The coldest day of the month of June was coming to an end. The British had known this particular summer month as the start of the worst Indian summer since 1409. A young man, an averaged sized scrawny fifteen year old, called Harry Potter sat in his very small bedroom doodling pictures of his favorite sport, Quidditch (14 players, 4 balls, 3 large hoops played on broomsticks) and thinking about his favorite place in the world, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Harry Potter wasn't your average boy of fifteen. He was a wizard.

He was a wizard who had just finished his fifth term at school and has been through more peril and dangerous adventures than a fully-fledged wizard would ever be in. Harry was an orphan who lived with his atrocious relatives the Dursleys: Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and the fattest boy you'd ever meet, his cousin Dudley. Harry's parents were killed by the evil wizard Voldemort (known throughout the wizarding world as You-Know-Who) when he was just a baby. Voldemort had tried to kill Harry but did not succeed. Harry's only battle wound was a small lightning bolt-shaped scar on his forehead. You-Know-Who, however, was left bodiless, almost dead. Harry Potter was thereon known as The Boy Who Lived.

On Harry's eleventh birthday, he and the Dursleys were then residing in a small cottage on a rock in the sea. Rubeus Hagrid, the Hogwarts gamekeeper, who happened to be a giant, came to the small cottage and gave Harry the letter proclaiming he had been accepted to Hogwarts. Hagrid taught Harry all about his history (being that the Dursleys never told him what had really happened in his past) and got him to the train that would take him to his new life. During his first year, Harry made two best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, and saved the Sorcerer's Stone from none other than Lord Voldemort. During Harry's second year, he and his two friends unveiled the true heir of Salazar Slytherin to be, yet again, Lord Voldemort. Two terms ago, Harry learned that a man called Sirius Black, his father's best friend, had turned the Potters to Lord Voldemort. Sirius had been in Azkaban, the wizard prison, for the past 12 years but had recently escaped. It was believed that Black was searching to kill Harry. However, towards the end of the year, Harry comes face to face with Black and learns the real truth about what really happened 12 years ago on that awful night. In his fourth year, Harry was invited to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasleys. At school, the Triwizard Tournament took place. Harry was unwillingly volunteered to participate. He was selected to be the fourth tri-school champion. During the last challenge, Harry met Voldemort again in a graveyard. The man who really turned over the Potters, Peter Pettigrew, acted as Voldemort's true servant. Harry witnessed Lord Voldemort return to power regaining a body and become a real person. This past summer, Harry was alone waiting to hear more from his best friends. One night, the Order of the Phoenix, a secret society, came and rescued Harry and transported him to Number 12, Grimmauld Place. There, he met his godfather, Sirius, and his friends and other wizards he was familiar with. Harry soon learns that the Daily Prophet, the wizard newspaper read by thousands of wizards, hadn't believed him that Voldemort had returned. When he arrived at Hogwarts, many students were afraid to be near him because of an odd fear that they would become a nutter if they befriended him. Throughout his fifth year, Harry was having strange dreams that were about what Voldemort was doing at that moment, or so he thought. Harry lead his friends to mortal danger and ended up being part of the cause of his godfather's death by luring everyone to Voldemort, thinking Sirius was being tortured. But as the term ended, Harry still thought of Sirius everyday and was missing him dearly.

Before he knew it, Harry was detached from everything that was around him. He came back to earth in a way as he jumped with a start at a sound of a huge roar.

"HARRY POTTER!!!! YOU GET DOWN HERE AND EXPLAIN YOURSELF!!!" bellowed Harry's Uncle Vernon at the top of his lungs.

Harry trudged downstairs, wondering what the huge calamity was now.

"Yes, Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked insincerely.

"Explain...this...OWL!!!!" Uncle Vernon screamed, his voice increasing in tone.

"Hedwig!" Harry gasped. He had sent his owl to Ron, just wanting a chat.

"WELL?!?!" Uncle Vernon yelled.

"Uh, erm..." Harry muttered.

"Why was this attached to this pathetic rat with wings?" Vernon inquired Harry, brandishing a thick parcel with something sweet smelling wafting out from the package.

"I asked the Weasleys for some food and wanted to know when I was coming to stay as Ron promised. What has Uncle Vernon read?" Harry's mind raced. "Um, well, you see, Ron asked me to go spend part of the holiday at his house. So.... can I go?" Harry asked hopefully

"You want to go live with some of your freaky folk from that madhouse? Ha! Sure! Scram! Get your god-damned body out of my HOUSE! Oh, and one thing boy," Uncle Vernon said.

Harry's heart was about ready to explode with excitement.

"Yes Uncle Vernon?"

"You leave my house and you never return. I mean never. Once you leave this house you never return. I never want to see you again in my life. Find somewhere else to live. I don't care. Leave. Take this nasty wiz...oh, you no...your foolish peoples' food with you."

He shoved a rather tasty looking mince pie at Harry.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get out!" finished Vernon with triumph.

"Um, may I please have my letter?" Harry asked still having problems comprehending what his uncle had just told him.

"Yeah. Here is this piece of rubbish." Vernon scowled. "Are these people dirt poor or something?" he added regarding the horrible state of the letter.

"You stay out of it. Who really cares?" Harry retorted.

"Just take it," Uncle Vernon shot back.

