Well, heres the first chapter, on the same day as the prologue. the prologue was so short I figured I'd throw this up as well.
I have one other chpater readyish and am weorking on the one after that.
Back at the Dursleys - Two worlds collide.
Vernon Dursley stood in front of the barbecue, his loving family sitting at the new patio furniture they had just purchased that same day. He gazed at them lovingly: His beautiful wife, his strong boy.
Everything was perfect. He had received, earlier that morning, a letter informing him that there was no need for him to go pickup his freak of a nephew.
Vernon flipped three massive steaks expertly and slathered them with sauce.
Vernon Dursley was a simple man who enjoyed a simple life and to him, the easiest path for a simple life was to simply not have his freak of a nephew underfoot.
Vernon's thoughts of a Potter-free summer were interrupted by a low, deep rumbling noise.
"Is that thunder dad?" asked Dudley as he looked up to the clear skies.
Petunia, who was at the moment discussing local events with the woman from number two, was the first to locate the source of the rumbling noise.
A large black motorcycle with sidecar rolled up Privet Drive, shattering the calm of the quiet neighborhood, and stopped with a last, loud rumble in front of number four.
Heads popped up over the top of the various fences and hedges around number four as the curious residents chanced a quick look at the loud contraption and its two passengers.
The driver, a tall, thin man, with long black hair, dismounted the diabolical contraption and stretched while a small, thin boy, wearing a black helmet with golden lightning bolts, clambered out of the sidecar.
'Please don't let it be the freak.' Vernon begged the powers that be.
Unfortunately, the gods were deaf on that day and Harry Potter was revealed as the passenger of the sidecar.
The two dark haired bikers were dressed in similar looking, black leather jackets adorned with a fair amount of shiny silver studs.
The boy appeared exhilarated and happy. This of course put Vernon Dursley in an opposite mood as he thundered up the front lawn, puce faced, to let the freaks have a piece of his mind when his wife placed a gentle hand on his shoulder.
"Not out here Vernon. Let's invite them inside." whispered Petunia through a tight smile.
Dudley on the other hand had rushed forward to get a better look at the bike. "Potter? Where did you get this stuff, I thought you were poor, and who's this?"
"That, Dudley is my Godfather, Sirius Black and this is his bike." Harry explained.
Dudley looked up slightly confused.
"If you had a Godfather all along then why did you have to come live with us?" Dudley asked.
Petunia tried to make her way over to her son to stop him from asking that very question as she knew quite well why Sirius had been unable to take care of the boy. Unfortunately for her, Sirius saw her move and quickly answered.
"Well you see … Dudley was it?" Sirius asked. "I was in prison for the past decade for mass murder." Sirius continued, with a cheery smile, not even waiting for the boy to answer his question.
This declaration set off a series of whispers and a few of the less courageous neighbors quickly retreated to the dubious safety of their homes.
"And the reason he was dirt poor and dressed in rags was because your dad didn't see fit to give him any decent clothes or any spending money. You see it was his responsibility to insure that Harry had everything he needed but instead he showered you with gifts."
Vernon was sputtering in rage, Petunia was looking nervously at all the neighbors, Harry was trying very hard not to laugh and Dudley seemed a little embarrassed.
"Can we perhaps take this conversation inside?" asked Petunia, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary.
"Petunia! I haven't seen you since Lily and James's wedding." Sirius cried out in apparent joy.
"Harry, don't forget Nehebkau or he might get cross with you." Sirius shot to Harry, in a loud voice, as he ushered the elder Dursleys towards the front door.
Harry grinned and shook his head. His Godfather was enjoying himself far too much.
Harry reached down into the side car and pulled out his serpentine friend. The few neighbors that were left outside quickly dashed back to their homes.
"Wicked!" exclaimed Dudley "Can I touch it?"
"Sure Dudley." Harry replied, stunned that his cousin was not freaked out by the large venomous snake.
"Please don't bite him, it would cause trouble." Harry hissed to Nehebkau as he passed the large reptile over to his cousin.
