Never let go

Chapter One

True Faces

The first rays of brilliant sunshine were barely making their presence known on the serene, willow-lined street of privet drive. As the light slowly crept over the neatly cut lawns and gleaming front windows, everything was peaceful and quiet, that is until an anguished cry filled the early morning air.

"AHHHHH!"

Harry Potter woke up screaming from a nightmare, not for the first time since the summer started. In fact, this was one of the few times he had actually allowed himself to sleep more than a few hours in one night. Again he marveled at how vivid and real the dream had been, yet when it was all over he was somehow sitting upright in his bed.

His shirt was soaked with sweat and his hair was as disheveled as ever. However, the one thing that was really bothering him at the moment, was the pain coursing through the intricately shaped lightning bolt scar on his forehead.

Before he could think further about the pain in his head, he heard great pounding feet walk down the hallway to his bedroom and a second later his door burst open, revealing a severely disgruntled and angry looking Vernon Dursley.

"Boy, you have only been home a month and you're already screaming the place up!' barked a red-faced Vernon.

"I'm s-sorry Uncle V-Vernon," stammered Harry as he tried to get off his bed as quickly as he could, so as to fend off any approaches of his Uncle. Unfortunately his uncle was too quick for him and caught his arm before he could make a mad dash to the bottom of the stairs. Through the front door lay the relative safety in the park down the street.

Holding Harry's arm tight with one hand, Vernon Dursley glared into his nephew's eyes before taking his other hand and striking the boy in the stomach, just shy of his rib cage. As he watched the boy cringe he said, "That will teach you not to wake up the whole house with your yelling, and if I ever hear you doing it again I will make you wish you hadn't."

With that he left, slamming the door on the way out.

Harry sat on the floor trying to regain the air that was knocked out of him when he was punched. All of the fight was lost in him. Since the beginning of the summer he had given into every will of his relatives without so much as a word of protest.

Harry sat there for a while, trying to regain his composure before standing up and walking outside of his room to the bathroom in the hall. He turned on the sink and washed his face clean and started to brush his teeth. As he did this he looked at his reflection and studied the gangly 14 (almost 15 in one day) year old boy staring back at him. There were dark circles under his brilliant emerald green eyes from lack of sleep. They were hidden only by the dark rims of his glasses.

He looked down from his face to his bare chest and noticed the many bruises. That last hit from his uncle Vernon hadn't been the first all summer. Vernon and his wife Petunia, Harry's only real blood relative, had been fighting all year and Vernon felt he needed to vent his anger on somebody. That somebody happened to be Harry.

It had never been really bad, mostly just bruises on his torso. Once he was punched and had a black eye for a couple days, but that was the worst of it.

It seemed as if the fact that his godfather was a convict, didn't faze his uncle when he was irate.

After counting all of the bruises, he studied himself harder and noticed that he could see at least three ribs on each side.

He hadn't been eating very much that summer.

It had been a horrible summer to after having to deal with all of the guilt from last year and the incessant beatings from his uncle nearly drove him to suicide.

But he couldn't, he could never commit suicide, too many people relied on him. He had never asked for the fame and all of that but it came anyways. And overall that he knew deep in his heart that he could never give up, even when his life was hell and he didn't want to live his heart made him hold onto that last thread of hope that once he defeated Voldemort everything would be much better.

He had been having nightmares throughout the summer because of the awful events that had happened to him in the year before.

He could still remember the way Cedric's body fell to the cold dirt floor of the graveyard and the vacant look in his eyes.

He remembered dueling with Voldemort and creating the priori incantatem spell that had shown him the ghosts, or what he thought were ghosts, of all the people that were killed by the dark lord.

He remembered being amazed when Cedric popped out of the wand closely followed by Bertha Jorkins and the old man named Bryce.

Then, almost as if someone had told him, he knew who he would see next. The two people that he had no recollection of, the two people that loved him so much that they gave their lives for him. His father who bravely fought Voldemort and died an honorable death protecting his family, and his mother whose love was great enough that it cast a shield of that very same love, enough to protect her son from the one curse that had taken the lives of many others, including her own.

He was the only one to have survived that curse and considering the powerful wizard that had cast it, that was saying a lot. Nobody lived when Voldemort decided to kill them. Nobody.

Then you take a 1 year old boy. A defenseless little baby boy, had not only survived the curse but brought the demise of the feared dark lord, temporarily that is.

All this had plagued Harry the entire summer since the incident and it was no surprise that he had become severely depressed from it.

So, just as he had finished brushing his teeth he walked calmly back into his room and sat down at his bed. As he sat there calmly he heard the faint rustle of feathers come to his window. Looking up he saw a Hogwarts owl at the window with a large yellow parchment envelope attached to its leg.