"Dear, Harry

We're coming to take you back to The Burrow. You can stay with us until we go back to school. We will pick you up promptly at 6 o'clock on July 30 so you can celebrate your birthday with us. How's your summer going? Lousy, I suppose. Have you gotten your results of the O.W.L.'s yet? I just did yesterday. I did almost as bad as Fred and George. Only 4 O.W.L's. Hermione will just flip. I can hear her now: "RON! Honestly! 4 O.W.L.'s! I shouldn't let you use my notes or copy my homework! I really shouldn't!!!"

Mum and dad were pretty upset too. I didn't get as high marks as Bill or Charlie. Percy too. Of course, then came the tears. Oh, well. I guess I'm not "Prefect Standard" according to my family. Wait till Hermione tells us what she got. Probably a perfect score. Well Harry, we don't care what your aunt and uncle say. You're coming with us. See you soon.

Ron

"Uncle Vernon? They won't be here until the end of next month. Can I stay here until then?" Harry questioned cautiously.

"The end of July, eh? Well, I guess you'll just have to live somewhere else with another of your idiot freak friends. Won't you? Besides, you can kiss this house goodbye once you get out of here. I'm giving you one hour to get your stuff out of my house. I never want to see you again. I don't want you back over the summer holiday, either. OUT!" Vernon bellowed.

"Remember that owl post Aunt Petunia got last summer after you tried to chuck me out?" Harry exploded, anger rising again.

"The faster you're gone, the better! I don't care what curse you could encounter right outside my property!" Vernon shouted.

"Well, I'm waiting. An owl should be here any minute saying I should stay and you can't let me go." Harry retorted, pleased with himself.

"If one of those bloody birds comes within the next ten minutes, you can have an extended stay here. But you better get packing. There will be no, and I repeat, NO owl telling your aunt and me to keep you." Uncle Vernon finished with a smirk of delight on his round and slightly purple face.

Harry began marching out and upstairs. He knew deep down Dumbledore's owl carrying a howler would arrive any minute. Harry obediently commenced to climb the stairs to his bedroom and pack anyway. He packed slowly and with pleasure, relishing the great news he had. He was finally leaving the Dursleys. Forever. Then, as if someone just scratched off a record playing happy music, the thought hit him. Where would he go for the summer holiday? He couldn't stay with Dumbledore. Dumbledore has a life and has better things to do. What about...Sirius. Horror filled Harry's body rapidly. That was one thing he didn't like to think about. Lupin? No, Lupin became a dangerous werewolf once a month. The Weasleys? Mrs. Weasley has too much to deal with. Harry would just have to bring up the topic gently with Ron.

Harry came back to reality with a jolt. How long had he been standing there in mid-thought? Harry rushed back downstairs to see if the howler had gotten there yet. He assumed it hadn't; he would have heard it explode, even upstairs.

"Uncle Vernon?" he asked carefully to his uncle sitting at the kitchen table reading a newspaper. "Have you received ow...post in the past few minutes?" Harry corrected himself from saying "owl".

"No. I told you nobody would be there waiting to bail you out of your next problem." Uncle Vernon told him flatly turning the page of the paper. "You have about fifty minutes to get yourself out of my house."

Harry's stomach dropped like a ten-pound weight. Dumbledore hadn't written yet? "Something must be wrong" Harry decided. But Dumbledore's job was to make sure Voldemort wouldn't get to him. Where was he?

"You now have forty five minutes!" Uncle Vernon called. "There's no chance of you staying here now! Get packing!

With a heavy heart, Harry began throwing all his belongings in his trunk and collecting his school books from his secret stash under a floorboard in the bedroom. Harry's mind continued racing and trying to think of where he could stay.

"With Sirius....no...," Harry couldn't bear to think of Sirius. It had only been two weeks since he had died.

"Could I just ask the Weasley's to come collect me early? No, they're already giving an arm and a leg to have me stay for the majority of the holidays. Why hasn't Dumbledore sent another Howler to the Dursley's? Professor Lupin and the rest of the Order...maybe they will let me stay with them until the Weasley's can come to collect me."

The Order of the Phoenix was still stationed at Number 12 Grimmauld Place in London, England. That was miles from Privet Drive. The only way Harry would be able to get there would be by broomstick. This would be impossible unless members of the Order would come to fetch him from Privet Drive, as they did the previous summer. Harry wouldn't be able to contact them by owl; he only had 40 minutes left to leave the house.

Harry continued tossing his belongings into his school trunk, when he came across a folded sweatshirt with a bulgy area near the neck. He unraveled it only to find the two way mirror that Sirius had given him the previous year. The person who had the matching mirror could communicate with the other, like a telephone call, but seeing the person's face. Harry had already tried to talk to Sirius with it, but, to his dismay, Sirius was nowhere to be seen. Harry decided to give it another go.

"Sirius? Are you there? Sirius? Sirius?"

"Harry? Is that you? Wait one second, I'll be right back," came a male voice.

Harry was dumbfounded. He couldn't believe what he heard. Harry quickly wiped off the surface of the mirror so he could see Sirius. The words from that voice rang through his head. Suddenly, Harry's stomach flip-flopped. That wasn't Sirius's voice. It wasn't the familiar raspy voice of Sirius Black.

"If it's not Sirius," Harry thought, "who is it?"