Chapter 2: The visit.

"What? What are you sorry for Dud?" Dudley's apology had completely taken Harry by surprise; he expected everything except an apology, especially not from his cousin. Dudley never apologized for anything, let alone apologize to Harry.
"I'm sorry dad was yelling at you." He said a little too quickly, and Harry didn't believe him. This couldn't be the reason Dudley was crying. Why the sudden change of heart. This was the first time Harry had ever had a conversation with Dudley without any insults, or shouting.
"Dudley, tell me what's wrong. This can't be the reason you're cryin—"
"I'm not crying! Don't ever tell anyone that! Just leave me alone!"
"But Dudl—"
"I SAID LEAVE!" Dudley was yelling at this point, so Harry got up and left. He didn't yell back because he knew Dudley didn't yell just for the fun of it as he always did, but because he was angry and frustrated. Harry had felt like that many times, and he didn't like it when people yelled back.
But why was Dudley so aggravated? Why was he crying? Dudley's behavior had definitely changed over the summer, and Harry was very curious to find out why.
When he reached his room, he found that an official looking barn owl was sitting on his bed. A large envelope tied to his leg. As soon as Harry untied the envelope, the bird took off through the open window. The envelope had the Hogwarts crest on it. He opened it and a collection of letters fell on his lap. There was the usual list of school books and notice to report to King's Cross on September 1st, and a paper that seemed to have a list of subjects on it. It was his O.W.L. scores.

Dear Mr. Potter,
The following are your O.W.L. Exam scores. Due to some changes, we have sent pupils their scores one week early. If you achieve an 'A' or above on one of your exams, you have passed. An 'O' stands for 'Outstanding', an 'E' stands for 'Exceeds Expectations', an 'A' stands for 'Acceptable', a 'P' stands for 'Poor', and a 'D' stands for 'Dreadful'. Here are your scores:

Transfigurations– E

Charms- E

History of Magic- P

Astronomy - A

Divinations- D

Herbology- A

Potions- A

Care of Magical Creatures- O

Defense Against The Dark Arts- O

He had gotten O's in both Defense Against The Dark Arts and Care of Magical Creatures, he felt so proud, but he felt terrible that he had gotten an 'A' in potions, he remembered professor McGonagall telling him that Professor Snape didn't accept anything below an 'O' in his N.E.W.T classes. This eliminated all his hopes of becoming an Auror. Stupid potions! Stupid O.W.L's! STUPID SNAPE! It's his entire fault; if he hadn't stopped teaching me Occlumency Sirius would be ALIVE! Harry suddenly found himself mad at Snape not for his O.W.L. grade, but for Sirius's death. It was so much easier to blame Snape.
He sat down on his bed, tears flowing from his eyes. He found himself crying so many times this summer. He picked up the newspaper and started reading Ginny's poem again. 'You died protecting Harry, oh, you were so brave.' It was his, Harry's, fault. Sirius died to protect Harry. If it wasn't for his stupidity, if he had just listened to Hermione. If it wasn't for his love of acting the hero! Hedwig flew down to him, and rested on his shoulder. She hooted gently, obviously trying to make him stop crying.
"Thanks girl" he said caressing her gently. "I have a letter for Ron I want you to take to him." He said remembering the letter he had written earlier this morning. He re-read it once more and decided to re-write it. After 10 minutes of trying, he came up with:

Dear Ron,
I'm really worried about Hermione. She hasn't written to me either. Do you think there's something wrong with her? Maybe she's just having fun on vacation, and has forgotten to write, or her letters never arrived. I hope there's nothing wrong. If we write to her, I'm sure she will answer.
THANK YOU SO MUCH for the newspaper article. Tell Ginny that her poem was the best part, I loved it. Tell your mom thank you for the cake, it's delicious! Do you have any news about when I can leave this hell hole? I'd love it to be soon!

Write back soon, Harry.

"Here you go girl, take this to Ron." Harry said tying the piece of parchment to her leg. He watched her fly off out the window until she became a little dot and then disappear. He heaved a great sigh and stood up to leave his room. It was no good just staying here crying over Sirius, it wasn't going to make him come back. He crossed the room, opened the door and left.

