Knowing that he only had one more month of freedom left, he made sure to make the most of it. This was the summer that he would never forget, the summer he didn't want to end. He would stay gone for days at a time, usually at Andy's. Even the days when most of his friends were working he could usually find something to do. The first time he had returned to Privet Drive after having been gone for three days straight, he had expected a beating with his uncle, but alternatively, absolutely nothing had happened. His uncle had been working later and for longer periods for months now, always the first one out of the house in the morning and the last to arrive at night; He probably hadn't even noticed his absence at all. He suspected that his aunt rather liked him being away from the house so frequently, as she could basically pretend that he didn't exist that way.

During the increasingly rare times he did spend at the house, he would occasionally have civil conversations with Dudley as they had come to a sort of truce a couple weeks ago. It was mid-afternoon, and he was just hanging around for a few hours waiting on Faith to pick him up so they could go to the cinema. He'd concealed himself behind the shed for a few minutes to try to get a smoke session in before he went. Halfway through, Dudley rounded the corner before he had time to conceal what he was doing. He'd kept his hand curled around his wand, ready to threaten him should he need to, but he already suspected that his cousin smoked anyway. Nobody went to their friends house for tea five times a week at age sixteen. This accidental encounter had somehow broken the ice barrier between them and while he wouldn't consider Dudley to be his best mate, he really wasn't that bad. The one thing that was never discussed was the magical world or what went on inside of the home, so he couldn't help but be surprised one day when Dudley asked him why he was still here.

It was late in the day, and the two of them were sitting in the garden. Dudley was leafing through a magazine with swimsuit models on the cover and Harry was playing with a portable computer that Chad had allowed him to borrow.

"What do you mean?" He looked up, surprised.

His cousin kept his eyes on his magazine "Well, those freak-I mean the magical people have usually been around to get you by now, haven't they?" He asked, looking uncomfortable.

Harry raised an eyebrow at his cousin's question. He'd caught onto the fact that Dudley had almost called them freaks, but he had also noticed that he had stopped himself from doing so. That was a strange improvement. "I told them I wanted to stay here." He shrugged

Aunt Petunia came out of the sliding door just then, eying them suspiciously, but not saying a word as she walked around to put food out for the stray cats in the neighborhood. She'd caught them socializing together several times in the past weeks, but had never issued a word on the subject. He supposed she didn't quite know what to make of it.

"Why the hell would you want to do that?" Dudley said as soon as she was gone, giving him a look like he had gone mad. "I mean, I know you're always gone with those people who drive the red car, but why would you want to stay here?" He asked, gesturing around to their surroundings "I'd want to leave and never come back if I were you. I'm not blind, you know. I don't know how you've put up with it for this long, but I know that I couldn't do it. Besides, you're really not that bad, you know?"

It was in that moment that Harry realized that there was possibly still hope left for his cousin after all. Maybe by some chance he wasn't going to turn out like the bigots whom had raised him. He didn't really know what to say after that, so he just nodded his head up in down. Dudley returned to his magazine and he found himself getting lost in his own thoughts.

Harry had only received one letter since extending his stay at Privet Drive. It was from Ron, and it hadn't been a very nice letter. His friend had proclaimed that there was no way in hell he was actually voluntarily staying in that place, not to pull the whole 'focusing on my studies' bullshit, and had even accused him of having met a girl. He hadn't written back. Harry had already figured it out for himself that everybody was angry with him over his decision to stay, but he didn't really care. He wasn't living for other people and he wasn't about to start now.

Still, the month seemed to fly right on by. Before he knew it, it was the thirtieth of July, the day before his sixteenth birthday. He was preparing to leave in two days and therefore had just finished packing up the belongings he was to take with him, aside from a small backpack that he was about to take with him to Andy's. They were supposed to be partying at the house tonight and then going out for one last shabang on his actual birthday night. While he was reluctant to leave his friends, he was rather excited to see Sirius whom had written him last week to let him know that he was anticipating his stay and had a surprise for him upon arrival.

Before he headed out for the night, he walked about the house in search of his aunt, finally locating her in the kitchen. "Uh, just to let you know somebody is coming to pick me up in two days. I'll be staying with my godfather until I go back to school."

