Disclaimer: My room is covered in Harry Potter merchandise, but unfortunately, I cannot take credit for any of it.

A/N: Big thanks to my reviewers, DragoNorgard, ME, and gardnergirl. I appreciate your words! Also, I just edited this chapter a bit, so it reads the way it's supposed to now.

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The Final Quest

Chapter Two: The Last of the Dursleys

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"Some things never change."

Harry Potter's vivid green eyes swept the uniform neighborhood that he knew so well, yet never felt apart of. The manicured lawns and the picket fences were the same as they were the previous summer, as were Harry's feelings of being out of place. Privet Drive was not where Harry belonged, and he was happy to know that after this visit, he would never have to set foot on this street again.

The bespectacled young man was pulled out of his reverie by the sound of feet pounding on pavement.

"How the hell did you get here?"

Harry looked up. Standing in front of him was a boy the same age as Harry, but at least three times the size. His usually neat and tidy tufts of blond hair were sticking out at odd angles from running so fast, which was something that Dudley Dursley seldom took part in.

"Nice to see you, too, Dud," Harry replied dully.

Dudley cracked his knuckles menacingly. "Mum and Dad won't be too glad to see you. They were thinking that you had decided not to come back."

Harry had expected this. His aunt and uncle were highly superficial people, and most likely were not keen on the prospect of Harry's return. "They won't be glad to see me? Really, I thought they'd be waiting to greet me with open arms, and possibly decorations and a cake, as well."

Dudley's face turned a dark shade of red. He rarely took Harry's sarcasm with ease.

"Who are they?" Dudley asked, his voice rich with venom.

Harry glanced at the two people beside him. One, a girl, had bushy brown hair and was said to be the brightest witch of her age. The other was a tall, gangly boy with a shock of red hair and freckles. They both were wearing black robes that were identical to Harry's, and were holding wands at their sides, prepared for anything.

"These are my two best friends, you know, from my school," Harry began. He noticed Dudley's eyes drop to the wands that his companions were sure to be gripping tightly. His cousin's eyes bulged in fear. After all, he was used to seeing one wizard at a time, and when he had met other members of Harry's world, it resulted in either a pig's tail emerging from his bottom, or a grotesque enlargement of his tongue. "Ron, Hermione, I give you…Dudley."

"Pleasure," Hermione said in a quiet voice, holding out her hand. Dudley did not bother to take it.

Ron grimaced. He exasperatedly muttered something that sounded suspiciously like, "Muggles…"

Harry smirked and looked expectantly at his cousin. "Well, care to lead the way to the house?"

Dudley, forgetting all about his dinner plans with Gordon and his family, stalked off towards Number Four, Privet Drive. Harry, Ron, and Hermione stayed back several paces so Dudley could not hear their voices.

"Not a very nice bloke, is he?" whispered Ron.

Harry snorted. "That's Dudley for you."

"Well, he's got a disease, what do you expect?" asked Hermione. Harry and Ron just looked at her. "Ever hear of being spoiled rotten? A fate worse than death, I say…" she remarked smartly, and continued to follow Harry's ill-mannered cousin.

They entered the house to see that Mr. and Mrs. Dursley were in the middle of a dinner of their own. When Harry, Ron, and Hermione entered the dining room in Dudley's wake, there was a clatter as two sets of silverware dropped to the table.

"Hello, Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon," Harry said.

Uncle Vernon was a portly man with a large black mustache and barely any neck. However, Aunt Petunia had a long enough neck for the two of them, blond hair, and the face of a horse, as well.

"What is the meaning of this!" Uncle Vernon growled. His face was becoming darker by the second. His beady eyes were darting from his son, who was cowering in the corner of the room, to Ron, to Hermione, and then finally to Harry.

"You were aware of the fact that I would be visiting you one last time," Harry stated calmly.

His uncle stood up. "Well, here you are. You came, and now you can leave. OUT!"

"I think I'll stay for a few more minutes, thanks."

Uncle Vernon's face was the color of a plum by now. Aunt Petunia had not moved from her seat at the table. She was staring at Harry with an unreadable expression.

"Who are these people, and why have you brought them into out home?" she asked, shifting her gaze to glare at Ron and Hermione.

"We're his friends," said Hermione defiantly.

"Yeah, thanks for inviting us." Ron sat down at the table and began gnawing on a biscuit. Hermione sat in the seat next to him, and Harry moved so he was between the two, leaning on their chairs. If Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia looked appalled when Harry and his friends first entered, it was nothing compared to how they looked now. From their faces, Harry could not tell whether the biscuit that Ron was chewing looked to them like their first-born child or their life savings. When they saw that Ron had also placed his wand on their table, they decided he had gone far enough.

Uncle Vernon was the first to speak. "Get that…that…"

"That thing…" Aunt Petunia said, her voice deathly quiet.

"Off of our table!" her husband finished.

Ron grinned. "What, this? It's just a wa-"

"Don't you dare say it!" Aunt Petunia exclaimed in a rush.

"Don't say what? Wand?"

"OUT!" Uncle Vernon yelled. "GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!"

