Lessons About A Price Too High

Chapter 03 Making the Plan

Harry was locked in his cupboard the moment the dishes were finished. Luckily, he didn't have anymore chores for the day. This was due, in part, to Petunia's new rich fanatical friends from the church. Apparently, they had come for tea the day before and were discussing trying to get a new law passed in Parliament prohibiting any work to be done on Sunday. Petunia, wanting to please her new friends had prohibited Vernon from giving the "wretched boy" any out door chores. Since Harry had already been tasked to clean the house the day before. So there was simply nothing left for him to do. This hadn't bothered Harry at all. He needed sometime to think about what to do next. The biggest problem was his magic. He knew it would take quite sometime to develop his magical core to the extent that it was at when he defeated Voldemort even without the mistakes or the magical burnout's. Wandless magic was extremely tiring and he wouldn't have a wand to get through the times when he didn't have enough energy. Oh well, he would just have to make due.

First, he needed something to allow his to read his own energy levels. Harry sat up and felt around for a small inanimate object. A button! Perfect.Tearing the button off of it's respective shirt, Harry held it in his palm, closed his eyes, and concentrated. He pictured the atomic structure of Silver. Imagined each neuron, each proton, each electron pair. Then he sorted the electron pairs into their respective energy levels. Finally, he pictured a plain band like silver ring with random elven carvings all around in black and held both images in his mind. He felt his magic envelope the button making the change occur right on his palm. When the changes stopped, he didn't open his eyes just yet and continued to concentrate until he felt that every molecule had changed completely. About 10 seconds later, he opened his eyes and found the beautiful silver ring exactly as he imagined it.

Harry lay back down again, panting as if he had just run a race. Shaking his head as if to chase the exhaustion away, he wondered if he had enough energy left to charm the ring. Deciding that magical exhaustion would be worth it, Harry slowly sat up again. Holding the ring in front of him with one hand, he used the other to harness and throw his magic out.Potentia signum, he thought, and once again, his magic enveloped the ring. With a flash of light, the elven carvings on the ring began glowing, and then, they were gone… well almost gone. Only a small portion of the very first character remained. He was just centimeters away from a major burnout. He put the ring on. As long as the ring was somehow touching him, it would tell him where his energy levels were at. He could have keyed the ring to himself, of course, instead of relying on physical contact but if the ring were to fall into the wrong hands, he didn't want it to reveal anything about him. Luckily, he had known the spell that allowed him to charm the ring. If I had to use will magic like I did with the ring, I would definitely not be conscious right not, Harry thought, and with that, he fell asleep.

Vernon Dursely looked up at the clock impatiently. It was 11:00am, three hours since he had locked the boy in the cupboard. It's been quiet in there ever since… he thought was the boy sleeping? Vernon shook his head No, probably planning some of his… unnaturalness.Oh Vernon Dursely had heard about it alright, Vernon Dursely had heard ALL about the unnaturalness known as magic from his darling Petunia. They had met one summer when she was 17 and living alone in London and it had been love at first sight for the both of them. Those days were full of fun and laughter, he remembered his heart racing every time he saw his Petunia. Oh those had been the best days of his life. When his heart was not so bad and his metabolism not so slow. He had been thin, lively, athletic… and then to top it off, he had gotten the management job at Grunnings right out of school. That was the night when he proposed to his Petunia. That was the night when he heard about all that unnaturalness. He remembered being fascinated with it at first. He remembered pushing his lovely Pet for more information. That was when, all pretenses fallen, Petunia had cried on his shoulder, sobbing about how her sister had put a curse on her to make her ugly, raging about the night when Lily had been playing with that unnaturalness and had burned the house down with their parents inside, screaming about the unfairness of her new "adopted parents", as if they had ever adopted her, she was just an accessory that came with the package that was Lily. Vernon had held her shaking body as she raged and vented, telling him every injustice that had ever been done to her. Vernon had known from that night forth that magic was evil. It caused nothing but pain, despair, corruption, and death. He promised his Pet that night, that there would be NO MAGIC in his home. No… I won't break that promise to you Petunia. We'll beat it out of the boy, you'll see…

Vernon thoughts were interrupted when the door opened and Petunia and Dudley walked in. They had just come home from shopping as Dudley's shirts were all too small for him. Dudley's just growing up so fast, Vernon thought leaning over to kiss his wife on the cheek. "What should we do today?" he asked "Since we aren't going to be doing anything productive, I thought we could have some fun as a "pre-birthday" party for Dudley."