She didn't acknowledge him for a long moment as she stirred a pot of chili on the stove. He turned to go, but stopped again at the sound of her voice "This-this godfather of yours. Where does he live?"

"London."

"Right," She said "And he has...a house there?"

"Yes."

"And this house...this house is safe?"

"Why do you care? You hate me anyway, so really, it shouldn't matter if I'm safe or not."

Before he had any time to react, he found himself pinned up against the counter "Is that what you think?" She hissed. "That's why I took you in, gave you clothes to wear, and fed you? That's why I tried to keep you away from that nonsense for ten years? So you didn't end up like your parents? So you didn't end up like Lily?" Harry realized that this was the first time he had heard her speak of her sister by her given name. "I know that he's back. I know what he's capable of. Believe whatever it is that you want to believe, but family is family, boy. Maybe one day you'll be fortunate enough to learn that." His aunt turned and stormed from the room without another word. Harry found himself rooted to the spot, hardly believing that his aunt's outburst had been real. He wondered how long she had been holding all of that in for. He usually called Andy to come pick him up, but he decided to walk as he tried to process what had just happened. She cared about him, but she had still allowed him to grow up in such a terrible environment. She had witnessed the abuse first hand, but had still done nothing to stop it and had even been a part of it sometimes. She cared about him, but instead of showing it like a normal person, she had instead made his life a living hell. It was the most twisted game in the book.

He wasn't in very much of a party mood when he arrived, and he was glad to see Andy sitting by himself on the couch when he walked in. "Hey," He said lamely, flopping down next to him.

"What's wrong?" His friend asked upon seeing the look on his face

"It's just been a bad day," He said "I'm really not looking forward to leaving."

Andy was the only one of his Muggle friends who knew of his true identity. One night when he was rolling hard, he'd found himself in an emotionally critical state and after having a long talk with his friend, he'd decided to tell him the truth. The boy hadn't believed him at first, ordering him to do magic right then and there. He'd explained how underage wizard's aren't allowed to do magic outside of school and how they were sworn to absolute secrecy. Andy had laughed at him, telling him that he knew he was completely bullshitting him. He'd only stopped laughing when Harry had pulled his invisibility cloak out and wrapped it around his body so only his head was visible. The two of them now shared an unspoken secret, and he felt like he could talk to him about anything.

"I don't want you to leave either, but I'm sure your friends and family there are ready to see you too."

"Yeah, you're probably right," Said Harry "It's just...I feel like this summer has been so surreal and I'm afraid that when I go back everything's going to be just the same as when I left, like it never even happened or something."

They ended up spending the next hour having one of their talks, and he was in a much better mood by the time the four of them started setting up. By setting up, that meant that they filled the bathtub up with ice and put their alcohol in it, plugged in a few speakers, and moved the furniture up against the walls. People starting arriving around eight o'clock and many of them brought birthday gifts. He received several items of clothing, a flask, Buddhist prayer beads, some body jewelry, a Bob Marley poster, and a glass bong. Faith, who was studying to become a photographer, gave him an album full of photos that had been taken over the summer and Chad ended up telling him to keep the computer. The only one left was Andy, who said he'd give him his presents later, in private.

It was half an hour until midnight, and the party was in full swing. He'd smoked countless blunts and had drank two cups of orange juice and vodka, so he was feeling pretty good as Megan, Hanna, and another girl that partied with them named Kassie all locked themselves in the bathroom. Megan, who was the soberest of the three, volunteered herself to do it. She sterilized a needle with hand sanitizer and used permanent marker to mark a dot on the inside of his lip. "Okay, ready?" She asked. He nodded, closing his eyes and trying not to jump as she quickly shoved the needle through. The worst part was over and after that all she had to do was pull the needle out while sliding the hoop into place. After the ends were twisted on and the blood wiped from his face, he went to look in the mirror. His blurry reflection stared back at him and he leaned forward to get a good look at his lip.

