They landed on blades of grass that were exactly one inch by one inch thick and 12 centimeters deep. Harry knew this, because he use to have to measure this grass as punishment from time to time, just in case Uncle Vernon ever got that prestigious award for Best Kept Lawn competition.
"Shite!" Harry wasn't the only one who shouted, but his was the least foul swear word.
"Let's, let's not panic," Lupine tried not to stutter and panic himself. "Perhaps we just wound up at the place where we were first dropped off."
Ron launched himself at the fence Mrs. Next door loved to peep through, but hit the same invisible barrier as they had at every other location, he could not jump over. Sirius slammed his fist against the gates back lock, then tried magicking it, both to no effect.
Tonks even tried to simply go back inside the house, but even the back door would not open for her.
Neville had landed in the bush Dobby had once peeped out at Harry of and got up rubbing his bum, looking near tears like that lonely first year he'd once been. "Why is this still happening to us?"
"Great question mate," Harry groaned, eyeing the yard for anything else and making sure everyone was accounted for, and all parties were. "Let's have a look around and see if we can find the book, perhaps it still wanted to make me just a tad more miserable and show off the start to my next summer."
A swath of red hair followed him up to the roof for a better view, Harry had half a mind to try scaling over the side to the front of the house at the very least, but he found he couldn't go any further than the exact middle edge of the peak, the chimney all boarded up sat as lonely as he'd been at this place.
Then his eyes spotted something green in the gutters at his feet, and his heart plummeted as he scooped out with misery, "it's true! The books changed, we really are . . ." He couldn't finish. Harry turned to the last member of the group with an uneasy sigh. "What do you think?"
Ginny tossed her hair over her shoulder and scowled around with a look that gave Ron a pang of longing, like Mum was about to go on about the twins again. "Whatever's going on, I'm still wishing those Dursleys show up. Can't ask for a better time to curse them when at least the Ministry's not around."
"Of all the people you want back?" Harry asked mildly.
"For selfish reasons, it doesn't count as wanting," she grinned. Harry found himself smiling along in surprise, he still found it hard to believe this was the same girl who'd barely talked to him the year before but had just casually been jumping into conversation with him and Ron since summer.
Then he gasped as he continued looking at her, because she was growing steadily paler as she watched the book in his hand. He'd only seen her go that pale once before, in the Chamber at the end of this book.
"No, no, no," Harry groaned, spinning wildly on the spot now, not even in a spot of danger falling off his precarious perch as fleet-footed as he was. He might have once, foolishly, forgotten she'd experienced Voldemort's possession, but he bloody well remembered now. "We've got to find a way out of this, we can't go through all of this madness again!"
It was supposed to be done, why were they still trapped like this? Were these ruddy books going to drag him through the worst of his life until the moment he caught up to himself in that potions room!?
More concerningly in the meantime, was Ginny going to be possessed again?
"We'll get through this same as we did the last one Harry," Ginny watched the book with a very stubborn expression he recognized well from seeing every day on Ron's face. "My brother's hand didn't swell up again when he was bit by Norbert in that, you didn't pass out back in that last room like you did in the past. I'll be fine," she sounded much more sure of herself than Harry felt.
He lowered his voice greatly, even squatted and sat on the rough shingles that was going to give his rump blisters so nobody could see his unease as his worry grew, "Moony can obviously have a go at us though, and what about when Ron accidentally electrocuted himself on Dudley's computer and the words vanished? We can get hurt doing this, I don't want to know how badly."
Ginny sat next to him on the roof. The sun was blazing hot up here, her long hair fluttered in the slightest of breezes carrying with it a flowery scent as she finally tore her eyes away from the book to give him a brave smile. If she was afraid, she wasn't showing him.
Harry was still plenty terrified as he ran his fingers along his scar. He hadn't felt a single emotion he shouldn't while at this, and they'd been trapped in that first book at least a day. Yet if one hint of being Voldemort's mood antenna crept into him, he'd be convinced Ginny really was doomed to repeat her own smothering possession.
"Harry," Ginny's voice lulled him back to the Dursley's backyard with a wince to see his own hand gripping the little green spine so hard it was already cracking. She continued with confidence in every syllable, "anything's possible if you have enough nerve, and we've got that in a frightening amount with this lot. We will all make it out of this."
He found himself believing her, at least for that moment as his hand relaxed and the book fell into his lap, opening on the first chapter.
He winced to see it wasn't going to start any better than that Vanishing Glass mess had gone and swallowed uneasily as he looked down at Sirius and Remus already exchanging bitter mutters and looking through the glass into the pristine kitchen back in this place. They were standing on the flower bed his twelve year old self had been pruning in this high noon sun. He must have been in the middle of cleaning out the gutters when he interrupted, well, himself being up here now.
