And I present you the chapter 2! Enjoy, and be cool X)
Disclaimer: See first chapter.
For Harry the fifteen minutes felt both like an instant and an eternity, too long and too short at the same time. Amidst the chirping birds and sunlight it was all too easy to forget reality, but when it shattered with a screech of tiles and bangs of car doors, Harry half-wished that his peaceful stupor was not so easily broken. ,, Where are you, boy?" Harry could feel blood pulsing in his ears and the nostalgic resignation was once again creeping up his windpipe. He shuddered. It was no use trying to hide or run, it never helped anyway. His punishment always awaited him whenever he crawled out so he stopped trying ages ago, his last attempt being when he was nine years old after he had accidentally apparated on top of the school roof.
He had been silent the whole car ride, like the Dursleys, tough he knew it was only because they were too furious to speak. They were going to kill him, beat him until he fell asleep and then he will not eat for weeks, locked in his cramped cupboard like every time he did anything freakish. Harry didn't want that, it had happened only a few times before and he dreaded it, dreaded the blood smelling darkness and fuzzy thoughts after every session. So Harry naturally tried to hide, even before the car completely stopped Harry was out of the door and across the front lawn pointing it towards the bushes in the back of the garden. He ignored his uncle's bellows to get back and instead took refuge in the biggest and bushiest of the bushes hoping that Vernon will not find him for a long time. It took three hours and twenty-two minutes to find Harry, and in that time Vernon only got more enraged, if that was possible. If Harry's punishment was not going to be horrible before, it was certainly going to be brutal now. Harry couldn't speak for three weeks until his jaw healed and every chew and swallow of the little food and water he did get was an exercise in pain, not to mention the weeks he spend alone in the dark cupboard. It was the second time Harry thought about ending his life himself, it would have been easy to just let his injuries bleed dry and sleep, but he persevered. It was also the first and the last time he tried to hide from the beatings.
Harry remembered this as if it had happened just a few days ago, like many bad memories do. There was a clatter as the garden doors opened, and Harry didn't even flinch, he just sat there and watched the dripping green paint. I guess this is it, no stalling, time to face the judgment as if he didn't know the verdict already Guilty!The punishment Pain and darkness plus the bonus of starvation! It was somewhat amusing, the whole gallows humor, but at least Harry found some humor in this wretched, warped, deranged house. He might have gone mad already without that.
,, There you are, you lazy waste of space!" Harry couldn't miss the badly hidden glee in his uncle's voice. He ignored the indignant tears of fear and injustice that prickled his eyes, He knew! He knew that I won't be able to complete it however hard I tried! And he still assigned it! It was almost disturbing how much disgust welled in Harry's gut, but he didn't move an inch not even when he heard Vernon approach him, tough the bitten back cream couldn't be helped when Vernon kicked him. Right in his broken ribs ,, I told you to do all your chores today, did I not? So why didn't you mow the lawn? Clean the kitchen? Huh? Worthless! " the fat man was openly grinning now, the disgusting monster. Harry wanted to scream at the man that he had no chance of completing them, even if that only made it worse but in the end he was too tired for screaming, he just wanted to sleep. Everything was so fuzzy. So he rather opted for just lying there when Vernon bend down, grabbed his arm and started to literally drag Harry back to the house,, Thought so, you know you deserve this, you little freak!". He was still grinning as he hauled Harry up the stairs into his room. Harry didn't even try to resist, just tried to stumble along, the molasses his brain was swimming in were too thick to do much else.
Oh, we are here was the last thought he had time for before he was thrown into the room with the doors snapping shut. He managed to catch himself on the dingy chair and didn't get the chance to straighten himself before a meaty fist connected with his left cheek snapping his head painfully around. Soon another one landed on his right and then again left leaving his ears ringing and his vision double even if his glasses weren't thrown off long ago. His ribs were shrieking in protest. At least he managed to stay on his feet. It helped to focus on something beside the pain and he focused on staying on his feet and refuse to fall short of being tackled or falling unconscious. A feat he will probably accomplish sooner rather than later today, unfortunately his uncle had no qualms about beating an unconscious person. Another punch went to his abdomen and then a well, or badly aimed blow to the twice broken sixth rib made Harry's eyes roll up in his skull and his body to crumble like a house of cards. He hoped that Vernon will get quickly bored of his unresponsive body.
