Harry was in his room enjoying the normality that Privet Drive offered, while counting the days to join the same summer camp that he had gone the previous year. Having arrive earlier that expected had been a blessing.
First he got to enjoy more time with his aunt and uncle, doing normal things had quickly made him forget the terrible months that he had to suffer somewhere in Scotland. His uncle had starting to taught him car manteinance and some simple home repairs, something that his father had taugtt the man when he was young and that would teach Duddley once the other boy returned from school. His aunt was teaching some house economics, sewing and cooking, that they usually did together, wanting him to be a well learned young man, a perfect gentleman she had said. Both were very proud of him.
Second it gave him more time to study, and with his exams rapidly aproximating, he took good advantage of the calm that his own room provided. The lack of abnormal classes that he had been being forced to attend helped a lot too. He was confident when he enter the examination center, and when he was done with his exams he was sure that he would get better marks that the previous year.
It didn't take more than a couple of weeks before they took the car to pick Dudley from his school, and then both boys took the oportunity to spend the next weeks together having fun. They spend the mornings in the park playing football with the neighbours, biking though the streets and when the sun started to be too much to handdle they had water fights. At lunch they said goodbye to the other teens and returned home, washing the mud with the garden hose before entering the house, as non of them wanted to find Petunia mad if they dragged mud inside the house. The afternoons they spend inside with Vernon and Petunia and helpiing Duddley finish his homework before both of them have to leave for theirs summer camps.
Summer camp came and went really quickly for Harry, who as the previoous year had great fun. They had mostly been the same group of friends from the year previous, and since non of them wanted to talk about their schooling or lack of it Harry was specially relaxed as he wouldn't have to invent anything about his situation. That year they made different experiments that were an introduction of what they were supposed to learn the following year in a normal school. Harry found them fascinating and took compious note to try to replicate them through the year, some were enough clean that his aunt won't mind to much.
They month of camp soon was over, and the friends said goodbye again, promising to be there the next year too. Harry happily waved as he was picked by his uncle.
The summer was almost over, and so far there hadn't even a note indicating that Hogwarts would open next September 1st. The family had already brough anything that Duddley would need for his school year, and Harry's books too. Even if they were hopefull that there wouldn't be abnormal schooling for Harry the next year, neither of them expected for that to happen. They took a week of holidays as family, before driving Duddley all together to Smeltings.
By mid September there hadn't gotten any strange letter and there hadn't been any weirdly dressed individuals. The Duddleys and Harry had tentatively started to look some locals schools for Harry to join if they hadn't had any news before Christmas. Harry had his rutine, in the morning he studied and sometimes joined Vernon at his job, as noone minded there, in the afternoon Harry when to play with the neighbours teen that studied localy and in the evening helped Petunia with dinner.
But calm finally ended the morning of October 31st, Hogwarts would open its doors again, the school would open November 1st, the next day, and would finish 15th August, without Christmast or Easter breaks, the students would just have a two weeks break before continuing the following year. The letter said that the train would leave at the usual time and same platform, that school books and other materials would by given to them at school, and as the previous year had been really streesfull all students passed to the next year without need of exams. Harry would become a 2nd year without casting a single spell.
It just left the family the day to buy any necesary non magical things that Harry wanted to take with him. And had the horrible effect of him not beeing able to go to his summer science camp next year. His aunt had offered to try to convince his examining center to let made the next years exams in that couple of weeks, but the woman couldn't promise much and Harry was half expecting to had to escape the school if that was proven imposible. Both of them would have to suffer the necesity of use a owl to comunicate in that aspect, Harry really apreciated that his aunt was going to do that for him.
The last dinner was a silent affair, they were weary of the abnormal magical folks and which extreme meassures they would go to keep Harry in that place that should not be named, specially if he needed to leave for his exams. They weren't even sure that they wouldn't keep Harry there the meager two weeks of holidays that they would be able to enjoy the next summer, that beeings were umpredicatable and didn't follow any kind of logic, after all normal people had figure out decades ago that summer holidays were very important in the childrens and teens development. Harry savored specially the meal, it included all his favourites, and it would be the last normal prepare food that he would get in many months, if not almost two years, he knew that while the food there was aparently normal, except some strange meals, there were made with magic, abnormal, ways.
As it would be the last time in long time that he would be in the company with his aunt and uncle, he relished in the feeling of love that they gave him. Harry and Vernon left to bed early, as they were planning to wake up before sunrise to be in the platform before they were ambushed at their home, and poluted it with their abnormal ways. Petunia hugged him extra hard and extra long that night, and kissed him in the forehead, like she hadn't done in many years, and told him to be very carefull and how much they loved him.