"I still think we should be trying some other stuff now to get out of this, not just playing along anymore," Harry tried to get out of this one last time. "It's not just my first year or yours to be worried about, who knows how long we might be trapped like this now. What if it's forever and these books just keep going over the rest of my life until I'm dead."
Ginny kept the comment to herself that didn't seem like a book to far off considering he nearly died every year so far. "If all of Hermione's attempts over the start of this last time didn't work, I can't imagine what you think will now."
"I could try reading it backward," he insisted, flipping uselessly through the rest of the blank pages. "Or maybe we should try setting just a couple pages on fire, only these first few, to see if that will make something happen."
Ginny stared at him with those dark brown eyes and seemed to understand the part of himself that wished to keep this private, to himself. Everyone here might know she'd been tricked into doing Voldemort's bidding, but it was still a personal affair of her own she had no want to be on display. "Take your time Harry," was all she said before jumping off the roof. He felt oddly alone now, even though they were all still huddled on the slightly squashed grass out there. His friends stared up at him anxiously for what else was about to come, his Godfather's growing worry about what he was about to hear back in this place. Even Lupin and Tonks had their wands out as if they expected trouble just from his uneasy silence in this most Muggle of places.
Harry took a deep breath, and knew there was nothing for else for it. He wouldn't dare destroy this just to get out of the pity that was coming, no matter how tempting it was. Best to get it done with, he'd had enough of dwelling on his past already, and they weren't even close to being done.
When Harry read The Worst Birthday it only seemed to confirm all of his companion's fears. He could practically feel Hermione quivering with worry, he was surprised she wasn't trying to blast a Patronus charm at him to force some good into this place. He didn't have to look down to see Ron scowling at the house and muttering about tearing it down more than just those bars, and his best mate didn't even yet know the full circumstances to how Harry had ended up locked in his room.
Sirius surprised him most of all by scaling up to be beside him and sprawling out, tipping his face into the warm sun as Harry's stomach continued sinking. Probably something else he'd have to clean out of the gutters later. "Can't be as bad as the time my mother tried to talk me into a proposal."
Harry whipped around to look at him, wondering if his godfather had gone a spot mad.
Sirius continued with a grim smile, "they were always trying plots before I ditched them to keep me tied close, thought a betrothal would make my thirteenth birthday a smash. Needless to say I was not thrilled."
"Do I want to know the end to this disaster?" Harry asked cautiously.
"Your father got his parents involved," Sirius said, warm as the sun now. "They had even more influence in the Ministry than mine, believe it or not. Made sure it was all postponed until I came of age at minimum, and I was out of there by that time with many another good excuse."
"That's not what made you finally leave?" Harry asked, imagining the Dursleys trying to wed him off to some rich old hag for the money. He'd have taken his chances anywhere else he was sure.
"Mmm, not quite yet, I thought I had other reasons to not cut ties," Sirius's voice was quiet now, a long time ago even by the year they were trapped in.
Sirius didn't interrupt again as Harry got started, despite his teeth gritting, cussing, and general frustration radiating at the very brickwork they sat upon those Muggles treated his godson like he was Kreacher. It made him sick, to know of the good, loving life he should have had with Lily and James and to be reduced to, well, his circumstances of feeling alone and trapped in a house he'd never call home.
Commiserating about their shared childhood traumas wasn't how Sirius had wanted to bond with his godson, but Harry got through it without flinching and looking guiltily to him every other paragraph awaiting some bad reaction from him, so at the very least Sirius didn't feel he was making it all worse.
When Dobby arrived it seemed a relief to all to break the monotony of misery. Ron and Ginny at least got a good laugh out of Harry's taunts to Dudley, while Hermione clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "Harry, I wish you wouldn't antagonize him, it'll only make things worse for you here."
Harry bit back the biting comment how right she was in the very next sentence, his moment of fun quickly tarnished by all those never-ending chores.
Tonks looked ready to curse the next thing that moved and Lupin looked particularly ghastly even under the bright sun hearing him go through all this no matter how rushed the words were like the blow would be easier the faster he said them.
Neville listened to it all with a sense of awe he hadn't felt since he'd been a first year realizing over and over again he was sharing a dorm with The Harry Potter. It was no wonder he wasn't afraid of Snape or anybody, and he'd already known Gran had always been right to constantly owl him he should be more like Harry Potter. Harry Potter had grown up with these foul people and hadn't turned out like Malfoy, angry and bitter and constantly mocking anybody he could. Harry Potter hadn't even come to Hogwarts like Hermione, quiet and bookish because he was afraid to make friends like the two of them had been for so long it had been awkward for almost three years.
Harry just sounded exhausted. Resigned as he took a breath and casually warned them all this chapter was done while he glanced once again at his broken watch and quickly promised his confused Godfather it was nothing dangerous awaiting him in his room he was confined to on his own birthday. Harry was more like him than his Gran would ever believe, Harry Potter was simply tired of life constantly throwing everything it could at him.