Chapter Fifteen: Home Truths

Harry Potter's summer had been going badly. First of all, he was bored, second, he still had summer assignments to complete but without someone to translate the babble into English, he was stuck. He had been back in Privet Drive for a few weeks, and was disappointed in the quality of the letters he had been receiving. When he had asked when he was going to be getting out of Privet Drive, he had been given a somewhat vague answer. He received letters from Ginny and Neville as they were now his two closest friends, of course, with Ron and Hermione no longer his friends he wondered who on earth was going to translate the waffle that was his summer assignments and he supposed the work for his classes this year. One of the letters from Ginny had informed him of Ron's running away from home, though Ginny had not really explained the fact that Ron hated their Auntie Muriel so much that he'd rather live rough. Harry guessed that Ron had gone to Hermione's house, wherever that might be. It was in that moment that Harry suddenly realised that he knew almost nothing about the bushy haired girl who had been his friend for four years until recently, all he knew was that her parents were dentists.

Harry's inner musings were cut off by Vernon calling him.

Harry moved downstairs to find out what he had done this time.

'You bellowed?' said Harry.

'I've been thinking, and I've decided that you need to pull your weight around here so you're going to be doing odd jobs around the neighbourhood, but don't think for one minute you'll be getting any money, you cost us too much to keep already –'

'No, I don't think so,' said Harry, cutting off Vernon.

'What did you say?' said Vernon, loudly.

'You heard me, and I suggest that you keep your voice down, the window is open and you wouldn't want the neighbours to hear,' said Harry.

'Now, you listen hear, boy –'

'No, you listen, I'm not doing anything you tell me to do, do you know why, I'll tell you why. For as long as I've lived here I've been keeping you alive, safe from Dark Wizards who would want to find me and hurt me as well as you, and how do you thank me? By stuffing me in the cupboard under the stairs, treating me like a slave, and giving me a bad reputation around the neighbourhood, well no more! If anyone in this house needs to pull their weight around here, it's your fat, lazy, moron you call a son, as he is the one eating you out of house and home!' said Harry.

'OI!' said Dudley.

'Well, you are fat and lazy, aren't you?' said Harry, 'What about your schoolwork? You do realise that next year you'll be taking some very important exams, don't you? Exams that you won't be able to bully a smart kid to take for you, like you would for homework, you'll have to study all by yourself, and you'll have to do your own coursework and homework and then, take your own exams. You'll have to do it all by yourself, do you not know this, or are you expecting to live off of mummy and daddy forever?'

Dudley merely shrugged.

'So you've given no thought as to what you want to do for a job or career, to be able to make a home for yourself?' asked Harry.

Dudley shrugged again.

Harry laughed and said, 'All your crap about being better than "my lot" and yet you're just like the snooty purebloods who think much the same way as you do!'

'What about girls?' Harry went on, 'Do you think about girls at all? Take a look at yourself, Dudley, do you think any girl who isn't blind or deaf could possibly find you attractive or interesting? You are fat and lazy and you aren't going to amount to anything if you don't get up off of your fat arse and sort out your fucking life!'

Harry then turned back to Vernon and Petunia and said, 'Of course it's not all Dudley's fault for the way he is, it's mostly yours, you pampered him and spoiled him, let him get away with bullying other kids at primary school and you've been turning a blind eye to the letters you've received about his behaviour from that snobby school you send him to, which I'm sure is not cheap meaning Dudley is wasting your money. Give him the jobs you were hoping to fob off on to me and maybe he'll lose some bloody weight and then tell him he needs to work harder at school or he's going to end up in the gutter or in prison, but hey, if you want him sponging off of you for the rest of your lives, then don't do anything, now, I am going back upstairs to my bedroom to make no noise and pretend that I don't exist.'

Harry then walked out of the living room, giving all three Dursleys plenty to think about, but then he came back in and said, 'Oh, by the way, the wizard who murdered my parents is back and all there is between him and the three of you is me, cheerio!'

'What?' shouted Vernon, 'that's not possible, that big bloke said he was gone!'

'Gone does not mean dead, does it? After all when Dudley is gone and away at school, you don't tell people he's dead, do you?' Harry replied.

'Are you sure?' asked Petunia, speaking for the first time in the conversation.

'Yes, I saw the bastard come back, but don't expect any extra protection from the Ministry of Magic, because they aren't doing anything to warn people or prepare for the inevitable war as they don't want to believe me, so you need to be on the alert, however, while I am here, you are safe from Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters, because of some powerful wards that are recharging due to my presence and will continue to work after I leave for the summer, whenever that might be, and when I go back to school.'

'We'll be safe?' asked Dudley.

'According to one of my father's best friends who got it from Dumbledore, yes,' said Harry.

Then, without another word, Harry left the room and went back upstairs to continue with his brooding and to wait to hear from someone on when he would be leaving, he just hoped it would be before his birthday.