(A/N) This is my first attempt at a fan fiction, so please go easy on me. Any reviews I get will be most appreciated. Please though if you do not like this story, tell me why. I do not know how to try to make it a better story unless I have constructive feedback from everyone. Also, I am not sure what rating this story is going to have. It may go up depending on what happens in the story. I have a pretty good idea of what is going to happen within the first few chapters, but after that….who knows?
Enough said, on to the story.
Chapter One
Harry reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and continued his task of weeding Aunt Petunia's garden. Harry was quite used to the hard work by now. It had been this way ever since he got back from his 5th year of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Every morning, Aunt Petunia would bang on Harry's bedroom door and yell for him to hurry and get up. He would come down, cook breakfast for the family and then his aunt would tell him what chores he had for the day. At the end of the day she would call him in to dinner and then he would go to bed tired and lonely and dream of being back at Hogwarts.
This went on for the first few days of summer, and then Harry found a small green garden snake in one of Aunt Petunia's flower beds while he was weeding. Harry had spent the day pulling weeds and talking to the snake while it warmed itself in the hot summer sun. For the first time that summer, Harry had felt as if he were not alone. He had someone to talk to, someone that listened to him while he complained about his aunt and uncle, someone who would listen to his talk of school, about his friends and all of the new spells he had learned the year before. Not too long after he discovered his new friend, Aunt Petunia, being very nosey, heard Harry talking to someone and came out to investigate. Seeing the snake, she let out a shriek and ran to the house to phone an exterminator. Harry quickly told the snake that he had to leave or he would be killed. After this, Harry's days went on quite like they had from the beginning of summer.
Harry sighed and absently reached over and pulled a weed while wondering how all of his friends were faring this summer. He had already received owls from both Hermione and Ron and was eagerly looking forward to hearing from his Godfather. Ron said that Dumbledore told his mother that he could come over to spend the last 2 weeks of summer with his family and was going on and on with plans for those 2 weeks. Harry thought he had better wait a while before approaching Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia about going to the Weasley's. Uncle Vernon was being somewhat nicer to him since the incident with the garden snake, and he did not want to ruin his uncle's good mood by bringing up what his uncle called his "abnormality".
Hermione, on the other hand, asked if Harry had been able to do any of his homework yet. She also asked how his summer was going and if the Dursleys were treating him well. Harry had smiled when he imagined his friend nibbling on the end of her quill and worrying her bottom lip over whether he had done his homework yet. He really could not wait to see his two best friends.
It was getting quite hot out this time of the day and he was getting thirsty. Harry knew better than to expect Dudley or his Aunt to come out with a cool drink of water. Aunt Petunia would not be calling him in for dinner for several more hours, and he had to have this whole section of the garden weeded by that time. Sighing, Harry reached up and wiped the sweat off his brow again and reached for another weed. This was the second time this week he was weeding this portion of the garden. The weeds just seem to grow over night. Harry sighed again and looked around to see if anyone was watching, deciding nobody was around, he whipped his t-shirt off and reveled in the cool breeze that touched his overheated skin. As soon as he did this though, he heard gasps and giggling.
Harry looked around, and sure enough, there they were. Several girls were lounging by the hedge watching him work. This had been an ongoing event ever since the beginning of the summer when his aunt and uncle had first sent him out to weed the garden and tend to the yard. Every time he thought he was alone, he would try to make himself comfortable and look up to find the same girls smiling and giggling while they watched him work. Harry did not think he was very attractive, so he was very puzzled over why these girls staked out the Dursley's yard each day and watched him work. Harry smiled absently at the girls and blushed when he heard them giggle again.
What Harry did not realize was that all of the days of hard work in the garden and working in the yard had toned his already maturing body even more than it had been by playing Quidditch. His features had become more elongated and more sharply defined, he no longer wore glasses, so his green eyes became even more bright and his stare even more piercing than before. He had grown taller also and at 6'2" with a muscular build, he was attracting quite a bit of attention from the neighborhood girls. Harry had also grown his hair out a bit more. Instead of having unmanageable sprouts of hair falling all over the place, he now had shiny, thick hair that gently curled up at his collar. His Aunt had gotten fed up with trying to cut his hair as it just grew back the next day, so she let it stay the way it was. She could not stop giving a disgusted look at Harry and the offensive hair every time she saw him though.
