A/N - JKR owns the idea, all of these characters, and all the associated
greatness. I only own the new ideas.
Chapter 1
Difficult Dursleys
If Harry Potter thought the TriWizard Tournament had been difficult, it was nothing compared to the list of chores that his aunt and uncle were certain to have laid out for him to do during the summer before his fifth year of school --- assuming they even talked to him this summer. Of course, that meant that they had to pick him up from the train station first. And so far that hadn't happened.
Harry knew better than to expect anything less than complete and utter contempt from his relatives. He knew that they would be hours late meeting him at the train station. They didn't disappoint him.
He waited ---
--- And he waited.
Long after all of his other schoolmates had left the train station he was still there. The Weasleys had insisted on waiting with him but he soon found that he couldn't take the frequent looks of pity that they sent his way so he pretended to have seen his uncle and began gathering his things together. Reminding Mr Weasley that his uncle probably wouldn't be too happy to see them again (ever since his twin sons had caused Dudley's tongue to swell to roughly the size of a cricket bat and he himself had blown up their living room), he hurriedly bade goodbye to the Weasleys and made his way across the station. When he was sure that the Weasleys had left, he doubled back to Platform 9 ¾ so that Uncle Vernon would be able to find him when (or if) he came.
He found an empty bench to sit down and wait. He spent the time trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible as he watched the passerbys. He thought he was doing a pretty decent job too considering he was sitting alone in a train station with, among other things, a large cauldron and a snowy white owl. He was just about to win a bet with himself about how long the bench next to him could suffer silently under the weight of a particularly large woman when he heard ---
"Let's go boy," Uncle Vernon called abruptly almost an hour after Harry had given up hope that anyone would actually come to pick him up.
He got up and struggled through the train station with his luggage and his owl's cage because, of course, his uncle didn't offer to help him manage. Harry did receive some peculiar looks as he negotiated his path but he figured at least those looks were better than the ones he received when he left his school just hours ago or the Weasleys a little while after that. Most of the faculty and the students --- except for the Slytherins --- cast sympathetic glances at Harry whenever possible ever since the end of the TriWizard Tournament. He was glad to at least be getting away from that for a few weeks. He didn't want to be the subject of everyone's pity.
Even so, there was no place in his heart for Number Four, Privet Drive. But on the positive side, at least it was one place that Harry would not have to worry about everyone he knew offering him their sympathies and well wishes. It would be one thing if the witches and wizards at Hogwarts actually knew what he went through in the fourth task but no one did --- how could they? He himself hadn't even been able yet to fully come to terms with everything that had happened.
The one thing that Harry Potter did know was that for the first time in his life, he didn't really mind going back to Privet Drive. And this single realization unnerved him almost as much as everything else that had happened to him this year. When he finally put his brain to it, he came up with some possibilities.
There were two explanations for this actually. The first was that even Voldemort himself admitted that Harry was safe with his relatives. And he had to admit that that brought a lot of comfort. At least that was one less thing he had to worry about which was probably for the best. He seriously doubted that any more concerns or thoughts could even fit inside of his head. He knew that any more new worries would force some useful charm or hex out of his brain. According to Dumbledore, Harry was safer at Privet Drive than he was even at Hogwarts. (Although if he was truthful, he didn't feel all that safe at school. During his first, second, and fourth years he had faced Voldemort in one form or another. And during his third year he had faced the dark wizard that allowed he and his parents to be found by Voldemort.)
The second explanation for not dreading his return to Privet Drive was that Harry knew that his relatives would treat him no differently than they ever had before. Almost always, he hated how badly his aunt, uncle, and cousin treated him just because he happened to be a wizard. However, since everyone at his school had been walking on eggshells lately, Harry found that he was almost eager to receive his "normal" treatment from the Dursleys.
Once again he wasn't disappointed with the reception he got when he opened the door to the house on Privet Drive.
