Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns all but the plot.

- - - SECOND - - -

It was a hot day on privet drive, but the residents of number four weren't there to enjoy it. The Dursleys had taken their son Dudley on a vacation to France. Not only had they taken him, but Harry as well. Harry Potter, now 16 could accurately recall Uncle Vernon's words. "Petunia, we must take Harry. I do not trust him around our house alone. He would invite some of his loony… school friends here and demolish the place. I will not have it.

"But Vernon dead, you-"

"Oh yes yes I know he would spoil it for us, that's why I've gone and bought a nice big animal cage to lock him up in during they day at the hotel. So there would be no… funny business.

The last thing Harry wanted was to be locked up in a cage like a dog, but in all honesty he thought it would be much more fun than walking around with a complaining Dudley all day. The last time he did that, he ended up setting a snake on his cousin. 'The snake probably thought Dudley resembled a nice, juicy pork sandwich. Or, at least I hope it did…' though Harry, now grinning.

"What are you grinning about?" spat his huge cousin from the right side of the car.

"Oh nothing, just thinking about how nice a warm apple pie with whipped cream on top would be right about now." Harry turned to look out the window, but caught a glimpse of Dudley place his head in his hands and sigh deeply.

"Mmmm, and a warm glass of tea with lots of sugar." He added, just to amuse himself.

"SHUT UP!" Hollered Dudley, clenching his fat fists. "Do you want me to lay one on you?"

"I don't think you'd have the guts to… Big D." Harry retorted.

"ARE YOU ASKING FOR TROUBLE BOY?" roared Uncle Vernon.

"No, would you like me to give you some?"

"BE QUITE AND STOP PESTERING YOUR COUSIN. HE'S A BLOODY GENTLEMAN SPORT TO LET US TAKE YOU ALONG."

For most of the two days drive to France, Harry stared out the window, into the now gray sky. It was raining slightly, and Uncle Vernon had kindly given Harry the seat of the car with the leaky window. 'Why he hasn't gotten this fixed is a mystery,' Harry thought. He suspected it had something to do with the amount of money Uncle Vernon had spent on the rare bohemian tulips he ordered for their home garden. Staring into the rain at the snow capped mountains far away, a jogger passed their car, with a great black dog on a blue leash. Immediately, Harry though of his godfather, Sirius. 'What if…' his mind began racing. 'What if Sirius hadn't chosen to be a ghost, but he had come back as a dog?' or, 'What if he hadn't died at all?' What if that dog had been Sirius? After all, it had looked back… 'no.' Harry thought. 'Stop it… now you're just being stupid. What's done is done.' But he couldn't get the though of the dog out of his mind.

Soon Harry fell asleep, bored by the rainy drive and not wishing to stare out the window any longer. All through his dreams a great black dog ran happy and free around someone's front lawn barking happily and biting at butterflies. A young wizard opened the porch door, and must have called for it, because the dog went bounding in the house. Later again it came out, and transformed. But when it transformed, it was a dirty man with shoulder length hair. Harry's heart skipped a beat and the dream sped up. The man turned, but he had no face. It was like a blank template, no features, no smile, no nothing. It could have been Sirius, but probably wasn't. Harry moved to the man in his dream and tried to shake his hand, but the man kept backing away as though he didn't want to be touched or spoken to. A sudden sadness swept over Harry, who was awoken by a forceful bump.

'RUDDY RAIN, AS IF THIS ISN'T ENOUGH TO RUIN OUR VACATION!" shouted Uncle Vernon. Harry saw that the front of his uncle's car had hit a fallen tree branch. He cautiously opened the door and got out and moved to the front of the car just as everyone else had done.

"I called the tow truck, and they'll be here soon to fix this bloody piece of metal. We can't move on with this ruddy bang, and a flat tire." Harry looked over the left side of the car and saw one of the tires had gone flat. A nail was poking halfway into it.

"Petunia, would you go over to that restaurant and see if they've got any more tables? I'm starving..." Uncle Vernon said kindly to his wife.

"But Vernon, look at the li-" She was about to protest on behalf of what looked like a 20 person line, but uncle Vernon cut her off.

"JUST DO IT!" he barked suddenly, seeming to forget that this was his wife. Aunt Petunia scurried away from her side of the car and down the sidewalk of a French cuisine restaurant. Dudley started humming.

"What's that song you're singing Dudders? Britain Rain? Come now…" uncle Vernon started something that apparently was his idea of singing; loud, very off tune and chant like. Harry snorted.

"WHAT WAS THAT RUDE COMMENT JUST MADE BOY? ARE YOU INSULTING YOUR COUSIN'S VOICE?"

"No. I'm insulting yours." Harry said calmly.

"AND YOU HAVE THE COURAGE TO SPEAK OF IT! NO MORE DISRESPECT BOY, I WILL NOT HAVE IT. I DON'T CARE IF YOUR… YOUR KIND COME AFTER ME FOR IT, BUT IF YOU CONTINUE GIVING ME AND MY FAMILY PROBLEMS I WILL CHUCK YOU OUT OF MY HOUSEHOLD BEFORE YOU CAN SAY KIPPER, LIKE THE BLOODY ORPHAN YOU ARE." And with that, uncle Vernon slammed his fist into the side of the car so hard it dented.

"THAT'S IT; I'M GETTING RID OF THIS BLOODY JUNKYARD MESS! EVERYBODY INSIDE THE RESTAURANT!" Uncle Vernon moved away the car and slammed the door so hard the window cracked, and rain started seeping in.

"AAAAARGGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!!!" He howled, and ran across the sidewalk where aunt petunia was the last in what was a twenty person line. Harry tried hard not to let uncle Vernon's comment get to him. It had already echoed in his head about a hundred times in one minute. 'Like the bloody orphan you are…' 'Like the bloody orphan you are…' 'Like the bloody orphan you are…' 'Yeah, that's right. Like the bloody orphan I am.' Harry thought bitterly.

Uncle Vernon was now storming up to the front door of the restaurant, shoved the greeter away from it, and yanked it open. Harry had the sudden urge to run up the greeter and apologize a million times.

"Now look what you've done!" Dudley was whimpering to Harry, his eye's brimmed with tears. "This was supposed to be my birthday vacation!" Though Dudley had aged as Harry, he obviously hadn't grown up the least bit. Not looking where he was going, Dudley tripped on a loose stone from the walkway and fell flat on his face, into the cold and wet. Harry liked this sidewalk, it was very fancy anyway.

"Now look what you've done." Harry said, highly annoyed, stepping over his large cousin. He entered the restaurant and found a cushy bench, where he sat back and prepared to sit through an hours wait.

- - -

Author's note; I couldn't help but feeling a little, tiny, bit bad for Dudley. I'm having a beta read through this now, so the updated version should be up soon. As always, if you have any questions, comments, ( flames are welcome to) please write a review :]