Happy with his new piercing, he rejoined the party ten minutes to midnight. More people seemed to have shown up in the past fifteen minutes. Some he knew, others he didn't recognize. There had to be at least thirty people in the house by now. He ran into Matt on his way to show Andy what he'd just done. The drunk boy flung an arm around his shoulder "You know what, Harry?" He slurred "Your birthday's in ten minutes and I DON'T THINK YOU'RE NEARLY FUCKED UP ENOUGH!" He screamed this last part, causing a few people to cheer in response.

He grabbed somebody's drink out of their hand and tipped it back. Andy found him just then and he pointed to his lip in excitement. "Look! I finally did it!"

Before his friend had a chance to reply, people started counting down. "10, 9," He realized that they were counting down to his birthday. "8, 7, 6," Somebody shoved a chair in front of him and he stood on it "5, 4, 3" a shot glass was shoved in his hand and a paper crown from a burger joint was placed on his head "2, 1, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HARRY!" People started blowing noisemakers and cheering in their drunkenness. He downed a shot, pumped his fist into the air, and was immediately handed two more. This was by far the craziest party that they had ever thrown and this would definitely go down as the best birthday celebration he could have ever asked for.

The place started to clear out around three in the morning, when only about a dozen of them were left. A couple people passed out, and Harry must have blacked out because the next thing he knew, it was daylight and he was laying on Andy's king size mattress in only his boxers.

He slowly raised his head, but quickly lowered it back down as the room began spinning. This was the worst hangover he'd had in a wile, and it was like every part of his body had suffered the night before. His legs ached from dehydration, his newly pierced lip throbbed with what was probably the start of an infection, and he felt like he was going to throw up at any given moment. He picked up a pair of black and silver drawstring shorts that belonged to god knows who off of the floor and padded down the hallway. People were passed out everywhere and it took him forever to wave through the sea of people. He finally made it through to the kitchen and filled a glass with tap water, draining it in one gulp and refilling it.

"Nice to see that you've finally decided to join the living."

Harry jumped about a foot in the air, wheeling around in an instant. None other than Severus Snape was standing in the doorway. Thinking that he was possibly seeing things, he shut his eyes and reopened them. He was still there.

"What the hell-how? What are you doing here?" He demanded

Snape smirked at him, perhaps amused to find him so dumbstruck "I was instructed to collect you from your residence once day in advance. Your dog father wished to see you on your birthday. Your cousin kindly gave me directions to this-" He paused here, looking around "Wonderful place." He finished with a sneer.

Harry glared up at the evil git who called himself a professor. "I have plans tonight." He said

"Tell it to somebody who cares, Potter. My task is to safely deliver you to headquarters. I suggest you get dressed and collect your things."

He purposely took his time getting ready, showering before dressing himself in his Docs, black jeans, and a denim jacket with a simple t-shirt underneath it. By the time he finally padded back out into the kitchen, Snape was sitting at the table with his arms crossed over his chest, looking extremely irritated.

"Are you finally ready or were you waiting on Christmas?"

He ignored him as he took in one last look of his surroundings. He knew it wasn't goodbye forever, but it still hurt. Snape shrunk his bags and put them in his pocket, letting him know that he'd already sent his belongings from Privet Drive to Grimmauld Place by floo. Harry followed him out of the kitchen soundlessly. They were just down the first half of the driveway when the front door swung open and Andy ran out, shirtless and breathless.

Harry backtracked his way over to the boy. He hadn't woken him up to tell him that he was leaving, instead leaving a note on the boy's bedside table. He held the note up in his left hand now. "I thought you weren't supposed to be leaving until tomorrow?"

"I wasn't, but my godfather wants to see me today. This will be the first birthday of mine that him and I have been able to spend together and he would be really upset if I refused to come now. I'm sorry." He apologized "I wish I didn't have to leave."

Andy pulled him into a hug then and he found himself swallowing hard. "I promise I'll come visit as soon as I can," He said "I've had the best time of my life with you guys this summer and it sucks that it has to end."

They lingered for a few more moments until Snape coughed loudly in the background "I guess I'd better go." He said

"I'll video chat with you soon." Andy promised, giving him another quick hug

Snape grabbed his arm and they apparated. His feet had hardly touched the ground when his stomach began churning. He opened his eyes to find the two of them in a deserted alleyway. Harry turned his back to Snape and staggered forward a few paces. His stomach contents all came up at once and he spent the next five minutes doubled over, waiting for the sickness to pass.

