Chapter 16

DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of the characters used in this story that honour belongs to J K Rowling and the Warner Brothers.

Harry listened as about a dozen pairs of feet thundered downstairs followed by familiar voices of Mr, Mrs, Fred, George, Ron and Ginny Weasley, Hermione Granger and Mad-Eye Moody. There was a general sound of owe as they entered the house, no one had seen a house as big as his one. He then heard Sirius greeting the guests

"Hey everyone, thank you for coming to stay here. This is 12 Grimmauld place the headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix. Why don't you all go into the kitchen for some breakfast while I go and get Harry. It was the full moon last night so Remus is still pretty tired"

Harry took that as a cue to get out of bed and quickly get changed into a long-sleeved top, he hid his blade in an ugly pair of his Uncles socks just in time for a soft knock on the door.

"Harry? Are you up? The Weasleys have just arrived" Harry was dreading seeing his friends, he had hardly slept the ight before and was tired of his life. He knew they would all be worried about him. Instead of answering he opened the door, smirked t Sirius who ruffled his hair before making their way downstairs to the kitchen. The room went from loud to silent within a matter of seconds, they all looked shocked.

Hermione was the first to speak after a matter of minutes saying what was on everyone's mind. "Oh Harry! What have you done to your leg? Why didn't you write? We were all so worried when we heard what happened" She gave him a bear hug before releasing him and he was smothered by Mrs Weasley who then pulled out a chair for him. "Oh, Harry dear, we didn't know it was this bad, what are we going to do with you" she said

"Guys, I'm okay, I promise all its going to take is a couple of weeks to heal and ill be right back to normal, hopefully before we go back to Hogwarts, now stop worrying. How are you all anyway" there was a general mumble of yeah

"Why don't I make us some breakfast" asked Sirius

"Ill give you a hand" replied Mrs Weasley as she got up and walked up to the stove, waved her wand and about a dozen eggs, sausages and rashes of bacon came floating across the room and into the pan. Ron, Hermione and Ginny then went to sit around Harry. Harry asked about their holidays had been which they replied that they played a lot of quidditch and Hermione a lot of reading, she couldn't wait until they went to Diagon ally to get the new ones.

"I've already got mine" said Harry bluntly "I don't think ill be coming to Diagon ally when you go"

"Oh, come on Harry, its so much fun usually, we can go into the joke shop and get ice cream!" said Ron Excitedly. Ginny seemed to understand though

"Harry has his books already because he can't very well go and hobble around Diagon ally wen it is filled with people, he is bound to get knocked over or pull more attention than usual and he needs to recover before school starts back"

"Ginny is right Ronald, Harry has done the sensible thing. But Harry, are you sure you are ok after what happened at the end of last year?"

"Thanks Guys, and yes Hermione, I'm fine" said Harry trying even harder than usual to be normal, trying to ignore the screaming thoughts in his head. He had to cut soon, or he was going to burst. He was glad when breakfast was on the table and everyone was eating. Harry didn't want to eat he felt sick, but quickly ate about half of the food before excusing himself to the bathroom. He threw up the meal and cleaned the bathroom up before making his way back to the kitchen.

"We are going to Diagon Ally tomorrow Harry le me know if you need anything while we are gone" said Mrs Weasley "Sirius has told me you have already go your books"

"Yes thanks" Harry replied "Hermione, Ron, Ginny do you want to go to the library?"

"Yes, that would be great I'd love to add a few more inches on my Potions and transfiguration essays"

"I'm sure you will find lots of books up there on transfiguration, Hermione, these are the books I used to become an animagus" implied Sirius "Just be quiet, we have a very grumpy werewolf upstairs". The foursome nodded and quietly made their way upstairs into the library.

Hermione and Ginny, instantly in awe of the books set off looking for one she thought was interesting. Ron sat on one of the comfortable chairs and fell asleep. Harry rolled his eyes and went to look for a particular book about Glamour charms, he had heard Remus talking about it to Sirius the other night.

