The sheets itched. Terribly. Not anything new, just kind of a residual thought playing in the back of his head. Taking forefront his mind, besides the occasional itch, and the pitch blackness he was laying in, was his school. He pushed himself up, unable to sleep.
"Hey Hedwig," he started, "What's going on?"
She let out a sleepy hoot, before turning to the eerie blackness that spread from the window, the night stars and the moon only giving a faint glow of hope to trace.
"Yeah?" he stated lamely.
"I'm gonna be a sixth year this year girl. Sixth year! Kind of, well, it's really cool. Do you mind if I rant? Of course not. You're a bird. Well, Ron and Hermione, Hermione and Ron, whatever, do you think that they are an item yet? I know Ron's got nerves of steel," Harry sarcastically drawled, "but I've haven't heard one word from either of them. Maybe they're doing the dirty somewhere…"
Hedwig gave a loud hoot to change the subject.
"What? I'm only suggesting! OK, don't give me that look. I get it! Jeez. And what's that look about? Exasperation? What? Yeah, I know, I don't have anyone. Seriously, if you're here to pick at my social life, we might as well end this conversati…"
"Boy!" Harry's uncle screamed unnecessarily loud.
"Coming!"
"Well come faster! Your professor is here!" Vernon yelled, obviously very intimidated.
Harry burst out the door in a pair of jeans and his pajama top.
"Ah, Vernon! How pleasant to see you again!" Dumbledore's usual cheery attitude was replaced with toxic words dripping out.
Dumbledore was in his usual attire for the situation, long flowing robe, his white beard pulled together at the end by some string, with blue beads attached. Rings adorned his pinky and ring finger on both hands, and his glasses were smudged a little bit, his fez looking hat a light green.
"Yes, yes, if you insist. What do you want with us?"
"Oh, I was wondering, if Harry, oh there he is! If Harry wished to take a stroll with me."
"Well, boy?" Vernon turned to Harry, his face purple.
"Well," he huffed, "I would like that," although he looked at Dumbledore apprehensively, seeing something wrong.
"Fantastic! We'll be off!" Dumbledore swished around, a ghost of a cringe on his face.
Harry hurried after the professor, making quite sure he didn't make eye contact with Vernon as he passed the doorway, but he was quite sure the face had turned purple. Privet Drive had turned colder then usual for that time of year, the cold nipping at his hands and bare feet. The occasional cat meowed in the distance, and the street lights seemed to flicker very harshly, seeming to react to the eerie way the air swirled around the identical houses and cars lining the streets.
They walked for a while in silence, but Harry felt the pricking on his scar that meant something was up. He commented on it, but Dumbledore passed it off with a low hum.
Then Dumbledore stopped. His face was in agony. He mentioned something about it wasn't the right time, but he continued, "Harry, you must understand one thing and one thing only about this visit. Voldemort can not harm you inside your putrid muggle's house," he grimaced, "and you have made a vital mistake."
"Putrid muggle? Professor, I don't like them much, but calling them that is just…" Harry stopped, the weight of the information hit like a sack of bricks, along with what was happening to his professor. He was watching, as Dumbledore seemed to shift, almost like from a dream, into Voldemort. But he didn't see the rest of the transformation, as soon as the indigo beaded string dropped to the ground, he took off towards the Dursley's house, as there was a loud scream of "Avadra Kadavra!" as he looked back and barely dodged the spell as it screamed by his ear, setting some rubbish on the side of the road ablaze.
There was surely enough commotion while this was happening around the street, sleepy little ladies turned on the light to see what was happening, while the husbands phoned the police, either for disruption of the peace, ore some other trivial bit of law that they knew could end the ruckus in the streets. Most saw Harry dart down the street, green lights streaming by him, narrowly dodging his every move. Voldemort progressed along the street in a confidant stride, a evil smirk plastered to his face, it disappeared every so often to be replaced with a heated look of anger at missing his target.
Harry sprinted for his life, looking over his shoulder constantly, checking for the signs of anything and everything that would infer that Voldemort was ready to strike again. He made little time of the trip back to his aunt an uncle's house, but there was people already waiting for him.
"Ah, Mr. Potter. We meet again. Enjoyable enough to see you." Lucius smirked behind his mask, and obvious hatred scorched through the mask.
"Move!" Harry pulled out his wand, knowing they wouldn't comply.
"Oh, such a typical Potter move. Brandish the weapon first. Listen to me Potter, there's no way out of this situation. Don't cast that yet, I'm going to let you through. I don't know about the rest of the Death Eaters here, but I'm done with this whole dramatic thing. I'm ready to settle down a little bit more," a curse smashed the window on the second floor, "have a villa in Tuscany and all that. So here you go," he opened the door, "but it won't protect you for much longer I'm afraid. That's not a threat by the way!" he yelled as Harry dashed inside. Harry didn't bother to look back, but there was a black mist that moved through the night air, as Lucius disappeared.
