3. A step too far
After Dumbledore had gone there was a very awkward silence hanging between the two teenagers. Harry took five minutes to work up the courage and break deafening the silence. "Cho look at me" when she didn't comply with his request he put his thumb under her chin forcing her to look into his eyes. "Look at me" When he looked into her eyes all his nervousness vanished and his stomach stopped doing somersaults that an Olympic gymnast would be proud of.
"I'm sorry Harry it's just I hate seeing you like this and we ended on such bad terms last year. Your so brave Harry and you don't deserve any of the pressure that's put on you. How do you cope with it all?"
"I just do, it's kind of weird because my life has been like two extremes y'know. When I was growing I was treated like vermin and a freak, I lived in a cupboard and starved as punishment for things I had done wrong which most of the time were not me but my cousin Dudley. And then on my 11th birthday Hagrid came and told me that I was a wizard and then my life changed completely. I was treated like a hero and a celebrity for something I couldn't even remember. But in my second year I found out how fickle people can be when everybody thought I was the Heir of Slytherin and I just think how ironic that it was me that saved the bastards from the Basilisk. Then fourth year. another dose of the fickle wizarding world I get my name put in the goblet of fire by a deatheater disguised as my DADA teacher. I mean my best mate didn't even believe me. I had a hand in killing an innocent boy who didn't deserve to die and the to top it all off my blood was used to resurrect the most powerful dark sorcerer this side of Salazar Slythierin. So I don't know I just do, I just get on with it"
"Harry it's so unfair, why does everything have to happen to you?"
"I don't know, but we need to get some sleep. Like Dumbledore said it's going to be a long day tomorrow"
"Where am I going to sleep?" she asked.
"You can have the bed and I'll sleep on the floor"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course" and with that he grabbed one of his cloaks from his trunk and rolled it up to use as a pillow and another as a blanket.
"No I'm sorry but this is not fair your injured and you're giving your bed up for me. Why can't we just share we're both adults" said Cho whilst blushing furiously.
"Well umm I umm suppose we could err umm share"
Harry could have sworn that at this point he looked positively like a tomato.
She opened up the blankets revealing her slender form clad only in a nighty that went to mid-thigh, although in the position she was in it was riding rather higher than he was sure it was meant to. Harry also had to marvel at the way she had changed completely under the covers without making a big rigmarole, as Harry was sure he would fall out of the bed backwards and land on his backside on the cold floor.
Harry nervously stood up and shuffled towards the bed and uncomfortably sliding in. Cho crawled over him saying that she might need too get out of bed in the night but now she was almost hanging out of the bed. Once again Harry plucked up the courage and slowly snaked his arm around her waist pulling her further onto the bed and consequently closer to him. At first Cho seemed to stiffen but before another second passed she relaxed snuggling closer to his warmth. Harry sighed in contentment as he drifted into his first dream free sleep for months.
Harry awoke the due to the sun continuously beating on his eyelids. Looking over to the nightstand he saw that the time was 7:15 and noticed Cho's warm body lying next to him, only wishing he could do that for the rest of his days. He really did love this girl. Not for what all the other guys saw in her, of course she was beautiful, he had no qualms about that but she he had an inner beauty as well. She was funny, honest, compassionate, brave and he loved everything about her. It was just a shame that she would never return his feelings.
Cho stirred beside him as he gentle shook her shoulder and she slowly turned over to look into his beautiful deep emerald eyes.
"Good morning sleepy head" Harry said, acting a lot more confident than he was feeling, whilst his inside were writhing like a pit of snakes that Harry thought would be more at home in an Indiana Jones movie.
"Good morning to you too" she replied.
"We should get up you know, I have to make breakfast for the Dursley's"
"Are sure you have to do that? because Dumbledore had a word with your uncle"
"I know I don't have to do that but do you not remember that spell that Dumbledore told us about. We're going to have a lot of fun with that"
"I bet we will"
10 minutes later (after a very embarrassing moment where both wrapped in towels after a shower, they bumped into each other in Harry's room and both there towels almost dropped), they made their way down stairs only to find Aunt Petunia already cooking breakfast. However that was the only thing that had changed about them.
