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"Kill the spare," echoed the voice.
A dark old graveyard, meet Harry's eyes as he opened them. A flash of green light flew across his vision, than he heard something fall to the ground with a thud. He turned his head to see the body of Cedric Diggory lying on the ground, with his eyes meeting his own. Cedric's eyes sent of shiver down Harry's spine, they were completely empty and lifeless. Cedric's face vanished and was replaced by two red glowing eyes and the appearance of a pale white face like a snake on a human head. Voldemort stared and started laughing at Harry.
"You can't escape nor hide from me, Harry Potter. I will kill you. Hahahahaha…" laughed Voldemort hysterically.
"Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" screamed Harry waking up from the nightmare, in cold sweat drenching his entire body. He looked around taking in his surroundings of his small room same as before for the past 4 years at 4 Privet Drive. He relaxed only a little still shaking; he brought his knees up to his chest wrapping his arms around them, and started rocking back and forth. Why? Why, must I have these nightmares? Harry thought to himself. He glanced at the old clock that was on his nightstand, it read 2:30 am, and he knew that he wasn't going to be able to sleep but he was going to try at least. He settled back down and closed his eyes hoping there would be no more nightmares. He drifted back to sleep after crying for about two hours later, into a dreamless sleep.
"Harry, wake up! Wake up!" yelled Aunt Petunia, while knocking on his door, then turning to go downstairs.
Harry sat up slowly reaching for his glasses that sat on the nightstand next to his bed. After getting them on, he surveyed the room seeing that it was still the same. His head hurt from the constant nightmares that he was been having lately ever since the Dark Lord, Voldemort return. Ever since his return to the Dursley's for the summer, his life has been made miserable everyday. Uncle Vernon seemed to have a much shorter temper then before, possibly because of the Weasley twins Ton-Tongue Toffee that they left, when Mr. Weasley came to get him last year. Also recently Uncle Vernon had started drinking more often, and accused Harry of every problem he had. Because of this, Uncle Vernon started beating Harry every time he came home, drunk. Dudley surprisingly was still on the diet meal program, that the Smeltings nurse put him on a year ago. Harry thought that it must have been working a little because Dudley hasn't gotten any larger than he already was, based on his annual growth in mass. Though he was still very very large, Harry was quite impressed in Dudley's partial willingness to continue it. But he was still the same as ever. The strange thing was the way Aunt Petunia was acting around him. She could see a change in Harry's eyes, since now they show a person that has seen things and events that nobody at any age especially his should have seen or experienced. Harry figured that she must have figured it out something, because she was slightly more caring when they were the only ones in the room, but when Uncle Vernon entered the room she immediately went back to her original personality.
Harry looked at his homemade calendar, which he made to count down the days to his birthday and the day to returns to Kings Cross Station to return to Hogwarts. It was less then a week before his birthday, and then he would be 15 years old. That thought really lifted his depressing mood considerably. Harry quickly got out of bed before Uncle Vernon would start yelling and got dressed in his hand me down over-sized clothes that once belonged to Dudley. As he glanced at the broken mirror in his room, he noticed that he hasn't grown much at all, if any. Harry was still skinny and shorter then most people his age. But his physical form was what concerned him; he was way to skinny even for someone like him, since his return to the Dursley's. But what really stuck out from his thin body and white skin was the dark blue and black bruises he had on his arms, chest, and back. Each one ached with every movement he made, but Harry just ignored it. Ever since he returned to the Dursleys, Uncle Vernon was been beating him for the no reason that Harry could see, other than his uncle's pathetic excuse, since his company hasn't doing to well and anytime anything 'strange' that happened was immediately blamed on him. Harry quickly hurried down the stairs to the kitchen where he knew everyone was, hoping to avoid making Uncle Vernon angry early in the morning. Uncle Vernon set about his usual routine giving orders for him to make is breakfast. While Dudley ate his small quantity of fruit to control his weight, and Harry was surprised to see his breakfast was nothing but a half a piece of banana. Which he saw Dudley snatch and devour in a second. After giving his uncle his breakfast he just sat there, waiting to be dismissed.
