When the Bee Stings...

Chapter 1-When the bee stings...

"When the dog bites,
When the bee stings,
When I'm feeling sad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don't feel so bad..."

From: The Sound of Music.

"My favorite things?" Harry sighed, listening morosely to the song playing in Uncle Vernon's car.

'They used to be Quidditch... Hogwarts..., and having Sirius as my godfather...." His face flushed red. Anger rushed through him like venomous spears.

"All is lost now.... the world has done me no justice... even God himself had forsaken me..."
Thoughts of despair robbed Harry of all his mirth and, for a while, all he could do was stare unseeingly out the window. His face had become a mask of silence, though deep down, he was crying out loud, screaming at the top of his voice. But no one could hear him. He was lost soul. Like an unlikely shadow in a world full of light, and he alone was cursed to stay in the darkness forever.

None of the Dursleys had spoken one word to him in the entire journey. Amidst the oppressive silence, it was clear that Harry's presence was most unwanted. Nonetheless, Harry had never found silence to be so blissful. However, the ominous silence adrift the sullen company was lifted once they reached the Dursleys' home. A place where Harry had never, and would never be welcomed.

"Look, Vernon dear! Our new neighbors have finally moved in!" Aunt Petunia cried, craning her long neck as though attempting to stick her nose into next door's business.
Harry did not know when the previous neighbors had moved, and nor did he care. He didn't even want to be back in this embittering place if he were given the choice.
But despite his wishes to just run away from all his troubles, they always manage to keep up with him, and like a dark cloud, they hung over him. Not giving the new neighbors a glance, despite the Dursleys' apparent curiosity, Harry unloaded his stuff moodily from the trunk. But just as he was about to get up, he heard a loud, familiar voice.

"Yo, Big D!" called Piers Polkiss, acknowledging his porky faced cousin.
"Yo! What's kicking, dude?" Dudley asked, smiling a most revolting yellow-toothed smile.
"Nothing much, but I think you're gonna be very, very pleased with that new neighbor of yours! Hot stuff!" Piers wolf whistled at whomever he was referring to. Without a spark of interest, Harry decided to leave them, to shut himself in his room, and stay there until he's about sixty.
"C'mon, Cho! Help me out in here!" called a rather rough, nasally voice.

Harry spun, and to his utter surprise, the Cho whose name was being called, was none other than the Cho Chang... who could probably flood his entire room with her tears. She showed no signs of having seen him and Harry was quite sure that she hadn't. But then again, he was used to being invisible around the Dursleys'. Like him, she looked pretty grouchy and had a huge frown on her pretty face. An Asian man and woman were carrying a huge ancient vase into their home; a boy, who looked about two years older than Cho, was checking out the wild lawn and Cho sat sulkily at a corner, as though unwilling to move.

"Come on now, Potter! Get in!" uncle Vernon demanded his nephew, as if one more minute outside would have caused him a huge embarrassment.

And of course, as expected, Cho lifted her head at the name "Potter". Harry watched her dark eyes flicker towards his direction and they grew alarmingly wide. His heart gave a mild flutter, thinking that of all people, it had to be the Chang clan moving in next door to the Dursleys. Cho stood up, as though trying to inform Harry of her presence. But Harry did not feel like talking to anyone at the moment, least of all to a human hosepipe. Pretending that he had not noticed her, he started to walk away.

What wouldn't I give the world,
To find out who I really am,
I'm just a clueless wanderer,
And I can't really understand.

What on earth is going on?
For a while, didn't I feel strong,
And in a flash, things just go wrong,
And I'm left, abandoned, like a vagabond.

Why is it that every move that I make,

Turns out tobe another stupid mistake?

Why does things always come by too late,

And everybody seems to be waiting for me to break.

By: Hollow Heart

But....

" Hello, neighbor!" called a chubby Asian man.
"Oh, hello...", said Uncle Vernon in fake politeness. "You've just moved in, I see"
"Yes, yes. Jolly good place this." the man smiled jovially as his eyes drifted to the green-eyed boy.
"Merlin's beard!" the man cied. "I'm Lee Chang!" He took Harry's hand and shook it profusely, with such enthusiasm that it left Harry stunned.
"Ah, that's my, er, nephew Harry. Harry Potter," said Uncle Vernon, eyeing Harry with unmistakable disgust.
"So it is you!" he practically bounced. "So pleased to meet you at last!"
"You know him?" Harry saw Vernon mutter, out of the corners of his mouth.
"No," said Harry truthfully, but from his face, it was obvious that the other man knew exactly who he was. Which could only mean one thing to Vernon Dursley: he was a wizard.

