Chapter 3 - Findings
As the first rays of light peeked through the window, Harry got up and went to shower. After getting dressed, he sat down to read while waiting for Petunia to come and wake him up. He figured that the sooner he got downstairs the more food he was likely to get.
After making breakfast, Harry went outside to finish the outdoor chores before starting on the attic. The garden was also a good place for him to work off his nervous energy. That dream still unnerved him. Voldemort didn't know he was there, that much was obvious. But how had he managed to channel the pain away from the baby? And how had the baby seen him? No one had ever seen him before.
'That baby,' he thought 'Dylan, there was something special about him.' It hurt to know he was dead. He felt tears come to his eyes, but he shook them away firmly. He couldn't cry. Tears were just a weakness. What was it about this particular baby? He never usually felt this bad. All of the deaths upset him but not to this extent.
Turning around to reach for the flowers, he noticed a group of girls standing behind him giggling. Well, all except for one. A girl with violet hair and eyes stood apart from the group. When she noticed his gaze, she smiled brightly. Harry smiled back making the girls swoon and giggle again. Suddenly Harry chuckled. Violet eyes? It had to be Tonks. He winked at her.
His attention turned back to the other girls. They were still watching him. He wondered why they were staring at him. At Hogwarts, he always assumed girls were after him for being the Boy-Who-Lived. But these girls didn't know that.
What Harry hadn't realized but most girls had, was that he had turned into quite the looker. Although not extremely tall, at just 5'9", he had changed from the scrawny boy that had stepped onto the train in first year. His face had matured making his eyes more prominent. His body had also developed a nice muscle tone, and his behind wasn't too bad either. All in all, Harry was hot. However, Harry, being completely oblivious, hadn't noticed.
In the afternoon, the sun got hotter, and Harry thought about taking off his shirt. He decided against it, just in case it set off another round of giggles. They seemed to be strolling past the house every hour or so.
Around 3 o'clock, Harry went inside to see if Petunia would allow him to eat. Entering the kitchen, he saw her starting on dinner. He wondered why she hadn't made him cook, but pushed the thought aside and moved towards the fridge.
"And just WHAT do you think you're doing?" Harry spun around and saw his aunt shaking a spatula at him. He suppressed a smile.
"Uh.getting something to eat?"
"Eat!?" she screeched. "You ate enough for days at breakfast. You ate more than everyone else combined!"
Harry thought this was quite funny. Dudley ate more than an elephant and she was accusing him of eating more than that?
"And anyway," she continued, "you haven't been working to deserve to eat. Just lying around in the garden."
"No I wasn't! Go check for yourself!"
"No! Get upstairs and do some work!"
Right. So it seemed that he wasn't getting lunch today. As he trudged up to the attic, he wondered what he had done to anger his aunt.
Upon reaching the attic, Harry groaned in frustration. There was a layer of dust on everything about 2 inches thick! And if that wasn't enough, there were boxes everywhere. For an obsessively neat house, they sure had a messy attic.
He sighed, and started to work. His main priority was to remove the dust before it choked him. Or before those dust bunnies decided to eat him. They were certainly large enough. Once he was reasonable satisfied he wouldn't be suffocated, Harry sat down on one of the boxes. If Aunt Petunia wasn't giving him food, then he bloody well wasn't going to work. He continued to grumble silently about his sorry excuse for a family, but then started to wonder why he had actually worked that hard to finish the chores they set for him. Harry supposed it was to get his mind off what happened last term, and off Ginny. He had been furious, yet terrified, when he found out Voldemort had kidnapped her. He had also realized he had a slight crush on her. To bad it had taken a near death experience for him to figure it out.
Harry looked down at the box he was sitting on and noticed that there was something written on it. Lily Evans - Gryffindor House. He gasped in shock. He was sitting on his mother's old Hogwarts trunk. Glancing at his watch, he realized it was time for supper. They were probably all downstairs already, so he could sneak the trunk into his room and go downstairs. Yes, that was what he'd do.
However, things don't always go to plan. He stepped onto the ladder to get out of the attic, and noticed his uncle walking by.
"Boy! What do you think you're doing up there?"
"Cleaning, Uncle Vernon."
"Right. Well you better do a good job of it then!"
Harry rolled his eyes, and his uncle went downstairs. Making sure no one else was coming, Harry picked up the trunk. It was surprisingly light, he thought. Probably a feather-light charm. He carried it into his room stashing it behind his own trunk. None of his relatives ever came in here. They were too scared of what they may find.
