But life doesn't always end up like it's predicted.
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Boom.
The Boy lurched upwards, eyes wide open as dizziness assaulted his self. It was the kind of dizziness one got from leaning too far on a chair or maybe from leaning too far off a heightened sleeping surface, while you were asleep.
With the dizziness came panic.
What just happened? It felt too real! His breath heavied as he tried to recall what happened. Like all dreams, what happened in his dream state quickly vanished and each time he tried to firmly grasp it, the memories danced away. Kind of like a quick breeze searching for a lit candle, The Boy mused.
He could remember a feeling of horror and uncertainty, dismay and confusion- a black figure striding through them, form moving and shifting like smoke. Still holding a general sense of the form but not quite fully committing. Quite frankly, the figure gave him a sense of a rabid dog who hated to be called just that - rabid. He needed to know what happened though, even if he couldn't remember why.
As he explored this train of thought, it expanded. The figure was-
Swift rapts followed by a "Get up and help me," shattered his thoughts. Lurching forward, he wanted to scream. He could remember the first part of the dream now!
"Yes Aunt Petunia, I'll be right there!" He waited for a couple seconds, too excited to say any more words, before rushing out to shake the morning fog out of his head and pushing through his door as fast as he could. Not too fast nor too slow - the time was now and he was not going to miss a chance to help himself by getting caught behind by Petunia.
He could wait a little bit longer to see if things really were going to happen or if it was just a dream. Magic was just a fairytale after all, everything else was placebo and coincidence. Maybe they were wrong though…
"What am I doing today, Aunt Petunia?"
"Gardening and Housework. Can you get the bermuda grass this morning?" She pursed her lips and eyed him, "You will… you will get them." Should he slip himself a knife? Did he need one?
Better safe than sorry, he passed by the knives and paused. Petunia had her back to him. Grinning triumphantly, he put one into his pants, knife down and facing away from his stomach, and stepped out of the house.
It would be a hardship when he had to squat down but, if memory served him right, then The Aunt wouldn't come out to help him. Actually, now that he thought about it, he might as well bolt now. If there was truly nothing to worry about, then the most that would happen is that he would get punished.
Although that came to question whether he would rather be punished or kidnapped but Aunt Petunia said once that children ought to stay with their right parents. Harry hoped he wouldn't have to die soon though, because that would be unfortunate. Very unfortunate. Not to mention he would stand out and The Boy really hoped he wouldn't.
The Boy, previously squat during his inner monologue, looked left. Then he looked right. Nothing peculiar bar from a few odd owls and cats. Then he bolted over the fence, scrambling the while.
No one was watching him but he took the back route anyway, the one that led to a small forest where he could then switch directions and hide out somewhere else without trouble. It was a place he knew like the back of his hand.
No one would force him into danger, not on his watch.
The forest came into view soon enough. It was the kind of forest where the trees were spread out enough to move through with several carts but still not let a lot of light to the bottom. That meant not much underbrush and not many low branches - bad for hiding - but he would make do. The little stubs that were from earlier branches, now barred from light and life, were good enough to climb on. Them and any hollows other animals made, and wow was there animals. Birds of all sorts flew and chirped around while smaller animals darted in and out of his vision.
The forest was noisy, but not like the noise that came from the city, or even the neighborhood around The Boy's house. No, this noisy was natural and it went smooth into his ears. There was no need to shrink away from here, no real danger here. The forest was safe, after all.
Harry took a deep breath, inhaling all the scents of the woods and it's creatures.
He started skipping after a few feet into the forest- it was like a fairy tale! Harry added a few spins, it could be his own fairy tale, but could he have a tale of his own? He was only a boy and there weren't a lot about them and he couldn't just be a knight! Killing dragons were really bad manners, if they wanted someone then, Harry thought, that they would be well mannered to ask first! No one asked the princess if they were even kidnapped in the first place! See how rude it is to assume things before knowing all the facts? He thought to himself, the whole ordeal was simply infuriating.
Sighing, he stopped skipping and spinning. The whole thing was silly. Fairy tales were stupid anyway, even The Cousin thought so…
"What to do, what to do…" It would be a while before he reached civilization again. What should he do? He kicked a rock, frustrated. This thing was kind of… not smart. He only had a knife with him on this crazy journey, inspired by what could have just been an educated guess, it wasn't like those types of mornings were different! The only thing different were the weird people in clothing and even that could be explained away by being a new flavor in his dreams. Dreams were known to be fantastical, after all.
Zoning out was ridiculously easy when you had to traverse a wood, climbing over various large roots taller than yourself and the occasional fallen tree or small cliff. Soon enough, he reached the edge of the woods. The trees thinning, both in quantity and width. Silently, he mourned the loss of nature.
Nothing was really around, only a field of grass and flowers. Harry pursed his lips, hopefully it wouldn't take long to find the nearest house. But, oh how he would hate to trample this nice place in the meanwhile.
The grass stretched further on, much to his irritation. It kept on for what felt like an hour, but honestly, it was a dark day again. The clouds overhead did nothing to help his attempts at telling how long it has been or even what time it was, which he normally wouldn't have had trouble with.
More and more trees trickled in until finally, there was a borderline of trees lining a road. Seems like the little field was a secret the forest kept… Harry spotted a house across the road from him.
How exciting! People! But would they be good for him? What if they had been taken already? He bit his lip - this would be a hard decision. If he picked the wrong one would he simply go back like the vision from before, if one could even call it that? What if he was wrong about the whole thing and they would bring him back to his relative's house and everything was normal? That would be pretty embarrassing but worth it, and so he carefully tip toed over to the house in his house slippers and bland grey, hand-me-down pajamas he got from The Cousin and stepped up to their porch.
Then, he knocked on the door and waited.
AN: This really did not want to get written, sorry for the long wait guys. What with all the rewrites for this chapter (I got all the way to a chapter four before scrapping the entire idea and replacing it with this oof) and stress from IRL, it has been difficult man.
Enough of my whining, I don't own anything any Harry Potter things, it's all J.K. Rowling, but I hope you enjoy my fanwork. Next chapter will hopefully be longer, I have plans for it. Let's hope it actually comes out in the next two weeks lol-
God the spacing in this is awful on here, it looks better in g-docs, sorry guys.