DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of it, JK Rowling and associates own all rights, no infringement intended, no money is being made, unfortunately.

WARNING; Pre-slash if you do not like do not read remember you have freedom of choice. Reviews appreciated but no flames those will be ignored.

STORY; as we get older and some of us actually mature you find that what you firmly believed was the truth can suddenly shift into something completely opposite and how you handle that shows what kind of adult you can become. Harry must deal with what he considers to be the weirdest summer of his life. Enemies become allies, friends become enemies, and sometimes there is a very thin line between love and hate, attraction and fighting. Poor Harry, poor Draco

PAIRINGS: HP/DM, SS/RL, GW/OC, RW/HrG, NL/LL

Chapter 1: The ride home

Present Day

The day seemed to go from bright sunlight to dark storm clouds within minutes. The grey clouds appeared to hover close to the earth while the wind blew in savage gusts. The trees across the street seemed to bend in half at times and the smell of rain lay heavy in the air. Overall, it was an untypical day for the end of summer. In his bedroom, Harry stood looking out of the window lost in thought, tomorrow he would be going back to Hogwarts, his real home. So many things had changed over the summer including himself that sometimes he wondered if it had all been a dream.

Flashback

It all started at the beginning of the summer after fifth year. The drive from Kings Cross Station was quiet almost too quiet. Uncle Vernon never said a word after receiving the warnings from Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Mr Weasley he just drove back to #4 Privet Drive not even telling him to muffle Hedwigs hoots. His face was so red it looked purple, his cheeks were puffed out, and sweat dribbled down his face, looking as if he was choking on the words he wished he could say. Aunt Petunia just sat there with a sour look on her thin face. Harry thought snidely to him self 'not much change there; she always looked like that when she saw him as if something smelled nasty'. Both pretended he was not in the car.

Dudley however was the surprise. He had definitely changed over the school year while Harry was gone, so much so that he almost did not recognize him. While he was still big he no longer looked like a beached white whale, you could almost say he looked semi-normal. Dudley did not speak to him during the ride either but Harry could tell that he was watching him. Normally his eyes conveyed anger, fear, or contempt but now all Harry felt was curiosity. Every time Harry looked over at him, he would look away. Harry decided that as long as no one spoke to him he would keep his mouth shut this time and maybe things would not be quite so bad this summer

.It might work out having everyone ignore him, he thought; while it would make for a long summer, at least he would have a lot of time to think. All he wanted was to be alone, he knew that he had to think about all that had happened and that in some ways he still needed to deal with Sirius's death. While he publicly blamed Dumbledore for not telling him everything and especially blamed Snape, he knew deep down that much of the blame lay with himself. He had made so many mistakes.

Harry knew that if he was to survive the next few years and more important those close to him were to survive, he would have to grow up. While he had not been treating the last few years like a game, it had all seemed to be a big adventure almost like a fairy tale with good and evil clearly defined. Unfortunately he no longer had the choice of retaining the innocence of childhood. With Voldemort attacking him and trying his best to kill him every year, he had lost little by little that innocence that protects children from the adult world. No matter what he had pretended, he knew he was different from the others his age. He had lost much of his childhood the day he watched Cedric die at his side and had the lost the remainder when he watched his godfather fall through the veil to his death. In attempting to use an Unforgivable Curse on Bella, he had set his feet firmly on the path of adulthood.

Jerked from his thoughts he suddenly realized that the movement of the car had stopped. They had arrived at the Dursleys home; he had never considered it his home in all the time he had lived there. His uncle slammed out of the car and went straight into the house with his aunt following quickly without a backward glance. Shrugging his shoulders Harry got out of the car holding his owl's cage in one hand.

Looking around Harry realised that everything looked normal, as he closed the car door he heard a slight popping noise coming from behind the hedge. Turning with his hand on his sleeve where his wand was hidden Harry carefully scanned the neighbouring yard. Seeing nothing and more importantly seeing that Hedwig was not alarmed he assumed it was a member of the Order checking on him. Harry went around the car to the boot to get his trunk. As he was struggling to lift it out, he wished that he a thought to shrink it before leaving the train. At least this year he did not have to worry about the Dursley locking it away they were too intimidated by the threats they had received.

Suddenly, he saw an arm reach around him to grab the handle on the other end. Turning he saw Dudley standing next to him with no expression on his face, and together they lifted the trunk out. Harry felt like a fool standing there with his mouth open and his eyes as big as a house elf, never in his life had Dudley ever lent him a hand unless it was to eat his food before he could.

Dudley just held on to the trunk and said quietly "We need to talk. Let's go up to your room. I don't want my dad to notice anything yet."

Harry stood there for a minute then just nodded dumbly and said "Okay." Carrying the trunk between them, they went inside. On the way upstairs, the first thing that popped in to his mind was the theme song from the Twilight Zone. Obviously, he was in another dimension. He was soon to realize that this was only the beginning of the most unusual summer of his life. Sometimes he wondered why he could just live a normal life like everybody else. Obviously the gods had it in for him that or he had a curse place on him. Wasn't there a curse that went "I hope you live in interesting times" or something like that. If there was a curse and he ever found out who cast it someone was going to need some major healing spells.

tbc