Standard Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story; they all belong to JK Rowlings. This is a work of fan fiction, produced solely for enjoyment. No infringement of rights is intended.

– CHAPTER FOUR –

Letters and Parcels

Harry woke up around ten o'clock the next morning, but for the first time in a very long time, he did not have the sudden urge to jump out of bed. He lay under his covers for a few moments, watching the dust particles swirl in the ray of sunlight coming through the blinds of the window, of his home. Harry had never had a room of his own in his life, 'Well apart from when I was a baby; but that hardly counts,' and now he had his own flat.

As he mulled over these thoughts, a feeling of euphoria crept into the deepest recesses of his mind, and the three words 'MY OWN HOME' jumped out at him. A huge smile broke over his face.

He climbed out of bed slowly, taking his time to prolong the feeling of contentment, and ambled over to the bathroom. Noticing that Hermione had unpacked all his toiletries for him, he took a long, hot shower, towelled off and brushed his teeth. Walking back into his room, he opened the wardrobe, and looking at his rather limited supply of clothes, decided he'd go shopping later that day for some Muggle clothes that actually fitted him. Even after growing another few inches this summer, Dudley's clothes didn't fit.

After getting dressed, we went to the kitchen, and was about to check if the landlady had left him any food like he asked, when he heard a tapping on the window in the living room. He jogged over, and opened the window, and had to take a step back, as no less that ten owls flew through his window. Surprised, he started taking the letters and packages off the owls, before going to get them some water. After they had a drink and a few owl treats – he found them unpacked near Hedwig's cage, the owls left; hunger forgotten; Harry sat down on the sofa and started opening the packages.

The first was a birthday present from Ron, who'd bought him a Wizard's Chess Set, with a note saying:

Happy Birthday mate, it's not every day you turn 17. I got you this so that you can get some practise; you don't want me beating you too easily next time do you? Anyway, watch out for yourself, and don't let the Muggles get you down, now you can threaten them right? Mum's trying to find out when Moody will let you come over (did you know that he's taken over the Order? Anyway, he has). So keep your chin up, Ron

As he read this, Harry remembered that no one knew where he was with the exception of Hermione. He was going to have to write to Ron to tell him he was alright, or Molly Weasley would start to panic. 'Actually, everyone's going to panic if they think the Chosen One has disappeared.' He thought glumly, 'Oh well, there goes my plan to hide from Voldemort and hunt down the Horcruxes in secrecy. I can't do that if I have to show my face in public. At least my flat can remain hidden though.' Reading the letter again, he got to the part about Moody taking over the Order.

Harry was surprised; he hadn't really thought much about the Order since Dumbledore's death, and had half-expected it to fall apart. After all, Dumbledore had founded it. He was happy to hear that the Order members were still united and determined to fight Voldemort. He strongly approved of Moody as the new leader, he would keep to a no-nonsense policy, and wouldn't let anyone join that he didn't personally trust, especially after Snape's treachery.

He opened another package, this one from Hagrid. He'd sent Harry some photos of Harry with Dumbledore, most of which appeared to have been taken in the Hospital Wing. Harry smiled wryly, thinking about the number of times he'd ended up in there.

The next present was from the twins, they had sent Harry a huge assortment of products with a note reading:

Harry, now it's you who's in need of a few laughs, Lord knows you'll need them now. We thought of sending you the thousand galleons back, but figured you'd probably just come and spend it in our shop, so we saved you the trouble! There's a thousand galleons worth of our products in there, including some from our new line that we showed you last year. Use them well! Fred and George

Harry grinned broadly when he read this, sifting through the bag to see what they'd sent him. He noticed a postscript at the bottom, and continued reading; his grin turning into a scowl as he read on.

p.s. We've now taken to checking people's left arm before letting them buy from our new line, we won't sell anything to anyone we don't trust either. We're so sorry that we sold the powder to that git Malfoy. It won't happen again.

'Well, at least we won't be attacked again by people using Fred and George's stuff.' He thought sullenly.

Pushing the twins' package aside, he saw an envelope with the seal of Gringotts on it. Intrigued, he picked it up, and opened it. Inside, was a letter, written by Ragnog, asking Harry to come and meet him to receive the keys to the Potter vaults, and the – 'Hold on, did that say the Potter vaults? I have family vaults, and more than one by the sound of it. How come I never heard of these before?' He read on – keys to his parents' vault. His head reeling, Harry leaned back on the sofa.

At that moment, there was a quiet knock on the door. He got up unsteadily, and walked over to the door, opening it to see a sombre-looking Hermione.

'Hermione, you won't believe this! I just got a letter from Gringotts asking me to go visit them. Apparently, they have keys to give to me, keys to the Potter vaults and my parents' vault, can you believe this? The Potter vaults, I can't begin to imagine what could be in there, I mean there could be -' His ramblings ended as he finally noticed her sombre face. 'Hermione, what is it?' he asked, looking concerned, 'Was there an attack?' She nodded, and hesitantly, she asked;

'Harry, you get the Prophet right? Haven't you read it yet?'

