Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
To those who have experienced loss from the tragic event of the Columbia Space Shuttle,
my deepest sympathies are all I can offer.
I do not know your pain, your sorrow, your suffering
Yet I pray you may find peace.
Chapter 10
When You're Older: Trying Times Are Normal.
Chapter 9
Ron closed his eyes and sighed. Hermione guessed he was still half-awake, but she didn't care. She leaned forward once again. "Goodnight, Ron." She whispered. Her lips gently brushed his warm cheek.
As Hermione turned around toward her chair, now a few feet from her, Ron softly mumbled and whispered back, "G'night Hrminy."
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Harry lie still. It was midnight and he couldn't sleep, he ached from the excessive amount of housework he had done from nine that morning, a quick half-hour lunch, (no 4'oclock tea! wah) and continued late into the evening at eight. That was when they decided Harry could go take a shower because he smelled heavily of sweat.
'Ever since Ginny hit him,' Harry thought, referring to Dudley. 'This summer has been horrible. But then again,' He paused, 'I'm glad she did' Harry smiled as he turned over in his bed, trying to ignore the immense pain coming from his legs. 'It's too bad I don't have my plant here to bite Dudley's head off,' Harry reminecised once more, 'Okay, maybe just to threaten him a bit, but stillmm, I bet Hagrid's having fun.'
~~~~~~~~~ Flashback ~~~~~~~~~
"Hagrid, um-I don't think I can take this with meback to the Dursley's I mean" Harry spoke gently, as to not hurt the giant man's feelings.
"Nonsense, you just tell 'em teh leave this here burberstopy seedlin' alone, and he won't hurt 'em none." Hagrid replied shrugging his shoulders.
"Hagrid," Hermione spoke up. "I believe what Harry meant was that the Burberstopy would be hurt, not the Dursleys."
"Yeah," Fred supported. "Those muggles will want that thing gone even before it even reaches the front door."
Hagrid sighed with disappointment. "But! Uh-it's not that I don't want it-" Harry spoke quickly, "It's just I-uh don't know where I could keep it"
"Hogwarts!" Ron smiled
"What?" Said Hagrid. "What dur ya mean?"
"The plant could stay at Hogwarts until school starts."
"Oh, of course!" Hermione spoke with an enlightened look. "Harry could let Hagrid take care of it at school to keep it safe until-"
"Can't keep it in me house, 'Ermione." Hagrid explained.
"You could always use the herbology greenhouse." Harry piped up.
Hermione smiled, "That's just what I was about to suggest."
"So how will Harry take care of it once he's back at school?" Ron asked. "I don't want that thing sitting next to me on his bedstand!"
"Well clearly Harry can't keep it in the dormitories, Ron." Hermione stated. "He'll just have to check up on it during Care of Magical Creatures or some other time."
"So," Mrs. Weasley sighed. "It's settled then. Why don't you children head up to bed, we have a few things to discuss."
"What about Fred and George?" Ginny whined. "They should have to come too."
A redhead twin teased, "We're just special because we're the older brothers and-"
"They'll be up in a bit." Arthur Weasley reassured his youngest child, interrupting George.
And so the four 'children' ascended the stairs.
~~~~~~~~~ End Flashback ~~~~~~~~~
Harry awoke from his evening daydream to a rattling sound coming from inside his room. He sat up on his bed and looked around, as if his head were sonic radar. 'What was that?' Harry asked himself, his breathing becoming rapid. The sound of beating wood against wood came again; it was coming from the closet.
Harry slowly arose from his bed and opened the closet door quietly, his wand ready at his side. A dark flash of brown zoomed from out the dark interior. "Oh great!" Harry said exasperated. Apparently, he had hidden his new broom from the Dursleys inside his wooden box with handles.
The Potter LightLine zipped and whisked about the small, looking like an excited rat let out of its cage. However, this little wooden rat did not have any place to escape, it flew in circles 'looking' for some place to exit and fly freely.
Harry bounded across the room dashing after the flying piece of enchanted wood. It banged up against the walls a few times; this made Harry nervous. 'I'd better catch this thing quick before it wakes Uncle Vernon' He commented inside his mind. Harry jumped up once again at the boom, which was above his bed. His fingers barely touched the smooth bark before it sped off and left a frustrated Harry standing on his mattress.
Harry then remembered, 'Wait a second, I don't need to be doing this, I know the Accio spell!' Harry extended his hand and was about to call out to command his broom when a voice, sounding much like a bushy haired friend of his, reprimanded Harry in his head.
'Wait! You're not allowed to use magic outside of school!'
'But is the Accio command a spell? We command 'up' to our brooms and it's not a spell'
'Does the Accio spell, charm, command, whateverdoes it require a wand?'
'Uh-yes?'
'Then it looks like you'll be catching that broomstick by hand, Quidditch boy.' The voice mocked him.
Harry leapt from a desk to the floor, to his bed, and back again, until a few minutes later Harry managed to grab his Potter LightLine. "Funny thing," Harry mumbled out loud to himself, still holding the struggling broom in his hands. "How my broom feels the same way I do, all locked up in this wretched house with no place to go" Harry Potter's sighed heavily, as if some great weight was on top of his shoulders and it took a tremendous effort just to sigh completely.
After a couple moments of thought Harry spoke aloud to thin air. "I say we go for a midnight flight, what do you think about that, broomstick?" The dark piece of wood suddenly wiggled and shook with greater energy. "StrangeIt's almost as if my broom understands me."
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A black darkness filled the midnight sky, small city lights of London glimmered in the distance like fireflies, and one very happy teenager soared above it all. Harry Potter was out for a 'test drive' of his new Potter LightLine quidditch broomstick, made especially for seekers, and of course, himself.