A slender Asian woman walked out as her husband who told her whom he had just met. And in a second, she invited Harry for tea.
"You simply must come!" She gazed at Harry in a loving way.
"Well, okay," Harry said, feeling stupid. Even stupider than he thought Dudley would be.
"I, er, I'll go unpack my stuff now..." he broke the awkward silence. He hated it when people ogled at him, their eyes wandering to his scar like he was some sort of rare animal on exhibition.
"Yes, do drop by later!" they waved at him fondly.
Uncle Vernon's piggy eyes could only drift from his new eccentric neighbors to Harry's messy head suspiciously. Fortunately, he kept his lips sealed.

Wearily, Harry sank back onto the sunken bed. He didn't care that he stank, or that his hair was sticking out like a bird's nest. He lay on hs back, leaving his bags unpacked and shut his eyes. He felt empty inside, like his whole world had suddenly been drained of life and meaning. And his heart, the center of all his emotions, felt somewhat hollow. He didn't even know if he cared about living anymore, nor about the things that surrounded him. Darkness... darkness was all he could see, and darkness closed up about him like walls of doom, depriving him of all his colors, leaving him in despair. Tears trickled down his face beyond his control as his thoughts whirled back to Sirius's demise.

Why is it always me...? Why does fate always choose to let me down? To take away everything I ever loved...

He let the tears flow for a moment before he determined them to stop. But stop they would not, and a mad, insane, raging desire suddenly overcame him. He took out his wand, and took a deep breath. Tears continued to roll down his cheeks and he knew that he would be using his wand for one last time. Weakly, he began uttering the words. Two words that would send him to hell...

"Avada kadav--"

CRACK.

An odd sound came, interrupting the words that were about to erupt from his weary lips. Aghast, Harry opened his tired eyes to meet an unexpected sight. Someone had just apparated into his room. A certain, scantily-clad someone.

"Cho?" He cried weakly and, as if recovering from a trance, he suddenly realized that he was about to do the stupidest thing in the world.

"Harry! What the hell are you doing?" she gasped, seeing that his wand was pointed towards his head, and his eyes were red and swollen from crying.
"I was... I was sleeping...." Harry feigned a yawn, not wanting Cho to know what he had been doing.

But Cho was in Ravenclaw and the intellectual was not deceived. A glow of concern sparkled in her almond shaped eyes and, from her face; Harry saw that she understood what he was about to do.

"Don't do it, Harry." Her voice was mellow as she approached him without the slightest trace of unease.
"Don't do what?" Harry shrugged, playing for time. Then he made the mistake of meeting Cho's keen black eyes, for he faltered when his gaze met hers.
"Harry, I'm not stupid. I know what you were trying to do." She shot him a look of empathy. "If you end it, nothing will change. But if you hang on to it, you can still change something..." she reached out for his hand.

"So, you can apparate now, eh?" asked Harry after a while, trying to change the topic.
"Well, yeah.... I passed the test. It wasn't that hard actually," she said, smiling.

It suddenly hit Harry that he had quite forgotten how pretty Cho Chang was. Yet now, the exotic beauty was before him, her face within a few inches from his. Her deep, dark eyes burned into his emerald ones. And her luscious pink lips.... she was about to kiss him, Harry realized. As her slender fingers undid the buttons of his shirt. She rested her ample bosom on his chest, and grinded seductively on him. Harry hardened like a rock beneath her perky body...

"POTTER!"

"Shit," Harry thought, upon hearing the oh-so-familiar-I-wish-you-would-die voice belonging to none other than his beefy Uncle Vernon.

"YOU! WHERE ON EARTH DID YOU COME FROM? GET OUT OF MY HOUSE!" He eyed Cho maliciously.

"Uncle--" Harry tried to interject.

"SHUT UP! I DO NOT WANT TO HEAR ONE WORD FROM YOUR INSOLENT, FILTHY MOUTH! GO! NOW!"

At that, Cho rolled her eyes, though quite untouched by Uncle Vernon's comments, she took out her wand, whispered a well chosen spell and before Harry knew it, she had disapparated.

