Chapter 2: The Leaky Cauldron
Harry left his room early the next morning, and had breakfast in the living room watching television, something he had never dared to do before. But he didn't care that day, he was seventeen now and didn't have to stay with the Dursleys to remain under the protection that his mother had left for him there, because, like Dumbledore had told him last year, this protection would end when he came of age.
"What are you doing boy?" came his Uncle Vernon's voice from behind him, "that is my couch you're sitting on!" he added sharply.
"So?" Harry said in an arrogant voice.
"So get the ruddy hell out of it!" he said, his voice now rising, "how dare you talk to me like that, I'm telling you boy one more little cheek like that and you're out of this house!"
"I'll do whatever I want!" Harry was really enjoying this, he was planning to cause as much havoc as he could before he left this house.
"Oh don't try me like that!" he said in a low menacing whisper.
"Bite me" Harry said slowly. The effect of these words on uncle Vernon was the one you would expect from anyone to have. So what if he had crossed the limit? He didn't care. The Dursleys had treated him like scum ever since he was born, and now that he didn't have to stay with them, he could say whatever he wanted to them.
Meanwhile, uncle Vernon's pudgy face was turning purple with anger, his eyes looked like they would pop out of their sockets, and his hands were shaking.
"YOU LITTLE BRAT!" he bellowed, his hands waving in the air, "YOU DON'T DESERVE TO BE HERE! I SHOUL'D HAVE KICKED YOU OUT OF MY DOORSTEP WHEN THAT FILTHY OLD MAN LEFT YOU THERE! YOU ARE A LITTLE…"
But what Harry was he never heard, for he had just silenced his uncle with a silencing charm with his wand, which he was holding in front of him.
"DON'T YOU TALK ABOUT DUMBLEDORE YOU!" Harry yelled filled with hatred pointing his wand at uncle Vernon's chest.
"EXPELLIARMUS!" he bellowed. His uncle's eyes widened in fear as the jet of scarlet light hit him. He was lifted of the ground and fell three feet away, landing on top of a coffee table, shattering it to pieces.
Harry stood there so angry that heat seemed to radiate from him. Suddenly someone jumped on top of him, pinning him to the floor, and started hitting him in the face.
"DON'T TOUCH MY FATHER FREAK!" Dudley roared as he hit every part of Harry he could touch. As for Harry; he was trying to point his wand at Dudley. He managed to turn it and immediately the word Levicorpus sprang to mind.
Dudley was lifted to the air as though hanging from an invisible hook attached to his heel. He dangled there upside down, helplessly striking the air around him with his fists.
Aunt Petunia ran into the living room and instantly started shrieking. She bent over his husband and then started to pull on Dudley's red head to get him down, and he did fall; on top of her.
After a moment or two the three of them got up, uncle Vernon was clutching his back, Dudley was massaging his head and aunt Petunia was sporting a bloody nose. They stared at him with hating looks until uncle Vernon said slowly, through heavy breathing.
"Get out of my house boy"
Without a glance at them, Harry darted upstairs, told Hedwig to fly over to the Leaky Cauldron and meet him there. He then got hold of his trunk and her empty cage, and with a turn vanished from the house, never to return.
Some seconds later, the dark and shabby Leaky Cauldron materialized in front of him.
"Mr. Potter!"
Harry turned and saw the old bartender Tom marching toward him. A curios expression was on his face that made him look even older than he was, once again, Harry thought, like a toothless walnut.
"To what do we owe the honor?" he said with a smile now.
The adrenaline from his fight with the Dursleys was now wearing off, and Harry began to realize that he hadn't thought why he had decided to come here in the first place.
"Just passing by," Harry said nervously, "I'm buying some things in Diagon Alley."
"Oh, and what are you buying?" He said curiously.
"Just some school things," Harry said.
"Oh well, the archway is back there," he said pointing at a door that led into the famous little courtyard that was the way into Diagon Alley.
Harry muttered some thanks and went outside; he closed the door, tapped the wall three times and watched it form an archway.
Now that he was here, Harry decided he would visit Gringotts and get some money.
Twenty minutes later he had in his possession a leather pouch with a lot of golden galleons inside it. He decided to visit his favorite shops, and when he entered Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, someone he couldn't see instantly hugged him so tightly he thought his head would come off.
"Harry! Why didn't you tell us you were coming?" George cried behind the person hugging him who Harry supposed was Fred.
Fred let go of Harry and both of the twins beamed at him.
"I didn't really plan it," Harry said taking long mouthfuls of air to regain his breath.
"Well it doesn't matter, now we can take you to the Burrow with us," Fred said happily.
This wasn't what Harry had in mind. All summer he had been thinking about the task that Dumbledore had set upon him, and if he had to go on with it, he preferred to do it alone. He didn't want to endanger any of his friends.
"I'm sorry but I have to go back to the Dursleys, I'm supposed to stay there all summer," Harry lied, feeling angry with him self for not telling the truth.
"Oh, all right," George said, "so… what do you need?"
"I was wondering if I could get one of those cloaks with the shielding charms on them…"
"Anything for you Harry," George said.
Harry took from the shelves a black cloak and a pair of black gloves, these shielding clothes would bevery useful for his journey.
Harry stayed there a while, catching up with the twins' life, learning that more deaths had occurred since he had left Hogwarts. They told Harry that Seamus Finnigan's mother had been killed, and so had Lavender Brown's dad.
He left the shop an hour later and decided to rent a room in the Leaky Cauldron. Hedwig was waiting for him there, and together, they climbed the stairs of the bar and went to sleep.
Hope you liked it. R&R Please!