'Oh yes, your pet would get indigestion.' chimed in Silias inside Harry's head.
Harry and Dudley walked into the house and Harry knew for a fact that Sirius had placed a silencing charm on the house as he and Dudley were assaulted by Vernons screams.
"HE WILL NOT STAY HERE THIS SUMMER!" Vernon cried out.
"Everything ok Sirius?" Harry asked as he poked his head into the door frame.
"Everything's under control. Why don't you head out to your room and get setup. I'll join you after I work things out with the Muggles." Sirius replied non-chalantly.
Sirius was sitting in Vernon's chair, his booted feet crossed on the poof while Vernon loomed over him threateningly. Petunia was simply sitting quietly on the couch.
"Right, I'll be in the attic then."
"Look Dursley, it's just two or three …" Harry heard Sirius explain as he and Dudley made their way upstairs.
"Dad didn't think you were coming back." Dudley explained as they walked up the stairs.
"I almost didn't but by coming back one last time I extend a magical field that keeps me and you lot safe. And it's only two weeks, three tops." Harry explained to his cousin.
They walked up the attic stairs and Harry was surprised to see that Dudley was following him. Harry simply shrugged, took out his shrunken trunk and canceled the spell on it. Dudley gasped as Harry's large trunk suddenly appeared.
"Well thanks for bringing Nehebkau up Dudley." Harry said as he took the snake back from his portly cousin.
"Right, no problem." Dudley replied.
Harry and Dudley just stood there awkwardly for a moment.
"Anything I can help you with Dudley?" Harry asked after a few moments of awkward silence.
"No. Nothing. See you at supper." Dudley replied hesitantly and then made his way down the stairs.
'He gets stranger and stranger every year.' Silias commented.
"Nice setup you have here." Sirius commented some time later as he made his way up the stairs to Harry's room.
"So how did it go?" Harry asked.
"It's all worked out." Sirius replied with a dark look. "If it wasn't for Lily's protection I'd never leave you alone in here."
"It's only for a few weeks and it's not like I'm alone, I have Hedwig and Nehebkau." Harry pointed out.
"Right. Right! Well I laid out the law, told them to treat you right and to bloody well leave you alone. Told them you'd get your own meals and your cleaning." Sirius explained.
"And how am I supposed to do that?" Harry asked.
"You own a house elf. You need something, you call his name and he'll go get it for you from the stuff at home. Oh! Right, I need to show you this."
With that Sirius took out a piece of paper and passed it on to Harry. On the piece of paper was written one line.
The Most Noble and Ancient House of Black is located at 12 Grimmauld Place.
Harry looked at the paper then at Sirius.
"Couldn't you have just told me?" he asked, slightly confused.
"Nope, I'm not the Secret Keeper."
'They placed your new home under Fidelius?' asked Silias in surprise.
"The Fidelius?" Harry asked, mirroring the amulet's surprise. "Who's the Secret Keeper?"
"Remus is. He'll be living with us most of the time." Sirius explained. "Look, are you sure you want to stay here? I mean it's no trouble at all for you to pop over now you know, it'll just mean another set of hands to help me, Remus and your crazy house elf clean."
Harry shifted uncomfortably.
"Alright then, I guess I'll see you in a couple of weeks then."
"I'll see you then, and I'll send Hedwig or Dobby off with some notes." Harry said in what he hoped was an encouraging voice.
Harry carefully climbed into his hammock and thought about his move to Sirius's house. He really didn't know why he felt so awkward about it, Sirius appeared to truly care for him.
"Sometimes, I just wished I wasn't me." Harry whispered to Nehebkau.
Exhausted by the ride back from Kings Cross, Harry Potter fell asleep.
Harry's dreams that night were troubling and fragmented. All he remembered of them were a dark street and feeling squeezed as if he was being swallowed by the Basilisk again.
Harry awoke, to the bright morning light filtering in painfully through the small window in the attic and looked at his watch. It was almost noon, he had slept close to eighteen hours and felt as if he had not gotten a wink of sleep.
