Harry Potter and the Curse of One

Chapter One: first meetings

Harry Potter of number 4 Privet Drive was far unlike most people his age, being 17 that is. He spent most of his life in his room, doing homework that his teachers gave him for over the summer holidays. When he wasn't busy with that he was worrying about Voldemort and the Order of the Phoenix.

Unfortunately he had to spend the summer holidays at the Dursleys, his dreaded aunt and uncle. It's not that Harry hated his aunt and uncle, or even his cousin Dudley, but they made his life unbearable.

Most people his age were out partying with friends or hanging out. Even Dudley was invited out at least twice every weekend. The fact of the matter was that all of his friends didn't live anywhere near him. In fact all his friends were from a school that was very far away.

Harry was sitting in his room looking out the window at a house on the other side of the street. He was thinking about Sirius, and how much he really missed him. There was a big red moving van that had just pulled up to the house; it had the words Quicki-move on the side of it in great yellow letters.

"Must be people moving in," Harry thought to himself.

"Harry, get down here right now and set the table," came the voice of Aunt Petunia from downstairs.

Harry slowly got up from the window where he was sitting. Just as he was about to look away he noticed a girl who looked about his age. She was tall and pretty with short auburn hair. He couldn't look away; she was so beautiful standing there in a skirt and t-shirt on.

"Harry, must I come up there and get you myself?" he heard Aunt Petunia yell.

"I'm coming," he yelled down, the last thing Harry needed was to be in trouble with the Dursleys.

He quickly walked down the stairs. Standing up he was tall and handsome with finely tanned skin stretched taut over his lean muscles. He was what most of the girls in his school dreamed of.

He reached the kitchen in little time, nearly running into Dudley who was still extremely fat and quite short.

"Watch where you're going," yelled Dudley.

Harry just kept walking. When he got to the kitchen he went to the cupboard and got out the plates with pink floral on them.

"Good morning aunt Petunia, Good Morning Uncle Vernon," he greeted them with a smile.

Vernon was reading his newspaper and talking about the new neighbors. Petunia was looking out the window to see across the street.

"I talked to John Donovan from down the street. He said that he was doing business in Kent. He was reading the newspaper one morning and saw a picture of our new neighbor. It turns out that he is an ex-convict and was just released." said Vernon.

"I don't think that people like him should be allowed on this street," said Petunia.

This reminded Harry of Sirius and how biased his aunt and uncle were against him. Leaving Harry with a little hurt inside thinking about his Godfather. He finished setting the table and started making breakfast.

Dudley stormed in complaining that his CD player wasn't working. He stomped over to the table and sat down next to his father.

"Harry, hurry up and make breakfast, I'm hungry," said Dudley.

Harry quickly put some bacon on a plate and put it on the table along with some eggs and toast.

"I'm tired of bacon and eggs, go get me the cereal," said Dudley.

Harry asked what kind and got out a bowl, spoon, and milk for him.

After breakfast Dudley went to the mall with his friends leaving Harry busy cleaning the house. It took an hour and a half to fully clean the house up to Aunt Petunia's standards. He kept thinking about the girl he had seen.

"All right, you're done," yelled Aunt Petunia from the downstairs living room.

Harry quickly ran down the stairs and out the front door. He was going to go and see if that girl was still there. He couldn't see her anywhere; she must have been inside the house.

He went and sat down on the bench in the front garden wondering why he kept thinking about her. Harry didn't even know her name.

That was it. He'd walk over to the house and knock on the door and introduce himself. For once he wished he was more like Draco Malfoy, who was always so outspoken and had girls always wanting to be with him.

He got up and strode across the road. Walking up to the door he noticed that his hands were shaking violently.

He stood there for a moment wondering if he should really do this, what if the girl didn't like him?

Harry heard some very indistinct yelling from deep inside the house. Just as he was about to knock on the door it opened. There she was smiling, even more pretty up close. An awkward silence followed.

"Um, hi," said Harry.

"Hi," she replied with a bewildered smile on her face.

"My name's Harry Potter," he said slowly.

Mine's Erica Johnson," she replied.