All in all, the changes in Harry had not gone unnoticed by the girls in the neighborhood. Each day the girls that camped out in front of the Dursley's would practically multiply. The girls would call their friends and their friends would call their friends all so that they would have a chance to watch Harry and sigh with longing as the sweat would trickle down his muscular chest while he worked. Of course, all of this attention to Harry had not gone unnoticed by Uncle Vernon who would scowl at the girls each evening and yell at them to go home. He had even gone so far as to call the girl's parents and complain about their hoodlum children hanging around his house.
Aunt Petunia came out and yelled for Harry to come in for dinner several hours later, and he sighed in relief. His stomach had been growling for a while now and all of the muscles in his back had been tensed up about an hour. He was tired and hot and had though dinner time would never come. As Harry pulled his shirt back on, he heard the disappointed groans from the girls watching him. Harry looked up to see the girls packing up their boxed lunches and arm chairs and heading back to their houses.
During dinner, Harry decided to bring up the subject of going to the Weasley's for the rest of the summer. There was only a few days left for him to owl Ron his answer and he had to bring it up sometime. "Uncle Vernon?" Harry waited and watched as his uncle's face went from smiling and happy to hard and cold.
"Yes, boy?" He snarled.
"I received an invitation to my friend Ron's house for the last 2 weeks of summer." Harry watched as his uncle got a calculating look in his eye. Harry could see that he was thinking about the pros and cons of letting Harry go. On one hand Harry would not be here to do the menial day to day tasks for his aunt, but on the other hand Harry would be out of his hair and, most importantly, out of his front yard. This would mean those teenaged hoodlums would not be in front of his house every day.
"Tell them……Tell them yes you can go, but I am warning you boy…..I do not want any more freaks in my house." Uncle Vernon glared at Harry, clearly remembering the flu incident from a few years back. "If they want you, they are going to have to pick you up at the front door. I will not have my house ransacked by a bunch of freaks." Barked Uncle Vernon while Aunt Petunia pursed her lips and held back a retort forming in her mind and Dudley whimpered and clutched his bottom.
Content that he was going to get his wish to stay with the Weasleys, Harry smiled, and hurriedly assured them that he would have them come pick him up another way. Finishing his dinner, he asked if he could be excused and rushed up to his room to owl Ron that he could come and that a new way of picking him up had to be found.
Harry finished writing his note and sent it off with Hedwig, and with a smile on his face, flopped down on his bed in exhaustion. He could not wait until Sunday when he would be away from this place for another year. Sleep overcame him quickly and he dreamed of being with the people he loved.
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Enough said, on to the story.
Chapter One
Harry reached up and wiped the sweat from his brow with the back of his hand and continued his task of weeding Aunt Petunia's garden. Harry was quite used to the hard work by now. It had been this way ever since he got back from his 5th year of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Every morning, Aunt Petunia would bang on Harry's bedroom door and yell for him to hurry and get up. He would come down, cook breakfast for the family and then his aunt would tell him what chores he had for the day. At the end of the day she would call him in to dinner and then he would go to bed tired and lonely and dream of being back at Hogwarts.
This went on for the first few days of summer, and then Harry found a small green garden snake in one of Aunt Petunia's flower beds while he was weeding. Harry had spent the day pulling weeds and talking to the snake while it warmed itself in the hot summer sun. For the first time that summer, Harry had felt as if he were not alone. He had someone to talk to, someone that listened to him while he complained about his aunt and uncle, someone who would listen to his talk of school, about his friends and all of the new spells he had learned the year before. Not too long after he discovered his new friend, Aunt Petunia, being very nosey, heard Harry talking to someone and came out to investigate. Seeing the snake, she let out a shriek and ran to the house to phone an exterminator. Harry quickly told the snake that he had to leave or he would be killed. After this, Harry's days went on quite like they had from the beginning of summer.
Harry sighed and absently reached over and pulled a weed while wondering how all of his friends were faring this summer. He had already received owls from both Hermione and Ron and was eagerly looking forward to hearing from his Godfather. Ron said that Dumbledore told his mother that he could come over to spend the last 2 weeks of summer with his family and was going on and on with plans for those 2 weeks. Harry thought he had better wait a while before approaching Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia about going to the Weasley's. Uncle Vernon was being somewhat nicer to him since the incident with the garden snake, and he did not want to ruin his uncle's good mood by bringing up what his uncle called his "abnormality".
Hermione, on the other hand, asked if Harry had been able to do any of his homework yet. She also asked how his summer was going and if the Dursleys were treating him well. Harry had smiled when he imagined his friend nibbling on the end of her quill and worrying her bottom lip over whether he had done his homework yet. He really could not wait to see his two best friends.
