A/N:

Disclaimer - Sadly I don't Harry or any of his friends or places in the Wizarding World. I don't even own the character Brionna Culver seeing as she's based on one of my best mates! I do however own the plot and any other original characters.

Summary - Follow Harry through his seventh and final year at Hogwarts where he has to deal with girl problems, being a teenager and Voldemort and his Horcruxes. HBP spoilers, prequel to One Night Can Change Everything.

This is my second fic on here and it's the prequel to One Night Can Change Everything. There isn't really a need to read that one first coz it's all explained in here, it can just be read as a sequel.

Anyways now onto our feature presentation. Here's Chapter 1! Enjoy!

Chapter 1 - The Last Summer with the Muggles.

A sixteen year old ebony haired and emerald eyed boy was laying on his broken bed in the smallest bedroom of number four Privet Drive in Surrey.

All the boy could think about was his best friends and the war that was currently happening in his world.

You see this boy was highly unusual, he wasn't strange in any way nor was he a freak.

He was unusual because he possessed the power of magic.

This boy was a wizard and a very famous one at that.

You see this boy was Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived or The Chosen One as he had been known as recently.

He turned from his side onto his back and fixed his eyes upon the dark ceiling.

Harry Potter thought about his short but eventful life.

He had no parents, they had been killed when Harry was just a year old.

The whole family had gone into hiding shortly after Harry was born because a dark wizard who went by the alias of Lord Voldemort wanted to kill Harry.

You see a prophecy had been made about Harry shortly after his birth and Voldemort had gotten wind of it via one of his followers.

This prophecy said 'The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches ... born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies ... and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal.'

But there is another part to this prophecy that Voldemort does not know.

This part wasn't heard by the follower that had heard the first part.

But it was heard by Harry when he got told about this prophecy when he was fifteen.

Once Voldemort had heard the first part he found out where the Potter's were hiding and went to the house.

First he killed Harry's father James who tried to give Harry's mother time to run by fighting Lord Voldemort.

Lord Voldemort then killed Harry's mother Lily before trying to kill Harry.

Fortunately the curse simply rebounded off Harry leaving him with a lightning bolt shaped scar on his forehead and hit Voldemort.

Voldemort didn't die but the effect of the curse hitting him made him become almost nothing.

Since he was eleven Harry has faced Voldemort four times and each time Voldemort has tried to kill him but each time he tried, Voldemort failed.

Harry knew that the next time he saw Voldemort, one of them would die.

He had also vowed to himself that he would kill Voldemort and rid his world of Voldemort and his followers.

This is the story of that next time.

Harry continued to stare at the ceiling while pondering about his best friends Ron and Hermione and whether they had gotten over themselves and told each other their feelings that they had for one another.

He then thought about the war that was happening and wondered whether the Order had had any success in capturing any of the Death Eaters yet.

Harry turned over onto his tummy and stared at the wall whilst willing himself not to think about Ginny Weasley.

But she just seemed to push herself into his mind and plague him for hours at a time.

Ginny Weasley was Harry's ex girlfriend who he split up with at the end of his sixth year at Hogwarts.

Hogwarts was the school that Harry went to to learn about magic and how to use it.

By now Harry was thinking about when he split up with Ginny and could remember it like it was yesterday.

"Ginny, listen ..." Harry said very quietly, as the buzz of conversation grew louder around them and people began to get to their feet. "I can't be involved with you anymore. We've got to stop seeing each other. We can't be together."

She said, with an oddly twisted smile, "it's for some stupid, noble reason, isn't it?"

"It's been like ... like something out of someone else's life, these last few weeks," said Harry. "But I can't ... we can't ... I've got things to do alone now."

She did not cry, she simply looked at him.

"Voldemort uses people his enemies are close to. He's already used you as bait once, and that was just because you're my best friend's sister. Think how much danger you'll be in if we keep this up. He'll know, he'll find out. He'll try and get to me through you."

"What if I don't care?" said Ginny fiercely.

"I care," said Harry. "How do you think I'd feel if this was your funeral ... and it was my fault ..."

She looked away from him, over the lake.