"Blimey! What on earth am I doing here?" Uncle Vernon looked around.

"A memory charm.... Bless her..." Harry sighed in relief.

Harry watched his vast uncle leave his room in complete vagueness before he sank back into his own bed. For a while, he was as confused as he was when Sirius died. He suddenly took note that he was feeling something that he had never come to feel before...An unmistakable surge of lust, rushing through his veins, making him hot and excited in his pants. What wouldn't he give at that moment just to touch Cho? To feel her supple breasts... to sink himself into her and make her moan in pleasure, scream in euphoria, and cry out his name, begging for more!

"Harry! Oh..." He pictured the scenes in his head, and found himself very turned on by naughty boy thoughts of Cho. He allowed his mind to drift into lewd thoughts of indecent pleasure for a few minutes before misery overtook him once more.

"What the fuck am I doing? Sirius is dead and now all I can think of is sex!" he scolded himself. "Lord Voldemort used Sirius to lure me because he knew...." Harry paused, pondering his thoughts. "He knew that I would do anything to save him...he knew how close we were.... what if he intends to do the same to Cho if I do get close to her? What if he plans to harm her? What if Cho gets hurt? What if Ron, Hermione and everyone I know...die?"

Harry swallowed hard and despite his wills and desires to get back with Cho, he found that he couldn't. He mustn't. For her own good and his.

"Loneliness was written in the stars of my fate...I am cursed to go through this on my own...I must not put another innocent through death..."

Alone.... I was meant to be alone as always,
Alone I must walk on these darkened lanes,
Alone, the darkness will stir my piercing pains,
Alone, I must go through the frigid rain...

By: Hollow Heart

His mind was made up. He was never leaving his room again. Never again did he want his deeds to lead to another death. Death was just too painful for him to bear, and the scars.... they never seem to disappear, instead, they burned deeper, tormenting him endlessly.

On the verge of his wallowing silence, a noise suddenly rang through the emptiness. Slightly shocked, Harry turned towards the direction where the sound originated. And he found that it came from next door. Cho's new home. However, the windows were shut, so he had to strain his ears to make out the words that were spoken.

"Honestly, Cho! What is the matter with you? You won't eat, you barely sleep, and you spend all your time doing nothing! Your grades are dropping, and you used to be one of the top scorers and look at you now! What has become of you?" shouted a woman's voice that must have been from Cho's mother. Harry shuddered for a while. It had never occurred to him that Cho could displease her parents so much.

"MUM! IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK! HEAR ME OUT!" he heard a familiar voice cry.

"NO, CHO! YOU SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER! YOU ARE A DISGRACE! I DON'T KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO YOU. I REALLY DON'T!" came a rough voice belonging to a man.

"FINE! I'M NOT GOOD ENOUGH, OKAY? I'M USELESS, A FREAK AND I DON'T GIVE A DAMM ABOUT IT!" came back a raised voice which barely sounded like Cho's usually sweet one. "I'M LEAVING! I HOPE THE BOTH OF YOU FUCKING BURN IN HELL! WAIT, THIS IS HELL!"

At once, Harry peered down from his window and spotted Cho bursting through the door, riding on a storm into the purplish dusk.

Maybe I'm not good enough for the world,
Maybe I'm too imperfect as a girl,
I wish I could feel safe in my own skin,
But now I'm dwelling in the past that has been.

How could things turn out so wrong?
How could life turn out into this woeful song?
Where do I find the will to move on? Now that I'm trapped in the memories of bygone.

Won't somebody tell me things aren't so bad,
Won't somebody tell me that life's not too sad,
Because I think I'm going mad,

When my whole world seems to burn and crash.

By: Hollow Heart

Harry watched the raven-haired girl dash into the streets, and even in the dim light of the dusk, he could see the tears streaming down her angelic face. Harry stood by his windowsill, slightly taken aback. He wasn't sure what he should do.

"Well, crying seems to be a daily routine for Cho..." he thought, but remembered that barely a few hours ago, tears had driven him to the brink of insanity, and he nearly jumped off the edge of life, only to fall into the pits of death. A splitting image of Cho trying to commit suicide flashed in his head.

"What am I thinking? REWIND! You did not just think that, you stupid bag of bat droppings!"

