Disclaimer: I know, I forgot this before, but now it's here! As you've
probably already guessed, I don't anything of the Harry Potter universe
unless it was specifically added there by me. With that said, GO AWAY!
No...no, you can come back to read my story, BUT THEN GO AWAY (that is, after
you review it, of course...)
"What are you doing, boy?"
"Nothing, Uncle Vernon, I'm only sitting here innocently."
"Nonsense! I know your lot. For all I know you could be planning something right now! You've been awfully quiet since the beginning of summer, boy, what's wrong with you? You haven't told your...friends that your Aunt Petunia and I have been treating you badly, have you, because let me tell you, you probably are treated better than most kids on this block."
"No I haven't, Uncle Vernon, it's just that I'm bored because I can't see my friends...I do hope that they contact me soon because they did tell me that we would see each other really soon..." Harry sat with a daze in his eyes. He was thinking about seeing Ron and Hermione, his best friends in the world. No one had seen him through so much. They had helped him get through virtually everything: getting the stone, helping to foil Riddle, help during the Triwizard Tournament, proving Sirius Black's- oh, no! Sirius was on Harry's mind a lot lately. He could hardly stop thinking about his late godfather. He had been the closest thing Harry ever had to a parent, considering he could barely remember his own...
It was such a lonely summer. Harry had been back for all of two weeks (a whole bloody fortnight!) with no word from any of his friends. He had, of course, been writing to the order regularly as they had told him to. He did not want them to come busting into number 4, Privet Drive because he had stupidly forgotten to write. He honestly didn't want to cause too much trouble. It had seemed that since he returned that his Aunt and Uncle had been even edgier than ever before. Harry suspected that this had something to do with Aunt Petunia's rather surprising insight to the magical world only last summer. Harry was sure that Uncle Vernon had not forgotten her insisting that Harry stay with them even when Harry had just revealed that a crazy dark lord had returned a couple of months ago and was most intent upon killing Harry. But that was last year. Now the whole wizarding world was aware of the fact that Voldemort had returned, and, in Harry's eyes, they weren't taking it so well.
Harry had recently taken to receiving the Daily Prophet again. (It had been sent specifically to him by Albus Dumbledore. He had sent the first issue with a note that had been concealed within the paper; it read," Harry, I believe that it would be in your best interest if you were to read the Prophet. Since I cannot communicate with you directly (I have a strange feeling that Voldemort is attempting to find you and I do not want many owls by your residence on Privet Drive. If Voldemort happened to intercept an owl addressed to you he could find out where you live and...well...try to fulfill the prophecy.), you shall pick up information concerning Voldemort through the Daily Prophet. In the meantime, I have taken the liberty to tell your friends (Ron and Hermione) not to write to you unless it is absolutely necessary. Please do not get angry with me Harry; I know that you are going through a very difficult time. Best wishes and I do hope to see you soon, Professor Dumbledore."
When Harry had first read the note he was, of course, fuming with rage. This was because he was being treated again like a little child who was doing something wrong and was supposed to stand out of the way until all of the adults handled the problem. Then, when it was safe for little Harry to come out, they would come pick him up. Harry was in a bad mood for days because of that. He had seriously considered leaving the house and wandering off on his own to find his friends. He was in the same predicament as last year: everyone was in on it but him. He did not like this feeling of loneliness, but then he remembered that this was all probably for the best and that he would be seeing his friends again soon. It would be nice to see the people from the order again (that was if he was going to Grimmauld Place as he assumed, but he also thought of the Burrow). He was especially keen to see Remus Lupin, who was the only person left of the four marauders whom Harry could speak to about Sirius, the only one who was rather close to Sirius.
Harry got up and crossed the den to the stairs. Uncle Vernon grunted to show that he was pleased, but said nothing to Harry. Then Harry climbed up to his room. He figured that he had better get a start on his homework over the holidays or else he might forget about it. When he entered his room he looked immediately at Hedwig's cage. To his disappointment he found it empty. This left him feeling worried, but excited at the same time. He had written a letter to Ron and a letter to Hermione about five days ago. He had written usual things about what was going on and whatever, but she had still not returned. He was worried that maybe she was injured, but there was also the hope that she might come back with letters in return (maybe Ron and Hermione were throwing caution to the winds and writing anyway). But then that would worry him because they were only supposed to write to him if there was a necessity of it. In other words, Harry thought that maybe the reason Hedwig was taking so long was because there was something seriously wrong going on and Harry had no idea what it was. Now that Harry thought about it, he was a lot more worried than he was excited.
