Harry Potter and the shadow war Chapter2:
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing other than the clothes I'm wearing and
the computer I'm typing from
SPOILERS: All Harry Potter books including OOTP!
The next day work was hard but fuelled well by the large breakfast he had in the local bar café, and Harry decided to spend a large portion of his wages on his large meals at breakfast and dinner only snacking at lunch. He bought big bottles of water which he soon drank and refilled from the Dursleys tap. The next two weeks passed in a blur of aching muscles hard work and sleep. However Harry was healthier than ever and before long his muscle fibres were repairing them selves stronger than before and he could wield the second largest sledge hammer over his head and slide his front hand down the butt as it crashed down in an impressive and much practised manner. Harry felt more confident about his ability and the end was in sight, by now he ad been working alone on the garden for three weeks and all the long jobs were out the way. The shed had been moved by placing it on wooden rollers and manovering it down to the far corner of the back garden. The paths had been dug up and Harry had dug the hole where the new, fantastic and extremely expensive Dursley pond was going to go. Harry now had three days in which to lay the new turf bought where the paths used to be and to water it heavily so that the grass shades matched. Then on Monday morning some men were coming to fit the pond, apparently they would be there all the rest of that week and from what Aunt Petunia had said because it came as an expensive package and because she could not lay one of there workmen off Harry would have a compulsory weeks unpaid holiday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry gave the piece of turf he had just laid one last pat and stood up and stretched his back. He had been thinking while he worked about Voldermort. He was worried because there had been so little news. He had discovered from Hermionie that the prophet seemed determined to make fudge resign but seemed to pay relatively little attention to the serious matter at hand. Harry new from Ron's short letters avoiding Harry's questions that in a similar manner to last year there was very little he could say. The thought of Fudge resigning was not as appealing to Harry as he thought it would be in fact he couldn't see anyone who was right to replace him. There were two other leading Mp's in the wizarding community one who wanted to bribe Voldermort to leave alone the magical community, and only harm muggles and another who seemed to think Voldermort wasn't really an issue and who's main policies was to make the floo network run more smoothly and introduce apparition lessons in school. Considering that Fudge who had now lost all his confidence was checking every small decision with Dumbledore Harry felt that it was as if Dumbledore was minister and in Harry's opinion this was defiantly a good thing. However Harry's thoughts as he sat on the stone chair the Dursleys kept in there garden were disturbed as he heard the news come on the television and realised that he hadn't taken his lunch break. Harry stood up and hurdled over the patch of newly laid turf he ran through the open door of privet drive kicked his boots off ran through the hall then checked himself and opened the door to the living room.
.Thankfully such quakes are so frequent in this area of Japan that even High rise office blocks are built to with stand quakes of this force. Unfortunately due mainly to the suddenness of this earthquake there have been several casualties mainly caused by road accidents. Reports still coming in we should no more this evening, now it's back to Tim and Jane in the studio.
Harry sat down and sighed he clearly hadn't missed anything. He took his glasses from the V necked shirt where they hung and put them on, the room came into focus and revealed Vernon in is favourite armchair quite pointedly ignoring him and aunt petunia sitting on the sofa in a very upright position suggesting she may leap up any moment if she saw a spec of dust. She turned to him a cold questioning look on her face.
"Lunch break" said Harry simply
She looked at her watch and gave the distinct impression that she thought lunch break at twelve was a little early but she made no comment and Harry now turned his attention back to the TV which was now rabiting on about a man who had been wrongfully imprisoned for twenty three years and was released without so much as an apology. The idea of wrongful imprisonment struck painful notes with Harry so he immediately went back to thinking about Voldermort and what might be happening. The problem was that even with access to the muggle news Harry had to interpret what he could as the ministry was not going to directly indicate any actions of Voldermort for fear of revealing the existence of magic. So Harry decided to do something that he should have done a while ago and take out a subscription with the daily prophet. However his thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the television.