Carefully getting out of his hammock, Harry quietly made his way down stairs to make use of the facilities. After quickly relieving his bladder and taking a short shower, Harry made his way to the kitchen.
Vernon was nowhere to be seen but Dudley was sitting at the table waiting for his lunch.
"Sorry I missed breakfast Aunt Petunia, I guess I was a bit worn out." Harry told his Aunt as he peeked into the kitchen.
Petunia sniffed disdainfully. "You didn't miss breakfast. We were told by your Godfather that you would be getting your own meals."
"Right, forgot about that." Harry explained. "Dobby?"
With a pop the excitable house elf appeared in front of Harry.
"Master Harry Potter Sir has called for Dobby?" the elf asked apprehensively.
"Hey Dobby, I hope I didn't take you away from your lunch and I thought we agreed you wouldn't call me master." Harry greeted the small elf, ignoring his aunt's squeak of fear and the elf's strange demeanor.
Dobby's face lit up with joy. "No Harry Potter sir, Dobby was not having his lunch. Dobby was preparing the great, honorable and kind, masters rooms."
"Oh good, I kind of fell asleep last night and didn't have supper or breakfast do you mind throwing together a fair sized lunch for me?"
Dobby nodded excitedly and popped away with a snap of his fingers.
"What was that?" Dudley asked in surprise.
"A house elf?" Petunia asked incredulously.
"How do you know what a house elf is?" Harry asked surprised.
"Your mother said the Potters had a few about. She was rather angry about it actually …" Petunia suddenly clamped her mouth shut, realizing that she was openly discussing the wizarding world.
"Don't ask questions!" she shot back, as if conditioned to do so.
"What is it? A servant or something?" Dudley asked, seeming a little envious.
Before Harry could even answer, Dobby had reappeared, much to the consternation of Aunt Petunia and the amusement of Dudley.
"Dobby is being a bad house elf!" cried out the small creature. "Dobby is not waiting for master's permission to leave or asking master if he is preferring tea, coffee or juice before his meal."
Harry noticed the elf look about for something to do himself bodily harm with.
"No need to punish yourself over that Dobby, you were just excited to get to work and I'd like some pumpkin juice this morning."
"Mas … Harry Potter sir is too good to Dobby." Dobby replied, lowering his head in shame. "If Dobby may be excused?"
"Go on Dobby and you don't always need to ask. If you think we're done talking you can go if we're not I'll let you know."
Dobby snapped his fingers and disappeared.
"He's your butler?" Dudley asked incredulously.
"I guess." Harry replied with a sigh as he sat down at the table.
"Mum! I want a butler!"
Dobby re-appeared again, delivering an ornate glass pitcher filled with pumpkin juice and a few glasses and popped away again before anyone could say anything.
"You will tell that infernal creature to stop doing that this instant or we are sending you back to your godfather!" cried out Petunia as she picked up the plastic bowl she had dropped for the third time.
"But you already agreed to have him here, that's how I'm going to get my food and get my clothes cleaned." Harry explained as he poured himself some pumpkin juice.
Harry hated to admit it but this was starting to be fun. He hadn't thought about forcing some magic into his relative's lives, it seemed like a good punishment for the years of trying to squash the magic out of him.
Petunia simply turned about and went back to the kitchen to make Dudley's lunch. Harry noticed Dudley looking curiously at his pitcher of juice.
"Want a glass Duders?" Harry asked, feeling generous with his whale of a cousin.
"Sure, I mean it's not going to turn me into anything right?" Harry shook his head in reply as he downed a full glass of the juice.
"Nope." He replied as he poured his cousin a glass.
Lunch continued along that same vein as Dudley sampled some of Harry's lunch while ignoring his grilled cheese sandwich. Harry had forgotten how all house elves seemed to think that all humans ate like … something that ate a lot … like a Weasley, and so there was plenty for the both of them. Petunia did not appear happy about this at all.
Once lunch was over, Dobby returned and cleaned up with a snap of his fingers.
"Everything was great Dobby, thanks."
Dobby beamed at Harry and disappeared with a pop.
