Harry had wandered through the neighborhood for hours now, after that fiasco lying under the window of the Dursley's front room. He knew he would be in trouble when he went home, but well, he just felt so frustrated. Keep your nose clean, that's what Sirius kept telling him. But how he could keep it cleaner he didn't know. He hadn't done anything since he had left school. Including, unfortunately, his homework. That was what happened when all his school things were locked in the cupboard under the stairs.
Harry was heading home however, after seeing Dudley headed that way. He wasn't sure if his uncle would follow through with his threat to lock him in the shed if Dudley got home before he did again, but he wasn't quite willing to risk it. He saw Dudley's gang up ahead but they all left, before he lost all his good sense and provoked them to fight him. To use magic to give those boys, who once gave him hell, a little of their own medicine.
"Hey, Big D!" Harry called out, hurrying to catch up to his cousin.
Dudley turned."Oh," he grunted. "It's you."
"How long have you been 'Big D' then?" said Harry.
"Shut it," snarled Dudley, turning away again.
"Cool name," said Harry, grinning and falling into step beside hiscousin. "But you'll always be Ickle Diddykins to me."
"I said, SHUT IT!" said Dudley, whose ham-like hands had curled into fists.
"Don't the boys know that's what your mum calls you?"
"Shut your face."
"You don't tell her to shut her face. What about 'popkin' and 'Dinky Diddydums,' can I use them then?"
Dudley said nothing. The effort of keeping himself from hitting Harry seemed to be demanding all his self-control.
"So who've you been beating up tonight?" Harry asked, his grin fading. "Another ten-year-old? I know you did Mark Evans two nights ago —"
"He was asking for it," snarled Dudley.
"Oh yeah?"
"He cheeked me."
"Yeah? Did he say you look like a pig that's been taught to walk on its hind legs? 'Cause that's not cheek, Dud, that's true . . ."
A muscle was twitching in Dudley's jaw. It gave Harry enormous satisfaction to know how furious he was making Dudley; he felt as though he was siphoning off his own frustration into his cousin, the only outlet he had.
They turned right down the narrow alleyway where Harry had first seen Sirius and which formed a shortcut between Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk. It was empty and much darker than the streets it linked because there were no street lamps. Their footsteps were muffled between garage walls on one side and a high fence on the other.
"Think you're a big man carrying that thing, don't you?" Dudley said after a few seconds.
"What thing?"
"That — that thing you're hiding."
Harry grinned again."Not as stupid as you look, are you, Dud? But I s'pose if you were, you wouldn't be able to walk and talk at the same time. . . ." Harry pulled out his wand. He saw Dudley look sideways at it.
"You're not allowed," Dudley said at once. "I know you're 'd get expelled from that freak school you go to."
"How d'you know they haven't changed the rules, Big D?"
"They haven't," said Dudley, though he didn't sound completelyconvinced. Harry laughed softly.
"You haven't got the guts to take me on without that thing, haveyou?" Dudley snarled.
"Whereas you just need four mates behind you before you can beat up a ten-year-old. You know that boxing title you keep banging on about? How old was your opponent? Seven? Eight?"
"He was sixteen for your information," snarled Dudley, "and he wasout cold for twenty minutes after I'd finished with him and he wastwice as heavy as you. You just wait till I tell Dad you had that thingout —"
"Running to Daddy now, are you? Is his ickle boxing champ frightened of nasty Harry's wand?"
"Not this brave at night, are you?" sneered Dudley.
"This is night, Diddykins. That's what we call it when it goes alldark like this."
"I mean when you're in bed!" Dudley had stopped walking. Harry stopped too, staring at his the little he could see of Dudley's large face, he was wearing astrangely triumphant look.
"What d'you mean, I'm not brave in bed?" said Harry, completely nonplussed. "What — am I supposed to be frightened of pillows orsomething?"
"I heard you last night," said Dudley breathlessly. "Talking in your sleep. Moaning."
"What d'you mean?" Harry said again, but there was a cold, plunging sensation in his stomach. He had revisited the graveyard last night in his dreams.
Dudley gave a harsh bark of laughter then adopted a high-pitched, whimpering voice. "'Don't kill Cedric! Don't kill Cedric!' Who's Cedric — your boyfriend?"
"I — you're lying —" said Harry automatically. But his mouth hadgone dry. He knew Dudley wasn't lying — how else would he knowabout Cedric?
"'Dad! Help me, Dad! He's going to kill me, Dad! Boo-hoo!'"
"Shut up," said Harry quietly. "Shut up, Dudley, I'm warning you!"
"'Come and help me, Dad! Mum, come and help me! He's killedCedric! Dad, help me! He's going to —' Don't you point that thing at me!"Dudley backed into the alley wall. Harry was pointing the wand directly at Dudley's heart. Harry could feel fourteen years' hatred ofDudley pounding in his veins — what wouldn't he give to strike now, to jinx Dudley so thoroughly he'd have to crawl home like an insect, struck dumb, sprouting feelers —
"Don't ever talk about that again," Harry snarled. "D'you understand me?"
