Chapter 6
Harry Potter his whole life had just wanted to be normal. It wasn't a bad thing, to want to be like everyone else, even though all the teachers at school always told all the students at his elementary school that they should all be themselves, accept everyone's differences, and embrace their uniqueness.
The Dursleys had always had different thoughts on the matter. The Dursleys were perfectly fine to be considered the most normal be you could ever meet and they took great pride in it. It didn’t matter that they were not normal at all. Well maybe they were normal depending on what you considered normal, but that didn’t stop abnormal things from happening to them or around them.
The source of all the abnormalness always seemed to come from their orphaned nephew which they had regrettably taken in one morning the day after Halloween. But if you wanted to be specific about it, for Petunia Dursley the abnormalness started way before the boy was even born.
It started with the boys' mother, Petunia's sister, Lily Evans. At least that's how Petunia had known her as before she went and got knocked up by that Potter, James Charles Potter to be exact, even more of a freak than her sister. At least that's how Petunia viewed it.
So Harry spent his whole life thinking he was a freak, and no matter what he did to try to seem normal his Aunt and Uncle never seemed satisfied, always disgusted, always suspicious. Harry hadn’t known what it was that made them treat him like this until he received his Hogwarts acceptance letter. Well after he had received over a hundred of them, Dumbledore -the Headmaster of Hogwarts- sent the groundskeeper, Hagrid, to deliver it to him personally.
So Harry was a Wizard, going to wizarding school. Not very normal, except for those in the wizarding world. And Harry had thought -as he and Hagrid sailed back to land, leaving his relatives stranded on a small island much to his amusement- that maybe this was it, he had finally found a place where he would be normal, where he would fit in.
He had then found out not even 24 hours later that he couldn’t be even further from the truth. It was a long story, but apparently, there had been a dark wizard, named Voldemort but no one ever calls him that, who went to kill his father and mother, or in the harsh way his Aunt put it got themselves blown up, but for some reason that no one knows when he tried to kill him -Harry being just a baby at the time- it didn’t work and instead Voldemort himself was killed.
This is why Harry Potter is not only a wizard, but also a famous one.
So depending on your view Harry's life either went downhill from there or got much better. Which is what our young Harry Potter, Age 12, was trying to figure out himself.
Harry was sitting by the window of the train carriage, watching the countryside pass by thinking about the events of the past year. Hermione was sitting across from him reading a book on the theory of Time, and was the only other person in the carriage. Ron had gone over to Seamus and Finnegan's carriage when he realized Harry hadn’t been in a talking mood.
Harry glanced away from the green landscape to look over at Hermione. He couldn’t help but feel guilty about what happened to her, true she hadn’t been close to death or something but if she had happened to look into the basilisk in the eyes instead of the reflection she would have instantly died. If only he had figured it out sooner. Ginny was in his house, and was his best friend's sister, how could he have not figured out about the diary? Not to mention once they had figured it out it was it seemed so obvious. Him hearing a voice that only he could hear, him being a parselmouth, and the monster in the chamber of secrets supposedly being Slytherins heir, who happened to also be a parselmouth?
He felt like an idiot, and if he had just figured it out sooner Ginny wouldn’t have almost died. Harry briefly wonders if Ron would have stayed his friend if he hadn’t been able to save her. He shook his head immediately at that thought, it was ridiculous Ron was his best mate besides it wouldn’t have been his fault if he ended up being eaten by a basilisk.
He looked up at Hermione to find that she was looking at him oddly, head tilted to the side as if she was trying to figure out what was bothering him before asking him. Harry opened his mouth to say something but before he got the chance the compartment door opened to reveal the sot nose prat Draco Malfoy, his look term river.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here? The famous Harry Potter and his sidekick Mudblood. Having a little date are we?” He said sneering looking at Harry, whose fist had curled up into a fist, and was returning his look with a glare.
“Piss off, Malfoy.” He spat.
“Ohhh, good potter, did blood traitor weasel teach you that one,” Malfoy said mockingly, grinning to himself.
“Get out.” Harry snapped, as he stood up. “You’re a bloody nuisance, no wonder you don’t have any friends.”
“Shut up! I have plenty of friends!” Malfoy spat his face going red, breaking his cool composure.
“Yeah, sorry my bad, I forgot. Your dad pays for all of them.” Harry smirked, realizing he was getting the upper hand in their fight.