He got up from his bed to the window and opened it, allowing the tawny owl inside the bedroom. It dropped the package at Harry's feet and flew to the vacant cage that usually held Hedwig, had not Harry feared her getting too loud at night and sent her to the Weasley's. Once inside the cage the bird sipped quietly at the water and ate a bit of the food stored in the cage. It then took flight once again through the opened window.

While all this was happening Harry was excitedly tearing away the wax on the Hogwarts seal.

"I wonder if I was made a prefect?" He said aloud. He then read the parchment and his question was answered.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WTHCRAFT and WIZARDRY

Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,

Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

As head of your house, Gryffindor, am pleased to inform you that you along with Hermione Granger, are to be the incoming 5^th year prefects. I am willing to look past all of your mishaps in the previous years and am determined to believe that none of that will be happening this year.

Enclosed in the envelope will be the new list of all the books necessary for the upcoming year along with a list of all the incoming prefects that will be joining you and Miss Granger, and your new prefects badge.

And remember the term starts on September 1st I expect you to be at platform 9 3/4.

Yours sincerely,

Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress

P.S. Your parents would have been exceptionally proud Mr. Potter.

Harry looked at the accompanying list of new fifth-year prefects.

5^th Year Prefects List

Hufflepuff

Hannah Abbott

Justin Finch-Fletchley

Ravenclaw

Lisa Turpin

Terry Boot

Slytherin

Blaise Zabini

Draco Malfoy

Gryffindor

Hermione Granger

Harry Potter

Course Books

All students should have a copy of each of the following:

Standard book of spells (grade 5 )by Miranda Goshawk

A Rise of Dark arts in History by Matthew Drake

An advanced Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch

So an evil sorcerer wants to kill you: a complex guide to defense against the Dark Arts by: Eric Ironic

Potions, draughts and concoctions: a difficult guide to potions by Mark Potent

Powerful plants and fungi by Gus Hojnacki

After he took a look at both lists he sat down on his bed to contemplate them. `I'm a prefect?!' he thought to himself. But before he could have any more doubts in his head he noticed the golden box on the floor near his right foot. He bent over to pick it up and opened the lid slowly. Inside was the shiny badge with a glistening golden letter P on it.

And then it hit him like a runaway freight train. "I'm a Prefect!" he exclaimed jumping up on his hard mattress. "I'm a prefect, I'm a prefect, I'm a prefect!" he repeated to nobody.

Finally he regained his composure, only after having a go of running around the room like a little kid and sat down on his bed again to collect his thoughts. He glanced at the list of names again and wondered how his best friend Hermione was doing at this time. Had she found out that she was a prefect today too? Or did she find out earlier? Then he thought about what he would be doing for the rest of the summer.

The Weasleys along with Hermione and her parents would be throwing a party for him tomorrow at the burrow. They were going to come pick him up the next day at 7 o clock am sharp, and he couldn't wait to get out of this hellhole he called a home. Thankfully he only spent two months of the year here, his true home being Hogwarts. After the party he would be spending the rest of the summer at Hermione's house whilst Ron and his family went and visited Charlie in Romania.

But since he would be leaving the next day, he had to be extremely careful around the Dursleys, as anything out of the ordinary or any insults could be detrimental to his going to the party.

So with renewed vigor, of his both being a prefect and leaving the next day, he went downstairs to the kitchen to attempt to scrounge up what little breakfast he could make. As he walked through the kitchen door he spotted his cousin Dudley who remarkably had lost a considerable amount of weight over the past year. Now instead of looking like a baby whale he resembled one of Harry's classmates from Hogwarts, Neville Longbottom.

When Harry reached the refrigerator door, he opened it and took out two eggs and then he went to the cupboard next the sink and pulled out a pan. After making himself some scrambled eggs, he carried his plate over the table where his cousin sat staring at him, already having eaten his breakfast (three rice crackers). After a while of just sitting there eating while Dudley just stared at him, Harry finally lost his patience.

"What?" he said to his cousin.

"Um..." he started, "I just wanted to say that I'm sorry for all the nasty things I've said and done to you in the past."

"What?!" exclaimed an amazed Harry.

"Well you see, Mum and I are leaving today after Dad's left for work. Mum says she can't take all of the fighting....She doesn't like it when he hits you."

Now Harry was very amazed. Here was the cousin that had hated him for the 14 years that he had been living there and the aunt that hated him probably for longer, giving him sympathy.

"Wow, I don't know what to say...Thanks I guess" he said while rubbing the back of his neck.

With that Dudley got up from his chair and went to his room. After awhile, Vernon walked into the kitchen and poured himself a cup of coffee while Harry just sat there contemplating what had just happened.

"What's wrong with you boy?" Harry's uncle barked.

Shaken from his stupor, Harry looked up into his uncles eyes and saw the anger aimed towards him. He quickly replied, "Nothing, uncle Vernon, I'm sorry ill just go up to my room now."

And with that he left.

Once in, he opened the closet and pulled out a book, not really caring what the title was. Harry had, out of sheer boredom, read every single book from the enormous bookshelf that the Dursleys housed in the basement.

