Recurring nightmares aside, his summers were always hellish , harry mused as he tugged stubborn weeds out of his aunt's garden. Neither his nightmares nor the beating sun gave him much needed respite. The dursleys as usual went to extreme lengths to make his stay as miserable as possible. Only threat of his godfather kept their harsh behaviour under weak wraps.
Chores were chores. There was no other option. Merlin forbid , he dare to complain and his relatives will give him the usual insufferable fed you cloth you rant.
Sighing , he ignored the rustling noise that came from a bush on roadside. Probably the new watch dog , his mood soured.
His friends hadn't deigned to go beyond dumbing duck told this and that. Be careful, don't do anything rash , we can't tell you anything diatribe .He grinded his teeth in anger. Sirius wasn't any better. He wouldn't even waste energy on Remus . He was too much of yes man. An omega , he sneered .
The prophet was useless and a glorified gossip rag. Who was currently dragging his name through mud as he made an easy target as compared to old coot. But still he kept that rag. "Know thy Enemy " whichever it maybe, press,lord mouldy shorts or lemon sucker. He also kept an ear to TV ,desperate for some news.
It was easy enough , usually his relatives wouldn't dare to shatter the numbingly bore neighbourhood with any noise. But a generous client had gifted his uncle a new TV , the latest model for getting him out of trouble . The dursleys were overjoyed and as such were bragging by any means possible including but not limited to noise pollution. He wasn't allowed to touch it with two feet pole. It was even cleaned oh so lovingly by Aunt Petunia herself.
Scoffing, he went back to his chore. The previous year had been one of unravelings , one after other. First he had seen how readily ron was consumed by jealousy . It made him quite weary of ron in future. Even if he had apologised, if one could call that an apology .That kind of friendship just wasn't a reliable one.
Then hermione, even though she helped him through the tasks. He could see that she was torn between him and ron. He was well aware they fancied each other. And as such loathed to be the cause of separation. Personally he didn't think they would suit each other but to each their own.
Despite ron's apology after first task and malicious articles of skeeter, Mrs Weaseley's short Easter eggs to hermione , dumbledore inability to protect or even detect fake professor moody; who was supposed be a very good friend of his,the pathetic joke ministry turned out to be,cedric's death, voldemort's return and other factors, golden trio was stretched to their limit previous year.
Now with this letter fiasco , things were strained to say the least. He had started to send letters usually of 1 or 2 lines. It went like this.
Snuffles & friends,
Safe. Nothing happened. No dreams.
Harry
He shuddered in remembrance, dumbeldore had made him recount all dreams he had about mouldy shorts past summer and with a nifty bit of mind art , gathered the bits he had forgotten and analysed the memory. Which gave his friends,sirius and Lupin a new subject to harp about.
He had made several letters like this so every week he would send this via only opened sirius letters to read, the rest were fed to fireplace .
The bonus was that it freaked out dursleys to see him grinning manically as they watched all the letters burn to cinders. They still hadn't forgot his fit at beginning of first year when he made chimney choke out all the letters vernon burned in a whirlwind of chaos.
He heard ringing of telephone and aunt petunia's dulcet tone answering in her usual simpering behaviour, when not talking to him or his kind that is.
Looking up at the glaring sun, he bit back few choice words and proceeded to finish the weeding of garden as quickly as possible.
—
"The meeting of Order of Phoenix ends, is there anyone who wants to say something ? "Professor McGonagall droned out the routine while dumbledore looked upon benevolently.
"Yes it is about harry that poor boy, I doubt they are feeding him properly " Mrs Weasley fretted.
"I doubt potter suffers any discomfort , I am sure the golden boy is pampered well" Snape sneered.
"Oh shut up snivellous no one asked your opinion. I too am worried about harry Professor. He hasn't replied to any letters his friends and I have sent him . Only the Check-in letters And they always have the same reply. " He said quickly before snivellous could butt in.
"Oh dear! Are you sure he is okay headmaster?" Mrs Weasley inquired dismayed.
"Yes Molly , harry is a young teenage boy and so far he caused no trouble except rather stagnate replies but that is to be expected after dealing with such trauma last year. It is regretful but we can't help him there, he has to grieve molly. Everyone grieves in their own way." He acknowledged.
"Well if you are sure headmaster" She subsided.
"Oh I'm sure the mutt—
A warning growl ripped the tension.
"Severus" Dumbledore admonished calmly.
"Sirius calm down please" Remus pleaded.
