14
By Amadeus
Author's Note: I thought this one up at midnight on a Sunday. Pathetic? Yes. Good? I believe it will be. This is going to be a post Goblet of Fire fic and my goal is to bring out a bit of emotion from you people. You'll find out what kind. This is not a luvvy-duvvy fic though there may be a bit of Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione to advance the plot a bit. Sorry. You'll get over it. Anyway, I hope you really like this story. If you do please tell me and I might even bend the story your way a little bit. If you don't, please constructively tell me why not. Have fun reading, and please review!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his surrounding characters belong to JK Rowling.
Chapter 1: The Beginning (part 1)
Harry Potter lay awake finishing the last of his Hogwarts summer homework, a particularly difficult essay assigned by his least favorite professor, the potions master Severus Snape: Discuss the importance of specific ingredients and methods for the concoction of potions and give examples. It was quite obvious to Harry that fifth year potions would involve he and his classmates forming their own new potions, which would definitely be interesting. Combine Crabbe and Goyle's idiocy and Neville's habitual bumble and blunder and Harry would bet on several loud and messy explosions in the coming year. And several large deductions from Gryffindor's House Points.
As he finished writing the essay, Harry looked up at his clock to see that the time was 11:50 PM, just ten minutes until his birthday arrived. The summer thus far had been relatively boring for Harry. Vernon and Petunia Dursley mostly just ignored him, while Dudley attempted to avoid him entirely. Dudley had slimmed some thanks to his diet. All of his yelling and kicking and screaming over the loss of his allowance (which he had been using to smuggle treats into his room) had resulted in the loss of calories, though he made no progress on his demands. He was now the size of a quite chubby boy, rather than a small whale. He still feared and hated Harry, but the young wizard took no notice.
Five minutes until his birthday, Harry began to imagine what he might possibly receive as birthday gifts. From Hermione he expected the typical: a book. This did not bother Harry though as he was sure she would find one that peaked his interest. From Hagrid he expected some rather shaky attempts at cooking. Harry reminded himself to avoid eating any food Hagrid might send until he was sure someone other than Hagrid had made it. From Ron he was counting on something to do with quidditch and probably the Chudley Cannons. From Sirius he expected something small and unnoticeable. His godfather was still on the run from the British Ministry of Magic for a crime he did not commit, and would not want to draw attention to himself.
Harry decided that he would be extremely happy with four presents, especially considering his average birthday beforehand. His most useful gift from the Dursleys had been a pair of Vernon Dursleys old socks, which he had used as sound cushions for his sneakoscope before making them a hasty make-shift Christmas gift for the grateful house elf Dobby. Harry expected that the Dursleys would once again ignore his birthday entirely, which he did not mind in the least.
Harry woke from his present daydream (A/N Sorry for the pun) to a soft tapping on the window. He absent-mindedly opened the window and went back to his bed believing that it was only Hedwig returned from her several day trip, wherever she had gone. As he sat down on his bed and looked up for Hedwig he received quite a bit more than he bargained for.
Hedwig, indeed, was flying through the window, but she was accompanied by about ten other owls as well. Among them Harry recognized Pigwidgeon, Hermes, and a very worn-out-looking Errol. All the hooting and rustling was making quite a raucous, and Harry was dearly hoping that Uncle Vernon and Dudley's snoring would drown out the noise in their respective rooms.
Apparently the young wizard had received quite a few more gifts than he had counted on. Harry quickly went to work untying the parcels from all the owls and opened the first present that smelled vaguely of food and blessed Mrs. Weasley as he dispensed to the hungry flock of owls what appeared to be and smelled like a very good chicken pot pie. Once all the owls were appeased and had begun to leave, he started opening his packages. By the time he had opened his first present all but Hedwig and the three Weasley owls had left. (Pig and Hermes had stayed to escort the tired, recovering Errol home.)