Entering the kitchen with both their wands firmly in their hands, it was all too apparent that their attitude towards him, aside from not making him cook breakfast had not changed one jot. The whole families reaction was nothing short of comical. Dudley squealed like the little pig that he is, toppled backwards off his chair taking his grapefruit juice with him and then ran for cover behind his mother, not that she provided much cover someone who was wider than he was tall. Aunt Petunia shrieked and crouched down trying to protect her son. Glancing at his uncle for the first time since entering the room he felt an anger rising up in him that he had only really felt once before in his duel with Bellatrix Lestrange and to his surprise he saw that he saw the same thing in Cho's eyes, although not nearly as strong as his own anger. If it could it were possible to physically possible to split yourself in half through your emotions then Harry was sure uncle Vernon would have done. He looked like his livid and terrified at the same time.
Cho was trying to understand what could make someone that terrified by just looking at two 16 year olds. But when she turned to look at Harry she realised what there was a fire blazing in his green eyes and an aura of dominance and power that seemed to emanate from him, it positively terrified her and her only wish was that that look was never turned on her.
Vernon ran to the counter and grabbed the rolling pin out of the drawer whilst fumbling with the drawer handle in his haste. Remembering that they had done Dumbledore's spell upstairs he watched Vernon come towards him in what he must have thought was a menacing fashion yelling at Harry ("BOY! WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU ABOUT HAVING THAT… THAT… THING OUT!!!!")
Harry decided to have a little bit of fun with uncle Vernon, letting him raise the rolling pin above his head and began to bring it down onto his Harry's head but before it could make contact Harry had cast the impediment jinx and plucking the rolling pin out of his hands and levitating it above his head, (much like Ron had done to the troll in their first year) whilst Vernon was moving considerably slower than normal. He let it drop on his uncles head with a dull thud, knocking his uncle out cold. Next he turned to his aunt who was still hopelessly trying to cower away in the corner. He pried her away from Dudley with a flick of his wand and proceeded to play ip dip doo (A/N haven't got a clue how you spell that.) with his wand which finally landed upon Petunia. Knowing immediately what he wanted to do he cried "Inverso!" and laughed mirthlessly, listening to his aunts screams, remembering the terrifying feeling of the illusion of being upside down with the ground where the sky should be. Finally he rounded on Dudley who was wimpering in the corner like a pathetic two year old. He cast the tickling charm on Dudley ("Rictusempra") watching Dudley rolling around on the floor giggling like some little school girl. Vernon was coming to, and when Harry looked at him the anger blazed in his eyes once again. He strode over to him, placed his wand between Vernon's eyes listening to his whimpering. Harry decided that this was it, he was leaving he wasn't coming back ever again, even if he had to live rough for the whole of next summer. Fuck what Dumbledore said about wards and protection, another summer like this would kill him and then it wouldn't matter what Voldemort did because he would be six feet under.
"I know this really will only be treat for you, you cold hearted sinister bastard, but I will not be coming back here next summer or ever, if I can help it."
Uncle Vernon had finally plucked up the courage to fight back and ran to the draw to retrieve an old fashioned, spaghetti western colt magnum, gleaming against the sunlight filtering through the Venetian blinds. Harry looked at him disbelieving. He new he was evil, but he never thought he would see his uncle kill anybody in cold blood. As Vernon raised the gun in a shaky hand Harry a voice quietly whimpering to stop it. But that voice seemed a whole universe away at that moment when Vernon said in a shaky yet determined voice "I have let you taint this family for far too long."
Harry, still in shock didn't move a muscle as Vernon stopped, the gun barely a foot from Harry's face pointed directly between his eyes shaking slightly in his uncles hands.
Vernon whispered "goodbye freak"
With that Vernon pulled the trigger.