At number 4, Privet Drive, a young boy with shocking green eyes stared dully out the window. The boy, whose name was Harry Potter, had just woken up from yet another nightmare. But this one had been different from the ones before. In this one, he had actually watched Voldemort kill someone. Usually, he just saw much torturing and woke up before Voldemort actually killed someone.
Now, you must be wondering who or what in the world Voldemort is, not to mention who in the world would have a name such as Voldemort. Well, it seems that it would be better to just start in the beginning. You see, Voldemort, as you might have guessed, is not Voldemort's real name. His real name is Tom Marvolo Riddle, but if you ever see it, do not call it that. As you can see, we are scared of him, and we have good reason to. Wouldn't you be scared of something that no one is sure if it is a he, a her, or even a who?
Anyway, trying not to get sidetracked with minute details and my own opinions, I will continue the story. Tom Marvolo Riddle was a wizard, someone who can use real magic, not foolish magic tricks that you and I all play with. His mother was a witch, and his father was a Muggle, someone who doesn't have a drop of magical blood in their veins. From the start, Tom hated Muggles with passion, for his Muggle father, whose name was also Tom, had abandoned both him and his mother after he discovered that she was was a witch.
Feeling ashamed to have his father's name, Tom vowed to rid the world of all the Muggles in the world. He consorted with the worst sort of people and did horrible transformations. He later resurfaced as Lord Voldemort, whose very name brought fear to the people so they called him either "You-Know-Who" or "He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named".
One day, Voldemort visited a place known as Godric's Hollow, attempting to go after two powerful people, one wizard and one witch. Not many people know exactly what happened that night, but Lily and James Potter died that day, probably from Avada Kedavra, the killing curse. However, there is one thing everyone knows...
I mentioned before that not many people knew exactly what happened on that fateful day. In fact, only one person witnessed the whole thing. Yet he remembers nothing. Who is this person? Well, it actually is a baby. How did he hide from Lord Voldemort, the most powerful dark wizard in the world at that time? Well, he didn't hide. "Then how did he survive?" you ask. "Ahhh," I answer. "That is the mysterious part."
You see, no one, and I mean no one, knows exactly how Harry Potter survived on that day, for he was also hit with Avada Kedavra. Was it because his mother died protecting him? Or was it just destiny? We may never know. There even is a weider part. Lord Voldemort vanished that day. He didn't go visit another house to kill. He just vanished. Some people say that he died. But lots of other people and I do not believe that he had died. We just think he had lost his powers... Waiting to return. And boy were we right.
Harry Potter grew up with his Muggle Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley Dursley. Harry liked to call them Uncle Petunia, Aunt Vernon, and the Pig. He was always treated poorly for a reason he felt that he alone did not know. Oh, he had assumed at first that it was because of Dudley, whom Aunt Petunia loved dearly. She would always fuss over him and go, "My little Dudders is all grown up" with tears in her eyes and do stupid stuff like that. But that still gave them no excuse to lock him up in either a cupboard or Dudley's old second room that held all his broken toys. Harry had heard Dudley scream after he moved from the cupboard to the second bedroom. "I need that room!" he had wailed. "Yeah right," Harry had thought. "You need that room to hold more air rifles that your fat butt sat on." Then, on one day, Harry had discovered his aunt and uncle's extreme dislike for him. His uncle and aunt hated everything that had to do with magic, for Aunt Petunia's sister was Lily Evans, now known as Lily Potter, and had made Aunt Petunia jealous. Rubeus Hagrid, the gamekeeper for a school that taught magic, Hogwarts School of Withcraft and Wizardry, or just Hogwarts for short, had finally handed Harry a letter that invited him to go attend this school. Harry readily agreed, and, although they had to turn Dudley into a pig (which had gone horribly wrong since Dudley was already too much like a pig, hence the nickname "the Pig"), they made it safely to the Leaky Cauldron, where Harry was surprised to know that everyone there recognized him from the scar on his forehead, consequence of surviving Voldemort's killing curse, and then on to Diagon Alley, where Harry purchased his supplies with the money in his mother and father's account.
Harry was surprised to find that wizard money was totally different from Muggle money. In the wizarding world, there exists galleons, great golden coins the size of hubcaps, sickles, smaller silver coins, and knuts, bronze coins. After he had purchased all of his supplies, Harry had gone to Hogwarts and faced Voldmort, who controlled one of his professor's mind, and had won, or to put it in a more truthful way, escaped. His second year at Hogwarts was also just as dangerous. Harry discovers he is a Parselmouth, a wizard who can talk to snakes, and rescues Ginny Weasley, the sister of one of his two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, from the lair of a Basilisk, a snake hatched from a chicken's egg under a toad and has a murderous glare. He had met Voldmort yet again, this time as Tom Riddle, in a magical diary. Harry had escaped with Ginny and had slain the Basilisk with Gryffindor's sword, for he was in Gryffindor, one of the four houses of Hogwarts (there was also Hufflepuff, Slytherin, and Ravenclaw).
