Chapter 4: Owls and O.W.L.s
Harry awoke the next morning to the sound of furious pounding on his bedroom door. Rolling off the bed with a groan, he tried to remember when he had fallen asleep last night. Then, as he became unpleasantly aware of the soreness of his eyes and throat, he remembered the countless hours he'd spent curled miserably on his bed, face and body tense and twisted with anguish. Harry had dragged himself to the door just as a stream of angry threats burst from the other side.
"Get out here, you lazy little ingrate, before I break this door!" It was Harry's Uncle Vernon. "What have you been doing in there for the past week? I want this bloody door open in the next twenty seconds or--" Harry didn't give his uncle a chance to finish his sentence as he threw open the door, glaring moodily at the massive form before him.
"What is it?" he demanded. He was in no mood to be civil to his prat of an uncle.
"What is it!" bellowed the, "What is it? You've been holed up in this pit of a room for days!"
"So?" Harry spat, "Since when do you care? You never seemed disappointed before!"
"Watch your tone with me, boy! Don't act like you don't know, you little liar! You haven't done anything around this house all summer-sneaking around, doing who knows what in here. and that bloody owl! Screeching like the dickens in broad daylight! God forbid the neighbors hear that racket!" Uncle Vernon seemed to be getting into his stride, but Harry had stopped listening to the rant when his uncle mentioned his owl.
"Hedwig's back?" he murmured, raising his eyebrows in surprise. Wondering how he had missed her arrival, he turned quickly to her cage and found the snowy owl looking peacefully up at him. "Hedwig!" he cried, "When did you get back?" He rushed over to her, hoping to find a letter from Ron or Hermione.
"Don't ignore me, boy! You've mooched off of this family for too long! There are plenty of chores that need doing. You can start earning your keep like a decent person!" Harry turned quickly back to his uncle.
"Decent person? Oh no. I am through being a slave to you people! Do your own bloody chores!" he noticed with pleasure that his uncle's flabby face was quicky turning very red. Satisfied, Harry turned back to Hedwig, but as he reached for the envelope tied to her leg, he remembered his decision from the morning before and hesitated. Unfortunately, Uncle Vernon chose this exact moment to resume his tirade. He decided to start in on a new subject, completely unaware of the folly of his words.
"When are you leaving anyway?" he barked, "Isn't it about time for you to slouch off and join your sleazy godfather and the rest of your freak-friends?"
Harry whipped around, giving his uncle a fierce, dangerous look. All of his frustration and loneliness, the grief and anguish he'd been trying to hold back, were now reaching a breaking point. An overwhelming rage came over him as he took a step towards his uncle, eyes flashing with wrath.
"I'll be leaving," he began angrily, "whenever I BLOODY WELL PLEASE!" Harry watched as the huge man stepped back in shock, then continued, "And don't think you'll be ordering me what to do! Leave me alone, or else. I'll do as much magic as I want. I don't care if I'm expelled. I'm not going back to school anyways. So unless you want to be jinxed into oblivion, you'd better start trying to wedge yourself back out of my room!"
Uncle Vernon, who had gasped when Harry said 'magic,' stumbled back out of the room with a look of horror on his fleshy face. He seemed to believe his nephew, who had his wand pointed ominously at Vernon's heart. Harry thought he heard the man whimper weakly before he shuffled away with considerable haste.
Harry slammed his door shut again and then collapsed against it. Hedwig flew gracefully down to his knee and looked at him expectantly. He reached out a hand to stroke her and felt his anger melt away.
"Oh, Hedwig," he whispered, "What am I going to do?" As if in answer to his question, she daintily held her leg out to him, reminding him of the unopened letter.
"Fine," he mumbled. He reached for the letter, admitting that he had nothing better to do. "I might as well read it - I can't very well send it back."
He unsealed the envelope and pulled out a single piece of parchment. But just he had unfolded the letter enough to see the familiar writing of his friend Ron, an oversized box suddenly dropped out of the letter, making Harry gasp and drop the page. He eyed the box suspiciously, but then reached again for the letter and began to read.
Hey, Harry!
Happy Birthday!
Harry did a double take before smacking himself on the forehead, wondering how he could have forgotten his own birthday.
Hope you're doing okay-too bad you can't be here instead of with those lousy muggles. Give your cousin Dudley a kick for me.