Harry had been mostly right about his friends' gifts. Hermione had bought him a book entitled The History of the Quidditch World Cup which included statistics and details from all of the championship games in history. Hagrid had sent him a cake (not his cooking) and some very familiar looking treacle fudge which Harry wouldn't touch. Sirius had sent him a new (waterproof) muggle watch, which Harry found both humorous and useful, as his had been ruined by water the previous year in his underwater lake excursions.(A/N Is that the correct word?)
In addition he had received a book on animagi from Lupin which contained a note saying that his father would have wanted it and that he, Remus, would be coming back as the Defense Against Dark Arts Teacher in the coming school year as Dumbledore could find no one else to take the jinxed job and would help teach Harry the art of animagi then.
From Ginny he received what seemed to be a small green carving of a fresh pickled toad and a hand-held blackboard. Her note said that it was her brothers Fred and George's idea and that she went along with it only so she could apologize for the incident. Harry found this present very entertaining and decided to keep both joke items.
The twins had sent him a small package of their new inventions for their growing joke shop saying that it was prospering with the anonymous contribution. He dared not to open the bag or try the jokes, however, until he was far from Privet Drive. The rest of the Weasleys had combined to send him combination candy package.
In the onrush of owls he had also received his notification and list of books from the assistant headmaster of Hogwarts and the head of Harry's house, Professor Minerva McGonall.
But his favorite present by far came from a combination of Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, and Ron Weasley, Harry's best friend. Professor Dumbledore had sent a note saying that Harry could leave Privet Drive and join the Weasley family at the Burrow upon invitation. Ron gave him a small box. Harry had nearly spilled the contents of the box in joy and surprise when he had opened it. The small box contained a note of invitation from Ron, and a packet of floo powder.
The invitation was immediate. After the previous visit Mr. Weasley had decided it best if the Weasleys did not return to 4 Privet Drive. The instructions were for Harry to write his aunt and uncle a note and to transport to the Burrow as soon as possible. The less contact with the Dursleys, the better.
Harry quietly gathered his belongings into his trunk and set out dragging his trunk out of his room and down the stairs, carefully listening to make sure the Dursleys continued their rhythmic snoring. When he reached the room with the fireplace he realized in dismay that the Dursleys had recovered it with a nailed-down wooden board. Testing the board, Harry happily discovered that it was not too firmly set and could, with a bit of work, be pried loose without magic. (which was of course forbidden) The wooden plank would also come in useful as firewood to keep the fire going long enough for him to use the floo powder, as all he had were matches and a few old newspapers.
"Umph." Harry, putting all his weight into pulling the board from the fireplace, had managed to do so, but had made quite a it of noise in the process. Upstairs he heard Vernon Dursley stir as he tried hurriedly to light a match. Try after try failed him until he finally got a spark as two feet upstairs hit the floor. Harry quickly lit several pieces of newspaper and fed them into the fireplace. Without thinking he picked up the board and snapped it in two so that it would fit into the fireplace. The loud crack of he wood had brought an immediate response from the Dursleys as Vernon's voice descended from his room.
"Who's there?" came Uncle Vernon's voice. Harry, after throwing the split board into the fire, which was now good enough for floo transport, fumbled with the packet of floo powder as Vernons loud heavy footsteps could be heard descending the stairs. By this time the only paper left in the room was the note he had written the Dursleys. He finally managed to throw some floo powder into the fire and quickly started to drag his trunk towards the fire. As he was just entering the fire Vernon Dursley entered the room, surveyed the scene before him and gave a shout of rage before dashing at his retreating nephew-in-law.
But Harry was already in the fire and shouted "THE BURROW" and the room went spinning out of view just as Uncle Vernon was almost in reach of him. Holding his trunk close and his eyes closed Harry felt the familiar dizziness as different fireplaces swirled before him. Finally he reached the Burrow and lunged one leg forward to heep himself from falling on his face. The thrill ride was over. He looked up to see the familiar faces of the Weasleys watching him.
Author's Note: Hope you like it so far. I haven't decided yet whether to just continue on this chapter and upload it again or to make a beginning part 2. Sorry not much happened in this chapter, but don't worry, there's a lot of action coming up soon. I really would appreciate it if you would review.