In Harry's third year at Hogwarts, he had discovered that his godfather was a supposed murderer, in the fortress of Azkaban, the wizard prison. However, in the course of this year, Harry, along with Ron and Hermione, had discovered that Sirius Black, the godfather, was innocent and the real guilty murderer was none other than Wormtail. Harry had helped Sirius escape on the back of Buckbeak, a hippogriff.
Harry's fourth year was by far, the most traumatic experience of his life. He was somehow entered into a tournament that hadn't been held in over a century, the Triwizard Tournament, where the contestants were forced to do three dangerous tasks over the course of the school year. The Triwizard Tournament was held at Hogwarts, and on the third task, Harry and the other contestants, known as champions, had to find their way through a maze full of dangerous creatures and mysterious spells to find and grasp the Triwizard Cup.
Both him and Cedric Diggory, the other champion from Hogwarts had reached the Triwizard Cup first. Harry decided that they should take the cup together. When they did however, they found that the cup was actually a Portkey, something designed to take you somewhere far away when touched.
Harry and Cedric were taken to a desolate graveyard where Cedric was killed and Harry witnessed the rebirth of Lord Voldemort. Harry had thankfully escaped yet again even though Voldemort was now at full power.
Now, weeks later, Harry was again at the Dursley's house for summer vacation, which Harry wished didn't exist for the Dursley's were treating him even more poorly than before. It was a wonder that he wasn't locked in the cupboard under the stairs, though Harry had a suspicion that he would be again before the summer was over.
During those few weeks, Harry had woken up from a nightmare almost everyday. Most of those nightmares involved Voldemort torturing a poor wizard or Muggle, but some of them involved Ron and Hermione getting hurt, and he couldn't bear that. Harry had written to Professor Dumbledore for some Dreamless Sleep Potion, but had gotten back a reply that stated quite simply that all of his dreams involving Voldemort were premonitions and that Harry shouldn't try to stop them and should record his dreams.
Harry sighed and began to write on the pad on his desk where he kept all his dream records. So far he had ten entries. He glanced at some of them while flipping to a blank page. "put the Cruciatus curse on him...", "tied her up...tortured her...laughed a cold ruthless laugh". Harry closed his eyes to stop the memories from building up within him. He knew that he was going crazy. "And Dumbledore won't do anything about it," he thought angrily. Harry suddenly stopped flipping pages. He realized that while contemplating, he had unknowingly flipped over the blank page designated for today. He turned back to it and started putting his dream on paper in ink.
July 5th
Tonight, my dream was new. Voldemort (Harry had learned how to spell Voldemort's name in the Chamber of Secrets) actually killed someone. She was a young girl, maybe my age. I tried to save her, but I failed. I believe that Voldemort will continue killing others. I will keep on trying to become reality in that moment to maybe change the future. Before Voldemort killed the girl, he forced the Cruciatus curse on her so much that I would vow that she became insane. Then, instead of using Avada Kedavra, Voldemort did the worst thing possible. He used the Imperius curse to force her to kill herself, which she did. I think that Voldemort is realizing that using Avada Kedavra is a mercy so he instead uses different and more painful ways for his victims to die.
Harry read what he had written. Satisfied, he threw the pad back onto the desk and climbed into bed. He sighed. He had just finished his herbology homework, which was to describe the eighteen other uses of Mandrakes other than curing petrified people and to describe why the sound waves of the Mandrakes is fatal to the human brain. Tomorrow, he would smuggle his Potions homework and materials up to his room from the cupboard where the Dursley's kept his stuff over the summer. "I'm glad that I asked Fred and George to show me how to pick Muggle locks," he thought gratefully.
Harry turned over in his bed. His last thought before falling asleep was, "I hope I have no more dreams."
In no time at all, at least that's what Harry felt, he was being called awake by Aunt Petunia. "Get up! You ungrateful thing!" Harry groaned and started to get up. "What did you say?" asked Aunt Petunia as sharp as ever. Before Harry could say "Nothing,", she had already continued saying,"Today is my darling Dudley's birthday! Get up and watch the bacon."
Harry groaned again and finally decided to get up. He put on his glasses and groggily pushed open the door of his bedroom. While walking down the stairs, Harry was suddenly pushed aside by Dudley who was in a hurry to get to his presents. Losing his balance, Harry fell down the stairs headfirst and crashed into a small table that unfortunately, held a glass vase of flowers that fell to the ground with a CRASH! Harry knew he was going to get it. Sure enough, Aunt Petunia walked in to see what the noise was and screamed when she saw the broken vase. "Vernon!" she cried. "Look what he done to our beautiful vase!" Uncle Vernon came in a second later. "Boy!" he yelled looking at Harry. Harry started to complain that it was Dudley's fault and instantly regretted it. "How dare you accuse Dudley of doing something only a freak like you could do!" Uncle Vernon roared. Harry cowered by the stairs as Uncle Vernon advanced on him like an angry rhino.