As Harry moved through what seemed to be the war zone version of his aunt's living room, he could barely see the floor. It was covered in the shards of the creepy porcelain dolls his aunt kept around. The furniture was trashed, almost every piece in splinters, couch cushions ripped into several hundred shreds, stuffing pushed into almost every crevice of the room, paintings and pictures of everyone except Harry askew, and finally there was a scream from up stairs. It was certainly Dudley, the only member of the family he could stand, so he ran upstairs and to Dudley's room. When he reached the top of the stairs, out of breath, and fearing the worst, he found the room in ruins, his cousin trying his hardest, to grip the top of the bed to pull himself up. There was a death eater, obviously enjoying the show.
"That's right! Keep fighting! Let me show you why they call me Red Hunter!"
Dudley pulled himself up, and was visibly bleeding from this forehead and neck. His face picked up from the despair it was in, as he saw his cousin. He pulled himself into a sitting postition, his lower body still trapped, as the Death Eater pulled up a vertical storm of pointy objects in front of him, scratching the old wallpaper plastered to the otherwise white walls, and pushed it further closing in on Dudley, a storm of needles, shards of glass, and knives flew around like a cyclone, making a wall.
"I can sense you Potter. Thankfully, you can't hurt me. Shield spells are a tricky thing for sixth years to get through."
Harry cursed loudly, as his failed Flipendo knocked over the stationary bike in the room as it rebounded off the shield spell.
"I'll wait till the Dark Lord gets here to let him finish you off. Until then…"
"Dudley! Pull!"
From behind the wall of the slowly progressing sharp objects, Dudley seemed to go into a moment of panic, his eyes bugging out at the possibility of death. He closed his eyes, and squeezed them shut. After a few seconds, and the first new cut on Dudley's face, there was an obvious tug on the robe of the Red Hunter Death Eater, and then more pressure was applied. It took only a few milliseconds for this new power to fully grip him and pull him into his own storm, every sharp object that missed the Death Eater, embedding itself into the wall. He dropped almost immediately, blood pouring about all his cuts.
"That's the sharp stuff," Harry wheezed wryly.
"I did… I did what?"
"You must have the spark. Why am I talking to you? Voldemort's coming."
"I saw them kill mum. I need a wand."
"You're in no position to go after Death Eaters. You know what? Be content with the one you did get."
"Damnit," he looked off to the side, dejected, "You're right."
"I'm gonna need to get you out of there, but if Voldemort comes in, you're on your own. I gotta finish him."
"What are you waiting for?"
Harry walked over to the bed, split in many different ways, and put out his wand, which Dudley instinctively twitched to.
"Don't stress. Or move. Wingardium Leviosa."
Harry lifted the bed off Dudley and saw the extent of the damage.
"Can you feel anything?"
"Yeah, I think I can walk."
"Better not try that yet. The Order will hear soon, and we'll get you out of here. If another one of them come in here, just try your best not to get killed. Of course, now that you are…" Harry trailed off, "what should I call you? Well shit, I don't know, a wizard. Holy mother of crap. You're a wizard. I can't even…"
"Well I certainly can. He's coming, I can hear him. Better go take care of him."
"Well easy for you to say! Yeah, I have to battle the biggest Dark Lord of all time and…" Harry heard the door open with a smart snap, "shit. Now I'm fucked. Wish me the best of luck. Could I jump out the window? No, this has got to happen. But I really want to jump."
"Just do it, and stop second guessing yourself."
"Got it."
And there standing in the hallway was Voldemort.
"Sure can run fast, can't you?"
"Merus Ex Malum!" Harry shouted, pointing his wand at the Dark Lord.
At first the pink light didn't seem to be able to hit Voldemort, it's trajectory more swinging toward the still life painting on the right wall of the hallway, but Harry saw something remarkable, the tell tale tug of Voldemort's cape towards the spell, and his bodily mass seeming to loose control of itself, and throwing him in front of the spell. There was a hot pink flash of light, as the black flame seemed to erupt from nowhere and spread through Voldemort's body, his screeches and screams loud enough to hear from down the street, where the old ladies were still watching with feverish glances to the street and the husbands were still explaining the situation to the police.
A/N: So, you think you real cool fanfiction readers? You ready to delve into magic like you've never seen before? Well my latest project was originally done by DaDemonLovesMalfoy, and it's more of a canon destroyer, meaning this will most likely create so many different parallel universe theories, your head will spin. So what I'm trying to do is show the more realistic side of Harry Potter with off track dialog, second guessing, and more realistic reactions. So enjoy!