Disclaimer: I do not own any of this. I'm just playing in J.K. Rowling's world.
Dark storm clouds had engulfed the skies all day Saturday and trapped the unbearable summer heat from cooling as the evening wore on. They held the threat of rain, but did not follow through. The air practically buzzed and crackled with electricity. It was not uncommon for one to receive a jolting shock while sliding out of a car or making contact with another person today. The house pets on Privet Drive were restless with unexplainable pent up energy. Their peculiar behavior set their already fidgety owners on edge.
No one was more uneasy than the residents of Number Four Privet Drive, however. The peculiar weather was so abnormal that they believed the only possible explanation could be their freakish nephew and cousin, a one Harry Potter. Six times they had checked on him throughout the day, but always, he had been sleeping. This did not stop them from blaming him or his freakish kind. Ever since the boy had come back from his fifth year at that freakish school, he had done nothing but brood and mope in his room. No doubt, he was causing the gloomy weather as well.
They would never know, but they weren't far from the truth. While Harry was in fact oblivious to the strange climate, other forces from his world, the wizarding world, were at work and affecting more than just the weather. Harry Potter was currently sprawled over his small bed on top of the sheets, for the heat made it unbearable to be under them. His messy black hair was plastered to his head and face with sweat, as were his clothes to his body.
As the famous Boy Who Lived slept on, a strange shadow approached his small bedroom on the second floor of Number Four Privet Drive. It thinned and seeped under his window sill like liquid. It slid to the floor and oozed across it, making its way to the bed. The dark shadow became three dimensional, but took no discernable shape as it sprung up and hovered in the air above Harry. It hesitated, seeming to contemplate its next move, if in fact it could do such a thing. A thin tendril slowly separated from the rest of the dark mass and extended toward the sleeping boy. As it touched his forehead, Harry took a shuddering breath and shivered, as though cold. It quickly recoiled, but just as fast, recovered and reached out again.
"Potter!!" Uncle Vernon yelled upstairs.
Said boy sat up abruptly, very startled. As he turned to his nightstand to grab his glasses, he caught movement next to him. Putting his spectacles on he looked around, but there wasn't much to see in his sparsely furnished and bare room.
Must have been a trick of the light. I wonder what Uncle Vernon wants. Judging by the light outside, I've been asleep all day. I couldn't possibly have done anything wrong.
The stairs groaned and creaked under Uncle Vernon's massive weight as he climbed. The huffing and puffing that resulted from the climb did nothing to help his already red and irritated face. Not pausing once he got to the top, he stormed through the door of Dudley's second bedroom.
"Boy! I'm warning you to put an end to this freakishness right now! You put the weather back the way it's supposed to be, or I'll throw you out. "
"What? I haven't done anything to the weather. And I couldn't even if I wanted to. I don't know how."
"Don't test me boy! I've been shocked one too many times today, and I know you have something to do with it. This isn't normal weather, and you're the only other abnormal thing around here. "
"Look, I told you, I can't—"
Just then, the floor began to move underneath them. The walls shook and the loose objects around Harry's room rattled on the vibrating surfaces of the furniture. Uncle Vernon fell backwards into Harry's closet, as Harry jumped off his bed and scooted under it for protection. However, as soon as he did so, he wished he hadn't because he felt as though he been fully submerged in an ice bath. Gasping loudly, he sat up and banged his head on the underside of his bed and as suddenly as the room had started shaking, it stopped.
Cautiously, Harry crawled out from under the bed as Uncle Vernon tried to lift his unwieldy body from his awkward, slouched position against the closet.
Uncle Vernon tried to glare menacingly at the boy, but it faltered from the uneasy fear that he had of the boy. Harry didn't notice though, for his heart was pounding and his mind was racing from his encounter under the bed.
"If it's not you, then find a way to stop it, boy. And soon," Vernon tried to say in a very threatening tone, though it was lost on his distracted nephew.
He turned and walked quickly but slightly unsteadily from the room.
What the heck is going on?! What the bloody hell was that?
Harry dropped to his knees and peered under the bed but didn't see anything. Tentatively, he stretched out his arm to feel around, but the temperature was the same stuffy, heat as the rest of the room.
