-- CHAPTER TWO --

The Unexpected Visitor

Making sure that no one would be able to ignore him, Harry marched into his aunt and uncle's house and slammed the front door with a loud thud. Even though he hadn't been back for nearly a year, the house looked just the same as it did when he had left for Hogwarts with Dumbledore the previous summer. Everything he could see was spotless. It was evident that Aunt Petunia had spent hours upon hours polishing every surface until it sparkled. Just as he was about to stomp up the stairs toward his bedroom, his aunt poked her head out of the kitchen and sneered at Harry. She was holding a tray with a ham and cheese sandwich that made his stomach growl. Harry was sure that his cousin must have heard his stomach too because at that exact instant, Dudley got up from his place in front of the television, almost knocking him to the ground as he grabbed the sandwich from his mother. Affectionately patting her son on the head as he hurried back to the television, she smiled and whispered a few words of praise just loud enough for her nephew to hear. As her eyes met with Harry's, her smile disappeared and was quickly replaced with another frown.

"Vernon, our ungrateful nephew has decided to grace us with his presence," Aunt Petunia sarcastically shouted to her husband.

Harry could hear Uncle Vernon's voice booming from the living room and quickly decided that he wasn't going to wait to hear what his uncle was going to yell at him for this time. As Harry marched up the stairs as loudly as he could, he could hear Uncle Vernon's voice saying, "Get back here you vile boy. You have a lot to answer to."

With a determined smirk on his face, Harry stomped into his room slamming his bedroom door behind him. He had never felt as powerful in their house as he did at this very moment. He didn't even care what Uncle Vernon had thought when he didn't show up at the train station with the rest of the Hogwarts students. Smiling, Harry could imagine the look on Uncle Vernon's face when Ron and Hermione got off the train without him and dropped off his trunks in front of the Dursleys. Before sneaking out of Hogwarts with the aid of some floo-powder, he had left Ron a note asking if he and Hermione would take care of his belongings and make sure that they got to Little Whinging safely. He came back to the Dursley house to gather his belongings and move out.

He didn't know where he would go but the last thing that he wanted to do was stay with the Dursleys one minute longer than he had to. Dumbledore had wanted him to return for the summer so Harry felt that in order to honour his Headmaster's memory he would make this compromise. He would return and face his aunt and uncle, but stay only long enough to collect his trunks and say goodbye. Harry tried to block out the commotion he could hear coming up the stairs toward his room. His uncle was yelling with his sarcastic wife closely behind. The only person that he couldn't hear was Dudley. He assumed that this was only because his mouth was full of the sandwich that Aunt Petunia had been making for him when Harry had burst into their home.

"Don't you dare shut the door on us, boy," Uncle Vernon roared. "How dare you send your trunks home on the train and not be there to carry them back to our house. Poor Dudley had to carry your owl home and that aggressive bird tried to attack him."

Harry grabbed his trunk with one hand and Hedwig's cage with the other. He then opened his bedroom door with a kind of wild fury that even caught the attention of Dudley, who was still stuffing his face with the sandwich as well as some beer nuts. Harry had been prepared for his aunt and uncle to yell at him for not returning to their home, but the sting of hearing that Dudley had been anywhere near his beloved Hedwig was more than Harry could handle.

"Hedwig should have attacked Dudley. It would have served him right. But then again Dudley is too much of a coward to open the cage in the first place, so I find it highly doubtful that Hedwig would have had the chance to do what I have been wishing to for years." The rage in Harry was rising so much that he could feel the walls around him start to vibrate. "And for your information, I will no longer being staying here."

"What? Where do you plan on going?" His uncle asked with a snide laugh. "Don't for a second believe that your little wizard friends are going to let you stay with them. Once they find out what a little terror you are, they will throw you out of their house like we should have done years ago. If it wasn't for us-"

"If it wasn't for you," Harry interrupted, "I might get a decent chance at having a real family. Someone that actually cares about me." He was so angry that he thought his head would explode. Harry grabbed his wand from his pocket and pointed it at his uncle.

"Let me pass!"

"Boy, don't think for a minute that you can bully usཀ" Roared Uncle Vernon.

Just as Harry was about to put the Stupefy charm on his uncle, the room began to grow cold. Even Hedwig's cage seemed to freeze in Harry's hand. Uncle Vernon was about to continue fuming at Harry, but became speechless when he saw his nephew's breath go white. Harry noticed the same from Uncle Vernon and spun on his heels pointing his wand in front of him as he looked around. Facing his uncle again, Harry saw a Dementor gliding up the stairs behind Aunt Petunia and Dudley. Three others followed behind it. Harry pushed his uncle out of the way, pointing his wand at the Dementors. Screaming in fear, Aunt Petunia tried to push her son away from Harry's wand. Not realizing that he was the only one able to see the Dementors in the house, Harry was unprepared when Uncle Vernon threw himself on top of him, knocking him back into his bedroom. In all the commotion, Harry felt his wand knock itself from his hand as he fell onto the floor.

Pounding his fists as hard as he could against his uncle without much success, Harry tried to get up and find his wand. He had seen it go under his bed. It wasn't until they both heard Aunt Petunia screaming loudly that Uncle Vernon loosened his grip on him. Scrambling to his feet, Harry tried to get to his wand but it was no use. Two Dementors were now hovering between him and where he had seen it go under his bed. Harry tried to run. To do anything that might stop the Dementors, but Uncle Vernon was still between him and the door. He hid in the corner of his room as far away from the Dementors as he could. Before Harry could think of his next move he felt the icy coldness cut through him like a knife and the piercing scream of his mother in his ears. Hearing his own screams echo his mother's, he could feel his body give way and crumple onto the floor. This was it. He would die. Everyone at Number Four Privet Drive would die at the hands of the Dementors.