Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, that honor belongs to J. K. Rowling.
A/N: Okay I know that Sirius dies in the fifth book, however he is one of my favorite characters and as this is my story I just decided to include him. So not to confuse many people, this book takes place after the fifth book accept Sirius wasn't killed. ok? everyone got that? good, so on with the story!
Shadows
by Dawn Rising
The light breeze filtering through the streets of Surrey danced it's way along, leaving in it's wake only a slight disturbance to acknowledge it's existence as it continued on it's path, cutting like a knife through the hot, humid air of summer, providing little merci to the occupants of homes that suffered under the suppressive heat. However it was enough to provide a simple relief to an occupant of number four privet drive who's green eyes closed in enjoyment of the feeling of the cool air tousling his ebony hair. It was suffice to say that despite his usually insufferable holidays with his relatives, Harry Potter was actually, for once in his life, enjoying the time he was forced to spend in the Dursley's home. Upon returning after his fifth year he was surprised to find that apparently a lot had happened in the dull lives that his relatives lived. A loud snort from the room next to his caused him to smile and shake his head as he thought of the biggest change of all.
His cousin Dudley decided that his mother and father's ideas about magic were complete crap. As it turned out, he met this girl while attending his school Smeltings and apparently she had quite an influence on him. He had spent some time at her house over the Christmas holidays, and had been totally shocked to discover that her family was magical and that this girl, who's name was Amanda, was a squib. After spending time with her and her family, he came to the opinion that magic was cool but it was the memory of the day after Harry came home that made him chuckle, if only at the reactions of his aunt and uncle.
*******Flashback*******
Harry sat in his room staring off into space, thoughts of the previous year of school were racing through his mind as he absently ran his fingers over the scarred words engraved on the back of his right hand. 'Well, you survived another year mate, at least there's not much else they can throw at you with out repeating themselves…' he thought cynically. He was pulled out of his thoughts then by a loud screech from the lower levels of the house. He rolled his eyes and got off his bed. "And the dinner bell tolls…"He muttered to himself.
He entered the kitchen and sat at the table as his uncle glared at him and his Aunt threw a passing comment to fix his hair before they were all seated and eating their meal. They weren't on the diet anymore because his enormous cousin had finally dropped enough weight that it had become noticeable for which Harry was thankful as it meant he wouldn't have to send emergency owls to his friends with pleas for food. They ate is silence until after the main course was finished.
"You boy," his uncle said as he glared at Harry. "after dinner I want you to weed the back garden before you go to bed, you lazed the day away upstairs and because of it nothing got done, so you'll be outside all night if you have to be."
Harry clenched his jaw in order to bite back a response and replied with a simple nod but his uncle wasn't finished with him yet. "Honestly, I have never met a more lazy child anywhere. My family and I clothe you and give you food from our table and you're ungrateful enough to ignore you chores, course with parents like yours it's no wonder.." Harry clenched his fists so tight that his fingernails were embedding themselves painfully in his palms. 'Calm down, don't let his get to you, don't lose control, calm down..' he kept repeating in his mind, but it his resolve cracked as his uncle threw out another insult against his family. He was about to shout at his uncle, but was beat to the punch by the last person he ever thought of.
"Leave him alone!"
Vernon's eyes bulged slightly with surprise as both he and Harry turned to look at speaker. "D-Dudley?" Vernon stuttered as he looked at his son. Dudley was sitting across the table and, to Harry's astonishment, looked genuinely angry with his father.
"I said leave him alone, dad" Dudley repeated angrily. "You have no right to insult his family." If the situation had been different and had Harry not been so surprised by his cousin's actions he would have laughed at the strange display of emotions that flashed across Vernon's round face the likes of which changed from shock to confusion then to anger in a flowing stream of color.
Vernon' turned to Harry and looked at him in hatred before speaking in very broken English. "YOU! OUT! GARDEN! NOW!"
