Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. It all belongs to the
extraordinarily wonderful, clever, brilliant ingenious J.K. Rowling.
¤ Listening to the Rain ¤
.:Chapter 1:. A New Day
A lightning bolt flashed across the sky just above Number 4 Privet Drive. After the flash of light disappeared, a loud thunder was heard in the distance. It rumbled on and on like a stone falling down a mountainside, until finally, it stopped. Everything returned, once again, to silence, except for the constant sound of rain pouring on the rooftop. Suddenly, another flash of lightning illuminated the night sky. Barely visible, in the window on the left of the upper floor, was a 16-year-old boy crouched in one of the corners of his shabby room. His head is turned down, towards the floor, with his raven-black hair hanging everywhere.
Harry Potter had gone through some pretty tough times through out his life, but he never imaged it would come down to this. After having his parents murdered by the worst wizard ever, almost being killed by his so- called Defense Professor, nearly being eaten by a huge snake, finding out that his friend's rat was a Death Eater in disguise, trying his best to survive a tournament that he wasn't even of age to be in, and having his Godfather killed to save him, Harry was pretty much used to death and despair. But now everything was starting to come alive in him as realization hit; he was either going to defeat Voldemort or die trying.
Millions of thoughts had been going through Harry's head since he had gotten back from his sixth year at Hogwarts. 'How am I going to defeat Voldemort?' 'Where's Dumbledore?' 'Should I tell anyone about the prophecy?' However, none of these things hurt him more than the one thought he was trying over and over not to think about- Sirius. Had it been Harry's fault that Siruis was now dead? If only Harry hadn't fallen into Voldemort's trap. Over and over Harry mentally kicked himself for his thoughtless actions. The perplexed teenager was constantly pushing Sirius out of his head. He had so much to worry about, Sirius only made him feel guilty, too.
The rain persisted as the night carried on. The lightning and thunder didn't even faze the teenager as he continued to tune himself out of the world. Scenes replayed in his head, voices swept through his mind. Bewildered and frightened of what would happen to whom next, Harry stayed up that night, just like he had done for the past few months of his summer vacation. Sleep was of little value to him anymore; it only enabled nightmares to haunt his thoughts, which elevated the pain in his heart.
Even though the members of the Order of the Phoenix had told Harry's aunt and uncle to treat him better, they were still failing immensely to do so. Scared to even go near Harry now, Uncle Vernon slipped scant meals through his door and left him alone. Even his cousin, Dudley, seemed to avoid torturing Harry. Occasionally though, Dudley would slip into Harry's room when his parents were out, and yell at Harry for 'causing so much trouble'. Harry didn't care about this, much less notice- he was always to shut off from the world to notice his surroundings. And so, Dudley carried out this ritual, thinking it made Harry feel horrible about himself.
Piled by the door of Harry's room was paper plate on top of paper plate. Most of the food had gone to waste, (like it wasn't already rotten when uncle Vernon gave it to him) but some of it remained fresh. Like sleep, eating had become an insignificant matter. Only on the circumstance that Harry's stomach would be pouring unbearable pain through out his body, would he eat something. And even then, he wouldn't eat much.
All Harry's belongings (of the wizarding world) were still locked away in his truck, which hadn't moved since he had gotten home from Hogwarts. Hedwig began hooting uncontrollably at the beginning of summer, and so Harry had to let her out. She hadn't returned since. Her empty cage sat on his cluttered desk of old quills and birthday gifts.
Harry had received lots of gifts on his birthday from all of his friends (all of which were delivered by owls other than Hegwig), yet Harry had simply opened them, examined what he had received, and then wrote a brief 'thank you' letter back. He hadn't gotten any letters since then and was wondering if Hermione and Ron had been debating to owl him or not because of what had happened in their previous year.
As the hours passed, night faded into day and the sound of rain on the roof calmed until it stopped entirely. Harry still sat in his corner, but now he had his head up, and was staring at Ron and Hermione's gifts. It was very odd what they had given him. Both seemed to have bought strange little picture frames for him. There was a picture of Hermione in the one she had gotten for him and a picture of Ron in the other one, which was from Ron! Harry thought this to be very unusual; they normally gave him something to do with Quidditch or, in Hermione's case, a spell book. But to give him two pictures of themselves? Why would they do that? Harry shook his head slowly and lowered his gaze to the floor once more. But he jerked it up suddenly at the sound of something moving on his desk.
Something was emerging from Hermione's picture frame. It looked like a small piece of paper. But why was a piece of paper coming out of a picture frame? Harry slowly got up from his corner and cautiously walked over to where the piece of paper was appearing out of the glass. Lowly the whole paper made it out and Harry hesitantly picked it up. On the other side was writing that belonged to Hermione:
Harry,
You're probably wondering why there is a piece of paper coming
out of this picture, right! Well it is really quite simple to
explain. You see, Ron and I wanted a way to communicate with you
frequently, without waiting so long to get the letters from our owls.
So, I simply suggested that we charm a picture frame to transmit
letters quickly- without having to wait. Ron agreed, so I went out,
got the frames, and inserted the photographs. That way, you would
know who is sending you the letter. Then I sent them to Ron, who
asked his dad to charm them so that they would do as we requested.
Thankfully, Ron's father agreed and had them back to me in a week,
fully charmed! After I ran a few tests and added a bit more charms to
make it even better, I sent them to you! All you have to do to get
the message to transmit through is hold the paper up to the glass and
blink at the picture. In return, the picture of the person in the
frame should blink back and they should receive the letter no more
than a minute. I'll tell you more about what you can do with it
later, but for now, just reply to this letter, so that I know that you
got it. I'll write you more soon!
Love,
Hermione
For the first time in over a month, Harry smiled! 'Wow, Hermione, you really out-did yourself this time,' Harry thought to himself as he stared at the letter in his hands. This was a really clever idea. Now they could communicate much faster than with regular owls, and in secret, too. Uncle Vernon would never know. The picture frame did look perfectly normal, after all; you couldn't even tell that it was magical. Then remembering that Hermione had said to reply, Harry rushed over to his desk, took out a paper and quill, and began to write:
Hermione,
I got your letter. Been bored all summer. Please write soon!
Harry
After scribbling down the last few words in a hurry, Harry went over to the picture of Hermione, held the paper up to the glass, and blinked at it. The Hermione in the picture blinked back; no sooner had her eye opened back up, and the paper was going through the glass. Harry's eyes widened in awe, and he waited for the next message to come through. Ten minutes went by and still, no letter. Harry sat on the floor and starred at the pictures, waiting for a message, a paragraph, a sentence, he didn't care what it was, as long as it was from his friends. And yet.nothing came. Sighing, Harry got up and walked over to his corner again. He sat down and leaned his head against the wall. Just when he thought he would be talking to his best friends again, all goes wrong. 'It probably broke,' Harry thought to himself coldly, 'Figures.'
The rest of the morning went by promptly. Harry actually decided to clean up all the plates of food by his door. Within a half-hour everything was near-to-neat again. That's when the next letter came. This time, it was from Ron, and it seemed to have a few crinkles.
Harry,
I hope you like your gift. I was a pretty clever idea wasn't it?
