CHAPTER 1 - ESCAPING THE MEMORY

Harry lay on his hard mattress staring at the ceiling, trying not to think too much about anything in particular, especially not what had happened in the past few days.

His eyes wandered slowly over to Hedwig's empty cage; she was out hunting again, but Harry hoped she would return before nightfall. He could do with some company.

The first day back at the Dursleys had been uneventful. Harry's trunk lay on the floor, having been dumped as soon as he got up to his room. He had been lying on his bed for a few hours now, and his relatives hadn't disturbed him.

'Huh, some relatives' Harry thought to himself, 'They don't care about me at all, not like...'

He stopped abruptly as his mind brushed against the one topic he had been trying to avoid all day.

Harry sat up and shook his head slightly, trying to get rid of the painful memories that surfaced every time he now thought of his godfather.

"It's no use Harry...he's gone."

Lupin's words still echoed in his head, even though it had only been two days since...it...had happened. Everything had gone so slowly for Harry since then. It was almost like a dream...in fact he wished it had been a dream.

After Harry had smashed a great deal of Dumbledore's possessions and stormed out of his office, he had gone straight to the Room of Requirement, where he stayed until he had heard Hermione, Ron and Ginny outside the room looking for him.

After a few minutes of Hermione and Ron arguing, the three had left, making Harry feel a little guilty for not talking to them. Soon after, he had fallen asleep and hadn't woken up until morning, by which time Dumbledore had arranged for him to take a portkey to the Dursleys a few days before the end of term.

In a way, Harry was glad that he hadn't had to face the long journey home on the Hogwarts Express. He had simply taken hold of a small yellow paperweight and avoided the worried glances and muffled whispers that always surrounded him.

In truth, Harry hadn't thought about the Prophecy that much. He had always known he would be involved in Voldemort's downfall one way or another. But for now, he had thrown it to the back of his mind, preferring to deal with it later. He had no idea when 'later' would be.

But now he was in Little Whinging with absolutely nothing to do for...he didn't know how long he would be stuck there. And the Dursleys weren't exactly ecstatic when he had turned up at Number 4, Privet Drive earlier than they had expected.

Night was falling fast and Hedwig still hadn't come back from hunting. Harry sighed and lay back down on his bed, still in the clothes he had arrived in, not bothering to change.

'I may as well try to get some rest' thought Harry, and he drifted off to sleep.

Harry was running. Faster than he'd ever run in his life. Where was he going? There was just a seemingly endless tunnel stretched out ahead of him. He stopped abruptly, hearing a noise behind him.

Harry turned around and saw, standing in front of him, Sirius Black. Harry's face lit up with joy.

"Sirius!" he cried, stepping towards him, but Sirius pulled out his wand and Harry was thrown back against a wall that had appeared out of nowhere. Harry cried out in physical and emotional pain as he hit the wall, staring at his godfather in disbelief.

"Sirius?" he whispered.

"You killed me Harry."

Harry shook his head as Sirius advanced upon him, his wand pointing at Harry's chest.

"It was your fault I died. It was all your fault. I will have my revenge..."

Sirius started to laugh and suddenly, Lord Voldemort was standing in front of Harry, still laughing.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Green light exploded in Harry's vision, and he cried out again, putting his hands up in front of his face.

Memories suddenly clouded his vision; Sirius laughing whilst duelling Bellatrix, getting hit with a jet of red light, falling through the veil with a surprised expression etched onto his face...

Harry felt a pressure squeeze down on him. He couldn't breathe. He tried to cry out again, tears streaming down his face. The pressure increased.

"Boy!"

Harry jerked his eyes open. Vernon Dursley stood directly above him looking like he was going to burst with rage, with one of his fat hands clamped down on Harry's throat.

Harry struggled to get his uncle's hand off from around his neck, but Vernon was stronger.

"Boy!" he whispered menacingly, "What the devil do you think you're doing!? Waking up the whole house and half the neighbourhood...if I hear so much as a sound from this room again, you'll wish you'd never been born!"

Harry nodded, still struggling to get any air to his lungs. Uncle Vernon released his hand and waddled out of the room, locking the door behind him. Harry sat up, holding his throat and taking deep gulps of air.

He was covered in sweat and tears still dripped down onto the bedsheets. He grabbed a dirty shirt lying on the floor and wiped his face with it, trying to get his emotions under control and massaging his bruised neck.

Harry sat shakily on the edge of his bed, still clutching the shirt in one hand. He looked over to Hedwig's cage. Still empty. Wondering what could be taking her so long, Harry got up and sat in the hard wooden chair in front of his desk, dropping the t-shirt back on the floor.

Several pieces of parchment lay on his desk; Harry had taken them out of his trunk when he had arrived at the Dursleys. Most of it was homework. Harry had spent a few hours attempting to answer the Charms homework Professor Flitwick had assigned.

Anything to take his mind off Sirius.

Harry turned over the parchment and continued to answer the question; "When casting a 'Wingardium Leviosa' levitating charm, why are the wand movements significant in helping to achieve the desired outcome of the spell?"

