Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to J.K. Rowling, not me.
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"Harry! Harry! Ron, look, it's Harry!" Harry grinned as Hermione hurtled down the platform to greet him. "Oh, Harry, I'm so glad to see you!" she exclaimed. She grabbed him in a tight hug. "How have you been? Are you all right? Have you-"
"I'm fine, Hermione," Harry grinned.
Ron popped up from behind Hermione. "Good to see you, mate," he said. He looked taller than ever. "Anything interesting happen this summer?"
"Dudley managed to get himself beat up," Harry said, smirking wickedly.
"How on earth did that happen?" Hermione asked.
"Beat up a kid who had older brothers. The older brothers found out and, well…you get the idea," Harry explained.
Ron snickered, and then stopped abruptly. "Ginny, what's wrong with you?" he asked, exasperated. His younger sister was tugging sharply on his sleeve.
"Over there," she said in a low voice. "Malfoy. He's picking on Luna and he's getting vicious."
"Hold it, Gin, we can't just-" He paused. "Harry?"
Malfoy had jinxed the younger girl so that every time she took a step, her long hair would yank her violently in the opposite direction. Luna was completely expressionless, but pale. She stepped slightly to the right, but suddenly fell sharply to the left, falling into Harry.
"So, Malfoy, you've been reduced to picking on helpless girls now," Harry said. Luna was shaking badly; he put an arm around her shoulders to steady her. "Take the jinx off of her."
Malfoy pulled a face. "Aw, looks like Potty had to come rescue his ickle biddy Loonykins, didn't he?" he said. "How absolutely-"
"Remove Luna's jinx, Malfoy."
There was a commanding tone in Harry's voice that he was quite sure had never been there before. But whatever it was, it worked. Malfoy gave a sulky wave of his wand, and Luna relaxed. He skulked off, taking his goons with him.
"You all right, Luna?" Harry asked.
"Yes, thanks," she said, quiet and dreamy. She started to float off into the crowd.
"Luna, stay with us," he said. She turned and eyed him with a slightly inquisitive gaze. "In case Malfoy tries to jinx you again," he clarified. Please let her smile again, please let her smile again…
"Thank you," Luna said. And a tiny smile turned up her lips.
"Are you all right, Luna?" Ginny asked. The smile turned back into the usual dreamy look as the blonde nodded. Harry followed the two of them onto the train. He didn't know it, but Hermione and Ron were exchanging knowing glances behind his back.
The train ride to Hogwarts seemed longer than usual. Harry found his eyelids growing heavier and heavier. Ginny, Neville, and Luna were engaged in a deep conversation about some sort of creature that Luna was just positive was living in Cornwall. He felt warm and drowsy as the voices lulled him into sleep.
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"Hurry up, Potter!" Dudley shouted, giving his smaller cousin a kick in the ankle. "I don't got all day!"
The five year old stumbled, his glasses slipping. The rain pelted him unmercifully, soaking through the thin, oversized jacket. Harry sighed. His head was aching horribly. He just wanted to go into his little closet and sleep for hours. Maybe then he would feel better…
Dudley kicked him again, this time in the back of the knee. Harry fell face first onto the muddy sidewalk, scraping the palms of his hands. "Dudley, quit it!" he wailed.
"And what will you do if I don't?" the fat boy taunted. "Tell your mummy? Oh, wait, you can't, 'cause your mummy's dead!" He kicked Harry square in the chest and darted off- which wasn't very fast, considering his rather large girth.
Harry fought the tears burning behind his eyes. Can't cry…Daddy would be ashamed of me if I cried…But he was only five years old. He lay there on the cold wet sidewalk, fighting the tears and the headache and the burning pain in his tiny body. But no father was going to come and swoop him up into strong loving arms, no mother was going to dry his tears and sing him to sleep. Harry pushed himself up and pushed himself down the street to Number Four.
Next door, a Squib was throwing powder into the fire. "Albus," Arabella said. "It's the little Potter boy. He's not well. And those Muggles will just let him die."
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"Harry, wake up."
He blinked, hazy and disoriented.
"Harry, we're at Hogwarts." Luna was studying him carefully.
"Oh," he said. "Oh. All right." He gathered his things together, the story-dream fresh in his mind.
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