The Fire of the Phoenix
Chapter one; A Day at the Dursleys'
Early morning, before the sun ever thought about coming up, Harry Potter woke to the sound of loud knocking on his bedroom door. He screwed his eyes shut a little tighter, as if trying to prolong waking up, even if it was only for a few more seconds. The pounding on the door persisted, and Harry let out a groan. They could not let him just sleep in, even just only once.
Aunt Petunia bellowed out, "Hurry and get up, you need to cook breakfast before your Uncle goes to work." Harry sighed and slowly rolled out of the bed. He quickly got dressed in his cousin's overly large and tattered hand-me-down clothes. He went to the loo, and splashed cold water upon his face to wake him up a little more. He paused to look at his reflection in the mirror. His raven black hair was as messy as ever. There were deep purplish blue shadows under his eyes from the lack of sleep. Harry quickly ran a comb through his messy black hair, but it would not lie down. He through it down with a grim satisfaction that he knew his uncle hated the fact that his hair was always messy. He quickly looked away from the mirror, disgusted with his appearance. He hurried and finished washing. Harry hurried down the steps to the kitchen.
At least breakfast was now easy to make, due to Dudley's new diet. All Harry had to do was set out the grapefruit quarters and pour some orange juice. The stairs creaked as Dudley came down them and he looked at the breakfast with disgust. Surprisingly, unlike most mornings, he did not say a word. He looked at Harry with a sneer, but stayed silent.
Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia came down together. They looked at their son adoringly, but spared no look for Harry, who was perfectly happy being ignored which was better than the alternative.
Breakfast was soon over and Harry had finished the dishes. Today looked like it was going to be a typical day filled with endless and backbreaking chores. Harry looked at the to do list that his Aunt had given him and sighed. The list would take him all day to so. He was tired of being a bloody slave to the Dursley's Harry walked down the back porch steps and went to work weeding in the garden.
He was sure that Ron and Hermione were having a better holiday than he was. At least they did not have to do slave labor from sun up to sun down. Harry was also positive that they were together by judging their letters. He wish he could just take his firebolt and fly off and forget Voldemort, forget the war, and just have a chance to be normal. What he would give to have a normal family and a normal life.
Harry thought he would be treated better this summer. Mad Eye Moody had threatened Uncle Vernon at the train station just weeks before. They now only yelled at him if he did not finish his chores on time. The rest of the time, they just left him notes, and pretended that he did not even exist. He did not know what were worst their taunting insults, or the silence and sneers on their faces when they saw him.
By nine o'clock, the sun was shinning brightly and beating down on his back. Harry felt the sweat beads from his forehead running down his face. He looked at his to do list and groaned. Today's list of work would never be finished before his Uncle arrived back home from the office. He hurriedly continued pulling weeds from the garden. The only thing good about the long list of chores it did not give him to much time to think about Sirius.
Harry felt he was starving by the time Aunt Petunia called him in to eat his lunch. He saw a grilled cheese sandwich, and a glass of water. On the side of the plate was an apple. "Well I guess they don't want to let me starve completely." Harry thought to himself. He quickly settled down to eat his lunch as quickly as possible. When he was done he still felt a little hungry, but he knew better than to complain. Harry sighed to himself as he gets up from the table. He gathered his lunch dishes. He quickly washed his plate and glass. He put them back in the cabinet. He slowly walked out the door. He was not looking forward going back into the hot sun. He picked up the hedge trimmers and began trim the hedges. The sun was beating down his back. Harry braced himself for a long afternoon. "Just another exciting day in the life of 'Harry Potter'." He muttered to himself quietly.
A couple hours later Uncle Vernon arrived at the house. He had left the office early and should have been in a good mood. If he had been in a good mood it only lasted long enough to see that Harry's chores were not completely finished. Vernon turned a darker than normal shade of purple and in a rage began screaming at Harry. "You lazy, good for nothing brat! You didn't finish your work today." Vernon's face grew purple as he sputtered with ignition. "Just get out of my sight!" Harry quickly made his way up to his room and lay down on the bed. He looked at Dudley's old clock and counted the hours until his birthday. Ever so slowly the timed crawled by.
