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Rating:G
Author: Psyche752
Disclaimer: Although the first two lines belong to JK Rowling, and I hope she'll forgive me for using them, the rest is my own original and non-profit work. I do not own Harry Potter and co. nor is this work an intended infringement on copyright laws.
Authors Note: Please R+R
The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive The only person left outside was a teenage boy who was lying flat on his back in a flowerbed outside number four. Harry sucked in his breath as Uncle Vernon appeared at the corner of the house. Well, Harry thought, the front of Uncle Vernon appeared at the corner, the rest of him was still tailing behind out of sight. The image caused a Harry a small giggle which he instantly regretted as the flowers swayed softly with his movement.
"Think of something else" he ordered himself firmly. Inevitably in such moments his mind turned to Quidditch and lost in the swell of a breeze he chased the imaginary golden snitch around inside his head.
"Where is that ungrateful wretch of a boy" snarled Uncle Vernon as he plodded back into the kitchen. Aunt Petunia looked around from where she had been decorating a fruit salad with bits of chocolate in order to entice Dudley into trying it.
"What's that dear?" she asked.
"The boy" Uncle Vernon repeated in an even louder voice "is missing…AGAIN. When I think of all the time and effort we have put into him this summer-"
"And that snivelling noise at night is almost more than I can bear" interrupted Aunt Petunia with a haughty glare.
Dudley interrupted this discussion before Uncle Vernon got a chance to blame Harry for the exhaust problem on the car. He stalked into the kitchen a little, though not noticeably thinner, sniffing the air like a dog.
"I SMELL CHOCOLATE" he said. "GIVE ME MY CHOCOLATE". He crossed his arms and stared aggressively at his mother.
"Darling Dudley what a clever boy you are to out-guess Mummy-"
Darling Dudley opened his mouth for another sulky tirade and so Aunt Petunia hurriedly continued "And look what Mummy has made for her darling boy". Moving aside she revealed the pudding which was barely recognizable as fruit salad under all the whipped cream and chocolate pieces.
"I CAN SEE A BIT OF APPLE" raged Dudley furiously. "That's not my pudding, that's food for rabbits". All the rabbits in the neighbourhood, privy to this discussion thanks to Dudley's deafening shout, pricked their ears hopefully at the prospect of the chocolate wickedness.
Harry, within a hands breadth of the golden snitch, sighed as the sounds of angry sobbing penetrated his imaginary Quidditch match. A particularly nasty root of geranium was sticking in his side and he shifted gently to a better position. He had been hiding in this flowerbed for four days now. It was a plan that he had hatched over another horrifically long summer with the Dursleys. Gradually the days uncrossed on his calendar had grown less and the prospect of Hogwarts had grown closer. Keen to avoid the last minute escapes necessary each preceding year Harry had taken the initiative to hide out in the last week. The Dursleys barely noticed he was alive anyway and thankfully each of Uncle Vernon's inquiries - prompted by the need to blame Harry for a bad day at work - had ended in another dispute over Dudley's "diet". The grapefruit scheme had lasted only four minutes into the new term and now Aunt Petunia was trying what the nurse had called "tempting health-food". Harry didn't think that the nurse meant covering health food in whipped cream, but Aunt Petunia seemed to feel that it all went down the same way.
Harry stretched out a hand to touch his Hogwarts trunk by his side. Only two more hours until Hermione's parents were coming by to pick him up. Harry had managed to sneak out to a phone box about a week ago and had hurriedly arranged for this escape route. He hoped that Hermione's parents wouldn't find the proceedings too peculiar, though having a witch for a daughter should probably prepare one for some abnormality. An uncomfortable cramp shot through Harry's lower leg and to divert his mind from the pain he started to count-down the minutes.
