Harry bowed his head (eyes not truly seeing anything) as he sat at the dining table nibbling on his toast waiting for the right time where he could slip away and go up to his and Haiden's room. As soon as the twins had gotten back from Hogwarts, their uncle had shut their trunks in the cupboard. This left no room for Harry and forced him to move upstairs into Haiden's room. Neither boy was happy about this new arrangement. After everything that had happened at the end of last year (what he had overheard), Harry had actually been looking forward to spending time alone in his cupboard. He needed time to think, to understand how he felt, to figure out how to react. Now, Harry had no alone time.
"Third time this week!" Uncle Vernon grumbled as he opened the newspaper. Everyone at the table understood what he meant. Haiden's owl, Hedwig, had started hooting in the early hours of the morning, clawing, and biting at the lock (that Uncle Vernon had put not only on Hedwig's cage but Heimdallur's cage as well) trying to get out. It didn't help that Loki (who was allowed to roam around the house because Harry had been able to convince his Uncle that a cat was a 'normal' pet) had started to rub up against Hedwig's cage to purposefully antagonize her. "If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!"
"She's board." Haiden tried explaining. "She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night–"
"Do I look stupid?" Uncle Vernon snarled, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy mustache. "I know what'll happen if that owl's let out." Their uncle exchanged dark looks with his wife, Aunt Petunia. Haiden opened his mouth to argue back but was cut off by a long, loud belch from Dudley.
"I want more bacon." Dudley said after catching his breath.
"There's more in the frying pan, sweetums." Aunt Petunia said, turning misty eyes on her massive son. "We must build you up while we've got the chance… I don't like the sound of that school food."
"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings." Uncle Vernon said heartily. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?" Dudley (who was so large that his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair) grinned and turned to Harry.
"Pass the frying pan." Dudley ordered. Harry reached out and gripped the pan, scooping three pieces of bacon onto his own plate.
"You've forgotten the magic word." Haiden said irritably as Harry sat the pan down in front of Dudley. "I meant 'please'! I didn't mean–" Harry glared at his brother before scooping up the three pieces of bacon from his plate and bolted from the table and out the door just as Uncle Vernon began yelling. Haiden spoke without thinking first, now he has to face his own consequences, it wasn't Harry's job to save him – to protect him.
"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU!" As Harry angrily walked up the stairs (feeling both strangely satisfied and worried over his brother angering their uncle) he could still hear his uncle yelling at Haiden. "HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" Harry sighed and shook his head as he finally made it up the stairs. "I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!" Ever since they had gotten back, their uncle had been treating them like a bomb that might go off at any moment.
As Harry shut the door to his and his brother's room, all went quiet, and Harry wondered if his uncle had knocked Haiden out again. A few days after the twins had returned, his brother had been 'Gryffindor-ish' and tried to stand up to their uncle without his magic. It hadn't ended well. Both boys had been punished (the normal beatings), and afterwards Haiden had gotten a second punishment while Harry was sent to their room. Harry sat in the room (waiting for his brother to join him) until nearly dawn (having fought with himself) before he snuck out of their room and found Haiden unconscious on the kitchen floor. Thankfully Haiden had been breathing, so Harry carefully drug Haiden back to the room (making sure to knock Haiden's head on a few steps for the good measure).
With a sigh, Harry crawled onto his small cot that was sitting snugly between Haiden's bed and the desk. He looked out the window, wondering why he had yet to receive any letters from the Weasley Twins or Draco. Had they realized that all Harry was in this world was a shield? Did they not want to be friends anymore? Harry shook his head. He mustn't think like that. Harry wasn't the only one not receiving letters from his friends that summer. Haiden had also not received a single letter from either Ron or Hermione.
Another sigh flew past Harry's lips as he pet Loki (who had jumped from the desk) and looked away from the window to where Heimdallur sat in his cage, giving him a dry look. "Don't look at me like that. You know I have no control over this." Heimdallur blinked at him and gave out a soft hoot while shifting in his cage. "I know you want out, and I know you know that I can't let you out." Heimdallur's golden eyes narrowed before flying over towards the Potions book that was sitting, hidden under piles of paper, before ruffling his feathers. Harry had been sneaking down to the locked cupboard, picking the lock, and pulling out which ever schoolbook that him and his brother needed to do their homework with while switching it out for the next book when they were done. "Oh, don't start. You and I know that as soon as I pick that lock, you are not going to get back into that cage. And how will I be able to explain that?" Heimdallur huffed and looked away. "That's what I thought."
The one-sided conversation ended when Haiden walked into the room. The two brothers stared awkwardly at each other before Haiden sighed and shuffled into the cramped room, shutting the door on the way. "They didn't remember." Haiden muttered. Harry bit his tongue to keep from telling his brother that he knew that their relatives wouldn't remember that today was the twins twelfth birthday. "Uncle Vernon did remind me, once again, that tonight is that stupid dinner party. We are to be up here, making no noise, and pretending we are not here." That was easier said than done.
