Chapter One
Bang, bang, bang!
"Wake up! Either you go to the bathroom now, or hold your bladder until tonight! No skin off my nose, boy, what you do!"
Harry groaned as the voice of Uncle Dursley startled him awake. He had been having a pleasant dream, too. Groggily, he leaped out of bed, grabbed his glasses and jumped through his bedroom door just before Uncle Dursley slammed it shut.
His solitary confinement had not been his fault. If summers at the Dursleys had been difficult before, they were now intolerable. He spent most of the summer trying to find a spot outside where he could sit and think in private, but with no luck. Dudley always found him and some new way to torture him. One time, he yanked Harry up out of the bushes by his collar and threw him up in a tree. It had been so far up that it took Harry most of the day to climb back down - only to have Aunt Petunia yell at him for his 'carelessness' and assign him a dozen chores before bedtime, one of them cleaning the toilet. After the whole family used it.
Another time, Harry had been caught off-guard and didn't notice Dudley and his Smeltings classmates over for the day. It wasn't long before he was being chased to exhaustion all over the house. He literally fell asleep in the backyard - only to wake up to the smell of smoke and the sound of chuckling. Dudley and his pea-brain cronies had decided it would be great fun to light his shoes on fire. The smell of burning rubber STILL lingered in his nostrils from time to time, Harry remembered as he shuddered while brushing his teeth.
But that wasn't the worst of it. In trying to put out the fire by stomping his feet - standing up hadn't been easy - he accidently ignited the freshly- laid sod in the Dursley's backyard. Two hundred pounds of the their investment went up in flames in a matter of minutes. The kicker was, he couldn't even tell the backyard was on fire until it was too late, not with all the smoke already flooding his nostrils.
To say the Dursleys hadn't been happy was an understatement. Harry dimly remembered the threats and curses that rained on his head as he was being dragged up the stairs and thrown into his room by Uncle Dursley. They'd been barely noticeable amid the din and confusion of the fire trucks screaming up the street, Aunt Petunia's wails and Dudley's screams of terror. Harry had watched as the fire men, in their zeal to contain the flames, flooded the entire backyard with water. Even now, as Harry finished his morning ablutions and shuffled quickly out of the bathroom, he could see sunlight glinting off the makeshift lake that now rippled in the backyard.
Yes, that had been the worst thing to happen to him to date. Harry shook his head as Uncle Dursley once again slammed the door behind him and locked it. Relieved to be by himself for the time being, he got dressed and opened his bedroom window, looking for signs of Hedwig. No luck. Shrugging, he left the window open and stretched out on his bed.
Harry tried to forget about the fire and focused on his dream instead. It had been extremely beautiful and very comforting, though he couldn't--for the life of him--understand why. The most he'd been able to remember were a bunch of strange, multi-colored lights and the sound of whispering. He shook his head. He'd been having a lot of those dreams, lately. Because the content of them hadn't been overtly threatening - on the contrary, they'd had an extraordinarily comforting effect on his psyche - they worried him, nonetheless. Harry wasn't sure they weren't a part of Voldemort's plots to kill him. He'd had enough experience with dreams last year to know they weren't as harmless as he used to think.
He sighed and rolled over on his bed. He was completely bored. Since he'd been exempted from finals last year, he'd also been given no homework to do over the summer. That left him with absolutely nothing to do but go over the memories of his 4th year at Hogwarts. Some memories he'd rather forget...
He was interrupted from his reverie by a small white flash. "Hedwig!" Harry greeted enthusiastically, as she dropped 2 letters in his lap. He tore them open eagerly. The first one was from Hogwarts. He read:
Dear Mr. Potter,
Due to the nature of the unfortunate and regrettable events that happened during the Hogwarts Tri-Wizard Tournament, the Ministry of Magic has decreed that it be safer for you to stay the remainder of the summer at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, under the supervision of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards).
A Ministry of Magic car will arrive on July 1st at 12:oo pm at the 4 Privet Drive residence. Please have all your stuff packed and ready to go.
Sincerely, Cornelius Fudge
"Holy squat!" Harry swore. "TODAY'S July 1st!"
He checked the clock on his nightstand - the one Dudley tried to use to wake him up one morning by chucking it at his head. It read 11:36 am.