“He does not!” Malfoy yelled, hands shaking in fists at his sides.
“Really? So what was that thing with all the new brooms for the whole team this year?”
“I did not bribe my way onto the team!”
“Could have fooled me, with the way you flew so poorly during the game I beat you in,” Harry said grinning viciously, Malfoy just snarled before slamming the door shut and stomping away his two goons following after him.
Harry's anger left him as quickly as it had risen, and he flopped back down on his seat with a sigh and leaned his head against the window. He looked over at Hermione who was staring at the closed-door compartment in distaste before turning her citizens' gaze towards him.
“I can’t say I approve of how you let him get under your skin so easily, Harry,” Harry huffed and rolled his eyes even though he knew what she was saying was true, but he couldn’t help it Malfoy just always just got under his skin. “But I do have to admit that I do feel like punching the prat every once in a while.”
Harry, who had been expecting her to continue to voice how she disapproved of him fighting, was so startled that he could do little more than stare at her incredulously.
“Oh don’t give me that look, it’s not as though I like him any more than you do.”
“Well, if you ever do decide to give him one I hope I’ll be with you”
“I’ll be sure to send you an owl beforehand.” She said in a deadpan voice. Harry couldn’t help but start to laugh and Hermione did as well even though she tried to hide it by staring down at her book. After a few moments of silence between them, Harry decided that they might as well make the best out of it considering he wouldn’t be seeing her till school started up again.
“So what are you reading?” Harry asks, bringing up the most obvious topic.
“The Theory of Time’” She said as she lifted up the book so he could see the cover, he was pretty sure it was a wizarding book and not a muggle one.
“So what is it about?” He asked.
“Time obviously.” She said rolling her eyes good-naturedly.
“Yes obviously. I meant what does it talk about? wormholes? How not to rip a hole in the space-time continuum?” He asked grinning mischievously.
“You got all those out of movies didn’t you?” she said scowling,
“Maybe,” He said as he continued to grin. “So come on, what does the wizarding world have to say about time?”
“Quite a lot actually. They are much further in some ways in their studying of time,” She said her voice going into lecture mode. “One of these reasons is because the department of mystery has discov...”
But whatever she had been about was interpreted as the door to their compartment was slammed open once again, startling the both of them. Ron slammed the door close again, his body tense, and face red with anger.
“I fucking hate that little bugger.” He said, as he walked over to the side Harry was sitting up and flopped down next to him and folding his arms over his chest.
“Language.” Hermione reprimanded, with a stern glare that Harry was sure she was trying to learn from McGonigal. But Ron just ignored her.
“Let me guess you had an encounter with Malfoy?” Harry said.
“You too?” Ron asked back.
“Yeah.”
“I don’t even understand how he can still be allowed to go to Hogwarts after what his dad did.”
“Yeah, what his father did, not him,” Hermione stated. “Besides it’s not like there is any proof that it was Mr. Malfoy.” Ron shrugged his shoulders as he let out a huff before changing the conversation.
“So Harry do you think you could visit the borrow again?” He asked, looking eager.
“I don’t know, (.....)”
“Oh well guess we’ll just have to stick to letters.”
“Letters that you will return or we will assume the worst and I will be joining Ron and the twins in whatever stupid escape attempt they come up with this year,” Hermione added.
“I will, I will,” He conceded, then added with a grin, “As long as there aren't any more meddling house elves trying to save my life.”
~~~
Harry made sure that he had hidden his wand along with a few other things on his person before getting off the train but it seemed that he hadn’t needed to. The Dursleys hadn’t said anything about locking up his things this summer -well hadn’t said much of anything to him really- and once they pulled up into the driveway left him alone. Harry took this as consent that he could keep his things, so he took his luggage and empty cage -he had let Hedwig make her way to him- out of the trunk. He dragged his luggage up the stairs, purposefully making it his every step, to the smallest bedroom in the residence at number 4 Privet Drive.
He stood outside his door staring at the locks on it which hadn’t been used since the summer before, and that cat flap that Aunt Petunia had used to give him food during that time. He heard his relatives down in the kitchen, they had picked up Chinese food on the way home and were no doubt going to eat it all without him.
