I'm feeling such pressure already. I really hope I don't disappoint you guys with this story. I've been plotting in my head all day long. If you haven't read my first fanfic, (Harry Potter and the Perils of the Unknown) , this one might not make complete sense. I'll try my best to explain along the way. That is one thing I admire about J.K. Rowlings. You don't necessarily have to read to previous books to enjoy the next.
Nothing is my Own…
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Strange Freaks




Two weeks past and Harry hadn't heard so much as a peep out of the magical community. He'd never let the Dursleys know though, they'd probably lock him in the cupboard down stairs, and pray the spiders would finish him off. He had written several letters to his friends, but no response. What bothered him even more was his missing Daily Prophet subscription. The day after his birthday, his subscription had mysteriously stop coming. It was like all contact of the magical world had been severed leaving Harry to believe he'd just imagined the past six years of his life.

He sighed catching a glimpse of himself in the bathroom mirror. He looked as pitiful as ever. He had lost several pounds over the summer, due to his aunt's famous cooking. His messy black hair was wilder than ever and his cloths were no longer just too baggy; After all he was a good five inches taller than his cousin now.

"Pitiful," Harry muttered to his reflection, causing himself to chuckle.

Had his life become so lonely over the past two weeks that he was resorting to talking to himself?, he thought bitterly.

Stepping into the empty hallway his eyes caught sight of the warm sun beaming outside. Oh how he longed to go outside, just for a couple minuets. Why had he given Dumbledore his word he wouldn't?
He had been trapped inside for what seemed an eternity, though it had really only been a little over a month now. He missed laying out in the flowerbed, absorbing the sun. Harry glanced down at his pasty white skin.

"I'm going to look like a vampire when I get back to Hogwarts," he muttered miserably.


Life could be worse, his aunt and uncle rarely made him due chores anymore, mainly because he had threaten to use magic to do them. Anything having to do with the "M" word was strictly forbidden in their home. He was going stir crazy, he wanted out of so bad he could barely stand it. Harry couldn't count of his fingers the number of times he had thought about hiding under his invisibility cloak and sneaking out for a stroll around the block.

He re-entered his room, his eye catching the window and sun once more. He really had to think back a ways to remember a time he had felt so alone in the world. His only summer companion, Hedwig, had been missing for nearly five days. Harry kept expecting her to return with loads of letters, apologizing for not writing him these past two weeks. Somewhere deep in his stomach he knew that it wasn't likely though.

"I can't stand this!" Harry spat angrily as he turned his head from the beautiful summer day outside.

Why was Dumbledore doing this to him? Leaving him alone to stew in his own misery. It wasn't like he had anything positive to reflect on at the present moment. In the past three years he had witnessed three people die, and although everyone told him not to, he blamed himself for each death. Finally the prison cell was too much to bare, he found himself wandering out the door and down the stairs.

The house was empty this particular morning. Aunt Petunia and Dudley had gone to London to pick up some new school cloths and supplies, and like usual, Harry wasn't invited to come along. Uncle Vernon had been working extremely long hours since Harry's return. Although Vernon claimed to be working on a huge client, Harry knew it was because he wanted to see as little of his only nephew as possible. He'd have been content if Harry had never returned after the Dementor attack on Dudley the summer before last.

Harry Potter stood staring at the front door, fighting a battle with his conscience. He wanted to go outside so badly, what was the worse that could happen? Slowly he reached for the handle, turning it even slower. Surely it couldn't hurt to just step into the sun for a moment?

It felt wonderful, the direct sunlight beaming on Harry's pasty face. It was like life was breathing back into him. He stepped outside and sat on the front step, smiling for the first time in weeks. All his anger and misery seemed to just melt away. How could anything bad happen when he was feeling so peaceful.

"Ah," Harry cringed as his scar erupted into pain. His scar hurting was never a good sign.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?"

Harry opened his eyes to see his neighbor charging towards him with a look of fury. Mrs. Arabella Doreen Figg was his old babysitter and a squib in the magical world. A squib was the opposite of a muggle born. She was a muggle with magical parents.

"Are you insane Mr. Potter. Dumbledore told you not to leave the house! This is bad," she ranted grabbing Harry by the arm, forcing him to stand-up.
"I just stepped outside for a second!" Harry defended.
Mrs. Figg shook her head nervously, "He knows where you are now. The Dark Lord knows. Quickly get back inside, surely Dumbledore will be here soon. I hope he hurries, it is only a matter of time."
"A matter of time before what?" Harry demanded?
"Before he comes for you!" Mrs. Figg shrilled. "Where is your wand, you need your wand."
"It's upstairs," Harry stated.
Mrs. Figg gave him a firm push, "Well, don't just stand there like a knot on a log, go get it!"

