The Time Turner
Chapter 4
"The Vanishing Glass," James read aloud as every head turned towards him.
Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls.
Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets — but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby,
"That was all of that Dudley kid?" Sirius said to no one in particular as he laughed.
and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother.
The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too.
"Well," Frank began. "I guess someone got Harry out of there."
"Yes!" cheered Sirius. "I bet it was either me, Moony, or Wormtail!" Hermione felt her heart wrench at Sirius's happy smile.
"I doubt it. A chapter wouldn't start off with the Dursley's if Harry was saved," Lily said glumly. How could her sister act like this to her own nephew?
"Then how come we haven't gotten him out of there yet?" Remus asked. Everyone in the room looked at Hermione expectantly.
"I'm not telling you. If the books don't, which I'm pretty sure they will, then I'll tell you," she said to the room full of anxious people.
Yet Harry Potter was still there,
Lily looked ever sadder at this statement. "See?" she mumbled. Her eyes subconsciously travelled to Harry who was fast asleep in her arms. She practically smiled at how peaceful he seemed.
asleep at the moment, but not for long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.
"Up! Get up! Now!"
Snape winced at that. He remembered how she used to yell at Snape. It definitely was not a pleasant thing to experience, let alone wake up to. Remus noticed the change in demeanor of the greasy haired man beside him. He quickly glanced at him to see the blank face of Severus Snape looking anywhere but James.
Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again.
"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.
"Of course. It was never a dream," Alice commented.
His aunt was back outside the door.
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"Nearly," said Harry.
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn,
"Is he supposed to cook?" Lily asked. She could feel her blood boil. "My own sister-"
"Lily, you don't want to get all worked up right. Trust me," Hermione said. She wouldn't let Lily know but her blood was boiling as well.
I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."
Harry groaned.
"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.
"Nothing, nothing…"
Dudley's birthday — how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where he slept.
"WHAT?" several people screamed.
"I'LL KILL HER!" Lily screamed.
"How DARE she do that to MY son!" James yelled at the same time. Hermione glanced over towards Remus and Sirius to see them close together, muttering things to one another. As she glanced to the other side of the room, she saw Snape talking quietly to Dumbledore. She watched as Dumbledore nodded silently before his attention was taken away from Snape.
"Why didn't you let me take care of Harry?" Sirius yelled at the old man.
"You expect him to let you take care of a baby when you can barely take care of yourself?" Severus snorted. Sirius twitched and reached towards his wand.
"Don't," Hermione said in a surprisingly low voice that made the entire room go quiet.
"I don't care if you take away my wand, I'm bound to curse him at least once before we get done with these books," Sirius growled. Standing up, Hermione took out her wand and silently sent the wand from Sirius's pants to her hand.
"I'm not going to risk anyone cursing each other." Hermione took a look at everyone's face within the room. "Since Sirius doesn't care if his wand is taken or not, I guess that won't be punishment enough. If anyone even attempts to curse someone else," her eyes travelled between Sirius and Snape, "then I'm taking these books and leaving. You won't be able to prevent anything. And I can guarantee that half of the people in this room-" Hermione stopped herself from saying anymore.
Remus stood up and eyed her closely. "Half of us will what?" he asked her.
"James, read," she ordered before sitting down again. He took a look at everyone around the room before resuming reading.
When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike.
"What's a telivishon?" Mr. Weasley asked.
"It's like the moving photos except it's a bigger and muggles use it to watch things," Hermione explained. Mr. Weasley smiled big and looked expectantly towards his wife as if he was silently asking her permission to fix one up.
Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat
Sirius snorted and mumbled something along the lines of, "That's what you get."
and hated exercise — unless of course it involved punching somebody.
Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry,
James gritted his teeth together. He didn't care what Lily said but he was going to get them for this.
but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.
"Seems like he took that scrawny aspect from James," Sirius said smirking. James rolled his eyes and silently sent a hex towards Sirius. Sirius jumped up immediately and pointed at Hermione as boils began to appear on his face.
"Why aren't you taking his wand away? Didn't you see that?" Sirius yelled at the bushy haired girl.
She smiled big at him and made her voice seem as innocent as could be. "See what?" Sirius growled and muttered incoherent words under his breath as he glared at Hermione. Frank and James were the only ones not able to hold their laughter in at Sirius and couldn't breathe. It took a few moments for them to settle down before James started reading again.
Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.
He looked even smaller and skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry had a thin face, knobby knees, black hair,
James smiled wide and looked at Harry as he said the next line.
and bright green eyes.
He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.
Sirius was muttering revenge as he cracked his knuckles.
The only thing Harry liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.