In order to conceal his body properly, Harry dressed in all black clothing and wore his school uniform, black Hogwarts shoes. On top of all this Harry wore his invisibility cloak to enhance his 'night attire.' (A/N: Harry wore all the black stuff b/c the cloak, while being blown in the wind, wouldn't have covered him enough.)
Gliding through the cool air of the night Harry wished he had a snitch to practice with while on his new, 'bloody brilliant' broom. Then again, Harry remembered catching a snitch would require daylight, and that would also mean he would have to be back in school in order for that to happen so all in all, Harry just wished the summer would end, soon. Among this wishing, Harry passed over the London train station. He sighed a bit and pushed his broom to go faster. 'Come on,' Harry whispered. 'I wanted to have some fun tonight, not be depressed or anything.' He laughed. 'Ron would sock me a good one for being sad while flying, especially secretly and out late at night.'
A cool breeze blew upward toward the teenage wizard. The air smelled faintly of something familiar to Harry but he couldn't place what it was, or how he'd known it was somehow registered in his mind as a normal scent. Harry guessed the aroma was a strange mix of that particularly distinct smell of cold ice and flowers.
The black haired boy with green eyes brushed off this unusually common feeling of unknowing. Harry zoomed and spun through the low hanging clouds making wisps of where he had traveled. He though for a minute that it might seem strange to muggles that the clouds would have small holes in them, but it was all ignored when the next large cloud appeared before Harry. It beckoned him closer, to zip into it's large cotton ball shape and come out the other end in a burst of pure ecstasy.
Harry inhaled the cool night air and he sighed. Feeling completely relaxed, he slowly flew back to the street called Privet Drive.
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Harry could see the cement driveway with Uncle Venon's car parked off on one side. But there was some thing there Harry saw that he did not intend to see. A small creature, an animal of dark orange fur was on the driveway, it was some kind of ferret or weasel type. It surveyed it's surroundings, as if looking for something of importnace. Harry flew closer in toward the house, and then, taking notice of the large flying object, the animal darted into the bushes below his window. Harry shrugged his shoulders, and dismissed it as something of no concern to him.
The window on the front of the house was opened, just as Harry had left it. However, when Harry entered his room, he noticed this was not the same way he had left it at all. Harry's room had been cleaned. He had left his room a mess, after chasing an enchanted boomstick about it.This puzzled Harry for quite some time, who could have done such a thing? 'If Aunt Petunia had done it,' He thought, 'which is next to impossible anyway, she would still be awake and mad at me for sneaking out. If Dudley had caught me, he would have either awoken his parents, or stayed to use it as blackmail. So what could have happened?'
Harry Potter decided that he would go to bed and write a letter to his best friend Ron. Ron Weasley was not the 'brightest crayon in the box', one might say, but he did have a vivid imagination, and could possibly come up with some reason why his room had been mysteriously cleaned while he was gone. And if both of them couldn't think of anything, Harry knew he could always owl his other, more intelligent best friend, Hermione Granger.
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Hey Ron,
How are you? You're probably wondering what happened after Dudley, my stupid cousin, told my realtives about what Ginny did to him. Well, it's a long story but basically he never hinted it was a girl, and even a younger one too, that beat him up. Ha ha. My aunt and uncle were pretty mad and I had to do extra chores for two weeks! Ughit wasn't exactly thrilling, but it was worth it for Dudley to finally get was coming to him.
You remember that broom I was given for my birthday? Well, apparently it has a mind of it's own and wanted to flying last night. I didn't really mind, but I had to chase it around my room for a bit, making my room quite messy. But don't worry, I wore black clothing and my cloak before going out. I can just imagine you grinning at my mischievious rule breaking and sneaking out at night. Ha ha.
Anyway, something strange happened as well. When I got back, my room was cleaned. I was afraid that maybe one of the Dursley's had done it for some loony reason, but they didn't mention it at all this morning. What do you think could have happened? If you and I can't think of anything, we could owl Hermione about this too.
Later,
Harry
P.S. Tell Ginny and Mrs. Weasley 'hi' for me, and not to worry about my horrible relatives.
Harry Potter finished his letter and realized that he had one last comment that slipped his mind. Harry placed one more sentence at the end of his letter.
P.P.S. And I forgot to add, my uncle is finally letting me owl you guys, but I'm only allowed two letters for the summer.
Harry gave the post to Hedwig and watched the graceful Snowy Owl fly off into the distance. "I hope Ron thinks of something," Harry said to himself.
He then heard a shouting from the bottom of the stairs, that sounded very much like, "Haaaaaaaaaarry! Get down here, boy!"
Harry Potter sighed, stood up out of his chair, and moved toward the door.
A/N: Yay! I know this seems a little shorter than usual, but I had a lot of explaining to do before I move to the next part of my plot! Muwhahaha! I hope you liked chapter 10, it was a somewhat of pain for me to write out, but 11 should prove to be more exciting I think. .
* ~~ Please remember to read and Review! ~~ *
My thanks to the following reviewers:
Naomi SilverWolf: yes, poor Hermione I would like to tell you when she finally gets together with Ronthat would ruin it! haha! I'll give you a hint, it's not during the summer! ;)
Nixie: Thanks for the little corrections and beta-reading for me. ;)
Morgana: I e-mailed u about this fic but I guess you never got it or something oh well. Thankies anyway for reviewing so much. :)
Thanks to the other consistent reviewers and commentators:
Ferguspork
fredngeorgegirl
Midnight Shadow
Sakusha Megumino