Being different was considered a crime at the humble home of number four Privet Drive. The residence of this home, the Dursley's, would refuse to ever participate in such a "scandal" as being involved in anything, other then that which was considered normal. Of course, you must agree it is quite odd that if they do believe this, that they also house the most different boy on the whole block.
Young Harry Potter, who was now age 16 of today, was indeed quite abnormal compared to the residence of little Little Whinging, Surrey. Harry had raven black hair, emerald green eyes that shone like the night stars (and round rimmed glasses that covered them), and was quite skinny for his age. He had about 5'6 and looked as if he hadn't eaten a good meal in days.
The truth was, he hadn't. Harry refused to eat more then about a meal a day since he had gotten home for summer vacation from his wizarding school, Hogwarts- now didn't I tell you he was odd?
If one thing was for certain, it was that Harry had always been a strong boy. In the face of danger, he has never hidden. But now, here courageous Harry lay, scrunched up in a ball on his messy bed. He hadn't left the room except for an occasional trip to the bathroom. Other then that, he had just stared expressionless at his bedposts.
After the loss of his godfather (Sirius Black), all the heroism in him had begun to fade. Sirius was the one person who could understand him most. He had told himself he would have no one else, but deeply he knew it was a lie. Yet he wouldn't bring himself to remember all the people who cared for him. If they really cared for him, they would've gotten him by now, perhaps dropped-by by now, or at least they could've sent him a letter. But no, it was midnight on his birthday and he hadn't heard a word from anyone. He hated them all.
The small voice that had been nagging at him throughout the entire summer was telling him off for that one. Harry didn't let it get to him.
Harry- sitting upright with a blank look towards the end of his bed-was at the point of finally falling asleep. The puffy circles located below his dazzling bottle green eyes, easily gave away the fact that the first thing on Harry's mind wasn't getting a good nights rest. In fact, he got 5 hours of sleep each night if he was lucky. Night after night he would wake up drenched cold sweat, body shaking, from another dream of Sirius falling through the veil. It replayed over and over like a movie constantly on rewind. The nights where he didn't sleep at all were the best for him.
All of a sudden a thunderous 'crash' sound came from the side of Harry's headboard. By just initial reaction, Harry rapidly swung neck around to gaze at the window.
Two owls were flapping eagerly outside, slowly back from the window once more.
Harry leisurely picked himself up and opened the window in just long enough for the Owls to drop the letters inside before taking off again. He had to contemplate whether he even wanted to speak to whoever wrote now.
Headwig gave a feeble hoot before the owls left. Since Harry hadn't much to feed her, she hadn't been very alive this summer either. 'At least she is the only one who cares enough to stay with me' Harry though as he picked up the envelopes from the floor.
They were both the usual white envelopes- meaning nothing particularly special inside- but one had the Hogwarts seal waxed on the back. It was the customary Hogwarts letter, yet it did seem a bit heavier then usual.
Harry had glanced at the other envelope and saw it was addressed from the Burrow. He set that letter down and instead slipped his finger under the flap of the Hogwarts letter. Harry's eyes skimmed over the letters inside, he could tell McGonagall wrote it herself:
Welcome back, Mr. Potter to another year of Hogwarts.
At the bottom you will see the required books and supplies for this year, your sixth year. Now under the circumstances of last years events, we are well aware that you must be going through a difficult time. If it had not been so you would have been called to the title of the Gryffindor Quidditch team captain for this year. As you may have been wondering, you are now allowed to continue your playing among the Gryffindor house Quidditch team, Of course, Ms. Virginia Weasley must be demoted from her post as well. Now we have decided to leave the choice up to you whether or not you want to become captain. There are many new positions to fill now and if you do not want to become captain, the runner up, Mr. Ronald Weasley will take your place. Please be aware that we would like your answer by the first day of school.
Best wishes,
Professor M McGonagall, Deputy Headmistress
1. Standard book of spells- Grade 6
2. Where the dark creatures are- John Huffington
3. The future lies before you- Clarice Trelawney
4. One pair dragon hide boots and arm pads
5. One tube Basilskin
6. Three jars pickled werewolf heart
7. One vial unicorn hair
Harry sighed as he put down the letter to pick up the one from the Burrow. Half of him wanted so badly to know what was going on, but the other half didn't really care, he didn't want to know. Despite himself, he opened the envelope anyway and carefully read through the letter that was written in Ron's, his best friend's handwriting:
Dear Harry,
Hope your OK there and the muggles better not be doing anything to you either or I'll go over there myself and take you away!!!! The order is trying to right to arrange to go get you. In fact, I believe a latter by muggle post is being sent to them at this moment. I'm still not sure how long it will take but when you get it just reply the normal way please. By the way, er- the new meetings of the order are now being held at my house. Its kind of a mess being my house isn't at all big. Tonks is staying in Percy's room (were still awaiting Percy to come back begging to us, it can't be long now dad says), Hermione staying in Ginny's room with her, Mad eye doesn't really sleep so we just gave him the couch, and Remus is staying in Fred and George's room. Everyone else doesn't usually stay over. Mum said I could write this letter to you know only because soon the truth will be exposed to everyone and even though keeping this secret is the best thing, we can be less cautious. Fred and George have been dropping in a lot and so has Bill, but Charlie is still hard at work. Oh, and Hermione says "Hi Harry… Ask him if he's doing fine tell him we care…" ect. ect. ect. OW! She just slapped me in the head sorry. Anyway, Remus is probably the most depressed one here. Though he doesn't mope around when others are by, Hermione and I have seen him in his room staring at old photos. He hasn't even cried and I think that's worse, he just seems dead. Tonks is trying to help him out as much as possible, but we don't want to be too obvious. But you know who else is dropping by now as well? Luna and her dad keep dropping by but we mostly try to stop them. We think its cause her dad wants some fresh stories. A couple other DA members have to, but not Cho, don't worry. Mum also told me that were gonna have a new Care of Magical Creatures teacher. She said Hagrid is away doing "business" but she won't tell me what! Well anyway, I hope your doing ok and well be on our way to take you over here ASAP!!!
