Dursley Dream

Chapter 1: STRANGE DISCOVERY

Uncle Vernon was waiting beyond the barrier. Mrs. Weasley was close by him. She hugged Harry very tightly when she saw him and whispered in his ear, "I think Dumbledore will let you come to us later in the summer. Keep in touch, Harry."

"See you Harry," said Ron, patting him on the back.

"Bye, Harry!" said Hermione and she did something she had never done before; she kissed him on the cheek.

"Harry - thanks," George muttered, while Fred nodded fervently at his side.

Harry winked at them, turned to Uncle Vernon and followed him silently from the station. There was no point worrying yet, he told himself, as he got into the back of the Dursley car.

As Hagrid had said, what would come, would come... and he would have to meet it when it did. The thought of yet another summer at the Dursleys' in his current state was nothing he wanted, however. Making Malfoy go unconscious was a nice side benefit, but not even covering his face with hex marks and stepping on him made up for a summer with Mr. and Mrs. Dursley and their wretched son, Dudley.

The moment Harry stepped into the car, he didn't say anything. This was no hard feat since Uncle Vernon didn't ask him anything nor, even, did it look like he wanted to talk. But this was usual, and didn't bother Harry. They never knew what went on at Hogwarts and never cared to ask. They've never known what Harry has seen the past four years but anything is better than a lifetime with Uncle Vernon and Dudley.

Knowing Sirius is out there and caring for Harry like a father keeps his spirits up. Knowing Mrs. Weasley has suddenly begun to act like Harry's lost mother provides lost comfort. Knowing Voldemort is out there, Harry wonders why Dumbledore insists he stay at the Dursleys' each summer. The answer isn't what he would like it to be: that Voldemort feared Uncle Vernon, Aunt Marge and the rest of his relatives more than Dumbledore. That would be convenient.

When they got home, Harry went straight to his room saying nothing with a stern "don't touch me" look on his face. While it had happened a week ago, he was still feeling plainly rotten and no one at Privet Drive would make him feel any better.

Among changes since his departure, Dudley had gotten two pet snakes in Harry's absence. They were fairly long, coming in at a few feet and sitting on a table in a glass cage as everyone walked in. A smile on his face, Harry knew he had to have some fun with it but all he wanted was to sleep and put current events into a Pensieve of his own. The first one Harry came across was Dumbledore's very own Pensieve, and he had been siphoning his own thoughts into it.

There was lots to ponder about this time around. Hedwig let out small noises and was itching to fly around again. Harry sat up on his bed and stared out the window into the night sky. His friend Ron was in the same classes as him. Ron came from the Weasley family, an unfortunately poor and slightly overpopulated Wizard family with a bad reputation. His Hermione Granger came from a pure Muggle family (Muggles are non-magic folk). She got a letter to her great surprise and instantly became a star student.

As much as Harry tried, Severus Snape wasn't leaving Harry's mind all too soon. It was the teacher you wish you never knew. Snape was always partial towards his own Slytherin House students. Before you could say "unfair," Snape had taken points away from Harry's house, Gryffindor, for the smallest little thing. "You didn't help Neville, Potter, and look at the mess on the floor. One point." Despite Snape's best efforts though, Gryffindor managed to win the House Cup every year since Harry had been at Hogwarts.

Then there was his wrongly accused ex-convict of a godfather (the ex fact he had repeatedly failed to mention to the Dursleys). Sirius Black had been held at Azkaban after being framed for the death of Peter Pettigrew. Peter, Sirius, James Potter and Remus Lupin had been long time friends. Snape had always followed them around, trying to find something to get them in trouble. It wasn't until a practical joke where James stopped Snape from actually going near the Whomping Willow and getting himself eaten up by Remus Lupin as a werewolf (Lupin transformed in a shack whose underground path was hidden by the tree) that Snape had realized his hatred for James would last forever. How could he forgive his biggest enemy for saving his life?

Lupin had been bitten by a werewolf in his childhood. Every full moon he would transform into a werewolf and he hid this fact very well during his years at Hogwarts. More recently, Snape had been providing him with potions to ease his werewolf mind (so as to not go on hunts). After they found out, Pettigrew and James had trained to be come Animagus' so they too could shapeshift into an animal. You were supposed to register as an animagus, however, and the two failed to do so. Peter had secretly been in league with Voldemort and after his downfall, went into hiding as Ron's pet rat (he was later found out, but he escaped certain doom).

Lupin was a teacher for Defense Against the Dark Arts for one year at Hogwarts, one of Harry's favorites, but left after an outrage by students and parents finding out about his werewolf status. It was freak accident involving Pettigrew, Sirius and Harry. Dumbledore was Harry's personal savior. He is the headmaster at Hogwarts, the best one in a thousand years of Hogwarts history. At the end of every school year, Dumbledore's job was to debrief Harry and most notably, to calm him down as Harry was usually more frightened by events every successive year. Dumbledore had taken a liking to Harry. Too bad Professor McGonagall, leader of Gryffindor, did not. Unlike Snape, she was impartial to all students. She did give Harry a Nimbus Two Thousand broom (students were oogling over it in a window during Harry's first trip to buy school supplies) in his first year at Hogwarts. Unbelievably, Harry had become the youngest Seeker in a century to play on a Quidditch team. McGonagall gave Harry the broom to ensure success (and succeed he did).

