.
Harry waited by the window, looking out into the darkness when he saw something move.
A shadow, darker than to others, mover towards the house. The room started getting colder and Harry suddenly felt the life go out of him.
A Dementor.
Harry pulled his wand out of his jeans pocket and opened his door, creeping down stairs. The Dursley's had already gone to bed so everything was silent, dark and gloomy. He crept through the lounge room and into the kitchen, doing a sweep of the house.
Something moved behind him. He spun round. The space behind him was empty. In the distance he could hear a dog barking. He frowned. It was getting closer and closer and closer until it seemed like it was right in the back yard.
A huge black dog flew through the window, shattering it and landed on the carpet, still barking its head off . A black shape moved to its left and at Harry raised his wand, the dog leapt and landed on it, knock it to the ground.
Suddenly there was movement all around him. People apparated in and some just appeared. Spells flew everywhere and people yelled. The dog barked and growled.
Someone grabbed Harry around the waist and BANG…
Key of Darkness/more relaxed/ I love cliff hangers.
HD
Justin: on another subject… as I am only supposed to be your muse for Power Rangers, though I never stay there, do you want me to set up an appointment for someone more appropriate?
Key of Darkness/nods/
Justin: anyone in particular/takes out a note pad/
Key of Darkness: Hermione. It would be good to have another girl around the office.
Justin: are you being sexist?
Key of Darkness: not at all. It just seems that all my muses are boys.
Justin/thinks about it/ good point…
Key of Darkness: see you at chap two!