Harry sank onto his bed and pulled up one of his books (one of his new freedoms since Moody's threat to Uncle Vernon was that Harry was no longer required to do his homework in hiding. He could do it out in the open in his room as long as he didn't announce to the whole neighborhood what it was that he was doing. That would be utterly humiliating for the Dursley's and would have Harry most certainly thrown out of the safe haven of Privet Drive. Harry most certainly did not want that to happen, for if it did then he would be picked off by Voldemort in an instant.)
Harry began flipping through his book to find a use for dragon's breath in a potion that was meant for making a person shut their mouth. He had to find all of the technical stuff like how it reacted with the other ingredients and so forth. When he was in the middle of page 247 he heard a pretty loud thump which caused him to look up and lose his place. He looked at the window, but saw nothing. Then a great snowy blur flew past.
"Hedwig?" wondered Harry.
He got up and crossed the room to the window. He opened it up and Hedwig came bursting through and flew right into Harry's face.
"Whoa there, Hedwig! Calm down a bit, will you? What's the matter?" Harry took Hedwig and placed her on his bed carefully. He spotted a rather large envelope tied to her ankle. He promptly untied it from her and opened it up. Out of it poured three letters.
The first Harry recognized at once as Ron's because of its scrawny handwriting that was all bunched together. He picked up this one first and opened it up. The letter read, "Harry! I hope that this gets to you o.k. I had some real trouble sending it out because Mom was on me like you wouldn't believe! She kept reminding me of how Dumbledore said not to write to you, but I just couldn't let you get all angry like last year. Anyway, we're doing fine over here. Percy even came over to apologize to Mom and Dad about a week ago after realizing how much of a jerk he'd been. But everything's cool now. So, what have you been up to? There's been talk of everyone going to headquarters, but it doesn't sound likely. I'm hoping that Mom will let you come here soon or something because it's been really boring. In the big envelope there's also a letter from Hermione. So, I hope we see each other soon; your best mate, Ron."
Harry threw the letter onto the bed and picked up the next one, grinning; it was from Hermione. He recognized the neat handwriting quickly. He unfurled it and it read, "Harry! How are you? Listen, I'm sure that you remember me saying at King's Cross that we would see each other soon, well, I wasn't lying. My parents said that it would be alright if you were to stay at my house! I wrote to Dumbledore and he agreed that it would be a good idea. You would be safe at my house because Voldemort wouldn't ever think to go there. That's why Ron's mom won't let you go to her house, the Burrow is too well known, and so are the Weasley's. It just wouldn't be safe. Sadly, Ron isn't allowed to come because Mrs. Weasley is not ready to have any of her family members leave her yet (after the incident's with the snake attack and just recently in the Department of Mysteries, which was not your fault, Harry, so don't go kicking yourself in the head for it.). Anyway, how are you doing with...well...Sirius? Are you doing all right since...you know? I just wanted you to know that I miss him a lot too and that I know that I must be feeling at least some of your pain. Please write back a.s.a.p. with your answer (whether or not you can come) and we will arrange a date sometime within the next week for my parents to pick you up. With love, Hermione."
Harry then put down that letter. He was filled with so much happiness; he was going to see Hermione. He was sure that the Dursley's would be glad to be rid of him so quickly. It was just too bad that he wouldn't see Ron, but he would see him in September. Then Harry remembered that there was still one last letter to be read. He looked at it, but had no idea of who it was from. So, he opened it and read it, "Harry Potter, you may not know who I am, but I most definitely know you. I have been watching you for many years now and am getting ready to strike. I know who you think I am, but I can assure you that you are completely wrong. I am just writing to tell you that I will have you killed. Why, you may ask, do I tell you this? I will tell you! I tell all of my victims that they are about to be killed before I kill them. Harry, you have anywhere from four to nine months to live. You can tell that fool Dumbledore that you will not be safe in his care or in that of the Dursley's. Not even those weak walls of Hogwarts can stop me. I hope that you take this seriously, I like victims with fear in them."
Harry stared at the note in his hands in horror. He reread it to make sure that he was hallucinating; he wasn't. Someone was out to kill him and by the sounds of it, there was nothing that Harry was going to be able to do to stop this anonymous murderer.
Harry began blankly stroking Hedwig. He noticed that her feathers were ruffled and figured that this unknown killer was the one to blame. It looked as though Dumbledore was right, except it wasn't Voldemort who was watching Harry's owls, it was someone else. With that, Harry went into a restless sleep for he realized that he was suddenly very tired.
