Bitter

If Harry had any sense, he would have played naïve, and nursed his injuries like any normal 16-year-old would, acting like he was just minding his own business while his Uncle just decided to go on a rampage. Had he been sane, he would have leapt into the arms of his rescuer, acting like a wounded child, who was afraid of the mad man in the room. However, Harry wasn't much for doing the sensible these days. He ran to the black microwave and stared intently at the damage done to his nose.

"I think you broke it Dursley! Shit! Now it's going to be crooked! You're the one who needs to go to the track, because you're going to need to run fast!" He spun around, blood still flowing freely down to his shirt, and his eyes steely. He launched himself at his uncle, his hands clenched, as if he was going to strangle.

He felt hands on his shoulder blades. He yanked them away, and spun around, leaving his uncle to back away from him toward the door. "Harry! Calm down boy. We can fix it!" 

"Oh no you can't! Don't you think Snape's nose wouldn't be so warped if magic could fix facial features? Or maybe it just exceeds magic's abilities." Harry said spinning around to the door where his uncle had scurried off to avoid his pist off self, and the wizard in the room. Who was it anyway? He turned around and faced Remus Lupin. Wow. Who expected him to come? That tiny little thread of sensibility that was left in him squeaked in a barely audible voice (well, it was a voice in his head, it wasn't audible at all) 'don't be an asshole! He's a nice guy, and he just lost his best friend. Don't snap at him.' He would have just ignored that voice, but it made sense, so he took it into consideration.

He just narrowed his eyes. 'I'm morning my godfather. Nobody else has given me that respect. I was left alone in my relatives house for nearly a month. Nobody came to check up on me, nobody was nice to me.' His 'resentful to the world' side kicked back in, scoffing at how thoughtful and forgiving he was being. He let out a short breath through his nose. "It's okay. I can handle myself. You can go back to the headquarters and ignore me again." He said all of this with a glare, and sarcasm so thick, you needed a steak knife to cut it.

Lupin looked like shit. Not that he could talk. He guessed that he looked the same way. With the tangled matted hair that he just could bother to run a comb through. The dark circles under his eyes, and the pale skin. In other words, he looked like he had last summer. He just didn't care enough about his own appearance at this point to fuss over just about anything. It was just lucky for the Dursley that he had enough decency to take a shower every night, though it was just enough to run a bar of soup over his waxy skin and shrug at his rapidly deteriorating completion.

He didn't give anyone in the room the idea that he wanted them to pity him, and made sure they knew he wasn't lying by turning and walking out of the room. He didn't pause at the door to see if he would be stopped, because he had no intention of having someone stop him. He had no intent for Lupin to tell him that it was time for the order to rescue him and whisk him off to Sirius's old house. Nor did he plan on setting foot in that house again. He didn't know which was worse, the Dursley or Grimmauld Place. Never mind. Grimmauld place was worse.

He walked through the door, and listened to his Uncle move into the living room, and out of his reach, not that he really care about his Uncle any more.

He went to his room, locked the door, flopped onto the bed, and pulled his headphones over his ear, drowning out the sounds of whoever wanted to talk to him. In other words, Lupin.

He had found the CD Player in the junk littering the shelves of his room. It wasn't broken; just skipped a lot. That was enough for it to get tossed in his room over the summer. On one of the few trips he had made outside, he had gone to a local muggle shop that sold CDs and bought a few with money he had stole from his Uncle's wallet.

He mouthed along to the angry rap music, drawn to the comfort that he wasn't the only one out there that was angry at the world. The door opened magically. Oh, what a surprise. He closed his eyes, pretending to be listening intently to the music.

He felt the headphones being removed from his ears, and prayed that this person had good running skills, or knew when to take a hint. "What?" he hissed viciously.

Lupin looked taken aback. "Sorry. I just wanted to talk to you."

"Look. I was getting on his nerves. So he hit me. It isn't a big deal." He wiped some blood off his lip. He jumped off his bed to examine the damage again. Yup. Definitely broken. He didn't dare touch it, as it stung to the touch, but he had to stem the flow somehow. It had already dripped onto his shirt.

"That isn't it. I think it's time for me to-"

"No, let me guess. You've come to take me back to Sirius's old house so that I can spend the rest of my holiday around people that care about me in my time of crisis." He snorted, and almost choked on blood. "Well too bad. I'm not going." He said collapsing back on his abused bed, and it gave a squeak of strain.

"Actually, Harry, I wanted to ask you if you wanted to spend the rest of your holiday at my house. You don't have to. If you don't, we can arrange for you to go to the Burrow. I just thought that it might be nice for us to get to know each other, since I've been absent from your life for so long, you know?"

Harry sat straight up. He snapped his head so that he was facing Lupin in the eye. "You. Have. A. Lot. Of. Nerve. To try to work your way into my life after thirteen years of me living with the ass holes I lived with downstairs, and then my godfather dies, and you decide that now is the perfect time to pick up what you should have been doing for the past fourteen years. Your chance to get to know me was when my parents died and I had no one to go to except people that didn't want me."

He watched as his father's friend's face went from stunned, to insulted, to hurt, but he wasn't finished yet. "Where were you then? I don't need you to help me now. I don't know you, and I don't want to." He braced himself for the hit that he knew he would receive. It didn't come.

"Harry, I'm sorry…"

"I don't want to hear some half-ass apology. If you want to make it up to me, leave me alone. In fact, tell the whole fucking magical world to leave me the hell alone. I'm sick of this shit."

"Will you listen to me? I'm not going to apologize to you. I didn't take you in, because in case you haven't noticed, I can barely afford to take care of myself. And do you think the ministry would have let me take you in even if I could have?"

"What the hell do you think my parents left fifty thousand fucking galleons for? Drug money? The ministry doesn't give a damn that I spent ten years in a cupboard. Dumbledore didn't have a problem with it. Now get out of my room. Don't bother sending Dumbledore to have a little heart to heart with me either. I'm not going back to Hogwarts, and if you have a problem with that then you can kiss my ass."

"Well, I'm sorry you feel that way Harry, because I wanted you to come voluntarily, but I can drag you kicking and screaming as well. This way, you won't be left alone for more then five minutes at a time. Your doors and windows will be locked at all times, and depending on your behavior, you might have to see a therapist as well. How do you feel about all of that, Harry?"

"Yeah? Well you'll have to catch me first." Shock reigned on Lupin's face as he pulled his legs over his open window and dropped the short distance into a bush, and then made his way down the sidewalk, not knowing where the hell he was to go next.

Notes: Well… how about that chapter, eh? Kind of going back to cliché, but I'm going to try to make it more unique that usual. If you have any suggestions of what I should do for this story, go ahead and suggest them. Otherwise, I'll do what I have planned. Thank you for reviewing.

Pennicat: Thanks a lot. You really think this is any good? Wow.

Black Snow: Thanks for your reviews. It was funny. I realized that that annoying anonymous review thing was up, and it wouldn't turn off. Thanks for the advice.

Lemon The Kitty: That's the reason I wrote this fic. I was sick and tired of Harry turning into some kind of sappy emo kid, though if it's written correctly, it can be an excellent story. Thanks for the support.

Dani: Did you like it? Thanks.

Rubberduckie713: Thanks for the support. Judging from the way Harry had been acting throughout his fifth year, I think it's safe to say that Harry is going to be snappish rather then real emotional. I prefer 'Mad at the world' Harry to 'fragile and sensitive' Harry. Thanks.

Mo: Thanks. I find Harry more real in this fic then in some other fics.