It was getting quite hot out this time of the day and he was getting thirsty. Harry knew better than to expect Dudley or his Aunt to come out with a cool drink of water. Aunt Petunia would not be calling him in for dinner for several more hours, and he had to have this whole section of the garden weeded by that time. Sighing, Harry reached up and wiped the sweat off his brow again and reached for another weed. This was the second time this week he was weeding this portion of the garden. The weeds just seem to grow over night. Harry sighed again and looked around to see if anyone was watching, deciding nobody was around, he whipped his t-shirt off and reveled in the cool breeze that touched his overheated skin. As soon as he did this though, he heard gasps and giggling.
Harry looked around, and sure enough, there they were. Several girls were lounging by the hedge watching him work. This had been an ongoing event ever since the beginning of the summer when his aunt and uncle had first sent him out to weed the garden and tend to the yard. Every time he thought he was alone, he would try to make himself comfortable and look up to find the same girls smiling and giggling while they watched him work. Harry did not think he was very attractive, so he was very puzzled over why these girls staked out the Dursley's yard each day and watched him work. Harry smiled absently at the girls and blushed when he heard them giggle again.
What Harry did not realize was that all of the days of hard work in the garden and working in the yard had toned his already maturing body even more than it had been by playing Quidditch. His features had become more elongated and more sharply defined, he no longer wore glasses, so his green eyes became even more bright and his stare even more piercing than before. He had grown taller also and at 6'2" with a muscular build, he was attracting quite a bit of attention from the neighborhood girls. Harry had also grown his hair out a bit more. Instead of having unmanageable sprouts of hair falling all over the place, he now had shiny, thick hair that gently curled up at his collar. His Aunt had gotten fed up with trying to cut his hair as it just grew back the next day, so she let it stay the way it was. She could not stop giving a disgusted look at Harry and the offensive hair every time she saw him though.
All in all, the changes in Harry had not gone unnoticed by the girls in the neighborhood. Each day the girls that camped out in front of the Dursley's would practically multiply. The girls would call their friends and their friends would call their friends all so that they would have a chance to watch Harry and sigh with longing as the sweat would trickle down his muscular chest while he worked. Of course, all of this attention to Harry had not gone unnoticed by Uncle Vernon who would scowl at the girls each evening and yell at them to go home. He had even gone so far as to call the girl's parents and complain about their hoodlum children hanging around his house.
Aunt Petunia came out and yelled for Harry to come in for dinner several hours later, and he sighed in relief. His stomach had been growling for a while now and all of the muscles in his back had been tensed up about an hour. He was tired and hot and had though dinner time would never come. As Harry pulled his shirt back on, he heard the disappointed groans from the girls watching him. Harry looked up to see the girls packing up their boxed lunches and arm chairs and heading back to their houses.
During dinner, Harry decided to bring up the subject of going to the Weasley's for the rest of the summer. There was only a few days left for him to owl Ron his answer and he had to bring it up sometime. "Uncle Vernon?" Harry waited and watched as his uncle's face went from smiling and happy to hard and cold.
"Yes, boy?" He snarled.
"I received an invitation to my friend Ron's house for the last 2 weeks of summer." Harry watched as his uncle got a calculating look in his eye. Harry could see that he was thinking about the pros and cons of letting Harry go. On one hand Harry would not be here to do the menial day to day tasks for his aunt, but on the other hand Harry would be out of his hair and, most importantly, out of his front yard. This would mean those teenaged hoodlums would not be in front of his house every day.
"Tell them……Tell them yes you can go, but I am warning you boy…..I do not want any more freaks in my house." Uncle Vernon glared at Harry, clearly remembering the flu incident from a few years back. "If they want you, they are going to have to pick you up at the front door. I will not have my house ransacked by a bunch of freaks." Barked Uncle Vernon while Aunt Petunia pursed her lips and held back a retort forming in her mind and Dudley whimpered and clutched his bottom.
Content that he was going to get his wish to stay with the Weasleys, Harry smiled, and hurriedly assured them that he would have them come pick him up another way. Finishing his dinner, he asked if he could be excused and rushed up to his room to owl Ron that he could come and that a new way of picking him up had to be found.
Harry finished writing his note and sent it off with Hedwig, and with a smile on his face, flopped down on his bed in exhaustion. He could not wait until Sunday when he would be away from this place for another year. Sleep overcame him quickly and he dreamed of being with the people he loved.
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