Wasted summers
Everything hurts.
His nose hurt. His shoulder ached, but his ribs, those were another story. Thoseburned
The only thing on Harry's mind was just how much his broken ribs stung, just how much his chest hurt. Just how hard it was to breathe. Just how disgustingly familiar the metallic tasting liquid was in his mouth, how familiar it was to be the one thing he could smell at the moment. He told himself it didn't bother him that much, that it was just inconvenient.
He knew it wasn't.
After taking another beating from Vernon for 'talking back’ and 'being a freak in front of guests’ he'd ended up with a broken nose, a dislocated shoulder and possibly most definitely a couple broken ribs.
Lying on the floor of 'his'—Dudley's bedroom. He couldn't actually call this his. Nothing here was his. Apart from his trunk and his dearest Hedwig. God he couldn't explain how much she means to him.
There wasn't a single place he could call his, no. There was only Hogwarts, the only place he called home, the only place he could call home.
Harry tried opening his eyes, failing miserably from exhaustion and a dull, numb pain from the hit he'd taken straight to the head. He hasn't been able to have a good night's rest ever since he came back from Hogwarts. It was taking a slight toll on him, and now this was going to make things worse.
From doing his chores, to managing to stay awake throughout the day. It was also affecting his appetite, he was hungrier than he usually was each summer. The scraps Petunia gave him from time to time were becoming less and less. Barley keeping him going.
The Dursleys' house was also getting duller and duller each summer. Coped up in this place, Harry was slowly losing it. He wanted contact with the magical world, anyone would do. It was boring and frustrating, so frustrating he'd started lashing out. Loudly and frequently.
He'd snapped at aunt Petunia one morning because she was berating him over some slightly burnt eggs. He'd had enough of it. “Who cares if the edges are slightly burnt?! It's not even noticeable!”
Usually he would've kept his mouth shut about it, but for some reason he couldn't. He felt the annoyance bubbling up inside and he just blurted out whatever he had to say.
That had earned him a slap across the face. Harry had to dig his nails into his palms to make sure he didn't hit her back.
He still remembers how it had stung. It had left a visible, red imprint of her hand. Plastered on his cheek for a good while.
Harry missed Hogwarts, at least there he didn't need to walk on eggshells on the daily. There he wouldn't be beaten for doing anything deemed unacceptable by his uncle's standard.
Back at Hogwarts, he had quidditch. He had classes, he had the late night study sessions with Hyun-seok that lasted so long yet were just so short. He had his personal ventures into the frozen library and the restricted section.
He had Luna he could talk to. A girl he'd met on the train at the start of the year while she was going around looking for an empty compartment, he'd invited her in and shared a compartment with him and Neville and Professor Lupin. She was aloof and her mind wandered more than it stayed in her head.
But she also had a calm, soft spoken tone that made Harry feel at ease around her and such an interesting perspective on basically everything, with a unique personality that Harry and her hit it off right away.
The three even conversed about their childhoods and the loss of their mothers which had helped them form a special bond. Neville talked about his parents at St. Mungo's and Harry felt bad for not knowing about any of it despite knowing Neville for three years.
When Neville brought up visiting them, Harry asked if he could tag along sometime. Even Luna agreed to do the same, and so the three made plans to go visit Neville's parents in August. Though the date wasn't specified, Neville said he'd send letters.
Harry missed a lot of other things, like flying. He missed classes...Hell, he even missed Snape, he missed Malfoy. He was a bloody pain in the arse but he wasn't pure evil like Dudley. The banter between them was mutual. Not a one sided beat down.
Harry's lip was trembling slightly, he could feel his eyes watering, threatening to start spilling tears. Tears of pain, tears of hatred, tears of rage. Simmering rage that's been building up for the past three summers, rage that's been making his magic spike and rush through his veins, he could feel the magic building up, he could feel the hatred in it. It made his entire body heat up, made his cheeks turn red.
It made him feel sick, almost nauseous. It made him want to break things, want to hurt someone.
He wanted to hurt them. He wanted to hurt the Dursleys, and give them a taste of their own medicine. If his 'friends' or even Dumbledore knew, they'd say it was wrong. Harry knew that, but it was scary. It was scary how little he cared. He wanted the Dursleys dead, at his hands.