Harry pointed his wand at his uncle and shouted, "Silencio!" just as he was taking a breath that would able him to yell some more. "You've unnecessarily raised your voice to me for sixteen years. I won't allow you to do that to me anymore, much less to my friends." Harry was not going to let his uncle interfere; he was back at Privet Drive for two reasons. One, to fulfill his late headmaster's wishes, and two, to fulfill his own.

Uncle Vernon looked rather like a fish. His lips were moving rapidly, but no sound was being emitted from them. He began to grab at his throat.

Dudley and Aunt Petunia ran to him, screaming.

"What have you done!" Harry's aunt gasped.

"Nothing that I can't undo. Now, if you would please join me in the living room, I'd like to ask you about my mother."

Harry walked over to an utterly shocked Aunt Petunia, took her by the arm, and guided her out of the dining room. As they were leaving, he heard Uncle Vernon and Dudley running into the kitchen, with Ron and Hermione on their heels.

Harry knew he had to be quick, for he was not yet seventeen years of age, the age of an adult wizard. Students who attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry were not allowed to use magic outside of school until they became of age. The Ministry of Magic was bound to be sending a letter to Privet Drive, by owl, at any moment, saying that illegal underage magic had been performed. Soon after, a Ministry official would undoubtedly be showing up at the house, demanding that Harry's wand be confiscated.

He ushered his aunt into a chair, and sat on the couch opposite her. "Aunt Petunia," he started. "I need you to tell me about my mother."

She looked as though the idea of talking about her dead sister disgusted her. "Why?" she demanded in an angry voice.

"Peace of mind, I suppose," Harry replied, though that was only part of the reason. He needed all the information he could possibly get.

She gave in. "Very well," she said coolly. "Where to start, where to start…when we were growing up, before she went off to that school, she was…she was the only friend I had. If I had a bad day, I knew I could come home, and Lily would be there, ready to listen. I could tell her anything…but that all changed when she got a letter inviting her to you-know-where. Delivered by an owl, nonetheless!" Aunt Petunia shuddered.

"But why would that change? If you were so close…"

"I figured that she would come home from there and use everything I had told her against me. So I gave her the cold shoulder for years and years. I suppose things could have been different if she wasn't so strange…but that's all in the past now. What matters is, that school changed her. She was still her smart, funny, intriguing self, but she was able to do something I wasn't. She had one up on me. I was constantly jealous. I couldn't understand why our parents adored her so much. She was just like a normal kid, except for the fact that she could perform magic. I found it so weird, so…unusual. Lily and I drifted apart. We came to despise one another. I hated her because she was an oddball, and she got angry with me because she thought I was superficial. I honestly don't know where she got her ideas from…"

Harry rolled his eyes.

"…Probably from that Potter boy. Your father," Aunt Petunia continued. "He was just as bad, if not worse than your mother. Two peas in a pod, they were. Always joking around. They couldn't have had real jobs…though I heard Lily saying to our parents, ages ago, that she and that Potter were trying to convince some Order that Voldemort was…oh, what's the word…he was using Hairpluckers to do something…"

Harry gasped. "Horcruxes…" he said quietly. He was in awe.

"Yes, those. Well, the last time I saw him…and Lily, for that matter, was after my parents passed away, about a year before you were born. They died in a car crash."

Harry was still thinking about what Aunt Petunia said about 'Hairpluckers' when her final comment registered in his mind. "I suppose that's where you got the idea from?"

"Excuse me?"

"You told me that my parents died in a car crash. That is, before I learned the truth."

"Oh, right…"

"Well. I've certainly heard enough. Thanks." The clock was ticking, and Harry's mind was reeling. He got up to find Ron and Hermione, his aunt following him.

They walked into the kitchen to see Uncle Vernon kneeling on the floor, and Dudley looking hopelessly down his throat.

"I don't know what to do, Dad! I don't know what to do!"

Ron and Hermione were leaning against the counter, engaging in normal conversation, having poured themselves glasses of lemonade from a pitcher in the counter.

"Time to go?" Hermione asked.

Ron grinned. "Oh, but we were having such a good time…what a shame."

Harry gave a half-hearted laughed and pointed his wand at Uncle Vernon, chanting a counter curse. "See you!" Harry yelled, and with that, he ran from the room. Ron and Hermione rapidly put down their glasses of lemonade and followed him, just as an owl swooped in through the open kitchen window.

They heard Uncle Vernon's yell of, "RUDDY OWLS!" from the street.

"So…Harry…" Hermione said, gasping for air.

"What did your aunt have to say?" Ron finished for her, patting her lightly on the back.

"Not much that I didn't already know…" Harry lied. He thought it best to put off telling them about the theory that Aunt Petunia said his parents presented to the Order of the Phoenix.

Ron and Hermione frowned.

"Don't worry about it. We're going to find more information on Voldemort, and we're going to finish him," said Harry with confidence. He ran a hand through his messy, black hair. "The Dursleys…well, I never have to worry about them again."

They all smiled.

"Where to, now?" Hermione asked, preparing to Apparate for the second time that day.

"The Burrow, of course." Ron supplied. "We've got to get ready for Bill and Fleur's wedding."

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A/N: Thanks again for reading! Please review with any questions or comments. School starts in a little over a week (senior year, woo!), so I'd better get cracking on this story!

By: SammyLynn