Chapter Two: Freedom At The Horizon

The days went by quickly this summer, and the days seemed to get hotter. The weather must of saw how little time it had to show off it's better quarter so it made the last two weeks it's pride and joy. The sunshine streaming through puffy white clouds seemed to beckon forth the occupants of homes and the workers in buildings.

Even the most unsociable hermits were making their way from the computers and butt pressured shaped desk chairs to revel in the beauty shining upon Great Britain. In the house on Privet Drive, the inhabitant didn't even realize what was going on around them. Clothes were everywhere, packed in bags, hanging out of dry cleaning wrappers, folded but not put away and hanging on hangers as if they were being scrutinized closely before they were put away into half full suit cases.

The Dursley's were getting ready for their vacation of the summer, two full weeks bursting with days of freakless fun. No more magic, no more sticks, no more stinkin' dirty freaks. This tune seemed to resonate simultaneously through the king and queen of the Dursley household, at the same time. The abrupt humming of the song made Harry look up from his charms book and stare incredulously at the door separating him from the rest of the house.

'The Dursley's seem to be in a good mood' the raven haired boy thought with a shake of his head. The fact that he was to house sit alone was making Harry just as delighted, if not more, as the Dursley's at that moment. Since the boy was expecting a call any day now from Ron, Harry was wishing with all his power that the Dursley's would move their arses and get the show on the road…literally.

'Thinking of Ron,' Harry thought frowning, 'The way he was acting at the end of last year was strange.'

The normally jovial boy had seemed anxious and nervous when he was able to corner Harry before he left. In fact almost all last year the boy seemed to be in constant deep contemplation of some matter or another. The consistent stares Harry could feel on his neck caused the boy to have a permanent blush on his cream skinned cheeks. The only thing that caused anything to change last year was the visions sent to him by Voldemort, that bitch Umbridge always getting on his case (even when he didn't do anything), and the whole ministry of magic fiasco.

The only thing that Harry had to be happy for was the timely occurrence of the OWL testing, and the support of his friends and surrogate family. The OWLS helped Harry keep his mind off of Sirius'…passing, and his friends were there every step of the way. Especially Ron, he kept him sane when the misery and mourning hit hard the day after his world came tumbling down on him, and made him more depressed than he had aught to have been.

Even Dumbledore was there to make sure that everything was alright with his "dear boy". After Harry had apologized with the older man about what happened in his office, the teen had felt better about himself and was able to start on the path of coming to terms with Sirius' death. Though this maybe so, it took several tea dates and shared lemon drops, which Harry secretly though to be line with a legilimens(?) potion, with the Headmaster to accomplish the latter.

Now sitting in his room basically cut off from all of society except the Dursley's was actually benefiting to Harry. The fact that the Dursley's were ignoring him and dealing with problems of their own made everything seem surreal. Being fully alone for the next couple of weeks was looking more and more acceptable as Harry thought process continued, if that could be possible. The only downside of this was that the Hogwarts student wouldn't have anyway of getting to Kings Cross Station on Sept. 1st. Though this was true, Harry would bet his last galleon that the Headmaster would send someone from the Order to pick him up when the situation called for it. With this thought in mind, Harry went back to basking in his short but long time coming freedom.

Noises from outside the hall alerted Harry from his musings and told him of the approaching of Dudley coming from the kitchen no doubt). His shoes squeaked painfully on the floorboards as if the pressure of the body they supported was in excess of weight (uh…duh!).

Without a knock anything of that nature, Dudley opened the door to his cousin's room and stepped in. Harry who was sitting calmly on his bed thinking that the worst was to happen, and angry that his euphoric moment was disturbed, looked up at the boy in front of him. The boy, Dudley, seemed to be in the middle of trying to get his bearings about him, started to flush madly at the scrutinizing look placed upon him by his cousin. Finally gathering his courage, Dudley started pacing back and forth in front of the bed Harry sat.

"First of all, mom told me to tell you that we will be leaving in an hour and a half." Here Dudley took a deep breath and looked into his cousins eyes. The intelligence, maturity, and warmth that dominated the brown orbs confused Harry until his cousin continued.

"I'm, um, still here b-because I should…no I want to apologize."

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Y.AWOL