.This new cult sweeping through Britain calling themselves 'death eaters' are armed and dangerous, cruel and clever these people seem to have no pattern in picking there victims and seem to have invented poisons that can kill instantly leaving little or no trace. Further more this gang seem to be using some of the most cruel torture methods ever, some believe originating from Japan in the 1800's. BBC news advises every one to be careful as these people far from young ruffians are well trained professionals and so far have done just as much damage to police men and other representatives from the law as they have to civilians. The government made a statement today saying that these people are opportunists, however unlike burglars and thieves the safety in which we live makes no difference to these men, instead these people base on those drawing attention to themselves, the government suggest that people do not seek unnecessary attention and try to avoid any attention drawn to themselves.
Some people are angry at this statement saying they feel the government is intimidated by this group and as a consequence is telling people to lay low in a vain hope the attacks might stop.
Harry was paying attention now so much so that he was practically hanging off the edge of his seat, up right like an alert meercat. The story finished and Harry sat back thinking. So he thought the muggle world was being warned. Things must be getting serious.
"Well I won't be intimidated by this lot, I don't care what the bloody news says or what the bloody government says, there a bunch of no good juvenile delinquents. Let them come in my bloody house and I'd teach em a thing or too." Roared Vernon.
Harry couldn't hack it, he knew for sure that somehow his uncle would find some way of involving him and that there would inevitably be an argument. So Harry went up stairs and drafted a basic letter to the daily prophet asking for a subscription and explaining that he would give payment on delivery. He tied the letter to hedwigs leg and told her where to take it. He stroked the back of her neck with the outside of his largest finger, she swivelled her head round one hundred and eighty degrees to give him a affectionate nip on the finger then flew off out of the open window.
Harry sat back on his bed staring at the sealing and started to think. He thought of Sirius and the great loss he had experienced. He missed him so much he knew that there was nothing that he could do and that he was destined to have no parent like figure. He knew that the deaths of his friends and family caused him nothing but pain and for a second he thought about pushing them away but his hatred for Voldermort was sufficient enough to not let him win, and instead Harry made a vow to protect his friends a serious vow.
Of course Harry knew that Sirius's death was caused partly because of Harry running off to hypothetically rescue him. He wouldn't make the same mistake again too long had he left himself in the dark merely by being ignorant. Hanging under a window to watch the news when he could just subscribe the prophet. Sneaking in to offices to speak to Sirius when he could simply use his mirror. No he was going to go to Diagon Alley in his week's holiday and spend some of his money in his vault. He had intended to save as much as possible but it didn't matter he had learnt from earning money over summer that he could start spending if it was for a good cause. And there was no cause he could think of than protecting those he loved. He was going to see what wizarding tracking devices he could get he had a few ideas of where to go.
Harry looked at his watch and realised that he had ten minutes of his lunch break left. No time to go to the café he would have to cut in to his secret supply. Harry lifted the loose floorboard and pulled out a couple of plastic bags containing one full and one half drunk bottle of Vanilla coke. A ten pack of assorted crisps and a Victoria sponge cake currently unopened. He grabbed a packet of spare ribbed flavoured walkers from the bag of assorted crisps. Took a large swig of Vanilla coke then placed the lid back on. Put the crisps in his back pocket and the food that Dudley had been stealing (he was on a new diet now) when Harry hadn't hidden it back in the bags and under the floor board then left the room and walked down to the kitchen where he picked up a refilled bottle of Evian from the fridge where he had placed it last night and walked out in to the garden he looked around as he opened the crisps in his back pocket and placed the water bottle on the seat he had been sitting on earlier. It was his second to last day today, Thursday, on Monday the workman were fitting the pond and he was having the weekend off. There was practically nothing left to do. Laying the turf had been Farley quick, much quicker than he had thought and all that was left was a strip which would need one roll and then he would have to water the place. He only had two hours work left today as he had worked all the light yesterday until seven and consequently only had to work till three today. So putting down the crisps which he had noted did taste extremely like the barbecue spare ribs he had sampled at a Dursley barbecue when he was younger once all the guests had left. He began to work on unrolling and laying the last piece of turf textureising the soil so that it was loose and freshly turned then cutting the width of the roll to fit and slicing off the excess length before watering it thoroughly. He had just about finished when he looked at his watch and realised it had gone two. He figured that it would be a waste of the last two hours if he didn't water it and although having to relay it tomorrow would give it something to do he simply decided to give up his spare time in finishing the job off.