"No more free rides for you," Aunt Petunia began when he walked through the door carrying Uncle Vernon's briefcase as well as his entire luggage from the previous year. He had wanted to make a separate trip to the car for Hedwig's cage but she was having none of that. Apparently she was smart enough to realize that Uncle Vernon was just as likely to drive off with her as not and she made such a racket that Uncle Vernon actually picked up the cage and followed Harry inside.
Aunt Petunia stared at Vernon looking in turns from the cage in his hand to Harry and back again before finally voicing her outrage.
"What are you doing? You're not the boy's servant. Let him carry his own freaky rat cage."
"Hedwig's not a rat. She's an owl!"
Hedwig hooted her agreement from her cage.
Uncle Vernon's face was visibly reddening. He slammed the front door shut. "BOY! Watch what you say in this house. ESPECIALLY when the front door is open. Do you understand me?"
He sighed deeply before answering. "Yes Uncle Vernon."
"You'd do well to remember that lesson boy."
Dudley was laughing from his vantage point on the stairs. Although Harry heard him, he didn't even bother to look at his cousin. He couldn't care less about Dudley Dursley and he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he had gotten to Harry.
"Now, before you so much as have one sip of water you will --- " Harry just sighed wishing for the hundredth time in the last hour that he could stay with his friend Ron Weasley. Harry would give almost anything to be at the Burrow right now de-gnoming the Weasley garden and having contests to see who could throw them the farthest. Although he caught bits and pieces of what she was saying, "mow the lawn, clean the gutters, weed the garden --- " he only listened enough to know that he was in for a long summer. He would worry about tomorrow's problems tomorrow.
He took all of his stuff into his room and spent the evening wondering what all was going on the fight against Voldemort. Among other things he was wondering: what errand Dumbledore sent Hagrid off to do, what Snape had gone to do that made him pale at the very thought, what Sirius and the "old gang" were doing, who all was in the "old gang", what Mr Weasley was doing at the ministry and especially what Voldemort and his Death Eaters were doing right this very minute. He finally fell asleep still wondering about current events in the wizarding world.
BANG BANG BANG
"Get up; you will get up this very instant Harry Potter!" Aunt Petunia was shouting. "You have plenty of work to do and you will not spend the entire day lounging around in bed waiting to be served breakfast in bed. Get up. Are you up yet?"
"Yes Aunt Petunia."
He looked over at the clock. It said the time was 06:00 AM. He hadn't been on Privet Drive for twenty-four hours yet and he was already miserable and dreading the rest of the summer. His head was still too full to properly worry about it though. He would get up and face the day's challenges as they came hour by hour. (He wasn't sure he could handle any more than that.)
While half-heartedly getting dressed and going down stairs, Harry had no false hopes about how pitiful his breakfast would be. Dudley had grown a little taller during the last school year; he was now five foot two both ways. Aunt Petunia was sure to have put him back on his diet, which meant that Harry wouldn't even be given enough food to survive. (The only way Aunt Petunia could get Dudley to stay on his diet was to give him more food than Harry.) He made a mental note to owl his friends --- except Hagrid --- tonight to send food like they did last summer. They probably saved his life and he was sure he'd need them as much this summer as the last one, if not more.
He smiled to himself as he thought about the pleasant surprise he had last night. He was glad that he had a friend like Hermione who was clever and often planned ahead. When he opened his trunk last night he found weeks worth of snacks and candy; even though he hadn't seen her near his trunk, it was such an unexpected and ingenious idea that it must have belonged to Hermione. A small part of him had been afraid that it was the twins that had stocked his trunk but he bravely tasted one of the pasties any way. He counted to ten in his head before deciding his food was safe (and therefore wasn't provided by the Weasley twins.)
Harry was still smiling to himself when he got downstairs. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia ignored Harry when he entered the kitchen until he reached for an apple. "Just what do you think you're doing?" his uncle challenged.
He didn't think that he was being very secretive but his if his uncle wanted to know then Harry would tell him. "Getting an apple."
"Oh no you don't. You haven't earned it yet. First you work and then, if you deserve it, you eat."
And so the summer began.
