WARNING: I HAVE SAID THIS FOR THE LAST TIME, OOTP SPOILERS!!
*A/N: Well I will have hopefully received more reviews for my last chapter and I am posting this after I have had another 10 at least, so hopefully there should be at least 23 reviews up there J …… though I may have decided to be nice and just post it anyway?
I hope you all like my story so far, I'm really trying on this one! You should get some things happen soon?? As I've had a few people say that this isn't going anywhere? *
Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING TO DO WITH HARRY POTTER!!! Glad we got that sorted!
Chapter 3: Life on Privet Drive…
*# A star, a hash and italics represent a dream! #*
** Double stars represent thoughts.**
On with the story then…
Life on Privet drive
*# Panting heavily, he picked himself up from the dirt covered ground and set off again. Branches were cutting through the thin material of clothing that was hanging onto his lean body with mere threads, as he ran blindly into the darkness ahead. He could distantly hear the ghostly sound of a wolf's howl echoing through the vast forest.
He stumbled as his foot connected with a tree stump and was thrown forward. Using his quick reflexes of a born seeker, he grabbed hold of the nearest object and came to an abrupt holt.
He stood there (rather unbalanced) silently, save for his raspy breaths coming out in a rather short, unrhythmatic pace. Still clutching onto the long spindly vine hanging from the tall birch tree, of which he had first grabbed hold.
Listening for any sign of movement within 10 feet of where he was standing, he slowly sunk to the ground. He sat there absently rubbing at his cuts and bruises thinking of how he would love to just make them disappear with swish of his wand.
A high, cold, cruel laugh echoed through the trees that sent a shiver down his spine and brought him out of his thoughts. He sat up straight and his eyes raked the surroundings for any sign of the monstrosity that he knew had finally caught up with him. Just as he stood, the tree up above his head rustled and the cause of the rustle flew onto his right shoulder. Looking to his side his eyes were met with those of a beautiful phoenix. Its feathers were of a rather peculiar colour. They were of the purist silver, save for the tips which were of the softest lilac. Its eyes were also the colour lilac and stared deeply into his as if trying to figure his true meaning. Its beak was that of a golden colour that matched its relatively sharp claws.
"So…" Hissed the voice and the bird took flight up into the trees. "I see that we meet again. My my…" it chuckled "It does indeed look like we enjoy each others company…does it not?"
A tall figure emerged from the depths behind and stood defiantly in front of him. Holding his head high, as if proud of the image of disgust in which he had become, with a twisted smirk plastered on that foul skeletine face. His robes swept the floor around him and looked to be made of pure silk. They clung to him sickeningly, showing off his bony form. Even in the atmosphere and sheer chaos that made up the forest, and after what should have been a good run to keep up with Harry. (He was an extremely fast runner when he wanted to be) He and his robes seemed to be untouched. **He must have apparated… flash bastard! ** Harry thought bitterly, as he watched the long pale fingers set his robes straight and 'dust' them off as if they were dirty.
"Well, well, well…if it isn't 'The~ boy~ who~ lived!'" said the voice mockingly. "I must say I wish you had undergone this …abrupt change a couple years ago young Harry. It would have made our encounter that much more…pleasant."
Harry grimaced and stepped back, as Voldemort strode forward and placed a long cool finger upon his cheek. A painful jolt ran from his scar down through to his toes. Just one extremely unfortunate result of an attack on Harry as a baby, which resulted in the murder of both Harry's parents. James and Lily Potter, and the marking of the scar on his forehead.
Too preoccupied by his mind wanderings, he did not notice when Voldemort took aim and hit him with a disarming spell. He was flung backwards and landed painfully on his back between two very sharp looking branches merely inches from his body, which had obviously fallen from a tree and splintered. As he made to get back up again he was hit with another, more painful curse, which caused him to slide across the ground and strike a rather thick tree with a resounding crack. Feeling too weak and groggy to think, he did not make any attempt to move when Voldemort glided towards him.