As he packed away the tools, A Owl swooped down beside him and he turned to find a letter and a rolled up newspaper. The letter read.
Dear Mr Potter we have accepted your subscription and as off now you are subscribed to the daily prophet. Please accept a free copy of today's prophet.
Harry could tell this was all in standardised black in written by a magical copying pen however he was intrigued to find a note in blue ink clearly written in human hand writing.
P.s Please accept my sincere apologise for the 'bad' press written about you dure in the course of your fourth and fifth years at school. Unknowns to you since that point in time we have received thousands of letters from readers who want to hear your version of events and explaining how disgusted they are by the way the previous editor treated you. We would greatly appreciate it if you would attend an interview with myself as the reporter explaining what happened on the night Voldermort returned and giving a personal message to the wizarding public of how you believe Voldermort can be defeated. If you accept our offer you will be paid a hundred galleons for the exclusivity and may choose which questions you wish to answer the article will be sent to you for your approval after it has been edited by myself and the story is guaranteed to be run on page one.
Yours sincerely
John tams
The editor Christ Harry thought but they really wanted his interview and the opportunity sounded brilliant as unlike the article in the quibbler people took the prophet seriously. Still he should not be hasty he would think about it and get a second opinion from Ron or Hermionie before he replied.
He looked down and saw the anxious bird twittering in a pigwigion like manner around his feet and realised he had not yet taken his free paper and that consequently the bird could not yet fly off. So he removed the paper telling himself he would read it later and walked back into the house explaining to Petunia that he worked late yesterday and was clocking off early today as a consequence. She gave him a cold look evidently torn between making him work harder and paying him for it.
"Oh and by the way" Harry said turning back round "All I've got left to do is water the turf and I have finished!" He said happily.
She paid him his money and told him that he would not be paid for watering the turf again tomorrow and the rest of the next week. He sighed "Fine, but I guess that means I get the rest of tomorrow off when I have finished." She ignored him and walked off taking that as a yes he turned up the stairs and went into his bedroom.
Harry was about to jump on his bed when he was surprised to find it was already occupied by two owls. He looked at them one was a brown barn owl with black speckling on one wing, and the other was a larger owl that Harry recognised was from Hogwarts. Ignoring the first letter, he went straight to the second letter, he untied it from the owl and he held the package in his hands. It was his OWL results and he was extremely nervous. Finally he gave in to temptation and ripped it open, skimming the front lines he went straight to the results,
Transfiguration: O
Charms: O
Defence against the dark arts: O
Care of magical creatures: O
Astronomy: A
Divination: P
History of magic: E
Well thought Harry that was pretty good I got all I expected and more and then happily thought. I've got all the subjects I want to take on so I can be an Aura but what about potions? It wasn't there? He pondered this for a while in a bit of a panic thinking of explanations including: Snape had been killed, Potions had been struck of the wizarding curriculum, and he had done so badly Dumbledore didn't want to upset him. However when the first rational thought plunged in to his head he studied the bottom of the page closely enough to spot the letter P.T.O. Shaking he whipped the paper over to find the word potions and next to it hung a letter. A big Fat O for outstanding!
AN/: would like to thank all of my wicked reviewers. Let me know your ideas and sorry about the spelling... on the look out for a beta by the way. I'm afraid despite reading the first four books literally over 50 times each. I was not that fond of the fifth book having only read it twice a few of my facts are a little inaccurate. Thanks, Please review. Smegul
DISCLAIMER: I own nothing other than the clothes I'm wearing and
the computer I'm typing from
SPOILERS: All Harry Potter books including OOTP!