My dad thought it was an excellent invention. Hermione made him
promise not to tell the Ministry; that way they won't be able to
interfere with our messages. Sorry that we didn't start sending you
letters earlier, but Hermione thought we should wait a bit, 'just to
be safe'. Anyhow, I hope that we can get together somehow. I'll
speak to my mum about it! Write soon,
Ron
Harry smiled for the second time that day. He placed Ron's letter next to Hermione's and hastily wrote a reply saying that he would like to get together with them soon, and asked if Ron had seen Hegwig around anywhere. Finishing the letter, Harry blinked to Ron's picture, which returned the gesture, and then, the message disappeared through the glass. Satisfied with being able to talk to both of his friends, Harry took off his glasses and placed them on the nightstand. He sank down on his bed and laid his head on the pillow. His eyelids suddenly began to droop. The weight of drowsiness increased until Harry finally gave in and slowly shut his emerald green eyes. 'I'll just rest,' he reassured himself, 'I won't fall asleep,' As a calming blue color surrounded his vision, Harry's mind cleared itself from all thoughts. His breathing slowed. Unaware of what was happening, Harry gradually drifted off into a deep sleep. However, in doing so, Harry opened his mind to dreadful memories. Memories that made normal little children scream, memories that revealed pain beyond imagining, memories. that aren't meant to be remembered.
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Harry spun around. Everything was black. Left and right, up and down; the whole world seemed to be covered in permanent black paint. Harry spun around again. There, in front of him, was the ancient archway. The faded midnight blue veil gently swayed as if an invisible wind was blowing on it. Every move the veil made, Harry was tempted to grab it and push it to the side, so he could see what was behind it. Finally, after watching it for what seemed like forever, Harry hesitantly reached out his arm and touched the veil. In that instant, it stopped swaying. Carefully, because Harry was afraid it would rip, he shifted it to one side. Curious emerald eyes as big as plates peeked behind the fragile piece of fabric. Harry shouted and took several shaky steps backward. Right in front of his face was Sirius, his deceased Godfather, who was starring right into Harry's frightened eyes- he seemed to be looking straight into Harry's soul. Harry took in numerous deep breaths before calming down and walking closer. "S- Sirius?" Harry stammered. No reply came, only the constant blinding stare of his eyes. Once again Harry attempted to speak to him. "Sirius?" He said with a little more confidence. Again no reply was heard. As Harry stepped a bit closer, he saw, in his godfather's eyes, the scene of his own death. Bellatrix hitting him square in the chest with that powerful stunning spell, Sirius falling, like in slow motion, into the archway, the veil streaming out like a tornado had hit it, and then, it stopped, and returned again to the constant gentle flow, like before. Sirius didn't return.
Suddenly, a white, pale face with red, glaring pupils and two slits for a nose appeared in Sirius's eyes. The malignant face's mouth curved into a venomous grin that could only belong to one creature.. Voldemort! Harry gasped and spun around only to scream. Red eyes glared back at him. "What a pitty," the creature stated, "That he had to die." Harry shivered as Voldemort said this. "It was quite easy to trick you." Voldemort stepped closer, and Harry took a step back. "Everything went as planned," Voldemort came another step closer; Harry went the other way. "That accursed fool came to get you," Voldemort smirked before finishing, "and then he died to save you." The dark wizard's smile faded and a mock- concerned face appeared. "You loved him, didn't you?" Harry had had enough! "And you killed him." "SHUT UP!" he shouted in Voldemort's face. "Tisk, tisk, tisk, Potter, we mustn't get angry now." Voldemort said simply. Harry took in long, heavy breaths, trying not to scream again. "After all, I'm sure you know in your heart that it was you who did it. You killed him." Harry was silent. Voldemort smiled his evil smile and began to circle Harry like a vulture. "Now, Harry, be a good like boy and tell me where the prophecy is." "No, I won't," Harry said coolly, but boldly. "You will tell me now, freely, not to mention painlessly, or I will make you tell me. Your choice." "I will never tell you anything," "Fine then, have it your way!" Voldemort's wand came up as he shouted, "Crucio!" Defenseless, Harry fell to the ground. Severe pain shot through his body like a thousand needles. "Ready to tell me?" Voldemort asked confidently. "NEVER!" Harry managed to scream. "I WILL..NEVER..TELL YOU!" Suddenly, the pain ceased, and Harry opened his eyes. Voldemort stood above him, glaring down. "Time. will tell." with that said, the hideous 'thing' departed up into the air and disappeared with a 'pop'. Harry waited a while before hoisting himself to his feet and turning around. Harry had expected to see Sirius, standing there, staring at him, in his frozen state- like before, but what he was seeing made him gasp in shock. Sirius seemed to be floating backwards in the archway. Harry threw his hand out to try to catch his Godfather, but Harry couldn't seem to reach him. Farther and farther away, Sirius flowed. "Sirius! Come back!" Harry shouted out. The sound echoed off the darkness and filed the setting with the desperateness in Harry's voice. "SIRIUS!" Now, Harry couldn't even see him. He was lost in the land behind the veil. Never to return. "SIRRRUUUSSS!" The word came out in slow motion as the world around Harry began to spin. Everything was becoming blurry. He could no longer see the ancient archway or the veil slowly blowing in the invisible wind. His senses became active again, and Harry's eyes swiftly opened up. He sat up and sat in shock as he took in his surroundings. He was back in his room (If you would can it a room) and everything was still.
His breaths came out in heavy blows as he tried to get himself to calm down. Seeing that everything was normal, and that his dream was really just a dream, Harry relaxed on his bed. Only a few seconds had pasted; his breath was finally slowing down. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Harry's forehead. His hands came up to rub his temple around his scar. The throbbing pain finally left. However, his scar still tingled. 'I guess I should be pretty much used to this,' Harry thought, 'after all, Professor Dumbledore did say that those sudden bursts of pain on his scar would happen more frequently because Voldemort was around now.' Harry rubbed his scar for a few more moments before he lay back down on his bed and tried to push the memories from his nightmare away, out of his thoughts.
So many things were going through the mind of that raven-haired teenager, he didn't know what to think. Harry opened his eyes and starred at the ceiling. It had strange little bumps all over it. Harry starred at one space for quite a while before suddenly realizing that the way the bumps were aligned made it look like..well..it looked like Cho. 'Cho Chang'..Harry thought this to himself, still starring at that one spot on the ceiling.
It was over between them, and Harry knew that for a fact. He really didn't mind. After a while Harry had realized it was 'just a crush'. He knew that they would always be friends, but nothing more. Cho just wasn't right for Harry. She was too..how's a nice way to put it ..self-pitying? Arrogant? Just plain rude? But no matter how times Harry's heart and brain had told himself that it was the right thing to do, to let her go, his conscious just kept thinking that it was a mistake, and it haunted him. 'No one else is ever going to like me.' was the putdown that Harry's conscious kept telling him. 'I'm never going to have another girlfriend for as long as I live.' He sighed as he thought this, 'She was the only one who liked me.' Then again, every time Harry thought of their little 'date' at Madame Puddifoot's he was glad that he broke up with her. Cho was absolutely horrendous on that outing. It was dreadful. Harry was incredibly happy to just get out of that so-called restaurant and go see Hermione and Luna at the Three Broomsticks. Even that was better than joining Cho as she continued mourning over Cedric.