Harry rubbed his scar as he walked into his bedroom to retrieve his wand. This all seemed ridiculous to him, how could Voldemort know where he was just by him stepping outside. He wasn't positive how the charm worked, but he was pretty sure going outside didn't break it, since it had never been a problem before now.

"Mrs. Figg, calm down," Harry said urgently as he saw his neighbor walking madly around the living room peaking out the windows.
"Where in the world is Dumbledore, if they show up he knows I'm useless," she ranted.
"I think you're over reacting," Harry insisted.
Mrs. Figg looked at Harry sternly, "Don't you realize what you've done. You're seventeen now! A legal wizard! The minute you stepped outside your aunt and uncles house you broke the charm that was protecting you!"

Harry felt his stomach bottom out. No wonder Dumbledore had been so insist that he not step outside the boundaries of the house. It all made sense. The reason he hadn't been getting letters, the reason he wasn't allowed outside and reason nobody had rescued him yet.

"Voldemort knows where my family lives now," Harry said almost in a whisper.
"Yes! That is what I've been trying to tell you," Mrs. Figg snapped impatiently, peaking out the blinds in the living room.

Both of them jumped as they heard the back door close.

"Keep your wand up!" Mrs. Figg instructed looking apprehensively towards the kitchen.

The kitchen door swung open and Petunia Dursley let out a blood curdling scream.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON!" Petunia demanded.
Mrs. Figg looked like she about snap, with all the tension in the room at the present moment, "Your nephew went outside, he's coming."

Petunia looked like she had just seen a ghost, as she went pale. Dudley was standing at the kitchen door, looking nervously at his mother.

"Remember your deal with Dumbledore? Well, it doesn't matter now, muggle or not he'll kill you when he gets here," Miss Figg stated, matter of factly, "Go get your wand."

Harry did a double take. Surely he didn't hear what he thought he hear. His Aunt Petunia had a wand? She was a muggle not a witch.

"I don't have it anymore," Petunia spat viciously.
Miss Figg raised her voice impatiently, "This no time to act stupid, go get your damn wand! I'm a squib, I'm no use if he shows up!"

Petunia's eyes grew wide with fear as she dashed back into the kitchen, returning a moment latter with a dark mahogany wand in her hands. Dudley's eyes grew wide as he eyed his mother, looking at her as if he was seeing her with new eyes.

"Dumbledore promised me if I took him in I would never have to pick up this cursed thing again. I would have never agreed if I had known this was going to happen," Petunia whined staring nervously at her front door.

Mrs. Figg kept circling the living room peaking out the shades muttering "oh dears" under her breaths.

"I want a wand too," Dudley finally demanded, "I think I have a right to have a wand!"
"NO," Petunia snapped, "You aren't getting a wand and I don't want to ever hear you talk about wanting one again."
Dudley hated not getting his way and slammed the lamp off the kitchen table, "I want a wand!"

"Absolutely not! I will not have a freak as a son. Not after the sacrifice me and father went through to protect your from all this hocus pocus," Petunia spat more viciously.
"Will you two pipe down, I can't hear a thing outside," Mrs. Figg reared.

Mrs. Figg was right, you couldn't hear a thing outside. It was that silence that made Harry's neck hairs stand on end. The room was slowly growing dark, as if dust had come in the morning instead of the afternoon, and in the distance he could hear the rattled breathing of a dark creature.

"Mummy," Dudley whimpered cuddling up in a ball in the floor.
"Dementors," Harry said mostly to himself. He should have known that Voldemort would sent his Dementors after him again.

Petunia Evans Dursley looked terrified as she held her wand nervously in her hand. Each moment that passed the rattled breathing grew louder. Petunia was shaking so badly, Harry doubted she could even aim a spell right, much less do a Patronus Charm.

"Where in the name of Merlin is Dumbledore!" Mrs. Figg said impatiently, backing up from the window.

Harry snapped his head over to his aunt, "You've got to think of a happy thought Aunt Petunia. When they come through that door, think of the happiest thought you can muster and yelled expecto patronum ."
"I can't do charms you stupid boy! I was never any good at them!" Petunia snapped back, still shaking miserably.
Harry took a deep breath, "You can do it, just concentrate!"