The next day work was hard but fuelled well by the large breakfast he had in the local bar café, and Harry decided to spend a large portion of his wages on his large meals at breakfast and dinner only snacking at lunch. He bought big bottles of water which he soon drank and refilled from the Dursleys tap. The next two weeks passed in a blur of aching muscles hard work and sleep. However Harry was healthier than ever and before long his muscle fibres were repairing them selves stronger than before and he could wield the second largest sledge hammer over his head and slide his front hand down the butt as it crashed down in an impressive and much practised manner. Harry felt more confident about his ability and the end was in sight, by now he ad been working alone on the garden for three weeks and all the long jobs were out the way. The shed had been moved by placing it on wooden rollers and manovering it down to the far corner of the back garden. The paths had been dug up and Harry had dug the hole where the new, fantastic and extremely expensive Dursley pond was going to go. Harry now had three days in which to lay the new turf bought where the paths used to be and to water it heavily so that the grass shades matched. Then on Monday morning some men were coming to fit the pond, apparently they would be there all the rest of that week and from what Aunt Petunia had said because it came as an expensive package and because she could not lay one of there workmen off Harry would have a compulsory weeks unpaid holiday.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Harry gave the piece of turf he had just laid one last pat and stood up and stretched his back. He had been thinking while he worked about Voldermort. He was worried because there had been so little news. He had discovered from Hermionie that the prophet seemed determined to make fudge resign but seemed to pay relatively little attention to the serious matter at hand. Harry new from Ron's short letters avoiding Harry's questions that in a similar manner to last year there was very little he could say. The thought of Fudge resigning was not as appealing to Harry as he thought it would be in fact he couldn't see anyone who was right to replace him. There were two other leading Mp's in the wizarding community one who wanted to bribe Voldermort to leave alone the magical community, and only harm muggles and another who seemed to think Voldermort wasn't really an issue and who's main policies was to make the floo network run more smoothly and introduce apparition lessons in school. Considering that Fudge who had now lost all his confidence was checking every small decision with Dumbledore Harry felt that it was as if Dumbledore was minister and in Harry's opinion this was defiantly a good thing. However Harry's thoughts as he sat on the stone chair the Dursleys kept in there garden were disturbed as he heard the news come on the television and realised that he hadn't taken his lunch break. Harry stood up and hurdled over the patch of newly laid turf he ran through the open door of privet drive kicked his boots off ran through the hall then checked himself and opened the door to the living room.
.Thankfully such quakes are so frequent in this area of Japan that even High rise office blocks are built to with stand quakes of this force. Unfortunately due mainly to the suddenness of this earthquake there have been several casualties mainly caused by road accidents. Reports still coming in we should no more this evening, now it's back to Tim and Jane in the studio.
Harry sat down and sighed he clearly hadn't missed anything. He took his glasses from the V necked shirt where they hung and put them on, the room came into focus and revealed Vernon in is favourite armchair quite pointedly ignoring him and aunt petunia sitting on the sofa in a very upright position suggesting she may leap up any moment if she saw a spec of dust. She turned to him a cold questioning look on her face.
"Lunch break" said Harry simply
She looked at her watch and gave the distinct impression that she thought lunch break at twelve was a little early but she made no comment and Harry now turned his attention back to the TV which was now rabiting on about a man who had been wrongfully imprisoned for twenty three years and was released without so much as an apology. The idea of wrongful imprisonment struck painful notes with Harry so he immediately went back to thinking about Voldermort and what might be happening. The problem was that even with access to the muggle news Harry had to interpret what he could as the ministry was not going to directly indicate any actions of Voldermort for fear of revealing the existence of magic. So Harry decided to do something that he should have done a while ago and take out a subscription with the daily prophet. However his thoughts were abruptly interrupted by the television.