"Tut, tut… I thought you were stronger than this Potter. Ah well it is my treat I suppose, seeing such a pretty boy in so much pain. But you know what I really like most about seeing my victims in this position Potter?" He forcefully kicked Harry in the ribs to make sure he was still alive. When he heard the customary grunt of pain he smiled and carried on.
"No? You don't know …well that isn't good Potter. Who am I to deprive you of learning knew things to put in that talented young brain of yours. I'll show you shall I?" And with a swish of his wand and the sound of those fateful words rolling off his serpentine tongue … He pointed his weapon, that has ended the lives of so many, upon Harry and shot a jet of emerald green light toward him …just as it was inches from Harry's heart, he saw a flutter of silver and violet and …#*
He woke up… with a terrified scream that penetrated every inch of the household in which he lived. He shot straight up breathing heavily, covered in a thick, sticky sheen of cold sweat that made his clothes cling to him in a most unpleasant way. As he sat there shaking slightly, partly from the nightmare and partly from the cold draft, he felt that he had indeed sustained an injury in the real world. He felt his back and it was extremely sore and he had various cuts down his arms and across his chest. As he thought back to how he must have gotten these injuries, he couldn't help but think back to his occlumency lessons. And how lazy he had been when he decided not to try. How it ended with the result of his godfather's death, and now the inability to protect his mind from Voldemort. Who was now resulting in physical attacks.
Just as he was in the process of getting up, he heard a loud grunt issuing from Dudley's bedroom. He snorted in amusement as he heard the words: 'No…don't…bunnies…come back… I won't eat you…' chuckling lightly as not to disturb his obese cousin any more, he went over to his rickety desk, and pulled open the draw very slowly. He quietly rummaged through the contents inside and located a quill and an old, worn out diary, which incidentally had never been written in, that he had taken from his cousin at the beginning of the holidays. He turned and picked up an old sweatshirt of Dudley's, and before putting it on, dabbed at his face with it.
He set himself at his desk carefully as not to arouse more pain from his back and twisted the lamp round so that what little light the bulb gave off…actually shone on the paper. He took hold of his ink well, that sat on the corner of his desk and opened up the lid. Inside were the remains of month old ink that had half dried up and made the container very sticky. He dipped his quill into the ink, swirled it around a few times, in an attempt to make the ink more liquid and set to work writing about his nightmare.
**I was running through a forest and I tripped and I fell into…no scratch that…I grabbed hold of something… ok forget that. There was a phoenix and it was like a silver colour with purple bits. Um… Voldemort turned up and the bird flew away... And he said something about teaching me things? And I got a bit bashed up. And then he sent the killing curse at me and I saw something silver just before it reached me and woke up.** He paused while nibbling the end of his quill. **Should I write about how I felt when I woke up?** he thought suddenly **No…I don't need them worrying about me again… not that they can do anything, it will only make me look even more stupid that I can't even do occlumency right.**
He quietly stowed away his quill and diary again, placed his ink well back on the corner of his desk and picked up his potions book. After all if he was just going to make an opening to Voldemort's success in breaking him, while sleeping. Then he wouldn't go to sleep. So he walked back over to his bed and pulled his lamp over to his side and read silently hoping that the night would not go by as slowly as it had done before.
The morning sunlight was just coming up from the horizon and it brought Harry back to his senses. He had half dozed from when he had started the book until now. He didn't know why but he just could not find any interest whatsoever in potions.
As the light shone through the lacy curtains (that his Aunt Petunia had only left up so that the window looked respectable for onlookers), he sighed and rubbed at his eyes tiredly. **What I need is a good run** he thought as he idly pulled off his trousers in which he had slept, and slipped on a pair of black jogging bottoms. He put on a sleeveless shirt and tied his hair at the nape of his neck, with a strip of material from an old jumper. He glanced at the clock and saw that it was half past five, so he opened his door as quietly as possible and made his way down the landing. As he walked past his cousin's room, he couldn't help but glance in. what he saw caused him to slap a hand to his mouth and quickly duck out of the room. His cousin was half hanging out of the bed with his feet on the floor in a rather revealing way. His shirt was pulled up just under his neck on one side giving view of a very plump and flabby stomach. And his pyjama bottoms were riding up on both sides, showing off rather flabby, hairy legs. He was also grunting a lot, and Harry could still make out the word bunny?