Harry turned back towards the door as it started rattling. The disturbing sounds of the Dementors growing louder and louder. Mrs. Figg picked Dudley off the floor and slowly backed towards the kitchen.

"When they open the door," Harry instructed, glancing over to his aunt who had her wand up in a defensive position.

The door opened.

" Expecto Patronum!" Harry shouted as he caught sight of the first demonic beast.

He heard his aunt yelled something similar to the words he had told her, but she didn't pronounce it correctly, and her charm had failed. The stag that busted from the end of Harry's wand charged towards the Dementor at the door, knocking it and the one behind it over.

" Expencto Patronus," Petunia Dursley tried again.
" Expecto Patronum!" Harry yelled at her. "Think of a happy thought, close your eyes!"

Petunia willed her eyes closed and pointed her wand, " Expecto Patronum!"

A silvery white vapor sprung from Petunia's wand and followed Harry's. It wasn't a corporeal Patronus, but it wasn't a bad attempt. Harry grabbed his aunt by the arm and drug her into the kitchen where Mrs. Figg was muttering. Dudley had his hands over his face and he was rocking in terror. Harry had no idea how many Voldemort had sent, or how long he could hold them off.

That is when he heard that laugh, that cackling high pitched laugh. The Death Eaters were here.

"Oh Dumbledore," Mrs. Figg muttered nervously as she ran to lock the door.
"It won't do any good, alohamora can open any open any muggle lock," Harry informed her, wishing he could remember that locking charm Hermione used last year in the Room of Requirements.

"Oh dear," Mrs. Figg muttered again, backing away from the door.

Harry raised his wand ready to greet his first attacker, as the door opened Harry shouted.

"Impedio!"

Tonks appeared in slow motion, before tripping and falling to the ground.

"Harry, we have to get you guys out of here!" Kingsley, another Auror from the Ministry, announced appearing behind Tonks.

Harry breath a sigh of relief, although they might not be in the safe yet, he wasn't going to have to fight a group of Death Eaters and Dementors alone.

"I'm not going anywhere!" Petunia shrilled, clutching Dudley tight in her bony arms, "Dumdledore promised me this wasn't going to happen, he promised I wasn't going to have to hide!"
"There are at least fifty Dementors and no telling how many Death Eaters outside your house, it isn't safe to stay!" Tonks pleaded shoving them back into the living room and the fireplace.
"I WILL NOT FLOO!" Petunia shrilled.
"We can't floo! I'm a squib!" Mrs. Figg protested.

Tonks looked at her partner, "Squibs can't floo?"
"NO!" Mrs. Figg yelled at her.

Harry felt like he was in the middle of a badly plotted movie. It seemed his rescuers were clueless on how they were going to rescue the lot of them. This had to be a bad dream or something, he forced his eyes closed and tried to force his mind awake, but it just made his scar sting worse.

"Their retreating," he heard a comforting voice say, as the pressure released from his scar.

Petunia's fear must have disappeared too, because when Harry opened his eyes Petunia was screaming at his head master.

"YOU SWORE TO ME THIS WASN'T GOING TO HAPPEN! YOU PROMISE ME IF I TOOK HIM IN I COULD LEAD A NORMAL MUGGLE LIFE! YOU TOLD ME THAT IF I DID WHAT YOU ASKED THAT YOU'D TAKE ME OUT OF THE MAGICAL BOOKS AND NOBODY WOULD EVER FIND ME AGAIN!"

Dumbledore nodded, "I did, and after today that promise will be complete."
"You're a witch?" Harry finally asked in disbelief.
"Oh course I'm a witch you idiot!" Petunia shrilled at him.

Mad-eye Moody came walking in with is wand still raised croaking about not being prepared. December O'Riley followed closely behind him shaking her head. If Harry knew Moody he was complaining about not taking better precautions against this attack.

"Albus, there gone for now, but I told you this was likely to happen. We should have had the Advance Guard stationed outside the Dursley's house for two weeks now," Moody croaked.
"I promised that there would be as little disturbance as possible, the situation is under control and that is all that matters," Dumbledore responded.

Moody examined the room with his magical eye, causing Petunia to gasped. Dudley, who was suddenly not shaking anymore since the Dementors were gone was staring at Moody in curiosity.

"Fat fellow, aren't you?" Moody asked as his eye rested on Harry's cousin.

Petunia slammed her fist against her side, "I want him out of here, I never agreed to this Dumbledore! I want him out!"

Tonks placed a hand on Harry's shoulder and guided him up the stairs to gather his things.