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Don't Fear the Reaper by starwberry_nerd
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Don't Fear the Reaper

starwberry_nerd

If I owned Harry Potter then Harry would have gotten with Hermione and many other things would have happened. I don't so they didn't. And just to let ya'll know, this is also posted on FFN where I go by the name of Kittydemon18

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The next morning, Harry woke up feeling as if he had just dueled Dumbledore, Voldemort and both of their organizations at once. His head was pounding, his arms wouldn't do anything other than flop, and he was pretty certain that his stomach was about to stage a revolt against the rest of his body.

He groaned as the sun hit his eyes and buried his head into his poor, thin excuse of a pillow as his rebellious mind frantically replayed all that happened just the other day. In shock, he sat straight up in his bed and instantly wished he had not as exhaustion swept over him but even that was not enough to make him fall back asleep this time. No, his mind was too busy.

He had died.

For some reason it had not hit him until now, but he had died. And not only that, he had consciously used wandless magic just the other day. His eyes immediately went to his door and to his surprise, there were no locks. There were no locks, no cat flap and no bars on the window and, he reached up to his cheek and pulled off the key that had stuck to his face due to a combination of pressure and drool. He had the key to Hedwig's cage. He stared at the key and tried to remember the feeling he had last night, the fear, the anger, the pure desperation and the overall want. He tried to recapture whatever it had been that had caused the pudding to not fall all over the place and further ruin his already pathetic life but he was just too tired. The key stayed where it was.

Harry sighed and then noticed that there was still some bread on his plate from the night before. His stomach growled loudly and in the blink of an eye he had wolfed down the tiny scrap of bread. The small it of food only served to remind him how hungry he was. Wearily he literally rolled out of bed and tried to stand despite his legs feeling like water. Eventually, with his bed frame holding him steady, he was able to stand and a little later he walked to Hedwig's cage and opened it.

"Just fly around my room for now girl. I need to write a few letters before I let you go." Harry whispered to the bird, too tired to say much else. Hedwig nipped at his fingers and joyfully began to fly around the room.

Harry then stumbled down the stairs, trying not to collapse. Eventually he finally made it to the kitchen where his aunt Petunia was happily cooking something at the stove that had Harry's stomach rumbling. She heard it and shot a look at him that was, not nice, but it wasn't her usual expression either.

"Good, sit down and I'll get breakfast on the table." Harry did as he was told but he did say,

"Didn't you want me to do that?" Now Petunia did scowl at him.

"You look sick and I'm not going to let you ruin this day. Sit and eat and then go back to bed. You're of no good around the house when you're sick." The young wizard poked as his food suspiciously but quickly hunger overrode his paranoia and he devoured every scrap he was given.

When he had finished, Vernon and Dudley entered the room and Vernon had a happy look on his face. Harry tried not to flinch. The last time he had seen such a look on his uncle's face, he had spent three days locked in his room and nearly starved to death.

"Well everyone, its official, Mr. Mason is going to sign a contract with Grunnings and I'll be getting a promotion before the month is over!" he glanced over at Harry and for a moment Harry had a hard time placing his expression before he realized that his uncle was actually smiling at him.

"We're going to go out and start getting things ready for our vacation home. You boy," Vernon began and Petunia cleared her throat and gave Vernon a look. Vernon's smile lost some of its force and over all creepiness as he continued,

"You look awful so you'll stay inside and do whatever chores your aunt leaves for you. No freakishness or you'll be out on the streets!" Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously but he nodded, too tired to try to figure out why on earth his relatives were actually being, well, nice wasn't the word, but they definitely weren't being themselves. Harry felt just energized enough to crawl back to his room where he again fell asleep.

When he woke up, the house was completely silent. Carefully Harry sat up and realized that he no longer felt like he was about to collapse, and he was hungry again. He slowly crept out of his room, pausing when he felt dizzy, until he finally made it downstairs. The Dursleys were no where in site and Harry sighed in relief. Vernon had been serious about taking the rest to pick out things for a vacation home. As quickly as he could, the young wizard began to put together a thick sandwich and putting together a small supply of non perishable food to keep in his room.

