Harry Potter yearned to ask about the letter he had received. To try and persuade his relatives that it really would be better for everyone if he was allowed to leave - for most of the year, anyway. Even if this boarding school was mad, and he'd never learn a single useful thing - he could always wait tables. He knew enough for that, now. Or wash dishes, or scrub toilets.
One thing held him back, schooled him to a patience that wasn't normal in a ten year old boy. His relations hated magic - loathed it, any mention of it. His cousin wasn't even allowed superheroes! (GI Joe's were okay, though Uncle Vernon often said they weren't properly British. Which, of course, was the simple truth).
Harry Potter had opened the letter - and damn the consequences! Now, though, he shifted uneasily, foot to foot, as he cooked the pudding that was to be dessert for Sunday's Supper. He couldn't help but hear something strange from upstairs... It almost sounded - like an argument...? Uncle Vernon was often loud and obstinate, and Aunt Petunia could be unbelievably petty, but he'd never heard them say one cross word at each other.
Turning the stove down, Harry Potter - one watchful eye for Dudley- crept up the stairs. Instead of listening outside the closed master bedroom door, he crept towards the loo, and picked up a handful of towels. Standing, he listened intently.
"Do you think-"
"Undoubtedly! - - Not!"
"-Can - do?"
"Holiday! - Summer after all..."
"Where?"
"Hebrides - - sister's - - - - cabin."
What a pleasant place for a vacation, was harry potter's first thought at the shack (calling it a cabin would have been exceedingly optimistic) on the small scrap of windswept rock. Granted, Harry Potter wasn't in the best of moods - the car trip alone had him half smothered under Dudley's weight - and that had been his cousin's intent. Apparently Harry wasn't going to do anything odd if he was smothered half to death.
Harry had almost liked the short trip in the rowboat in comparison - he hadn't even had to row, once Uncle Vernon discovered that Dudley had a bit of a talent for it. And the whole time had been taken up with Uncle Vernon's dreams of Dudley on the rowing team at Smelting. Harry rather hoped that Dudley would be. He could stand to lose some weight, and if he exercised, maybe they wouldn't all have to diet.
Harry hadn't really realized it was his birthday - nor would he really have cared. He celebrated his birthday the day after Dudley, with a bit of extra food that he managed to scrimp, and a few broken toys from the year before that he was fairly certain Dudley wouldn't miss.
And so no one was more surprised than Harry Potter when one Rubeus Hagrid came to knock at the door.
[a/n: skipping the scene where they meet? It was boring anyway. Scene in the Leaky is much more fun!
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