"NO, NO SIRIUS. COME BACK!" Harry sat strait up in his bed, drenched in sweat. He had to blink a couple of times before he realized where he was in his room. He was breathing very heavily, having just revisited Sirius's death. He was fighting very hard not to cry, he couldn't just waste his life crying over Sirius. He was so tired, but he didn't want to go back to sleep incase he had anymore nightmares.
He turned to look at his clock to find that it was 2:00 A.M. Next to his clock, he noticed a glass bottle illuminated by the moonlight coming through his window. He got up and walked over to it; flat on the desk next to the bottle was a single scarlet feather. Under the feather was a note, written in a narrow, loopy handwriting Harry recognized immediately.

Harry,
Drink this potion before going to sleep; it will help you have a dreamless sleep. I thought you might need it.

How does he always know everything? Harry was thinking, amazed that Dumbledore always knew what was going on with everyone and everything. How did he know Harry was having nightmares about Sirius? Maybe it was obvious that Harry would be having nightmares. Maybe Dumbledore knew that Harry would be so weak that he'd still have nightmares. Snape was right, he was weak.
Harry took some of the potion and went to bed. He lay there thinking for a while: About Sirius, about Voldemort, and about the prophecy. He was the only one that could defeat Voldemort, but how? He wasn't prepared at all! What if he met Voldemort right now, what would he do? He needed to prepare, and he needed to do it now! He should have started earlier, it had already been a week since his birthday and he was just wasting time doing nothing, or rather waiting for something to happen. Suddenly but calmingly, he felt sleep soothing in until it caught a hold of him and his thoughts were banished.

Harry woke up from the best night he had since his fourth year at Hogwarts. He had a nice dreamless sleep, and had woken up re-energized and ready for his preparations. Now that he thought about it, how was he going to prepare? He didn't know where to prepare, and what to prepare. How could he practice magic over the summer if he wasn't allowed to do magic outside of school? He did not want to use Umbridge's theory of "As long as you have studied the theory hard enough there is no reason why you shouldn't be able to perform the spells." He had to wait until he was back at Hogwarts, there were only three weeks left anyway.
Since he had nothing to do, he decided today would be a good day to write to Hermione. Ron still hadn't answered his last letter, so Harry was going to write to him too, to see why he hadn't written yet. He picked up a piece of parchment and a quill and started writing:

Dear Hermione,
I hope you're ok, you haven't written all vacation. Ron says you haven't written to him either. I just hope nothing's wrong, because Ron and I are really worried. Please write back as soon as you can.

Harry

He didn't want to write too much, he didn't have anything to say. He walked over to Hedwig's cage, opened it and let her out. He tied the letter to her leg and she immediately flew away. As soon as she was out of sight Harry started working on Ron's letter.

Dear Ron,
Why haven't you written back yet? I feel like I'm really cut off from everyone! I'm going crazy all by myself, with only the Dursleys to keep me company. Dudley's improved though! He doesn't insult me or punch me anymore. All he does is sit in his room, sometimes crying. I've never seen him cry before (unless it was to get attention from his parents.) I think the Dementors gave him quite a scare last year; he won't say what's wrong though.
WRITE BACK QUICKLY THIS TIME! And tell me if Hermione's written to you, because she still hasn't written to me and I just sent her a letter.

Harry.

He put the letter down thinking that he would send it to him when Hedwig came back. He had gotten up to leave his room when he heard a pecking sound on his window. He turned around and saw Hedwig with a piece of parchment tied to her leg which he assumed was the letter he sent to Hermione. He opened the window and Hedwig flew in and landed on his shoulder. She stuck out her leg waiting for him to take the letter. He untied the letter, amazed at how fast Hedwig came back, and read:

Dear Harry,
I'm so sorry I haven't been able to write to you! I have your birthday gift with me, I wanted to surprise you and come and give it to you in person. Well as you see, I'm running a little late. We ran into some trouble but now we're fine, Ron is here with me (we went and picked him up on our way). I wanted this to be part of your birthday surprise, but I guess you'll be surprised all the same when you get this letter. We're really close to your Aunt and Uncle's house right now; we should be there in about 10 minutes. I hope your Aunt and Uncle won't mind, if they do we'll just have to call Mad Eye so he could give them another little scare! (Harry noticed that this last part wasn't written in Hermione's neat handwriting. but in Ron's messy scrawl and he couldn't help himself from grinning widely.) See you soon!