Harry got up quickly and left the kitchen and stepped outside into the cool evening air. He worked mindlessly as he tried to process the scene of what he had just witnessed. Dudley? sticking up for him? his cousin Dudley? 'something is defiantly strange in the cosmos, the end of the world must be coming or something..' Harry thought as he pulled weeds from the garden. He continued on this for only a few more minutes before the screen door slammed open and shut from the house behind him. He turned and saw his cousin kick the ground in frustration before he seemed to calm down. Dudley saw Harry and made his way over, plopping down in the grass beside him. They sat in silence for a while before either of them spoke, and surprisingly it was Dudley who spoke first. "Stupid bigots…I can't believe I used to look up to them…" Harry looked at him confused, before Dudley turned to actually face him. "Harry….I wanted to say...I'm sorry for the way I treated you when we were younger, it wasn't right…" these were the last words he had ever expected to hear coming from Dudley Dursley's mouth and they momentarily had the same effect as if Professor Umbridge had started giving out sweets to her classes.
"Dudley? What the hell?.." was all Harry could say. Dudley smirked at him.
"Close you mouth Harry, let's just say that my views have definitely differed from the gits I'm forced to call my parents when it comes to a lot of things now." Harry sat down and actually looked at his cousin, it was like seeing him in a new light.
"May I ask what changed you mind?"
"I met a girl this year, She's the most amazing person I've ever met, we started to hang out at Smeltings, She invited me over to her house this Christmas and I found out her Parents are like you, wizards I mean, and that she was a squim…squeb something like that, anyway, she kind of opened my eyes, she showed me some magical things she owned, I never knew anything like that could exist…" He sighed.
"So let me get this straight…you met a girl, who happened to be a squib, and she told you about magic and you decided to mutiny against your parents? she must be something else to have that influence…" Dudley laughed, not the cruel laugh that Harry was used to but a genuine laugh.
"She is, she is, Her name's Amanda Gregory…apparently she's got a cousin who goes to your school…" There was an uncomfortable silence for a minute as they both were lost in thought, but it was Dudley who spoke first again. "So am I forgiven?, I can't undo the past but, I would like to stop fighting with you, maybe even learn more about your world, if it's alright…" Harry smiled and shook his head.
"Your forgiven, hell I pretty much forgave you the minute I saw the way uncle Vernon reacted it was priceless!" and with that the two dissolved into laughter, a new friendship forming from the ashes of the past.
****end flashback****
Harry sighed as he sat back on his bed, his head resting against the wall as he looked out the window. That incident had happened almost three weeks ago . Dudley sure had changed, and it got to the point where he and Harry were rarely apart, especially since they both had developed the nerve to talk about things about the wizarding world in front of Petunia and Vernon which always caused some amusing scene or another . The two old crows had begun to look at their son with the same loathing look they used on Harry, but he ignored them.
He smiled again, he enjoyed actually having a friend to talk to on privet drive, even if he never told Dudley anything about Voldermort and his extras curricular adventures like saving stones from possessed teachers, or killing 60 meter long snakes with a sword or about starting secret societies to help teach defense to those who wanted to learn or about being famous. It was still better then before and it almost made his life feel normal.
He sighed and decided it was time for sleep, so after clearing his mind like in his occulemency lessons he drifted off to sleep.
***Meanwhile***
A gathering of dark cloaked figures assembled in a stone room, all of them facing a throne like chair at the front. An almost snakelike, nightmarish creature sat there and surveyed each figure in turn as they stepped forward, bowed and kissed the hem of his robes.
When every one of Voldermort's Death eaters were present, the dark lord stood and raised his gangly looking arms in the air and the room fell into a dead silence. "My loyal Death eaters! By this time tomorrow, our dreams will begin coming together, for tomorrow, we will attack Harry Potter's home!" at this there were cheers from around the room. After the Dark lord's plan was explained, all the death eaters left, but not before two of them shared a small secret conference at a rendezvous.
"We must inform Dumbledore, he must get Potter and his family out of there now.." said the younger of the two.
" I will inform him and contact you, meanwhile let us pray that there will be details that will take more time for the dark lord to work out…"
"I'll await your contact then Professor."
"Indeed, goodbye Mr. Malfoy"
And with that both of them apperated away.
A/N: So what do ya think? this is the first story I've written like this so please be kind. I'd love you hear from you though, your input will be appreciated. anyway TTFN!
~DawnRising