After about half an hour of searching he found a book and flicked through it before placing it in his bag. He then joined Hermione and Ginny on the table doing homework. Somehow, he felt he could concentrate a bit better with them there. He didn't know if it was the pressure or just wanting to be normal that kept him going the whole day. He managed o scrap together a piece for each homework.

They all had dinner together and had an early night because the others had to get up early to go to Diagon Ally. Harry went to the bathroom with his blade after Ron (who he was sharing a room with) fell asleep, he crept quietly into the bathroom and locked the door, he made sure no one was awake before he threw up dinner which made him feel a little less sick. He cleaned up the mess before sitting n the toilet et and rolled up his sleeve. Quickly and smoothly he sliced his arm 5 times, each one deeper than the next. He felt some sort of better, at least numb for a while at least.

After quite a long time in the bathroom he cleaned up and made sure his cuts weren't bleeding by wrapping an old teatowel around it. He then made his way back to the bedroom and fell into a restless sleep.

"Harry! Harry! Wake up" cried Ron, shaking the jet back haired boy. Harry took his initiative and pulled out his wand and pointed it a Ron "Woah, its me Harry your best mate, Ron"

"Ssssorry Ron" replied Harry shaking

"Are you ok?" asked Ron, concerned because he had never seen his friend act like this

"Yeah, I'm fine, bad dream, its alright, go back to bed" Ron nodded and went back to sleep quite quickly. Harry lie awake in the silence, annoyed at himself for waking Ron up. No one knew why he acted like that, he couldn't tell them what had happened over the summer for waking people up or doing anything bad. Harry had a feeling that the Order had written to his Uncle the night before picking him up, that's why he didn't do anything.

It was a long restless night and when he was called for breakfast he got up tiredly and made his way down with Ron who had yet said nothing about the previous night. They had breakfast in silence, luckily everyone else was looking tired too. They were going to leave at 10, Sirius was going with them, Remus wasn't fit enough yet and Mrs Weasley said Harry needed more sleep. The Weasleys, Hermione and Sirius flooed to the leaky cauldron leaving Harry alone with a sleeping Remus upstairs.

He took this opportunity to use the book, knowing there was a magical block on the house, so everyone could do magic. He went to his room and got out the book from the library the previous day. He read the first few chapters before he rolled up his sleeve, grimacing at the cuts before muttering the spell "Vulnus Expleret" instantly his cuts faded a lot, he repeated the spell here ties before they were all covered. He then read:

"The glamour charm has to be renewed every 4 days or before if the wounds reappear, the glamour's will fall if you are in extreme panic, danger or are emotionally unstable. This charm should work for most wounds, bruises, tattoos and injuries. The charm might not cover the injuries or tattoos if they are significant or you will need a very powerful magic to do so. The charm will wear the more you use it and you might need to step up in the complexity of the spell if used for an extensive time period"

That should work he thought, he listened around to see if Remus was awake. He wasn't. So, Harry took off his shirt and looked in the mirror at himself. Looking back at him was a very thin 15-year-old, his ribs stuck out a few at funny angles. His torso was black, blue, red and yellow, some welts were still open. He then turned around and looked at his back in the mirror, it was worse, you could see his spine sticking out of his back, his usually pale skin covered in the same colours, more open welts shaped oddly like belt marks. He couldn't look at it anymore.

Suddenly images flashed across his eyes, his Uncle had him from the neck and was taking off his belt. Harry curled into a ball, whined like a wounded dog and waited for the impact that never came. The images stopped as suddenly as they started. He heard Remus arousing, he quickly did some glamour's to cover all the damage, he looked a lot better once he had finished. Harry just put his shirt back on as Remus knocked o come in, Harry started to panic suddenly thinking Remus would know…

Note: This was a long one, wat do you guys think? Please review. Thank you all for reading and enjoying the story. Maybe one or two chapters they will go back to Hogwarts which will shake things up… what do you think? Thanks again TR