Harry lay there and watched the ceiling a bit longer. Something began to make a soft buzzing sort of sound. 'Must be a fly' Harry thought, not moving his head to see what it was. Another thing that Harry was confused about was where Dumbledore was. He had no idea, and it scared him. What if Voldemort found Dumbledore and..and ..hurt him .. or worse..! Harry couldn't think about that, he just couldn't, it was too much for him. That fly was still buzzing and it was getting annoying. What about Grawp? Did Hagrid ever come back to 'tame' his giant brother some manners? 'Oh, I do hope that he gave that 'thing' a bath,' Harry thought with a look of disgust, 'It smelt like the Owlery at Hogwarts on a humid day,'! That fly was getting on Harry's nerves. He heard the telephone ring down stairs, and the sound of heavy footsteps going to get it. 'I wonder how much weight Dudley gained over the summer?' Harry asked himself. He hadn't really gotten a good look at this cousin since the time that he had gotten home from school. Harry was thinking about Dudley, the size of an elephant, trying to squeeze into his chair, just to eat lunch, when the buzzing stopped. 'Dead fly,' Harry thought. But then he smelt the wonderful aroma of-he couldn't believe it..a warm, freshly baked cookie! Thinking that he must be going insane, Harry sat up and looked over at where the smell was coming from. Sure enough, over on his desk, was a steaming warm cookie. The warm, sweet smell had gotten to him, so he got up and went over to his desk. Right next to the cookie, which was chocolate chip, was a letter. Harry picked it up and read:
Harry,
I told you that my invention did more than just send
letters! It can also transmit food items and objects, but they have
to be smaller than the frame, or else they can't fit through. Your
gift can do one more special thing..but I'm going to wait to show you
what it is. Ron already knows, but I told him not to tell you,
because I want it to be a surprise. I hope that you like the cookie.
I was just baking them with my mom, and I thought of you, at the
Dursleys' with no food, so I decided that this would be the most
inviting way to show you that you can send things, like cookies,
through the frame! Have fun with it! I have something else that I
want to ask you later, but first I have to go through the details with
my mom one more time, okay!
Love,
Hermione
Harry sat the letter down and picked up the cookie. It was still warm and the chocolate chips were a bit gooey. He took a bite of it, and rolled his eyes at the good taste. Harry never knew that Hermione could make such delicious cookies. He made a note to himself to ask her for cookies on Christmas, rather than a gift! As he swallowed his last bite of the scrumptious morsel, Harry reflected on the letter. She had said that this gift she'd given him could do one more thing. And if Harry knew Hermione, I was going to be impressive. Yet, Harry wondered what that 'one thing' could be. After all, these contraptions could do a heck of a lot more already than Harry had ever dreamed of.
Another thing that struck Harry as strange was the thing that Hermione wanted to ask him. Was it really that important that Hermione had to talk to her mother about it first. 'Gosh,' Harry thought, 'I hope that I didn't get her in trouble or something.' It was unlike Hermione to have to resort to asking someone else for details, as she would normally would go right to a book. As the minutes passed by, Harry thought about all the possibilities he now had with his picture frames. He could send anything he wanted, that would fit, to his friends now. But what to send? Ron was going to be his first victim.
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Two hours later, Harry had sent Hermione a thank you letter (in which he had told her that she had made the absolute best cookies he had ever eaten), a note to Ron (asking about his summer), and a Galleon to each of them. He asked Ron to buy him the latest copy of The Daily Prophet, and Hermione to get him the newest issue of The Quibbler. Harry wanted to know what was going on out there, and Hegwig was gone, so he had to ask his friends to help him out a bit. Harry was sure that he could rely on them.
It was getting dark and the stars were starting to appear all over the sky. Uncle Vernon had, as usual, slipped a plate of food through the door, and scurried off. Harry went over and ate one of the pieces of watermelon off his plate. Then he ate the other. (They were no bigger than a bouncy ball at most.) The only thing left on the plate was one bean, which was so small Harry could most likely feed it to a bird and it still wouldn't be full. After that, Harry put the plate in the garbage.
Harry got up and walked over to the window. The moon was almost full, it would be in about another week or so. He stared at the beams shining down on the earth. They were beautiful. Then Harry noticed a shadow against that big lantern of night light. It looked like an airplane, but then it's wings moved up and down. 'Hegwig!' Harry thought with a smile of excitement. The owl started to come into view. As it passed a beam of moonlight Harry could see that it was, indeed, a white owl. Closer and closer the creature flew, before it was right in front of the window. Harry hurriedly unlatched the lock and let the tired owl in. She flew over to perch on her cage and looked at Harry. "Where have you been all summer?" Harry asked his owl. Hegwig seemed to understand his question, because in response, she held up her leg to reveal a huge parchment. Harry rushed over and unattached it. When the letter was finally off, Hegwig went into her cage and put her head up to her water bowl, but then she paused, brought her head back up and starred at Harry befuddled. Harry went over so see what was wrong. "Oh, sorry Hedwig, I forgot- Your water must have dried up while you were gone. Here let me get you some more." Harry went into the bathroom cautiously, trying to avoid the Dursley's. When he came back in his room, he put the full bowl of water back in the cage. Hegwig began to drink immediately and ignored Harry. Harry took this opportunity to look at what was written on the parchment. He opened it up and gawked at the huge amount of writing scribbled all over it!
The letter, or rather, novel (Not really; it's just really long), seemed to be from Professor Dumbledore. It began by saying that Hegwig had been over with Dumbledore all summer and not to worry. Second, it stated that he, the headmaster, was safe! However, the letter didn't state where he was. A part that particularly caught Harry's eye was a paragraph in which Dumbledore wrote something like this:
I felt in my heart that you were being blocked off from the news and
information that is vital for you to know, and so, while the meetings
of the Order were taking place, I had someone jot down everything that
went on. The ink on this page is made for your eyes only. No one
else can read it except you. (I find that DNA ink is very handy.
Fred and George, as you may have guessed, invented it. It's one of my
very favorite of their inventions!) These notes have information on
all the latest findings. And before you start to read, I would just
like to say that you don't have to worry. Voldemort hasn't struck
anywhere so far during the summer. Right now, we assume that he's
undercover in hiding. Now that I've said that, you may proceed in
your reading!
Harry stared at all the text below this paragraph. About three pages worth of tiny words all existed on that one scroll. Harry eyes skipped that part, (for now) and went to the bottom, where in various fancy handwriting were the names of all the people in the Order. Harry saw Dumbledore's first. It was just as neat as always. Harry was sure glad that he was okay. It brought comfort to him. Below the headmaster's signature was a little note: Have fun for the rest of the summer! Below that was Professor Lupin's name. Well, he wasn't exactly a professor now, but to Harry, he'd always be the best Defense teacher. A little note saying-Hope to see you soon- lay right under his signature. To the right was Mrs. Weasley's name and the letters XOXO with five extra X's next to it. Next to her's was Mr. Weasley's. Then below their's was Moody's (with the note: Stay Put!), Kingsley's (Best of Luck), Tonks's (Miss ya' Harry!), and all the rest of the member's names. Sirius's name was not there, however, thankfully, Harry was too caught up at the moment to notice.
