Disclaimer: I don't own the characters of Harry Potter and Company.
Author's Note: This is the Final Draft and the First chapter of my story Silver Viper.
Fixed Formatting.
Harry had been back at the Dursley's two weeks after his third year at Hogwart's. His chores for the day including weeding the flower beds in the garden, dusting the lounge and entrance way, vacuuming the carpets and doing the laundry. As it had looked like it was going to rain he had decided that he had better do the garden first. As he was cleaning the debris from around the petunias his Aunt kept planted by the back door he felt a quick flash of pain. He drew his hand out and noticed two pinpricks on the back of his left hand. Using the trowel he brushed out all the debris from under the flowers. Nothing he could see that would have caused the injury. Since the two small wounds had already stopped bleeding he went back to his chore. By the time the rain had started he was inside doing the dusting with the first load of laundry in the washer. Once finished he managed to sneak one of his school books into his room. He spent the afternoon studying the last few chapters of his charms book. It was interesting because it covered the beginnings of permanently enchanting an object. That would be useful. Before the Dursley's arrived home he had his book back in his trunk in the cupboard under the stairs.
"What happened to your hand?" demanded his Aunt Petunia when she began to start dinner.
Harry looked at it and noticed it was puffy and red. "Scratched it on something. It doesn't hurt or anything. If it's still red by morning I'll owl Mrs. Weasley for a potion to take." Harry shrugged.
His Aunt let him go after he washed the dishes. When he went upstairs Hedwig was awake. So he cleaned out her cage while she perched on the back of his chair. It still wasn't dark enough for her to be let out. When it was he sent her out with a letter for Hermione. It contained a few questions about enchanting objects that he had added as a post script.
Around midnight a barn owl delivered a letter from Gringotts. He opened it and found out it was his monthly statement. He had been getting one every month since last summer. He had gone to the bank and asked how much money he actually had last summer. How much his school fees where, etc. He had been rather surprised that Hogwart's was supported by a special tax every one paid. So no one had to pay school fees. The only things that he had to buy was his uniforms and school supplies. The cost of which was less than the interest he was earning on the gold in his vault In the morning Hedwig was back with a letter for Harry. Hermione had suggested several books for him to read. His hand wasn't swollen any more. So he went downstairs to start breakfast. The week was much like his last two. A couple days before his birthday Mr Weasley came to pick him. Upon arrival he was whisked inside the Burrow by Mrs. Weasley and fed breakfast again. Then sent out with Ron to degnome the garden. Hermione joined them after lunch arriving by Floo from the Leaky Cauldron as that was the easiest way for her to get there.
Several days later Harry felt a burning in his left hand it lasted only a few minutes and he thought nothing of it. A couple of days after that Bill and Charley Weasley came home to attend the Quidditch World Cup. Their father had managed to score enough tickets for every one to attend. With well over 100,000 people expected to attend the Ministry had arranged for port keys to get every one to the site. Including reserving a muggle camp ground the price of which was included in the tickets. When they arrived they where directed to a campsite about two miles from the Pitch. Mr. Weasley produced what looked like two muggle pup tents. Once put up they being wizarding tents could house all of them.
They rose at dawn to get to their seats which where half way up the stands. It was a relatively short game for a professional match only lasting 2 hours before the Snitch was caught. When they returned to their campsite a ministry official from the Department of Transportation was waiting. He handed Mr. Weasley a slip of parchment then left.
"We catch our port key home in two hours so break camp." He told them. Camp was broken quickly and they all trooped to their port key point. The same bicycle tire that brought them here was used to take them back.
"I wish we could have stayed for the party." Ron commented once home.
"Those that lived closest to the pitch needed to go home to reduce the chance of muggles finding out." Mr. Weasley reminded Ron.
"I know." Ron sighed.
Molly supplied them with a late lunch then an even better dinner. When morning came the death eater attack was front page news. Harry was just glad he hadn't been there. Later the same day his hand burned this time going up to just above his wrist. As before it lasted only a few minutes before stopping.
When they went shopping for their school supplies a silver robe at Madam Malkin's caught his eye. When he touched it was the softest thing he had ever felt. "That's a woman's robe." Madam Malkin told him.
"Do you have anything in the same material for a man?" Harry asked.
"I'd have to make it up." She said.
"How much?" Harry asked.
"50 galleons." She replied. "It will take me two weeks to make up. Nor can the usual growth charms be added to it."
"What is the material?" Harry asked.
"Floss sheep wool." Harry fingered the material one more time then turned away. Way to expensive for every day robes. Turning he saw a patch worked robe worked in blue and green triangles. That one was meant to be worn over muggle clothing and was open in the front. This one he purchased as it was only 12 sickles. He bought a couple other robes for casual wear as well these are the type one can wear over muggle clothing. This year his Aunt had taken him to Tesco's to buy some cheap clothing so he had something to wear that actually fit.
Then it's off to Flourish & Blotts for their text books. They had a new potions book for this year. Every one had to get one this year. As Harry scanned a couple random pages he saw that it was a better organized version of the old text with the recipe section in a second volume. That was something useful. The standard book of spells 4 was the slim volume he had come to expect. Flitwick would require them to read other books as they researched spells. The text book for the Magical theory class was not as thick as the one last year. Care of Magical Creatures had the same text book as last year. History of magic no new book. Astronomy required up dated charts.
A stop at the apothecary got them the prepackaged potion ingredients for the year. That was the last stop and for Hermione and Harry the Bronze knives they needed. Then it's back to the Burrow for a good lunch and the rest of the summer free. During the time spent with the Weasley's Harry had two more episodes with the pain inching up to his elbow.