Harry made his way back up to his room in the attic and took out his list of homework. Snape had, fortunately, not returned in time to give out the summer assignments and so Nicholas Flamel had given them a more reasonable essay on the interaction of aquatic based ingredients, Professor McGonagall had requested two feet on inanimate to animate transfigurations, professor Flitwick had requested a small essay on a third year charm of the students choice, Bins had requested an essay on the witch hunts and of course there was no essay for Defense as Harry, Ron and Hermione had had their professor arrested for being a sexual predator.
There wasn't really anything too troublesome so Harry chose the least pleasant of his essays: potions.
Harry set his mind to recovering information he had learned from Silias, set Quill to parchment and his hand began writing, as if of its own volition.
"Oy! Potter!"
Harry bolted up in his chair. He had apparently fallen asleep while writing and had not heard his cousin walk up the stairs to the attic.
"Who? What?" Harry asked blearily as he grabbed for one of his wands.
"It's just me." explained Dudley as he sat on Harry's trunk.
"Oh! Hey Dudley, what can I do for you?" Harry asked, adjusting his glasses.
"Nothing much, I was just wondering what you were doing up here."
Harry took a good look at his cousin.
"Just homework. Why aren't you out with Pierce Polkis and your other friends?"
Dudley looked about, a little embarrassed. "They aren't my friends; I don't think they ever were. When I got to Smeltings, I figured it'd be like at our old school so I started bullying people smaller than me. Most of my old gang wasn't there, just Pierce and me and well an upper year saw me bullying this girl and gave me a pounding. I held my own for a bit but Pierce just ran. The guy told me that if he caught me bullying others again I wouldn't walk for a few weeks so I stopped and all of a sudden, Pierce wasn't hanging around me anymore. I joined the boxing club at Smeltings but not to learn how to beat up people, it's just fighting's the only thing I was ever good at so it's not like I have anything else to do."
"So you're not a bully anymore?" Harry asked incredulously.
"Not fun being on the receiving end. That's when I realized I didn't really have any friends, just people who hung around me 'cause I was the biggest." Dudley answered glumly.
"I know what you mean." Harry replied.
"What do you mean, you're puny!"
"Yeah but I'm famous. There was this one idiot who wanted to be my friend only because of my stupid scar. We'd met before at a store and he hadn't recognized me and he started saying stuff that pissed me off so I told him to go away. Then there's this guy in my house at school, he keeps asking me for autographs and pictures and stuff just because the guy who killed my parents didn't manage to kill me. He's not excited about seeing Harry, he's excited about meeting The-Boy-Who-Lived." Harry explained.
"The-Boy-Who-Lived?" Dudley snorted. "That's what they call you? What do they call the tosser who tried to kill you?"
"They call him 'He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named', 'You-Know-Who' or 'The Dark Lord'. They're afraid of saying his name and the funniest thing is it's not even his real name. He calls himself Lord Voldemort but his real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle."
"Bunch of wimps. You can't get hurt for saying someone's name." Dudley shot back.
"Probably not." Harry agreed "But with magic, you never know. I say his name and my Headmaster does as well. So does my Godfather."
"So you're famous?" Dudley asked.
Harry simply took a book off his desk; 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts', thumbed to a certain chapter and handed it to Dudley.
While Dudley read the short chapter concerning his cousin and Voldemort, Harry took a look at his potions essay. To his surprise, the essay was finished, the last couple of lines were barely legible and the last few words made no sense whatsoever, something about Gringotts and pepper up, but overall the essay was complete. Harry didn't really remember writing even half of the essay but he was still very tired from his horrible night of sleep.
"Bugger!" exclaimed Dudley as he closed the book. "You're a bloody hero!"
"I was one Dudley, it's my mum that cast a spell on me as she died that protected me from Voldemort, that's why I came back this year. As long as I can call home the place where my mother's blood dwells, the protection renews itself but I'm going to move to Sirius's place in a few weeks so the charm will start to weaken."