The twins sat in awkward silence, Harry opening his mouth every now and then (intending to say something) only to close it a second later. Ever since that night in the Hospital Wing, Harry didn't know how to act around his brother, nor did he know what to say. So he just looked away from his brother towards the wardrobe.
Harry blinked in surprise. He swore that he saw large, snot yellow eyes staring at him from the wardrobe. Harry jumped (eyes never leaving the wardrobe) when their bedroom door flew open, and Dudley was standing in the doorway with a nasty smile on his fat face.
"I know what day it is." Dudley said waddling into the room. The eyes in the wardrobe vanished.
"What?" Haiden asked.
"I know what day it is." Dudley repeated, coming right up to the edge of Harry's cot.
"Well done." Haiden said clapping sarcastically. "You've finally learned the days of the week."
"Today is your birthday." Dudley sneered and Harry finally looked away from the wardrobe to look at him. "Why haven't either of you gotten any cards? Haven't either of you got any friends at that freak place?" Harry felt a pain in his chest. Did he have friends at Hogwarts?
"Better not let your mum hear you talking about our school." Harry said coolly, causing Haiden and Dudley to glare at him. He ignored them, as he went back to staring at the wardrobe. Dudley hitched up his trousers, which were slipping down his fat bottom.
"Why are you staring at the wardrobe?" Dudley asked suspiciously.
"I'm trying to decide which spell would be the best one to set it on fire." Harry said narrowing his eyes at the wardrobe, trying to keep a smirk off his face and from laughing as Dudley stumbled backwards with a look of panic on his face.
"You c-can't – Dad told the two of you that you're not to do m-magic – he said he'll chuck you out of the house – and you haven't got anywhere to go – you haven't got any friends to take you–" Harry shot up from his cot (Loki in his arms) and Dudley stumbled back even more.
"Jiggery pokery!" Harry growled out, following every step Dudley took backwards with a step forward. Even if it turned out being true that he had no friends (that the Weasley Twins and Dudley were faking it or using him) he would not let Dudley get away with that comment. "Hocus pocus squiggly wiggly –"
"MUUUUUUM!" Dudley howled running down the stairs, nearly falling down them in his haste to get away from Harry. "MUUUUM! Harry's doing you know what!" A moment later, Harry paid dearly for his moment of revenge. As neither Dudley nor the wardrobe was in any way hurt, Aunt Petunia (who seemed to have teleported up the steps) knew that Harry hadn't really done magic. However, Harry did still have to duck as she aimed a heavy blow at his head with a soapy frying pan. Aunt Petunia then put him and his brother to work, with the promise they wouldn't eat again until they had finished.
While Dudley lolled around watching crap telly and eating ice cream, Harry cleaned the windows, trimmed the flowerbeds, and pruned and watered the roses as Haiden washed the car, mowed the lawn, and repainted the garden all while glaring at Harry whenever he could. As the sun blazed overhead, burning the back of Harry's neck, half of him was regretting raising to Dudley's bait, but the other half was whispering that he should have actually done something to his cousin.
After finishing the last of his chores, Harry stood up (dusting his hands on his hand-me-down pants) and watched as Haiden finished painting. When Haiden caught Harry looking, he glared at him and Harry looked away, towards the edge of the lawn. Harry squinted his eyes and looked at the thin, barely visible bubble-like substance that surrounded the property. A few weeks ago, Harry had learned that if he concentrated hard enough, he could see (what he assumed was) the blood ward that Dumbledore had mentioned.
"Get in here!" Harry heard Aunt Petunia yell. "And walk on the newspaper!" Harry gladly followed his twin into the shade of the gleaming kitchen. On top of the fridge stood tonight's pudding: a huge mound of whipped cream and sugared violets. A loin of roast pork was sizzling in the oven. "Eat quickly! The Masons will be here soon!" Aunt Petunia snapped, pointing to two plates that each had a slice of bread and a lump of cheese on the table. Harry glanced at their aunt as they washed their hands, she was already wearing an ugly salmon-pink cocktail dress. The moment the twins had finished their pitiful supper, Aunt Petunia whisked away their plates. "Upstairs! Hurry!"
As the twins passed the door to the living room, Harry caught a glimpse of Uncle Vernon and Dudley in bow ties and dinner jackets. The twins had only just reached the upstairs landing when the doorbell rang, and Uncle Vernon's furious face appeared at the foot of the stairs. "Remember – one sound–"
The threat trailed off, neither twin needed to know what it was to know that their uncle would not hesitate to go through with it. And it was that unspoken threat that had the two tiptoe to their bedroom and quietly slip inside. Both boys froze as they went to collapse on their respectable beds, well cot in Harry's case, when they saw someone sitting on Haiden's bed.