The room fell silent. Mrs. Weasley leaned across and put a comforting hand on Lily's knee. "He doesn't know what it means."
He had had it as long as he could remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt Petunia was how he had gotten it.
"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said.
"Like hell I would die in a car crash!" James yelled. Lily felt her heartbreak. How could her sister not tell Harry about magic? It would be the only thing he has to them. Tears prickled Lily's eyes. How bad had their relationship gotten before she died that Petunia didn't even tell Harry the truth?
"And don't ask questions."
Don't ask questions — that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.
"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.
"No use!"
About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place.
Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.
Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.
"Prongs, did I ever tell you how much I love your son?"
"Padfoot," James said slowly. "You're crazy."
Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.
"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."
"Thirty-six?" Alice yelled. "I see they like to spoil the little brat!" The room was shocked at Alice's outburst. It was out of character for her.
"How much you want to bet that Harry barely gets any?" Lily said bitterly.
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over.
Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"
Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"
"Ever Sirius could do that math!" commented Remus.
"Yeah!" Sirius agreed. "Hey! That was not nice Moony. That hurt." Remus rolled his eyes as Hermione laughed.
"I think you'll survive."
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."
Uncle Vernon chuckled.
"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.
At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.
He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him."
She jerked her head in Harry's direction.
"Can't even say his name? Why, if that was my sister-"
Alice put her hand on her husbands' arm. "You'd be in Azkaban. Much like James would be if he stops twitching and goes after them."
Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.
"Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this. Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."
"As if you don't," a low voice came from Lily. She glared at Dumbledore. "Why did you put Harry with them? Don't you see that he's miserable?" Dumbledore held up his hands in surrender.
"I believe my future self has very good reasons for putting Harry with Mr. and Mrs. Dursley.
The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there — or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.
Hermione suppressed a laugh which everyone misinterpreted.
Remus was the first to speak. "Why are you laughing at that?" Hermione's eyes widened.
"No- no. You guys. I'm not laughing at Harry," she began. James was the next one to speak.
"Then what could you possibly be laughing at?" he asked as the anger in his voice was very clear.
"It has to do with slugs and- and you guys will understand later. If it isn't in any of these books then I'll tell you guys," she finished. Some people in the room didn't seem satisfied with the answer she gave but shrugged it off for now.
"What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.
"You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer).
Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.
"And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.
"I won't blow up the house," said Harry, but they weren't listening.
"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"
"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"
"He's not a dog!" Mr. Weasley supplied to the room as James took a deep breath.
"Nothing's wrong with dogs!" Sirius said which made him receive strange looks from some people in the room.
Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.
"Dinky Duddydums,
Sirius and Snape snorted at this but stopped suddenly and just glared at each other.
don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.
"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.
James tried to keep his voice steady. All he wanted to do right now was rip them apart for treating Harry like this. Yet he knew that if they didn't stop his and Lily's deaths, Harry's situation at the Dursleys would be worse.
Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.
Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.
Half an hour later, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in his life.
His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.
"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"They wouldn't!"
"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"
But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.
The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.
"Magic," Lily smiled.
Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.
Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.
"I'm glad he has his accidental magic. Shows them."
He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it had grown back so quickly.
"Or not," James said, finishing the rest of his statement from before with a frown on his face.
Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).
Remus, James, and Sirius shuddered at how something similar to that was worn voluntarily by Peter in their fifth year.
The harder she tried to pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry.
Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished.
On the other hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as much to Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney.
The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress telling them Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as he shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trashcans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.
"That is the saddest excuse for accidental magic I've ever heard," Hermione said. "Even when it happened to me, I sort of knew why."
"You're a muggle-born?" Lily asked her. Hermione just nodded her head.
But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.
While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.
"… roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.
"I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."
James was groaning as he read the last part of the sentence. If the Dursleys weren't too keen on imagination, he doubted they'd appreciate this.
Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache: "MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Dudley and Piers sniggered.
"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."
But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.
It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.
"This is bad," Remus began, the worry beginning to fill the parents that sat next to him.
Mr. Weasley was confused. "Why? It's just an ice pop."
"Things never seem to be good for too long with Harry," Lily responded for Remus and looked down at the boy in her arms once more.
It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.
The room was full or snorting and laughter at this.
Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting him.
They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.
Harry felt, afterward, that he should have known it was all too good to last.
"See?" Lily mumbled.
After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.
Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.
"Make it move," he whined at his father.
"Bloody git."
Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.
"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.
"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.
Harry moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. He wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.
The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harry's.
It winked.
"I think your son's gone crazy," commented Frank. "Or maybe he's just tired."
Harry stared. Then he looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. He looked back at the snake and winked, too.
"Crazy!"
The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly:
"I get that all the time."