"Here's your list of chores to do for the day. Now, don't you dare mess up any of them. You hear me?!" spatted Vernon to Harry, rather loudly with him sitting right next to him. While handing over a list of chores to Harry, he glanced at it. It was the same thing that he did yesterday, which was working out in the yard. Harry shoulders sank at what he was going to do for the rest of the day. Unfortunately Uncle Vernon saw this.
"Don't give me that attitude. You'll do it, since we're having to support you while you're here. You will make yourself useful, while you're under this roof. Understood?" barked Uncle Vernon. Harry only nodded and left to go to his to change. The day couldn't pass any possibly slower for Harry, but it didn't and after dinner he went up to his room hoping to get a descent nights sleep for once. Unfortunately for Harry, that wasn't going to happen. Instead he had the worst nightmare yet, he completely relived the end of the third task in nearly perfect detail, even down to the smell of the damp graveyard ground. Harry woke up screaming louder then ever again, and waking up in cold sweat drenching him and the bed completely.
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"What?!" asked Vernon suddenly awakened by the sound of someone screaming. "ALL RIGHT, THAT'S IT. THAT BOY'S BEEN ASKING FOR THIS. I HAVEN'T GOTTEN A DESCENT NIGHT'S SLEEP SINCE HE CAME HERE. NOW I'M GOING TO SHUT HIM UP FOR GOOD!" screamed Vernon getting out of bed, and grabbing the biggest leather belt he had, while waking up Petunia from all his yelling.
"Oh, Vernon he's probably just having another nightmare. Leave him only?" asked Petunia desperately knowing what was about to happen. But Vernon completely ignored her, and she got out and followed him.
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Vernon stormed into the small bedroom that Harry stayed in, and he was barely about to fit through the doors because of his immense size. He saw Harry was sitting up right, and walked right up to him and one swift motion backhanded Harry across the face, causing him to fall on the floor. Harry was brought back from his dazed when he felt the sudden sharp pain of a hand hitting his face and landing on the floor. He looked up from the floor to see the huge figure of his uncle towering over him on the floor. Harry then felt a hand grab his neck lifting him off the ground and into the air, while the hand's grip tightened choking him. Harry tried to get lose, but he couldn't find the energy to get away, because he hadn't really eaten much of anything for a week. Vernon then throw Harry across the room, watching him slam into the wall and crumpling to the floor gasping for air. As Harry was struggling to breath, he glanced at the his door and saw Aunt Petunia with a scared look on her face at what was happening. Before Harry could recover he felt the sharp pain of something that felt like a large belt making contact with his bareback through the hole of the shirt that he was wearing. Vernon continued the beating and whipping for half an hour, he only stopped when he was certain that he would be silent for the night. When Uncle Vernon left dragging a shock Aunt Petunia with him, Harry struggled to move from the wall to get to his bed, but he never made it that far.
Harry ended up still on the floor in the middle of his tiny room, and continued bleeding and aching with immense pain, which felt like to him just short of the Cruciatus Curse. Just as Harry was fading into unconsciousness, he heard a hoot of an owl. He opened his eyes just enough to see his faithful owl Hedwig sitting on the window sill looking worriedly at her master lying on the floor covering in bruises and blood. She was about to fly out and to get help Harry assumed, but quickly stop her.
"Wait! Wait, Hedwig… please don't go? I… I don't want to be alone…" Harry said weakly, trailing off at the end barely speaking above whisper, while coughing up a few drops of blood. Then clutching his chest from where Uncle Vernon hit him possibly breaking a few ribs and maybe more. Hedwig turned around again and look at Harry; she could see that he was in pain and suffering. But she could hear the pleading in his voice, and couldn't ignore it. So she flew to the floor next to Harry and slowly walking closer. Harry could feel Hedwig walking closer on the floor, he opened his eyes just enough to see her to look into her eyes and giving a weak smile, thanking her. Hedwig couldn't just watch her master suffer but, she would never abandon him his time of need. Harry slowly lifted his arm, trying to ignore the pain shooting through his arm to pull Hedwig closer to him for comfort. Hedwig didn't try to resist for she would be there for him, no matter what. And the two stayed that way, and Hedwig listened to her master cry himself to sleep trying to comfort him anyway she could, till she was certain he was asleep she went to sleep.
A/N: I would like to thank those who read my first chapter. Your complements are inspiring. Continue to Read & Review.