The more he thought about his birthday the more depressed he got, it just reminded him of the Prophecy. After all that happened he asked, 'Why me? Why do I have to be the chosen one to defeat Voldemort?' "Neither can live while the other survives". That was the part of the Prophecy that haunted him the most. He had to either be murdered or become a murderer. Harry felt sick at the thought of having to kill, even if it was Voldemort.
He felt the guilt and anguish of Sirius's death consume him. It was his entire fault, Harry knew it. The night slowly crept in leaving the day far behind. The stars came out one by one. Harry's stomach let out a growl, but he did the best to ignore it. After all this was not the first time that he had missed a meal. Harry rolled over and faced the wall. He was trying to force the sleep to come.
The Dursley's soon went to bed and the house became still. Harry jumped as the quiet was broken when an owl came crashing in his room. As the owl fell to the floor, Harry recognized him as the Weasley's owl, Errol. Even though Errol was considerably past his prime, he was still fluffy enough not to make too much noise. Harry knew it was best not to wake the Dursleys' at this or any other time of night. He noticed that there was a package tied to Errol along with a note, and he quickly untied them both. It was a birthday cake from Mrs. Weasley, and a note from the family. They hoped all was well and they hoped to see him soon.
Pig and another owl collided as they were both trying to get in through the one small window. Harry grasped the letter from the other owl deciding to make Pig wait. If Hedwig had been there to watch, Harry knew she would have been pleased.
He recognized the other owl as a school owl. The Hogwarts' owl always delivered the list of school supplies he needed for the upcoming year. This time there were two attached envelopes. The second contained Harry's Owl Test scores. He took a deep breath before opening that envelope. It read; Transfiguration E, Potions O, Charms E, Astronomy A, Defense Against the Dark Arts O, History of Magic T, Divination T, Care of Magical Creatures E.
Harry let out a sigh of relief. He had done much better than he expected. Now he could take the Newt classes that would allow him to go for Auror training. Harry finally felt that something was going his way.
Pig had landed on the dresser instead of continually zooming about the room. This made it easier for Harry to untie the parcel from Pig's leg. It was Bertie Botts every flavor beans and a box of twelve chocolate frogs. He also saw a spell book about defense against the dark arts. He wondered how Pig managed to carry the load from the Burrow. No wonder the bird had to rest on the dresser.
The book's cover didn't lay flat and when Harry opened it, he found a small pendant shaped like a phoenix. The pendant seemed to have a life of its own. It gleamed with silver and gold like a bright burning fire. As he touched the phoenix, a note appeared from Ginny. He read it quickly at first and then read the note again, slowly.
Dear Harry,
I know I have not written to you before but after what happened at the ministry
I feel that you need all the friends you can get, to help you through this. If you need
Anything
at all, you can write me anytime. I am giving you my good luck charm.
My dad got it for me after what happened in the chamber. I feel that
it is time to pass it on to you. May it help you as it did me?
Your
friend
Ginny
Harry
was touched that Ginny had given him something that was hers. It
meant more to him because it had been close to her. He never really
knew her much before the past year. She was always too scared to talk
around him, but in the past year, she seemed to really grow up. He
was finally able to really talk to her, and get to know her. His
fingers traced the outline of the pendant. Then he lifted it up and
put it on his neck. He felt and instant comforting warmth come over
him. Harry smiled for the first time perhaps in weeks.
He moved on to the letter Pig was still holding. It was from Ron and Hermione, wishing him happy birthday and hoping to see him soon.
Soon there was another owl came flying through his window. He recognized it as Hagrid's owl. When Harry opened the package, surprisingly he didn't get any rock cakes, but instead he got a knife that had symbols of the four houses on it.
"Wow!" Hagrid didn't usually give presents like this.
It was well past midnight and Harry was so tired, and he was full from birthday cake that he could not keep his eyes open. He shut the lights out and fell into a dreamless sleep.
Author's note: I hope you like this story. This is my first fan fiction ever. So please be nice and leave a review. That way I know what the readers are thinking.
Cheers
Dolphingirl79