"Honestly you two fight like children. Behave !" Mrs Weasley scolded.
"Ah! yes it would be better you listen to Molly and apologise to each other. I think it is time to forgive and move on from the past", he ignored two vicious, disbelieving looks directed at him from opposite corners of table, and popped another lemon drop he got from some god forsaken place.
"Now is there anything left it discuss. He glanced at the gathering of his peep .No, very meeting of order of Phoenix has ended. Please stick to your patrol times around the Mysterious parts of Ministry and Surrey. Thank you."
And the room cleared out.
—
"Shame Fred and George aren't here, we could used those extendable ears they invented " Ron marvelled.
"Where are they anyway?" Hermione inquired.
"Cooped up in their room,they found something new to experiment those ears with." Ginny supplied with a mischievous grin.
They heard shuffling as people hurried out to go home. They quickly went back to their rooms. Within few minutes they heard Mrs Weasley's unmistakable voice shouting"Ron, Hermoine , Ginny; it's dinner time come downstairs"
"About time ! " Ron rejoiced, clapping his hands excitedly.
"Honestly Ronald ,is food all you can think about!" She threw up her hands exasperated.
"Eh! what is wrong with you hermione , it is food" he declared and hurried downstairs.
She huffed while Ginny laughed "Come on , if we don't go there will nothing left for us. My pig of a brother , will gobble everything in the void he calls stomach" .
As they neared dinning table , Mrs Weasley called out " Ah! Ginny, dear please call your brothers for me . Those two -" she tuned out the rest of her rant and heard ginny answer with an affirmative " Yes mum ".
Mrs weasley turned her attention on her in the meanwhile "Eat up dear , you are stick thin lass " she mustered up a smile and helped herself to some garlic bread and chowder.
And ignored the erstwhile garbage bin seated near her. After 4 yrs , she and harry had acquired the skill to completely ignore the flying bits of food and other gross things. It had become a necessity, otherwise they would've died of starvation long ago. She had tried to get ron use some of his much neglected manners but as usual he ignored her and helped himself to 5th or 6th helping. It still irritated her. He was such a glutton.
Sighing ,she worried her lips between her teeth, eyebrows scrunched up and thought about harry. He hadn't replied to any of their letters. It was driving her mad with worry. The only consolation were letters harry sent to check-in. Though they were always same . But still everytime one can came in, she couldn't help but hope differently. Plus, she definitely wasn't in hedwig's good book right now. That owl was scarily smart. She only allowed sirius to touch her, and even then she seemed to glare at all of them.
" Mrs Weasley ?" She asked
"Yes dear" Mrs Weasley answered as she puttered around. Adding more meals to the table.
"Did Professor Dumbledore say anything about harry ?" She prompted.
Mrs Weasley looked flustered, then hesitantly said" He said to give him space, especially what with the horrible last year all of you had. Triwizard tournament , honestly what were they thinking !"
Hermione sighed depressed; both at the past events and professor dumbeldore's monotonous suggestions. She couldn't help but think this would end badly.
Meanwhile ron finally deigned looked up from his meal, "When are they gonna bring him here ?"
"I don't know , not for another month at least " His mother predicted.
"That sucks, poor harry stuck with muggles again !" He exclaimed.
"Language Ronald" his mother yelled from kitchen.
He scowled and helped himself to pot roast.
Dursley Dudley was suffering a bad bout of luck- Salad. They were spread everywhere and present every time ; breakfast,lunch,dinner and in fast food banged his bowl on dining table with a scowl and screamed "I WANT MEAT"
He looked at his father,the whiskers twitched with suppressed pride but he remained silent.
"I SAID I WANT MEAT" He looked at his mother this time with puppy lips thinned and still nothing happened. Pushed to the limit he screamed "MEATTTTTTT"
—-/SLAM/—
Dudley slammed a bowl on the eyes were so dark that green was impossible to find. His skin was was so pale that he could be the new white.
He snarled "Pot Roast Anyone" .
Freak forgotten , Dudley dursley with every pound of fat jumped on pot roast and ran.
With another Slam ,dudley dursley locked himself in room to eat undisturbed and Harry potter sought peace in garden.
And if he was cleaning blood and setting fire to feathers and papers who cares. And who cares that dudley didn't eat a pot roast but a magical sort of squab. Harry potter didn't .Dudley Dursley certainly didn't.
Hermione Granger was right it wouldn't end well ... for anyone.