Title: Harry Potter and Kinson's Orb

Author: Kararen

Disclaimer:  I do not own Harry Potter, or any characters in the books.  If I did I wouldn't be writing a fanfiction now would I?

Author's Note:  If you have not read Order of the Phoenix, I suggest you do before reading my fanfic.  It contains spoilers on what happened in Harry's first five years at Hogwarts!  This is my first fanfic, so I hope you like it, give me lots of reviews so I get an idea of how I can make improvements.  Enjoy!

-Chapter One-

Aunt Petunia's Confession

After his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry Potter had gone back to Privet Drive with a heavier heart than usual.  He hated living with his aunt, uncle and cousin with a passion.  But the death of his outlawed godfather, Sirius Black, the only person he really felt to be family, had hurt him more than anything he had experienced in his life.  Between his five eventful years at Hogwarts, which I'm sure readers are well acquainted with, and his trying summer months with the Dursley's, who are of course his only living relations, never did he feel the sort of pain he felt now.

He had spent the entire first week after the return on the Hogwarts Express locked in his small bedroom.  He went downstairs for meals when he got really hungry, and on occasion Aunt Petunia would bring him a sandwich if he hadn't turned up for either breakfast or lunch, which Harry found rather peculiar since he knew that the Dursley's despised him.  But he didn't complain about the service, he didn't want to leave his room.  He knew that a walk about the neighbourhood might help him feel a little better, but he wasn't quite prepared to begin mending the hole in his heart.  And besides, if he wasn't thinking about Sirius and what had happened, he would be thinking about what Professor Dumbledore had told him.  Finally he knew why the dark wizard Lord Voldemort had tried to kill him as a baby.  A prophecy had been made, and he alone held the only chance of defeating the Voldemort.  He would have to kill or be killed!

Dudley, Harry's bully of a cousin, had not said a word to Harry since the start of the summer.  The run in with the dementors the previous summer seemed to take his fear of Harry's wand to a new level.  Perhaps by totally ignoring Harry by keeping a good distance between them, and not saying a word when they did pass, Dudley thought that he would be safe.  Uncle Vernon would say a gruff hello to Harry when they crossed paths in the house, but never looked directly at him when he said it.  Otherwise Uncle Vernon, as usual, pretended that Harry did not exist.  Harry was sure his uncle did not take well the threat that the members of the Order of the Phoenix had given to him at Kings Cross Station at the end of term.  The snappy hellos Harry supposed were said merely to keep Harry from telling his guardians (he was to send word with an owl every 3 days to the Order ensuring he was not being poorly treated) that he was being completely ignored.  But Harry really didn't oppose to this treatment.  He was used to it, and just wanted to be left alone anyhow.

Days passed, as well as some sleepless nights.  The only letters Harry sent with Hedwig, his loyal snowy owl, were very short ones ensuring his safety.  He sent them to number Twelve Grimmauld Place, Sirius' home, and the secret headquarters of Dumbledore's Order against Voldemort.  Harry had received many owls from his friends from the wizarding world.  Some were condolences, and others were attempts to boost his spirits, but Harry only tossed them aside.  "They have no right to try and make me feel better," he thought to himself as he shoved some newly arrived letters into his trunk without even opening them.  Harry knew that they couldn't understand how he felt.  Sirius didn't mean as much to them as he had to Harry.  Sirius truly cared about Harry, almost like a father.  Sirius was also best friends with his father.  He had grown up with James as well as with Harry's mom, Lily.  When he was with Sirius, Harry felt closer to his parents.   Possibly most important though, was that Sirius was his godfather and legal guardian.  He was Harry's only hope of having a home other than with the Dursley's.  But those hopes were tragically ripped away from him.  If only he had practiced Occlumency and been able to shut out Voldemort.  He wouldn't have been tricked into going to the Ministry of Magic to the Department of Mysteries to save Sirius.  He wouldn't have been there, and Sirius wouldn't have needed to come to his rescue, and therefore would not have been killed in the battle.  Harry grew angry whenever he thought of what had happened.  It wasn't easy to deal with when he blamed himself for the whole thing.  Harry bitterly hated the world at that moment.  It seemed to him that everything good that came to his life was taken away from him just when he'd begun to believe in it.

Harry heard a quiet knock at his door.  Uncle Vernon and Dudley had left the house earlier in the evening, meaning that Aunt Petunia must be the one just outside his door.  Harry was sitting on his bed with his photo album of his parents that Hagrid, the gameskeeper at Hogwarts, had given him at the end of his first year.  Their wedding pictures had Sirius, the best man, in them, smiling away. 

Though he had not responded to the knock, Aunt Petunia slowly pushed open the door and asked if she might come in.   Harry shrugged and she dragged the chair from in front of his desk over to the end of his bed and sat down.  Harry was uncertain of what she was doing, so he remained silent.  He sensed that she was determined to speak with him about some very serious subject and wasn't going to leave until she had said it, so he began to close the album and prepared to listen to whatever he was being blamed for this time.

"Oh, don't put it away," she cried out, startling Harry.  He looked up at her and noticed that her usual hard expression had vanished and had been replaced by a soft, almost caring one.

"May I look at them?" she asked.

Harry was somewhat taken aback, but he only shrugged and pushed the album closer to her.  She opened it and began flipping through the pages.  When she reached the ones of James and Lily's wedding, he thought he detected some tears in her eyes and was sure he heard her sniffle.

"I was there you know, Harry, at the wedding.  I remember it well."

Harry wanted to say that her being there must have ruined the wedding, but thought better of it.  He wasn't exactly sure why she was telling him this, and was interested to know, although it was rather uncomfortable being spoken to like this by his aunt.

"Um, I'm had a, ah, letter from your umm, mister, ah, Dumbledore," she began, and Harry knew that no good could come of this.

"He, he told me what happened, well, what he thought we should know anyhow, and bout your, ah, godfather."  Here she paused and noticed that Harry's eyes were becoming increasingly wet though he had turned his head away from her.

"I know I've never exactly been very kind in what I've said about Lil-, your mother, but she, she was my sister, and I, I felt it when she died.  It was, rather difficult at first.  I did not approve of her having anything to do with…with those people, but I did," Aunt Petunia paused here, and cleared her throat before revealing, "I did love her as my sister."

Harry could not believe what he was hearing.  He certainly had a hard time believing her, but something in her manner made it seem very sincere.

"It was hard at first, but then, with two babies to care for, I kept at my duties, and it, it got better, you know, as it always does."  Having said that, Aunt Petunia shot up out of the chair, clearly holding back from completely breaking down, slammed the door, and was gone.

Though Harry sat flabbergasted at Aunt Petunia's confession for several minutes, something in what she had said had been comforting.  Harry thought that maybe it had just been the tone of voice, and knowing that everyone went through this kind of thing.  He knew that life would go on, whether he locked himself in his room or not.  So he picked up his quill took some parchment from his school stuff and began to write replies to all the letters he had received over the week.  As he only had Hedwig to send them with since he had sent the owls the letters came with back empty handed, he asked her to bring not only the letters for the Weasley's to the Burrow, but all of them.  He scribbled a little note to Ron asking to get the letters to Remus Lupin, Hagrid, and Hermione, and attached it to them.  He apologized to Hedwig for giving her such a heavy load, but she was anxious to deliver something for him, and she hooted lovingly and gladly accepted a pat from Harry before taking off into the night.

~~~~~

Author's Note:  And there's the first chapter!  Hope you like my story and don't forget to come back and read the rest when it's up!