~1~

It was a muggy day when he first heard her. The air was heavy and stifling but he didn't know if it was just him in his paranoia making a fuss out of his shitty accommodations or if that was how it really was. He was laying out flat in the flowerbed outside Number four, Privet Drive, Surrey. He was trying to hide, sort of. Mostly he was trying to listen in on the news or even if Petunia had some weird gossip that might be relevant. He'd been trying to figure out what was going on, to see if maybe Voldemort was murdering muggles like he expected him to but he didn't have that many sources of information.

He thought he could count on his friends. He was wrong. They'd almost been teasing him in their letters, making it obvious that they knew a lot but wouldn't, couldn't, shouldn't tell him anything.

Words escaped him as he tried to put his frustration into his letters. Their brief utter shite messes of letters were met with equally brief angry replies from him and he just wished he had the satisfaction of knowing that they would read them and feel just a hint of the anger he felt.

But he knew his friends too well. Hermione would insist it was for his best, it would take only a disappointed look from Dumbledore or McGonagall, or even Mrs Weasley to convince her about it. She was brave, sure, and she had an innate sense of right and wrong that was incredibly strong but it was just so easily manipulated. Harry himself was ashamed to say he had often used it in the very same way.

And Ron, well Ron would do as he was told. He was always eager to break rules but only when someone else did it with him. Without Hermione to take the lead, Ron would never follow.

So there he was, hiding outside behind giant hydrangea bushes was all Harry could do to actually learn something about his world. Petunia and Vernon were watching the news as usual and there was something on about some Spanish baggage handlers' strike.

"Give 'em a lifelong siesta I would," Vernon growled and Harry heard a snort from somewhere, though he couldn't quite tell where the sound was coming from.

"Bet that Farage bastard would love Vernon-", a sneering voice announced and Harry almost shot upright in surprise. Instead he crawled away to a vantage point and looked around carefully, his eyes trained on the garden adorn him. His eyes widened as a he spotted a patch of flattened grass, a sight he had seen last when he himself had made his way around Hogwarts grounds under his invisibility cloak. There was a loud sound, as if a car backfired and he drew his wand quickly, startled. He couldn't see anything out of the ordinary but that was the exact sound Dobby had made when he'd appeared in his room those years ago. Vernon popped his head out the window and luckily Harry spotted him just as he turned to where Harry was standing. He ducked out of view quick as could be. He could hear Vernon's grumbles and leaned his head back against the wall in silent relief, waiting for his racing heart to calm down.

"Fucking Mundungus. I swear I hate him more than Umbridge at times. No, that's not quite right, Umbridge, Mundungus, Dumbledore and then Voldie. Yeah, that's about right."

"What the fuck?" Harry muttered out loud. This woman….she knew Dumbledore and Voldemort. And she was talking straight into his head, how the hell was she doing that? "Anyone there?" He said softly, not sure what he was expecting. The woman had to be close by to hear what Vernon was saying but how was she doing this? Even the grass that was bent from being stood on was now uncurling, there was no one there.

How was she talking to him? And why the hell did it seem so loud when Vernon didn't hear it from just a few feet away?

"What the hell is going on?"

"Whoa, the book is changing, wha-why is it changing?! What the fuck, I swear this wasn't in it before! Did someone prank me? But how could they do this, it's like magic!"

Harry frowned. The woman obviously knew magic, she knew about Dumbledore and Voldemort, no muggle knew about them and didn't know about magic. So why the surprise? What was going on?

"I could swear when I read it before Harry got caught by Vernon, what is happening?"

"What do you mean I got caught by Vernon?" Harry couldn't help but say out loud, head whipping from one place to another looking for the source of the voice. So much for the blood protection.

"...You can hear me?"

"Well...yeah," Harry caught sight of the neighbour's cat and stared at it. Maybe it was an animagus that could talk in his mind.

"Holy shit! You can hear me?"

"I already said yes." He scoffed, annoyed.

"Harry freaking Potter is hearing me! And the book is shifting and...whoa, this is Rowling's style but not exactly!"

"What do you mean 'the book is shifting'? And who is this Rowling?" Harry asked, impatient. What was going on?

"Harry, what I'm about to say next is weird and you're probably not going to believe me."

He waited, shifting from one foot to the other impatiently. He believed in magic, whatever she was going to say couldn't be that crazy.

"I am...well, was, reading a book. A book called Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix actually. It's the fifth in the series and it's written by a woman called J K Rowling."

"...What?"

"-Only somehow you heard me talking and things changed and I can see it in the book, I can see how it's changed, holy crap, Harry, I can read our conversation in it!"

"What do you mean changed?"

"It's the Fourth Wall, Harry, the imaginary wall between our worlds, it's broken!"

How was this his life?!