"I never really gave up on you," she said. "Not really. I always hoped ... Hermione told me to get on with life, maybe go out with some other people, relax a bit around you, because I never used to talk if you were in the room, remember? And she thought you might take a bit more notice if I was a bit more - myself."

"Smart girl, that Hermione," said Harry, trying to smile. "I just wish I'd asked you sooner. We could've had ages ... months ... years maybe ..."

"But you've been too busy saving the wizarding world," said Ginny, half-laughing. "Well ... I can't say I'm surprised. I knew this would happen in the end. I knew you wouldn't be happy unless you were hunting Voldemort. Maybe that's why I like you so much."

Harry shook his head and sighed, he'd always thought about that memory more than others.

Ginny Weasley had always been a stubborn witch.

It came with her personality, maybe that's why he liked her so much.

It was because of her that he sat alone on the Hogwarts Express coming back to Privet Drive.

Harry knew that she would be sat with Ron and Hermione and he knew that he couldn't face her.

To be honest, Harry was afraid of what she would do to him.

He was afraid that she would lose her temper and cause an argument between herself and Harry.

If there had been an argument, it could have also caused an amount of awkwardness between Harry and Ron seeing as Ginny was Ron's little sister.

And anyway if Ginny and Harry had had an argument it wouldn't have fixed anything, Harry would still want to hug Ginny and never let go of her when they had finished shouting at each other.

Harry sighed again and looked at the window.

The sun was rising slowly and that was when Harry realised that he had yet again spent the whole night thinking.

He had been doing that a lot recently, especially since he had gotten back from school.

Sometimes it was about the war or Ron and Hermione.

But sometimes he would think about Ginny and Dumbledore.

He would wonder what would have happened if he hadn't have gone with Dumbledore on that fateful night.

He would ask himself questions like would Dumbledore have gotten the fake Horcrux or would he have still died at the hand of Snape?

He would think about these questions for hours trying to answer them but each time he failed.

Harry rubbed his eyes and sat up on the bed.

As he sat up, he could hear the bed creak and groan under his weight as a result of his sudden movement.

Harry blinked a couple of times then moved slowly over to the window.

He looked down into Aunt Petunia's neat garden.

Harry could see that there was a fresh patch of weeds that he was sure that Uncle Vernon would make him pull out later that day.

At least pulling weeds out of the garden was better than having Dudley hunt you down and use you as a human punch bag to practise his boxing on every day.

He carried on looking and saw a bush move as though someone was sitting amongst the forest green leaves and had moved suddenly.

He shook his head and told himself that the lack of sleep that he was getting was causing him to think these things.

He then saw the oversized beach ball that was his cousin Dudley stagger up the path, it seemed as though he had gotten himself drunk again for what must have been the third time that week.

Harry had noticed that Dudley's gang hadn't been content with underage smoking and going around terrorising the local children recently so they had now resorted to underage drinking and staying out all night.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia hadn't noticed that Dudley was staying out all night getting drunk.

They thought that he had been going round to one of his friend's houses and staying there every night.

Harry stopped staring out of the window and wandered downstairs.

As he stepped off the very last step of the staircase, Dudley opened the front door and fell over.

Harry watched Dudley roll around on the floor shrieking with laughter.

He then heard someone walking along the upstairs landing rather heavily and he hurried into the kitchen to start making breakfast before anyone could moan at him.

The exact same someone was now walking down the stairs.

Suddenly Harry heard a high pitched scream that he guessed belonged to Aunt Petunia.

He stifled a laugh and concentrated on the eggs that he was now frying on the stove.

While he was doing this, Harry strained his ears so that he could hear the commotion in the hallway.

"Vernon! Vernon get down here! Something's happened to Diddydums!" Aunt Petunia shouted rather hysterically.

She then proceeded to whisper to Dudley and at that point Harry knew that she was stroking Dudley's blonde hair.

Dudley seemed to stop shrieking with laughter and Aunt Petunia shouted again.

Whilst she was shouting, Harry could still hear bouts of laughter erupting from Dudley and was willing to bet his broomstick that Dudley was still rolling around on the floor.