Going downstairs, into the kitchen, Harry found all his relatives sitting around the table eating. He hadn't expected them to wait for him, so he just sat down. He reached for a spoon and was surprised when his aunt knocked his hand away. He hadn't thought they would stop him from eating two meals in a row. They were still terrified of the Order.
"You've eaten enough, Boy!" snapped Vernon, before turning back to his own dinner.
"But I haven't eaten anything!" protested Harry.
"Yes, you have! You've been eating all week. Don't lie to me boy!"
"Eating is one of those things you have to do every day, Uncle."
Vernon's face turned purple with rage. "Don't take that tone with me BOY! We were kind enough to take you in, feed and clothe you, and raise you practically as one of our own, and THIS is how you repay us?!?!"
Harry started to get mad. 'As one of their own?' He had to be joking!
"You put me in a cubbard, barely fed me, and only gave me Dudley's old clothes - which may I remind you, are 5 sizes too big. I hardly call that raising me as one of your own," said Harry coldly.
"How DARE you speak to me like that! You ungrateful brat! Good for nothing whelp, just like your parents. Go to your room and STAY THERE! I don't want to see your face around here!"
"Gladly!" snapped Harry, breezing out of the room.
He went to his room fuming. Why the hell were they mad at him? He couldn't think of anything he had done recently. And WHY did Vernon keep bringing his parents into the conversation. He never even knew them.
Harry sat down and picked up a book in an attempt to calm himself down. He chuckled. He was turning into Hermione, constantly reading like this. This book was about Phoenixes and their magical properties. He was a Phoenix, so he thought it might be important to read about them. Only when he had crawled into bed and nearly drifted off, did he remember the trunk belonging to Lily Evans.
********************************************* A/N: That was a difficult chapter to write. I'm not sure why, the words just didn't work. Anyway, I'd appreciate any comments you may have because I'm not quite sure what's wrong with it.
And to LL, yes, the baby died. I really wanted to keep it alive, but then that'd be too much like Harry. The reason that Harry could take the pain from the baby (and not the killing curse), was because whenever Voldemort uses Cruciatus Curse, Harry felt it. When he uses Avada Kadavra he doesn't. I may however, do another story where the baby stayed alive and Harry goes to rescue it. They he gets a child to raise. I'll start it as soon as I get a little further into this one.
As the first rays of light peeked through the window, Harry got up and went to shower. After getting dressed, he sat down to read while waiting for Petunia to come and wake him up. He figured that the sooner he got downstairs the more food he was likely to get.
After making breakfast, Harry went outside to finish the outdoor chores before starting on the attic. The garden was also a good place for him to work off his nervous energy. That dream still unnerved him. Voldemort didn't know he was there, that much was obvious. But how had he managed to channel the pain away from the baby? And how had the baby seen him? No one had ever seen him before.
'That baby,' he thought 'Dylan, there was something special about him.' It hurt to know he was dead. He felt tears come to his eyes, but he shook them away firmly. He couldn't cry. Tears were just a weakness. What was it about this particular baby? He never usually felt this bad. All of the deaths upset him but not to this extent.
Turning around to reach for the flowers, he noticed a group of girls standing behind him giggling. Well, all except for one. A girl with violet hair and eyes stood apart from the group. When she noticed his gaze, she smiled brightly. Harry smiled back making the girls swoon and giggle again. Suddenly Harry chuckled. Violet eyes? It had to be Tonks. He winked at her.
His attention turned back to the other girls. They were still watching him. He wondered why they were staring at him. At Hogwarts, he always assumed girls were after him for being the Boy-Who-Lived. But these girls didn't know that.
What Harry hadn't realized but most girls had, was that he had turned into quite the looker. Although not extremely tall, at just 5'9", he had changed from the scrawny boy that had stepped onto the train in first year. His face had matured making his eyes more prominent. His body had also developed a nice muscle tone, and his behind wasn't too bad either. All in all, Harry was hot. However, Harry, being completely oblivious, hadn't noticed.
In the afternoon, the sun got hotter, and Harry thought about taking off his shirt. He decided against it, just in case it set off another round of giggles. They seemed to be strolling past the house every hour or so.
Around 3 o'clock, Harry went inside to see if Petunia would allow him to eat. Entering the kitchen, he saw her starting on dinner. He wondered why she hadn't made him cook, but pushed the thought aside and moved towards the fridge.
"And just WHAT do you think you're doing?" Harry spun around and saw his aunt shaking a spatula at him. He suppressed a smile.
"Uh.getting something to eat?"