For the remainder of the night, Harry tried to finish the 2-foot-long essay, but found his mind was slow due to lack of sleep. Eventually, as the sun rose at about 6am, he gave up and sat back in his chair to look out the window.

The sky was a light blue, streaked with deep autumnal colours; red, yellow and orange all emanated from the sun as it slowly rose up to meet the new day. A small breeze ran through the neat rows of trees that lined Privet Drive, and the birdsong was sharp but quiet as the inhabitants of the street slept soundly in their beds, oblivious to the beauty of the dawn.

Harry sighed and looked down at the parchment.

'No way am I going to finish that today' he thought. Harry shuffled all of his homework together and placed it in his open trunk by the door, carefully closing it to avoid looking at the mess inside.

At 8 o' clock, Harry went downstairs to make the Dursley's breakfast, ignoring the glare that Uncle Vernon gave him. After eating his own breakfast (one piece of plain toast and a glass of water), Harry returned to his room, where he saw Hedwig perched outside his window.

He couldn't help but grin as he opened it for her, and she gracefully flew into his room and perched on top of the wardrobe briefly, before gliding down to stand on the bed.

Harry went over to her and noticed two letters attached to her left leg.

"Not hunting then were you girl?"

Hedwig gave a small hoot and nipped Harry's finger affectionately.

After Harry had untied the letters, Hedwig flew to her cage and pecked at the owl treats on the bottom. Harry held the letters in his hands uncertainly.

He recognised one of them as Hermione's neat handwriting, and another with Ron's untidy scrawl. Harry took and deep breath and, shrugging to himself, opened Ron's letter and started to read;

Hey Harry,

Hedwig came to The Burrow last night, so we thought we'd write to you to see how you were doing.

The girls went mental when they couldn't find you after we got back. Dumbledore told us the next morning that you'd gone to the Dursleys early. Oh, and Hermione's got some homework for you, so don't remind her about it!

Sorry mate, but we don't know how long it will be until you can come to The Burrow. We haven't had a chance to ask Dumbledore, but we're all hoping you won't be stuck with the muggles for too long.

If you've opened my letter first, be prepared for a long one from Hermione! Anyway, I hope you write back soon.

Ron

Harry felt another twinge of guilt at not saying goodbye to his friends before he left. He was grateful to Ron for not mentioning what had happened at the Ministry, though Hermione would probably bring it up in her 'long letter'.

Harry sighed again.

'I may as well get it over with.'

He opened the second letter.

Dear Harry,

I hope you are coping alright at your relatives' house. We all spent ages looking for you after we got back from the Ministry of Magic! Ginny said you were probably in the Room of Requirement, but it wouldn't open for us, so we gave up looking.

Dumbledore told us at breakfast the next morning that you'd gone early. I've got the Muggle Studies homework we missed a few days ago, so I hope I will remember to give it to you when you come to The Burrow.

The train journey was pretty boring to be honest. Ginny and Ron played chess most of the time and I read the last few chapters of 'Hogwarts; A History' (again!).

I really hope that you can come to The Burrow soon. I'm staying here all summer, as my parents are in Turkey for a few weeks. Nothing much is happening, except Mrs Weasley keeps giving us chores, which isn't too bad actually, as there's not much else to do...but Ron is driving me crazy!

The only thing he can talk about is Quidditch or asking if I want to play chess, and I'm trying to make him do his homework and start studying, but he just won't listen! I bet he leaves it until the last day of the holidays, as usual (I hope you've at least started some of your summer work). Never mind, he's just got nothing to do because you're not here.

There was an Order meeting last night, but (what a surprise) none of us were allowed to attend, and as Fred and George have sold out of Extendable Ears, as well as Mrs Weasley confiscating the ones she had found hidden around the house, there weren't any left to eavesdrop with.

Harry, we're all really sorry about Sirius. I know you must be feeling incredibly sad and upset about what happened. Please don't blame yourself though; it wasn't your fault. I'm sure Sirius wouldn't have wanted you to feel guilty about it. You know you can talk to me about it anytime you want.

Anyway, we can't wait to see you. We didn't get a chance to ask Dumbledore how you were feeling, so I really hope you write back soon.

Love Hermione

Harry slowly put the letter down, feeling anger building inside him.

'She has no idea...how would she know what Sirius would want?'

Harry stood up abruptly and started pacing across the small room, his anger slowly dissipating. He sat down on the bed again and sighed.

'Hermione was only trying to make me feel better' he thought.

Harry moved across the room and sat down at the old wobbly desk, looking at the countless pieces of parchment littering the surface. He finally managed to find a blank piece after a few minutes of searching. Harry picked up a spare quill lying on his desk and wrote;

To Ron and Hermione,

Harry paused, unsure of what to say. He continued after a few moments thought.

To Ron and Hermione,

I'm fine. I haven't been doing much and the Dursleys are ignoring me which is good.

Sorry about leaving so quickly, Dumbledore arranged a portkey for me. Hopefully, I won't be here for much longer.

Hope to see you guys soon.

Harry

Hedwig flew over to him as he finished writing, and Harry tied the letter to her leg and watched her fly out the window over the neat rows of houses in the direction of The Burrow.

It was now only 9 o' clock, and Harry had the whole day to kill.