It felt like a ghost. But what would a ghost be doing in my room? Did I just imagine it?
He got up from the floor and walked over to the window. Having been asleep all day, he hadn't seen the weather until now.
Uncle Vernon's right. The weather really is unusual.
The dark clouds hung ominously in the sky. He opened the window to try and get a breeze through the stuffy room, but all it did was let in the dry, static air. Harry felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up as a sense of unease passed through him. The air felt electric and his fingers tingled as though the magic that ran through the core of his body was reacting to the charge in the air. To give them something to do, he picked up some old letters on his desk from Ron and Hermione and rifled through them.
Guess I should write back. Merlin, I can't believe I slept all day.
Harry turned suddenly upon hearing raised voices from downstairs.
I should find out what they're on about before he comes after me this time.
He walked to his bedroom door and opened it a crack. Pressing his ear to the open space, he concentrated on discerning what the now quieted voices from downstairs were talking about. The first voice was high and whiny and belonged to his Aunt Petunia.
"Vernon, I didn't feel a thing. Nothing shook."
"Impossible! Are you absolutely sure? Not even a little quake? It was enough to make me fall over. It's that freakish boy, Petunia! I know it!"
"Vernon, just leave him alone. We don't want him doing anything else. Don't upset him."
Harry grinned at that. Even though he hadn't done anything, if it meant that his relatives would leave him alone, he was fine with that.
"It's not as though the weather and the quake were the first freaky things to happen today."
This peaked Harry's interest. Not the first things to happen? What else happened?
"If things don't settle down around here soon, I want you to write to that crackpot old man at his school and let him know that we aren't keeping him anymore. We've done more than our fair share in taking care of that boy."
Harry could just imagine his aunt paling at the thought as she responded in a clipped tone.
"It won't come to that. Just leave him alone. "
The voices stopped and Harry silently closed the door and walked back to his desk, disappointed that he didn't find out more about the other strange happenings.
Maybe I'll threaten Dudley with magic to tell me later. But I should write back to Ron and Hermione first so they don't think that anything's wrong here. Well, besides the weather, the earthquake that happened only in my room, and the freaky cold spot under my bed. Ok, so maybe there is something going on here.
Harry moved to open his Hogwarts trunk to get some parchment and ink. Rummaging through his messy belongings, thinking absent mindedly about how Hermione would have a thing or two to say about his lack of organization, he felt a sharp sting across his forefinger.
Found it, he thought as he pulled the parchment out and brought his finger to his mouth to suck on the paper cut he had received. With his left hand still grasping the parchment, and the other held to his mouth, Harry rose from his crouch and kicked the lid of his trunk shut and returned to his desk. He checked to see if the bleeding had slowed, but stuck the finger back in his mouth and looked around for something to wrap around the finger until it stopped. The letter writing would again, have to wait. He grabbed an old raggedy shirt from the floor and ripped a strip off of the bottom hem.
Wrapping it firmly around his cut, he decided that now would be as good a time as any to bug Dudley for some information. Once again, silently opening his door, he slipped out and softly knocked on his cousin's door. He didn't want his aunt and uncle to know that he was talking to or "corrupting" in their opinion, their precious son.
"Come in!" yelled a gruff voice from the other side.
Harry quickly opened the door, stepped inside, and shut it again. Turning to his cousin, he almost laughed at the gob smacked expression on Dudley's face.
No doubt he thought it was his mum at the door. Obviously he'd never expect it to be me.
Trying to regain his composure, Dudley asked rather rudely, "What do you want?"
"Oh nothing. Just wanted to ask you a few questions is all."
"What?"
"Have you noticed anything strange around here today?"
"You mean besides you?"
Idiot. Ugh, I have to be agreeable so he'll keep talking.
Biting back a rude retort, Harry answered with a tight-lipped, "Yes, besides me."
"The weather."
Well duh. Like I couldn't see that for myself.
"Yeah, that is weird. But I meant anything weird in the house?"
"No."
"Anything at all? Like owls flying around or unusual noises or something like that?"
"Oh you mean freaky things from your freaky world?"
"Uh, sure."
"Why do you want to know? Why should I tell you?"
"I could curse you."
"You're not allowed," Dudley responded quickly, sounding unsure of himself.