Your friend(s),
Ron (and Hermione)
Harry reread the letter about three times before it finally sunk in. He really wanted to leave this place; maybe if he were there the memory of Sirius wouldn't be haunting him. Plus, he could have someone to talk to… Remus. 'Poor Remus' Harry said to himself as he thought about how he had lost everything 'But Sirius wouldn't want to see us like this anyway… right?'
Harry woke up the next morning to the alarming sound of what seemed like his Uncle Vernon trying to smash his bedroom door down. Harry shot up in his spot and looked towards the door that was shaking with each furious knock.
Slowly Harry made his way to open the door. His head felt dizzy. He hadn't even realized he fell asleep. Had he dreamt the whole thing about receiving letters from Ron and Hogwarts? It didn't seem unlikely. But Harry was too tired to care about much more then trying to stop his Uncle Vernon's muffled yells.
"Potter!" Uncle Vernon had growled just as Harry opened the door.
Uncle Vernon's face was purple with anger and he was leaning in so close that Harry could feel spit spray from his last yell.
"Potter, what is this?!?" Uncle Vernon growled once more
Harry looked to where Uncle Vernon was holding up an envelope. The top portion had been torn off and it looked as if it had been a bit crumpled too (no doubt as Uncle Vernon stormed upstairs with it). Well at least Harry knew he hadn't dreamt it because the Weasley's address was scribbled up in the corner. This time they had only placed one stamp on the envelope.
"It looks like a letter to me" Harry replied in a half yawn. He knew it was pretty early in the morning to be testing his Uncle's temper, but he didn't really care.
"Now don't you get smart with me boy!" his Uncle snarled throwing the letter forcefully at Harry "I told you that you are to contact your freaky friends through your freakish ways, and in only those ways!!!"
"Have you even looked at the letter? It's not for me," Harry said giving his eyes a bit of a roll. He didn't want to really deal with his Uncles stupidity. No… it wasn't stupidity, he was just always on the look out to pin something on him. After the "friendly" conversation at the platform last year, the Dursley's have all been careful to make sure they only had a good reason to yell at him.
"Well it's certainly not for me!"
"If you believe so you should get your eyes checked" Harry muttered under his breath. He didn't care how much trouble he got in, he couldn't stand the Dursley's any more and the was way past the point of his Uncle's threats scaring him.
Uncle Vernon's face looked ready to explode into a million pieces. He was boiling. Harry knew that would be the last straw. Probably resulting in no more then one meal a day for a week. Didn't matter, he wasn't even that hungry anyway.
"Don't you EVER speak to me like that boy!!! Your lucky we took you in like we did"
"Hardly" Harry murmured, although this time low enough so it couldn't be heard over his Uncle's huffing. "Look the letters not mine. You can either read it or not. One way or another you can be sure I won't be staying here much longer"
Uncle Vernon opened his mouth to speak but seemed at a loss for words. Here came a problem. He no longer had something to yell about. Getting Harry out of his hair would probably be the best thing for both of them this summer. They both had no objections, but Harry knew Uncle Vernon wouldn't accept something Harry agreed to that easy.
"Let me see that!" Uncle Vernon spat with narrowed eyes. He reached down to pick up the letter he had thrown, all the while glaring at Harry. He stormed back out of the room, saying only one thing before he left "Now you stay in there boy, you here me!"
And with that the door behind Harry's uncle slammed once more to a close. Harry sighed as Uncle Vernon's words sunk in. Well if he didn't want him to leave, then he would take much pleasure out of sneaking out the side of the house.
Harry grabbed his green jumper- the one that Mrs. Weasley had knitted for him last year- before hopping down the side of the house through his window. Luckily the Dursley's house had a fence to climb down and wasn't to high up either.
Unsure of where he was going, Harry just roamed the streets around him for a bit. He could feel the neighbors around him peeking out their windows and wondering what he was doing. Their eyes seemed to loom out from the shadows of their curtained houses. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, Harry increased his pace until he reached the local park by their street.
No one was there. No one besides the rustling tress and bits of trash dancing on the sidewalks. It must've been at the earliest 5 o'clock. Around here, no one got up at 5 AM to do a morning jog. In fact, if you were to jog, the way you were supposed to do it was in the privacy of your home. An eerie feeling started to creep around as Harry thought about the loneliness around him.
Then something particularly odd caught Harry's eye. It was a shadowy creature looming behind a tree, but it was too hard to make out the exact details of the creature. One thing was for certain though; it was of the dog family. Harry's heart seemed to almost stick in his throat as the creature became a bit more formed. It looked like… but no… it couldn't be. If Harry wasn't mistaken, the creature looked like… a dog. A big black (then again, it looked all black around there) dog like creature. The creature didn't seem to notice him. But when Harry finally defrosted he slowly took a step towards the creature, making a distinct "crunching" sound by stepping on a fallen leave.
Like a shotgun, the creature's eyes met with Harry, but only for a millisecond. They seemed to pierce all color around them. They looked so familiar… it was all just spine-chilling. The creature took off like a bolt of lighting once their eyes met. Harry began to take after the creature in high hopes, but it was impossible. The creature was already out of sight.
Harry walked back home with his heart feeling a bit heavier. He kept telling himself no. There was no way that could've been… him. Those eyes. They just looked so familiar though…