He shut the door again and walked down the stairs, almost tripping on a pair of his aunt Petunias shoes that she had obviously not bothered to take up, just so Harry would have to do it. He snorted in annoyance and went to the kitchen to get himself a bottle of water. He dug into the drawer in the side cabinet in the living room, and produced a disk man and headphones. He grabbed his favourite CD, Evanescence, and pulled open the front door. A flourish of fresh morning air hit him as he walked down the garden path; he smiled at the utter feeling of calm that he now felt and after turning up the disk man to full volume, he set off at a run down the street.
He ran for an hour and worked up a bit of a sweat, on
returning to Privet drive he couldn't help but notice a girl sat on a bench,
staring straight at him. She had plain brown hair, cut just above the
shoulders; her face was that of what looked to be a 15 or 16 year old. And her
ice blue eyes, gave her a very piercing and intense quality, though she had a
smile on her face. He decided to stop for another drink and as he flung his
head back for a sip, he could not miss the distinct giggle that arose from the
girl. Looking over at her curiously, he saw that she was now looking over at
the man wearing a long cloak with his face covered, walking his dog to the
right who quickly made his way down the street. So he went to take another sip
and heard the giggle again. He stopped and stared at her again, this time
though, she was staring right back. He took a deep breath (as he was not used
to talking to strangers) and began to speak.
"What is it? What's so funny?" When she just carried on staring at him with a
smirk beginning to appear on her face, he huffed moodily and asked her again.
"Hello, what's wro'…" before he finished his sentence however she burst out
laughing again and with an annoyed sigh he began walking back to his house. He
heard running footsteps coming up behind and turned.
"I'm sorry" she said while still chuckling. At seeing his accusing look she added
"No… I really am. I just, you know laugh at things a lot, and well you were so
funny when you gave me that look." Pulling herself together she held out her
hand and said in more serious tone. "Hi, I'm Rene Walker, and who may I ask are
you?"
After feeling a jolt of recognition at hearing that name, he began looking for
any trace of sarcasm, and finding none, he replied with a simple,
"Harry Potter"
When she did a double take he groaned again and turned to walk away, not in the
mood for the automatic look at his scar. But he stopped when he felt a pull on
his arm and when he turned he was surprised to find, not awe and admiration on
her face but, surprise and confusion.
"Harry Potter?" she asked "as in 'whiney little weedy, wimpy', Harry Potter?" In
hearing his old nickname come to the surface he studied her face more closely
and could not help but feel a pull of familiarity in her features. Take away
the few spots that raked her hairline and the make up that was carefully
applied to her lips and eyes, and give her some braces and a lot of
freckles, then you had…
"Repulsive Rene?" he asked chuckling. She looked a little shocked at hearing her
old nickname, but seemed to forget it. She smiled and said.
"Yup, that's me! So… how've you been?" she asked absently.
Thinking for a moment, just wanting to be able to say, 'well not really that
good. I mean I've nearly been killed, god knows how many times. Etc…' but
instead decided to go with…
"I've been ok. How about you? You went to Stonewall didn't you?"
"Yea, I did. Horrible place. The kids are such idiots. I mean the boys think
they're like so cool and everything and … "she trailed off at seeing Harry's
questioning stare.
"Oh sorry. Ugh…I always do this. I mean here I am talking to you as if we've
been friends for years and we just met a few minutes ago, save for seeing each
other in a classroom how ever many years ago." She looked at his sweaty shirt
clinging to his toned body and the empty water bottle in his hand.
"Well" she coughed "I suppose you should go … clean up. You must be so
uncomfortable?" and with one last lingering stare at his abdomen, which was
showing through very nicely. She set off at a rather fast pace back down privet
drive. Leaving Harry standing there, completely confused, staring
disbelievingly at her disappearing figure.