"If only I had thought of this ages ago." Harry murmured before he took a bite of his food, "I probably wouldn't have been so short." He quickly devoured everything on his plate and tried to figure out why he had been so exhausted. He sighed and began to clean his dishes so Petunia wouldn't find any evidence of his meal. But as he took his plate and cup to the sink, he accidentally brushed against an ugly vase that Petunia had hidden in the kitchen. It had been a gift from Marge so Vernon usually insisted that Petunia keep it in plain site but apparently last night had been an exception. It began to fall to the ground and Harry knew at once that he was too far away to catch it.

"No!" Harry cried out, knowing he would be in trouble if it broke. Then, to his amazement, the vase stopped in mid air. He frowned and his attention wandered from the vase for a moment, just long enough for it to start falling again.

"Stop that!" he snapped and his eyes widened as the vase seemed to obey him. It froze just inches above the floor and when Harry only stared at it for a minute it wiggled slightly, as if it was impatient.

"Back on the counter, and don't fall again." Harry commanded and he nearly laughed when the vase did exactly as he ordered. He shook his head and looked at the ceiling,

"So that's one of the gifts? The power to boss around pudding and vases?" he rolled his eyes, "Great going Mina." He said dryly before he tried to figure out why he could lift the vase but not the key.

It took him the better part of an hour, just as he finished the few chores Petunia had left, when he realized why he hadn't been able to lift the key. He had been too tired. It had been a trial that morning to get down the stairs, much less levitate anything, even something as small as a key.

With the chores completed, and the Dursleys still not back from their trip, Harry took the opportunity to rest and then once again attempted to move the key. This time the key lifted into the air and moved wherever Harry mentally pushed it. After an hour, he once more found himself exhausted. He scowled but fell asleep for the rest of the day, too tired to do anything else.

For the next three days Harry avoided the Dursleys as he attempted to get the hang of his ability to make things fly around without a wand and stick to wherever he ordered them to stick. Vernon had still been unable to move the vase from the kitchen back to its place of honor on the mantelpiece. Harry had been sent to his room as punishment but Petunia had given him a slightly larger than usual portion for dinner each night.

On the third night he had fallen into a fairly peaceful sleep, the first since he had returned to this time, when he was jarred out of his dreams by a rattling of glass.

He opened his eyes. Moonlight was shining through the window and there was someone staring at him: a freckled face, red haired, long nosed someone.

Ron was outside of his bedroom window.

"Ron!" Harry smiled as he stood up, "So what took you so long?"

"Well we'd be here sooner mate but you never asked. Actually you never wrote at all, what's the deal?" Ron replied, looking miffed as Harry began to gather his things together.

"It's a long story. Fred, George, all my things are locked in the cupboard under the stairs…" Harry began and the twins shared mischievous smiles.

"Not a problem Harry." Fred said smoothly as he and George slipped into the room, silent as shadows.

"We'll be back in a jiff." George added.

"Thanks, and be careful, the bottom stair creeks." Harry warned them. In about ten minutes, the twins returned and, with Harry's help, they began to shove the trunk through the window.

Then Harry heard Vernon cough.

The boy who lived froze for a moment before he redoubled his efforts to get the trunk through the window. His experiments over the past few days had taught him that he couldn't lift anything much heavier than a few textbooks without collapsing for the rest of the day so he didn't even bother trying to move the trunk wandlessly but he knew he had to hurry. With a final shove, Harry and the twins got the trunk through the window just as Vernon coughed again.

In a flash the three young wizards were through the window themselves and flying off into the night with the Dursleys none the wiser. Harry grinned as he tried to imagine their reaction to his disappearance.

"So, what's the story?" Ron demanded, "What's been happening?"

As they flew, Harry explained what Dobby had done, leaving out his new talent for wandless levitation and the fact that he knew who Dobby belonged to.