They retired to bed and while drifting to sleep Harry hoped that an miracle would happend and he could escape the horror that was certain abnormal castle up in Scotland that taught some better said unsaid classes. The criminal that had been appearing at the TV the last couple of weeks attacking the station sounded speacialy great.
Harry woke up with the sun on his face, strange he though, his bed didn't get direct sun light in the morning, the mattress was more soft that when he had woken up, and there was a heavy blanket over him, with wasn't necesary at Surrey yet. He opened his eyes, he was back in the Griffindor bedroom, as if it was a bad dream, he tried to wake up but he didn't, he continued to be there. For a moment he wondered if they had really dare to kidnap him in the middle of the night, to made sure that he didn't try to escape, and then he thought that they were. Then he though in his uncle, who was join to wake him up really early so they wouldn't have the abnormal wizards in their home, how worried would he be now, and his poor aunt who always worried so much about him and Duddley. At least he hoped that the wizards had left a letter, but he doubt it, it was probably at him to send a letter to let them know that he was alright.
He tried to get up from the bed, but found himself unable to, so he looked arround the room. Sat in a chair, dressed in shabby clothes, was a man reading a book. He finally noticed, and after utering some works Harry could move again. He presented himself as Remus Lupin his new DADA teacher and after telling him that his guardians had been informed of were he was, he went downstairs to left him alone to change, he was going to acompany him to breakfast and then would leave him with some other teacher.
He took his time to change, putting some extra layers of clothes as he noticed, now that he was out of bed, how cold it was. A chill that went through his bones, and that after an extra jumper didn't seem to get better. It was an unatural and abnormal cold, and the more that he though about it less it appear to be cold and more like there would never be more happiness or warm feelings. He shivered all the way to the Great Hall. There for breakfast he got a nice cup of hot chocolate, which was the only option, and some cookies, he felt better inmediatly. He was then passed to another professor for the morning, gave some lunch at her office, and then passed to some other teacher to suppervise him until the train arrived and then scorted to the Great Hall for dinner...
By the time Christmas came around, Harry was about to get insane. The teacher in their infinite intelligence had decided that their normal packed schedulle should have more classes per day than before, leaving almost no time to eat and do homework, for those that care about it, if one wanted to have a decent night of sleep. For Harry that meant that two months into the year he was reaching his limit, he barely had time anymore to study his proper subjects and it was even imposible to had a weekend free of magical classes to study anymore. The weather didn't help either, the abominations that surrounded the school, where a creature called dementors, that sucker every happy feeling of people. The abnormal cold, could barely be dismised even with the help of chocolate, with appeared in abundance every meal, and the sadness clinging around the place made difficult to stay focus most of the time.
In all their collective insanity, there was just one teacher who appeared to look after the students. He was giving them a couple of his weekly lessons to the students to nap at their tables or do homework, and the was the one that use his first lesson to inform them of what was arround the school, why they were there, Sirius Black had escape from Azkaban and it was likely that he would came to the school, and how to reduced their influence, chocolate. That was probably the only lesson that Harry had paid attention in his stay that the castle. And the man didn't seem to care to much about students not paying attention in class, he was looked at them sadly and left them do what they wanted, except if it was a practical exercice.
The year passed slowly, too slowy to Harry's liking. There was a maniac wizard after him, supposely his godfather, at least that was what he had find out after some digging in the library. Looking for a way out of the school, he had read what seemed all the legal looking books in the library and that had guide him to magical godfather. Then he had found who the man was and discovered that it was the man that had escaped the magical prision. A magical godfather would have been able to aprove his removal from the school, but the man was, of course, unable. At least he would only have to wait to the OWLs exam, that could be taken the year after his 15th birthday, which meant, a year less that he had expected so the search hadn't been completely a waste of time, as everyone said that anyone that grew between non magical were able to pass the exam with flying colors.
The snow finally melted in May and the sun tried to fight its way into the school, some brave students had dared to study outside, if only for the change of scenery, or in Harry's case to get outside of the overly magical people that lived there. Even if the dementors felt closer, it was the only place where Harry knew would have space for his normal subjets, to study on his own, to be left alone. With the people stuck inside more than before, the homework pilling, and with no new goslip around, people had turned into Harry again, the misterious Boy-who-lived, someone who until now noone had seem cast any spell and still remained at school and even was a second year. Each passing day it was more difficult not to find a way to curse them with magic, if only so they would left him alone.
Finally July arrived, and with it exams Harry had, miraculously given permision to go to London and made his exams, if only because he had made the Headmaster believe that it was the only way he would try to do something the next month when the exams arrived at Hogwarts. The excentric individual couldn't be more wrong, he was planing to made an efford, an effor to explain how could the questions in the exam could be solved without magic. His Aunt Petunia was at Kings Cross waiting for him, beeing scorted by the not completly idiot, and more normal looking, Prof. Lupin.