James furrowed his eyes in confusion when Lily lowered her voice and whispered to him, "You don't think he can-" But James shook his head quickly.
"No one in my family can and I doubt anyone in yours can."
"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."
The snake nodded vigorously.
"Where do you come from, anyway?" Harry asked.
The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.
Boa Constrictor, Brazil.
"Was it nice there?"
The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harry read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"
As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harry made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"
"Idiot boy," Snape said quietly. Dumbledore glanced at the man beside him. He had been in deep thought as to why Hermione wanted Severus here. She couldn't possibly know, right?
Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.
"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.
What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.
Harry sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.
The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.
As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, "Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigo."
"He made the glass vanish," Alice mumbled, the title of the chapter finally making sense to everyone. "Do you think he can speak to snakes?" she asked the room. Everyone went silent and James and Lily exchanged looks. "Hermione," she began, turning to the girl who was not that far away from her. "Do you know?"
Hermione nodded her head. "Well yes, I do know if he is or not. But right now, it's not relevant."
The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.
"But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"
The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harry had seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed,
"Damn," Sirius mumbled.
but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?".
"That boy is so-"
Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harry. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals,"
"NO MEALS?" James yelled and stood up. The book clambered to the floor and the rest of the room didn't know what to do. Lily handed Harry to Mrs. Weasley and stood up before dragging James out of the room and into the backyard.
"James," Lily began.
"Lily, your sister is mental! Your brother-in-law is mental! That entire family is mental!" James yelled as he paced back and forth. Lily felt angry tears fill her eyes.
"Don't you think I know that? How do you think I feel knowing how heartless my sister could be to Harry?" James stopped pacing and looked Lily in the eyes.
"Lil-"
"I don't know why Dumbledore sent Harry to live with them and be treated like…" Lily couldn't even form words to convey how betrayed and disgusted she felt with her sister. "Be treated like that!" Lily let everything out. Tears flowed down her cheeks before James pulled her into a tight hug, rubbing her back in a soothing manor.
"Lily, we're gonna change this. We're only two chapters into the first book and we can't keep run out of the room every chapter!" James began, wiping away Lily's cheeks. "We would never finish. We need to stick in there. For Harry." Lily mutely nodded her head as James hugged her once more. He pulled away, kissed her forehead, and led her back into the sitting room. James didn't give anyone a chance to talk as he quickly picked up the book and found the page that he left off at before reading again.
before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.
Harry lay in his dark cupboard much later, wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.
"Like a Marauder. Although I wish he won't get caught," Remus said.
He'd lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as he could remember, ever since he'd been a baby and his parents had died in that car crash. He couldn't remember being in the car when his parents had died.
"Because that's not how we died."
Sometimes, when he strained his memory during long hours in his cupboard, he came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.
Lily winced at this as James tensed. Everyone in the room seemed to let their eyes travel to Harry's forehead as he lay quietly in Mrs. Weasley's arms.
This, he supposed, was the crash, though he couldn't imagine where all the green light came from. He couldn't remember his parents at all.
James wished that somehow Harry would find out about them. He just couldn't imagine what he would be going through. He could feel his heartbreak as he stole another look at Harry. He was only almost one year old and he barely had any time with his parents. It just wasn't right.
His aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course he was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house.
When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take him away, but it had never happened;
"Where are you guys?" Frank asked the Marauders. They looked at each other and shrugged.
"Well, I probably won't get Harry because of um… some laws," Remus said before quickly continuing so no one would ask him questions. "And I can't imagine Wormtail being trusted with a child. But Padfoot," Remus said turning towards one of his best friends, "I don't know why you aren't there."
"Sir?" Sirius asked Dumbledore. Dumbledore seemed to notice this and turned his full attention towards him.
"I do not know what future events happened that I could not trust you with Harry but otherwise, I would have believed that I would."
the Dursleys were his only family. Yet sometimes he thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know him. Very strange strangers they were, too.
A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to him once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at him once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken his hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harry tried to get a closer look.
"Of course!" Alice said triumphantly. "They're wizards! Wizards that are living in the muggle world for who knows what reason but they're still wizards!" Lily smiled slightly at that. Harry wasn't completely cut off from the wizarding world.
At school, Harry had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.
"That's only because they're a bunch of gits," James commented as he finished the chapter. He turned towards his right and handed the book towards Lily. "Care to read, love?" he asked her. She sighed and nodded while he took Harry back from Mrs. Weasley.
"Chapter 3," Lily began. "The Letters From No One."
HI! I apologize for the delayed upload. But eh, life gets busy and school thinks it's amazing to drown students in homework. Anyway, hoped you liked this chapter! Until next time, bye! :)