Return to Private Drive

Harry Potter stood alone on the steps to number four Private Drive. The Knight Bus had just left in a bang with Hagrid and now Harry stood there surrounded by bags and an owl cage.

Harry was a little worried about the type of reception he could expect from the Dursleys after this rather eventful two days. He still remembered the implied threat he had received from his uncle that morning.

Bending down, he opened Hedwig's cage.

"Out you go girl, come see me tonight and we'll see if it's safe for you to come in then."

The owl looked at him with bright, intelligent eyes, giving him a questioning look and took off, landing in a tree on the property of number four.

Gathering his courage and his bags, Harry opened the door to his relatives house.

Everything seemed to be normal. By the sounds of things, someone was watching television in the living room and his aunt was cooking supper in the kitchen.

Harry poked his head into the living room. His cousin, Dudley, who was watching one of his favorite shows on the television looked up.

"Oh, your back."

Dudley sounded annoyed about something.

"Da! The freaks back!"

Vernon Dursley entered the living room. He did not seem happy but he did not appear to be in a towering rage either. He appeared rather to be resigned.

"Dudley, why don't you go and finish up your show in your room. I have to talk to ... Harry" he spat out the name as if it were something vile and poisonous "for a bit."

Amazingly enough, Dudley shut of the television and walked up the stairs without a single word of complaint. He did however throw a disgusted look to his cousin before leaving the living room.

"Now boy. We had a chat with that Dumbledorf character this morning and it has been decided that you can go to that ... that ruddy school of yours."

Harry was ecstatic. He had not dared to hope that this would happen. He didn't know what Dumbledore had told the Dursleys to make them agree to this but he would be sure to get him a Christmas gift.

Vernon Dursley apparently had seen the look of joy on Harry's face.

"Your just lucky we found out that the costs were taken care of or else you would be going to Stonewall high and I don't care what anyone would have said. Actually, this works out for us all since it means we won't have to see you for more than a few months a year during the summer."

Amazingly enough, this actually hurt Harry. He knew his relatives didn't like him but hearing it said in so many words for the first time still made an impact.

"Now, as for your living arrangements while you ARE here. Your getting too big for that cupboard of your's so were giving you Dudley's second bedroom. Move your things up there before supper."

Now it all made sense. That was why Dudley had looked at him like that. He had lost his second bedroom and had been unable to convince his parents to give it back. Dudley was not used to not having everything he wanted.

"Uhm ... uncle Vernon. Dudley sure does have a lot of things in there. Where is he going to store all of it."

"That's none of your concern BOY. We'll work something out."

Harry had a plan. Hopefully this would alleviate some of the problems with his relatives.

"Well, it's just that I was thinking. The attic is pretty empty and if we threw some of the things out I could maybe make myself a bedroom up there and that way Dudley could keep his second bedroom. It wouldn't take much effort to make it livable in there. A good cleaning and maybe a little bit of paint?" he put in hopefully.

Vernon Dursley sat in his reading chair considering this for a time. They had had quite a bit of trouble calming Dudley down after telling him that Harry would be taking over his second bedroom. Dudley had thrown a proper tantrum but after what that Dumbleworth fellow had said, there really was no alternative. Petunia had explained about the wizarding prison and it was certainly not a place that Vernon Dursley wanted to spend any extent of time.

"Fine. We have some paint left over in the garage you can use. You can get to it tomorrow. For tonight you can sleep in the guest room."

Harry was ecstatic. The attic was huge. He would have the biggest room in the house. Now all he needed to do was tell his uncle about Hedwig.

"Uhm ... uncle Vernon?"

"What NOW boy?"

"Well, Hagrid. You know, that really tall man that was with the headmaster this morning?"

Vernon gave a grunt of ascent.

"Well, he ...uhm, he bought me a birthday gift. He said he was a friend of my parents from when they went to school." Harry was rather nervous about this, it was really pushing his luck and he was very worried for the beautiful bird.

"And?"

"Well, it's a pet."

"Well you can bloody well tie it up in the back yard and if the barks wake up the neighbors we are getting it put down."

This was not going so well.

"Well, it's not a dog. It's an ... owl."

At this the elder Dursley did a rather good imitation of Hedwig. His eyes were blinking rapidly in confusion and his head started to tilt to the side.

"You see, wizards use owls to deliver post and post owls are much smarter than normal owls and they are really clean and self-sufficient ..." Harry was saying all of this as fast as he could in the hopes of overwhelming his uncle into submission.

"An owl? A bloody owl? A bloody, disease ridden bird?"

"Actually uncle Vernon, I think your thinking of pigeons. She's very clean, very smart, can hunt for her own food and I'll make sure she stays in my room."

Vernon was breathing hard. He had tried to be patient but this was pushing him to the limit.

"FINE!" he spat out. "But you'd better keep her under control because the moment she causes any trouble we have her put down."

The rest of the evening went rather well even with the tension. The Dursleys were mainly ignoring Harry and that was at least marginally better than verbal abuse. He had also received a full portion of food.

Dudley was rather happy to get his second bedroom back and from then on started to ignore Harry like his parents were doing.

After supper Harry packed up his meager possessions from his cupboard and brought them into the guest room. Hedwig had flown up to the window and was allowed into the room. She perched herself on the end of the bed and stood there blinking at him and cooing softly.

Harry started replaying some of the conversations he had had during the day. Hagrid seemed worried about Voldemort not truly being dead and to be honest, this worried Harry as well. The restriction on underaged magic made it so that he could not practice magic during the summer while at home. This was really a biased restriction considering that purebloods were not monitored in this way.

'You know. I think this is one of those moments where I should suggest a course of action.'

'What about Silias?'

'Well, apparently you defeated an evil dark wizard. Your friend Hagrid seemed worried he might not be truly gone. Your uncle appears a little temperamental.'

'A little temperamental? I think that's like saying that Hagrid is a midget.' Sillias gave a small laugh at this. 'So what should I do?'

'Well, nothing this summer but during the year we should get you to learn wandless magic and mage sight. At least enough so that you can tamper with the sensor here to allow you to practice your magic during the summer. Knowing how to do things is no real replacement for actual practice.'

'I'd be able to do that?'

'Well your magical core won't be large enough for you to do much wandless magic and mage sight is very difficult to master but we can probably get you to a point by the end of the year where you'd be able to change the sensor around this area. I'll work out a subliminal lesson plan for this for the summer and then when you are at school we can work on the practical aspect. Of course, if we don't get far enough we could always build an inhibitor to cover your room.'

Harry lay down on the guest bed thinking about the changes that had occurred in his life over the last two days. Hedwig flew over to him and landed on his chest letting him pet her feathers.

He was a wizard, he was famous, he was rich, he was going to be away from Private Drive most of the year, he was no longer to be locked in a cupboard, he had proper clothing, he was getting proper amounts of food, he had an awesome companion.

Yes, things were certainly looking up.