The Downward Spiral, a harry potter fanfic

The long Spiral down.

Four Privet Drive had never been a happy place for Harry Potter. It wasn't as if he really had a choice in the matter of where he lived, and the only person he had to thank for that was one Tom Riddle. The fact that the Dursleys thought higher of the mildew on the bathroom wall than Harry didn't help either. These were just a few of the reasons that Harry always considered Hogwarts his home. His real first exposure to life, friends, and knowledge of his true past came from this magical place.

It had been a relatively quiet summer with only one minor incident involving an outburst with Dudley being "transported" to the middle of the Pamplona Festival in Spain. Dudley had made a statement earlier that summer about possibly going to see the running of the bulls, but this wasn't the side of the fence he had expected to be on. The "OH SHIT!" comment was one of Harry's happier moments and he was sure to place it in the back of his mind with others like "ferret-boy learns how to fly" and his first kiss from Hermione for quick recall if he needed to cast a patronus at some point

July was usually the worst month of the year for Harry, as he was still required to stick around for his "blood protection" to hold out over the rest of the year. Hedwig Had also been busy this summer with almost daily letters to either Ron, Hermione, or Dumbledore. More so with Hermione than the either of the others, but that's what happens when you're in love with your soul mate. It hadn't been until Christmas break of their 6th year before anything ever happened between them. Hermione had stayed at Hogwarts due to the fact that her parents had been called out of the country on an emergency call regarding her grandmother Aimee and her failing health. Had it not been such short notice Hermione would have gone with them. Ron and the rest of the Weasleys had decided to meet up with Bill and Charlie in Romania for that Christmas Season.

As usual Ron had decided to get some nasty smelling perfume for Hermione, and Harry had set out not to make the same mistake. Harry had actually been putting some thought into his gift's that year and Ron had received a nice leather wand holster that could be attached to various locations on the body with a simple "sticky" charm. Ron had a nasty habit of leaving his wand in the weirdest places and then not remembering where he put it. Hermione on the other hand, received a variety of things like the lifetime membership to royal historical society of England, a lovely new Firebolt, (Harry had since given up on getting her to fly but at least she still had a broom of her own now) and instead of the typical book, Harry had decided to have some fun with and let Hermione have free run of Florish and Blotts for a day. This way he knew Hermione would get the books she wanted.

One of the very few good things that came out of Sirius's death in the Ministry of Magic was the removal of the restriction of underage wizardry. It hadn't been removed altogether but it was lowered to more appreciated age of 15 instead of 17. Apparition Licenses had been made available with-in the same age restrictions provided that the witch or wizard could pass the Apparition test. Now this had lead to a few more splinch's with the over confident young ones but in the end it had saved the lives of more than a few when Tom had decided to try and attack some older students over the summer break.

Harry could hear the steps creaking on the stairs and he knew that soon enough there would be a "boy this" and "for all we do for you" and the ever present and favorite "what's the little freak up to now?" And as much as he had wanted to be nice about things he was seriously looking forward to the end of this month. Come July 31st he had a nice plan of action in his mind for Dudley and the rest of the Dursleys. It wasn't the typical plan that involved tossing Dudley around like a rag doll as much as that would have pleased Harry after 17 years of the "punching bag" treatment. Most of what he planned to do were just simple glamour charms that only the Dursleys could see. A few of the more persistent charms would wear off around Christmas and then randomly reactivate themselves through out the years.

His absolute favorite portion of his plan was the transformation of the art piece above the fireplace. Originally it was just a simple stream in the woods with a couple sitting underneath a tree on the right had side having a picnic. Now the only thing that he was going to change was the fact that the couple having the picnic were about to get to know each other on a whole new level in various positions and locations around the painting. He had practiced on a painting at school in his 6th year and he had been surprised at how far the "librio temptus" charm had let the Fat Lady and Sir Cadogen progress in their relationship. The Gryffindor head of house had quite the amused look on her face when she got the report, from a first year none the less, that the paintings were doing "naughty things" in front of all the students waiting to get back to their common room. Harry had thought about casting the charm on the Slytherin dungeons entrance but the idea of a Dragon lady and a troll doing the horizontal polka just gave him the shakes. Another of his idea's included animating the lawn gnomes to do the can-can and then flash/moon who ever happened to be looking at them at the time.

Harry was certainly looking forward to the 31st for more than just his liberation from the Dursleys and his ability to cast magic freely. The most important thing on his mind was the fact that he would be able to see Hermione in less than a week. Rarely did this passionate couple go for more than a few days with out snogging each others brains out. It could quite frequently be heard that they should "get a room" when these activities ensued and usually they did, usually more for the private space than for shagging. Harry had a feeling that there would be a room and a bit of snogging if not shagging within the first couple of hours of seeing Hermione in the following days. Harry was certainly looking forward to his Birthday.