They quickly departed, Petunia not waiting for a word from a wizard. The drive back home was informative... to say the less. The Lupin was actually a former friend of his birth parents, and the escaped prision convict Sirius Black. The man, who Harry had thought until that moment that he was the most passable person that he had met en magic England wasn't actually that at all. He had after all not looked after Harry, to check if he was alright, even if he couldn't stay. What if his family had been unable to look after him? Or something had happened to them? Harry was lucky that he had been left alone outside of the magic craziness, but at least, Harry would have wanted to know a little about his parents, his aunt had told him at much as she had been able to but she had never met James Potter. Remus Lupin had ascent rapidly the lader of people that Harry hated most.
His exams being in London made Harry and Petunia or Vernon, whoever was driving him that day, woke up really early. They could have gotten a hotel and spend the time as family, but they were all on edge and looking over their shoulders for Black and Lupin. It was unlikely, but they didn't dare to risk it, and Harry actually enjoyed the time alone that he had with them, especially becausw he wasn't sure if he would be able to see them again in August.
Exams finally finished, and Harry hoped that passed with good grades, and the nice break from Hogwarts was over. He brought his books for the next school year, just in case, and plenty of pens and notebooks made of paper, whoever thought about writing with feather and ink in partchment wasn't alright in the head. The week was finally over, luckiky, he had been given Saturday free and had spend the day with Dudley, biking around the neighbour, playing videogames and watching movies while eating popcork and fadt food with plenty of sugarly drinks.
Vernon took him Sunday morning to Kings Cross, back to the crazy word. They took as long as they could to say their goodbyes. Trying to convince themselves that they would see each other again soon, even if they didn't believe it. Lupin took Harry through the barrier and the scarlet train that would take them north. A different way from the inverse travel that they had done the Sunday before where the man had use a magical, and really unconfortable, way of travel, they had appeared at the platform 9 and 3/4 instead of taking the long train ride. Harry was preparing himself for the unconfortable hours that awaited ahead of him. At least he hoped that the man didn't try to make a conversation.
Finally August arrived, and with it the End of the Year exams at Hogwarts. Harry had reviewed hard his science books, expecially phisics, chemistry and botany, and believed that he was ready for them. The practical exams Harry failed them, a troll minus in all of them, as he and everyone were expecting as he didn't even try, but it was in the theory exams were everybody expected Harry to not even sign the parchment when he surprised them. Armed with a couple of black pens he focused in the questions asked, thinking hard about how it could be done with non magical means. It was a sight that scared some and gave hope to the teachers that he was starting to warm up about magic, which was far from the truth, and something that the professors would discover a couple days later while reading his exams. At the end of the exams, while the rest of the student body worried about grades, Harry silently laught.
Astronomy was, at least at his level, only about stars and constellations, not a mention of magic at all, so Harry had no problems answering. After all looking at the stars weren't totally bad seen in normal people, a perfect aceptable hobby. Herbology, was more difficult that Astronomy to write something, but he had promised as that had been the only was to leave the school last month, he answered some questions to the best of his ability. If one had a little of imagination and knowledge about normal plants, something could be extrapolated at least a little. DADA's exam was just filled what Harry honestly though of the man that taugh it, that was nothing good. Potions could be seen as chemistry, adding some ingredients at certain order and quantity to obtain a desired result, but not knowing a thing about how each ingredient reacted with others, as there wasn't a chemical formula, Harry left that empty. History of Magic was used as nap time, by a lot of people, so noone was really surprised that he left that empty, probably half the student body had done the weas a lost cause, totally magical and the only thing that he answered were to sell whatever you wanted to change and buy the thing you wanted to obtain. Same with Charms, some things, like animating something, might be posible with robotics, a pineaple toy with arms and legs that could move with a remote was the closest that he could get to a dancing pineaple.
All in all it was a fun time for Harry, at least compared to the previous times and the rest of the school year, and he had fullfilled his part to Dumbledore. Truth to be told he was a little curious about the teachers' opinions about his anwers.
The results came the last day of the term, with a note telling them that they wouldn't be able to leave the school for the two remaining weeks before September 1st, and that there would be some clases to those that hadn't passed the exams. Everyone would advance to the next year, but those without at least an Acceptable will do some extra study. Slips to the magical village were given to the future third years students, Harry included, and they were forced to take more clases, with two electives. Harry choose muggle class, as it was a requisite to took a class if one wanted to made the exam and Runes, as antique writings were something that even normal people studied, and the class did nothing more than it. The school books list weren't given, instead they got the books that they would need for the upcoming term directly with instructions to start reading them. Of course Harry didn't bother with the extra classes or reading any magical book, and started to study his normal subjects, those that would be usefull to him in the future.