Wham! Uncle Vernon punched Harry in the face and Harry started to have a nosebleed. He saw out of the corner of his eye that Dudley had waddled in from the kitchen to watch the 'entertainment'. Uncle Vernon continued to hit Harry for a few more minutes and by the time he was through, Harry's glasses were crushed and he had tons of bruises and cuts that he hoped wouldn't scar. As Uncle Vernon left the room, he said to Harry,"Don't think you'll be getting anymore glasses boy! Now clean the mess you made and go watch the bacon. Petunia's already went through all this trouble to look at the bacon while you just stood around!"
Harry knew better than to complain. He slowly started to pick up the broken shards of glass on the floor. It was painful, but he would rather do this than get beat up by Uncle Vernon again. Harry finished an went to keep a watchful eye on the bacon. Just when it was finished, Harry heard the doorbell ring.
"Oh!" Aunt Petunia cried. "That must be Piers." and she hurried to open the door. Feeling that it was definitely a good idea to retreat to the shelter of his room, Harry started to edge away from the kitchen hoping that Uncle Vernon won't notice him. Luck was definitely not on Harry's side for before he had barely moved a foot, his uncle yelled,"Get back here! You're not going anywhere." Harry gulped and stopped moving waiting for Piers and the Pig to get into the kitchen and start pounding him to pieces. Sure enough, Piers and Dudley entered the kitchen just as Harry heard Aunt Petunia telling Pier's mom, "Well, you'll be here at six o'clock to pick Piers up right?"
Dudley instantly spotted Harry. "Hey," Dudley said as he nudged Piers to make him look towards Harry. "It's our favorite punching bag." "Yeah," Piers said gleefully. If there was one thing that every member of Dudley's gang liked more than their respective birthdays, it was picking on and beating up Harry Potter. Just as Harry thought, Dudley and Piers started advancing on him. He felt small, alone, and afraid.
Then, suddenly, at the back of his head, he felt a voice, the same voice that was telling him not to obey the person who put the Imperius curse on him. The voice was telling him not to be afraid of Dudley and Piers or his uncle. It told Harry to stand up to them. Harry suddenly wasn't afraid anymore. He felt strong and able and he decided to stand up to them. As Dudley and Piers closed in on him. Harry stood tall. For some reason Harry didn't know, an instinct told him to put his hand up, which he did, and intercepted a punch thrown to him by Dudley. Harry threw Dudley against the opposite wall of the kitchen with a strength he didn't know he had. Piers wasn't playing anymore. He advanced on Harry mercilessly with an arsenal of punches and kicks he had learned in his karate class. Harry dodged all of them and decided that he was going to leave this house forever. He dropped to the ground as Piers did a wheel kick and tripped him as he landed. Harry's uncle was now standing and with a start Harry realized he was red faced and holding a handful of knives and forks ready to be thrown at any time. Harry jetted for the cupboard and in his anger, the cupboard door opened obediently for him without Harry ever even touching it. Harry didn't notice though. He dashed inside and retrieved his trunk and made it out of the cupboard just as his uncle ran through the kitchen door five feet away from Harry. Uncle Vernon smirked. He knew that at this range, he could hit Harry easily and with his heavy trunk along with Hedwig's, Harry's owl, cage, Harry had no chance of ever hightailing it out of the house. Harry, to his surprise, found that his trunk was light to him and he started running away from Uncle Vernon. Uncle Vernon launched a knife and some instinct told Harry to duck. The knife sailed past his head and sliced itself into the wall. Harry turned, dropped his trunk and caught the the other knives and forks Uncle Vernon threw at him. In no time at all, Uncle Vernon only had one more knife. He launched it at Harry's heart. With speed Harry didn't know that he had, Harry wheel kicked the knife right back at Uncle Vernon. It whistled past Uncle Vernon's ear, missing it by a fraction of an inch. Uncle Vernon froze. Harry glared at him with his emerald eyes and said coldly, "The next one won't miss so I advise you to let me leave the house with no more trouble." Harry turned and stalked out of number four, Privet Drive and into the world. He didn't notice a brown screech owl fly into the house and drop a letter on Uncle Vernon's head. It read:
Harry Potter,
We have found that you have used magic for the second time during the holidays. You will be immediately expelled from Hogwarts School of Witchraft and Wizardry.
Mafalda Hopkirk
IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE
Ministry of Magic
Well, that's the end of this chapter. I hope you liked it. There was a lot of information from J.K. Rowling's novels just in case people who never read the "Harry Potter" series can still enjoy this story.