"Ok, so you were one when that guy tried to off you but what about your possessed Defence professor in your first year and that pervert a few months ago?"
"WHAT?" Harry asked as he grabbed his copy of 'The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts' from Dudley's hands.
Harry scanned the book and found to his utter amazement that his exploits of the last two years, or at least his publicly known exploits, were chronicled in the tome.
"How's this possible, I got this before I started school!?"
"Magic?" Dudley threw in helpfully.
Harry scanned the cover of the book and there, in the corner of the back, inside of the cover was a small note.
'Self Updating Edition.'
"Bloody Hell!" Harry exclaimed, throwing the book on his desk in disgust.
"Did you actually do all those things?" Dudley asked with a bit of awe. "Can you really talk to snakes like Whats-his-name?"
Harry groaned and simply nodded.
"That's cool. I guess I was lucky all these years that you didn't get angry at me. I mean, if you can take on grown adults."
"Can't I have any privacy whatsoever?" Harry asked while glaring at the offending book.
Supper that evening was rather eventful.
Vernon stared at Harry with an annoyed look on his face but refrained from saying anything. Instead, he took a copy of that morning's paper and hid behind the large pages.
Harry sat down at the dinning room table, no plate or utensils were set for him but Harry knew Dobby would take care of that for him.
"Dobby?" with a pop, Dobby appeared.
Petunia had jumped in her chair Dudley looked on with amusement while Vernon ripped his newspaper in half in fright.
"Harry Potter sir has called for Dobby?"
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL IS THAT!?"
"That's a house elf dad, its Harry's butler."
Harry turned to Dudley, surprised his cousin would speak.
"BOY! CUPB … ROOM … ATTIC ... NOW" Vernon screamed as he stood from his chair.
Harry backed away from the table to make his way to the attic but was surprised to see that Dobby was not following him.
"Yous is not to harm the great Harry Potter sir!" the elf said in a voice filled with cold steel.
"It's alright Dobby, he's not worth it." Harry explained with a shrug.
"I will not be threatened and humiliated in my own home!" thundered Vernon as he grabbed the pepper grinder as a makeshift club.
The next thing Harry knew there was a loud crackling sound followed by a louder pop and Vernon was sliding along the floor, out of the dinning room and into the living room. Dobby stood there between him and the rest of the Dursleys, hands extended before him.
"Bloody Hell Dobby, what did you do?" Harry asked incredulously.
'House elves have great magic that they almost never use on their own. Should a house elf rebellion ever happen the wizarding world would be hard pressed to survive it.' Silias informed Harry, sounding somewhat impressed with the eccentric elf.
"Dobby is protecting his master. No one will harm master while I is being about."
"OUT! Just get out of here and tell your godfather to forget the stupid money! I want you out of here in the next ten minutes." cried out Petunia as she kneeled by her husband's prone form.
Harry made his way up to the attic, Dobby in tow, and quickly packed his belongings. His visit with the Dursleys had lasted all of one day.
"I guess that's it for my mum's protection." Harry told Dobby as the elf packed Harry's books away.
"Dobby is being sorry for causing trouble for his master. Dobby will be finding other work." Dobby explained as he wiped tears away from his huge, protuberant eyes.
"What are you on about Dobby?"
"Dobby is attacking master's family. Dobby is a bad, bad elf!" Dobby exclaimed with a wail as he dropped the book he was putting away and fell to his knees.
Harry put a comforting arm around the thin elf.
"It's alright Dobby. They never were my family, they're just my relatives. The Weasley's are more a family to me than the Dursleys." Harry explained. "Now come on before Aunt Petunia goes insane and attacks us with a frying pan or something."
Dobby and Harry made their way down stairs. Harry was surprised to find Petunia standing there, holding not a frying pan but a large revolver in her small hands. Dudley was behind her looking rather nervous.
"Out! Out! And if you ever cross our doorstep again I'll do what I should have done all those years ago and I'll end you." Petunia spat at Harry, the gun shaking in her hands.
Harry simply looked at her, a cold feeling passing through him, and walked out of privet drive for the last time.