When he got to his room, he went directly to his trunk, which he hadn't opened all summer. When he opened it he saw all of his textbooks. He remembered that the only teacher tactless enough to send them holiday work had been Snape, the Potion's Master. But Harry, however, had been too depressed all summer to actually care about some stupid essay he had to turn in… especially if his least favorite teacher had assigned it.
But then again maybe he wasn't that bad…. -Harry thought- he had, after all warned The Order of the Phoenix about Sirius been supposedly captured by Voldemort at the Department of Mysteries…
"How could I be so stupid??…" He said this for what it seemed like the 1000th
time. He took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes because of the burning
sensation that avoiding crying brought. "Its all my fault… if I only didn't
follow my head all the time…" He wiped off some tears and kept looking for the
key to his Gringotts vault on his trunk. Then he found something that wouldn't
exactly make him feel better.
As he pulled out some robes he saw many shattered pieces of a mirror. That was
the mirror that Sirius had given him as a Christmas present… the same one that
might have belonged to his father…
'How could I be as stupid as to break it?' Harry thought as he picked up some of the broken pieces of the mirror. 'If I could only use magic… I would be able to fix it…maybe when I get to Hogwarts I would be able to fix it… but where am I going to keep pieces of broken mirror??'
He searched the rest of the things on his trunk, looking for
somewhere to put the remainders of his Christmas present. When finally found an
empty glass bottle, which seemed big enough for the pieces, he started picking
every single one of them and putting them in the bottle.
When he was done, he had several minor cuts on his hands, which, considering
their size really ached.
But that pain was nothing compared with how he was feeling at the moment. And
as a mixture of complete discontentment and guilt compressed his throat, he had
no choice but to cry. The tears he had been trying to hold back for so long
seemed to be lessening his pain.
He really wanted to talk to someone… but nobody he knew would
understand him…. except maybe a person that was going thru the same situation
as him… but then again it seemed nearly impossible to find someone who was
going thru anything similar… Nobody he knew had been chased by Lord Voldemort
for his or her entire life… nobody he knew had been hated, feared and loved because
of things he didn't do…and nobody he knew would be forced to commit murder;
even to the person who was responsible of him being an orphan, just to save his
own life…And nobody he knew had just lost the most important person on his
life… the person that represented both a father and a friend… but…
maybe... there was a person that had felt that…someone in whose entire
life he had been treated as a complete outcast… someone whose life too had been
ruined when he was a small, innocent child… someone who had been rejected by
almost everyone because of who he was or because of what he was… someone
who had all his best friends ripped away by some heartless, egoistical being…
yes, maybe Remus Lupin had felt what he had felt…
He was a werewolf and therefore treated like a heartless
beast…and two of the three people that had actually liked him because of who he
was and what he could have been, had been murder. His life seemed to be leading to loneliness… his life was like
Harry's in so many ways. But Harry felt
guilty when he realized that he had never even bothered to think about that
before… to think in how hard being Remus Lupin might be.
Harry thought that time seemed to pass by faster when you were crying because
before he knew it: it was already 9:50am.
He sealed the bottle that now contained the pieces of broken mirror and
stood up quickly. Then he went over to his mirror and looked at himself. His
eyes were scarlet and soggy and his appearance was deplorable. He tried to flatten the wrinkles on his
clothes; he didn't really care about his appearance, but at least he didn't
want to look that dreadful.
He went to the bathroom and washed his face. It didn't really
help, though. It was still obvious that he had been crying for a long period of
time. He tried to cheer himself up by thinking that he would be seeing his best
friend in ten minutes; but it was hopeless… he just felt so miserable.
Just as he was going to leave the bathroom, he heard Aunt Petunia hurrying
upstairs and whispering rather loudly to the door. "Boy!? Hurry up!! Those
people are here!! Get out there before anybody notices them." Obviously, The
Weasleys' had arrived.
"I'm coming!!" Harry's throat felt very soar because of all the effort he had
made on avoiding crying earlier. 'Perfect' Harry thought. 'Now when
they see me they're going to think that I'm gone totally mental!'
He hurried to his room and started to look for his key, which, he found in less
than a minute. He grabbed his letter from Hogwarts and ran out of the room.
When he got to the bottom of the stairs he realized that he had left his
glasses on the floor. He ran back to his room and came back down breathlessly
and found the three Dursleys lined up by the door. They looked like a very odd
welcome committee. They all looked extremely nervous, but no one looked as
uneasy as Dudley.
It seemed like he was trying to secure his tongue inside his
mouth with all his might. But then again Harry didn't blame him since the last
time the Weasleys came to the house Fred and George had given him a Ton-Tongue
Toffee, which had made his tongue purple, slimy and about a foot long. And Aunt
Petunia didn't make the matters easier as she tried to wrench Dudley's tongue
out of his mouth.
"Hurry up boy!!" hissed Aunt Petunia, barely moving her lips.
Harry walked to the door and opened it.
At the other side of the door stood a short, plump, kind-faced woman and a very
tall, red-haired boy.
"Hello, Mrs. Weasley!!" said Harry happily as she embraced him in a
overenthusiastic, maternal hug that made Petunia give her puzzled look and made
Harry blush.
"Hello Ron!" Harry said this as he shook his best friend's hand.
"Hello mate!" Said Ron in a deep voice that made him look even
more grown up than his height.
"Hello Mr. And Mrs. Dursley!" Said Mrs. Weasley as she smiled at them. "How are you doing today?"
Uncle Vernon looked as if he was about to insult her but he seemed to restrain
himself from losing control. Instead he managed to mutter, "F-f-fine" in a tone
that made him sound like he was drunk.
Aunt Petunia's neck seemed to be about to break as she twisted it to the side
to look out the window. She looked like she was making sure that nobody was
looking at their house. Mrs. Weasley
was looking at her, slightly confused.
"Are you ok, Mrs.Dursley?" Aunt Petunia, whoever did not answer
at once.
"Oh… I'm … just…fine…" she finally answered with a tone of pure
fear.
"Oh and who is this… ummm...charming young man?" Mrs. Weasley said taking a step towards Dudley, who seemed to be frozen with horror, still biting his tongue hard. Ron chuckled when he heard that the word charming could actually be used to describe Dudley. Mrs.Weasley shot him a glance and he stopped smiling immediately.
"Mrs. Weasley, this is Dudley, my cousin," said Harry
"Oh! Is just that he has
changed a lot!!" said Mrs. Weasley. And she was right.
The boxing had actually made Dudley look more muscular and skinny that he had
ever been in his whole life.
But again, no Dursley made an attempt to keep the conversation moving.
"So I will be taking Harry now, before it gets too late." Said Mrs. Weasley when she saw that none of the Dursleys were going to talk.
"Ye... Yes..." responded Uncle Vernon in a very odd tone.
"Bye Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Dudley…" said Harry in an obviously
unenthusiastic tone. Uncle Vernon nodded his head, but neither Dudley nor Aunt
Petunia moved.
Harry led the two Weasleys back outside and closed the door behind him. He
expected to see a muggle cab when he got outside, but however, that was not
what was waiting for him.