Flabbergasted, Harry sat down on his bed and began to read the notes that Dumbledore had taken for him at the meetings. On and on Harry read, until finally, not to mention amazingly, Harry fell into a dreamless, comfortable sleep. There wasn't a single nightmare, and no ugly Voldemort faces were staring back at him that night!
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The next morning the raven-haired sixteen-year-old living at Number 4 Privet Drive awoke early with a smile plastered to his face. As he lay in bed, he had a little fantasy about eating warm blueberry muffins for breakfast, and now it was starting to get to him. He could almost smell them! Getting out of bed and stretching, Harry took in a deep breath. Oh, he smelt those muffins again! If only it wasn't just a dream! Harry put on his glasses and picked up the scroll that was laying his bedside table to go put it on his desk. Lazily, Harry walked over and carelessly placed it on top of a bunch of stacked books. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, having the mind to go back to sleep, but what he saw next to one of the frames, made him instantly wake up.
There, right in front of him, was his muffin that he had dreamed of! It was even blueberry! A note lay beside it. It said:
Harry,
My mum made muffins for breakfast, so I nicked one and sent it to you! I hope it's still warm!
See you soon,
Ron
Harry put the note down and picked up what Ron had sent. It was still soft and he could smell the melted sugar on the top. As he ate it, Harry thought of what Ron meant by 'See you soon'. Were they planning on getting together? When? And why didn't he know about it? His questions were soon answered when another letter came through the frame. This time it was from Hermione:
Dear Harry,
I have great news! Would you be interested in vacationing with me in
at S. R . C. Park, for a week? We are going this week, Sunday. Ron
is invited as well, and of course, my parents are coming! Silver Rain
Crystal is a new park in the U.K. I think that you would enjoy it!
My parents told me that it's an enchantingly gorgeous place. I
thought that since Ron always invites us over for the whole summer
that this would be my summer to invite you guys over. And because I
scarcely get to see my parents, this would be a great opportunity for
us to get together and for me be with my mum and dad! Don't worry
about your 'security'! I wrote to Professor Dumbledore and asked him
if it would be safe to go to S. R. C. Park with you, and he said that
it would be perfectly fine, as long as someone comes to check on us
every few days! If you choose to go, you'll need to have everything
for Hogwarts with you, because after we go to the park for a week,
we'll be spending the rest of the summer at my house. You won't need
money; my parents are going to take care of that. The only issue with
this whole fiasco is that my parents said that you need permission to
go, or else, you can't come. I tried aimlessly to tell them about
your vicious relatives, Harry, but they said that they need to know
that you are allowed to go. I hope that somehow you can convince your
notorious uncle! It would be a pity if you couldn't come because of
them. Please write me back and let me know if they said yes! I'll be
anticipating a message!
Love,
Hermione
P.S. My two cousins will be with us half of the week because their
parents are at a convention meeting and wouldn't be able to come down
to the park until it's over. Sorry about the inconvenience!
'Wow!' was all that Harry thought after he read the letter. Slowly, his smile turned into a frown. 'If only I could go'. Putting down his letter, he went over and sat on his bed, his head in his hands. Today was Friday. Harry was determined to get his uncle's permission to go! He would have to, or else; he wouldn't see his friends for the rest of the summer. He had three days!
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In the afternoon, after planning out a way to get Uncle Vernon to allow him to go, Harry sauntered down the stairs casually, as if he owned the place, (Like he'd want to!) The teenager saw a large boy-looking- crustacean sitting in a couch, but the boy was so fat that it looked like a simple arm chair. Yep, Dudley had grown; Harry was right! Avoiding the large elephant in the living room, Harry went straight to his uncle's office, where he would be sure to find him.
Sure enough, Uncle Vernon was sitting at his desk chair, and seemed to be doing some paper work while munching on a vast amount of large frosted donuts. Harry knocked on the doorframe, as there was no real door separating his office from the rest of the house. Vernon looked up in surprise, but was even more surprised to see his nephew staring back down at him. "What do you want, boy? I thought I told you to leave me and my family alone!" Harry rolled his eyes, but began speaking, "Look I don't want to talk to you anymore than you want to talk to me, so lets make this easy and just shut up!" Harry's uncle's eyes flared with pure hatred but he did shut up! "Okay, here's the deal: my friend invited me over for the summer, and her parents have to have your permission that I can go. Do you follow?" "You boy, are not going anywhere but back up to your room, unless you want to mow the entire lawn for the rest of your life!" Harry didn't move, he just continued to talk, "Anyway, I need your permission to go." "I said, and I will always say, 'NO'!" Vernon shouted, "And for disturbing me you have to make dinner tonight." With that Vernon spun around in his chair to do some work on his other desk. Harry just grinned back at his uncle full of confidence, "Do you remember a few months ago, when my 'friends' (*'Mad-eye Moody' and Mr. Weasley, for those of you who don't know*) had that wonderful little chat with you?" "Why would that concern you?" Vernon barked. "Because if you were to say 'no', that I couldn't go.well, that would be considered making my life horrible wouldn't it?" Uncle Vernon didn't answer, so Harry went on, "And I would have to inform them about it, now wouldn't I?" Harry pretended to be in deep thought, "Now I wonder what they would do? Hmm?" At that moment, Harry glanced down at his uncle quickly. In seeing that all known color was gone from his uncle's face, Harry grinned triumphantly. Uncle Vernon seemed to be in 'real' deep thought. Finally he looked up. "Boy, you have caused way to much trouble in my house over the past few years. You have done nothing but create chaos. I will not stand it much longer." He ended turning purple once more. "So.does that mean I can go?" "You got away with it this time, but I warn you, I'm only keeping you in this house for one more summer. After that, you're out! So just remember that when you get back from your stupid Freak School! Now go to your room and don't come back out. -Oh I almost forgot! I have a list of chores for you to do, I mean, you do live in this house. We feed you, give you a bed to sleep in, so you have to pull your weight around here!" Vernon smirked as best he could. Harry thought it was hysterical, but grabbed the list that his revolting uncle handed him and went back up to his room. As soon as he got there, he wrote Hermione back, saying that he could come, and that he couldn't wait!
In the days that followed, Harry spent long hours doing his assigned grueling chores. He swept the floor, moped, and scrubbed. He cleaned the gutters, hosed down the porch, and swept the sidewalk. He mowed the lawn, raked up the cut grass, and watered the plants. Poor Harry even had to clean Dudley's room for him. That took almost an entire day. By the time he was done with everything, it was Saturday evening and he hadn't even packed anything, yet!
So at midnight, Harry -finally packed up- got in bed. He didn't sleep that night, however. He was too excited about what was to come the following morning, when his best friend was going to come to pick him up. He would finally be away from the most loathed muggles in his life, and he'd be near his two best friends: Ron.and Hermione!
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.:Note:. Okay you guys, I hope that you liked it! I would be much obliged if you could please give me a review! Listening to the Rain is my very first fan- fiction, so please be nice, but any advice or comments are very much appreciated!~!~! And for all of you out there who noted that this story is under the category Romance but seems not to have any: Be patient! I will give you Romance! You will just have to wait for the next chapter! Oh, and about the following chapters: I'm currently attending school now, so I probably won't update for about a month. However, I promise you: I am dedicated to writing this story and no other, so it will not be rushed and/or poorly written under any circumstances! Thanx 4 reading my story! .:Peace out:.