Quickly, Harry threw the letter on the bed and dragged out his trunk. He raced around the room, throwing things into it, not caring where they landed. Hedwig squawked angrily at being jerked awake from her nap from all the noise. "I'm sorry, Hedwig," Harry apologized, "but we have to leave soon, and I've got nothing ready! Where's my wand?" he asked himself frantically, prying up the loose floorboards underneath his bed. Finding it, he breathed a sigh of relief and chucked it inside with all his other things and slammed the lid shut.
Just in time, too. Harry could hear the sounds of splashing stop - Dudley and his school buddies now used the lake as a swimming hole on a regular basis. Uncle Vernon started cursing as he heard the doorbell ring. Looking out his window, Harry could see a long, black car parked out front, with two men standing at the front door. They wore black suits - much more elegant than the kind that Harry saw Uncle Vernon wear to the office - and black sunglasses. He frowned, suddenly feeling more apprehensive about the trip.
Downstairs, Harry heard Uncle Vernon stomp towards the front door and rip it open. "Yeah?" he barked.
"We've come to pick up Harry Potter, sir."
Uncle Vernon looked suspicious. "And who might you be?"
"We're from the Ministry of Magic."
Harry leaned so far out the window that he almost fell. But he still managed to see Uncle Vernon's face turn purple with rage. "THERE'S NO HARRY POTTER LIVING HERE!" he yelled, slamming the door in the two men's faces. Harry saw them jump in surprise, then start back towards their vehicle, mumbling under their breath.
Harry felt frantic. "PPPPSSTTTT!!" he hissed loudly.
The two men jerked. They turned and saw him and looked at him quizzically.
"Wait for me, ok?" Harry whispered loudly. The two men looked mystified, but one of them nodded.
Harry quickly closed the window and plopped on his bed just as Uncle Vernon burst into his room. As usual, he looked furious.
"Have you been sending letters out with that durn owl of yours, boy?!?" he yelled. Hedwig fluffed her wings indignantly and squawked. Harry urged her to be quiet.
"No." he replied, a bit sullen.
"You better not! Or that owl will be breakfast tomorrow!" He threatened, before slamming the door again. Hedwig squawked even louder this time, giving Harry the evil eye.
"I'm sorry!" he said, grabbing his trunk and dragging it to the window. "You know how he gets when he hears about the wizarding world."
Harry opened his window again and peered out. He could hear sounds of splashing coming from the back. The two black-suited men were now standing beneath his window. "Uh - how can I get my stuff down there? I'm locked in this room," he told the black suits.
"Just throw it out the window. We'll catch it."
Harry looked doubtful. "You sure?"
"Sure we're sure. Throw it!"
"Alright, then," Harry said doubtfully, heaving his trunk through the window.
He wasn't sure how they did it. One minute they were staring up at this big heavy object falling at them. The next, they had it sitting gently on the ground.
One guy held out his arms. "Jump," he said.
Harry blinked. "Wait a minute!" He ran, grabbed Hedwig's cage, and set it on the sill. "We're going to Hogwarts. Meet me there, ok?" he instructed Hedwig, fumbling open the lock. Hedwig flew out, giving him her best glare. Then he threw the cage down.
Once again, Harry blinked - and the cage was sitting upright on the trunk. He scratched his head, confused.
They held out their arms to him. "Jump!" they ordered.
"If you say so," Harry mumbled. Taking a deep breath, he swung his leg over the sill, then the other. He hesitated on the window sill for a moment, looking down at the two-story jump he was about to make. The men still had their arms up.
"Tally-ho!" he whispered, then slid his bottom over the sill.
As with the other items, Harry hardly managed to blink before the men had him in their arms and were setting him gently on the ground. Utterly amazing- he hadn't even felt his stomach twinge. "How'd you guys do that?" he demanded.
One black suit cracked a smile. "We have fast reflexes," he replied. Harry grinned.
All of a sudden, Harry heard the splashing noises stop again. "Oh no," he groaned.
The two men looked at the front door. "We've gotta go," one said.
"Yes, we do," the other replied. With that, both men picked up his trunk, Hedwig's cage and himself and swept all three into the car. Before he knew it, Harry was sitting in the black-leather interior of the back seat when Uncle Vernon crashed through the front door.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!!" he roared, thundering after the car. Harry merely laughed at the sight of Uncle Vernon stomping around in his swim trunks, fat belly quivering along with his cheeks.
The black suits sat in the back with him. One pressed something on his collar and said, "Step on it, Fern."
With that, Harry saw the outside flash by in a whirl of color. The only thing he could see clearly was Uncle Vernon shaking his fist at them, as Aunt Petunia, Dudley and his Smeltings gang ran outside to watch.