"Point that thing somewhere else!"
"I said, do you understand me?"
"Point it somewhere else!"
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?""GET THAT THING AWAY FROM —"Dudley gave an odd, shuddering gasp, as though he had beendoused in icy water.
Something had happened to the night. The star-strewn indigo skywas suddenly pitch-black and lightless — the stars, the moon, themisty streetlamps at either end of the alley had vanished. The distantgrumble of cars and the whisper of trees had gone. The balmy eveningwas suddenly piercingly, bitingly cold. They were surrounded bytotal, impenetrable, silent darkness, as though some giant hand haddropped a thick, icy mantle over the entire alleyway, blinding a split second Harry thought he had done magic withoutmeaning to, despite the fact that he'd been resisting as hard as hecould — then his reason caught up with his senses — he didn't havethe power to turn off the stars. He turned his head this way and that,trying to see something, but the darkness pressed on his eyes like aweightless veil.
Dudley's terrified voice broke in Harry's ear."W-what are you d-doing? St-stop it!"
"I'm not doing anything! Shut up and don't move!"
"I c-can't see! I've g-gone blind! I —"
"I said shut up!"Harry stood stock-still, turning his sightless eyes left and right. The cold was so intense that he was shivering all over; goose bumps had erupted up his arms, and the hairs on the back of his neck were standing up — he opened his eyes to their fullest extent, staring blankly around, unseeing . . .It was impossible. . . . They couldn't be here. . . . Not in Little Whinging . . . He strained his ears. . . . He would hear them before he saw them. . . .
"I'll t-tell Dad!" Dudley whimpered. "W-where are you? What areyou d-do — ?"
"Will you shut up?" Harry hissed, "I'm trying to lis —"But he fell silent. He had heard just the thing he had been dreading. There was something in the alleyway apart from themselves, something that was drawing long, hoarse, rattling breaths. Harry felt a horrible jolt of dread as he stood trembling in the freezing air.
"C-cut it out! Stop doing it! I'll h-hit you, I swear I will!"
"Dudley, shut —"
WHAM!A fist made contact with the side of Harry's head, lifting Harry off his feet. Small white lights popped in front of Harry's eyes; for the second time in an hour he felt as though his head had been cleaved in two; next moment he had landed hard on the ground, and his wand had flown out of his hand.
"You moron, Dudley!" Harry yelled, his eyes watering with pain, as he scrambled to his hands and knees, now feeling around frantically in the blackness. He heard Dudley blundering away, hitting the alley fence, stumbling.
"DUDLEY, COME BACK! YOU'RE RUNNING RIGHT ATIT!"There was a horrible squealing yell, and Dudley's footsteps the same moment, Harry felt a creeping chill behind him that could mean only one thing. There was more than one.
"DUDLEY, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! WHATEVER YOU DO, KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT! Wand!" Harry muttered frantically, his hands flying over the ground like spiders. "Where's —wand — come on — Lumos!" He said the spell automatically, desperate for light to help him in his search, but as he expected nothing happened.
"Lumos," he cried again, this time fainter, he could hear soft screams in his mind, his mothers screams.
"Expecto Patronum, expecto patronum," he rasped out desperately, but of course that did no more than the Lumos had. The screams were louder now, Not Harry, please not Harry. Harry continued to feel at the ground, desperate for his wand. He heard a rattling breath, and knew that he had moments, heartbeats, before he and Dudley lost their souls.
And then pain struck. It wasn't anything like the cold desperation he had been feeling a moment before. It was fire roaring through his veins. It almost felt like the cruciartus, but there was something cleaner about it, there was no hatred. Harry screamed, his voice ringing through the alley.
As the pain wracked his body he felt something different. A loosening of the barrier between his body and his magic. He could feel his core in a way he never had before. Reaching blindly Harry grabbed that power and with the last of his voice screamed "Expecto Patronum."
This time Harry knew it would work. Even as his mind began to shut down from the pain and exhaustion that came from draining his magic he saw Prongs take shape. The great stag erupted from Harry's chest and charged the Dementors. In his fading view though Harry saw something odd. Instead of Prongs being entirely made of the silver substance he had seen so many times in his third year, it looked as if the beast was wreathed in fire and shadows. Whatever the reason, the patronus drove the dementors off.
Harry watched them flee in satisfaction, even as his head hit the pavement and his vision went black.
So, you can probably tell, if you are as great a fan of the books as I am, that I used quite a bit of material from the actual book in this chapter. Everything from "Hey big D" to "Lumos" is straight from the books. I won't do this often, and when I do I will always give credit where it is due. In this instance I knew it would be best to just show where my fanfic departs from the cannon, and to give the background. Plus J.K. Rowling's writing is amazing.
So, there is chapter one, Harry goes through his inheritance, but doesn't know anything about it, plus he did a number on his magical core. Dudley got much more hurt than in cannon, Harry's passed out, and the Ministry is still out for his blood.