Hi, thanks all of you for reading and reviewing my other stories! I appreciate it! Some of you may have seen my brief summary on the yahoo groups about Ron and Percy's fight...so I decided to begin this story. This first chapter is sort of a prologue and focuses on Harry's thoughts, but in the next chapter will focus more on Ron and Percy and how the rift has been developing between them. This story takes place the week before Harry and the gang begin their sixth year. Enjoy what I have so far and keep the reviews coming! Happy holidays as well!
Sibling Dynamics
By: CNJ
PG-13
1: Sixteenth Summer
Harry:
A gnome trilled something
outside that late August night as I got into bed in the spare bedroom at
the Weasleys. I smiled softly as I remembered all the times we'd
had de-gnoming the Weasley's big garden...by we, I mean, my friend Ron
Weasley, who is sixteen this year like me, his mum Molly, his sister Ginny,
who's a year younger than us and occasionally some of Ron's five older
brothers. Yes, there are seven kids in the Weasley family, whether
some of you believe it or not. Tomorrow, Ron, Ginny, and I are going
to Diagon Alley to get our books and supplies for our sixth year at Hogwarts
School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. We'll be meeting two of our other
friends there, Hermione Granger and Cheria Radwin.
Ron and Ginny had come over
to my great-aunt Miranda's flat early this summer and spent a week there.
We'd had an enjoyable time, but Ron and I had summer jobs to start, so
Ron headed back home while I started my job working part-time at a bookstore
that specialized in spells. The job had been great, but tiring.
It had also been dusty, I remembered with a soft smile.
So, now here I am at the
Burrow, which is what the Weasleys call their home. It's a comfortable,
worn place and I've had lots of good times here. I'll be here a few
days, then it'll be back home to pack and say goodbye to my dear Aunt Miranda
before catching the Hogwarts Express back to school. Then our sixth
year would begin in earnest.
I just hope, hope on all
of Merlin's stars that I can get through the year without another Voldemort
encounter. By Voldemort, I mean the evil wizard, who's stalked the
wizard/witch world in London for too many years. He'd mercilessly
killed my parents when I was just a year and three months old. He'd
tried to kill me, but my mum's deep love and protectiveness saved me that
bleak night in early November and I'd come away with a deep, lightening-shaped
scar on my forehead. My hand automatically reached up and felt the
jagged scar tissue under my thick dark bangs. My mouth twisted into
a wry smile. That encounter and my mother's love had also weakened
Voldemort that night and for years many thought he'd died, but he'd just
been temporarily weakened.
Turning over, I swallowed
as I remembered Voldemort making himself known first by lurking in obscure
places in our first three years, then rising up and becoming more prominent
at the end of my fourth year by killing Cedric Diggory right in front of
my horrified eyes. I still feel the emotional scars and occasionally
a dull pain from that traumatic experience. Kill the spare,
the cruel voice sounded in my memory, drying out my throat.
I really don't know what
I'll do if Voldemort attacks again, especially if he kills another Hogwarts
student. I really don't know. I wish he'd just vanish
and not come back...if only the Ministry were smart enough to make some
spell or some stone that would weaken him permanently. I laughed
quietly and ironically as I thought of who was in the Ministry...Cornelius
Fudge, who has his head in the bloody sand over Voldemort's return, half
the aurors, and many in the Ministry who think that it's my godfather,
Sirius Black who betrayed my parents and killed a group of muggles long
ago instead of that sneaky jackass, Peter Pettigrew, who's really the guilty
one. What a sorry, bloody joke if I'd ever seen one.
Oh, there are some competent
members in the Ministry, including Ron's dad and Arabella Figg, who along
with Dumbledore, revived the Order of Phoenix. The Order of Phoenix
is a group of teachers and Ministry members who are on the lookout for
dark wizards and witches and basically act as a buffer to protect humanity
from evil sorcery. I choked back a growling snort of a snicker as
I remembered that Fudge was in that Order. I just hoped it
wouldn't take a tragedy, another Cedric incident to wrench Fudge's head
out from the sand.
I started to laugh again,
but my grin froze and I felt my face twist painfully as my throat tightened
a minute, then went dry once again. The fear was with me again,
the awful fear that so often came to me, especially these past two years.
Oh, how young and rather naive I'd been my first three years, thinking
I could just pop Voldemort a spell or two and he'd be gone. Cedric's
death and Voldemort's evil plot to kidnap us by portkey had really shaken
me and I knew deep down inside that I couldn't defeat Voldemort myself.
I'm just able to stave him off temporarily, but that really doesn't do
much good. Me, the temporary door stopper of the magical world, I
thought with a touch of bitter irony.
Harry Potter, the Boy
Who Lived, people used to call me when I first entered Hogwarts at
the age of eleven. My lips stretched into that wry, ironic smile
again that I'd been getting experienced at lately as a new thought ran
through my head, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Fought Voldemort Going Backwards.
It was a funny, but disquieting thought, but I do realize now that whenever
I did fight Voldemort, it certainly was never willingly and it was always
me backing away, backing away until I could think up some spur of the moment
plan to stave him off for then.
This time, a fresh sudden
gulp interrupted this ironic grin of mine and my lips closed abruptly as
I swallowed again. This time, I couldn't ease the dryness in my throat,
so I had a terrific fit of the gulps, something I'm often prone to when
I'm nervous and worried. I lay on my stomach and waited for not only
the gulps to be over, but that this year would bring some peace and freedom
to all of us in both the muggle and magical world. Heaven's
stars, we really need it.
More later! I'll also keep working on my other stories as well, so keep checking back!