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Harry groaned as he regained consciousness. "Happy fucking birthday, Harry," he muttered to himself. Groaning, he rolled over onto his back with a pained grimace. God, he hated living here. "One more year," he said to himself in a murmur. Less than that, actually, since he'd be at Hogwarts. So, it was more like two more months, with a ten-month gap between the two.

He could do that, even if it would be two very painful months.

A flash of white catching his eye, Harry slowly sat up, gripping his ribs. Looking over, he blinked, and then grinned. "Hullo, Hedwig," he greeted cheerfully.

She hooted in what sounded like concern, but flew down in front of him, and it was only then that Harry noted she had more than one letter for him.

Taking all of them, he scanned who they were from. Hermione, the Weasley twins, Remus, and Voldemort. A brow rose at the one obvious name missing, but he merely smirked, already having expected that.

Beyond wishing him a happy birthday, Hermione promised him a present once they met again, and apologized that it couldn't be sooner than September first. The twins' letter was similar, though it had the addition of them congratulating him for nearly causing Dumbledore to choke to death on a lemon drop. Remus' letter essentially said the same thing, though there was a half-hearted scolding in there too.

Harry laughed quietly when he finished reading the three letters, but wasn't at all surprised by anything they said. He knew the writers well. But he had to admit, the final letter was the one he was most curious about. He still hadn't come up with anything to retaliate against that damn Elmo nightmare, which irritated him more than he wanted to admit.

'Potter,

I will always be more frightening than that puppet.

Voldemort'

Harry blinked. "That's it?" He turned the parchment over so he could look at the back of it. Nothing. "Really? No other comment?" Nothing about the diary or Dumbledore? No insults either? Was Voldemort sick or something? This wasn't like him at all.

And then his scar started searing.

With a hiss of pain, Harry clapped a hand over it immediately and then groaned. "Yeah, I was so asking for this," he muttered to himself.

His vision wavered...

"Do you know why I have called you here, Lucius?" Voldemort didn't give the man a chance to answer. "You see, I learned something the other day. A very important item that I left in your care has somehow been destroyed by Potter. Destroyed by him when he was twelve years old, no less. Have you any idea how this occurred?"

Lucius paled.

Trapped watching, Harry did the same and hoped Voldemort didn't kill the man. He really didn't like the thought of murder. ...Maybe if he could just distract the Dark Lord, he could prevent something from happening.

"Crucio!"

Harry cringed at Malfoy's cries of pain and tried to think more quickly. He didn't want to see the guy get tortured either. But before he managed to come up with anything, the strangest thing happened.

Wormtail ran into the room screaming, a paper bag over his head, a strange smiley face drawn over it.

Harry stared, Voldemort ended his torture curse to do the same, and even a pained Lucius managed to raise his head to look.

As the three watched in shock and confusion, Wormtail ran across the room, hit the opposite wall with a thump, and then crumpled to the floor, unconscious, the brown paper bag still over his head.

For a moment, there was silence.

"Dismissed, Lucius!"

Malfoy pulled himself to his feet, bowed, and left the room in a hurry.

Harry woke with a jolt and stared up at the ceiling, blinking slowly, trying to understand what he'd just witnessed. "Did Wormtail just save Malfoy's life by knocking himself out while wearing a bag over his head? ...Nah, that was probably just a weird dream. Wormtail can't possibly be that stupid, right...?"

That's it for now. Looking forward to reviews! Laterz!