He wanted to see Vernon squirm in pain as he cursed him again and again. He wanted to crucio him, until he fries every nerve in his body, he couldn't care less that he craved using one of the unforgivables on his uncle. He wanted to see the man in pain, begging for mercy.
He wanted Dudley to see things from his perspective. Be beaten with a piece of barbed wire, again and again until he couldn't even make a sound from the sheer agony he was in. It was only fair. He deserved it.
He wanted to hold his aunt's hand above the lit stove, keep lowering it little by little like how she does when he burns the food while cooking. He wanted to shove her whole face on that lit stove and let it get scorched.
That night Harry didn't sleep, he physically couldn't, the pain had kept him up all night. Anytime he took slightly too deep of a breath a sharp pain coursed through his chest. He stayed up until four thirty. By that time his body had worked its magic. Literally.
He'd been healed enough to be able to move without having to stop every couple steps.
Harry braised himself and sat up, He settled on the edge of the bed. Looking out the window, he could tell there was a good while until the sunrise.
Braising himself again Harry got up, thanking his body for healing itself a decent amount. He walked over to his trunk and opened it, rummaging through the books and robes he took out a small notebook.
"Let's at least make Hyun-seok proud-...and get through the day." He mumbled to himself.
Hyun-seok, a fifth year Ravenclaw whom he'd met through Oliver. When they were training for a match. Oliver had introduced Hyun-seok as Ravenclaw's best seeker that had gotten tired of quidditch after a while, and decided to drop the position he had on the Ravenclaw team.
Personally Harry didn't understand how anyone could get tired of quidditch. It was quite the foreign concept to him.
Hyun-seok had agreed to help Harry train as a favor for Oliver, but it had gone from training regularly in the quidditch pitch every afternoon, to Hyun-seok finding out Harry didn't know anything about the wizarding world that wasn't outright explained to him by either his 'friends' or Dumbledore.
And then that Harry as an heir and future Lord didn't know what heirships and heirship rings were or how they worked, or about wizarding holidays and how to celebrate them. Alongside many more things Harry didn't even know were real.
That had led Hyun-seok to go from simply training Harry as a seeker, to educating him on the wizarding world and his position as Heir Potter and future Lord Potter. And after the surprisingly knowledgeable Korean half-blood found out just how low Harry's grades were in some subjects. Specifically potions. Hyun-seok had taken up the job of tutoring Harry in the frozen library for several consecutive days at a time.
Which hadn't been an issue for Harry because Hyun-seok's lessons had actually been both interesting and helpful, leading to him being able to actually listen and learn.
With all of Hyun-seok's help, advice, constant reminders and long midnight tutoring sessions in the frozen library, which Hyun-seok had dubbed their safe haven.
All the professors had praised Harry for his improvement in those last two months of school. They praised him for putting in a good deal of effort and asked him to keep it up next year.
Harry had felt good at the praise, really good actually. It had somehow made him feel a sense of content to hear the praise.
Hermione had been flabbergasted at the shocking spike in Harry's grades, even coming close to her own level. Harry didn't understand her shock or why she was sceptical at the legitimacy of his progress, specifically without her explicit help. Still he had brushed it off.
Now that he really thinks about it, after second year he'd started arguing with his best friends regularly. To Harry, they were undermining him. Flipping on him as if tossing a coin anytime something happened, and completely disregarding his existence in the summer. After second year he and Ron started growing distant. No more letters. No more breaking him out. Zero contact.
On the other hand Harry had grown close to Fred and George; the two were fun, and they acted more like the older brothers Harry never had.
One instance of that was when they found a way to sneak him out to Hogsmeade. Spending a day with the two was fun, they were making jokes the entire time. Fred even bought Harry a green scarf, with the reason being that it reminded him of Harry's eyes. George added to that with a comment. "You know Harry, you look better in green than you do in red. Which is weird to say as a Griffyndor but still true.”
He'd grown close to Neville too. Neville's knowledge on herbology was something else. Brilliant, in Harry's own words.
