Do you guys want to see some other points of view? I've been writing so far from Will's point of view, but I could do Harry's or someone else's. I could also do a side story where there are other points of view for chapters I've already written, like I could write exactly what went down in the Principal's office from mum's point of view. That kind of thing.
The mini-vacation to the beach was fun. Will, his brother, and Harry all got matching sunburns on their shoulders. Apparently Harry had never even seen the ocean before. How can you live on an island and have never gone to the beach before? The Dursleys, that's how. Will's tenth birthday was fun as well. It was the seventeenth of May, the sun was shining all day, and Will got all of the things he asked for. Mostly books, but there were some toys and games as well. Harry seemed just as excited about it as Will was, but he'd probably never been invited to a birthday party before.
Once their suspension was finished Harry and Will headed back to school, somewhat worried about Dudley's retaliation. Harry wasn't looking forward to going back to the Dursleys, either. On one of his astral projection snooping trips, Will overheard his parents talking about it.
"I just wish we could take him for the whole week." Dad was saying. He and Harry got along very well, seeing as Harry was willing to listen to dad's sports rants and watch the games with him. The only others willing to do that were mum (because she loved him, not for any real interest in sports) and his sister Alice (who was as wild about sports as dad was, so she didn't count). Will had never really cared about sports, and his brother Liam was in the same boat.
"It's not for a lack of trying," Mum added, "I've been trying to obtain custody, but someone wants him to stay with the Dursleys so badly that they're willing to spend the time to make sure it doesn't happen. You have no idea the number of legal hoops I've been having to jump through, just to be told that the paperwork was lost, or I missed some key piece of info that means I have to start all over again. I swear, one time a woman told me, point blank, that she'd never seen me before, when I know I spoke to her just the other day. There's no way these are all accidents. Who would want a child to stay with their abusers? I just don't understand!" Mum cried, and dad reached an arm around her to comfort her.
"We just have to focus on what we can do, instead of what we can't." Dad said, "We can be there for Harry, and keep our eyes on the Dursleys. As long as we're watching, they can't hurt him."
"There's more than one kind of hurt, Brian! What about the emotional damage? The psychological? I get that those are harder to prove, but they still hurt. That child is hurting, and there's nothing we can do!" She cried, and as dad moved to comfort her again, Will flew back upstairs to fill Harry in on what he'd heard.
Harry had been distressed to learn that he'd have to continue to stay with the Dursleys part of the week for the foreseeable future, but had been touched to hear how hard they'd been trying to help him. He gave Will's mum a hug for the first time that morning.
School actually went better than expected. Will wasn't sure why, but Dudley and his gang stayed out of Will and Harry's way. Malcolm shot them nervous glances all throughout class, and bolted as soon as the teacher dismissed them. That suited Will just fine, good riddance.
Things fell into a routine after that. Sundays were the best, with the entirety of the day spent at Will's house, goofing off and having fun. Mondays and Thursdays would start with Harry at Will's, and end with him back with the Dursleys. Harry and Will would spend as much of the time after school as possible at the library, and only around dinner time would Harry head to Number 4. It always hurt to see Harry wave goodbye during these moments.
Tuesdays and Fridays were hard as well, seeing Harry so unhappy. Wednesdays and Saturdays were the opposite of Mondays and Thursdays. They started at the Dursleys and ended at the Nelsons. Seeing as Saturdays were the only day the Dursleys had him that wasn't a school day, that was when they had him doing all of his chores. But they had realized that with Will's mum and dad watching, they couldn't overload him with work. (Will was also pretty sure they had moved Harry into Dudley's second bedroom, if the broken greenhouse window was anything to go by. He just hoped the tortoise was okay.)
They still had him doing some chores though, usually washing dishes and dusting shelves, but it was somewhat satisfying to see Petunia on her hands and knees, pulling weeds. Will and Harry had a laugh when Harry mentioned how much his aunt detested dirt. It was hopefully a lesson the Dursleys would remember, that if you want something, you'll have to work for it. Even Dudley had to do chores now, although he only did them halfheartedly so someone else would have to do it again.
Soon the school year ended, and summer break had arrived. This was roughly when Will, after weeks of frustrating physical therapy sessions Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, was finally able to put away his wheelchair. They'd had a little party about that. This was also about the time Harry and Will had an interesting conversation.
"Can you teach me?" Harry asked one night when they were in bed. By this point mum and dad had bought a little trundle bed that slid under Will's bed during the daytime for Harry to sleep on. Mum and dad were working on a more permanent solution, but that was a surprise for later.
"Wuzzat?" Will asked, half asleep.
"Never mind, I'll let you sleep." Harry said, seemingly nervous.
"No," Will said, more awake now, "It's okay, what did you say?"
"I was wondering, have been for a while now," Harry began hesitantly, "Can you teach me to astral project too?"
Will sat up, pondering Harry's question. Could he teach someone else to do it? Magic was probably required to astral project, Will wouldn't want to try without it. But was it even possible?
"I don't know?" He answered honestly, "I might be able to, I have a couple ideas I could try, but it might be dangerous, you know?"
"I'd still like to try, if you're willing." Harry said seriously. If he knew the risks, and was still willing, Will was willing to try.
"Okay," Will nodded.