Hermione

Harry felt the happiest he's felt in months, he was finally going to see his friends again. He looked around his messy room and began cleaning up; this was the first time they come to visit (unless you count the time in second year when Ron helped Harry escape the Dursleys, or when the Weasleys blew up the Dursley's living room) After his room was decent enough, he went downstairs to tell the Dursley his friends were coming over, expecting another row between his uncle and himself.
When he finally reached the living room, he found all three Dursleys sitting on the couch watching TV. Dudley looked really pale, paler than he did when he got attacked by the Dementors. As soon as Harry entered the room, they all turned to look at him.
"Er, my friends are, er, coming over, err, to see me, er, right now..." He said nervously, and dashed up the stairs. He was half way up when he felt a firm grip on his collar.
"What do you mean 'right now'?" said his Aunt bitterly.
"I mean at this moment, today, this hour, this minute, now!" he said, the nervousness leaving him now.
"How are they coming?" said Uncle Dursley backing away from the fire place, afraid someone might blow up his living room...again.
"By car, er, I think..." The letter hadn't said on how they were coming, but Hermione made it sound like it was by car. Since it was Hermione, she probably came by car driven by her Muggle parents. "Don't worry, Hermione's parents are Muggles, er, they're not wizards" he added looking at his Uncle confused face.
"How long are they going to sta--" He was cut off by the door bell.
"THEY'RE HERE!" Harry said smiling brilliantly.
He opened the door and Hermione jumped on him in a bone crushing hug.

"Oh Harry it's so good to see you again! I—we've missed you so much! Happy late Birthday Harry" She said breathlessly handing him a basket full of his favorite candies. Behind her was Ron, grinning from ear to ear.
"Hiya Harry mate, we've missed you. How's everything? Mad Eye's asking about you!" He said the last part louder than necessary making sure the Dursleys could hear him.
"This is erm, Ron and this is Hermione," Harry said to the Dursleys, "and this is my Aunt Petunia, my Uncle Vernon, and my cousin Dudley Dursley." He told Ron and Hermione. Who in turn shook hands with the scared looking Dursleys.
"These are my parents," said Hermione introducing her shy looking parents, who in turn also shook the Dursleys' hands.
"I'm Vernon Dursley, and this is my wife Petunia and my son Dudley." Uncle Vernon had jumped up to introduce himself to the Grangers, obviously not scared knowing that they were Muggles. "Would you like to stay for some tea?"
"We'd love to stay, but we just came to drop these kids off, we really don't have the time. It was nice meeting you all. Have a nice day" Mr. Granger answered courteously, before he and Mrs. Granger left.
"So, how long are your little freak—I mean, friends going to stay here, boy?" Uncle Vernon asked Harry, dropping his nice man act now that Hermione's parents, the only Muggles, were gone.
"A little while," Ron answered for Harry, "Mad Eye, I think you've made his acquaintance at king's cross at the end of last term, wants Harry to be happy, and at home, so he thought his best friends would give him that feeling!" He finished with a huge smile, knowing how mad he had made Uncle Vernon.
"I guess we'll be going to my room now." Harry told the Dursleys and signaled to his best friends to come along. "That was brilliant!" he told Ron as soon as they had reached his room.
"Yeah, I thought they needed some shutting up, calling us freaks and all." Ron said this as he sad down on Harry's bed reading the note Harry had written his earlier. When he finished he put the note down, "sorry I haven't written back earlier, I couldn't seeing as we were on the road, I had no time to answer you. As soon as I got your letter, Hermione came and said we were coming to get you."
"Coming to get me? You mean I'm finally leaving!" This felt like the best day ever.
"Of course you are! What kind of friends would we be if we left you here with those horrible people?" Hermione said with a slight smile, "but it's not until Monday. It's not that bad, Harry, Monday's only three days away." She added the last part after seeing the disappointed look on Harry's face.
"You've never spent three days with the Dursley's before, have you? Three days feels like an eternity! How are we leaving anyway?"
"Dunno, Dumbdoe saito come and eryfink wibe taken carof." Ron answered: his mouth full of Chocolate Frogs from the basket of sweets Hermione had brought Harry.
"Those are for Harry!"
" 'e wonmind, doya 'arry?"
Harry shook his head, smiling. He was so glad to be with his friends again, finally after a month and a half. "You too don't ever stop bickering do you?" he said, stopping Hermione from continuing to argue. "I'm glad you're here!"
There was a knock on the door, Harry went and opened the door. Dudley was at the door, the palest Harry had ever seen him, he took two steps into the room and fell. "Harry, you got to help me." He said as he was falling, and landed with a big THUNK on the floor.

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