Chapter 11

The Dursleys interest in Harry had faded day by day. By the time Uncle Vernon returned home from work, Harry's uninvited visitor was a minor concern, after dinner and Dudley's schedule for the evening. Uncle Vernon pressed Harry on the importance of finishing the painting of the windows before he left. July 27th was only one week away. Harry was a ghost in house to them now. He was not worth the effort to discipline anymore. Dudley had a meeting with a new trainer tonight and that was far more important to them now. The new trainer was well connected in youth boxing throughout Surrey and could advance Dudley's career. The Dursleys buzzed with excitement. Harry fixed them a quick dinner and was sent to the cellar with little fuss.

Harry washed his paintbrushes in the work sink in the cellar and listened for the Dursleys to leave. The Dursleys scurried above him collecting Dudley's trophies and clippings from the newspapers. After much shuffling and a few muffled arguments the house went quiet. Most evenings this summer Harry fell into an exhausted sleep after painting or a workout with Dudley. Harry liked it this way. He didn't like too much time to think. Harry had learned to close his mind to all unwanted intrusions, but thinking about his future made him feel as if he was filled with thousands of smoking matchsticks. He felt them smoke and burn in his veins. At times he felt compelled to confront Voldemort as soon so he could to cool the burning hatred in his heart. At times he felt that facing Voldemort would cause the hate within him to burn anew, and destroy him from the inside out. When he thought about his past, his thoughts of his friends were soon washed away by grief. Exhaustion was his friend but tonight he had hours to fill.

Harry sat on his bed and practiced the silent wandless charms he studied all summer. He practiced an incendiary charm and lit several small fires across the work bench. With a slight wave of his hand his produced a summoning charm and objects from the shelves began to drift across the room toward him. He practiced a polarity charm that easily opened the locks on the cellar door at the top on the stairs. Harry filled the space in the cellar with levitating nuts and bolts. His practice was useless. The objects suddenly fell to the floor. Hedwig gave a startled hoot and flew to a top shelf.

"Hedwig, these tricks I've learned won't save me." Harry said to her.

Hedwig flew back to Harry's bed rail. Harry stroked her white feathers.

"How does this sound? Chloe…. I don't know how to tell you this, but I'm a wizard. I got a broom and a wand and I can make myself disappear. What do you think?"

Harry said to Hedwig and she gave a quick shake of her feathers.

"You're right. Who do you think would get here first if I broke my vow of secrecy Voldemort or the Ministry? What difference does it make.?"

Harry paced the concrete floor of the cellar. He stopped at the bottom step and sat down. He folded his arms across his knees and buried his head in his arms. The images he fought to keep from his mind crashed into his brain. Dumbledore's grave, the bloody halls of the Hogwarts attack, Credic's blank eyes, Sirius disappearing into darkness and his mother's scream, all raced before his eyes uncontrollably. Harry pulled at his own matte of dark hair hoping the pain would make it stop. The pain was quickly replaced by rage, white hot, through his veins. He thought of Snape, Voldemort and the Death Eaters standing cowardly by as they watched his torture. His own funeral and the Ministry members watched as his coffin goes by. Their faces showed relief not sorrow. Harry saw each face in his mind. Rage filled his heart. They used him and now they are safe. Suddenly, the image of Chloe's face stopped his mind.

"Maybe there is a way, Hedwig." Harry said.

The objects on the floor suddenly returned to their shelves.

"I just need more time. The Prophecy can't be true if what it predicts no longer exists. Hedwig! I might not have to kill anybody! I might not have to die myself!"

The hours he waited for Chloe passed hopefully now. Once the neighborhood became quiet he let Hedwig out for the night. He cracked the window open a little farther so he could reenter house after the Dursley's returned. He went outside to wait for Chloe. The Dursleys didn't know the locks on his door were useless. There was no point for them to know now. Harry crept out of the house and slipped under bushes and watched the residents of Privet Drive end their day. Harry sat frozen as he watched the Dursley's car pull in to the drive. Preoccupied with themselves they took no notice of Harry in the bushes. The time melted away with a calm ease Harry had not felt for a very long time. Finally, Chloe quietly joined him.

Harry began, "I suppose you have few questions."

"I do. I'm curious and worried. More worried than curious." Chloe said.

"Try not to worry. Trust me it doesn't do much good. But before I answer your question, I want to know what you figured out so for. You don't miss much and I'.m curious."

"OK. First thing is, you don't go to a school for troubled boy."

"Right'

"You have a girl somewhere out there that cares for you but something is keeping you apart. You don't think it's going to work for some reason but you haven't told her yet."

"Right"

"You have some very good friends and they are willing to do almost anything for you. Sounds like risky things, but you don't want them to."

"Right again."

"And something really frightening could happen I just a week." Chloe paused for a moment. "and you're going away soon. You're protected here somehow and that protection will end soon. Your turn."

Harry began, "Right again. I can't stay on Privet Drive much longer. But I realized something tonight. I realized that I don't have to be what people expect me to be. For a long time now I've been told by a lot of people who I am. And I always believed them, but it's not me…..or it doesn't have to be me. I told you my parents died when I was a baby. It was a violent death………….They were murdered."

"And that's how you got that scar."

"Yeah"

"And that's why your friends are scared for you."

"Yeah, The man that did this to me has come back. I survived against everything. I shouldn't have lived but I did and so people led me to believe I had something special that his evil couldn't touch. That I survived for a reason."

"They think you can send him back again, out of your life and their lives forever."

"Yeah. But they don't understand it wasn't me. I know it now. My parents saved me. I just got lucky that night. That's all"

"You're sure he'll come after you."

"Very sure."

"I don't want you to go. I need to know you'll be alright."

"You can help me Chloe. I want you to do something. The day before my birthday. It's important. It could give us a little more time. Will you do it?"