He sighed and opened his door. It only opened about two inches before it got stuck. Confused, Harry brought it back again before pushing it back again with more force, pushing back whatever was blocking it from opening. When he made an opening big enough for him to slide into, he stuck his head in to see what was behind the door. He groaned at the sight.
The entirety of the room was filled with all kinds of junk. Random things covered every inch of the place. All over his bed, his desk, and what other little furniture he had. Originally, before he had moved into it, the room had been Dudley's second bedroom a place for him to stuff all his old things, because Dudley never threw anything away not even when it was broken.
But the room had never been as filled as it was now. Looking at the stuff he could see that it wasn’t just Dudleys old things but his aunts and Uncles as well. Probably spent the year laughing their assess off every time they threw something else in here.
Harry couldn’t let himself get angry at them, it was expected, so he just started to push everything into an even bigger pile so that he could move his trunk into the room. Once it was he closed the door and locked -with the only lock that there was on this side- the door. He then made his way to his bed and started to push everything off of that as well.
He picked up the lumpy pillow that didn’t have a case that matched the rest of the bed -it being bright pink pastels, the sheet covering was an ugly moss color, the top sheet had polka dots, and the comforter -which had a few holes that the stuffing was coming out of- was covered in blue paisleys. He held the pillow up to his nose and then winced at the smell. It seemed that they hadn’t been washed since he had left.
He tore the pillowcase off the offending pillow and then did the same with the sheets and comforter rolling them all up into a bundle. Picking it up he left the room and went downstairs, not even glancing at the Dursleys he went to the laundry room and started a load.
He went back up to his room after that and lay down on his springy mattress. He just stared at the ceiling listening to the sound of the Dursleys eating, waiting for them to get done so he could go down and make his dinner in peace.
He could already tell that it was going to be a long summer.
~~~
(scene, Harry gets a letter from Ron telling him how they won a trip to Egypt. Harry is throwing himself a pity party. Finally get’s motivation to not lock himself in all summer like like summer, and not give the Dursleys the chance to treat him like they had last summer. )
~~~
(the scene with Harry meeting Sirius in dog form for the first time, already has it kind of written up.)
Harry sat at his ricked desk, which had a book under one of the legs to prevent it from wobbling, staring out the window. He had let Hedwig out about an hour ago, and he was now regretting it. Without the calming presence of his loyal friend, he couldn’t help but start to feel restless.
He had been cooped up in his room for most of the day, only going downstairs for breakfast and lunch, and soon he would be going down to fetch dinner so as well, this was the routine he had had for most of the summer, besides taking some walks and doing chores.
Truth be told, this wasn’t one of the worst summers he had had. So far the Dursleys had left him alone pretty much, they seemed to be living by the saying “out of sight, out of mind,” and that was fine with Harry. Aunt Petunia would do most of the chores inside, while she banished him outside to take care of things when she felt he had been in her presence too long.
He didn’t mind that much, it was something to keep him occupied and it wasn’t backbreaking work like he had been given other times. Sometimes he would finish early and just walk around doing nothing, or he would go a few streets down where a few elderly folk lived and he would do some chores for them.
They were always grateful and supplied him with plenty of iced tea, lemonade, and some lunch depending on how long he stayed. If he was lucky he would receive a few bucks. He also found himself visiting Mrs. Figg more than he ever had before. She was still a crazy old cat lady that always served him dry dusty biscuits, but he knew her very well and she had taken care of him when he was younger.
After the second time visiting her, she had just permitted him to come in whenever he wanted without even knocking, and that if she wasn’t here he could still come in and that the spare key was hidden under one of her decorative stone cats in her yard. Because of this, he found himself cooking dinner for the two of them a few times, one of the only useful things the Dursley had ever taught him.
She would always gush about how he was such a kind and talented boy and that he didn’t need to, she could always cook for them, but Harry always declined saying that he just wanted to make it up to her, but truthfully he just didn’t want to eat her cooking. So that’s how he came to find himself finding an escape from both the Dursleys and the heat, he didn’t know why he had never done this before.
Last year if he had started visiting her this often, she probably would have noticed his absence during the time he was locked into his room and she may have been able to find some way to help him. So maybe this was just a little extra precaution just in case the Dursleys tried to do something this year.