"I am now. They let me in case I need it for self defense," Harry said calmly, lying through his teeth.
"Yeah right," Dudley said not sounding confident at all now.
Harry pulled out his wand and held it loosely in his hand, hoping Dudley wouldn't be smart enough to demand he prove it.
Luckily for Harry, just the sight of the wand spooked him and he started rambling about everything he had done today and anything unusual he had seen.
"This morning when I woke up, it was really hot in my room, so I was all sweaty. And then Mum came in and told me to take a shower. That was weird because she never tells me to do anything. After that, I went downstairs to eat some breakfast but Mum only made me four pieces of bacon today instead of five. I usually get five. And there was no grapefruit, just oranges. And she had only made coffee for her and Dad. She usually has a glass of orange juice on the table for me. I told her I wanted some, and then she screamed and dropped a frying pan because there was a rat that ran by her on the floor. But me and Dad looked and there was nothing there. And then--"
"A rat?" Harry interrupted, a little interested. So far he hadn't heard anything out of the ordinary from Dudley's drivel, but this could be something. The rat could've been that sniveling, groveling, good-for-nothing traitor, Peter Pettigrew. He could almost begin to feel his blood boil at the thought.
"Well Mum said she didn't actually see a rat, but she thought she saw something move in the shadows beneath the cabinets."
"Okay, keep going."
"No, I'm tired of this. Why do you want to know anyway?"
"Dudley," Harry said in a warning tone, and raised his wand hand slightly to back up the threat in his voice.
"Ok, ok! Don't point that at me though! I'll tell you more, just move that away!"
Harry didn't say anything, but lowered his wand hand to appease his cousin's fears.
"After breakfast I went into the living room to watch the telly. Mum had the fan in there turned on so I wouldn't get too hot. Lot of good that did. I was almost done watching my fourth show when it got really cold for a second and then it went away. And then the telly went all black for a minute and then it faded back to normal."
"And you don't know what happened to it?"
"I dunno. I told you, it just went all black."
"Ok, anything else?"
"No."
"You're sure?"
"Well, after I finished watching my shows, I went into the kitchen for a snack and Mum was scrubbing the kitchen floor. She usually makes you do that. And then there was that really cold spot again, but this time it was in the middle of the stairs when I came up. I tried to move back in it after I went through and it was gone."
"And you didn't think that was weird at all?"
"It must've been the fan from the living room that had blown the cold air through."
"And was there anything unusual that happened in your room?"
"No. Well, you walked in."
Harry refrained from rolling his eyes.
"Ok, thanks," he muttered while turning to walk out the door.
At that moment though, the door knob turned and in walked Uncle Vernon about to say something to Dudley. He stopped short when he saw Harry standing there with his wand in hand.
And then he lost it.
"What the bloody hell do you think you're doing with that thing near my son?!" he roared.
Without waiting for a response, he grabbed the front of Harry's shirt and yanked him from the room. Harry was so surprised by the unexpected turn of events that he had no time to react in self-defense. His uncle dragged him the short few steps from Dudley's room to his, and once there, forcefully pushed Harry down on the floor.
Harry's head hit the floor with a thud, narrowly missing the desk, and for a moment all he could see was black. It let up but the yellow spots in front of his eyes, the slight vertigo and the ringing in his ears kept him from being able to properly see or hear his Uncle. He knew he was yelling at him but it sounded far away and surreal. He knew when his uncle had left the room and faintly registered the sound of the door being locked from the outside. All he could do though was lay there until he was no longer dangerously close to passing out.
After a few minutes, the dizziness started to pass and he slowly sat up.
Well that went well.
Slowly and ever so carefully, he turned onto his hands and knees to push himself up. As soon as he had stood up though, he wished he'd stayed on the floor as a strong wave of nausea and vertigo hit him. Swaying dangerously, he tried to grasp onto his desk but only managed to grab onto some parchment. Losing his balance completely, he pitched forward toward his bed.
As darkness passed in front of his eyes once more, his last thought was, "At least it won't hurt to fall this time."
A/N: This is my first attempt at fanfiction, so I would appreciate any and all comments. I thrive on praise and grow on criticism! Thanks for reading!