¤ Tears of Aquarius ¤
¤ Listening to the Rain ¤
.:Chapter 1:. A New Day
A lightning bolt flashed across the sky just above Number 4 Privet Drive. After the flash of light disappeared, a loud thunder was heard in the distance. It rumbled on and on like a stone falling down a mountainside, until finally, it stopped. Everything returned, once again, to silence, except for the constant sound of rain pouring on the rooftop. Suddenly, another flash of lightning illuminated the night sky. Barely visible, in the window on the left of the upper floor, was a 16-year-old boy crouched in one of the corners of his shabby room. His head is turned down, towards the floor, with his raven-black hair hanging everywhere.
Harry Potter had gone through some pretty tough times through out his life, but he never imaged it would come down to this. After having his parents murdered by the worst wizard ever, almost being killed by his so- called Defense Professor, nearly being eaten by a huge snake, finding out that his friend's rat was a Death Eater in disguise, trying his best to survive a tournament that he wasn't even of age to be in, and having his Godfather killed to save him, Harry was pretty much used to death and despair. But now everything was starting to come alive in him as realization hit; he was either going to defeat Voldemort or die trying.
Millions of thoughts had been going through Harry's head since he had gotten back from his sixth year at Hogwarts. 'How am I going to defeat Voldemort?' 'Where's Dumbledore?' 'Should I tell anyone about the prophecy?' However, none of these things hurt him more than the one thought he was trying over and over not to think about- Sirius. Had it been Harry's fault that Siruis was now dead? If only Harry hadn't fallen into Voldemort's trap. Over and over Harry mentally kicked himself for his thoughtless actions. The perplexed teenager was constantly pushing Sirius out of his head. He had so much to worry about, Sirius only made him feel guilty, too.
The rain persisted as the night carried on. The lightning and thunder didn't even faze the teenager as he continued to tune himself out of the world. Scenes replayed in his head, voices swept through his mind. Bewildered and frightened of what would happen to whom next, Harry stayed up that night, just like he had done for the past few months of his summer vacation. Sleep was of little value to him anymore; it only enabled nightmares to haunt his thoughts, which elevated the pain in his heart.
Even though the members of the Order of the Phoenix had told Harry's aunt and uncle to treat him better, they were still failing immensely to do so. Scared to even go near Harry now, Uncle Vernon slipped scant meals through his door and left him alone. Even his cousin, Dudley, seemed to avoid torturing Harry. Occasionally though, Dudley would slip into Harry's room when his parents were out, and yell at Harry for 'causing so much trouble'. Harry didn't care about this, much less notice- he was always to shut off from the world to notice his surroundings. And so, Dudley carried out this ritual, thinking it made Harry feel horrible about himself.
Piled by the door of Harry's room was paper plate on top of paper plate. Most of the food had gone to waste, (like it wasn't already rotten when uncle Vernon gave it to him) but some of it remained fresh. Like sleep, eating had become an insignificant matter. Only on the circumstance that Harry's stomach would be pouring unbearable pain through out his body, would he eat something. And even then, he wouldn't eat much.
All Harry's belongings (of the wizarding world) were still locked away in his truck, which hadn't moved since he had gotten home from Hogwarts. Hedwig began hooting uncontrollably at the beginning of summer, and so Harry had to let her out. She hadn't returned since. Her empty cage sat on his cluttered desk of old quills and birthday gifts.
Harry had received lots of gifts on his birthday from all of his friends (all of which were delivered by owls other than Hegwig), yet Harry had simply opened them, examined what he had received, and then wrote a brief 'thank you' letter back. He hadn't gotten any letters since then and was wondering if Hermione and Ron had been debating to owl him or not because of what had happened in their previous year.
As the hours passed, night faded into day and the sound of rain on the roof calmed until it stopped entirely. Harry still sat in his corner, but now he had his head up, and was staring at Ron and Hermione's gifts. It was very odd what they had given him. Both seemed to have bought strange little picture frames for him. There was a picture of Hermione in the one she had gotten for him and a picture of Ron in the other one, which was from Ron! Harry thought this to be very unusual; they normally gave him something to do with Quidditch or, in Hermione's case, a spell book. But to give him two pictures of themselves? Why would they do that? Harry shook his head slowly and lowered his gaze to the floor once more. But he jerked it up suddenly at the sound of something moving on his desk.
Something was emerging from Hermione's picture frame. It looked like a small piece of paper. But why was a piece of paper coming out of a picture frame? Harry slowly got up from his corner and cautiously walked over to where the piece of paper was appearing out of the glass. Lowly the whole paper made it out and Harry hesitantly picked it up. On the other side was writing that belonged to Hermione:
Harry,
You're probably wondering why there is a piece of paper coming
out of this picture, right! Well it is really quite simple to
explain. You see, Ron and I wanted a way to communicate with you
frequently, without waiting so long to get the letters from our owls.
So, I simply suggested that we charm a picture frame to transmit
letters quickly- without having to wait. Ron agreed, so I went out,
got the frames, and inserted the photographs. That way, you would
know who is sending you the letter. Then I sent them to Ron, who
asked his dad to charm them so that they would do as we requested.
Thankfully, Ron's father agreed and had them back to me in a week,
fully charmed! After I ran a few tests and added a bit more charms to
make it even better, I sent them to you! All you have to do to get
the message to transmit through is hold the paper up to the glass and
blink at the picture. In return, the picture of the person in the
frame should blink back and they should receive the letter no more
than a minute. I'll tell you more about what you can do with it
later, but for now, just reply to this letter, so that I know that you
got it. I'll write you more soon!
Love,
Hermione
For the first time in over a month, Harry smiled! 'Wow, Hermione, you really out-did yourself this time,' Harry thought to himself as he stared at the letter in his hands. This was a really clever idea. Now they could communicate much faster than with regular owls, and in secret, too. Uncle Vernon would never know. The picture frame did look perfectly normal, after all; you couldn't even tell that it was magical. Then remembering that Hermione had said to reply, Harry rushed over to his desk, took out a paper and quill, and began to write:
Hermione,
I got your letter. Been bored all summer. Please write soon!
Harry
After scribbling down the last few words in a hurry, Harry went over to the picture of Hermione, held the paper up to the glass, and blinked at it. The Hermione in the picture blinked back; no sooner had her eye opened back up, and the paper was going through the glass. Harry's eyes widened in awe, and he waited for the next message to come through. Ten minutes went by and still, no letter. Harry sat on the floor and starred at the pictures, waiting for a message, a paragraph, a sentence, he didn't care what it was, as long as it was from his friends. And yet.nothing came. Sighing, Harry got up and walked over to his corner again. He sat down and leaned his head against the wall. Just when he thought he would be talking to his best friends again, all goes wrong. 'It probably broke,' Harry thought to himself coldly, 'Figures.'
The rest of the morning went by promptly. Harry actually decided to clean up all the plates of food by his door. Within a half-hour everything was near-to-neat again. That's when the next letter came. This time, it was from Ron, and it seemed to have a few crinkles.
Harry,
I hope you like your gift. I was a pretty clever idea wasn't it?