After spending the first day toiling in the hot sun only to be rewarded with water and pretzels he was relieved to awake the second morning only to find it pouring outside. However, if he thought this would be enough to save him from slaving around the rest of the day he was sadly mistaken. He was mortified to learn that the Dursleys had made arrangements to lend him out to their neighbors. His aunt and uncle had told several of their neighbors to make Harry clean their attics and garages and any other menial tasks they could think of convincing them that the boy needed the discipline.
This was an all time low for Harry. He couldn't believe that he was actually being passed around through the neighborhood for all the menial jobs that no one wanted to do. He came home after the first day completely fed up.
"I'm not going to do that any more. You made me work through lunch after sending me off to work all day with only a single stupid section of grapefruit for breakfast. I'm not doing it any more. The next house you send me to will learn where I REALLY go to school and what I REALLY study there."
Harry was surprised that his uncle was smiling. Whatever it meant it couldn't mean anything good. Finally his uncle spoke to him. "Oh really?"
"Really."
"Are you sure about that boy?"
This time Harry just stood there defiantly with his arms folded over his chest. He didn't say anything. Soon his uncle continued. As he listened to his uncle he slowly began to understand why he was in such a good mood.
"Oh yes you are going to continue working boy --- if you know what's good for you that is." Uncle Vernon answered. "It's about time that we get some work out of you. No appreciation at all for the shelter, food and clothes that we've given you all these years. The only thing we've had to show for it is a blown up living room from some of those freaks like you."
"DO NOT call the Weasleys freaks! They are very nice people. They're always nice to you all, even after you yelled at them and even threw things at them. You will not talk about them that way."
Uncle Vernon seemed to be taking this outburst in stride. This couldn't be anything good. It was very unlike the Uncle Vernon that he knew. Harry, however, was so mad that he could feel his fingernails cutting into the palms of his own hands; he didn't even remember making fists.
Dudley was laughing his head off at the exchange going on in the Dursley's kitchen. He knew what he must look like. Harry was covered from head to foot in chimney soot. He had obviously lost a shoe in someone's chimney. He had scratch marks from a neighbor's cat on both of his forearms and on the tip of his nose. His hair was still dripping with sweat. His stomach could be heard grumbling from over a meter away. And as if all this wasn't enough, now Dudley could tell that his dad was about to send Harry to his bedroom without any supper.
Harry grew tired of waiting for the next shoe to drop.
"I will not --- I'm not a slave and I'm not the puny defenseless ten year old boy that I used to be that had to take every mean, dirty, and rotten thing you did to him." Harry couldn't make himself calm down; he could feel himself starting to shake with anger. The last couple of summers had been difficult but not unbearable. He thought they had finally come to an understanding that he would leave them alone and they would leave him alone. But this summer had been completely different. Ever since he came to Privet Drive two days ago, things had been worse than they had ever been before. He couldn't believe he had for one second thought the summer here would be bearable.
Harry just stood there fuming, bleeding and covered in chimney soot, waiting for Uncle Vernon to say something else, his chest heaving. Aunt Petunia was watching the scene quietly. Uncle Vernon was smiling. Dudley was almost giggling as he continued to alternate his gaze from his father to his cousin and back again. For a few seconds the house was silent.
CRASH
A glass bowl sitting on the kitchen table had exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces. That was enough to get Uncle Vernon to speak again, even though he didn't intend to blow up the bowl. Harry still the didn't like the way his uncle was smiling.
"Boy, you're going to do whatever we say, whenever we say. And before you open your mouth to backtalk me --- " which in all fairness Harry was getting ready to do "you'd do good to ask yourself where that mangy owl of yours is."
As soon as Uncle Vernon's words registered in Harry's brain, he felt a weight drop to the pit of his stomach.
"What did you do?" Harry demanded.
Uncle Vernon stood there smiling. He did not answer.
As Harry tore from the room he barely realized that all three of the Dursley's were laughing.
Harry left the kitchen and ran up the stairs as fast as he could to his bedroom. He slammed the door open as he ran into the room. Hedwig and her cage were gone. He looked all over but he knew it wouldn't do any good. She wasn't anywhere in the house. He ran to check in the attic but it was padlocked. He could hear his owl in there fighting against her cage.
