Chapter one

No one that lived on Privet drive, Little whinging would ever believe they would ever see anything extraordinary. Day in and day out, they went on with their normal daily lives. If something strange or unusual would happen they probably wouldn't know what to do. They lived in identical houses with perfectly manicured lawns. The husbands, wives, sons and daughters would be out in the garden every weekend, mowing, pruning, clipping, raking, making sure their lawns were perfect. They all liked their routines, they all liked their normal lives, they did not like anything strange or unusual that could disrupt their lives.

Number four Privet drive had one little difference, but it didn't worry any of the neighbours. It wasn't Vernon and Petunia Dursley that would do all the work in the garden. They had explained that they would pay their nephew to do all the work. Petunia would tell everyone that her hands were allergic to the manure that was needed for her roses. Vernon believed their nephew should earn his keep, but really, Vernon Dursley was just too fat and lazy. Apart from that they were just like the rest of them, normal.

Like any other weekend, not long after breakfast the husbands, wives and children would all end up out the front ready to make their garden nice and neat. The husband would move the lawn while the wife and children would rake the grass, along with the fallen leaves. When they were finished with the lawn it was time to wash the car, they liked having nice shiny clean cars sitting in their drive ways.

When the neighbours heard yelling coming from number four they knew their nice routine was going to be disrupted. But when they heard blood curdling screams and some of those screams were Petunia begging for the life of her son. They realised it was more than just a little disruption. The wives scrambled inside the ring the police, the husbands would keep watch and listen to what was going on. Some of the neighbours grab camera's in case they saw anything, or anyone. It was only ten minutes after the first sound of trouble that number four fell silent. Every neighbour stood on their front lawns, waiting, holding their breaths, all wondering if whatever happened had stopped or would one of them be next.

Police sires were heard in the distance, getting closer and closer, louder and louder until six police cars screeched to a halt all close to number four Privet drive. One by one the police ran inside, some would run back out, some actually got sick and vomited on the unmoved lawn.

After making sure there was no one else in the house the police got to work, taking pictures, examining the crime scene without disturbing anything. The four bodies weren't touched apart to physically determine they were dead, but just looking at their mutilated and bloody bodies told the police they were dead. They were murdered by some unknown person or persons in their own home. A home that looked neat and tidy, which showed the family had cared about their home. The members of the police had seen dead bodies before, but seeing a child dead was always hard even if this boy was a teenager. What they did find unusual was the mutilated dog beside a very large woman.

Some of the police had begun to take statements from the neighbours, every story match, they Dursley's did not have their nephew do their lawn that morning, then they heard the yelling and screaming. Every neighbour, every man, woman and child all reported the same thing, their statements were identical.

A young policeman stepped inside, 'We have a problem sir.'

'What is it?'

'Apart from reporting the same thing, they said that the Dursley's had a nephew, a dark haired boy around the same age as Dudley Dursley. Every neighbour said they had been warned about the boy, that he was a delinquent. The trouble is a lot of the kids said it was Dudley that beat them up and broke the play equipment at the park, the nephew was never seen apart from when he worked on the front law. Only one neighbour said she had seen him working out in the back yard during the summer months but never any other time during the year.

'Search the house again, but if it was the nephew that did this then he had help. There is no way a fourteen year old could do that to any adult let alone to someone the size of Vernon Dursley.'

The police spread out and began going through all the rooms, they even looked in wardrobes and cupboards. One policeman thought the spare room couldn't belong to the boy that was missing, there was nothing in there, apart from old broken furniture. The son's room was filled with everything a child of fourteen could ever want. There was another room that looked like a guest room, but by going on the style it looked like it belonged to a grandmother or great aunt, not a young boy. There was no evidence that any room was used by the missing teenage boy.