He eventually felt well enough to move and he walked back over to Snape, daring him to say a word. A small vial was thrust in front of his face. He took it, staring at the dark green substance in suspicion. "Drink that, Potter. It'll help,"

"What is it?" He asked, still not drinking.

"Hangover potion. I suspect that you'll need it once we arrive."

They had began walking now, making their way through the semi crowded streets of London. He screwed the lid off of the top, swallowing the entire thing in one gulp. "What do you mean I'll need it once we arrive?" He asked

"You didn't hear this from me, but they have planned a surprise party of some sort upon your arrival."

When they entered the sitting room, Harry tried to put a surprised expression on his face as the lights flicked on and they all jumped out at him. He spent the next hour surrounded by people. Everybody had come to celebrate his birthday; all of the Weasley's, various members of The Order, and even McGonagall and Dumbledore. Everybody was dying to know how he was and how his summer had been. He didn't find himself talking much, mainly listening to others speak. Harry caught many people eying his new appearance, but nobody actually said anything aloud.

Sirius finally caught him just as Molly was calling everybody in for dinner, pulling him into a bone crushing hug which Harry had to pull away from when it became hard to breathe. "Sorry kid, I'm just happy to see ya." Sirius apologized

"I'm happy to see you too."

Harry noticed Sirius checking out his new piercing and Harry smiled back at him sheepishly, hoping that his godfather wouldn't choose now to turn into some strict parental figure.

"A lip ring, eh?"

And that was the end of it. Harry grinned at Sirius and the two of them began chatting away as their feet carried them into the kitchen. During dinner, he ended up sitting with Sirius to his right and Fred and Charlie across from him. He spotted Ron and Hermione at the opposite end of the table, engaged in conversation with Kingsley. Harry had briefly greeted the two of them when he'd arrived, but things had been a bit awkward after having barely spoken at all over the summer and they'd soon excused themselves, mysteriously disappearing until now.

"Don't worry about our dearest brother," Said Fred, glancing over in the direction that Harry was looking "He's obviously got his knickers in a twist over something or other. Come to think of it, he's a right git most of the time nowadays."

A short wile later, after Harry had opened his presents and they'd all had cake, people finally began leaving the party. He stood at the door, thanking everybody for coming. "Molly and I are going to stay at the house tonight, if that's alright with you." He overheard Mr. Weasley talking to Sirius "We'd like some alone time. It's hard to find it that often with seven children and all."

"I think I can handle the lot of them." Sirius reassured the pair of them while winking at Harry out of the corner of his eye

After the last of their guests had finally left, Sirius and Remus grabbed him from either side and said that they had something they wanted to show him. They climbed the stairs all the way to the third floor, where Sirius stopped at the very last door on the left, cupping his hands over Harry's eyes and telling Remus to get the door. When he was finally allowed to look, Harry spent the next few moments standing in silence.

A king sized canopy bed sat against the middle of the wall on the left side of the room. Curtains of gold and blue were drawn back and the bedspread was a deep blue satin with matching pillows. An oak mahogany wardrobe was pushed up against the other wall, with a matching writing desk next to it with new quills, parchment, and ink on top. He also had a bookshelf, two bean bag chairs, and two nightstands to match the rest of his furniture.

He grabbed both of the men and hugged them at the same time, at a loss for words. He didn't think anybody would ever do something this nice for him and it meant a lot to finally have a room that he could call his own.

"So you like it?" Remus asked

"I love it," Harry said "Thank you so much."

They left him alone after that. He decided to wait to unpack his things, wishing to rejoin the others downstairs. Before he went, he changed into a pair of white cargo shorts and a tank top, rolling a joint to smoke later on and slipping it in his pocket for safe keeping before thundering back down the stairs.

Nobody was in the sitting room when he looked, nor the library. He eventually made his way down to the kitchen to grab his presents, surprised to see both of the twins, plus Charlie and Mundungus all sitting together at the long picnic table, passing around a dark red bottle with strange symbols on it.

"Hey guys," He said, sitting down next to Charlie "What's that?" He asked, pointing at the bottle.