"Hedwig --- don't worry Hedwig --- I'll find a way to get you out."
He wasn't sure if he actually could free his owl but he wanted to make her feel better. Although he knew Hedwig could take care of herself probably even better than Harry could, he didn't know if she'd ever had to face anyone as mean as the Dursleys. Knowing that he had just been separated from the only living being at this house that didn't hate him, Harry slumped against the wall and sank down to the floor.
He couldn't believe that they would do something like that. Well, actually, the more he thought about it the more he could believe that they would do something exactly like that. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley were all smiles when Harry came back into the kitchen. It didn't take much convincing after that for Harry to help the neighbors without threatening to tell them what he was or where he went to school. He accepted his fate quietly trying to find a bright side in any of this.
After he came home on the third day from helping the neighbors, he was allowed to go into the attic to feed his owl. Those few minutes were the only minutes in the day where he wasn't truly miserable.
"Hello girl," he said by way of greeting as he went to feed her. He stayed there stroking her and apologizing for landing her in the attic until the Dursleys made him go to his bedroom.
Inside or out of doors, his days on Privet Drive continued much like this until the middle of the second week.
Harry could not have been more surprised when he returned to his bedroom to find that a large black dog was sitting on his bed waiting for him to return. As Harry rushed to lock the door behind him, say hello, and run to hug his godfather all at the same time, a wave of different emotions flooded over him.
"Is everything all right? Is Voldemort coming here to look for me? Are you ok? How long can you stay? Can you stay all summer? Why are you here? Is everything all right? Did something happen? Are the Weasleys all right? How's Lupin? Have there been attacks already? Has anyone heard from Snape or Hagrid? Is the "old gang" reformed?"
Sirius, now transformed into the tall and lanky man that Harry remembered, just chuckled a little and enveloped his godson a great big hug. He was smiling down at Harry. "So how's your summer vacation been Harry?"
"It's not important. So now will you tell me what's wrong?" Harry asked as they pulled apart from their embrace. Sirius hated that this boy always felt like he had to carry the weight of the wizarding world on his shoulders. He embodied all the traits of Lily and James Potter --- the good and the bad.
"Nothing that you don't already know about," his godfather replied.
"Well then, what are you doing here?"
Sirius masked his face in his best mock hurt expression. "Aren't you glad to see me? I can leave if you'd prefer to hang about with that cousin of yours."
Harry couldn't help but laugh. He swatted at his godfather as he replied, "Don't be silly. It's not that. Of course I want you here. I always want you here. It's just that I figured something pretty important had to happen to get you out of hiding. You're the second most wanted wizard in all of Europe."
Sirius pretended to blush. "That's what all the witches used to say." He laughed so heartily Harry couldn't help but to join in.
"No I mean it. They want to lock you up. If you're here with me then there must be a very important reason. Something must be really wrong."
"No. It's nothing like that. I just wanted to see you."
"Really?"
"Really. I finally realized that Dumbledore saying you have to remain in your relations care doesn't preclude me from joining you here for a little while now does it? Perhaps the Dursleys would like a house guest. I could always pretend to be a lovable stray again if that would be better."
"It doesn't matter. They'll hate you either way because you like me. However," Harry began with a slightly mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "there is a certain babysitter up the street with a fondness for cats that I wouldn't mind introducing the "lovable stray" to. She used to drive me crazy with those ruddy cats."
Sirius smiled but didn't say anything. They stood there for a few awkward seconds before breaking the silence.
"But are you safe here?" asked Harry in a tone of voice that would almost suggest that he was the adult and not the other way around.
"Harry," his godfather began torn between amusement and regret at his godson's reluctance to break the rules "I'm less likely to be recognized here on Privet Drive than almost anywhere else in Europe."
Harry seemed to think about that for a minute and accepted it as truth although whether it was because it was logical or because he wanted it to be true, he could not know for sure. All that he would know later was that it was a mistake.
A/N - this is my first crack at one of these. Like it or hate it just please let me know so I can write some more.
