"The Vanishing Glass," the book readout.
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.
"Well that's not surprising" Daphne muttered.
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-coloured bonnets
"Harry, you need to be like this more often!" Fred yelled as he and George were laughing with Lee Jordan.
but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, 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.
"Harry, why don't you have any pictures?"Remus asked looking over at Harry, who seemed to want to sink in on himself.
Harry just shrugged "I don't like taking pictures" though no one looked like they believed him. It just made him try harder not to look anyone in the eyes.
Yet Harry Potter was still there, 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!"
Harry flinched slightly remembering when that would happen. Now though his body is so used to it, he just gets up on his own.
Harry woke up 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.
"But your room was nowhere near the kitchen" George started.
Harry didn't say anything.
"Yeah when we went to go get you your room was on the second floor" Fred finished
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.
There was barking coming from underneath the Gryffindor table.
His aunt was back outside the door.
"Are you up yet?" she demanded.
"Give him a minute!" Ginny and Cho Chang yelled. They both looked at each other before looking away. Harry just blushed from the outburst from the two girls.
"Nearly," said Harry.
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon.
And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."
"She's making you cook" Katie, Alicia, Angelina, Hermione and Molly screamed.
"It's fine really it's no big deal" Harry replied quietly playing with his hands. Someone grabbed his hands causing him to look up.
"Harry, the fact you don't see that this isn't right is part of the problem," Katie said to him while looking him in the eyes.
"Harry, Katie is right, you were 10 you shouldn't have been using any of that stuff, it's dangerous," Hermione told him. He just nodded, but not really accepting what they were saying.
Harry groaned.
"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.
"He didn't say anything," Susan shouted.
"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,
Ron cringed. He hated spiders. "why must you explain so well mate" he tried to joke but he could see it wasn't helping.
because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them,
Everyone was confused. Why was he talking about a cupboard?
and that was where he slept.
The room was totally silent. You would be able to hear a pin drop.
Until it wasn' was screaming in outrage. The savior of the wizarding world was abused. Many conversations and yelling matches were going on at once.
Girls were crying. The boys sat there stunned.
Snape was confused. Potter arrogant Potter wasn't treated like a prince. But no he got away with everything, just like his father.
Draco didn't know what to think, everything he thought about Potter was wrong.
Everyone looked over as McGonagall was yelling at Dumbledore "I TOLD YOU NOT TO LEAVE HIM THERE. I TOLD YOU THEY WEREN'T GOOD PEOPLE. BUT YOU SAID IT WAS FOR THE BEST. HE IS NOT GOING BACK THERE ALBUS. HE'LL STAY WITH ME IF HE HAS TO."
Dumbledore wasn't saying anything. All the twinkle in his eyes was lost and he was just staring at nothing.
Remus was trying to control his anger and was having to hold back Snuffles from attacking Dumbledore with Tonks who's hair was now red.
Molly seemed to want to scream but was crying with Arthur comforting her.
Bill and Charlie were angry. They had spent time with Harry over the past summers and he was a good kid, how could they do this to him. They were both promising to show the Dursleys what they were capable of and to have them become dragon food.
Ron didn't know what to do, how could he have not noticed. He lived with him and they spent time during the summers together.
Hermione was one of the ones screaming while also crying for her friend. He always told her he didn't like going back there, but she didn't think it was this bad. How could she not have noticed?
The quidditch team was angry, they weren't yelling, they were just angry. Harry little Harry, the little brother of everyone on the quidditch team, how could they not have noticed. But now that they think about it they should've. When he joined the team they would give him hugs or pat on the back and he would always flinch. And he would never know how to take a compliment like it was so foreign to him. Fred and George were angry at themselves, they broke him out of his house they should've known. They should've tried harder after their mom didn't believe them.
Harry didn't say anything, just looked down at the table. Everyone is going to find out everything he's tried to hide for so many years. Maybe his uncle was right, he is weak.
He looked at his team and flinched. Of course, they're mad he's supposed to be the wizard that protects everyone but he can't even protect himself. He lied to everyone, he's not who they think he is. Of course, they saw this and knew what he was thinking. He felt himself get pulled into a hug by Angelina.
"We're not mad at you okay? So get that out of your head"
"but-"
"No Harry none of this is your fault and we're not going to think less of you for it alright?" Alicia said from across the table.
"They're right Harry, we know what you're thinking okay? We're not going to think anything less of you and we're certainly not going to leave you alright" Katie ended from across the table.
Harry nodded in acceptance and hugged Angelina tighter, he had a feeling he was going to need it for this chapter. "just...don't let go, please. At least for this chapter", he whispered into her shoulder.
She kissed him on his head "never" holding him tighter. Fred started running his hand through Harry's hair knowing it calmed him down.
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. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise
Everyone looked disgusted at how spoiled he was.
unless of course, it involved punching somebody.