In doubt, Harry observed the oriental beauty wander into the middle of nowhere.
"Should I go after her? What if something bad happens to her?' he thought miserably.' but Privet Drive's a safe place, isn't it?" he thought without conviction. "Maybe, except for dementors and all..."

His brilliant green eyes were still trailing Cho's footsteps. Then, to his horror, he saw a vast group of boys tuning their attentions on her. And even from the distance he could recognize whom the huge backside belonged to. Dudley was ogling at her like one who had never seen a girl. But then again, Cho was dressed in a hot red skirt that looked more like a belt, and a boob tube so tight that Harry wondered how she had managed to breathe. So the fault was not entirely Dudley's.

"Dammit, Dudley's following her now, isn't he? Well, we'll see about that!"

A surge of rage gushed through his head and, no longer able to think clearly, he ran down from his room, ignoring the Dursleys' forbidding yells as he went after her. Harry saw Dudley and two more of his muggle friends harassing Cho with their lewd comments.

'"Leave her alone!' Harry bellowed, shocking both his cousin and Cho with his presence.

"Potter!" Dudley glared at him with his piggy eyes. "I'm warning you, stay out of this! This is none of your fucking business!" his cousin suddenly looked much braver, probably due to the fact that he had his sidekicks with him.
"He's right, Harry. Keep out of this...." said Cho in a honeyed voice.
"What?" Harry asked, his eyes wide in bewilderment.
"You heard her! Now, fucking keep your grimy paws out of our way!" Dudley yelled triumphantly.

Harry watched them, unable to speak. And out of the blue, Cho approached Dudley, sleekly; walking down the lane on her high heels elegantly like a model would on a catwalk. A stupid smile flashed upon Dudley's flabby face. And without warning, just as she was close enough to Dudley's sickly face, Cho shouted: "SCORGIFY!"

The spell hit them and before anything could be done, bubbles were oozing out from each of their mouths. Harry remembered seeing this spell being performed on 'Snivellus' Snape by his late godfather, Sirius Black....

"Y-you're a-" Dudley tried to speak unsuccessfully, as the bubbles choked him.
"Mind your language next time, busters," she said airily and undid the spell. And before Harry could even say "WELL DONE", Dudley and his pals scampered off.

"Well...that was... impressive," said Harry rather nervously, now that they were both alone again.
"Thanks, Harry," said Cho, giving him a dazzling smile.

Harry was speechless, he could only wish that his seventh year would arrive sooner, and then he would be allowed to use magic!

"I, er, guess I better go..." said Cho, blushing, and her eyes widened again, realizing that she had just ran away from her home.

"Go where?" said Harry without thinking. "Shit..." he thought to himself when a frown was etched on Cho's pretty face once again.

"I don't know..." said Cho truthfully, and Harry realized that she was shivering in the cold summer's night. But who wouldn't be when they're donned in clothes so tight that they seem to squeeze rather than protect?

"Is there any place that you know I can go?" she asked Harry, her eyes flashing at him like enchanting stars. But before Harry could answer, a voice came back to taunt them.

"OVER THERE!" came Dudley's voice before Harry even had a chance to speak.
And he saw, to his horror that Dudley and two of his friends had reappeared, this time accompanied by an adult!

"THOSE TWO ARE FREAKS! HAVE THEM ARRESTED!" Dudley wailed as Cho clutched Harry's arm in horror.

"Dammit! I got so carried away I forgot to modify their memories!" she hissed, her face turning hot.
Harry faltered for a moment, not knowing what to do, and then saw that the man was no ordinary muggle, but a policeman!
"Shit," he muttered under his breath, watching the shadowed face approaching him.
"They performed magic on ye, did ya say?" came a strange rough voice.
"YES! THEY DID!" Piers Polkiss yelped. "Get those circus clowns back where they come from!"
"Well, since you say so..." the man said in a strange voice that seemed to be resisting the urge to laugh. "A little more magic wouldn't hurt now, would it?"

Before anyone could make out what he had just said, he pointed his wand at all three of the muggles.
"OBLIVIATE!" the stranger bellowed, stirring a veil of confusion in the blck street.
At once, varying looks of blurriness occurred on their faces as policeman told them to go off. Still muddled, they had no other choice but go.

"What the...?'Harry opened his mouth to speak, but found that unnecessary when he found himself face to face with the strange policeman.