Chapter 1
Difficult Dursleys
If Harry Potter thought the TriWizard Tournament had been difficult, it was nothing compared to the list of chores that his aunt and uncle were certain to have laid out for him to do during the summer before his fifth year of school --- assuming they even talked to him this summer. Of course, that meant that they had to pick him up from the train station first. And so far that hadn't happened.
Harry knew better than to expect anything less than complete and utter contempt from his relatives. He knew that they would be hours late meeting him at the train station. They didn't disappoint him.
He waited ---
--- And he waited.
Long after all of his other schoolmates had left the train station he was still there. The Weasleys had insisted on waiting with him but he soon found that he couldn't take the frequent looks of pity that they sent his way so he pretended to have seen his uncle and began gathering his things together. Reminding Mr Weasley that his uncle probably wouldn't be too happy to see them again (ever since his twin sons had caused Dudley's tongue to swell to roughly the size of a cricket bat and he himself had blown up their living room), he hurriedly bade goodbye to the Weasleys and made his way across the station. When he was sure that the Weasleys had left, he doubled back to Platform 9 ¾ so that Uncle Vernon would be able to find him when (or if) he came.
He found an empty bench to sit down and wait. He spent the time trying to stay as inconspicuous as possible as he watched the passerbys. He thought he was doing a pretty decent job too considering he was sitting alone in a train station with, among other things, a large cauldron and a snowy white owl. He was just about to win a bet with himself about how long the bench next to him could suffer silently under the weight of a particularly large woman when he heard ---
"Let's go boy," Uncle Vernon called abruptly almost an hour after Harry had given up hope that anyone would actually come to pick him up.
He got up and struggled through the train station with his luggage and his owl's cage because, of course, his uncle didn't offer to help him manage. Harry did receive some peculiar looks as he negotiated his path but he figured at least those looks were better than the ones he received when he left his school just hours ago or the Weasleys a little while after that. Most of the faculty and the students --- except for the Slytherins --- cast sympathetic glances at Harry whenever possible ever since the end of the TriWizard Tournament. He was glad to at least be getting away from that for a few weeks. He didn't want to be the subject of everyone's pity.
Even so, there was no place in his heart for Number Four, Privet Drive. But on the positive side, at least it was one place that Harry would not have to worry about everyone he knew offering him their sympathies and well wishes. It would be one thing if the witches and wizards at Hogwarts actually knew what he went through in the fourth task but no one did --- how could they? He himself hadn't even been able yet to fully come to terms with everything that had happened.
The one thing that Harry Potter did know was that for the first time in his life, he didn't really mind going back to Privet Drive. And this single realization unnerved him almost as much as everything else that had happened to him this year. When he finally put his brain to it, he came up with some possibilities.
There were two explanations for this actually. The first was that even Voldemort himself admitted that Harry was safe with his relatives. And he had to admit that that brought a lot of comfort. At least that was one less thing he had to worry about which was probably for the best. He seriously doubted that any more concerns or thoughts could even fit inside of his head. He knew that any more new worries would force some useful charm or hex out of his brain. According to Dumbledore, Harry was safer at Privet Drive than he was even at Hogwarts. (Although if he was truthful, he didn't feel all that safe at school. During his first, second, and fourth years he had faced Voldemort in one form or another. And during his third year he had faced the dark wizard that allowed he and his parents to be found by Voldemort.)
The second explanation for not dreading his return to Privet Drive was that Harry knew that his relatives would treat him no differently than they ever had before. Almost always, he hated how badly his aunt, uncle, and cousin treated him just because he happened to be a wizard. However, since everyone at his school had been walking on eggshells lately, Harry found that he was almost eager to receive his "normal" treatment from the Dursleys.
Once again he wasn't disappointed with the reception he got when he opened the door to the house on Privet Drive.
"No more free rides for you," Aunt Petunia began when he walked through the door carrying Uncle Vernon's briefcase as well as his entire luggage from the previous year. He had wanted to make a separate trip to the car for Hedwig's cage but she was having none of that. Apparently she was smart enough to realize that Uncle Vernon was just as likely to drive off with her as not and she made such a racket that Uncle Vernon actually picked up the cage and followed Harry inside.
