Harry's Summer (Fourth Year)
Harry Potter had faced many challenging, frankly sucky years at Hogwarts, for being the “safest place” it hadn’t felt very safe to him. First year had a deadly chess game hiding a child killing sociopath out to get it at the end. Second year he faced giant spiders, the whole school turning against him, his best friend being petrified, fighting a basilisk, and the same child killer stuck in a diary at 16 years old, once again trying to kill him. Third year was slightly better till the dementer tried to suck his soul, a werewolf almost killed him, he gained a godfather and hope of escaping his relatives and lost that same hope on one day, time traveled and ended up losing the best teacher he had ever had. Somehow though through all the tough years at Hogwarts Harry’s fourth year was already turning out worse.
It started with a summer somehow worse than all the ones before. His relatives hit him less because they were afraid of his escaped conflict godfather, which was a win. Instead of hitting him though they took to not giving him food for several days at a time and when he was allowed to eat it was stale or expired food they were going to throw out. With the lowered amount of food, he also was allowed less water and showers, which ended with feeling not only weaker but gross as well. They rotated, as if they couldn’t decide which torture they preferred, between leaving him locked in his dark small room for long periods and making him stay out in the sweltering sun without water.
Escaping the Dursley’s was always a good thing, but going to the Weasley’s was far from perfect either. Don’t get him wrong he loved the Weasley house but as he got older he found himself sheltering from loud places and loud people. The Weasley house was the definition of a loud place with loud people. Before where he had felt incredibly welcomed, now the place served as a reminder of what he did not have. He didn't have a home or a family, the Dursleys did not count as family by any definition, and mostly he didn’t have parents. He loved many things about the house though! Harry would never tell Ron this but his favorite Weasley’s were probably his older brothers Fred and George who had taken to checking on Harry over the two years after seeing how his relatives treated him. Fred and George treated him like a brother, they practiced quidditch with him, showed him their pranking stuff, and asked him if he was sleeping and eating enough. Though Harry loved Ron since he was his first friend, sometimes he couldn’t help but think that the twins were better friends to him than Ron was. Ron was his first friend and sure sometimes he could be kind of mean to others which Harry didn’t like and he was definitely jealous of Harry’s money and fame at points. He refused to listen when Harry tried to tell him that he didn’t like having either of those things and would rather give them up for a family like Rons, but naturally Ron didn’t listen. But still he loved Ron! He used to think Mrs.Weasley was nice but after he met Sirius that slowly changed. Mrs.Weasley didn’t really like Sirius and she loudly talked about it pretty much immediately after he got to the Burrow. Sirius has Harry’s godfather, his only family, and Mrs.Weasley shouldn’t be talking about him like he was a criminal especially when she knew he was innocent!
All of this to say even the beginning of his trip to the Burrow was not the best. It went drastically downhill though when they went to the Quidditch World Cup were death eaters attacked innocent people after the game and Harry, Ron, and Hermione were almost arrested. Not only was that scary but since that day Harry could feel a shift in the air.
That shift was quickly realized after he got to Hogwarts and the Triwizard Tournament was announced. Naturally something bad had to happen to Harry! That's just how his life works! Of course he was announced as the youngest surprise contestant and even after he told Dumbledore he didn’t put his name in the cup, which he didn’t!, he was ignored. Now the whole school hated him. Ron called him a liar and attention hungry! The twins didn’t seem to believe him that he didn’t put his name in either, instead they excitedly kept asking how he tricked it. Hermione was too caught in the middle to really be the best friend right now, which he got but was still upsetting. Dumbledore just looked at him with a twinkle in his eye and offered no help or sympathy and he was too afraid to tell Sirius and cause him to rush to England where it was dangerous for him. Harry was alone. More alone than he had been since he started Hogwarts, possibly even before then. He left completely alone in the place he had previously thought of as home and he didn't know what to do.