Disclaimer - I own nothing you recognise.

Word Count: 354

Auction Prompt: Day 27, Auction 1: Theme: Isolation

Hard To Identify

The house was quiet.

The Dursleys were out, they had been quite a lot this summer, more than usual. Something to do with Aunt Petunia encouraging Dudley to move more, though she still fed him more food than any one person should, so it wasn't making a massive difference to his waistline.

Even Hedwig was gone, flying free in a way that made Harry feel jealous, even as he felt guilty for being so.

She deserved freedom.

Didn't he deserve freedom, though?

He hadn't heard anything from his friends all summer, and the Order were being quiet. Even Sirius hadn't really written to him, apart from a letter telling him to keep his head down and not to start any trouble.

Rich, really, when one thought of the source of the letter.

He was completely alone, and for Harry, that was a dangerous thing.

It gave him too much time to think, too much time to reflect on things that probably shouldn't be reflected on.

Like the graveyard.

Like Cedric.

Like the fact that despite facing Voldemort and escaping, yet again, he still wasn't being told anything.

He was still being left alone in the dark, wondering what was coming but being told nothing, leaving him with no way to prepare for anything.

He hated summer always, but this one had been particularly hard.

Even his friends—holed up together—were ignoring him.

It hurt, and he knew he was probably being unreasonable, but the isolation this year was even worse than his summers usually were, and he wasn't sure how much longer he was going to be expected to just… deal with it.

To just accept that this was apparently another one of those things that Harry Potter would have to live with, because it didn't matter if he was happy as long as he was kept out of the way.

Harry heard a glass break, and he tilted his head towards the door as it unlocked on it's own.

He thought, maybe, that he might finally be getting some answers. But then… he'd still be isolated, wouldn't he?

Who could identify with the Boy-Who-Lived?