Aunt Petunia stared at Vernon looking in turns from the cage in his hand to Harry and back again before finally voicing her outrage.
"What are you doing? You're not the boy's servant. Let him carry his own freaky rat cage."
"Hedwig's not a rat. She's an owl!"
Hedwig hooted her agreement from her cage.
Uncle Vernon's face was visibly reddening. He slammed the front door shut. "BOY! Watch what you say in this house. ESPECIALLY when the front door is open. Do you understand me?"
He sighed deeply before answering. "Yes Uncle Vernon."
"You'd do well to remember that lesson boy."
Dudley was laughing from his vantage point on the stairs. Although Harry heard him, he didn't even bother to look at his cousin. He couldn't care less about Dudley Dursley and he wouldn't give him the satisfaction of knowing he had gotten to Harry.
"Now, before you so much as have one sip of water you will --- " Harry just sighed wishing for the hundredth time in the last hour that he could stay with his friend Ron Weasley. Harry would give almost anything to be at the Burrow right now de-gnoming the Weasley garden and having contests to see who could throw them the farthest. Although he caught bits and pieces of what she was saying, "mow the lawn, clean the gutters, weed the garden --- " he only listened enough to know that he was in for a long summer. He would worry about tomorrow's problems tomorrow.
He took all of his stuff into his room and spent the evening wondering what all was going on the fight against Voldemort. Among other things he was wondering: what errand Dumbledore sent Hagrid off to do, what Snape had gone to do that made him pale at the very thought, what Sirius and the "old gang" were doing, who all was in the "old gang", what Mr Weasley was doing at the ministry and especially what Voldemort and his Death Eaters were doing right this very minute. He finally fell asleep still wondering about current events in the wizarding world.
BANG BANG BANG
"Get up; you will get up this very instant Harry Potter!" Aunt Petunia was shouting. "You have plenty of work to do and you will not spend the entire day lounging around in bed waiting to be served breakfast in bed. Get up. Are you up yet?"
"Yes Aunt Petunia."
He looked over at the clock. It said the time was 06:00 AM. He hadn't been on Privet Drive for twenty-four hours yet and he was already miserable and dreading the rest of the summer. His head was still too full to properly worry about it though. He would get up and face the day's challenges as they came hour by hour. (He wasn't sure he could handle any more than that.)
While half-heartedly getting dressed and going down stairs, Harry had no false hopes about how pitiful his breakfast would be. Dudley had grown a little taller during the last school year; he was now five foot two both ways. Aunt Petunia was sure to have put him back on his diet, which meant that Harry wouldn't even be given enough food to survive. (The only way Aunt Petunia could get Dudley to stay on his diet was to give him more food than Harry.) He made a mental note to owl his friends --- except Hagrid --- tonight to send food like they did last summer. They probably saved his life and he was sure he'd need them as much this summer as the last one, if not more.
He smiled to himself as he thought about the pleasant surprise he had last night. He was glad that he had a friend like Hermione who was clever and often planned ahead. When he opened his trunk last night he found weeks worth of snacks and candy; even though he hadn't seen her near his trunk, it was such an unexpected and ingenious idea that it must have belonged to Hermione. A small part of him had been afraid that it was the twins that had stocked his trunk but he bravely tasted one of the pasties any way. He counted to ten in his head before deciding his food was safe (and therefore wasn't provided by the Weasley twins.)
Harry was still smiling to himself when he got downstairs. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia ignored Harry when he entered the kitchen until he reached for an apple. "Just what do you think you're doing?" his uncle challenged.
He didn't think that he was being very secretive but his if his uncle wanted to know then Harry would tell him. "Getting an apple."
"Oh no you don't. You haven't earned it yet. First you work and then, if you deserve it, you eat."
And so the summer began.
