DISCLAIMER: All things Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.

A/N: I hadn't actually finished writing Nothing From Nowhere yet when I started posting this. (It's finished now, though.) You might think it's weird that I started writing the sequel before I finished the first story, but I wanted to get this one started before I got distracted by my other fics.

Chapter 1 doesn't have any spoilers for the ending of Nothing From Nowhere, anyway. Mostly because this chapter is about Harry.

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 1: Bleeding In a Sink -

Petunia Dursley never thought she'd find herself sneaking through her own house in the dark. Then again, she never expected to wake up hearing strange noises coming from her kitchen in the middle of the night, either.

"Harry, what are you doing?"

Her 16-year-old nephew was standing with his back to her, hunched over the kitchen counter. She heard a steady splash of liquid falling into the sink, but the water wasn't running...

"I'm being cursed," Harry answered through gritted teeth.

"I thought... they couldn't... here... there was supposed to be protection..."

"Yeah, well, someone's got a direct line to me," he said darkly. "And he's allowed some else to trace along the pathway of that line with her... powers... and curse me."

Petunia couldn't help but notice that despite the state her nephew was currently in, he had consciously avoided saying the word magic to her. It seemed he had untapped reserves of inner strength.

Ironically, just as she was thinking that, Harry reached his breaking point.

"Why?" he cried out to his invisible attacker. "Why are you doing this to me? I saved your life. I saved your life!"

His aunt could not hear the reply that whispered across his mind.

Your mistake.