In My Place

XxDresstokill

Chapter 5

Hey guys, sorry it took so long for me to update this. My computer charger died for 2 days, and it had the beginning of the chapter on it and ahh it was a mess. Thank you to all my reviewers :) AndI tried my best to make this longer. Hope you enjoy :)

--Jess

"Please sir, don't tell anyone you have seen me. It is really important that you haven't." Harry said as he left the Knight Bus. "Don't worry Mate; this is your lucky day. I have not seen you because you are under an invisibility cloak." The bus driver winked and sped off.

Harry now found himself in front of The Leaky Cauldron. Now what?

To his surprise, the leaky cauldron was empty. "it is 2:00 am" Harry thought, taking off his cloak as he walked towards the bartender.

"Excuse me, sir?" he said. But he did not receive an answer. "Excuse me?"

"Oh Hello there Mr…Potter! Isn't it a little late to be out…alone?" the bartender asked.

"Well, Yes, I suppose it is. But anyway I was wondering if you had any rooms available for about a week or two?" The bartender took a few minutes to think and then he finally spoke." We seem to be pretty booked, but we do have 1 room left, you must be really lucky Mr. Potter, you arrived just in time. The room is a private suite, with spells and enchantments for privacy. Also, it is enchanted for it to look the way you will feel most comfortable. If you need anything, ask me, or just think about it and thanks to the room's enchantments it will appear."

Harry looked at him with surprise and thought about the price. The bartender must have known what he was thinking because he laughed.

"No need to worry, for you, in times like these I won't charge you anything. It's on the house Mr. Potter" he gave Harry a reassuring smile, and Harry noticed a twinkle in his eye; just like…Dumbledore.

"Please sir, don't call me Mr. Potter. I'm sort of "hiding out" I don't want anyone " he put a lot of emphasize on anyone "to know that I am here." The bartender looked at him sternly and then accepted.

"I don't want to inconvenience you in anyway or put you in danger, at least let me pay you regular room and board." Harry insisted. "It will be like I am not even here. If you can try not to call me Harry, or Mr. Potter. It is for your safety and mine." Harry finished with a austere look.

The Bartender whipped up a Butterbeer and handed it to Harry. "Anything you want..Mr…what should we call you?"

Harry thought for a few moments. What should he go by for now?

"Call me…Aiden…O'Brien." There was an awkward silence and then both agreed to what Harry's undercover name was. "Okay then, well I'm glad to help you Mr. O'Brien. It is getting late, or rather I say early." He gave Harry and slight smile and again Harry noticed the twinkle in his eyes.

Harry shook his head and replied "Yes, I think I should be getting some sleep. Thank you very much, for everything. I would really appreciate if everything just stayed between me and you" And with that Harry headed up the stairs and found himself walking into a room that looked exactly like the Gryffindor dormitory's.

Harry brought his stuff into the room, and found Hedwig sitting on her perch by the window.

"Hey girl at least I still have you" He petted her and gave her some owl treats and found himself staring out into the window watching the sunrise.

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Harry woke up the following morning, forgetting where he was with a sudden jolt. He looked over to find a digital clock that read 1:34 P.M. He groans, and gets up to find a the Daily Prophet and a muggle newspaper laying promptly on the table in the middle of the room. "What the…" He said as he saw the muggle newspaper. "How the hell did this get here?" But before he could finish his thoughts he read the front page.

Fire, Death, and Destruction on Pivet Drive

Automatically, Harry felt a gut instinct in the pit of his stomach. "Oh no" he whispered to himself, feeling guilty. He read the first few lines and his heart stopped when he continued.

"...the cause of the fire was electrical; due to the fact Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Dursely allowed to have so many electrical wires hooked up to one port at a time in their son Dudley's room…"

Harry continued to skim through the article when something else caught his eyes.

"The property is nothing left but ashes now…The house was nearly gone by the time of 1:30 A.M, which by that time, there was no hope in rescuing the house. There is no further evidence on whether or not there were any survivors. Bones were found in the ashes, but too badly burnt for DNA. Neighbors have said that they also had a nephew living with them, saying he was a distraught child, that he was most likely the cause of the fire. But to our evidence it was the cause of electrical mishaps. Tragedy…"

"….So far there has been no survivors out of the 4 family members…"

Harry couldn't believe his eyes when he read this. His first thought was "Voldermort? But it couldn't be? There was old blood magic on that house...so it had to be regular cause? His only living relatives gone…" He re-read the lines "out of the 4"

"People probably think…I'm DEAD!" he yelled as he threw the paper down.

Harry then picked up the Daily prophet, and to his surprise, there was nothing in the paper about any weird coincidences that would lead him to believe that Voldermort actually did this.

"It's my fault…"

Just then there was a tapping on the window and Harry couldn't believe his eyes..

"…Pig?"

Harry took the little letter from Pigs foot and petted him. Hedwig wasn't too thrilled with this but she let it go.

"Ginny.." He read the letter and broke down and cried. He cried for his Mum, Dad, Sirius, Dumbledore, Ginny, his Aunt and Uncle, hell he even cried for Dudley. He cried for all the Weasleys, he can't go back to them. He cried for everyone that came in Voldermorts way.

"I can't let them know that I am alive…It's wrong..but this is how it has to be. This was a sign..." and he folded the letter back the way it was, made it look unread and gave it back to pig along with an owl treat.

"Please take this back to Ginny.." and Pig was off.