Harry heard his Uncle thunder down the stairs.

As soon as Aunt Petunia saw Uncle Vernon she stopped shouting and pursed her horse like mouth.

All that could be heard now was Dudley giggling like a school girl that had gotten her first crush.

Harry carried on cooking and minding his own business as he didn't know how much Dudley had had to drink the previous night.

Suddenly there was a shout from the hallway and Harry groaned.

"Boy! What have you done to my son?" Uncle Vernon shouted in the direction of the kitchen.

"Nothing," Harry replied calmly.

"Don't lie to me boy! What have you done to Dudley?"

"I haven't done anything to him. He came in like that as I got downstairs."

Uncle Vernon walked to the kitchen door and sneered at his nephew.

"Yeah sure you did. Where's that stick of yours?" Uncle Vernon demanded.

"My wand is upstairs in my bedroom. It can't do anything while it's up there and I'm down here," Harry said sarcastically while looking his Uncle in the eye.

"Right, that's it! You're going! Get your stuff and go back to that freak place that you call a school," Uncle Vernon sneered.

"Oh, don't worry. I'm going tonight," Harry replied coolly.

"Why tonight? Why not now?"

Aunt Petunia had by now managed to help Dudley into the kitchen and sat down at the kitchen table.

"Because as of midnight tonight I am seventeen and therefore a legal wizard. There is no need for me to stay here after tonight," Harry said.

Uncle Vernon coughed and spluttered and looked as if he was going to turn purple for a moment.

Harry fought the urge to laugh and kept his face completely straight and therefore unreadable.

Uncle Vernon looked at him and Harry's emotionless face seemed to make him even more angrier than he already was.

Vernon grabbed hold of Harry by the hair and raised his hand to hit his nephew.

Just as he was about to hit Harry, a hand came out of nowhere and grabbed Uncle Vernon's chubby wrist.

Vernon let go of Harry and whirled round to come face to face with his wife.

"Petunia! What are you doing?" Uncle Vernon roared angrily in her face.

Aunt Petunia glared at her husband then looked at Harry who was now rubbing his head where Uncle Vernon had held him.

"You will never raise your hand to my sister's son!" she told him angrily.

"He's had it coming to him for years! It's about time that he learnt his lesson! He'll never learn if we don't punish him!"

"And you don't think he's had enough punishment? You made him live in a cupboard for the majority of his life! He didn't ask for that. You've also abused him mentally and emotionally since we took him in! By taking him in I agreed to keep him safe! And when I let you do all of that to him I wasn't keeping him safe at all! My sister would be apalled if she saw what we have done to him. He's now got more scars than the one on his head except these are all inside of him. Inside of his head. Vernon he's never been loved. I doubt if he even knows how to love another person. Personally I can understand why he wants to leave. If he wants to go then let him go, you've never cared for him anyway. What are you going to gain by keeping him here?"

Uncle Vernon shrugged and seemed surprised at his wife's outburst.

"Exactly! You don't know what you would gain!" Petunia shouted.

Dudley groaned from the table and Aunt Petunia looked at her son.

She sat down at the table and stroked his hair.

"Dudley, did Harry do this to you?" she asked.

Dudley shook his head.

"I ish drunk Mum," he slurred.

Petunia gave a satisfied smirk and looked at her husband who was now turning a violent shade of purple and the vein in his head was throbbing dangerously as a result of the anger that surged through his body.

She then looked at Harry who was looking very astonished at the scene that lay before him.

His Aunt had just defended him, his Uncle looked ready to burst and his cousin looked as though he was about to throw up the entire contents of his stomach all over Aunt Petunia's immaculate kitchen floor.

"Harry," Petunia said, "why don't you go and pack?"

Harry looked surprised at not being addressed as 'boy', 'freak' or 'you' and nodded as he hurried out of the kitchen before anyone could change their minds.

Back in his room, Harry has his trunk open and was arranging his spell books in the bottom of it so that everything else would fit in on top.

Just as he was putting the last of his books into the trunk Harry heard a knock on his door.

Aunt Petunia stuck her head round the door.

"Can I come in?" she asked.