Harry never noticed just how interesting Neville was, maybe because he was too busy keeping his friendship with Ron afloat. Even though Ron was clearly getting along better with their other yearmates like Dean and Seamus.
Meanwhile Hyun-seok was always there for Harry even when Harry thought no one was. Always providing support, always being at the hospital wing to check up on Harry. Then lecture him like an overprotective older brother, exactly like the twins but in a very different way. Going on and on about why he should be more careful next time.
Harry sat down on the floor, leaning his back against ‘his’ bed and opened the little notebook Hyun-seok had given him. It was filled with spells and instructions on how to cast them and what they'll do. All of which were tweaked and slightly changed by the older boy to maximize their usefulness.
Hyun-seok was an absolute genius when it came to spells and casting. And him being able to change parts of the spells was just an indication of how talented he actually was.
Harry opened the page of the spell he was practicing the night before and got to work.
A few rays of sunlight shone down onto the notebook's papers, simultaneously disturbing Harry’s vision making him sigh. It was time to wrap up and get ready for the day.
It didn't take too long for Aunt Petunia to come knocking on 'his' door. And scream at him to get to work.
Harry got up to put the notebook back into his trunk. Grabbing a towel and a change of clothes while he was at it. Professor Lupin, bless his heart, had seen Harry's worn down sneakers last year and had gotten Professor McGonagall’s approval to take him shopping for a few things under the pretext of rewarding him for taking his academics seriously.
That day Harry got two outfits, a new pair of sneakers and a lot of respect and gratitude for Professor Lupin.
Heading into the still empty, spotless bathroom; courtesy of Vernon and Dudley still being asleep. He closed the door and hung his charge of clothes and his towel on the door. Taking what he was currently wearing off, a plain black shirt and a pair of oversized trousers, those were Dudley’s. Stepping into the shower he turned the water on, not too hot, not too cold.
Petunia wasn't the best, but she does care about her house and everything in it being clean. Which is why Harry gets the privilege of showering with semi warm water. Because in her words “cold water wouldn't clean anything.”
Soon he was in the kitchen, frying eggs and sausages for breakfast. Well, the Dursleys' breakfast. Not his, no.
"Once you finish, get the dishes clean and get started on the garden." Petunia walked past him and headed for the fridge, taking out the orange juice.
"The neighbors have been raving about some garden on the other end of the neighborhood, commenting on how beautiful the flowers were-...like I'd let them outshine me" She mumbled to herself.
More like outshine me. Harry though, he was the one taking care of the garden, spending multiple hours of each day of each summer to tend to those flowers. Privet Drive 4's gorgeous garden was a result of his hard work alone. Those were his babies, and now that someone was supposedly competing with them, Harry was getting curious.
He'll go drop by and have a look later. Right now finish breakfast, get the chores done with, and find a new way to outsmart Dudley and his gang. 'Harry Hunting' was getting too aggressive. As if I wasn't to begin with.
Harry ran, and ran, and ran. Up until they weren't completely behind him, then he went left. The group caught up soon enough but stopped in their tracks.
"Where is he-!?" Dudley shouted. Simultaneously huffing, trying to catch his breath.
"Don't know, he slipped away." Peirce responded, a bitter hint to his tone.
Peirce, the little shit that compared to Dudley in terms of viciousness. Always participating in 'Harry Hunting' and being the first to go for a hit, even finding ways to torture Harry. Barb wire, bricks, sticks, the little sadist never ran out of ideas. Harry thought. The little devil had even used a taser once.
"..Fucking bastards..." Harry muttered under his breath.
Harry had jumped a fence and made them think he'd actually turned the corner. And they'd bought it. Sprinting at full speed to try and catch him. Good, get lost. He then started for his destination, the house that 'supposedly' competed with Petunia's—his garden.
His babies could never be outshined, never.
Fucking hell.
His babies were in fact...outshined. Put to shame. Outright disrespected without remorse.
It was gorgeous, the garden was colorful. All shades of pink, blue, purple, orange, yellow, red and even white. The whole nine yards. Absolutely breathtaking. The grass was as green as green can get.