My dad thought it was an excellent invention. Hermione made him
promise not to tell the Ministry; that way they won't be able to
interfere with our messages. Sorry that we didn't start sending you
letters earlier, but Hermione thought we should wait a bit, 'just to
be safe'. Anyhow, I hope that we can get together somehow. I'll
speak to my mum about it! Write soon,
Ron
Harry smiled for the second time that day. He placed Ron's letter next to Hermione's and hastily wrote a reply saying that he would like to get together with them soon, and asked if Ron had seen Hegwig around anywhere. Finishing the letter, Harry blinked to Ron's picture, which returned the gesture, and then, the message disappeared through the glass. Satisfied with being able to talk to both of his friends, Harry took off his glasses and placed them on the nightstand. He sank down on his bed and laid his head on the pillow. His eyelids suddenly began to droop. The weight of drowsiness increased until Harry finally gave in and slowly shut his emerald green eyes. 'I'll just rest,' he reassured himself, 'I won't fall asleep,' As a calming blue color surrounded his vision, Harry's mind cleared itself from all thoughts. His breathing slowed. Unaware of what was happening, Harry gradually drifted off into a deep sleep. However, in doing so, Harry opened his mind to dreadful memories. Memories that made normal little children scream, memories that revealed pain beyond imagining, memories. that aren't meant to be remembered.
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Harry spun around. Everything was black. Left and right, up and down; the whole world seemed to be covered in permanent black paint. Harry spun around again. There, in front of him, was the ancient archway. The faded midnight blue veil gently swayed as if an invisible wind was blowing on it. Every move the veil made, Harry was tempted to grab it and push it to the side, so he could see what was behind it. Finally, after watching it for what seemed like forever, Harry hesitantly reached out his arm and touched the veil. In that instant, it stopped swaying. Carefully, because Harry was afraid it would rip, he shifted it to one side. Curious emerald eyes as big as plates peeked behind the fragile piece of fabric. Harry shouted and took several shaky steps backward. Right in front of his face was Sirius, his deceased Godfather, who was starring right into Harry's frightened eyes- he seemed to be looking straight into Harry's soul. Harry took in numerous deep breaths before calming down and walking closer. "S- Sirius?" Harry stammered. No reply came, only the constant blinding stare of his eyes. Once again Harry attempted to speak to him. "Sirius?" He said with a little more confidence. Again no reply was heard. As Harry stepped a bit closer, he saw, in his godfather's eyes, the scene of his own death. Bellatrix hitting him square in the chest with that powerful stunning spell, Sirius falling, like in slow motion, into the archway, the veil streaming out like a tornado had hit it, and then, it stopped, and returned again to the constant gentle flow, like before. Sirius didn't return.
Suddenly, a white, pale face with red, glaring pupils and two slits for a nose appeared in Sirius's eyes. The malignant face's mouth curved into a venomous grin that could only belong to one creature.. Voldemort! Harry gasped and spun around only to scream. Red eyes glared back at him. "What a pitty," the creature stated, "That he had to die." Harry shivered as Voldemort said this. "It was quite easy to trick you." Voldemort stepped closer, and Harry took a step back. "Everything went as planned," Voldemort came another step closer; Harry went the other way. "That accursed fool came to get you," Voldemort smirked before finishing, "and then he died to save you." The dark wizard's smile faded and a mock- concerned face appeared. "You loved him, didn't you?" Harry had had enough! "And you killed him." "SHUT UP!" he shouted in Voldemort's face. "Tisk, tisk, tisk, Potter, we mustn't get angry now." Voldemort said simply. Harry took in long, heavy breaths, trying not to scream again. "After all, I'm sure you know in your heart that it was you who did it. You killed him." Harry was silent. Voldemort smiled his evil smile and began to circle Harry like a vulture. "Now, Harry, be a good like boy and tell me where the prophecy is." "No, I won't," Harry said coolly, but boldly. "You will tell me now, freely, not to mention painlessly, or I will make you tell me. Your choice." "I will never tell you anything," "Fine then, have it your way!" Voldemort's wand came up as he shouted, "Crucio!" Defenseless, Harry fell to the ground. Severe pain shot through his body like a thousand needles. "Ready to tell me?" Voldemort asked confidently. "NEVER!" Harry managed to scream. "I WILL..NEVER..TELL YOU!" Suddenly, the pain ceased, and Harry opened his eyes. Voldemort stood above him, glaring down. "Time. will tell." with that said, the hideous 'thing' departed up into the air and disappeared with a 'pop'. Harry waited a while before hoisting himself to his feet and turning around. Harry had expected to see Sirius, standing there, staring at him, in his frozen state- like before, but what he was seeing made him gasp in shock. Sirius seemed to be floating backwards in the archway. Harry threw his hand out to try to catch his Godfather, but Harry couldn't seem to reach him. Farther and farther away, Sirius flowed. "Sirius! Come back!" Harry shouted out. The sound echoed off the darkness and filed the setting with the desperateness in Harry's voice. "SIRIUS!" Now, Harry couldn't even see him. He was lost in the land behind the veil. Never to return. "SIRRRUUUSSS!" The word came out in slow motion as the world around Harry began to spin. Everything was becoming blurry. He could no longer see the ancient archway or the veil slowly blowing in the invisible wind. His senses became active again, and Harry's eyes swiftly opened up. He sat up and sat in shock as he took in his surroundings. He was back in his room (If you would can it a room) and everything was still.
His breaths came out in heavy blows as he tried to get himself to calm down. Seeing that everything was normal, and that his dream was really just a dream, Harry relaxed on his bed. Only a few seconds had pasted; his breath was finally slowing down. Suddenly, a sharp pain shot through Harry's forehead. His hands came up to rub his temple around his scar. The throbbing pain finally left. However, his scar still tingled. 'I guess I should be pretty much used to this,' Harry thought, 'after all, Professor Dumbledore did say that those sudden bursts of pain on his scar would happen more frequently because Voldemort was around now.' Harry rubbed his scar for a few more moments before he lay back down on his bed and tried to push the memories from his nightmare away, out of his thoughts.
So many things were going through the mind of that raven-haired teenager, he didn't know what to think. Harry opened his eyes and starred at the ceiling. It had strange little bumps all over it. Harry starred at one space for quite a while before suddenly realizing that the way the bumps were aligned made it look like..well..it looked like Cho. 'Cho Chang'..Harry thought this to himself, still starring at that one spot on the ceiling.
It was over between them, and Harry knew that for a fact. He really didn't mind. After a while Harry had realized it was 'just a crush'. He knew that they would always be friends, but nothing more. Cho just wasn't right for Harry. She was too..how's a nice way to put it ..self-pitying? Arrogant? Just plain rude? But no matter how times Harry's heart and brain had told himself that it was the right thing to do, to let her go, his conscious just kept thinking that it was a mistake, and it haunted him. 'No one else is ever going to like me.' was the putdown that Harry's conscious kept telling him. 'I'm never going to have another girlfriend for as long as I live.' He sighed as he thought this, 'She was the only one who liked me.' Then again, every time Harry thought of their little 'date' at Madame Puddifoot's he was glad that he broke up with her. Cho was absolutely horrendous on that outing. It was dreadful. Harry was incredibly happy to just get out of that so-called restaurant and go see Hermione and Luna at the Three Broomsticks. Even that was better than joining Cho as she continued mourning over Cedric.
