First I wanted to thank CA Crest for being my Beta, you are awesome! Also a thank you to everyone who reviewed or followed/favourited. Any thoughts, ideas or questions are welcome^-^ Happy reading people.
.:*:.
Harry woke to the screeching voice that belonged to his aunt, ordering him to "get up!", as she banged a fist hard against the door. That had been their morning routine since he turned six, and been given the chore of making breakfast every morning.
Groaning at the high pitched voice, Harry buried his head under the pillow. Pulling the duvet over himself, praying that just this once she would go away.
Of course Harry being Harry, had no such luck. "What was that?" came Petunia's screeching voice through the door.
Sighing in defeat Harry answered "Nothing aunt Petunia, I'll be right there." After a slight pause by the door, Harry lifted the pillow slightly away from his face, glancing towards the door as he listened to light footsteps of his aunt as she made her way back down the hallway.
Rubbing his palms into his eyes, Harry moved to sit up on the bed. He was incredibly tired, thoughts about what he had learned yesterday had kept him awake most of the night, tossing and turning. Sparing a quick glance at his watch revealed that he had less an hour until Vernon and Dudley would be up.
Swearing under his breath, Harry jumped out of bed, and quickly stumbled towards the pile of clothes he had left on the floor last night. If there was one thing that was sure to piss his uncle off, it was not having breakfast ready by the time he was up. He'd gone to school on an empty stomach often enough as a child to learn that lesson
5 minutes later, he was dressed and sprinting down the stairs as quietly as he could. Doing his best to make sure neither his uncle or cousin would wake early. Hoping that he had time cooking breakfast before they were up.
As Harry hurried into the kitchen, he saw Petunia sitting on her usual place sipping on a cup of tea. Petunia gave him that special look she usually reserved especially for him. Her mouth pinched tightly together, and a set of wrinkles became visible between her eyes as she looked at him.
Yeah this was not going to be a good day, Harry thought sullenly.
"Hurry up boy, we have a meeting at Dudders school at 1 o'clock and we can't be late." She snapped at him the minute he came through the door.
"Yes aunt Petunia." Harry answered meekly. Pulling out a carton of eggs, Harry began making breakfast.
For the first time since he had been given this particular chore, Harry was glad he had it. It gave him an excuse to not think about the letter, if only for a short time.
Just as he placed the last of the bacon down on the table, Vernon and Dudley came through the door and into the kitchen. Both waddled towards the table, with only a grunted "morning" of acknowledgment to Petunia. Harry they both ignored. Both sat down and immediately started to demolish everything Harry had spent the last 40 minutes preparing.
Tuning out Petunia, the best he could, as she began to recite the newest gossip to no one in particular, Harry tried to focus on his breakfast instead. Every time he tried to take a bite though, his throat closed up, and he had to fight just to be able to swallow a small bite. His stomach swished back and forth, making it almost impossible to eat anything without feeling sick. Knowing that this might be the only chance he would get to eat today, Harry forced himself to keep eating small bites.
"Remember Dudders, we have that meeting with the school in two hours." Petunia twittered as she nibbled on a dry piece of toast. The school nurse had called a couple of days into the summer holiday, asking for a meeting with Petunia and Vernon concerning Dudley. She had not wanted to say what the meeting was about, claiming she would prefer to talk in person.
"Boy" looking up from his plate when he heard his name- well not name, but it might as well be. Harry could hardly remember ever being called anything else by his uncle. "Here is the list of chores. "I expect them all to be finished by the time we get back home" Vernon grunted, handing him a piece of paper.
Barely managing to contain a groan at the list, Harry just nodded looking down at his plate again. Uncle Vernon wasn't finished with his instructions though. "We will be locking the door, so don't even think about sneaking back in and slacking off"
Harry's mood, which had not been good to start with plummet even further. It was nearly 21℃ already, and the temperature was sure to rise even further later in the day. This was going to be unbearable. Harry could feel his uncle's eyes zeroing in on him, just waiting for him to say anything in protest.
"No uncle Vernon." Harry answered, turning back to his breakfast. "Wouldn't want the next generation to turn into lazy slobs." Rolling his eyes, Harry give up on eating anything more for breakfast, and slipped away from the table. Not giving his uncle any chance to reply.
.:*:.
Sitting in the flower beds, pulling out weed, Harry's thoughts couldn't help but return to the letter he got last night. No matter how much he tried Harry couldn't get it out of his mind. Everything was so confusing.