So between both Hermione and the Weasleys sending him food, working for food, and pretty much being able to go into Mrs. Figs and eat whatever he liked, he was able to get a good amount of food amounted on top of what little the Dursleys were giving him. He was able to store a few non-perishable things around, hiding them in more than one place in his room and a few outside in case of times he may be locked outside. He had also saved up a good amount of cash that was hiding underneath his floorboard with his most valuable possessions for emergencies.
So he didn’t even have the hunger to distract him from boredom as he looked down into his yard pointless thoughts flowing through his head as a forgotten book lay open on his desk. What would happen if a gorilla escaped from the zoo? Would they kill it? Stun it? What would the gorilla even do? Would it even be able to survive outside the zoo in a place populated by humans? Well, I guess I could always ask my Uncle, considering he is one.
Harry couldn't help but chuckle at the thought but was disturbed from his thoughts by his Aunt shrieking his name.
“Boy get down here and get your food!” He heard her call from the kitchen.
“Coming!” He shouted back, rolling his eyes. He stood up from his desk chair, which didn’t match the desk, and made to turn around but not before something caught his eye down in the yard below. He leaned forward, hand balancing himself as he looked through the glass. He stepped back again, rubbing his eyes, must have imagined it.
He made his way unhurriedly down the stairs and into the dining room. Dudley and Uncle Vernon were already sitting and Petunia just walked over to him from the kitchen and sneered at him as she stuffed his plate into his hands.
“Go up to your room and eat, we are having a nice family dinner.” She sneered, saying the word ‘family’ clearly so it was clear that she didn’t count him as such.
“I think I’ll just go and eat outside, wouldn’t want to get my room dirty.” He said back at her, he didn’t even want to eat outside, he just enjoyed pissing her off however he could. She glared but didn’t say anything, just went into the kitchen and brought out the big pans of food to set on the table.
Harry ignored Dudleys' smirk as he started scoping out large amounts of food for himself so Harry had little compared to him. Harry didn’t rise to the bait and just ignored him, if he wanted more food he could just eat the leftovers when he did the dishes, the Dursleys never ate leftovers and didn’t want to lower themselves to that standard as if not wasting food was some sign that you were poor.
He closed the glass sliding door behind him, Petunia closing the curtains right after so they wouldn’t have to see him. Harry walked to the back of the yard, not wanting to hear his relatives' voices as he ate. He went behind the shed where he knew no one would be able to see him, and where he had set up a few stones to make a seat for himself a while ago for when he wanted to hide.
He sat down and started to eat his peas. It was quieter back here, there was silence, and he could still hear cars and bugs, but it was pretty close. He made himself eat slowly enjoying the taste and the strong smell. Even if he hadn’t gotten as much as Dudley it was still a pretty good dinner, better food than he usually got, so he made himself enjoy it, it gave him something to do because once he was done he’d just have to back upstairs and do nothing.
He was suddenly startled out of his thoughts when he heard a whine. He brought the fork back down and looked around trying to figure out what it could have been. It sounded like a dog, but none of their neighbors had a dog.
He didn’t hear anything else, but now the place seemed too quiet. He looked over to the bushes to his right which would have been the only place an animal would have been able to hide here. He set down his plate on the stone and walked over the few steps to the bushes, which were hidden behind the shed as well.
He moves some of the branches away to be able to look behind the bush, only to be startled in surprise. There was a dog there alright, but he had been expecting it to be someone's dog that had just accidentally escaped from their yard. This dog was not like that.
The dog was covered completely in long black fur that was tangled and matted, with twigs, leaves, and burrs stuck in it. It also looked sickly, it was quite large, and sitting up on its haunches it would probably come past Harrys' waste, but it seemed like it was half the size it should have been. Its legs were knobby, and he could see its spine sticking out.
Harry knew that starving animals, especially ones with teeth, should not be messed with. They went savage or something with hunger, you were never supposed to get close to a stray dog either.
But the black dog didn’t do anything that made it look like it was going to attack. It looked quite the opposite. When it saw that it had been found out it had crawled out of the bottom of the bush slowly on its belly. and when it was fully out it rested its head on its paws, looked up at Harry with big dark grey eyes, and whined.
Harry conspicuously bent down to look closer at it but made sure he wasn’t too close, just in case it decided to take a bite.
“Hello there,” He said awkwardly. The dog replied with another whine and then rolled over on its back and pawed in the air with his two front paws in a display that made it look quite innocent. Harry couldn’t help but smile at him and slowly put out his hand to rest it on his belly. He winced at the feeling of ribs sticking, but the dog seemed to love it because it yelped happily.