"Eat!?" she screeched. "You ate enough for days at breakfast. You ate more than everyone else combined!"
Harry thought this was quite funny. Dudley ate more than an elephant and she was accusing him of eating more than that?
"And anyway," she continued, "you haven't been working to deserve to eat. Just lying around in the garden."
"No I wasn't! Go check for yourself!"
"No! Get upstairs and do some work!"
Right. So it seemed that he wasn't getting lunch today. As he trudged up to the attic, he wondered what he had done to anger his aunt.
Upon reaching the attic, Harry groaned in frustration. There was a layer of dust on everything about 2 inches thick! And if that wasn't enough, there were boxes everywhere. For an obsessively neat house, they sure had a messy attic.
He sighed, and started to work. His main priority was to remove the dust before it choked him. Or before those dust bunnies decided to eat him. They were certainly large enough. Once he was reasonable satisfied he wouldn't be suffocated, Harry sat down on one of the boxes. If Aunt Petunia wasn't giving him food, then he bloody well wasn't going to work. He continued to grumble silently about his sorry excuse for a family, but then started to wonder why he had actually worked that hard to finish the chores they set for him. Harry supposed it was to get his mind off what happened last term, and off Ginny. He had been furious, yet terrified, when he found out Voldemort had kidnapped her. He had also realized he had a slight crush on her. To bad it had taken a near death experience for him to figure it out.
Harry looked down at the box he was sitting on and noticed that there was something written on it. Lily Evans - Gryffindor House. He gasped in shock. He was sitting on his mother's old Hogwarts trunk. Glancing at his watch, he realized it was time for supper. They were probably all downstairs already, so he could sneak the trunk into his room and go downstairs. Yes, that was what he'd do.
However, things don't always go to plan. He stepped onto the ladder to get out of the attic, and noticed his uncle walking by.
"Boy! What do you think you're doing up there?"
"Cleaning, Uncle Vernon."
"Right. Well you better do a good job of it then!"
Harry rolled his eyes, and his uncle went downstairs. Making sure no one else was coming, Harry picked up the trunk. It was surprisingly light, he thought. Probably a feather-light charm. He carried it into his room stashing it behind his own trunk. None of his relatives ever came in here. They were too scared of what they may find.
Going downstairs, into the kitchen, Harry found all his relatives sitting around the table eating. He hadn't expected them to wait for him, so he just sat down. He reached for a spoon and was surprised when his aunt knocked his hand away. He hadn't thought they would stop him from eating two meals in a row. They were still terrified of the Order.
"You've eaten enough, Boy!" snapped Vernon, before turning back to his own dinner.
"But I haven't eaten anything!" protested Harry.
"Yes, you have! You've been eating all week. Don't lie to me boy!"
"Eating is one of those things you have to do every day, Uncle."
Vernon's face turned purple with rage. "Don't take that tone with me BOY! We were kind enough to take you in, feed and clothe you, and raise you practically as one of our own, and THIS is how you repay us?!?!"
Harry started to get mad. 'As one of their own?' He had to be joking!
"You put me in a cubbard, barely fed me, and only gave me Dudley's old clothes - which may I remind you, are 5 sizes too big. I hardly call that raising me as one of your own," said Harry coldly.
"How DARE you speak to me like that! You ungrateful brat! Good for nothing whelp, just like your parents. Go to your room and STAY THERE! I don't want to see your face around here!"
"Gladly!" snapped Harry, breezing out of the room.
He went to his room fuming. Why the hell were they mad at him? He couldn't think of anything he had done recently. And WHY did Vernon keep bringing his parents into the conversation. He never even knew them.
Harry sat down and picked up a book in an attempt to calm himself down. He chuckled. He was turning into Hermione, constantly reading like this. This book was about Phoenixes and their magical properties. He was a Phoenix, so he thought it might be important to read about them. Only when he had crawled into bed and nearly drifted off, did he remember the trunk belonging to Lily Evans.
********************************************* A/N: That was a difficult chapter to write. I'm not sure why, the words just didn't work. Anyway, I'd appreciate any comments you may have because I'm not quite sure what's wrong with it.
And to LL, yes, the baby died. I really wanted to keep it alive, but then that'd be too much like Harry. The reason that Harry could take the pain from the baby (and not the killing curse), was because whenever Voldemort uses Cruciatus Curse, Harry felt it. When he uses Avada Kadavra he doesn't. I may however, do another story where the baby stayed alive and Harry goes to rescue it. They he gets a child to raise. I'll start it as soon as I get a little further into this one.