It felt like his entire world had shifted beneath his feet. Ever since he joined the magical world, he had started to feel as he had a place he belonged. It was the word that his father had been born in, and his mother had joined when she was 11, like he himself had. Connecting with the magical world, had been in many ways like connecting with a small part of his parents. He might never have met them, but it had always been a great comfort to know that they had gone to the same school, walked the same halls.
Now all that was torn away from him. He had a fat-, no! Just no. Shutting down that particular train of thought before it even had time to take root Harry renewed his efforts of ridding the flowerbeds of weed with a vengeance.
He couldn't erase James Potter from his life like that. The man had loved him, Sirius had written. Heck the man had died to protect him. Harry could still remember the man's desperate attempt at keeping Voldemort away from himself as a baby and his mum. He couldn't just let some stranger take that place.
Harry was so focused on his task , that he didn't even hear the Dursleys before the car door opened and closed on quick succession. None of them had spared Harry a single look as they had walked passed him.
Staring after the car, just as it rounded the corner and out of sight. Harry couldn't help but feel a sense of longing. He couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to have someone that would care about what happened to him. To have his parents alive had been a childhood fantasy, he had spend many hours lock inside the cupboard daydreaming about them. (...),and now everything was just wrong.
No matter how much Harry tried to not let this news affect him, he couldn't help but be curious about birth father. birth father, not father.
Harry sat there on the lawn, wondering what he was going to do. Sirius might be wrong though, there were no guarantee that Mycroft Holmes would be a better option than where he was now. With the Dursleys he knew what he was going to get at least. Sure they were horrible people and they hated him, and god knows he had wished for a way to get away from them for years, but Mr. Holmes could still be much worse. Anyway after almost 13 years he was pretty much used to the way they behaved.
Sighing to himself, and rubbing his eyes tiredly. Maybe he should just forget about it, take the letter and hide it away under the loose floorboard under the bed. This Mycroft Holmes probably wouldn't even want to know he had a son. What would Harry even say to him? Provided of course that he could find an address or mobile number.
However, perhaps he could do a bit of research? It could hardly hurt. Sirius did write that Mycroft worked in the government. So there might be a mention of him somewhere on the internet, and even if he did find him, he had no obligation to ever contact him.
That... was actually not the worst idea he had ever had,and he had made plenty of bad once. He could find out about the man, without even having to meet him. The infernal curiosity, that made his stomach turn and made it impossible to truly focus on anything else, would go away, and everything could go back to normal. Harry sat up straight, his face scrunched up as he considered his options.
The only question was to find out how to go about it. The library was certainly a possibility, they had computers that were free to use for everyone. The problem would be to find time to go there. It would take almost 30 minutes to get there each way, and another hour researching. He would never find that much time to sneak away. Harry discarded that idea, almost as quickly as he had thought of it.
Harry could remember spending hours at the library when he was younger. Petunia had used to leave him there for hours at a time. Usually when she wanted some time alone to do errands or she just wanted him out of the way, so she and Dudley could go to a caféor something alone. Of course when she found out how much he enjoyed spending time there, reading and learning as much as he could, that immediately stopped. Instead she started sending him to Mrs. Figg.
Reading didn't hold the same fascination to Harry as did when he was younger. As a child he had hoped that the Dursleys might like him better if he could just show them that he could do well in school and be good, like Dudley was. At the very least he had hoped that they might start treating him better, if he could show them that he was not "stupid" and "useless" as they called him often.
Dudley had always gotten endless amount of praise whenever he did well in school. None of that happened of course. Dudley who hated it when Harry surpassed him in anything made sure to make it look like Harry was cheating. So whenever Harry got top marks Petunia and Vernon would yell at him, before sending him to the cupboard with no supper. In the end Harry had just stopped bothering doing his best in school, not like it had ever made a difference anyway. If anything, doing well in school often made things more difficult for Harry.
Back to the problem at hand though. If it was impossible to get to the library, then Dudley's computer might be a better option. Harry's body stiffened, his eyebrows furrowing as he contemplated that idea. It was closer for sure, less time he would have to sneak away, but also a much bigger risk of being caught. All he would have to do is find out Dudley's password, which could hardly be difficult.
Harry huffed a small laugh at the thought of Dudley actually managing to think of a difficult password. Much less actually managing to remember it over an extended period of time.
Glancing between the front door and down the road, were the Dursley's had disappeared, Harry contemplated his options. He was rarely ever left alone at the house, so the chances of breaking into Dudley's room any other time was slim. But if he did it now...
Looking back to the front door, Harry made one of those " spur of the moment decisions", that always got him in trouble. Dusting of his trousers, Harry quickly got up and made his way to the front door before he had time to change his mind.