It had been an unusually difficult summer for Harry. Thankfully the tragic drama of last term had made enduring the Dursleys somewhat easier. During the day Harry would find himself drawn to the window of his small room, watching the neat privet hedges, consumed with an irrational fear that Voldemort would spring out. Being deprived of wizarding news over the summer had been excruciating. Time and time again within Harry's fevered imagination Voldemort destroyed Hogwarts and had taken control of the wizard world. The arrival of his Hogwarts letter (delivered safely to his own window in the dead of night) had done amazing work to allay his fears. He wondered again what had happened since his confrontation with Voldemort at the end of last term. Had Hagrid convinced the giants to help? Had Dumbledore managed to rally the wizards? What was Snape up to? And, not for the first time, he closed his eyes and wished for the safety of all his witch and wizard friends.
The cramp was really starting to hurt and pain was spreading through Harry's left side. The trembling dislodged a few geranium leaves which fell gracefully onto his glasses.
"Come on Hermione" he seethed.
At this the bush to his left seemed to rustle in reply.
"You think you're talking to a bush" said Harry's brain. "You've been out here too long!"
But no, again… "Harry!" came the urgent whisper.
Harry had time to hope that he wasn't going crazy in the moments before the bush rustled again and he was confronted with Hermione's grinning face. Dumbfounded all he could think to say was "You're early".
As they belted themselves securely in the back of Hermione's parent's car, Harry was struck by a sudden
thought.
"I probably smell quite bad" he muttered apologetically.
"Well…yes you really do" said Hermione frankly "but its ok, my parents have developed a real intolerance to bad smells - bad teeth make your breath smell really awful. Also, my early attempts at Potions were never that easy on the nostrils either. But Harry" she lowered her voice "how are you?"
Harry looked at her earnest face and couldn't bring himself to share the nights he'd cried to himself to sleep. He didn't think it sounded very manly and Hermione's face looked worried enough. "I'm ok" he said in what he hoped was a sincere tone. "Tell me everything that's happened. What's happened with Voldemort?". Immediately he sensed a stiffening around him in the car as Hemione's parents shifted almost imperceptibly. Hermione gave him a meaningful stare.
"Oh Harry all those reports were so utterly exaggerated. Everything's fine". She gave him a swift nudge to enunciate the last word. Bewildered he could only nod, frustrated. Another thought nagged at his brain and he couldn't help but acknowledge it.
"Thank goodness you didn't go to the front door!" he gasped in relief.
"Honestly Harry what do you take me for? Obviously I wouldn't have done that. Clearly any logical person would have taken the steps you did. Though" she added as another whiff of Harry's soil perfume drifter her way "a logical person might have hidden with a change of clothes."
As the car pulled up to the curb, Harry touched Hermione's sleeve.
"Thankyou for doing this. I would have called Ron but I needed to be sure that the person on the end wouldn't mistaken the telephone for a muggle alarm clock, or worse, a rubber ducky"
Harry had an unpleasant imagine of Mr Weasley bathing with a telephone in an attempt to commune with Muggle nature. He shook his head in an effort to banish the picture. He got the impression that Hermione was suffering in the same way from the slightly distasteful droop of her mouth.
"Harry, I told you, it's fine. My parents and I were happy to help out. Even I'm not Ron". Hermione's response had all the right words but Harry suspected there was something else behind them. She became somewhat tight-lipped beside him. He reached over to undo his seat belt and gratefully stepped out onto the London pavement to stretch his legs.
As Hermione's parents busied themselves in last-minute hugs and goodbyes, Harry tried to make himself as small as possible (a skill honed to perfection during his time with the Dursleys) and checked again that Hedwig was securely belted into the back seat. Hermione's parents seemed genuinely sad to see her go and to be so close to a loving family was, on occasion, a little much for Harry to bear. Mrs Granger, possibly sensing some of this, called him over to their group.
"Thank you so much for the lift" Harry began earnestly, holding out his hand in farewell.
"Oh dear boy" said Mrs Granger. "I feel like you're one of our family already with all the stories Hermione tells." Saying this she swept him into a brief hug and then, a little embarrassed by her outburst, went to sit in the front of the car. Mr Granger shook Harry's hand and promised to deliver Hedwig safely to the station. They drove away to deliver the luggage (Harry and Hermione were planning to meet the Weasleys in Diagon Alley and travel with the family to the station) waving madly out of both windows.
"Honestly" said Hermione "Parents!"
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