Chapter 2

(A/N) "Thank you" to the 140 plus readers who have visited and read my story's first chapter on fanfiction.

I had a bit of trouble and am now just uploading the second chapter. Sorry to all for the long wait.

Enjoy,

Tanis Grey

P.S. I am too lazy to type that disclaimer thingy, much less cut and paste it, every time so, um, err, read chapter one if you feel the need to be disclaimed.

Imaginary friends are trouble

Ever since Harry could remember his imagination had been impressive, he had imagined a friend called Horace. Horace was a house elf, which of course would disappear as soon as any of the Dursleys would get close; the Dursleys couldn't see him because they believed that there should be no free thought imagination was forbidden; he played with Harry in his cupboard under the stairs at # 4 Privet Drive. Especially when he was being punished as he was right now.

Horace was an awesome imaginary friend because Harry would tell him his wishes and somehow they would come true.

Once Harry had wished for food that wasn't left over, or the burnt portions off the bottom of the pot; starting the next meal he found that his food was so good it was fit for a king. Harry knew deep down that it was his Aunt Petunia doing it because she made the meals, when she wasn't making him do it, and she would never give him the wrong plate. But, it was fun to pretend that Horace was the one responsible, and he never forgot to thank Horace either.

Another time, Harry wished he had better toys to play with but lamented to Horace that Dudley would just take them for himself.

The following week the postman brought two packages to the Dursley's house, one addressed to Dudley and the other one to Harry. When they were opened they were found to be two identical sets of toys, only Dudleys looked more expensive. The note said that it was from a friend of the family and so Harry got his toys and was able to keep them. Again he thanked Horace for his good fortune.

The only odd thing about this was the confused expression that his Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had on their faces when harry thanked them for things. Especially since Aunt Petunia always seemed to go out of her way to let Harry know how unworthy he was; Uncle Vernon never passed up a chance to tell Harry what a freak and troublemaker he was.

And then there was the incident. A few weeks before the incident, Harry was whining to Horace that he wished he wasn't so hidden behind the scenes. How nice it would be to meet some of the interesting people that visited Uncle Vernon; instead of always having to hide in Dudley's second room.

Uncle Vernon prepared the house for the visit from his new boss at Grunnings for a week. Harry had been repeatedly told to stay in Dudley's second room, quietly, no matter what. Carpenters had even been brought in to shore up the floor so that it would not creak if Harry had to move around, since Dudley's second room was above the family's sitting room. Uncle Vernon planned to make a great impression and Harry planned to have fun playing, quietly, with his toys in Dudley's far nicer, not to mention that it was larger than his cupboard under the stairs, second room; to bad neither plan worked out.

Both plans were going well until suddenly the floor around Harry gave way and he dramatically joined the rest of the family in the sitting room. Falling through the floor onto the couch is definitely a show stopper in most countries. Harry bounced up off the couch covered in dust, and with wood chips sticking out of his clothes and hair in random locations.

Aunt Petunia screamed in surprise and horror, Dudley screamed in surprise and then laughed when he saw Harry's extremely disheveled appearance; Uncle Vernon's new boss exclaimed "what the bloody hell," as he swiftly moved away from the falling rubble; Uncle Vernon simply stood up.

Uncle Vernon stood there pale faced torn between wanting to kill "the little freak" as he frequently called him and rushing to see if 'his cash cow,' as he privately thought to himself was alright. Greed as is usual in his case won out as he moved forward to help Harry exclaiming with false concern "Harry my dear boy are you okay?"

I should explain, Uncle Vernon received a large monthly allowance for taking care of Harry. That the greedy pig spent it on himself and his family while Harry went without didn't matter to him. The House on Privet Drive, now completely paid off, and his yearly new car, plus holidays to the country with the family while Harry stayed behind with a sitter, and other such outings were only possible because of Harry's allowance. Uncle Vernon, always one to think fast on his feet, made up a story about how Harry had not been feeling well and had been in bed, harry was actually still in his night clothes so Uncle Vernon's story was believable and ended working in his favor.