“Shhh, you have to be quiet so the Dursleys can’t hear you,” Harry said smiling fondly, chuckling when the dog batted his head against his hand in almost an apology. “Here are you hungry?” He asked already grabbing his plate of food and bringing it over.
Immediately the dog rolled back over to his front and his tail waved back and forth mancally. “I’ll take that as a yes then,” Harry said smiling as he watched the dog gobble up the food.
“Don’t eat too fast or you may get sick, I would know,” Harry commented and was surprised when the dog seemed to comply. As the dog continued to eat Harry slowly moved closer to it and tried to pet its head but as his hand was hovering right above its head it looked up at him mouth open in a doggish-looking grin, tongue came out to lick at his lips, before going back down to eat.
Harry blinked took that as permission, and started to scratch his head. The dog finished not long after that and sat up and came close to Harry.
“Oh god, you smell fucking terrible.” Harry couldn’t help gagging, the dog just grinned wolfishly and pounced on him licking his face. “Ew, disgusting,” Harry complained, pushing on the dog half-heartedly as he laughed.
The dog soon got off him and laid down, letting Harry pat his head.
“Hey if you stay here I could bring you some more food.” The black ears perked up at that. “You are going to have to stay out of sight though so my relatives don’t see you, or they will call animal control, and you will most likely be put down,” Harry said pulling out a twig from his fur and got a whine from the dog.
“I know, I know, it’s terrible, but the Dursleys are the definition of terrible. So you have to be a good dog, ok?” Harry said patting his head. They sat down on the ground together for a while, Harry leaning against the shed the dog curled up next to him, and seemed to be dozing.
Aunt Petunia eventually opened the back door and shouted at him to get inside and do the dishes or she would look him out. This seemed to have startled the dog because he jumped up and growled. Harry quickly pushed him back scolding him for making any nose, and reminding him not to move if he wanted more food.
When he made it inside the Dursleys were already in the living room watching T.V. and all the plates and pans of food were still on the table. He scrapped all the food that was on the plates that they hadn’t finished onto one plate, then opened the door with a look over his shoulder to make sure they weren’t looking.
“Hey, doggy.” He whispered out into the darkness, not having anything else he could call the dog. He was somewhat startled when the dog walked right out in front of him from the side of the door where he had been. “Not one for following orders are you?” Harry asked to which the dog replied by opening his mouth even more and letting its tongue lol out. Harry placed the plate down on the concrete patio.
“OK, I’ll have more for you, ok? Just finish that up first.” The dog didn’t waste a moment before licking the plate clean. Harry walked back inside while the dog was eating and started to finish cleaning. He grabbed a thick slice of ham and went back outside.
“There you ok, I’m not going to give you any more. I’m afraid to may get sick.” The dog whined, but Harry just gave him a stern look. “Don’t you give me that, I don’t know much about dogs, so I’m doing my best alright. If you are still here in the morning I’ll give you the rest of the leftovers ok?” The dog licked his hand before gobbling up the ham.
Harry waited till he was done, and then gave him a pat on the head and picked up the plate. “I’ll see you if you're here in the morning then.” Harry then departed and finished his work. He ate some of the leftovers himself before putting them in the fridge and hiding them in the back behind the chocolate milk.
He ran up the stairs and got ready for bed. He made sure to set his alarm for early the next morning before either Aunt or Uncle would wake, on his alarm clock that used to be Dudley, a Batman one that had the bat sticker peeling off, and the Batman figure that had been on the top broken off so there were just the stumps of his legs.
That night he had a dream about a giant black dog, and riding on top of it while being chased by a deer.
~~~
Harry awoke to the sound of a rap song being played on the radio. The events of last night soon came to the forefront of his mind and he leaped out of bed to get ready. It was silly really, being so excited about just seeing a dog, but he couldn’t help it. He had always loved dogs, he would often approach strangers when the Dursleys hadn’t been looking and asked to pet their dog, but he guessed it was also his ‘saving people thing’, as Hermione referred to it as. The dog needed help, and if he could help him why shouldn’t he?
Harry took out the plastic containers and made his way outside not even bothering to heat it up. He went to the same spot that the dog was in before...