After spending the first day toiling in the hot sun only to be rewarded with water and pretzels he was relieved to awake the second morning only to find it pouring outside. However, if he thought this would be enough to save him from slaving around the rest of the day he was sadly mistaken. He was mortified to learn that the Dursleys had made arrangements to lend him out to their neighbors. His aunt and uncle had told several of their neighbors to make Harry clean their attics and garages and any other menial tasks they could think of convincing them that the boy needed the discipline.
This was an all time low for Harry. He couldn't believe that he was actually being passed around through the neighborhood for all the menial jobs that no one wanted to do. He came home after the first day completely fed up.
"I'm not going to do that any more. You made me work through lunch after sending me off to work all day with only a single stupid section of grapefruit for breakfast. I'm not doing it any more. The next house you send me to will learn where I REALLY go to school and what I REALLY study there."
Harry was surprised that his uncle was smiling. Whatever it meant it couldn't mean anything good. Finally his uncle spoke to him. "Oh really?"
"Really."
"Are you sure about that boy?"
This time Harry just stood there defiantly with his arms folded over his chest. He didn't say anything. Soon his uncle continued. As he listened to his uncle he slowly began to understand why he was in such a good mood.
"Oh yes you are going to continue working boy --- if you know what's good for you that is." Uncle Vernon answered. "It's about time that we get some work out of you. No appreciation at all for the shelter, food and clothes that we've given you all these years. The only thing we've had to show for it is a blown up living room from some of those freaks like you."
"DO NOT call the Weasleys freaks! They are very nice people. They're always nice to you all, even after you yelled at them and even threw things at them. You will not talk about them that way."
Uncle Vernon seemed to be taking this outburst in stride. This couldn't be anything good. It was very unlike the Uncle Vernon that he knew. Harry, however, was so mad that he could feel his fingernails cutting into the palms of his own hands; he didn't even remember making fists.
Dudley was laughing his head off at the exchange going on in the Dursley's kitchen. He knew what he must look like. Harry was covered from head to foot in chimney soot. He had obviously lost a shoe in someone's chimney. He had scratch marks from a neighbor's cat on both of his forearms and on the tip of his nose. His hair was still dripping with sweat. His stomach could be heard grumbling from over a meter away. And as if all this wasn't enough, now Dudley could tell that his dad was about to send Harry to his bedroom without any supper.
Harry grew tired of waiting for the next shoe to drop.
"I will not --- I'm not a slave and I'm not the puny defenseless ten year old boy that I used to be that had to take every mean, dirty, and rotten thing you did to him." Harry couldn't make himself calm down; he could feel himself starting to shake with anger. The last couple of summers had been difficult but not unbearable. He thought they had finally come to an understanding that he would leave them alone and they would leave him alone. But this summer had been completely different. Ever since he came to Privet Drive two days ago, things had been worse than they had ever been before. He couldn't believe he had for one second thought the summer here would be bearable.
Harry just stood there fuming, bleeding and covered in chimney soot, waiting for Uncle Vernon to say something else, his chest heaving. Aunt Petunia was watching the scene quietly. Uncle Vernon was smiling. Dudley was almost giggling as he continued to alternate his gaze from his father to his cousin and back again. For a few seconds the house was silent.
CRASH
A glass bowl sitting on the kitchen table had exploded into hundreds of tiny pieces. That was enough to get Uncle Vernon to speak again, even though he didn't intend to blow up the bowl. Harry still the didn't like the way his uncle was smiling.
"Boy, you're going to do whatever we say, whenever we say. And before you open your mouth to backtalk me --- " which in all fairness Harry was getting ready to do "you'd do good to ask yourself where that mangy owl of yours is."
As soon as Uncle Vernon's words registered in Harry's brain, he felt a weight drop to the pit of his stomach.
"What did you do?" Harry demanded.
Uncle Vernon stood there smiling. He did not answer.
As Harry tore from the room he barely realized that all three of the Dursley's were laughing.
Harry left the kitchen and ran up the stairs as fast as he could to his bedroom. He slammed the door open as he ran into the room. Hedwig and her cage were gone. He looked all over but he knew it wouldn't do any good. She wasn't anywhere in the house. He ran to check in the attic but it was padlocked. He could hear his owl in there fighting against her cage.