So they added that to their daily routine as well. Every night Harry slept over, after Will's parents had tucked them in, they'd sit on Will's bed and try to get Harry to astral project. It wasn't going well. Harry's soul stayed stubbornly in his body, seemingly no matter what they did.
While they were distracted with that, mum and dad were distracted with their own secret project. They were able to keep the kids distracted with moving Will's room from the first floor to the second. He'd miss seeing the cloud paintings every day, but his dad was apparently putting an office in there, and would be keeping the paint already on the walls (for sentimental reasons, probably.)
Will hadn't even noticed they were up to something, what with preparing for Harry's Birthday. As far as he was aware, Harry wasn't expecting anything, but Will still wanted to give Harry his first real birthday party that he could remember. They weren't inviting anyone else, just Will's family and Harry, but it should still be fun. Harry's birthday unfortunately fell on a Tuesday this year, so they had decided to celebrate the day after. Harry was surprised when they told him, not because they weren't celebrating on his actual birthday, but that they were celebrating it at all.
The party ended up going really well. Harry had a blast as far as Will could tell, but the creme of the crop was when mum and dad showed them what they'd been sneakily working on. It was a bedroom for Harry. Mum and dad sat them down and told them that they'd wanted to make a place that was a safe space for Harry. His own private room that he could do whatever he wanted with.
Harry had been so thankful he'd actually said, "I've never had a place that felt like home before." Will's smile cracked at that. Here's hoping that him saying that didn't break the wards on Privet Drive!
Everything seemed to be going really well, the only thing that wasn't was getting Harry to astral project. It wasn't until some time in September, after the new school year started, that they had their breakthrough.
Will had been sitting across from Harry on the bed, as Harry scrunched up his face, trying to astral project again.
"Maybe we're going about this the wrong way." Will thought out loud.
Harry let out the breath he'd been holding and relaxed, "What do you mean?"
"Well," Will replied, "We've been trying to get you to do it on your own, but maybe I can help you out a bit."
"Okay," Harry turned to look at him, "What should we do then?"
"Go to sleep," Will said, "I'll see if I can help you externally."
"We tried that already," Harry reminded, "You weren't able to do that."
"While I was awake, yes," Will said, "But I'm going to go to sleep too this time."
"Oh," Harry considered, "That might work, do you have an idea?"
"The start of one, anyway." Will replied, "Go jump in bed. We'll see if it works."
As Harry raced out of the room, Will hopped in bed, throwing the covers over himself. It was kind of late, so it wasn't as hard to fall asleep as usual.
As soon as he was asleep, Will drifted over to Harry's room. Harry was asleep on the bed, and as Will drifted nearer he didn't stir.
The idea Will had been toying with was that connection he'd formed with Harry so they could communicate. It was a sort of bond, right? Maybe Will could use that.
Will floated above Harry, thinking. He didn't want to mess this up. What if somehow he disconnected Harry's soul from his body, and killed him accidentally? Carefully, Will pictured his bond with Harry. It had strengthened over time and became almost solid, well, as solid as an ephemeral bond can be anyhow. Mentally grabbing a hold of it, Will gave it a little tug. Harry seemed to shudder in bed for a moment, then laid still again. Hmm, maybe that wasn't enough. Being careful, he didn't want to pull Harry's soul all the way out, just give it the right idea, Will pulled a little harder. Harry shot up in bed, not his body, but his soul. To Will it looked sort of funny, a glowing Harry-shape half in and half out of his body. He couldn't help but laugh a little.
Soul-Harry's eyes shot open, and he looked down at himself. Looking back up, he saw Will floating above him, chuckling. He opened his mouth, and shook his hand at Will, but even though his lips were moving, there wasn't any sound coming out.
{You've got to send me the message mentally,} Will said, still chuckling.
It only took a moment for Harry to figure it out, {Ha ha, you're a riot. Now help me out here. I think I'm stuck.}
{Sorry, but I'm pretty sure you've got to figure this part out on your own,} Will apologized, {I don't want to accidentally completely separate you from your body. Just remember to leave a link to your body before you leave it, okay?}
Soul-Harry nodded, and with some wriggling, managed to slip free, a glowing cord still attaching him to his sleeping body. Good, Will was worried about that.
{Hmm, so why do I look like myself still, and you look like that?} Harry asked, patting himself down. Thankfully, he was still wearing his pajamas, even in soul form. Will guessed that whatever you went to sleep in, is what your soul would be wearing. That made as much sense as anything else that had happened to him so far. Well, whatever.
{Will?} Harry said, trying to get his attention.
{Oh! Sorry, I was thinking.} Will replied. {As for your question…} Will just shrugged.
Harry floated around the room a bit, before turning to Will, {Are your emotions always this faint when astral projecting?}
{Yeah,} Will nodded, {Weird, right? Anyway, want to go exploring a bit? As far as I can tell, normal people can't see us like this.}
{Sure, sounds interesting.} Harry replied, and the two headed through the wall outside.
The next big event in the boys' lives was the Holiday season. Harry had never gotten to celebrate Halloween and Christmas before, so he took to the traditions with gusto.
It wasn't until May 1991 that things finally started moving again. May tenth, seven days before Will's eleventh birthday, there was a knock on the front door.