.This new cult sweeping through Britain calling themselves 'death eaters' are armed and dangerous, cruel and clever these people seem to have no pattern in picking there victims and seem to have invented poisons that can kill instantly leaving little or no trace. Further more this gang seem to be using some of the most cruel torture methods ever, some believe originating from Japan in the 1800's. BBC news advises every one to be careful as these people far from young ruffians are well trained professionals and so far have done just as much damage to police men and other representatives from the law as they have to civilians. The government made a statement today saying that these people are opportunists, however unlike burglars and thieves the safety in which we live makes no difference to these men, instead these people base on those drawing attention to themselves, the government suggest that people do not seek unnecessary attention and try to avoid any attention drawn to themselves.
Some people are angry at this statement saying they feel the government is intimidated by this group and as a consequence is telling people to lay low in a vain hope the attacks might stop.
Harry was paying attention now so much so that he was practically hanging off the edge of his seat, up right like an alert meercat. The story finished and Harry sat back thinking. So he thought the muggle world was being warned. Things must be getting serious.
"Well I won't be intimidated by this lot, I don't care what the bloody news says or what the bloody government says, there a bunch of no good juvenile delinquents. Let them come in my bloody house and I'd teach em a thing or too." Roared Vernon.
Harry couldn't hack it, he knew for sure that somehow his uncle would find some way of involving him and that there would inevitably be an argument. So Harry went up stairs and drafted a basic letter to the daily prophet asking for a subscription and explaining that he would give payment on delivery. He tied the letter to hedwigs leg and told her where to take it. He stroked the back of her neck with the outside of his largest finger, she swivelled her head round one hundred and eighty degrees to give him a affectionate nip on the finger then flew off out of the open window.
Harry sat back on his bed staring at the sealing and started to think. He thought of Sirius and the great loss he had experienced. He missed him so much he knew that there was nothing that he could do and that he was destined to have no parent like figure. He knew that the deaths of his friends and family caused him nothing but pain and for a second he thought about pushing them away but his hatred for Voldermort was sufficient enough to not let him win, and instead Harry made a vow to protect his friends a serious vow.
Of course Harry knew that Sirius's death was caused partly because of Harry running off to hypothetically rescue him. He wouldn't make the same mistake again too long had he left himself in the dark merely by being ignorant. Hanging under a window to watch the news when he could just subscribe the prophet. Sneaking in to offices to speak to Sirius when he could simply use his mirror. No he was going to go to Diagon Alley in his week's holiday and spend some of his money in his vault. He had intended to save as much as possible but it didn't matter he had learnt from earning money over summer that he could start spending if it was for a good cause. And there was no cause he could think of than protecting those he loved. He was going to see what wizarding tracking devices he could get he had a few ideas of where to go.
Harry looked at his watch and realised that he had ten minutes of his lunch break left. No time to go to the café he would have to cut in to his secret supply. Harry lifted the loose floorboard and pulled out a couple of plastic bags containing one full and one half drunk bottle of Vanilla coke. A ten pack of assorted crisps and a Victoria sponge cake currently unopened. He grabbed a packet of spare ribbed flavoured walkers from the bag of assorted crisps. Took a large swig of Vanilla coke then placed the lid back on. Put the crisps in his back pocket and the food that Dudley had been stealing (he was on a new diet now) when Harry hadn't hidden it back in the bags and under the floor board then left the room and walked down to the kitchen where he picked up a refilled bottle of Evian from the fridge where he had placed it last night and walked out in to the garden he looked around as he opened the crisps in his back pocket and placed the water bottle on the seat he had been sitting on earlier. It was his second to last day today, Thursday, on Monday the workman were fitting the pond and he was having the weekend off. There was practically nothing left to do. Laying the turf had been Farley quick, much quicker than he had thought and all that was left was a strip which would need one roll and then he would have to water the place. He only had two hours work left today as he had worked all the light yesterday until seven and consequently only had to work till three today. So putting down the crisps which he had noted did taste extremely like the barbecue spare ribs he had sampled at a Dursley barbecue when he was younger once all the guests had left. He began to work on unrolling and laying the last piece of turf textureising the soil so that it was loose and freshly turned then cutting the width of the roll to fit and slicing off the excess length before watering it thoroughly. He had just about finished when he looked at his watch and realised it had gone two. He figured that it would be a waste of the last two hours if he didn't water it and although having to relay it tomorrow would give it something to do he simply decided to give up his spare time in finishing the job off.