The incident which ended Harrys forced exclusion from gatherings, better to keep him close and watched then unsupervised, also had another consequence not felt immediately. Uncle Vernon's boss worried for his employee called an inspector who he knew at the Office of Public Safety. This forced Uncle Vernon to relocate Harry to the spare room, much to the protesting whines of Dudley. Uncle Vernon locked him in the cupboard for nearly a week, while the room and floor were being repaired; except when he had to let him out to go to school, and to do chores.

When Harry was finally let out, he didn't last three days before he was in trouble again and locked up in the cupboard. It wasn't that he had done anything to get into trouble; it really was Dudley's own fault the dog had chased him up that tree. After all Dudley was usually the reason he ended up locked in the cupboard. "Harry bet you can't" is usually what starts the process but Harry had to admit that if he wouldn't taunt Dudley into doing it too, he would end up in less trouble. Harry's aunt and uncle never believed it was Dudley's Idea; No, It was always Harry the troublemaker.

Which leads us to today's little adventure. Harry had just arrived home from his public school; Dudley went to a Private School of course, to find Dudley and his three cohorts waiting for him. Dudley was most dangerous when his friends were with him, although he had stopped trying to beat up Harry two years ago when that freak cloud of bees swarmed around him and chased him away, Harry somehow got blamed for it and had spent days locked up in the cupboard.

"Harry bet you can't walk across old man Forester's back yard" it began.

"Come on Dudley I'm going to be late."

"Ha told you fellas, the wanker would be too scared to do it," Dudley declared in triumph.

"I am not too scared, besides you'd never do it so why should I?"

"Ha, Dudley's' a coward Harry says," mocked one of Dudley's flunkeys.

"Ohhh is Dudley going to grow feathers and lay eggs," Chimed another.

This is how it happens every time, Dudley makes the challenge to make Harry look bad in front of his friends; Harry turns it around on him; then Dudley's friends, and there is doubt that they are really his friends; egg him on so that he can't walk away with out looking bad. So with Harry in the lead and Dudley and his cohorts following close behind they went to old man Foresters yard. As they walked Harry wondered what had changed in old man Forester's yard that would make Dudley so sure he would chicken out. When they arrived he immediately saw the huge new doghouse in the back yard.

"Lord, that's one huge monster lives in that," commented one of the trio behind Harry.

Harry Paused; took a deep breath; and started across the yard, ready to run if the Monster stuck its head out of the doghouse. Harry reached the other side and let out a huge sigh of relief, the monster had not shown itself, but he then heard Dudley's friends taunting Dudley. As Harry turned to look Dudley started across the yard. All went well until Dudley got midway through the yard. Harry saw the monster first and yelled to Dudley to make a run for it but Dudley froze in terror instead. Dudley stayed frozen until half the huge dog was out of his doghouse, then instead of running back towards his friends, because that was a shorter run and Dudley was a bit of a porker not to mention slow, he turned and ran to the oak in old man Foresters yard. Dudley didn't miss a beat when he reached the tree; it almost looked like he ran up the side of the tree, he went up it so fast. The dog on the other hand didn't even bark, he just walked around the base of the tree contemplating whether the morsel in the tree was worth chewing through the tree to get to it. Of course Dudley's friends had run off the second the monster made it appearance so Harry was left to go ring on old man Forester's door. After a few minutes of explaining, and a chuckle or two, Mr. Forester went out and brought his dog into the house. But the trouble didn't end there, Dudley was now too terrified to climb down and there was nothing that Harry of Mr. Forester could say to change that, so the fire brigade was called and so were Harry's Aunt and Uncle.

Which returns us to Harry in the cupboard waiting to get punished; while Dudley was getting papered by his mom, and lectured about how Harry was such a terrible troublemaker and freak by his Dad.

Hope you enjoyed this chapter please review this so I know what you think any comments welcome and ask any questions you can think of.