'No, I've been a bit busy opening letters and presents. Why, what happened?' Fear started to creep into his mind, and the worst possible scenarios played themselves before his eyes. The Weasleys dead, Remus, Tonks, Moody, Ginny …

'Oh my God,' he thought, 'if he's harmed Ginny, I swear I'll kill him with my bare hands.'

'Harry, Voldemort attacked your aunt and uncle. He murdered the Dursleys.'

Harry swayed at Hermione's words. He thought they'd be safe if he left, their house wouldn't be the target anymore. 'Dear God, what have I done?'

True, he hated the Dursleys, but he never wished their deaths. He'd seen far too much of it to wish it on anyone.

'What happened?' was all he could say.

'Well, the Prophet said that the Minister sent an Auror there for your protection the moment they found out where you lived. You know, Dumbledore's secrecy wards fell as soon as you turned 17; well, it looks like Voldemort found out at the same time, because he showed up in Privet Drive around midnight. He murdered the Auror stationed there and; oh Harry, he tortured all of them; even Dudley, and then left them to die. Harry I'm so sorry.'

Harry swayed on the spot, and was about to collapse when Hermione caught him, and dragged him to the sofa. 'Well, the situation hasn't improved much since last night; at least he's conscious though.' She thought. She got him a glass of water from the kitchen, and watched him for a bit; she could almost read his thoughts. 'He's blaming himself again. Oh dear; I'll have to break him out of it before he's too far gone.'

'Harry, listen, it's not your fault that they died. I know you never wanted them dead, and you would have fought for their lives if you'd been there; but if we hadn't left when we did, we would almost certainly be dead too. The Prophet said the Auror and Voldemort arrived just after midnight. We left just after midnight. That means that we couldn't have been more that a few seconds ahead of them.

Harry, there is nothing that you could have done to save them. Voldemort himself set out to kill you last night; do you honestly think you could have beaten him? The Dursleys were going to die last night whether you were there on not, but if you were there, who would have defeated Voldemort? You know that he can't be killed yet, he still has four Horcruxes that you need to destroy – well three if you count the locket, but we can't be sure that it's been destroyed yet.' Harry had curled up into a ball on the sofa, tears coursing down his face, 'Harry listen to me, please,' Hermione pleaded, 'don't do this to yourself. I know it hurts, but you can't let it govern you.'

Seeing that her words weren't having an effect on him, Hermione leaned forward and hugged him, crooning.

'Shh, everything will be alright now. Cry your heart out, come on now.' It tore at her heart to see him like this, he'd had known only suffering his whole life. Sobbing into his shoulder, he cried out,

'Why? Why me? Why does it always have to happen to me? Why does some stupid prophecy have to govern my life? Why does everyone around me have to die? I'm a curse.' He tried to push Hermione away, 'Get away from me; I don't want you to die too. Get away!' He cried out. Hermione held on tighter and kept crooning to him.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours, his eyes dried up; they had no more tears to shed, and Hermione released him.

'Have you had breakfast yet Harry?' He shook his head, 'Right, in that case, I'll make you a small one, and later you can take me out to get lunch, seeing you seem to have so much money now.' she tried to lighten the mood, but Harry didn't pick up the cue. 'Does that sound alright Harry?' Harry nodded, not really listening to her.

Hermione went to the kitchen, found some bread and jam in the cupboard, and made him some jam sandwiches. 'We'll have to go buy some food, that landlady hardly left him anything' and returned to the lounge. She found Harry sifting through the remaining letters and packages absentmindedly, not really focussing on the contents.

She noticed a large parcel with the letters WWW emblazoned on it ('That must be from the twins'), a Wizard's Chess Set ('Clearly from Ron'), what appeared to be a Foe-Glass ('Obviously from Moody'), some photos ('I wonder who sent them'), the usual Weasley jumper and cakes from Molly, a nice looking bottle of aftershave ('That's probably Ginny's present'), and a pair of knobbly, odd socks that were probably from Dobby.

Hermione approached Harry warily, as he started pulling the wrapping off one of the last packages with evident vigour. Inside was a book on Defensive Spells; the letter next to it was signed by Lupin.

Pulling him away from the presents, she forced him to eat the sandwiches. When he had finished, she took the empty plate to the kitchen, cleaned it using her wand, and returned to Harry. He was ripping open the last present, another book; this one from Tonks, titled Wandless Magic for Beginners. The note read:

Wotcher Harry, Happy Birthday. I hope you enjoy turning 17; it should be a special day for everyone. Anyway, I hope you find the book useful; especially after you're rather eventful start to school last year. Try it out a bit before school; it could be fun to surprise your friends with your newly acquired skills! Enjoy, Tonks

'Wow,' thought Hermione and Harry simultaneously, 'this could prove to be very useful!' Their grins betrayed their thoughts, and they fell about laughing for a few minutes.

After they'd finally managed to control themselves, Hermione asked Harry if he'd like to go out shopping for food and clothes, as both his cupboard and wardrobe were empty. He agreed, but insisted on sending a note to Ron with Hedwig first, saying that he was ok, and would come and visit as soon as he had a few things sorted out. Sending Hedwig off, they walked out of the block of flats, Hermione guiding Harry towards the nearest grocery shop.