Just briefly, I'm re-writing the early chapters of Wings at the moment, so there is a steep change in quality but it won't be there forever... I'm working on it =)
As always, I would love to hear your thoughts on Wings.
There is nothing in particular that sets apart any of the houses in Little Whinging. Each medium sized house is diligently looked after and each garden is a well-maintained area different from its neighbours only because of the colour or the roses or the extra plant pot.
The residents of Little Whinging all take pride in the knowledge that nothing ever really happens there. If it weren't for the gossip, which is mainly obtained and circulated by Mrs Petunia Dursley most residents would be bored stiff. Because of this reliance on a good story, the residents never let a particularly juicy rumour be halted by or made any less interesting by such meaningless details as the facts of a situation. They've found that the stories are much better that way. And really, when the 'next most interesting' thing to happen was a neighbour buying their fourth ornamental garden gnome, nobody cares much if the rumours are true.
Perhaps the best example of this kind of thinking can be seen in Petunia Dursley's favourite work. Petunia takes particular joy in informing all of her friends of what a truly evil creature her nephew Harry Potter has become. Indeed all of Petunia's friends have added their own tales of Potter-related woe to the story and it has become something of a local legend. (Second only to the up-to-date list of the several lovers that Mrs Johnson at number 42 manages to get away with having, without her husband's knowledge.)
Behind the story, all of these same women rather liked Harry Potter, he was nothing less than polite whenever they saw him. In private, they often expressed good-natured enquiries as to the boy's health when he was home from 'St Brutus's' the school which was more realistically believed to be St Helen's. St Helen's being the boarding school which was located in the neighbouring town and so the most likely place the boy would be.
It may therefore be quite a shock for the entire community to discover that at this moment Petunias nephew was currently on holiday from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Of course, if they ever did find this out, Petunia would have failed in her work and she took far too much care for that to happen.
At this particular moment in time, Harry Potter was sitting on his bed reading a book entitled "The Most Complex and Delicate Potions You Are EVER Likely To Brew" and finishing off the last of his summer homework after only three week of summer has passed.
As Harry finished his essay, he looked over at the clock to see that it was already two in the morning.
"I better get some sleep" he thought to himself. His eyes fell on the leather bound photo album given to him by Hagrid, and against his will, his mind drifted to Sirius. Before he could control the train of thought, he remembered their last moments together and the almost-graceful ark his godfather's body had made as he had fallen beyond the veil.
Harry wasn't sure how long he sat there; trapped by the image. When he came back to reality his eyes were filled with tears. The trouble was that every thought of Sirius became the thought of how if only he had been faster he could have saved his godfather's life. He hadn't meant to be so emotional, he imagined Ron's half embarrassed attempt at cheering him up. He imagined how Remus wouldn't want him to dwell on this. He thought of how Dumbledore had faith that Harry could come through this. He would not let the tears fall, he imagined... he imagined that Sirius wouldn't want that and he found that if he thought of Sirius for long enough he could convince himself that Sirius might want Harry to forget the night he died and focus on better times for them. It was a lot easier thinking it than actually doing it.
There was a lot about Sirius's sudden death that Harry was still struggling to come to terms with. There was an overwhelming sense of loss, but deeper than that, there was some small comfort; at least Sirius was with his parents. Even then Harry still fought the endless loop of his thoughts: Sirius – Sirius falling – Should have been faster – Sirius – Sirius falling ... on and on it went.
He almost missed the moment when, Hedwig flew in through the open window and dropped another letter from Ron and Hermione onto his lap. It seemed that Hermione and Ron were so worried about Harry that they thought they had to write to him each day to keep him from running after Voldemort or giving in to his sadness over Sirius.
... I swear to you Harry Potter that if you don't reply to this letter I shall turn up on your doorstep and start explaining Hogwarts to every one of your relatives...
Hermione. Harry thought fondly. He looked over to the pile of letters from his friends and frowned at them.
...Seriously, mate, how are you? Moony's been here for a few nights and he seems to be holding on... not by much, but... Tonks is helping. Did you hear about that yet? Seems things are going well in his love life even if... if...
I'm really sorry Harry.
Harry smiled at the letter, his smile was a pale imitation of all that it should be, but he tried. That, for him, was progress. He tried to smile at Ron's kindness and easy sincerity.
"That's a good point" Harry mused at he looked to his owl, "When was the last time I wrote back?"
It took a few minutes for him to find paper – something from a writing kit Dudley hadn't bothered with – and even longer to find a pen which worked. It took so long to find that Harry realised he hadn't written back to them; not once since summer had started.
For a moment he had no clue what to write, then he sighed and started to write the first thing that came to mind. After three weeks, he hoped any reply would be better than none at all.
Dear Ron and Hermione,
I don't know if you're both at The Burrow so I'll write this letter twice just in case you aren't in the same place. I'm...okay. I think. Well... I'm better than before. I didn't realise that I hadn't replied...
After that small breakthrough for Harry, his letters from Ron and Hermione came on a daily basis without fail. He made sure that he replied to every single one, even when all three of them had run out of anything to say. He spent most of a week playing hangman by post with Ron before they moved on to 'I spy' which is a lot harder when the players aren't in the same room.
In a lot of ways, Harry was given more freedom this summer: the Dursley's were now completely ignoring him. It was actually a relief for Harry, he waited for them to fall asleep and had free range of the house, though admittedly he tended to stay in his room. They ignored him faithfully as he helped himself to food and only the grinding of his uncle's teeth gave away their displeasure.
Harry opened the envelope a few days before his birthday, and he saw that there were three letters instead of the normal two. "Odd" he spoke aloud, "Who else would want to talk to me?"
As he read through the letter, he recognised the humour and caring words as Ginny's work. He smiled to himself as he read; only Ginny could think the necessity of class discriminated against the uninformed. A the days passed and the letters from Ginny were replied to along with the others, Harry and Ginny ran out of polite conversation and found themselves becoming closer friends. Ginny could make Harry laugh, and that was all it had taken for him to open up to her a little. Not so much as with Ron and Hermione, but... telling her some of what he was thinking made him feel better. It seemed right, somehow.
It was strange to Harry that she'd managed to fit into his life like that, but from the sound of the consistently delivered letters from both Ron and Hermione, Ginny had somehow fully become a part of their conversations that summer. He had to admit that he was happy about it. Harry would always rely on Ron and Hermione but it was nice to be able to imagine increasing the Golden Trio into a quartet; something about the thought seemed to balance.
On Harry's birthday, he received sweets from Hermione and a book on how to perform the wronski feint without a side effect of death "thought it might come in useful" was Ron's note. Harry was slightly disappointed to receive a note from Ginny saying that she wouldn't be able to send his gift, but that she'd give Harry his present on the train and she wondered if Harry should give her hers on the train too.
It was at that moment that he wrote a particularly hasty letter to Ron asking for Floo Powder and then wrote a fast note to Mrs Figg who he suspected would have the closest Floo connection.