As he packed away the tools, A Owl swooped down beside him and he turned to find a letter and a rolled up newspaper. The letter read.
Dear Mr Potter we have accepted your subscription and as off now you are subscribed to the daily prophet. Please accept a free copy of today's prophet.
Harry could tell this was all in standardised black in written by a magical copying pen however he was intrigued to find a note in blue ink clearly written in human hand writing.
P.s Please accept my sincere apologise for the 'bad' press written about you dure in the course of your fourth and fifth years at school. Unknowns to you since that point in time we have received thousands of letters from readers who want to hear your version of events and explaining how disgusted they are by the way the previous editor treated you. We would greatly appreciate it if you would attend an interview with myself as the reporter explaining what happened on the night Voldermort returned and giving a personal message to the wizarding public of how you believe Voldermort can be defeated. If you accept our offer you will be paid a hundred galleons for the exclusivity and may choose which questions you wish to answer the article will be sent to you for your approval after it has been edited by myself and the story is guaranteed to be run on page one.
Yours sincerely
John tams
The editor Christ Harry thought but they really wanted his interview and the opportunity sounded brilliant as unlike the article in the quibbler people took the prophet seriously. Still he should not be hasty he would think about it and get a second opinion from Ron or Hermionie before he replied.
He looked down and saw the anxious bird twittering in a pigwigion like manner around his feet and realised he had not yet taken his free paper and that consequently the bird could not yet fly off. So he removed the paper telling himself he would read it later and walked back into the house explaining to Petunia that he worked late yesterday and was clocking off early today as a consequence. She gave him a cold look evidently torn between making him work harder and paying him for it.
"Oh and by the way" Harry said turning back round "All I've got left to do is water the turf and I have finished!" He said happily.
She paid him his money and told him that he would not be paid for watering the turf again tomorrow and the rest of the next week. He sighed "Fine, but I guess that means I get the rest of tomorrow off when I have finished." She ignored him and walked off taking that as a yes he turned up the stairs and went into his bedroom.
Harry was about to jump on his bed when he was surprised to find it was already occupied by two owls. He looked at them one was a brown barn owl with black speckling on one wing, and the other was a larger owl that Harry recognised was from Hogwarts. Ignoring the first letter, he went straight to the second letter, he untied it from the owl and he held the package in his hands. It was his OWL results and he was extremely nervous. Finally he gave in to temptation and ripped it open, skimming the front lines he went straight to the results,
Transfiguration: O
Charms: O
Defence against the dark arts: O
Care of magical creatures: O
Astronomy: A
Divination: P
History of magic: E
Well thought Harry that was pretty good I got all I expected and more and then happily thought. I've got all the subjects I want to take on so I can be an Aura but what about potions? It wasn't there? He pondered this for a while in a bit of a panic thinking of explanations including: Snape had been killed, Potions had been struck of the wizarding curriculum, and he had done so badly Dumbledore didn't want to upset him. However when the first rational thought plunged in to his head he studied the bottom of the page closely enough to spot the letter P.T.O. Shaking he whipped the paper over to find the word potions and next to it hung a letter. A big Fat O for outstanding!
AN/: would like to thank all of my wicked reviewers. Let me know your ideas and sorry about the spelling... on the look out for a beta by the way. I'm afraid despite reading the first four books literally over 50 times each. I was not that fond of the fifth book having only read it twice a few of my facts are a little inaccurate. Thanks, Please review. Smegul