"What are you doing, boy?"
"Nothing, Uncle Vernon, I'm only sitting here innocently."
"Nonsense! I know your lot. For all I know you could be planning something right now! You've been awfully quiet since the beginning of summer, boy, what's wrong with you? You haven't told your...friends that your Aunt Petunia and I have been treating you badly, have you, because let me tell you, you probably are treated better than most kids on this block."
"No I haven't, Uncle Vernon, it's just that I'm bored because I can't see my friends...I do hope that they contact me soon because they did tell me that we would see each other really soon..." Harry sat with a daze in his eyes. He was thinking about seeing Ron and Hermione, his best friends in the world. No one had seen him through so much. They had helped him get through virtually everything: getting the stone, helping to foil Riddle, help during the Triwizard Tournament, proving Sirius Black's- oh, no! Sirius was on Harry's mind a lot lately. He could hardly stop thinking about his late godfather. He had been the closest thing Harry ever had to a parent, considering he could barely remember his own...
It was such a lonely summer. Harry had been back for all of two weeks (a whole bloody fortnight!) with no word from any of his friends. He had, of course, been writing to the order regularly as they had told him to. He did not want them to come busting into number 4, Privet Drive because he had stupidly forgotten to write. He honestly didn't want to cause too much trouble. It had seemed that since he returned that his Aunt and Uncle had been even edgier than ever before. Harry suspected that this had something to do with Aunt Petunia's rather surprising insight to the magical world only last summer. Harry was sure that Uncle Vernon had not forgotten her insisting that Harry stay with them even when Harry had just revealed that a crazy dark lord had returned a couple of months ago and was most intent upon killing Harry. But that was last year. Now the whole wizarding world was aware of the fact that Voldemort had returned, and, in Harry's eyes, they weren't taking it so well.
Harry had recently taken to receiving the Daily Prophet again. (It had been sent specifically to him by Albus Dumbledore. He had sent the first issue with a note that had been concealed within the paper; it read," Harry, I believe that it would be in your best interest if you were to read the Prophet. Since I cannot communicate with you directly (I have a strange feeling that Voldemort is attempting to find you and I do not want many owls by your residence on Privet Drive. If Voldemort happened to intercept an owl addressed to you he could find out where you live and...well...try to fulfill the prophecy.), you shall pick up information concerning Voldemort through the Daily Prophet. In the meantime, I have taken the liberty to tell your friends (Ron and Hermione) not to write to you unless it is absolutely necessary. Please do not get angry with me Harry; I know that you are going through a very difficult time. Best wishes and I do hope to see you soon, Professor Dumbledore."
When Harry had first read the note he was, of course, fuming with rage. This was because he was being treated again like a little child who was doing something wrong and was supposed to stand out of the way until all of the adults handled the problem. Then, when it was safe for little Harry to come out, they would come pick him up. Harry was in a bad mood for days because of that. He had seriously considered leaving the house and wandering off on his own to find his friends. He was in the same predicament as last year: everyone was in on it but him. He did not like this feeling of loneliness, but then he remembered that this was all probably for the best and that he would be seeing his friends again soon. It would be nice to see the people from the order again (that was if he was going to Grimmauld Place as he assumed, but he also thought of the Burrow). He was especially keen to see Remus Lupin, who was the only person left of the four marauders whom Harry could speak to about Sirius, the only one who was rather close to Sirius.
Harry got up and crossed the den to the stairs. Uncle Vernon grunted to show that he was pleased, but said nothing to Harry. Then Harry climbed up to his room. He figured that he had better get a start on his homework over the holidays or else he might forget about it. When he entered his room he looked immediately at Hedwig's cage. To his disappointment he found it empty. This left him feeling worried, but excited at the same time. He had written a letter to Ron and a letter to Hermione about five days ago. He had written usual things about what was going on and whatever, but she had still not returned. He was worried that maybe she was injured, but there was also the hope that she might come back with letters in return (maybe Ron and Hermione were throwing caution to the winds and writing anyway). But then that would worry him because they were only supposed to write to him if there was a necessity of it. In other words, Harry thought that maybe the reason Hedwig was taking so long was because there was something seriously wrong going on and Harry had no idea what it was. Now that Harry thought about it, he was a lot more worried than he was excited.
