Harry Potter glared silently at his bedroom wall as he tried to think of what to do about the lack of information he was receiving from his friends. He managed to get over his feelings of seeing Cedric dying in front of him by writing all of his feelings in a plain notebook that doubles as a journal. Now he painstakingly combed the news and daily paper for anything that might indicated Voldemort. He had even sent a note to Hermione four days previous asking simply what she was having for dinner that night. Hedwig did not return but he did receive an owl from Dumbledore saying that he had placed the owl under Hagrid's care until Harry returned to Hogwarts on September 1.

That settled any doubts in his mind that the old man had gone too far. Now he just needed to think about an appropriate response.

"Boy, get down here and get your chores done!" his Uncle Vernon shouted. Harry sighed and left his room to go weed the flowerbeds and prune the bushes.

Harry had finished the weeding first and was going to the shed to get the rose snips when the smells of unwashed body and alcohol reached his nose. He followed the odor behind the shed in the yard and heard a light snoring sound coming from behind it. He looked but saw nothing but the sound was coming from a flattened area in the grass.

The scarred teen narrowed his eyes as he carefully felt the ground until his fingers found the edge of a cloak and carefully lifted and opened it. The smell of body odor increased as the sleeping man was revealed. He had no clue whom this vile person was but he knew it was a wizard and likely a guard of some kind. He knew that if Uncle Vernon saw this man, Harry would pay the price for the person even being on the property.

But then an evil idea crossed Harry's chain of thought. He slowly smiled as years of knowing how his Uncle thought paid off. After deftly pulling back the invisibility cloak mostly off the soundly sleeping man he placed the rose snips beside the sleeping form. He turned and silently walked back into the house.

"Why are you inside boy?" Vernon Dursley asked as he looked up from his television viewing.

"Uncle Vernon, do we still have your old cricket bat in the garage? We have a trespasser in the yard and I was hoping to shoo him off," Harry stated as he looked at the door to the garage.

"Trespasser?" Vernon asked with a snarl.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon. I know no wizard will take a person seriously without a stick in your hand so I figured the cricket bat might work instead of a wand," Harry said in an offhand manner.

"One of your sort? Trespassing on my property?" Vernon almost bellowed.

"Drunk and sleeping it off as well. What would the neighbors think when they catch wind of him? He must not have bathed in weeks."

Vernon was up and out of his chair and opening the garage door as if he had apparated. He was back with bat in hand before Harry could even enter the garage after him.

"If anyone is going to shoo one of your sort off my property it is going to be ME!" Vernon stated fiercely as he strode into the yard.

Harry pointed out the sleeping form to Vernon who grew more and more red in the face as he looked on. A Freak was sleeping in HIS yard. Not only that, the Freak was stinking up the place and in plain sight of #6 if they had looked over the hedge.

"Aren't those your good rose snips next to him, Uncle Vernon? I was looking for those to prune Aunt Petunia's roses just now," Harry whispered from behind his uncle.

Vernon Dursley was not the most charitable of men at times. He was not going to abide a thief in his yard taking his things in the slightest. He was tempted to swing at the man's head and lay it open but that might lead to too many questions from the police so he rapped the sleeping man with a hard blow to the thigh instead.

The man awoke instantly with a cry of pain. He tried to jump to his feet but found himself unable to stand with his badly bruised leg.

"Hey, what's all this then?" he called out bleary eyed and focused on Vernon. "Oh, you're going to pay for that Muggle."

The man then fumbled in his over sized coat and dropped a few pieces of jewelry as he tried to get his wand.

Vernon smiled like the Grinch planning to steal Christmas. He had been threatened and this man was dropping stolen property at the same time. It would be self defense in anyone's eyes.

"Bowler," Vernon said with a chuckle as he swung the bat right into the wizard's nose.

London Times

Local Man Captured Serial Burglar.

Little Winging, Surrey. July 23, 1995 In Little Winging a local man, Vernon Dursley, captured a man wanted in connection with a long string of burglaries in the Greater London area. Numerous closed circuit television recordings provided to the police show the as yet unidentified man stealing from jewelry stores and other places of business around the city.

Mr. Dursley said when asked that he was simply defending his home from a trespasser who was long unwashed and reeking of alcohol and sleeping in his yard. When he woke the man, Mr. Dursley said he was threatened and struck down the trespasser in self defense. The story was backed up by his nephew whose name was withheld as he is a minor and a neighbor who looked over the fence when he heard shouting.

Police were grateful to Mr. Dursley for his actions and intend to give the man the posted reward by several businesses for the capture and arraignment of the burglar. The local prosecutor claims a strong case and sees little to impede a swift conviction.

Well Done Mr. Dursley.