"He better not mean you" George growled along with Snuffles.
Dudley's favourite punching bag was Harry,but he couldn't often catch him. Harry didn't look at it, but he was very fast.
Almost everyone growled.
"You know Harry, you are really fast. Ron and I always have a hard time trying to keep up with you" Hermione told him
Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard,but Harry had always been small and skinny for his age.
With all the glares the book was getting you would think it would explode into flames.
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,and bright green eyes.
Remus smiled fondly "that's exactly how your father looked like"
He wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape,because of all the times, Dudley had punched him on the nose.
Hermione remembered all the times she had to fix Harry's glasses.
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.
"you liked your scar," Neville asked. He knew how much Harry hated his scar.
"Well, I didn't know what it meant then" Harry replied.
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. "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.
None of the Ravenclaws were happy about this.
Up at the staff table, the professors were having a conversation.
"Does Mr. Potter ever ask questions in any of your classes?" Professor Flitwick asked the others. They all shook their heads.
"Well, what could we do?"Professor Sprout asked.
"I say for now we can seek him out if he seems to be struggling to show that it's okay to ask questions and for help" Professor McGonagall answered. The other nodded while Snape just scoffed.
"If Potter wants to ask questions then he will but I doubt his little mind will be able to think of any '' he sneered while the other professors glared and Dumbledore just looked disappointed.
"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.
"I'll never be able to control my hair," Harry laughed a little.
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.
Everyone started laughing again, especially the twins who had to lean on Harry and Katie for support.
"Please Harry come pranking with us, we could use your brain," Fred said in between his laughing.
"I agree with my dear brother Harry you would be a great addition," George told him.
Harry smirked and nodded, causing the twins to cheer and the girls to show a hint of fear and groan at the trouble that they were gonna cause.
"Katie you get responsibility for Harry since Ang and I got George and Fred" Alicia spoke as she looked between the three boys who had mischievous smiles on their faces. She was glad to see Harry smiling again.
Katie looked at Harry then the twins and then the two other chasers. She put her head in her hands and groaned. She looked back at Harry who was smiling at her,
"please Harry for the love of Merlin do not be worse than the twins"
"Don't worry Katie I won't be too much trouble Marauders honor" he smiled while holding his hand over his heart.
"Yeah, marauders honor" the twins chorused.
The chasers eyed the three of them "I'm watching you Potter" Katie told him with narrowed eyes.
Hermione looked on with a frown and Ron with a look of jealousy. The twins never asked him to go pranking with them. And Harry never really opened up as he did with his team to them.
And if you look closely you could see a small smile on Remus and Snuffle's faces. Silently promising themselves to give Harry their book of all their prank ideas.
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."
"Even I don't get that many" Draco exclaimed.
"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.
"This boy needs to learn some manners" stated
"Mum, that whole family does" Bill answered.
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…"
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
All the professors looked troubled at that. How can a child at that age not know how to count?
"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.
"How is he encouraging this?" Tonks exclaimed.
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 aeroplane, 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.
"He has a name you know," Hannah said. She was hating this family more and more as this story went on.
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.
"Oh yes, my 10-year-old brother was able to plan this" Angelina growled.
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.
"Harry," Hermione scolded. Harry just shrugged.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."
"Don't worry the feeling is mutual" Harry grumbled so only those around him could hear.
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.
"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 would've," Daphne mumbled. She doesn't understand how Potter could deal with these muggles.
"I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave him in the car…"
"That's illegal!" all the muggleborns shouted. Knowing what would happen if he were to be left there.
"That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone…"
All the muggleborns and halfbloods looked angry at this.
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.
"That child is so ungrateful" Madam Bones whispered to Moody.
"Ungrateful is being too kind to them" he responded and she could only nod knowing he was right.
"Dinky Duddydums, 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.
"This kid annoys me," Lavender told Parvati who nodded her agreement.
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.
Harry just groaned. Of course, he had compared him to a rat.
Dudley stopped pretending to cry at 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.
Everyone frowned at this (except most of the Slytherins). Harry shouldn't have lived like this.
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."
At this point, Amelia was writing down a list of events hoping to charge the Dursleys with as much as they could.
"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly…"
But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.
Almost everyone in the hall looked guilty at this knowing at one point or another they believed lies about him.
The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.
"They knew it was me but I didn't know it was me," said Harry.
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."
Growls could be heard throughout the hall. Snuffles came and put his head in Harry's lap, having Harry pet him.
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.
"Harry, could you be a Metamorphmagus?" Tonks asked. Because accidental magic couldn't do that.
Harry shrugged "I'm not sure I've never really tried anything before and that's the only time it's happened"
"Actually now that I think about it Harry your hair never grows" Hermione commented. The three chasers nodded in agreement, they played with his hair a lot, and now that they think about it never grew.
