Tags: @Bellatrisblack @MeowTasticCat
Welcome to the first Chapter of the second one of my re-writes. I’m going to leave a bit of background information of the story in the comments. Link to first in the series.
Chapter One: The Long Summer
Harry was starting to get really annoyed being at the Dursley’s every summer. It had only been a month since he returned and yet Mr Vernon Dursley has started another argument over breakfast at number four, Privet Drive, over a simple owl.
‘Third time this week!’ he roared across the table. ‘If you can’t control that owl I’ll insist she must remain with your godfather!’
Harry tried, yet again, to explain.
‘She’s bored,’ he said. ‘She’s used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night...’
‘No, absolutely not.’ snarled Uncle Vernon, a bit of fried egg dangling from his bushy moustache. ‘It was the rule with the brown owl, it’s a rule with this one, no magic communication. If you must talk with someone you ask permission to use the phone.’
He exchanged dark looks with his wife, Petunia.
Harry tried to argue back but his words were drowned by a long, loud belch from the Dursley’s son, Dudley.
‘I want more bacon.’
‘There’s more in the frying pan, sweetums,’ said Aunt Petunia, turning misty eyes on her massive son. ‘We must feed you up while we’ve got the chance...I don’t like the sound of the school food...’
‘Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings,’ said Uncle Vernon heartily. ‘Dudley gets enough, don’t you son?’
Dudley, who was so large his bottom drooped over either side of the kitchen chair, grinned and turned to Harry.
‘Pass the frying pan.’
‘You’ve forgotten the magic word,’ said Harry irritably.
Mr Dursley turned purple face at this statement.
‘No magic talk in this house, boy!’
‘I meant “please”, I wanted him to say please.’
‘Just pass him the bloody pan you worthless weed.’
‘Yes sir.’
Harry begrudgingly passed the pan, then as he walked away, viewed Vernon watching Harry closely out of the corner of his small, sharp eyes.’
As long as Harry had known his Aunt and Uncle they had treated him like a bomb that might go off at any moment, because Harry wasn’t a normal boy. As a matter of fact, he was as not normal as it is possible to be.
Harry Potter was a wizard-a wizard fresh from his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He was adopted by his godfather and godfathers partner when he was a little over one, but ever since he was four he had to spend his summers with his biological aunt and her family. And they hated him, making him often miserable under there roof.
He missed Hogwarts so much it was like having a constant stomach ache. He missed the castle, with its secret passageways and ghosts, his lessons (though perhaps not Quirrell’s, and definitely not Snape, the Potions master), the post arriving by owl, eating banquets in the Great Hall, sleeping in his four-poster bed in lake-lit dungeon, and especially Quidditch, the most popular sport in the wizarding world (six tall goalposts, four flying balls, and fourteen players on broomsticks).
All Harry’s spellbooks, robes, cauldron and top-of-the-range Nimbus Two Thousand broomstick were forced to be waiting for him in his room at Mould-on-the-Wold cottage as insisted by his uncle. Harry only got to practice his flying on days he was allowed to visit home because of that stupid rule, and he feared he might get kicked off the team if his skill isn’t high enough. Vernon had even wanted to ban Harry’s wand and padlock his owl, Hedwig, but his godfather and guardian Sirius had talked him out of it stating in an emergency he would need both.
Harry looked nothing like his biological family. Aunt Petunia was horse-faced and bony; Dudley was blonde, pink and porky; and of course Harrly looked nothing like large and Necklace Vernon. Harry was small and skinny, with brilliant green eyes and jet-Black hair that was always untidy. He wore round glasses, and on his forehead was a thin, lightning-shaped scar.
It was this scar that made Harry so particularly unusual, even for a wizard. This scar was the only hint of Harry’s very mysterious past, of the reason he had been left in the care of his beloved Paddy and Moony almost eleven years before.
At the age of one, Harry had somehow survived a curse from the greatest dark sorcerer of all time, Lord Voldemort, whose name most witches and wizards still feared to speak. Harry’s parents, both biological and adoptive, had fought against Voldemort, and his mother and father died trying to protect him, but Harry had escaped with his lightning scar, and somehow-nobody understood why-Voldemort’s powers had been destroyed the instant he had failed to kill Harry.
So Harry had been brought up by his godfather Sirius, Sirius’s husband Remus, eventually his little sister Canini, and about a quarter of the year his crazy muggle relatives. His family however had made him believe for years that it was a deatheater named Peter Pettigrew who had killed his parents and was last minute saved by an auror named Alastor Moody.
And then, almost exactly a year ago, the truth slipped and after an enormous fight, learned a great deal more about the true story of that fateful night and the fame that came with it. But now Harry was stuck with the Dursley’s for the summer, back to being treated more like a disliked guest then family.
Being there was never great, but after the adventure filled school year he had just experienced the constant repetitiveness each day made a week feel like an eternity. It didn’t help that the Dursley’s were nasty people, to the outside they appeared as a typical proper British family, but on the inside they were full of anger and spite and they used Harry as there verbal punching bag as he was an outsider and different to the rest of them.