"Oh that's a wonderful idea Vernon, we can spend the rest of the day at the amusement park. I'm sure Dudley would like that." Petunia smiled warmly at her husband. "But what about the boy?" she asked suddenly, "We can't leave him alone in the house. He might steal the silver and run off, or burn the house down."

Oh his Petunia was always the sensible one. It made him smile whenever he thought about it. "What about that Figg woman? Can't she take him today?" Petunia's face lit up.

"You go get him, and I'll call Mrs. Figg."

"BOY! Get UP. We're leaving soon." Harry groaned. How long had he slept? Two hours? Three? It didn't seem like a very long time. He looked at his ring. Fifty percent power back… not bad. He supposed his nightmare free nap had something to do with the power going up so fast. I can't remember the last time I woke up without a nightmare, yet ever since I got back, it's like they've disappeared. Hearing the lock unclick outside, Harry quickly pulled off the ring and stuck it in his pocket. If the Dursleys saw it, they'd probably accuse him of stealing.

"BOY, you're going to Mrs. Figg's." Vernon spoke as soon as Harry climbed out of the cupboard. Harry just nodded. He figured this would happen. When the Dursleys say "We're leaving soon", he wasn't included in the "we".

Arabella Figg was just beginning to write a letter to Remus Lupin when she heard the telephone ring. It was Petunia Dursley of course, calling to ask whether she could sit for Harry while the family went out. Before Arabella could say anything, though, Petunia said a quick Thank You and hung up. Oh well, Arabella thought, it was really all for the best. After all, Remus did want a description of Harry and I haven't seen him for awhile. She did wonder what she was going to do about Tuesday though. She had received an owl from Dumbledore who wanted to see her and ask how Harry was doing. They had a meeting like this about once a year though sometimes, Dumbledore was just too busy. He really seemed adamant about seeing her this year though… and she couldn't ask for a later date could she? Dumbledore was always so busy. Ah… she would think about it later. Now she had to prepare for Harry and finish her letter to Remus.

Harry watched as the Dursleys drove off and then walked over to Mrs. Figg's door to knock. He was still unsure how he would react seeing Mrs. Figg alive after watching her gruesome death some five years ago… no… 11 years in the future. While Dumbledore had gone into hiding from the ministry and was force to remain in 12 Grimauld Place, Voldemort had taken the opportunity to begin picking off the order members, one by one. Mrs. Figg, who was deathly afraid of heights, had been put under the imperious curse and forced to jump of the roof of her home. Harry, who had run away from 4 Pivet Drive watched her death via-mind link, courtesy of the Dark Lord.

The door opened and Mrs. Figg poked her head out and look around. After seeing Harry, she smiled and opened the door wide to let him in. "I'm a little tired today Mrs. Figg, do you mind if I kip on the couch for a bit?"

"Go ahead Harry, I'll just be over here if you need me." Mrs. Figg said pointing to the kitchen. Harry nodded, smiled, and said thank you before lying down on the couch where closed his eyes and pretended to fall asleep. After Mrs. Figg left the room, Harry opened his eyes and reached into his pocket for the ring. He took the ring out and examined it. Then…compleo comburo signum. There, now the ring would burn when he was one hundred percent charged. He would find a chain for it later. Content with himself, Harry moved on to the next plan. How to get to Diagon Alley. Several hours later, Harry had a plan.

Hope12

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