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.
Amelia and Kingsley started writing this down. At the rate they were going they would have enough to get them locked away for a long time.
Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).
Parvati and Lavender cringed at this.
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.
"yeah only because it could have a logical explanation to it" muttered Harry
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.
Dumbledore was surprised at that. The boy is much more powerful than he thought.
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 trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that the wind must have caught him in mid-jump.
But today, nothing was going to go wrong.
"That's the spirit Harry" shouted Tonks.
Remus just chuckled at her actions.
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 favourite subjects.
"I think he really likes talking about you Harry" George piped up laughing to himself.
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."
His team just groaned at their youngest teammates' lack of thinking before he spoke. Causing said teammate to blush.
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 moustache
"MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"
Snuffles could be heard barking at this.
Dudley and Piers sniggered.
"I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."
Harry smiled "No it wasn't"
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.
"Well that's nothing new," Alicia said teasingly towards Harry.
He just stuck his tongue out at her.
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.
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.
"Harry-" Fred started
"Don't insult the gorilla-" George continued
"that's very rude-"
"you have to go back and apologize to it now"
"I'm so sorry I don't know what I was thinking," Harry said dryly, shaking his head.
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 favourite 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 felt, afterwards, that he should have known it was all too good to last.
Harry sighed.
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.
The Slytherins didn't look happy about that.
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.
Everyone smiled at that image.
Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.
"Make it move," he whined at his father. 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.
"Harry shouldn't be able to compare himself to a snake in a zoo" Remus turned to Tonks.
Tonks grabbed his hand "I know Remus but we can't do anything to change the past, all we can do is make sure he doesn't go back there"
Remus nodded along, accepting what she said.
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.
"But they can't wink that's impossible!" one of the Ravenclaws shouted.
"Ah, but don't you know? Impossible is what Harrykins is best at" Fred started.
"Yes, yes you are right dear brother it's even in his name" George continued.
"Harry James Impossible Potter" they both finished.
Harry just snorted and shook his head far too use to their antics.
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.
"Of course you would wink back," Alicia smiled, shaking her head.
"It's really not that surprising," Katie spoke.
"No it isn't, this is our brother we're talking about"George added from where he was sitting.
Harry just smiled at the three of them.
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."
"I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."
"Why are you having a conversation with a snake?" Hermione looked over and asked.
Harry looked over and shrugged "why not"
Hermione rolled her eyes and Harry had to fight the urge to roll his.
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!"
Everyone just groaned.
Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.
Now everyone laughed.
"Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.
And now everyone growled.
Caught by surprise, Harry fell hard on the concrete floor.
Everyone continued to growl.
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.
"Oh" everyone echoed. Finally understanding the title of the chapter.
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."
"Well at least it has manners unlike some people '' Fred told George.
"Indeed it does brother of mine" George responded.
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,
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?"
"Shut up!" All the kids yelled.
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," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.
"That is not a punishment" shouted all the professors.
"You are definitely not getting out of a check-up ," Madam Pomfrey told him from the table.
Harry could hear Remus mumbling under his breath and Snuffles was sitting at his feet.
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.
"You shouldn't have had to sneak out to get food cub," Remus told Harry.
"I know but there's nothing I can do about it now Uncle Moony" they both froze realizing what Harry said. He has no idea why he just said it, it just sort of happened.
And Remus didn't know what to think. He hasn't been called that in years, and he just came to terms with being called Professor Lupin. But now he's feeling a sort of happiness he hasn't felt in forever. He liked it, he looked over to Harry and smiled, who smiled back.
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.
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.
"How can he remember that Ron it was so long ago" Hermione whispered with her head down.
Ron wrapped his arm around her "I don't know Hermione, I don't know"
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. 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; the Dursleys were his only family.
Snuffle whimpered. If he hadn't given Harry to Hagrid and had taken him instead of going after that rat then Harry could've had a childhood.
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.
Susan shook her head "well that's rude".
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.
Astoria looked over to her older sister "That would get annoying very quickly" causing Daphne to nod.
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.
"He does now" Remus, Tonks, the Weasleys, Hermione, and his quidditch team yelled, causing him to blush.
"And that is the end of the chapter," said Dumbledore.
" I believe it's time we head to the medical wing" Madam Pomfrey spoke from the front table. Causing Harry to freeze.
Harry felt a hand grab his shoulder. Looking to his right he saw Fred with concern in his eyes.
"Want a couple of us to go with you little brother?" he asked, getting a nod in response. Fred smiled, getting up along with Angelina in an unspoken agreement to let those two go as the oldest in the group. Fred wrapped an arm around Harry bringing him closer to his side. Once again getting jealous looks from Ron and Hermione. Harry noticed that Remus also got up with Snuffles following him. All of them walked out of the great hall and to the hospital wing.