"Very fishy," said Fred finally.

"Definitely dodgy," agreed George. "So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting this stuff?"

"Unless his masters give him permission I don't think he could tell me anything. Apparently he'll have to shut his ears in an oven for coming to see me at all."

He saw Fred and George look at each other but since he was fairly certain that he knew what they were thinking he didn't ask.

"I'm pretty sure he belonged to the Malfoys, I can't think of another pureblood family with a grudge against me that's rich enough to have a house elf, well a family with a grudge that's not in Azkaban."

"I'm glad we came to get you, anyway," Ron declared. "I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters. I thought it was Errol's fault at first. He's ancient and it wouldn't be the first time that he'd collapse on delivery. So then I tried to borrow Hermes but Percy wouldn't let me use him, said he needed him."

"Percy's been acting very oddly this summer," George commented with a frown. "And he had been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room…I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge…You're driving too far west, Fred," he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred turned the steering wheel and Harry grinned.

"Ask him about Penelope Clearwater." The twins and Ron looked at him with surprise,

"You mean the Ravenclaw girl?" Harry nodded.

"You sure?" Fred asked and Harry nodded again,

"I have a hunch." He told them and the twins shrugged,

"Couldn't hurt." George began.

"Yeah, even if Harry's wrong,"

"We can still tease him about having a girlfriend."

"So your mom doesn't know about this, right?" Harry asked, hoping they would be able to avoid Molly's lecture.

"Er, no," said Ron sheepishly, "Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing it."

"That's the main road." George announced, "We'll be there in about ten minutes, just as well, it's getting light."

"A faint, pinkish glow was visible along the horizon of the east. Harry sincerely hoped that the rest of the Weasleys were still in bed.

Fred brought the car lowed, and Harry saw a familiar, dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees.

"We're a little way outside the village," said George. "Ottery St. Catchpole."

Lower and lower went the flying car. The edges of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees and Harry could see the silhouette of the burrow.

"Touch down!" Fred crowed with a slight bump as they hit the ground. They had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard, and Harry looked with a sigh of happiness at the Burrow, the only place other than Hogwarts where he had felt at home.

"It's not much," Ron mumbled and Harry shook his head,

"It's wonderful!" Harry declared as they got out of the car.

"Now, we'll go upstairs really quietly," whispered Fred, "and wait for Mum to call us for breakfast. Then, Ron, you come bounding down the stairs going, `Mum, look who turned up in the night!'" Ron glared at Fred's high pitched imitation of his voice, "She'll be all pleased to see Harry and no one will ever knew that we flew the car."

"Right," said Ron, "Come on Harry, I sleep at the…"

Ron had gone a nasty greenish color, his eyes fixed on the house. Harry winced as he remembered the last time Ron had turned that color and slowly he turned around with the twins to see the enraged Molly Weasley.

"Ah," Fred said.

"Oh dear," George added.

Mrs. Weasley stopped in front of them with a furious look on her face and her hands on her hips. Harry was only slightly relieved by the fact that she wasn't holding her wand.

"Do you have any idea how worried I've been?" said Mrs. Weasley in a chilling whisper.

"Sorry Mum but we had to"

All three of the Weasley boys were taller than their mother yet they cowered before her. Harry found this very amusing as Mrs. Weasley began to pick up steam.

"Beds empty! No note! Car Gone, you could have crashed! I was out of my mind with worry, did you care? Never as long as I've lived, just wait until your father gets home, we never had trouble like this from Bill or Charlie or Percy"

"Perfect Percy," Fred muttered and Harry felt a shot of cold hatred rush through him as he thought of the boy who had spurned his family.

"YOU COULD DO WITH TAKING A LEAV OUT OF PERCY'S BOOK!" yelled the Weasley matriarch as she poked Fred in the chest, "You could have died, you could have been seen, you could have lost your father his job!"

It seemed to go on for hours yet no matter how much she yelled, all Harry could think of was how happy he was to be back.

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