Bang, bang, bang!
"Wake up! Either you go to the bathroom now, or hold your bladder until tonight! No skin off my nose, boy, what you do!"
Harry groaned as the voice of Uncle Dursley startled him awake. He had been having a pleasant dream, too. Groggily, he leaped out of bed, grabbed his glasses and jumped through his bedroom door just before Uncle Dursley slammed it shut.
His solitary confinement had not been his fault. If summers at the Dursleys had been difficult before, they were now intolerable. He spent most of the summer trying to find a spot outside where he could sit and think in private, but with no luck. Dudley always found him and some new way to torture him. One time, he yanked Harry up out of the bushes by his collar and threw him up in a tree. It had been so far up that it took Harry most of the day to climb back down - only to have Aunt Petunia yell at him for his 'carelessness' and assign him a dozen chores before bedtime, one of them cleaning the toilet. After the whole family used it.
Another time, Harry had been caught off-guard and didn't notice Dudley and his Smeltings classmates over for the day. It wasn't long before he was being chased to exhaustion all over the house. He literally fell asleep in the backyard - only to wake up to the smell of smoke and the sound of chuckling. Dudley and his pea-brain cronies had decided it would be great fun to light his shoes on fire. The smell of burning rubber STILL lingered in his nostrils from time to time, Harry remembered as he shuddered while brushing his teeth.
But that wasn't the worst of it. In trying to put out the fire by stomping his feet - standing up hadn't been easy - he accidently ignited the freshly- laid sod in the Dursley's backyard. Two hundred pounds of the their investment went up in flames in a matter of minutes. The kicker was, he couldn't even tell the backyard was on fire until it was too late, not with all the smoke already flooding his nostrils.
To say the Dursleys hadn't been happy was an understatement. Harry dimly remembered the threats and curses that rained on his head as he was being dragged up the stairs and thrown into his room by Uncle Dursley. They'd been barely noticeable amid the din and confusion of the fire trucks screaming up the street, Aunt Petunia's wails and Dudley's screams of terror. Harry had watched as the fire men, in their zeal to contain the flames, flooded the entire backyard with water. Even now, as Harry finished his morning ablutions and shuffled quickly out of the bathroom, he could see sunlight glinting off the makeshift lake that now rippled in the backyard.
Yes, that had been the worst thing to happen to him to date. Harry shook his head as Uncle Dursley once again slammed the door behind him and locked it. Relieved to be by himself for the time being, he got dressed and opened his bedroom window, looking for signs of Hedwig. No luck. Shrugging, he left the window open and stretched out on his bed.
Harry tried to forget about the fire and focused on his dream instead. It had been extremely beautiful and very comforting, though he couldn't--for the life of him--understand why. The most he'd been able to remember were a bunch of strange, multi-colored lights and the sound of whispering. He shook his head. He'd been having a lot of those dreams, lately. Because the content of them hadn't been overtly threatening - on the contrary, they'd had an extraordinarily comforting effect on his psyche - they worried him, nonetheless. Harry wasn't sure they weren't a part of Voldemort's plots to kill him. He'd had enough experience with dreams last year to know they weren't as harmless as he used to think.
He sighed and rolled over on his bed. He was completely bored. Since he'd been exempted from finals last year, he'd also been given no homework to do over the summer. That left him with absolutely nothing to do but go over the memories of his 4th year at Hogwarts. Some memories he'd rather forget...
He was interrupted from his reverie by a small white flash. "Hedwig!" Harry greeted enthusiastically, as she dropped 2 letters in his lap. He tore them open eagerly. The first one was from Hogwarts. He read:
Dear Mr. Potter,
Due to the nature of the unfortunate and regrettable events that happened during the Hogwarts Tri-Wizard Tournament, the Ministry of Magic has decreed that it be safer for you to stay the remainder of the summer at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, under the supervision of Headmaster Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards).
A Ministry of Magic car will arrive on July 1st at 12:oo pm at the 4 Privet Drive residence. Please have all your stuff packed and ready to go.
Sincerely, Cornelius Fudge
"Holy squat!" Harry swore. "TODAY'S July 1st!"
He checked the clock on his nightstand - the one Dudley tried to use to wake him up one morning by chucking it at his head. It read 11:36 am.