One thing bothered some of the police, the spare room with the broken desk had locks on the outside of the door, along with bars on the window. Most people put bars on the ground floor windows to stop anyone breaking in, like thieves. They all believed the room was kept for a cat or a small dog since there was a cat flap in the bottom of the door. But they figured it must be a cat since they're were bars on the window, to stop the cat jumping out the window. They did not find any cats, only the dead dog.

Once they searched upstairs they began to go through every nook and cranny downstairs. Two hours after they police arrived a shout from one of the younger policeman had every member of the police running. A door to the cupboard under the stairs stood open, a young policeman was bending down.

'Get an ambulance, he's alive, but in a bad way.'

While the police waited for the ambulance, the older policeman, the one in charge turned to his younger officer.

'Tell me.'

'We searched everywhere, we could not even find a place where another child would sleep. I found this cupboard locked, from the outside, but the vent was opened, I caught the smell of blood. At first I thought it came from the living room, but it was the only place that hadn't been searched.'

The police all moved back as two ambulance officers hurried inside, 'So it couldn't have been the nephew if he was locked in, add to that he was unconscious, it looks like he was badly beaten. I saw something unusual when I first opened the door, childlike drawings on the wall and one had a cake that said happy birthday Harry.'

The police watched as the ambulance officers wheeled the still unconscious boy out of the house. Two of the police officers followed. They had to stay at the hospital to get a statement from the boy the moment he woke up, the rest stayed inside number four, working the scene of the murder.

Many hours later a doctor and nurse walked up to the two police officers, 'He is going to be alright, but we put him in a coma.'

'When do you think we can question him?'

'Two days at the earliest, he had some bleeding on the brain so we're making sure he remains in a coma to give his skull time to heal,' the doctor handed over his report, 'Someone sure did a number on the boy, multiple breaks, bruises, burns, a badly cracked skull and internal bleeding,' the nurse standing beside the doctor handed over a bag of clothes.

'We'll be back the day after tomorrow. If you do wake him sooner, make sure you write down anything he might say, and contact us straight away. He may be the only witness to the murder of four people, his family.'

'Oh the poor boy, he lost his family.'

'His aunt, uncle and cousin, we found out he lived with them, we have no idea where his parents are. There was another woman there who looked like the uncle. Here is what we do know,' the police handed a sheet of paper to the doctor, 'He is thirteen and had lived with his aunt and uncle since he was a baby. His name is Harry Potter and from what the neighbours told us he is not seen for most of the year, he only returned at the beginning of the school holidays. We didn't find anything that would tell us where he's been and so far we've found no evidence that he goes to a local school.'

'He seems on the small size for thirteen, he is also underweight,' the doctor read the information on the boy who he had just operated on. There wasn't a lot of information here, hopefully they would get more from records of visits to doctors or the hospital.

Not long after the ambulance drove away from Privet drive, a snowy white owl that had been sitting up in a tree of number six screeched loudly then flew off. The familiar of Harry Potter had been forced to stay outside when they first arrived. Her master had quickly opened the cage and when the car pulled up he allowed her to fly off. She would gaze through the window at her master who didn't leave his room, then she had heard her master yell, she had heard those yells before. The big fat one was hurting her master again. It was time she found someone that would help her master.

The snowy white owl found the strange looking house, it flew straight down and into the open window. It began to screech straight away.

'Hedwig,' Molly yelled, 'Ron, Ron.'

Ron hurried down the stairs, 'Did Harry finally send a letter?'

'No, but Hedwig won't be quiet.'

Ron hurried over to the white owl, 'Is something wrong girl?' the owl screeched loudly again.

'I'll floo Albus, give the poor owl something to eat and drink.'

Ron stared at Hedwig for a minutes, then gently and cautious gave her a pat. He placed on her on the perch used normally for Errol who was outside, passed out on the roof of the shed. He wasn't sure what was going on, but he was worried. He had spoken with Fred and George, they were going to try and work on rescuing Harry again, like the did a year ago, but they didn't have the car anymore so they couldn't work out how to get to Surrey. Now they wished they had found a way as it seems Harry was in trouble again, big trouble.