Harry lay there and watched the ceiling a bit longer. Something began to make a soft buzzing sort of sound. 'Must be a fly' Harry thought, not moving his head to see what it was. Another thing that Harry was confused about was where Dumbledore was. He had no idea, and it scared him. What if Voldemort found Dumbledore and..and ..hurt him .. or worse..! Harry couldn't think about that, he just couldn't, it was too much for him. That fly was still buzzing and it was getting annoying. What about Grawp? Did Hagrid ever come back to 'tame' his giant brother some manners? 'Oh, I do hope that he gave that 'thing' a bath,' Harry thought with a look of disgust, 'It smelt like the Owlery at Hogwarts on a humid day,'! That fly was getting on Harry's nerves. He heard the telephone ring down stairs, and the sound of heavy footsteps going to get it. 'I wonder how much weight Dudley gained over the summer?' Harry asked himself. He hadn't really gotten a good look at this cousin since the time that he had gotten home from school. Harry was thinking about Dudley, the size of an elephant, trying to squeeze into his chair, just to eat lunch, when the buzzing stopped. 'Dead fly,' Harry thought. But then he smelt the wonderful aroma of-he couldn't believe it..a warm, freshly baked cookie! Thinking that he must be going insane, Harry sat up and looked over at where the smell was coming from. Sure enough, over on his desk, was a steaming warm cookie. The warm, sweet smell had gotten to him, so he got up and went over to his desk. Right next to the cookie, which was chocolate chip, was a letter. Harry picked it up and read:
Harry,
I told you that my invention did more than just send
letters! It can also transmit food items and objects, but they have
to be smaller than the frame, or else they can't fit through. Your
gift can do one more special thing..but I'm going to wait to show you
what it is. Ron already knows, but I told him not to tell you,
because I want it to be a surprise. I hope that you like the cookie.
I was just baking them with my mom, and I thought of you, at the
Dursleys' with no food, so I decided that this would be the most
inviting way to show you that you can send things, like cookies,
through the frame! Have fun with it! I have something else that I
want to ask you later, but first I have to go through the details with
my mom one more time, okay!
Love,
Hermione
Harry sat the letter down and picked up the cookie. It was still warm and the chocolate chips were a bit gooey. He took a bite of it, and rolled his eyes at the good taste. Harry never knew that Hermione could make such delicious cookies. He made a note to himself to ask her for cookies on Christmas, rather than a gift! As he swallowed his last bite of the scrumptious morsel, Harry reflected on the letter. She had said that this gift she'd given him could do one more thing. And if Harry knew Hermione, I was going to be impressive. Yet, Harry wondered what that 'one thing' could be. After all, these contraptions could do a heck of a lot more already than Harry had ever dreamed of.
Another thing that struck Harry as strange was the thing that Hermione wanted to ask him. Was it really that important that Hermione had to talk to her mother about it first. 'Gosh,' Harry thought, 'I hope that I didn't get her in trouble or something.' It was unlike Hermione to have to resort to asking someone else for details, as she would normally would go right to a book. As the minutes passed by, Harry thought about all the possibilities he now had with his picture frames. He could send anything he wanted, that would fit, to his friends now. But what to send? Ron was going to be his first victim.
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Two hours later, Harry had sent Hermione a thank you letter (in which he had told her that she had made the absolute best cookies he had ever eaten), a note to Ron (asking about his summer), and a Galleon to each of them. He asked Ron to buy him the latest copy of The Daily Prophet, and Hermione to get him the newest issue of The Quibbler. Harry wanted to know what was going on out there, and Hegwig was gone, so he had to ask his friends to help him out a bit. Harry was sure that he could rely on them.
It was getting dark and the stars were starting to appear all over the sky. Uncle Vernon had, as usual, slipped a plate of food through the door, and scurried off. Harry went over and ate one of the pieces of watermelon off his plate. Then he ate the other. (They were no bigger than a bouncy ball at most.) The only thing left on the plate was one bean, which was so small Harry could most likely feed it to a bird and it still wouldn't be full. After that, Harry put the plate in the garbage.
Harry got up and walked over to the window. The moon was almost full, it would be in about another week or so. He stared at the beams shining down on the earth. They were beautiful. Then Harry noticed a shadow against that big lantern of night light. It looked like an airplane, but then it's wings moved up and down. 'Hegwig!' Harry thought with a smile of excitement. The owl started to come into view. As it passed a beam of moonlight Harry could see that it was, indeed, a white owl. Closer and closer the creature flew, before it was right in front of the window. Harry hurriedly unlatched the lock and let the tired owl in. She flew over to perch on her cage and looked at Harry. "Where have you been all summer?" Harry asked his owl. Hegwig seemed to understand his question, because in response, she held up her leg to reveal a huge parchment. Harry rushed over and unattached it. When the letter was finally off, Hegwig went into her cage and put her head up to her water bowl, but then she paused, brought her head back up and starred at Harry befuddled. Harry went over so see what was wrong. "Oh, sorry Hedwig, I forgot- Your water must have dried up while you were gone. Here let me get you some more." Harry went into the bathroom cautiously, trying to avoid the Dursley's. When he came back in his room, he put the full bowl of water back in the cage. Hegwig began to drink immediately and ignored Harry. Harry took this opportunity to look at what was written on the parchment. He opened it up and gawked at the huge amount of writing scribbled all over it!
The letter, or rather, novel (Not really; it's just really long), seemed to be from Professor Dumbledore. It began by saying that Hegwig had been over with Dumbledore all summer and not to worry. Second, it stated that he, the headmaster, was safe! However, the letter didn't state where he was. A part that particularly caught Harry's eye was a paragraph in which Dumbledore wrote something like this:
I felt in my heart that you were being blocked off from the news and
information that is vital for you to know, and so, while the meetings
of the Order were taking place, I had someone jot down everything that
went on. The ink on this page is made for your eyes only. No one
else can read it except you. (I find that DNA ink is very handy.
Fred and George, as you may have guessed, invented it. It's one of my
very favorite of their inventions!) These notes have information on
all the latest findings. And before you start to read, I would just
like to say that you don't have to worry. Voldemort hasn't struck
anywhere so far during the summer. Right now, we assume that he's
undercover in hiding. Now that I've said that, you may proceed in
your reading!
Harry stared at all the text below this paragraph. About three pages worth of tiny words all existed on that one scroll. Harry eyes skipped that part, (for now) and went to the bottom, where in various fancy handwriting were the names of all the people in the Order. Harry saw Dumbledore's first. It was just as neat as always. Harry was sure glad that he was okay. It brought comfort to him. Below the headmaster's signature was a little note: Have fun for the rest of the summer! Below that was Professor Lupin's name. Well, he wasn't exactly a professor now, but to Harry, he'd always be the best Defense teacher. A little note saying-Hope to see you soon- lay right under his signature. To the right was Mrs. Weasley's name and the letters XOXO with five extra X's next to it. Next to her's was Mr. Weasley's. Then below their's was Moody's (with the note: Stay Put!), Kingsley's (Best of Luck), Tonks's (Miss ya' Harry!), and all the rest of the member's names. Sirius's name was not there, however, thankfully, Harry was too caught up at the moment to notice.
Flabbergasted, Harry sat down on his bed and began to read the notes that Dumbledore had taken for him at the meetings. On and on Harry read, until finally, not to mention amazingly, Harry fell into a dreamless, comfortable sleep. There wasn't a single nightmare, and no ugly Voldemort faces were staring back at him that night!
