Chapter 2

As Harry stumbled into the kitchen, he heard a voice say, "We're here to see Harry Potter, sir!"

As he heard this voice, a grin came over his face. That voice! That was Hermione's voice! Straightening up, he saw a tall, gangly youth with fiery orange hair, a long nose, and freckles. Alongside him stood a pretty girl with bushy brown hair. As he came in, he saw wide smiles come on the faces of the two people. They were none other than Harry's two best friends, Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger.

"Harry!" squealed Hermione, running forward and giving him a big hug.

"Let him breathe, Hermione," said Ron, walking forward, grinning. Harry grinned back, untangling himself from the mass of bushy hair.

"What are you both doing here?" he asked, straightening his glasses back on his face.

Their visit was certainly unplanned, and he was pleasantly surprised to see them here. Looking around the kitchen, he saw his aunt and Dudley standing behind Uncle Vernon, who looked as menacing as ever. His face had taken upon a more purplish hue, and Harry could see a vein pulsing in his forehead.

Meanwhile, his aunt looked the exact opposite. She was looking very scared and nervous, as if wondering what chaos would happen if the neighbors learned about this. Typical of Aunt Petunia, Harry thought. She was such a social person, always caring more about what others thought, than what the family thought. Well, let them think whatever they want. After all, this was his last visit to this house. After this, he would be free to go wherever he wanted, to do whatever he wished.

Suddenly his eyes came to rest upon Dudley, his cousin. He was staring at the wand that Ron held in his right arm, afraid that if he looked away even for a second, he might discover that he had suddenly grown an extra arm or something. True, he was right to be afraid; if a person wasn't alert, then he was more vulnerable to an attack. Harry had seen that with his own eyes, had seen what the consequences could be, and was now not willing to make that mistake anymore.

With an effort, he wrenched himself away from his thoughts and heard Hermione say, "Well, to say the truth, we were scared for you, Harry. After what happened at Hogwarts, we thought that it would be best if we came by and just asked how you are…" she trailed off lamely.

Harry smiled at her, and then turned to Ron. "How did you come here? You can't have flown all the way till here, and there is no floo connection here either…and I can't see your parents anywhere. And just what happened here?" he gaped at the scene which he had missed entirely on entering the kitchen. The kitchen table was overturned, and the chairs were all fallen over. He turned to look back at his friends with a questioning gaze.

"Ah, that. Well, that is partly my mistake, sorry. I got a little too excited at actually being inside a Muggle's house for the first time, and um…in my excitement I guess I got a little carried away." Ron smiled sheepishly, waving a hand towards the mess.

Hermione snorted. "A little? It looks like a mini hurricane has just passed by."

In his surprise on seeing his friends, Harry had completely forgotten the Dursleys. But Uncle Vernon was determined not to remain ignored for long.

"You!" exclaimed Mr. Dursley, furious. A vein throbbed in his right temple. "You! How dare you call these…these creatures here? How dare you call someone like you here! I've had enough. I will not tolerate you in this house for any longer."

"I'm sorry, uncle, but I cannot leave this house for good until I turn seventeen, no matter how much I want to." Harry said, quietly. Ron and Hermione stood by him supportively.

"Oh ho! And what if I make you leave? You can't do magic, can you? Not unless you want to be expelled from that school of yours!"

"He may not be able to do magic, but we still can," retorted Ron.

"And besides, Hogwarts is now closed. And even if it weren't, I wouldn't go back anyway." It was true. He had made up his mind. He would continue Dumbledore's work, and look for the rest of Voldemort's horcruxes. There were still four horcruxes left… four pieces of Voldemort's soul he had to destroy before he could go after the last piece still in Voldemort's vile body. The locket, the cup, the snake, Something of Gryffindor's or Ravenclaw's…Instinctively, his hand closed around the fake horcrux that he still wore around his neck.

"And why is that?" His uncle's voice startled him out of his thoughts.

Harry gazed at his Uncle, wondering whether he should tell him about what was happening in the wizarding world or not. His friends looked at him, also waiting for his answer. Eventually he came to a decision.

"You really want to know?" he asked his uncle. "Fine then, I'll tell you. I'm sure you already know about Voldemort – he was the one who killed my parents, and also tried to kill me. But, as you can see, he failed."

"Stop blabbering, and get to the point!" his uncle interrupted impatiently.

Harry stopped and said coldly, "Do you want to hear what happened or not?"

He felt sure that his uncle was going to blow up again, but to his surprise, his aunt answered, "Yes, we do. Vernon, please, let the boy speak." Harry gazed in astonishment at Aunt Petunia. She had never stood up to his uncle like this before. Clearly his uncle was also not used to this, but thankfully he just nodded his head and stood back, looking at Harry with an expression that came close to a mixture of disgust and curiosity.

Harry paused a minute to glance at his friends, who smiled encouragingly at him in return, then continued, "As I was saying, Voldemort tried killing me sixteen years ago, but failed. Somehow, his curse rebounded and struck him back, leaving me with this scar and him without a body. Miraculously, he managed to stay alive all these years…trying in vain to get back to power. He was alive, but just barely. His followers had deserted him, except for a few who were put in Azkaban – the wizarding prison. That is why he tried to steal the Philosopher's Stone in my first year. That stone gives you the power of being immortal. But he failed. I'm not going to give you a whole account of his doings, but you need to know the fact that he was willing to do anything in order to become powerful again."