Anyway, we all wanted to send you your birthday presents, but thought a big package would be too conspicuous. So Fred and George gave us some of their Presto Parchment. You can fold it around basically anything and it'll conceal it perfectly ad stay just the same size! Even Hermione was impressed.
She says to say "Hi!" to you and everyone says "Happy Birthday!" so have a good one! Hope you like your gifts (maybe your relatives will like them too!).See you soon!
Ron
Harry smiled as he saw that several other people had signed the bottom of the parchment. Then his curiosity got the better of him and he slid the fallen box closer to him and began to open it.
He was amazed to see how much had been packed inside. Along with several wrapped packages and about two dozen chocolate frogs, there was also a delicious-looking pie and a fresh supply of owl treats for Hedwig. Harry reached for the pie first, pulling a note from it as he did. The note, and evidently the pie, was from Mrs. Weasley, Ron's mum. Harry could almost see her worried face as he quickly read through the note.
Dear Harry,
Happy Birthday, Dear! I hope you like the pie. Minerva McGonagall dropped by and told me you looked rather awful! I do hope those muggles are feeding you. The sooner you get here the better. Not to worry though! It won't be long now. Have a lovely day!
Love,
Molly
P.S. The pie is charmed to remake itself once you get to the end, so it should last quite awhile.
Harry set the pie and the note aside with a sigh. Mrs. Weasley was like a mother to him, and the rest of the Weasley's truly felt like his family. He knew they'd be worried and upset if he didn't go back, but he couldn't bear to see anything happen to any of them. With a feeling of dread, he went about opening the rest of the packages. With every new gift, the knot in his stomach tightened.
There was an assortment of prank items from Ron, including a bag of powder labeled Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes' No-Magic Mayhem ("Ideal entertainment for underage wizards!") and a couple of suspicious-looking candies, which Harry assumed were meant for Dudley. The owl treats were from Hermione, along with a little book called Rainy Day Spells. She'd also been thoughtful enough to enclose a few clippings from the wizard newspaper The Daily Prophet, which Harry set aside to look at later. Ron's sister Ginny had sent a little journal-like book, which turned out to be a Quidditch playbook, already partially filled with famous plays from Quidditch history.
All of the gifts made him long to be with his friends, but it was when Harry opened the last package that he finally felt like his heart would burst. Enclosed in a plain, smooth wooden frame was a picture, accompanied with a small card signed by Remus Lupin, best friend to Harry's late father and godfather. The picture displayed all of his closest friends, waving out at him from a room which Harry didn't recognize. All of the Weasley's were there, with the exception of Ron's brother Percy. Hermione and Remus looked slightly out of place among the crowd of red hair, but didn't stick out as much as Mad-eye Moody with his haggard countenance, or Tonks, a young Auror with blindingly yellow hair. Professor Dumbledore stood on the far right, smiling gently beside the rigid form of Professor McGonagall.
Smiling up at him were all of the people that cared about Harry; everyone he loved and wanted to be with. But to Harry it was like a warning. These were all of the people who would be endangered by his presence and any one of them might die at Lord Voldemort's hands if Harry didn't do something to stop it. Suddenly, the prophecy, which had haunted him all summer, took on a new meaning.
Harry realized now that his fate didn't matter to him. The lives of everyone he cared for depended on him; if he let them down, his life would be meaningless. Though the truth of this weighed heavily on him, he felt a new strength within him. He would not let them down. If it was up to him to destroy Voldemort, he would do everything in his power, though he feared that it would not be enough.
Harry searched frantically on his desk until he found a parchment and a quill, and then began a quick letter to Ron and the others.
Dear Everyone,
Thank you all so much for the wonderful gifts! They're all really terrific! Everything is going great here--hope you are all having a good holiday!
Harry
He quickly attached the letter to Hedwig and after giving her a few owl treats, sent her off. Then he swept everything off his desk and went about his room collecting all of school books. With a 'smack' he dropped the pile onto his desk and sat down. "I've wasted too much time moping around already," he thought to himself, "It's time I start figuring out how to face my destiny."
With desperate hope of finding something-anything-that might be the answer to his problems, Harry began reading through all of the books, starting with A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration. If there was anything useful in these books, he was determined to find it. And so, with an untiring thoroughness, Harry read into the night, unwilling to stop until he'd read them all.