Problems May Come

Harry's encounter with Uncle Vernon earlier that day had sunk a deadly mood over the house. After the shouting match with Uncle Vernon, who decidedly did most of the shouting, he had been locked in his room again with little hopes of leaving it anytime soon. The cat flap was once again in use, as were the rationed trips to the loo. To make things worse, they had also locked Hedwig's cage.

"Its so that YOUR bloody owl will not get loose in MY house and wreck havoc yet again!" Uncle Vernon had bellowed when he had protested this. When Harry had reminded him that his Wizarding friends would get worried and drop by, he had sputtered, "Fine! Grimacing he spoke, "Your owl will be let out, but only on these conditions; First there will be no more complaints to us OR them, secondly, you will do as Petunia and I say, or you will face the consequences, and finally, you will write whenever you need to, SO THEY KNOW YOU ARE FINE!" Uncle Vernon was yelling as he finished, his face a blotchy purple.

By then, Harry had grown extremely weary of the whole incident and had angrily stormed to his room, slamming the door behind him. It was to that that Hedwig's cage had not been unlocked. It had also cost him the meals he would have gotten for the next day or so. As he hadn't really had much of an appetite during the summer, it had not really bothered him. True, he was getting thinner, but it just did not matter much to him anymore.

Harry looked at his makeshift calendar which he had made to count the days down until August the first. It showed that it was July the 15th. In two weeks he, Harry would be out of here. Hopefully. "Maybe I should use just a bit of magic to unlock Hedwig's cage," Harry pondered to himself, "it would not hurt, would it?" But when he went to her cage, the lock clicked open. He had then let her out.

Slowly, his mind came back to the present. Glancing at his bedside clock, Harry noticed that it read 1:15. He then stared miserably up at his bedroom ceiling. What had started out, as a great day had suddenly become one of his worst nightmares.

"Well not quite. That is not my worst nightmare. Oh no. Maybe at the moment, it is, but when night comes, then so will my worst nightmare." Harry bitterly thought, "That one always comes. There is no stopping it, that's for certain."

Slowly, Harry's thoughts shifted to his present predicament. Not only had Pig and Hedwig gotten out into the house earlier, but also they had gotten into the partially open door that led to his being locked in here. The doorway led to his aunt and uncle's bedroom. Aunt Petunia had not been in there, but unfortunately Uncle Vernon had been. And now, for the third time in two weeks, he, Harry had been locked in his room for an unknown amount of time.

Although his uncle Vernon had told him that he would not eat, Aunt Petunia had slipped him some vegetable stew and a piece of stale bread through the cat-flap in his door. As she had been quick and silent the entire time, he had been unable to thank her. She had been doing things like this every now and then ever since he had gotten back from Platform 9 ¾ just weeks before.

"Maybe it is because of the welcoming party that I had."

Harry chuckled to himself. He could still see the scandalous expression on Aunt Petunia's face when Tonks had spoken to her.

"But," a voice said in his mind, "Maybe she is remembering my mother… after all, she was her sister."

Startled at the path in which his thoughts were going, Harry stopped. And sighed.

"Aunt Petunia is treating me better, but Uncle Vernon? With him I do not stand a chance. Besides, how am I supposed to defeat the most evil wizard of all time when I cannot even stand up to my uncle, a muggle, for more than ten minutes?"

With a sigh, Harry looked at his alarm clock. It read 1:39.

"Maybe if I had something to actually do," Harry muttered, "time would go faster. But no, the Dursley's have not even given me many chores to do this summer. I believe they are scared of what the Order might do. Scared that they will turn up at any moment. And as there is no homework the summer after OWLS, I really do not have anything to do. Even a potions essay would be welcome now to get my mind off things."

Harry's thoughts drifted back to his first day back. Uncle Vernon's words still echoed in his mind. "Now you listen here boy," He had snarled, "No matter what your freak friends say, I am still head of my household, and you will do as I say, when I say it. First, you will write to, to whomever you need to write to, so they know you are all right! And if I hear that you have said anything to the contrary, you will have me to answer to. Do you understand me boy?"

Suddenly, he came to his senses with a jolt. After the morning's incident, he had sent Hedwig out. Tomorrow he, a note from him, Harry was due to arrive at the Order headquarters... and he had not sent it yet. Hopefully they would not mind it's being just a bit late. Maybe if he sent it as soon as she came back.

"I just do not want them to worry." Harry spoke out loud. "If they do not come down here, then they will not have a cause to."

The voice in his mind rebuffed him. "Of course they worry. Just think of what they would feel if they knew you have not been eating much, or sleeping well. Then you can talk about worry."

With a sigh, Harry looked down at himself.

It was true. Without the proper amount of food and sleep, he had gotten much thinner.

He just hoped that they would not worry too much.

"The tiny voice in his head that sounded just like Sirius spoke up again, "Come on Harry, think about it. Repeat after me. They care about you. Come on Harry! They will worry. They will definitely worry about you if they knew what you have been doing to yourself. There is nothing that you can do to stop them from doing it. Face it, they care. You can't just push them away. They made choices, Sirius made choices, YOU made choices."

"Oh course I did." Harry mentally replied. "And where did that get me? Because of me, some of my classmates were endangered, my best friends were nearly killed, AND Sirius died."

"You're not back at that subject again, are you?" The voice answered. "It Was Not Your Fault! Listen to me. No matter what you say, Sirius was the one that choose to go to the Department of Mysteries. You did not make him do it, it was his choice. Just believe that boy."

Wearied by the constant bickering that he was having within himself, Harry stood up and sighed, walking over to his window. As he stared out at the darkening sky, he had not the slightest idea about what was occurring in a certain house, somewhere in the midst of London. For yes, at that very moment, a rescue party or sorts was being formed to get him inside Number 12 Grimmauld Place.