Seventeen Is Such A Difficult Year

Harry stuffed yet another shirt into his already full trunk. He was turning 17 in an hour and as soon as the clock hit midnight he was out of the Dursleys home for good. Harry planned to catch the Knight Bus to the Leaky Cauldron and stay there until the new school year started. He was tierd of the Dursleys constantly calling him a freak and insulting his friends and Harry was sure they would throw a huge party right after he left.

Minutes later Harry finished cramming every thing he owned into his trunk and finally persuaded Hedwig to go in her cage. Harry impatiently paced waiting for midnight to come. It was only 11:20. He still had 40 more minutes to go. Harry sat on his bed and tried to think of constructive things to do with his time ,but all he thought of was playing Quidditch or hexing Dudley and Malfoy.Harry looked at his watch again. It was 11:35. Harry sighed and started to pace again.

Five minutes later Harry dragged his trunk and Hedwigs cage downstairs. He left his trunk and Hedwig by the door and went to sit in the living room. There in the living room sat Petunia and Vernon Dursley. "What are you doing down here so late boy ?" Vernon spat.

"Well in case you haven't noticed its my 17th birthday in about 20 minutes and 17 is the age that I can legally do magic so I'm getting the hell out of here at midnight." Harry said.

"Really? Well than midnight better come fast." Vernon said smiling. Petunia got up suddenly.

"Boy come with me." she barked. Harry followed her curious to see what had caused his aunt to call him upstairs. Harry followed Petunia into her and Vernon's bedroom.

"Sit there." she snapped pointing to a spot on the bed. Harry sat and watched his aunt curiously as she searched her closet for some thing. Finally she pulled out a large box and thrust it at Harry.

Noticing Harry's confused look she let out a breath of frustration and said "This came with you when you first arrived here, but open it when you leave here I won't have you running around my house with some freakish object." Harry nodded and tucked the box under his arm. He went downstairs and looked at his watch again. It was 11:57, he had to leave in three minutes. Harry got his things ready and prepared to leave.

Exactly three minutes later the Dursleys grandfather clock chimed midnight. Just as Harry was about to open the door and say good bye to Number 4 Privet Drive there was a flash of silver light. Harry had not noticed the light so he continued to go on his way. outside of the Dursley's house Harry walked to the edge of the sidewalk and pulled out his wand. He stuck it out and in a few seconds the Knight Bus arrived.

A young witch exited the bus. "Hello welcome to the Knight Bus. My name is Dreila Ivoneski and I will be your conductor for this evening. Its 10 Knuts to ride." she droned. Harry pulled out the money and got onto the bus as Dreila dragged his things onto the bus.

"Where will you be going this evening sir?" she asked

"The Leaky Cauldron" Harry replied.

"To the Leaky Cauldron Arnie" Dreila said to the driver. Twenty minutes later the bus stopped at the Leaky Cauldron. Harry dragged his things off the bus an into the pub.

"Hello Tom." Harry said to the owner.

"Ah, Mr.Potter. What brings you here?" Tom asked curiously.

"I need a room to stay in untill September 1st." Harry said. Tom nodded and looked over his books.

"Right, Room 432 is available for you. Here is the key." said Tom handing Harry a small black key.

Harry managed to get his things up to his room and unlocked the door. He pu his trunk into a corner and opened Hedwig's cage. Harry walked over to the bed and collapsed on to it. His last thought before he drifted off to sleep was that he was finally free.

The mext morning Harry woke up feeling totally refreshed. He stretched and went to take a shower. He got dressed and decided he was going to try and do something with his hair. When he looked into the mirror he got the shock of his life. His hair wasn't black anymore it was blonde and his chin seemed sharper and his jaw more prominent. Also his ears were developing a slight point to them. Harry panicked no one could see him like this.

Harry managed to sneak out of the inn unnoticed and was making his way to Fred and George's joke shop praying that they had some thing to change appearances. He enterd the shop and went up to the counter.

"Er, Fred or George which ever one you are I need your help." Harry said to Fred.

"Don't mean to be rude um, but who are you?" Fred asked.

"You're not going to believe this but I'm Harry Potter." Harry said.

Fred narrowed his eyes."Prove it" he said.

"Okay um in third year because I could'nt go to Hogsmade you and George gave me the Marauders Map which used to belong to my father and his three friends. Is that good enough for you?" Harry asked impaitently

"Well hi Harry. Why do you look like that?" Fred asked

" I don't know, but I was wondering if you had any thing that could change me back." Harry said

"Yeah I think we do come to the back with me and I'll check." Fred said. Harry followed him into the storeroom and waited for afew minutes to see if Fred could find anything.

"Ah here it is.This potion is guaranteed to reverse any appearance changing spell, hex, jinx, charm, or any other thing. So all you have to do is drink it." Fred explained handing Harry a vial of red potion. Harry uncorked it and swallowed it in one gulp.

"So have I changed back yet?" Harry asked eagerly.

"No sorry mated whatever changed you was not a spell, jinx, hex, charm, or anything else for that matter." Fred said. Harry sighed.

"I'm going to go back to the inn before anyone else sees me. Bye Fred." Harry said exiting the shop and sneaking back to his room at the inn. When he got back to his room Harry remembered the box that his Aunt had given to him before he left he picked up the box and sat at he desk that was in the room.

He opened the box and pulled out a oval shaped silver stone. Harry tapped it and it made a musical noise like it was hollow. Harry decided to leave it alone after that. He got up and was about to read Quidditch Through The Ages for the 50th time when he heared a cracking noise behind him he whiled around and saw that some thing was hatching out of the stone. Harry inched closer to it untill the whole stone flew apart. Harry's eyes widened in shock at what he saw. Right where the stone was moments before was a beautiful silver baby dragon.

(A/N:Read and Review Please :) )