He paused again, trying to clear his head. After a while, he continued, "There was also this prophecy that was made, concerning Voldemort and me, back when he was still in power. And it was this prophecy that was his downfall."

He laughed mirthlessly. "Can you really change your destiny? Can you alter the workings of fate? What would I not give to turn back time, to change the past events." He fell silent once again, but this time it was an uncomfortable pause. Nobody knew what to say to him.

At length, Hermione tentatively spoke, "There are some things that are out of our hand, Harry. You may not be able to change the past, but the future lies in your hands."

Harry smiled at her, and said, "I know, Hermione. The whole world's future lies in my hands. That's a fact I don't think I can ignore, can I?" He sighed. "Life's like a game of chess. Once you've played your turn, you can't take it back. And then all you can do is sit back and wait for your opponent's move."

"That's where you're wrong, mate," Ron spoke up, "You don't have to just sit back and wait. You can try to figure out your opponent's move, and try to think of a way around it. Or you can start preparing yourself against it. Trust me, I should know. I am, after all, the chess champion." He joked.

Before Harry could say anything, his uncle interrupted, "But didn't you just say that this Voldy-what's-his-name guy disappeared? So then, what's the problem? Whom are you hiding from?"

Harry's eyes started blazing with a fire that wasn't there before. He stared at his uncle, who seemed to have realized that was a wrong thing to say.

"I am not 'hiding' from anyone, if that's the way you put it. It is not by choice that I have to stay here. And I said that Voldemort disappeared, not died. Unfortunately, he has now returned to power." Harry spoke coldly, not taking his eyes off his uncle the whole time. "It is important that you know the reason why you had to put up with me all these years. My parents died trying to save me, however my mother needn't have died. She had a choice to live, and yet she chose death. In doing so, she gave me a special protection that Voldemort didn't know about. While I am still at a relative's place, I am protected from him. However, this protection will cease to exist the time I turn seventeen, which is, incidentally, tomorrow. That is the reason why I am still here. Other than this, I do not think you have any right to know more."

Harry turned back to his friends, who had different expressions on their faces.

Ron was gazing at him in a mixture of awe and fear, while Hermione was looking slightly annoyed at him for speaking to the Dursley's like that, not unmixed with surprise.

He supposed he was slightly surprised at himself, for he had never spoken so coldly with the Dursley's in his entire life so far. He knew that they didn't deserve to be spoken to like that, for however badly they had treated him; at least they hadn't thrown him out in the street to starve. But somewhere within him, he felt that they deserved this tone; the way with which they had treated him was not easy to forget, let alone forgive.

"Come on guys, let us go somewhere else to talk. I've had enough of this place for now." Without waiting for them to respond, he turned around and walked out the kitchen door, wanting to escape Uncle Vernon as quickly as he could, before he regained his wits and called Harry back for another conversation. However, his friends spared a second to talk to the still dumbfounded Dursleys.

"We know all about how you have treated him, and we are not asking you to beg for his forgiveness. However, all we ask is that you don't pressure him for something he doesn't want to do. You have no idea what he is going through at the moment; he has an enormous responsibility on his shoulders. The whole world's fate depends on him. The least you can do is leave him alone for this one day." After saying this, Hermione disappeared outside after Harry, leaving Ron alone in the house.

"I am not going to give you another speech, but yeah, I agree with what Hermione said. If you can't show Harry any kindness, at least don't make him more miserable." Ron also started for the door, but as he reached it, he turned back one more time, and said, "By the way, you have a nice house. Sorry for the mess I caused. I would have cleaned it up, but I have a feeling it would only freak out you guys more. It was a pleasure meeting you." He stepped outside, looking around for his two best friends. He found them walking down the road that leads to the park nearby, and hurried up to catch up.

He reached there just in time to hear some of their conversation. "But Harry, what are you going to do now? Where will you go?" Hermione was saying.

"I don't know, Hermione. I just don't know." Harry replied, sighing.

"Hey, why don't we just forget about that for a minute." Ron interrupted, giving Hermione a side-along glance, warning her to just drop the topic. "We've come to get you Harry. Mum will be waiting for us at the Burrow."

On seeing Harry's blank look, he added, "You haven't forgotten, have you? Bill and Fleur's wedding is coming up this week." Harry laughed.

Bill and Fleur's wedding…he had completely forgotten about that. Was he allowed to go, however? Dumbledore had asked him to stay at his aunt and uncle's place till he came of age, and that was what he had been doing for the past two weeks.

Reading Harry's mind, Ron said, "Don't worry mate, we've got it all worked out. Since you turn seventeen tomorrow, you shall come over to stay at the Burrow from tomorrow. But mum wanted to see you beforehand, just get an idea of what you'll be wearing and stuff like that."

"But if you ask me, I think she's only worried about you, Harry. Everyday she's been asking us whether we have any news from you or not," Hermione interrupted, giving Harry a glance from the corner of her eyes, "and everyday we tell her that you're fine. You are fine, aren't you?"

Harry inwardly smiled at Hermione's choice of words. He knew that she was dying to talk to him about what had happened, and what he was going to do now, but she was too afraid to ask him straight away. He decided to make it easier for her, since he knew that eventually they would have to have this conversation. Why not just get over with it?

"Yes, Hermione. I'm absolutely fine. I've been meaning to talk to you guys about some things. Let's go and find a nice spot to sit and talk in." He replied.