Quickly, Harry threw the letter on the bed and dragged out his trunk. He raced around the room, throwing things into it, not caring where they landed. Hedwig squawked angrily at being jerked awake from her nap from all the noise. "I'm sorry, Hedwig," Harry apologized, "but we have to leave soon, and I've got nothing ready! Where's my wand?" he asked himself frantically, prying up the loose floorboards underneath his bed. Finding it, he breathed a sigh of relief and chucked it inside with all his other things and slammed the lid shut.
Just in time, too. Harry could hear the sounds of splashing stop - Dudley and his school buddies now used the lake as a swimming hole on a regular basis. Uncle Vernon started cursing as he heard the doorbell ring. Looking out his window, Harry could see a long, black car parked out front, with two men standing at the front door. They wore black suits - much more elegant than the kind that Harry saw Uncle Vernon wear to the office - and black sunglasses. He frowned, suddenly feeling more apprehensive about the trip.
Downstairs, Harry heard Uncle Vernon stomp towards the front door and rip it open. "Yeah?" he barked.
"We've come to pick up Harry Potter, sir."
Uncle Vernon looked suspicious. "And who might you be?"
"We're from the Ministry of Magic."
Harry leaned so far out the window that he almost fell. But he still managed to see Uncle Vernon's face turn purple with rage. "THERE'S NO HARRY POTTER LIVING HERE!" he yelled, slamming the door in the two men's faces. Harry saw them jump in surprise, then start back towards their vehicle, mumbling under their breath.
Harry felt frantic. "PPPPSSTTTT!!" he hissed loudly.
The two men jerked. They turned and saw him and looked at him quizzically.
"Wait for me, ok?" Harry whispered loudly. The two men looked mystified, but one of them nodded.
Harry quickly closed the window and plopped on his bed just as Uncle Vernon burst into his room. As usual, he looked furious.
"Have you been sending letters out with that durn owl of yours, boy?!?" he yelled. Hedwig fluffed her wings indignantly and squawked. Harry urged her to be quiet.
"No." he replied, a bit sullen.
"You better not! Or that owl will be breakfast tomorrow!" He threatened, before slamming the door again. Hedwig squawked even louder this time, giving Harry the evil eye.
"I'm sorry!" he said, grabbing his trunk and dragging it to the window. "You know how he gets when he hears about the wizarding world."
Harry opened his window again and peered out. He could hear sounds of splashing coming from the back. The two black-suited men were now standing beneath his window. "Uh - how can I get my stuff down there? I'm locked in this room," he told the black suits.
"Just throw it out the window. We'll catch it."
Harry looked doubtful. "You sure?"
"Sure we're sure. Throw it!"
"Alright, then," Harry said doubtfully, heaving his trunk through the window.
He wasn't sure how they did it. One minute they were staring up at this big heavy object falling at them. The next, they had it sitting gently on the ground.
One guy held out his arms. "Jump," he said.
Harry blinked. "Wait a minute!" He ran, grabbed Hedwig's cage, and set it on the sill. "We're going to Hogwarts. Meet me there, ok?" he instructed Hedwig, fumbling open the lock. Hedwig flew out, giving him her best glare. Then he threw the cage down.
Once again, Harry blinked - and the cage was sitting upright on the trunk. He scratched his head, confused.
They held out their arms to him. "Jump!" they ordered.
"If you say so," Harry mumbled. Taking a deep breath, he swung his leg over the sill, then the other. He hesitated on the window sill for a moment, looking down at the two-story jump he was about to make. The men still had their arms up.
"Tally-ho!" he whispered, then slid his bottom over the sill.
As with the other items, Harry hardly managed to blink before the men had him in their arms and were setting him gently on the ground. Utterly amazing- he hadn't even felt his stomach twinge. "How'd you guys do that?" he demanded.
One black suit cracked a smile. "We have fast reflexes," he replied. Harry grinned.
All of a sudden, Harry heard the splashing noises stop again. "Oh no," he groaned.
The two men looked at the front door. "We've gotta go," one said.
"Yes, we do," the other replied. With that, both men picked up his trunk, Hedwig's cage and himself and swept all three into the car. Before he knew it, Harry was sitting in the black-leather interior of the back seat when Uncle Vernon crashed through the front door.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!!" he roared, thundering after the car. Harry merely laughed at the sight of Uncle Vernon stomping around in his swim trunks, fat belly quivering along with his cheeks.
The black suits sat in the back with him. One pressed something on his collar and said, "Step on it, Fern."
With that, Harry saw the outside flash by in a whirl of color. The only thing he could see clearly was Uncle Vernon shaking his fist at them, as Aunt Petunia, Dudley and his Smeltings gang ran outside to watch.