….
His unresponsive body took another twenty minutes of punches and kicks, but Harry managed to stay in his unaware state well into the middle of the night not having been forcibly woken to make dinner since he cooked some in advance. The punishment for not making dinner would have been much worse that not mowing the lawn, he had to get his priorities straight. Harry woke up on the floor aching and stiff with a mouth full of dried blood, for a few seconds contemplating crawling into his bed, no matter how uncomfortable, it was still better than the floor. After ten minutes of staring at the ceiling he started to roll around, carefully not putting weight on his more broken left side he braced himself on the seat of his chair and slowly, haltingly started to lift off the ground. When he got level with the desk he noticed something that was not there before, an envelope.
Sirius. His heart jumped with futile hope like every time he got a new letter, hoping against hope that his godfather was finally coming for him. It probably won't be about that, Sirius is a fugitive he probably doesn't have any means of reaching and hiding me. Better not to count on that. Harry finally dragged himself into the chair, shifting a little to alleviate the pressure on his right hip which landed weirdly on the seat. He flipped the light switch on his table lamp, knowing that it was too early for the Dursleys to even stir yet. Even though his vision was a little fuzzy around the edges and he felt like hell, Harry wanted to read his letter in peace, which on Privet Drive meant whenever the Dursleys were absent either in consciousness or body. He was happy enough that he even received the envelope, before Vernon often simply took them and burnt them but after Petunia pointed out that people might start to suspect something after the repetitive I'm fine, everything is good, answers without context, he stopped doing that but Harry cherished every letter he got.
He traced the familiar Padfoot scrawl on the back For Prongslet from Snuffles the codenames were nice, a shared secret, a little warm bond between the man he barely knew yet already loved more than any other adult, maybe because he never treated him like the child he never was. He knew real pain before he could talk and see winged dragon horses since he could remember. Thestrals. Harry supposed he could legally notice them now, after Cedric…. No! He won't think about him! Not now, not with Sirius's letter open before him. Speaking of which he painstakingly peeled the blue wax seal and pulled the actual letter out. Harry started to read, imagining the words said in Sirius's voice. It warmed him.
Dear Harry,
I'm happy to hear that you're alright it has been a while since I last wrote but Molly won't stop bugging us with cleaning the house there is hardly enough time to prank anyone! I'm hoping to manage to sic the twins at her, but no luck yet they're terrified of her! Not that I'm surprised but still! Moony would have my hide if I did it myself and trust me nothing is worth that kind of horror but oh the temptation! Maybe I'll do something small, charm her hair pink or maybe green, what do you say? Or maybe bleach blond that'll piss her off. I'll write you how it went, but enough about me how are you? Pranking your meatloaf of a cousin or the Whale-uncle? Yes, I had the twins tell me the story, shame on me. I know you wanted to tell me yourself but you'll tell me the really epic ones, capiche? Now I know you said not to worry about you, but since that is quite impossible, you know you can always owl me about your worries
Yeah right, Harry tough to himself like I let Sirius deal with my kind of crap, he has enough on his plate already.
tough you never do that, that's clear trait of Lilly in you! I'm not in the mood for nagging so let's just skip the part. Answering your earlier question sadly Dumbly is still a stubborn old goat and has refused to let you leave yet and the others agree the prats. I would be there from the start of summer but lo and behold the princess protests and shall the prince disobey? No, he shall not :( So here I'm. I hear Molly terrorizing poor Moony downstairs so I'm dashing to his rescue. Hopefully he still has all his nails intact (yes that actually happened).
Snuffles
Harry just continues to stare dumbly at the ridiculous smiley face for quite some time, and then rereads the letter twice since there is always a risk of them getting shredded. His eyelids are heavier by the minute and he doesn't know if he can maintain the stiff posture for much longer. Rather than finding out he painfully relocates to the dingy bed and crawls under his blanket. He doesn't bother to strip his shirt, Harry too tired to even think much less undressing.
I hope tomorrow will be less eventful Harry thinks to himself he even manages a quiet mental snort Yeah right.
Indeed.
Here it is folks! Second chapter! Took me a while but I'm quite new to writing so sorry about that, need to get myself into the fray :) Love some feedback, bubs!