Ch.1

Harry stared into the bathroom mirror and pulled a face. He had a large spot on his nose which he hoped would disappear before he met up with Ron, if not at least before he went back to Hogwarts. Where was a Bubotuber plant when you needed one? Dudley began pounding on the bathroom door.

"Oi! Spotnose, hurry up in there!" Spotnose was Dudley's new nickname for Harry, which was a bit rich seeing as Dudley's constant (secret) snacking on fatty foods meant he had terrible acne. Harry slunk out the bathroom and back into his own room. Checking his chart he saw he would be meeting Ron in two days time. He groaned, although it would be good to get away from the Dursleys' he was sure his spot wouldn't have gone by then. He had assured Ron that they would meet in Diagon Alley, even though he could see no way of getting there, at least it had ensured a semi peaceful life, with the Dursleys being sure none of 'that lot' were going to be showing up at the house. Harry dressed in some of Dudley's several sizes to big hand downs before going down to breakfast. The diet was still in place and Harry was still breaking it with his friends help (although he hadn't started on Fred and George's 'helpful' contribution - they looked suspiciously like ton-tongue toffees and canary creams to Harry, he didn't like to think what the Dursley's would say if he broke out in feathers - probably 'serves you right').

"The flower beds need weeding." snapped Aunt Petunia, by way of a greeting as Harry entered the kitchen. Even though Dudley obviously needed some exercise, Harry somehow knew he would be the one to do this.

"Well answer your Aunt." said Uncle Vernon gruffly, from behind his morning paper. Two things sprung immediately to Harry's mind 1). She didn't ask a question, you great, push-broom tached idiot, and 2). What am I supposed to say 'Whooped-di-doo, that sounds like a job for Harry Potter' ?

"I'll get started after 'breakfast'" mumbled Harry, with a good deal of sarcastic reproach on the word 'breakfast.'

***

Half an hour later saw Harry sweating, wrestling with weeds, wishing he could use magic and sustaining it all by thinking "Only two more days only two more days."

Dudley came out to laugh at him mid-afternoon but walking outside and then standing (the garden bench had broken last time he'd sat on it - "shoddy manufacture" according to Uncle Vernon, or maybe sabotage by Harry) required so much effort he retreated to the cool of the air-conditioned living room and relative non-activity of watching TV where the most that had to be done was button pressing.

As soon as he'd finished - which wasn't until well into the evening - he rushed up to pack his trunk, so what that he had a whole day to go? Some horrible house hold chore would probably come up. But at that moment something appeared at Harry's window which made him realise that, not only did he not have to do any house work the next day, but also he wouldn't have to sneak onto a muggle train under the invisibility cloak...

***

"The lawn needs mowing." said Aunt Petunia as soon as Harry had gone down to 'breakfast'.

"Make Dudley do it." said Harry, almost nonchalantly, taking the biggest slice of grapefruit.

"How dare you!" spat Uncle Vernon, "Such insolence and-"

"Got a letter from Sirius last night," said Harry calmly. He had only used this weapon when it was the truth lest the Dursleys should some how find out it wasn't. Uncle Vernon sat down slowly and picked up the paper. He would have made very good pretence of reading it, except that it was upside down.

Harry stared out of his bedroom window watching Dudley struggling with the lawn mower.

"You missed a spot!" he yelled. Dudley yelled something extremely rude and was immediately reprimanded by his mother ("What would the neighbour's think?"). Harry laughed and relayed the anecdote back to Sirius. He cast his eyes back over Sirius's short letter and his own much longer reply;

Dear Harry,

Just to let you know I'm okay, I'll be in touch for your birthday of course, but a couple of days can seem like forever waiting for news.

SAB

This Harry had worked out or decided stood for 'Sirius and Buckbeak' and was just another precaution should the letter fall into unfriendly hands.

Dear SAB,

Everything is fine here too, although they've got doing housework and Snape has set us Gryffindor's a particularly nasty potions essay - I bet he didn't give the Slytherins anything! I wish McGonagall favoured us like that, I've got a bunch from her as well and don't even get me started on bloody Divination!

On the plus side Dudley is mowing the lawn as I write and has just been told off for swearing (provoked by me).

I'm going to Ron's soon!!! Although this could be embarrassing as I have a huge spot on my nose.

Dudley fatter and grumpier than ever, lots of love

Harry,

PS - what does it mean if I look at my star chart and see a bunch of nasty looking numbers and calculations? Probably that I'm about to die, but just thought I'd ask.

He smiled and tied the reply to the barn owl's leg (it had been waiting since bringing Sirius's reply last night) before returning to his textbook and searching for information on why 'Potions are not magic but merely drugs, discuss.' Harry knew Snape's idea of 'discuss'; prevent a one sided view, bad mouth my subject and you die. Equally if you didn't present a balanced argument, 'You have only explored one side of the issue Potter, I expect such stupidity from Longbottom, but this is just laziness, ten points from Gryffindor.' Harry sighed, he may as well save himself the torture of doing it and get detention into the bargain, except for the fact that detentions from Snape were likely to be life threatening.

The last day at the Dursleys seemed to last forever, but eventually Harry was heaving his trunk onto a train for London. He'd got the money from Uncle Vernon ("Sirius wanted to know how I'm getting to London") and the Dursleys had even driven him to the station. All he now had to do was lug a trunk and an owl cage (Hedwig attracted too many stares so was meeting him up there) through several muggle underground stations whilst attracting as little attention as possible.

"That shouldn't be to hard." thought Harry bitterly, self-consciously rubbing the spot on his nose.

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