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The next morning the raven-haired sixteen-year-old living at Number 4 Privet Drive awoke early with a smile plastered to his face. As he lay in bed, he had a little fantasy about eating warm blueberry muffins for breakfast, and now it was starting to get to him. He could almost smell them! Getting out of bed and stretching, Harry took in a deep breath. Oh, he smelt those muffins again! If only it wasn't just a dream! Harry put on his glasses and picked up the scroll that was laying his bedside table to go put it on his desk. Lazily, Harry walked over and carelessly placed it on top of a bunch of stacked books. He rubbed his eyes and sighed, having the mind to go back to sleep, but what he saw next to one of the frames, made him instantly wake up.
There, right in front of him, was his muffin that he had dreamed of! It was even blueberry! A note lay beside it. It said:
Harry,
My mum made muffins for breakfast, so I nicked one and sent it to you! I hope it's still warm!
See you soon,
Ron
Harry put the note down and picked up what Ron had sent. It was still soft and he could smell the melted sugar on the top. As he ate it, Harry thought of what Ron meant by 'See you soon'. Were they planning on getting together? When? And why didn't he know about it? His questions were soon answered when another letter came through the frame. This time it was from Hermione:
Dear Harry,
I have great news! Would you be interested in vacationing with me in
at S. R . C. Park, for a week? We are going this week, Sunday. Ron
is invited as well, and of course, my parents are coming! Silver Rain
Crystal is a new park in the U.K. I think that you would enjoy it!
My parents told me that it's an enchantingly gorgeous place. I
thought that since Ron always invites us over for the whole summer
that this would be my summer to invite you guys over. And because I
scarcely get to see my parents, this would be a great opportunity for
us to get together and for me be with my mum and dad! Don't worry
about your 'security'! I wrote to Professor Dumbledore and asked him
if it would be safe to go to S. R. C. Park with you, and he said that
it would be perfectly fine, as long as someone comes to check on us
every few days! If you choose to go, you'll need to have everything
for Hogwarts with you, because after we go to the park for a week,
we'll be spending the rest of the summer at my house. You won't need
money; my parents are going to take care of that. The only issue with
this whole fiasco is that my parents said that you need permission to
go, or else, you can't come. I tried aimlessly to tell them about
your vicious relatives, Harry, but they said that they need to know
that you are allowed to go. I hope that somehow you can convince your
notorious uncle! It would be a pity if you couldn't come because of
them. Please write me back and let me know if they said yes! I'll be
anticipating a message!
Love,
Hermione
P.S. My two cousins will be with us half of the week because their
parents are at a convention meeting and wouldn't be able to come down
to the park until it's over. Sorry about the inconvenience!
'Wow!' was all that Harry thought after he read the letter. Slowly, his smile turned into a frown. 'If only I could go'. Putting down his letter, he went over and sat on his bed, his head in his hands. Today was Friday. Harry was determined to get his uncle's permission to go! He would have to, or else; he wouldn't see his friends for the rest of the summer. He had three days!
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In the afternoon, after planning out a way to get Uncle Vernon to allow him to go, Harry sauntered down the stairs casually, as if he owned the place, (Like he'd want to!) The teenager saw a large boy-looking- crustacean sitting in a couch, but the boy was so fat that it looked like a simple arm chair. Yep, Dudley had grown; Harry was right! Avoiding the large elephant in the living room, Harry went straight to his uncle's office, where he would be sure to find him.
Sure enough, Uncle Vernon was sitting at his desk chair, and seemed to be doing some paper work while munching on a vast amount of large frosted donuts. Harry knocked on the doorframe, as there was no real door separating his office from the rest of the house. Vernon looked up in surprise, but was even more surprised to see his nephew staring back down at him. "What do you want, boy? I thought I told you to leave me and my family alone!" Harry rolled his eyes, but began speaking, "Look I don't want to talk to you anymore than you want to talk to me, so lets make this easy and just shut up!" Harry's uncle's eyes flared with pure hatred but he did shut up! "Okay, here's the deal: my friend invited me over for the summer, and her parents have to have your permission that I can go. Do you follow?" "You boy, are not going anywhere but back up to your room, unless you want to mow the entire lawn for the rest of your life!" Harry didn't move, he just continued to talk, "Anyway, I need your permission to go." "I said, and I will always say, 'NO'!" Vernon shouted, "And for disturbing me you have to make dinner tonight." With that Vernon spun around in his chair to do some work on his other desk. Harry just grinned back at his uncle full of confidence, "Do you remember a few months ago, when my 'friends' (*'Mad-eye Moody' and Mr. Weasley, for those of you who don't know*) had that wonderful little chat with you?" "Why would that concern you?" Vernon barked. "Because if you were to say 'no', that I couldn't go.well, that would be considered making my life horrible wouldn't it?" Uncle Vernon didn't answer, so Harry went on, "And I would have to inform them about it, now wouldn't I?" Harry pretended to be in deep thought, "Now I wonder what they would do? Hmm?" At that moment, Harry glanced down at his uncle quickly. In seeing that all known color was gone from his uncle's face, Harry grinned triumphantly. Uncle Vernon seemed to be in 'real' deep thought. Finally he looked up. "Boy, you have caused way to much trouble in my house over the past few years. You have done nothing but create chaos. I will not stand it much longer." He ended turning purple once more. "So.does that mean I can go?" "You got away with it this time, but I warn you, I'm only keeping you in this house for one more summer. After that, you're out! So just remember that when you get back from your stupid Freak School! Now go to your room and don't come back out. -Oh I almost forgot! I have a list of chores for you to do, I mean, you do live in this house. We feed you, give you a bed to sleep in, so you have to pull your weight around here!" Vernon smirked as best he could. Harry thought it was hysterical, but grabbed the list that his revolting uncle handed him and went back up to his room. As soon as he got there, he wrote Hermione back, saying that he could come, and that he couldn't wait!
In the days that followed, Harry spent long hours doing his assigned grueling chores. He swept the floor, moped, and scrubbed. He cleaned the gutters, hosed down the porch, and swept the sidewalk. He mowed the lawn, raked up the cut grass, and watered the plants. Poor Harry even had to clean Dudley's room for him. That took almost an entire day. By the time he was done with everything, it was Saturday evening and he hadn't even packed anything, yet!
So at midnight, Harry -finally packed up- got in bed. He didn't sleep that night, however. He was too excited about what was to come the following morning, when his best friend was going to come to pick him up. He would finally be away from the most loathed muggles in his life, and he'd be near his two best friends: Ron.and Hermione!
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.:Note:. Okay you guys, I hope that you liked it! I would be much obliged if you could please give me a review! Listening to the Rain is my very first fan- fiction, so please be nice, but any advice or comments are very much appreciated!~!~! And for all of you out there who noted that this story is under the category Romance but seems not to have any: Be patient! I will give you Romance! You will just have to wait for the next chapter! Oh, and about the following chapters: I'm currently attending school now, so I probably won't update for about a month. However, I promise you: I am dedicated to writing this story and no other, so it will not be rushed and/or poorly written under any circumstances! Thanx 4 reading my story! .:Peace out:.
¤ Tears of Aquarius ¤