"Hedwig --- don't worry Hedwig --- I'll find a way to get you out."
He wasn't sure if he actually could free his owl but he wanted to make her feel better. Although he knew Hedwig could take care of herself probably even better than Harry could, he didn't know if she'd ever had to face anyone as mean as the Dursleys. Knowing that he had just been separated from the only living being at this house that didn't hate him, Harry slumped against the wall and sank down to the floor.
He couldn't believe that they would do something like that. Well, actually, the more he thought about it the more he could believe that they would do something exactly like that. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia and Dudley were all smiles when Harry came back into the kitchen. It didn't take much convincing after that for Harry to help the neighbors without threatening to tell them what he was or where he went to school. He accepted his fate quietly trying to find a bright side in any of this.
After he came home on the third day from helping the neighbors, he was allowed to go into the attic to feed his owl. Those few minutes were the only minutes in the day where he wasn't truly miserable.
"Hello girl," he said by way of greeting as he went to feed her. He stayed there stroking her and apologizing for landing her in the attic until the Dursleys made him go to his bedroom.
Inside or out of doors, his days on Privet Drive continued much like this until the middle of the second week.
Harry could not have been more surprised when he returned to his bedroom to find that a large black dog was sitting on his bed waiting for him to return. As Harry rushed to lock the door behind him, say hello, and run to hug his godfather all at the same time, a wave of different emotions flooded over him.
"Is everything all right? Is Voldemort coming here to look for me? Are you ok? How long can you stay? Can you stay all summer? Why are you here? Is everything all right? Did something happen? Are the Weasleys all right? How's Lupin? Have there been attacks already? Has anyone heard from Snape or Hagrid? Is the "old gang" reformed?"
Sirius, now transformed into the tall and lanky man that Harry remembered, just chuckled a little and enveloped his godson a great big hug. He was smiling down at Harry. "So how's your summer vacation been Harry?"
"It's not important. So now will you tell me what's wrong?" Harry asked as they pulled apart from their embrace. Sirius hated that this boy always felt like he had to carry the weight of the wizarding world on his shoulders. He embodied all the traits of Lily and James Potter --- the good and the bad.
"Nothing that you don't already know about," his godfather replied.
"Well then, what are you doing here?"
Sirius masked his face in his best mock hurt expression. "Aren't you glad to see me? I can leave if you'd prefer to hang about with that cousin of yours."
Harry couldn't help but laugh. He swatted at his godfather as he replied, "Don't be silly. It's not that. Of course I want you here. I always want you here. It's just that I figured something pretty important had to happen to get you out of hiding. You're the second most wanted wizard in all of Europe."
Sirius pretended to blush. "That's what all the witches used to say." He laughed so heartily Harry couldn't help but to join in.
"No I mean it. They want to lock you up. If you're here with me then there must be a very important reason. Something must be really wrong."
"No. It's nothing like that. I just wanted to see you."
"Really?"
"Really. I finally realized that Dumbledore saying you have to remain in your relations care doesn't preclude me from joining you here for a little while now does it? Perhaps the Dursleys would like a house guest. I could always pretend to be a lovable stray again if that would be better."
"It doesn't matter. They'll hate you either way because you like me. However," Harry began with a slightly mischievous twinkle in his eyes, "there is a certain babysitter up the street with a fondness for cats that I wouldn't mind introducing the "lovable stray" to. She used to drive me crazy with those ruddy cats."
Sirius smiled but didn't say anything. They stood there for a few awkward seconds before breaking the silence.
"But are you safe here?" asked Harry in a tone of voice that would almost suggest that he was the adult and not the other way around.
"Harry," his godfather began torn between amusement and regret at his godson's reluctance to break the rules "I'm less likely to be recognized here on Privet Drive than almost anywhere else in Europe."
Harry seemed to think about that for a minute and accepted it as truth although whether it was because it was logical or because he wanted it to be true, he could not know for sure. All that he would know later was that it was a mistake.
A/N - this is my first crack at one of these. Like it or hate it just please let me know so I can write some more.