CHAPTER ONE – SUMMER BREAK BEGINS WITH A SURPRISE VISITOR

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of this fan-fiction expect for the characters that I have created to fit the requirements of my story and even then I do not intend to use any of it for any financial or material profit.

The first thought that came to Harry's mind after he had settled down in the backseat of his uncle's car was relief; and the mere realization of the said emotion caused harry to shudder involuntarily. No, he was most certainly not relieved to be back in the presence of his last living relatives, namely the Dursleys. For since the time Harry could remember, the Dursleys had never made a secret of the fact that they hated his very existence in their otherwise normal lives. Though that hatred had somewhat been dampened since he got his acceptance letter from Hogwarts four years ago.

The change was largely due to the fear of the consequences they would be facing if Harry's friends and well wishers were to find out the usual way in which the Dursleys used to treat Harry. For Harry was no normal fourteen year old. He was a wizard who was home after completing his fourth year at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland. But that was not all, for he wasn't any ordinary wizard either. He was Harry Potter - 'The boy who lived'. A moniker which Harry hated almost as much as he hated his relatives, for it was the title which the people of Wizarding Britain had given him for surviving the attack by one of the most feared dark wizard of all time, Lord Voldemort.

It was on that fateful Halloween night of 1981 when Lord Voldemort had killed his parents and had then turned his wand on baby Harry, in order to do a clean job of finishing the entire family that things went pear shaped for Lord Voldemort. For a curse that was considered the most unforgivable of all curses known to wizard-kind and a curse for which there was no known shield except maybe physical barriers, had failed for the first time in the known history of all wizard kind. For the killing curse which was considered to be Lord Voldemort's signature curse, had failed to kill Harry and had somehow rebounded back on the Dark Lord, killing him and thus making baby Harry the first known survivor of the killing curse with nothing but a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead; a feat which till date has never happened again.

Though it was not that which caused harry relief, rather the fact that the Dark Lord who was said to have died that Halloween night, all those years ago was finally back from the dead. At least metaphorically, Harry mentally corrected himself, for he knew that there is no spell or potion or ritual which can bring back the dead, as Professor Dumbledore had told him back in his first year when he had discovered Harry sitting in front of the Mirror of Erised.

The relief though was more for the fact that for once they knew what they were facing thought Harry. Ever since his initiation or re-acquaintance back into the wizarding world, every school year at Hogwarts had somehow culminated into some event which led to an attempt to bring Lord Voldemort back into a human form. The Sorcerer's Stone in the first year, the Basilisk in the second year, the discovery and escape of Peter Pettigrew, a former friend of his parents who had turned traitor and had let to their death and lastly this past year with the whole Tri-wizard Tournament debacle which ended with death of a fellow champion Cedric Diggory and the resurrection of Lord Voldemort.

Harry's countenance immediately sobered up a little as he thought of Cedric and the way he died. No matter what anyone said and no matter how much he knew the realty, Harry somehow blamed himself for Cedric's death. It wasn't that he did not want to see the real picture, just that Cedric's death made all the terror and loss that much more real. Lord Voldemort had comeback and had already caused the death of a young man, who had a life full of promises ahead of him.

What made Harry angry the most was not that Voldemort was back, though that was certainly one of the more important components to his anger but rather the arrogance and absurdity with which the British Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge had refused to acknowledge the truth. The man had flat out refused to acknowledge anything Harry and Headmaster Dumbledore had tried to tell him regarding the return of Lord Voldemort and what was more, he in his ever present paranoia had destroyed the only available piece of evidence to confirm the facts of the entire incident by getting the fake Alastor 'Mad Eye' Moody aka Bartemius Crouch Junior kissed by the Dementors before he could be taken into custody and questioned by the Aurors.

So now Harry was to be stuck at Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey with his hated relatives, till the start of his next school term on the first of September, while Voldemort was out there getting back into the scheme of things. Although Harry knew that Professor Dumbledore would do his level best to make the Minister accept the reality of the situation; after all he was Albus Dumbledore who was not just the headmaster of Europe's premier Wizarding School but a man who had dueled and defeated the Dark Lord Gellert Grindelward at the height of his power. Add to that his position of Britain's Chief Warlock and the Supreme Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, the man could literally say anything he wanted and the public would be more than willing to go along with it. Despite knowing all this, something told Harry that convincing the Minister would be a difficult task indeed.

As he finished that line of thought process, Harry was forced to think about his list days back at Hogwarts post the third task. Though nobody said anything to him in person, Harry could feel the doubt and curiosity of the entire student body barring his best friends, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, about the actual events of the third task. Harry did not think too much of it as he was certain he would have been equally intrigued had he not been a part of it all. After all it was not every day that four champions went into a maze in order to compete and two of them coming out in the end with one being dead and the other being battered and bruised, carrying the news that one of the most feared dark lord of recent times, who was thought to be dead was for all intent and purposes back from the dead. In fact Harry was sure that the situation would have been comical, had it been part of some dratted adventure novel. Alas such was the irony of his life.

As his uncle finally pulled the car to a stop, Harry ended his mental musings and got out of the car quickly carrying Hedwig's cage making sure not to disturb his sleeping familiar and pulled his trunk out of the car's boot and walked in hoping to catch a quick nap before dinner. As quickly and as noiselessly as possible while carrying a cage with a sleeping owl inside and a heavy school trunk, Harry made his way up the stairs to his room before his uncle could realize that Harry was carrying his things up to his room rather than put them inside the cupboard under the stairs and also to may be have that lucky nap he so wanted before dinner. When he arrived to his room, Harry opened the door with a real enthusiasm only to have it all vanish upon discovering that he apparently had a visitor waiting to greet him.

Sitting on the only old and worn down chair and looking out of the window was a person he had never seen before in his life. Finally the man finally realized that he had company and turned toward Harry with a hint of amusement in his eyes and said, "well don't just stand in there, come on in and settle down."

So surprised was Harry that he asked the first question that came to his lips and not with a hint of respect or curiosity either.

"Who are you?"

A/N: Well first things first, Hello! This is my first fanfic ever. This is a story about Harry realizing the true extent of his destiny and embarking upon a journey toward its fulfillment. Yes, this is a fanfic which has Harry and Daphne pairing as one of its main elements, but you will have to wait a bit to read Daphne's part as it comes a little later in the story.

Happy reading!

madcrazystoryteller