CH5: Letters

The night slowly turned to morning as Harry poured over his textbooks. The only really useful things he found required magic, and he wasn't allowed to use magic outside of school.

He even discovered he wasn't allowed to brew potions at home, as potion making requires the use of a person's magic and it would set off the ministry alarms apparently. He'd never even thought about this before, having hated the subject at school and never really felt the need to brew a potion at home.

However, he would still be able to order some potions, whilst looking through his potions textbook he came across the dreamless sleep potion. He couldn't believe he hadn't thought about it before, the dreamless sleep potion had worked wonders after the third task.

He wrote out his order to send off to the apothecary as soon as Hedwig returned from her hunt.

As Harry heard the house come to life, he felt a pang of anxiety, he was going to be trapped in his room all day with no food like Vernon had told him last night. How was he going to cope locked up here all day? Sure, he'd done it in the past, but so many things had happened recently he wasn't sure how he was going to cope locked away with his own thoughts all day.

He never thought he would see the day that he would rather be downstairs with the Dursley's doing chores rather than locked up in his room all day.

Harry jumped when he heard a knock at the window, turning quickly, much too quickly for his aching back, he winced. He saw Hedwig, she was back from her hunt and she was carrying a parcel. Harry slowly rose from his desk chair, being more mindful of his back and opened the window to let her in.

Hedwig hopped in, and Harry untied the small parcel from her leg, after which she flew to her cage with the intention of taking a nap.

'No girl, I need you to deliver a letter' Harry spoke, approaching the desk to fetch the letter.

Hedwig let out a disgruntled trill as if she knew exactly what Harry just said. Harry raised an eyebrow at her as he turned to tie the letter to her leg. He had always been curious to know if Hedwig could understand what he was saying, he decided to test it out further some time.

Hedwig didn't appear to want to move, for she stayed exactly where she was, even after Harry gave her a little encouraging nudge towards the cage opening.

'Please girl, I really need some stuff from the apothecary. I'm desperate.' Harry pleaded.

Hedwig must have sensed her human's plight as she shook out her wings then flew straight out the window.

Harry decided to open his package that Hedwig had delivered so he fetched it from the windowsill and lay carefully on his bed, most of the sting had gone from his back but he now had a deep muscle ache.

Harry opened the parcel to find two letters and a pack of Mrs Weasley's chocolate chip cookies. The letters were from Hermione and Sirius. Harry decided to start with Hermione's, he was curious how a letter from Hermione could find its way into a package with Mrs Weasley's cookies and a letter from Sirius considering Hermione had gone home with her parents. The letter read:

Hi Harry,

You're probably wondering how I could have possibly sent a letter along with one from Sirius, well long story short; the order caught an undercover death eater near my home, and as a precaution Dumbledore decided it would be safer for me to stay with the Weasleys and Sirius. He thinks that the death eaters may have tried to ambush me as I am close to order members and might know some information. They thought I was an easy target living amongst muggles, but they didn't know the order was watching out for me.

I'm completely fine don't worry, I'd rather be here at the centre of everything anyway, we really can't wait for you to join us.

All the Weasleys say hi and Mrs Weasleys sent some cookies, she is so upset you can't come here yet, she sees you as one of her own you know.

I hope you are well Harry, please know we are here for you if you need to talk and make sure you take care of yourself, Mrs Weasley will go spare if you come back any skinnier than you left!

We love you Harry.

Hermione x

Harry felt his heart rate speed up, he felt like his breath had been knocked out of him. Hermione had been put in danger because of him, because they were friends, how could he be so stupid. That's when Harry realised, no matter what he did, those around him would always be in danger, he needed to stay away, he needed to protect those he loved.

Something else about the letter had also caught his attention; What the hell is the order? Harry thought, hadn't Mrs Weasley mentioned something about it in Dumbledore's office? Why is it everyone knew what was going on except for him? Maybe they didn't trust him, after all it was his fault Voldemort was back and Cedric was dead.

He scrunched the letter into a ball in anger and threw it in the direction of the bin, tossing Sirius' letter into the corner. He decided he wouldn't open or respond to any more letters, he needed to distance himself from those he loved, it was the only way he could protect them.