"Only the finest liquor from Romania." Charlie said, Harry gave him a look that said 'yeah right'

Charlie plucked the bottle from George's hands and slid it over to him. "Go on, try it." He sniffed it curiously before tipping his head back and taking a swig. It tasted like raspberries. "It's good, right?" He nodded, taking a few more gulps before passing it back over.

"So what are you guys doing down here?"

"Well, since Mum and Dad are gone for the night we thought we'd throw a little celebration of our own." Fred said

We're just waiting on Bill and Tonks to get back from the liquor store." Charlie added

Harry nodded, wondering if he was going to be allowed to partake in their little event. After all, it was his birthday.

"So now that it's just us, how about you tell us about what you were really doing all summer?" George said, looking at him in a knowing way

He held the room's attention for the next few minutes, telling them that he'd became friends with a group of Muggle's over the summer. They passed around Charlie's bottle for a half hour or so, all telling stories and growing gradually tipsy. Soon after, Remus and Sirius joined them. Harry felt uncomfortable drinking in front of the two of them, but nobody said anything. The awkwardness went away after Tonks, Bill,and one of their friends from the Ministry all showed up with a few cases of beer. After another hour, everybody was intoxicated and having a good time standing around talking to one another. The noise from downstairs eventually attracted Ron and Hermione's attention. Harry noticed them standing in the doorway, looking kind of startled and out of place. He felt bad for not going over to talk to them, but he was having a rather enjoyable time and didn't feel like having to answer any questions about his summer or talk about last year right now. This was his time to escape from all of that.

It wasn't until Mundungus passed out on the table, Bill and Tonks' weird friend mysteriously disappeared together, and everybody, save Ron and Hermione, had drunkenly attempted to sing along to the Weird Sisters and other popular songs on the radio that things began to quiet down. As the party began to disperse, Harry drunkenly climbed up the stairs, felt his way through the dark hallway, and finally made it out the front door. He had been craving a cigarette all night.

He'd barely taken two drags of his cigarette when a voice made him jump about a mile. "Potter, of course."

His drunkenness combined with the darkness outside had caused him to not even register the dark figure sitting two steps below him. "Why are you outside?"

"I think the better question is why are you outside? Shouldn't you be down in the basement obnoxiously singing along with the lot of them? I've only been kept up by the ruckus all night long."

"We're celebrating my birthday." Harry said, barely registering that he was slurring his words "But everybody went to bed. Now I'm up alone." He was drunk, and he was rambling. To Snape none the less. None of this really mattered to him at this point. All he knew was that they were the only two left awake and he was apparently in a talking mood. "And hey, don't judge our singing. I thought we all sounded good together. You should have joined us." He said all of these things very fast.

He didn't notice the way that Snape stared at him in bewilderment, probably unsure of what to say "I prefer not to spend my night in company of a bunch of clumsy, drunken, dunderheads."

Harry didn't find himself at all offended by the man's insults or attitude and continued on like normal "Tell me," He said, taking another sip from Charlie's bottle that he'd ended up giving to him "What do you do in your spare time? Since you don't like hanging out with us dunderheads."

"I don't know." Snape said shortly, a sign that he was beginning to grow irritated

"You don't know, or you just don't wanna tell me?" Said Harry

Snape glared at him, but Harry was too busy looking elsewhere to notice.

"Can I ask you something?"

"I suppose."

"I know I probably shouldn't be asking you about this but I know what you do when you're not here, what you're doing to help the Order and I just want- I need to know...do you know what happened to Dean?"

Snape didn't speak for a long moment, and didn't seem to want to look at him either. After what Harry felt like was an hour but was more like a minute, he cleared his throat "Such matters need not be discussed at the present time,"

"I need to know!" Harry said forcefully "If you know something, just go ahead and say it. I can take it. I'm not a child!"

Next thing he knew Snape had seized his arm "Come on, Potter. You're drunk and need to go to bed."

Harry mouthed the entire way to his room, wanting answers, wanting to know what had happened to his friend. Snape refused to say another word, and the next thing he knew, he was laying in bed, falling into a deep sleep, finally dead to the world. For a few hours, at least.