Harry sank onto his bed and pulled up one of his books (one of his new freedoms since Moody's threat to Uncle Vernon was that Harry was no longer required to do his homework in hiding. He could do it out in the open in his room as long as he didn't announce to the whole neighborhood what it was that he was doing. That would be utterly humiliating for the Dursley's and would have Harry most certainly thrown out of the safe haven of Privet Drive. Harry most certainly did not want that to happen, for if it did then he would be picked off by Voldemort in an instant.)
Harry began flipping through his book to find a use for dragon's breath in a potion that was meant for making a person shut their mouth. He had to find all of the technical stuff like how it reacted with the other ingredients and so forth. When he was in the middle of page 247 he heard a pretty loud thump which caused him to look up and lose his place. He looked at the window, but saw nothing. Then a great snowy blur flew past.
"Hedwig?" wondered Harry.
He got up and crossed the room to the window. He opened it up and Hedwig came bursting through and flew right into Harry's face.
"Whoa there, Hedwig! Calm down a bit, will you? What's the matter?" Harry took Hedwig and placed her on his bed carefully. He spotted a rather large envelope tied to her ankle. He promptly untied it from her and opened it up. Out of it poured three letters.
The first Harry recognized at once as Ron's because of its scrawny handwriting that was all bunched together. He picked up this one first and opened it up. The letter read, "Harry! I hope that this gets to you o.k. I had some real trouble sending it out because Mom was on me like you wouldn't believe! She kept reminding me of how Dumbledore said not to write to you, but I just couldn't let you get all angry like last year. Anyway, we're doing fine over here. Percy even came over to apologize to Mom and Dad about a week ago after realizing how much of a jerk he'd been. But everything's cool now. So, what have you been up to? There's been talk of everyone going to headquarters, but it doesn't sound likely. I'm hoping that Mom will let you come here soon or something because it's been really boring. In the big envelope there's also a letter from Hermione. So, I hope we see each other soon; your best mate, Ron."
Harry threw the letter onto the bed and picked up the next one, grinning; it was from Hermione. He recognized the neat handwriting quickly. He unfurled it and it read, "Harry! How are you? Listen, I'm sure that you remember me saying at King's Cross that we would see each other soon, well, I wasn't lying. My parents said that it would be alright if you were to stay at my house! I wrote to Dumbledore and he agreed that it would be a good idea. You would be safe at my house because Voldemort wouldn't ever think to go there. That's why Ron's mom won't let you go to her house, the Burrow is too well known, and so are the Weasley's. It just wouldn't be safe. Sadly, Ron isn't allowed to come because Mrs. Weasley is not ready to have any of her family members leave her yet (after the incident's with the snake attack and just recently in the Department of Mysteries, which was not your fault, Harry, so don't go kicking yourself in the head for it.). Anyway, how are you doing with...well...Sirius? Are you doing all right since...you know? I just wanted you to know that I miss him a lot too and that I know that I must be feeling at least some of your pain. Please write back a.s.a.p. with your answer (whether or not you can come) and we will arrange a date sometime within the next week for my parents to pick you up. With love, Hermione."
Harry then put down that letter. He was filled with so much happiness; he was going to see Hermione. He was sure that the Dursley's would be glad to be rid of him so quickly. It was just too bad that he wouldn't see Ron, but he would see him in September. Then Harry remembered that there was still one last letter to be read. He looked at it, but had no idea of who it was from. So, he opened it and read it, "Harry Potter, you may not know who I am, but I most definitely know you. I have been watching you for many years now and am getting ready to strike. I know who you think I am, but I can assure you that you are completely wrong. I am just writing to tell you that I will have you killed. Why, you may ask, do I tell you this? I will tell you! I tell all of my victims that they are about to be killed before I kill them. Harry, you have anywhere from four to nine months to live. You can tell that fool Dumbledore that you will not be safe in his care or in that of the Dursley's. Not even those weak walls of Hogwarts can stop me. I hope that you take this seriously, I like victims with fear in them."
Harry stared at the note in his hands in horror. He reread it to make sure that he was hallucinating; he wasn't. Someone was out to kill him and by the sounds of it, there was nothing that Harry was going to be able to do to stop this anonymous murderer.
Harry began blankly stroking Hedwig. He noticed that her feathers were ruffled and figured that this unknown killer was the one to blame. It looked as though Dumbledore was right, except it wasn't Voldemort who was watching Harry's owls, it was someone else. With that, Harry went into a restless sleep for he realized that he was suddenly very tired.