Harry nodded and she sat down on the broken bed.

They sat in silence and Harry realised that she wasn't going to talk anytime soon so he walked to his desk and started to clear off the clutter.

As he picked up the photo album that Hagrid had made him when he was in first year Aunt Petunia spoke.

"Where are you going to go?" she asked.

"To my friend's house then I'm probably going to go where Mum and Dad lived before he killed them," Harry replied.

Aunt Petunia saw Harry's photo album and wondered what it was.

"What's that?"

"A photo album."

"Can I look at it?"

"Okay," Harry shrugged.

He sat down in the bed and opened the book to the first photo.

Aunt Petunia gasped when she saw it.

"That's my Mum and Dad on their wedding day."

Petunia nodded and Harry turned to the next page.

"This is Mum and Dad on the day I was born," Harry explained.

Petunia pointed to the baby that Lily was holding.

"Is that you?" she asked.

Harry nodded and turned a couple of pages to a picture of him, Ron and Hermione that had been taken last summer.

They were sat in the garden of the Burrow laughing and joking with each other.

"Who are they?"

"My best friends Ron and Hermione," Harry replied smiling.

Petunia nodded again as Harry turned the page to the next photo.

He saw what photo it was and quickly snapped the book shut but not before Aunt Petunia had had a glimpse of the photo that he was obviously trying to hide from her.

He then got up off the bed and carried on packing.

Aunt Petunia picked the album up and flicked to the photo that he didn't want her to see.

She looked at it and saw Harry sitting in a red and gold room that she supposed was at his school with a red haired girl, every now and then the Harry in the photo would hug the girl and peck her on the lips.

"Who is she Harry?"

"My ex girlfriend, Ginny Weasley," Harry replied sadly.

"Oh," Aunt Petunia said.

Harry continued to pack his things and knelt on the floor to life the loose floorboard up so that he could pack his secret stash of food.

"She's very pretty."

Harry stopped what he was doing and looked at his aunt.

"You don't need to tell me that. I already know that she's pretty," Harry said sarcastically.

"Why did you split up? That is if you don't mind me asking?"

"Why are you so interested in me all of a sudden?" Harry asked.

"Is it a crime to be interested?"

"No but you haven't cared about me or what I do for sixteen years. Why now? Why did you defend me? If you're trying to stop me from going because you don't want to lose your glorified slave then it's not going to work. I'm still going to leave," Harry insisted.

"Harry, everytime there was a parent's evening I snuck out of the house to see your teachers. I even have a box of pictures that you drew at nursery and brought home with you in my bedroom. I didn't have to take you in but I did. Whether I liked it or not you were my sister's son and I owed her that. I knew that I had to bring you up when I saw you on the doorstep. I may not have shown you affection or love but to some extent I suppose that I did care for you deep down. And as for defending you, I didn't want my husband to lay one finger on you. He's done enough to you over the last sixteen years. I'm sorry for what we have done to you. Can you ever forgive us?" she explained.

"I'll forgive you but I'm not forgiving him or Dudley."

"Okay."

Aunt Petunia then stood up and walked to the bedroom door.

"Oh and Harry, good luck with the rest of your life. You of all people deserve some happiness."

Harry nodded at her retreating back and carried on packing.

After he had finished packing, Harry lay down on his broken bed for the last time and watched the hours tick slowly by.

Apparently the Dursley's felt that they couldn't order Harry to do their chores as they didn't disturb him all day.

As the evening drew on he heard the Dursley's walk up and down the stairs, have showers and finally one by one go to bed.

He continued to watch the minutes go by but it seemed that as it got nearer to midnight they were going by even more slowly than before.

Finally it got to ten minutes to midnight and Harry got up off the bed and grabbed his trunk, wand and Hedwig's empty cage as he had instructed her to fly to the Burrow.

He walked down the stairs and waited outside.

Finally it reached midnight and without taking a last look at number four Privet Drive he stuck out his wand hand and summoned the Knight Bus.

But if he had taken a last look at the house he would have seen in one of the bedroom windows a person looking out of it and watching her nephew walk away from his abusive life.