"Bloody hell-..."
Harry stepped closer to the fence separating him from the absolute masterpiece of a garden he was gazing upon. Leaning against it.
~another human here to admire hi-ss work~
Harry jolted, snapping his head in the direction of the words.
~excu-sse me?~
His eyes landed on a white snake. It was so small, it looked so delicate too. Its black beady eyes locked with his.
~you can under-sstand me?!~
The snake questioned.
~i can~
Harry answered, an amused chuckle escaping him.
~never ss-een a human ss-peak to ss-omeone of your kind, have you?~
The snake shook its head.
~no never. How fass-cinating. It'ss a fir-sst for me, are there more of you?~
Harry smiled at the snake's egear question and nodded.
~there'ss only one other that can, but he'ss a bad per-sson~
~bad? how bad?~
~ss-o bad the whole of wizarding britain fear-ss his name~
~that doe-ss indeed ss-ound bad, wait you know about the wizard-ss? are you one of them? ~
Harry smiled warmly at the snake. And nodded again.
~tell me ss-peaker, what is your name?~
~my name is Harry, mind telling me your-ss?~
~i have no name yet, for I'm but a hatchling~
Harry looked at the snake, thinking for a moment.
~would you like me to give you a name?~
He asked hesitantly.
The snake perked up, in something akin to surprise.
~could you?!~
Harry chuckled.
~of cour-sse. looking at your ss-cale-ss and your color, Eriwen would ss-uit you~
~Eriwen? what doe-ss it mean?~
~it mean-ss 'white a-ss ss-now' in Wel-ssh I think, that'ss what I've read at lea-sst~
~Eriwen, I like it~
"Erm...hi?"
Harry nearly jumps out of his skin as he hears another voice, this time a human one, a male one specifically.
He looks up from the snake. Right in front of him, separated by just the fence was a familiar boy, short curly black hair, grey eyes, and a permanent sad resting face. That, for now, had wide awe filled eyes.
If Harry wasn't mistaken, this was Theodore Nott. A Slytherin of his year. Usually around Draco and his gang but never really doing or saying anything.
"Uhm...hey.." Harry tensed up, pushing himself away from the fence and straightening up.
"Sorry...if I'm disturbing you in any way..."
"Oh, no...uh-...not at all, I was just caught off guard. You're Harry—Harry Potter. Right?"
Harry nodded. "yep, that's me." An awkward smile on his face.
His voice is so smooth what?! Harry suppressed that. He looks so cool in regular muggle clothing, they suit him so well!! He sent that thought to the back of his mind for now, choosing to listen to the boy and ignore his own thoughts.
The other boy looked over at the snake, Eriwen.
"Is it yours?.." He asked. Looking at the snake.
"Oh, no...she just came up out of nowhere.." Harry explained. Letting out an awkward laugh.
"Ah-....okay, you seemed to be having a pretty long...conversation. Do you mind telling me what it-...what she said?" Nott asked.
"I'm very fascinated with the subject...parseltongue I mean.."
"Oh, yeah sure...i guess.."
"You can come inside if you want, there's only me so you don't need to worry.."
Harry nodded. "Yeah okay."
Nott opened the fence and let him in, but then Harry heard hissing.
~wait! take me with you!~
Nott looked at Harry, as if silently asking him to translate.
"She wants to come with..." Harry responded, extending his arm towards Eriwen, he let her coil around it then pulled his arm back, letting the snake travel up his arm and coil around his neck like a scarf.
Nott hummed in amusement, a small smirk appearing on his face. "Sure, why not."
Harry didn't know why he was agreeing, he barely knew the guy...but then again this wasn't the most reckless or dangerous thing I've done in my life.
I'll be fine, he's just cute. Nothing threatening, or dangerous.
Unfortunately for Harry, 'cute' can be very threatening, especially in the hands of Theodore Nott.
Sadly he doesn't know that yet.
"Right, the garden—your garden...it's really pretty, gorgeous actually.."
Nott pauses, turning his head to meet Harry's gaze. His lips tug into a grin, flashing his pearly whites. "Thanks, it was my mother's...I look after it for her.”