That said, Harry had done a lot of reading that summer and had finally begun to understand why Hermione had loved to read so much. He had really found a love of the characters and the stories that were portrayed in the imaginative books the authors had written. Unfortunately the bookcase was only so big and for the last week he had resorted to re-reading books.

After picking up the book he sauntered over to his bed and lay down, studying the cover. The book he was holding was called; The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and he could definitely remember reading it. He had particularly enjoyed reading the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, as he felt it related to the magical world that he was separated from during the holidays. In some ways it reminded him of his own life.

Harry opened the book, and settled down on his bed, ready to escape into his own imagination.

*~*~*

Thunk.

"Done!" He said aloud when had finished the book and looked at the digital clock that was on the bed stand next to him. 4.34 p.m. it read. Lazily he got up and stretched. Harry opened the door to his bedroom, and went downstairs to the living room.

He saw his cousin and aunt frantically trying to pack everything together for their departures. He soon grew curious and asked his aunt, "where will you be going anyways?"

She stopped her packing for a moment and looked up at him. Rolling her eyes she replied, " If you must know we are going out of the country." That said, she continued her packing.

"Ok" Harry replied shrugging, before padding into the kitchen. He had finally given in to the constant grumbling of his stomach and grabbed himself an apple. As he walked to the living room he said to his aunt. "Well I'm going for a walk to the park. In case I'm not back before you leave, I'll just say goodbye now. So...uh, goodbye and um...good luck going wherever it is that you're going to go." With that final speech, he gave his aunt a quick hug and then turned to his cousin and gave him a light handshake. Then he turned on his heel and walked out the front door to the park down the street.

When he finally reached the park he walked to his favorite bench. He would spend hours at 'the' bench during the day, only coming back to the Dursleys when it got dark. Looking at the horizon, Harry could see the sun was far from setting, so he just sat there on the bench watching the children play on the jungle gym.

He watched as a brown haired boy that looked about five, climbed onto the side, but missed a handhold and bumped his head on one of the bars. He started cry and his mother came to him, putting a soothing hand to his swelling head. The boy continued to cry and his mother then leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss. The boy seemed to feel better after this.

As he watched this little interlude, Harry couldn't help but wonder what his mother would have done if he had bumped his head. Would she have kissed it and made it better? He then started to dream of what his mother would have been like, following the routine he had set countless times in his life. He sat there on the bench just thinking and thinking of how his parents would have been so perfect and loving. He just wished that he could see them...just once, to be with them and give them a hug. He wanted so much, to tell them how much he had missed them in his life.

But he knew it would never happen.

No matter how much he wished, his parents couldn't come back from the dead. He vowed to always be there for his children. It wasn't that his parents hadn't been there for him. Hell, they died to save him, it's just living without parents was something he didn't want his children to go through. He would never let it happen.

He then glanced up again and noticed that the sun had set and everything was starting to darken. He'd been sitting there for quite a while and he decided that it was probably time to head back. He stood up from the bench and started walking down the sidewalk to the Dursleys.

As soon as the house came into view he noticed that his aunt's Dodge Caravan wasn't in the driveway and his uncles brand new BMW was. Seeing this, he slowly trudged up the lawn to the front door, opening it slowly, hoping not to draw the attention of his uncle so that he could quietly slip up to his bedroom door.

He had succeeded in making it to the stairs so far, and slowly started to walk up them, hoping to god that his uncle wasn't upstairs. When he reached the second to last step, it emitted a loud squeak and to his dismay, he heard a glass drop in the kitchen. He quickly dashed into his room, closed the door and ran into the closet. He hoped to God that his uncle wasn't coming up the steps. But alas. He heard his uncle's monstrous feet pounding up the stairs and opening his bedroom door.

For awhile he didn't hear anything and thought his uncle might have left, but then suddenly Vernon opened the door to the closet with a bang.

He reeked of alcohol and had a murderous glint in his eye.

"You!" he bellowed, " you made my wife leave! It's all your fault...you and your bloody abnormalities. I'm going to make you pay for tearing up my family." He paused to sneer." Just like you ruined your good for nothing family."

With that last sentence, he grabbed Harry and threw him out onto the landing.

Harry landed with a thud, just outside the door, and tried to scramble up, but his uncle gave him a swift kick in the chest and he felt the wind knocked out of him for the second time that day. His uncle then landed a punch on his right cheek, that sent his head reeling. Vernon started then to pummel him in every place that he could touch. Franticly Harry tried to roll into a protective ball. When his uncle noticed this he picked him up, then threw him across the hall. He landed dangerously close the stairs. Harry tried rolling to the side and away from the steps but his uncle had anticipated this and with another kick to the jaw he sent Harry flying down the stairs, tumbling while seeing as in a trance, his blood staining the white-washed staircase walls.

That was the last thing he saw, before the blackness took over his sight.