**What a strange girl** he thought idly as he set off up the street.
When he arrived back at number 4 he was shocked to find that his cousin was
awake and waiting for him in the hallway. But he was happy to add that his
shirt was now firmly set over his belly and his pyjama bottoms were just
touching the floor.
"Where've you been?" his cousin asked sharply, his beady little eyes narrowing
slightly. Seeing that this was too good an opportunity to pass up, he replied
with.
"Oh, you know, the usual. Practising hexes on people. That Piers Polkiss... boy
does he scream." He chuckled slightly and added, "Oh but did you know that…
what's her name? Your girlfriend…um… what is her name?" he stood there
with a pondering look on his face and said "Ah well… it doesn't matter. Anyway
she looks so funny upside down with that dreadful flowery skirt pulled up over
her head." And before Dudley had chance to
retort he ducked underneath his flabby arm and made his way up to his room.
**God what a dumb ass** he thought as he took off his shirt and made his way to
the bathroom. After freshening up, he pulled on a normal light blue, long
sleeved shirt and put a button down dark blue, short sleeved shirt on top,
without doing up the buttons. He put on some normal denim jeans that were
rather baggy, and some of Dudley's old trainers
and sat at his desk waiting for the inevitable call of…
"Boy get down here…NOW!" his uncles shout set him on his feet immediately and
he went down to the kitchen. To begin breakfast.
Later on in the day he set to work on his chores. Despite the fact that Lupin
and Moody had told the Dursleys not to be hard on him, they still thought it
best that he do everything. Harry wasn't complaining though. It kept his mind
off things and kept him in shape.
Just as the sun was beginning to set he put away all the garden tools, and went
for a quick 10 minute run… he was happy to find that Rene wasn't staring at him
again. When he returned, he went to his room changed and went down to the
basement for his evening exercises…
A/N: Well that's a rap for that chapter! I hope you like it … I want to thanks all my reviewers can't write them all down…to many!… You're the ones who inspire me to write *sniff*
Okay! Well I do hope you enjoy this and………….I have decided to write down some thanks personally…
Thanks to:
GiRliEgIrL6 ~ Thanks you, glad ya like *grins*
Marsmoonstar ~ Lol, is that all you can say 'hmm' …. Lol… thanks though!
Kurbani ~ Thanks and don't worry, I don't think I mention the fact that Harry is gorgeous in the next few chappies. Maybe like once but not like in detail…so don't woz!
Phoenix padfoot 89 ~ Thanks and tell me if you do start the challenge?
Blueberrie ~ Okay….thanks… You're story is brilliant by the way. The one for my challenge … keep going!
Princess19 ~ Yay, thanks, glad you can be truthful nowadays…Lol. Keep reading!
Raven Dragonclaw ~ Thanks, I'm glad you thought it was needed. I might join…I'm not sure what you have to do though? I'll look out for you though *grins* keep reading … hope you like this chap?
Ideala2 ~ Thanks you and I will…*wink*!
Hpcrazy ~ yes he is a bit more grown up…glad you like the change. I hope you keep reviewing…*hint* Thank you!
Pat ~ Thanks you, another person who thinks I'm descriptive … Yay!
Helma Patuck ~ Yes yes yes…You of all people would have to be the one who spotted that little mistake! I can't remember writing it like that… but ah well! I didn't pick you up on you 'Luscious' instead of 'Lucius' issue! *he he* others did though!! Well keep reading and reviewing….i'll do the same for you! Thanks Helen. Xx …. (Hope you like your 15 seconds of fame)
PLEASE please, pleeeeeeeeease!! Read and Review!!!!! I would really appreciate it ….. I would love it if I could get to about 100 reviews before my 4th chap! I know its probs a long way off but it would make me ecstatic if I could get that many reviews for my story! Not that it's gunna happen as I'm 51 so far…..
Next chapter: Letters and a strange gift.
LuvaboyDan*Hesmyman ~*XxX*~