The Dursley’s hadn’t even remembered that today happened to be Harry’s twelfth birthday. Of course, his hopes hadn’t been high, they forgot almost every year. It didn’t matter, Sirius would be arriving soon to whisk him away for the night to celebrate.
Harry didn’t even care when Vernon started going over his plans for rich builder couple coming over that evening as he wouldn’t be there. Instead he headed up to his small bedroom.
He was looking forward to going home for more than one reason, he learned a couple weeks ago that someone or something was stealing his letters. Letters the Tonks’ and his parents swore they sent never arrived and Harry was pretty confident letters he sent were being snatched too. So for his birthday Sirius sent the word out to family to send the letters to him instead of Harry so when he gets home he can actually read them.
Despite knowing things weren’t as they appeared, he felt ever so lonely. He missed his best friends, Tracey Davis, Allison Runcorn, Theodore Nott, and even Terence Higgs. Unlike his family, Sirius couldn’t send letters to them, and there letters were being snatched, so he couldn’t even tell them that he wasn’t ignoring them.
He finished packing a small bag for the night and went to the front yard and sat on the cool grass. Soon a motorcycle appeared midair and landing on the road just in front of Harry. A man in his early thirties, with long black hair, grey eyes, and a short stylish beard took off his helmet.
‘Harry Birthday my growing fawn, you all ready?’
‘Yes, I’m so excited.’
‘Hop in Harry. Everyone is so excited to see you.’
Harry got into the side car, Sirius hit the switch that turned them invisible to the muggle eye, and they took off to fly over the countryside.
‘Have you managed to get in contact with any of my new friends?’
‘I’m really sorry Harry, Hedwig knows their locations, not Phasming, I tried looking into there families, but they all seem to be in the high society class and there personal information isn’t public.’
‘And the thing taking the letters?’
‘Remus has determined it’s a magical creature, but of what kind, and it’s reasons he’s not sure. But that isn’t today’s problem. Today is about you.
They continued to talk as they flew over the different counties. Harry tried counting the number of farms but lost count. Eventually they were over a familiar village and before he knew it he was landing in front of Mould-on-the-Wold cottage, his home.
They entered and Harry was pleasantly surprised by the number of people there.
‘Happy birthday Harry!’
There was his other guardian Remus and his little sister Canini of course, but there was his also his childhood friends Susan Bones and Neville Longbottom. There was also Mrs Weasley and four of her children, Ginny, Ron, and Fred and George. Then there was Harry’s adoptive extended family, his grandfather Lyall, and his Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Edward. Finally there was his cousin Nymphadora and someone Harry did not recognize.
‘Fawny, it’s so good to see you. You have grown so much since Easter. I want you to meet my boyfriend, Ben Copper.’
The young man, with brown eyes and blonde hair took Harry’s hand and started shaking it.
‘It’s such an honour to meet you Harry Potter, you are such a hero and one of the reasons I want to be an auror.’
‘Ben, let go of his hand, your going to shake him silly.’
The man did, and embarrassed Nymphadora took him away. Neville then came up to him.
‘Happy birthday Harry, summer been good?’
‘It’s ok,’ he lied, he held out a handmade card. ‘Happy belated birthday, I couldn’t send it yesterday so I saved it for today.’
‘Thanks Harry, and thanks for inviting me. I love my family but they’re all over sixty and it’s nice to spend a day with people my age.’
Harry continued to make the rounds, greeting everyone and listen to them wish him a happy birthday. It really was refreshing from the month he had spent.
For the rest of the afternoon there were enchanted party games, a lot of fun catching up with people he didn’t often get to see, and at the beginning of the evening there was food and cake. By the time almost everyone had left Harry was emotionally exhausted, but also felt his love levels had been topped off. The final guest was Lyall Lupin who stayed for tea.
‘Harry, I am really proud of the bravery you showed last month, I can’t think of any other eleven year old who could have done what you did.’
‘Thank you Paw-Paw, it was very scary, but I wasn’t alone, I had my friends.’
‘Keep your friends close Harry, close friends are what made my son the man he is today. Support them and let them support you.’
Soon it was time for him to leave and before he left Canini and Harry gave him a hug.
‘Canini, I have done many wrong things in my time, but having you in my life was not one of them. Harry, in times when things seem bleakest, let the fire in your brave heart shine through.’
‘Love you Paw-Paw.’
‘Yes, love you Paw-Paw, see you soon.’
‘Goodbye children. And um, goodbye my son.’
‘Goodbye father, stay safe.’
After such a long day Harry was quite tuckered out, and since the Dursley’s would have guests late into the night Harry was allowed to stay and sleep in his own bed. Before he did he remembered something he needed to ask Sirius.
‘Padfoot, where are my birthday letters?’
‘Up in your room. Goodnight son, sweet dreams and happy birthday.’
Harry went upstairs and went towards his bedroom. He had missed it while at hogwarts, and even more so at the Dursley’s. He went inside and closed the door, expecting to see his letter on his bed. There weren’t any letters however, but there was something on his bed.