No one could forget the Dursleys. Harry was left as a baby on their doorstep the night of his parents' murder. No one in the family cared much, though. Uncle Vernon was just as mean as, if not meaner than, Snape. Aunt Petunia's sister was Lily Potter. Her parents were so proud to have a witch in the family that Petunia took a back seat. Very agnostic towards witches and wizards from this point on, she took an immediate dislike towards Harry's coming future. Uncle Vernon simply wanted nothing to do with it. Harry became Dudley's punching bag. They were the same age, but Dudley had put on much more weight. Harry's diet suffered because the Dursleys were always complaining about how much it cost to keep him around. Harry was forced to live in a small cupboard under the stairs with nothing more than a window, a bed and enough room to put Dudley's old and oversized clothes for Harry to wear. They hid from Harry very well the fact that he was a wizard and told him his scar was from a car crash that claimed his parents' lives. Repeatedly, they told him "there's no such thing as magic!" It was hard to hide though.

One day at a zoo, Dudley had pushed Harry a little too far. The next minute Dudley was staring a Boa Constrictor in the eye after the glass guard had disappeared. Not much changed after Harry's first year at Hogwarts. Dudley was scared to be around Harry but his aunt and uncle still gave Harry cold eyes. They never got used to the fact that Hedwig, Harry's owl, was his personal mail delivery to other wizards. Hedwig was always proud of herself after a successful delivery and she never failed, not once. And who could forget the time the Weasleys used floo powder to pick Harry up from the Dursleys and take him to their house? Floo powder allows one to travel through a network of fireplaces. That morning was classic. Harry would never forget it.

As Harry got into bed, Hedwing was fluttering around in her cage stretching her wings looking as if she had been trapped. Eager to keep her happy, Harry sat motionless for a minute and thought of something to write to Sirius about. He was sure he could find out why he had to spend terrible summer after terrible summer with the Dursleys. He opened Hedwig's cage, grabbed his quill, took out Muggle paper he had stolen from Dudley and started writing.

I just got back to the Dursleys'. Dudley had bought pet snakes. How he convinced his parents I don't think I'll ever know but I need to have some fun with that. I'm still not used to the fact that I can speak Parseltongue.

Voldemort had leaked some of his own ability to Harry the night of the murder. Descendants of Salazar Slytherin had the ability to speak to snakes. They called themselves Parselmouths. Naturally, Voldemort was one of them. Harry absorbed this ability during Voldemort's attempt to kill him.

Anyway, I wanted to ask you. Dumbledore insisted I stay with the Dursleys instead of the Weasleys. My only reason is that maybe Voldemort is more scared of my relatives than Dumbled-

Just then, a faint scream pierced Harry's ears.

He grabbed his wand, stuffed it into his pocket and opened the door. Hedwig wouldn't stay still so she had to come too. Whatever someone wanted to say, they were free. Harry was ready to give anyone that bothered him a free leg-locker. He opened the door to his upstairs bedroom, turned the hall way light on and heard it again. It was coming from... Uncle Vernon's room? Everyone was almost always asleep by 2 A.M. Occasionally Dudley could be heard sneaking into the kitchen -- so much for his diet. Down the hall and right in front of Uncle Vernon's bedroom -- the door was not open more than usual.

"Harry!" Aunt Petunia cried.

Harry whipped the door open and -- he didn't want to know how it happened -- Dudley's snakes were sitting right on top of Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. Dudley sat horrified in the corner of the room. A bottle of snake feed was sitting on the counter behind him and a piece of doughnut was in his hand. Glass from the cage was shattered all over the floor by the door looking as if it had been accidently dropped. The snakes hissed loudly next to his aunt and uncle's heads. Everyone except Harry was staring with mouths open at the snakes with nothing coming out. One snake took an advance toward Uncle Vernon's neck. Harry panicked.

"STOP!"

Of course it wasn't in any language anyone else in the room understood. Everyone turned their eyes off the snakes and towards Harry. Both snakes lowered their heads and whipped around to look at their new company. One of them gave off a light hiss.

"Come here," hissed Harry.

The snakes obeyed and walked up to his feet. Now perfectly calm (especially at the sight of Uncle Vernon's face), he picked up the biggest piece of the cage he could find (with the snakes following him), pointed his wand at it and said, "Reparo."

The shards of glass on the floor whipped through the air back into their places. Not realizing where they would fly, one cut Harry handily on the wrist causing him to drop it and break it again. A shard of glass impaled one of the snakes. He looked at the Dursleys who were still gaping at Harry in utter disbelief. Muttering something under his breath, the cut healed itself instantly. He repaired the cage once more but from on the floor this time. Some more muttering and the two snakes were flying in the air and dropped cleanly into the cage.

"Wha..." was all that came out of Uncle Vernon's mouth.

Aunt Petunia took her turn. "The snake... at... the zoo?"

Harry didn't bother replying. He couldn't help smiling so brightly. Accidental or not, he had just saved them from a grisly end given he knew the snakes were deadly from his Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Accio cage top," Harry said, pointing his wand at the door of the bedroom.

Coming through the open door was the top of the snake cage. Harry saw Dudley go limp as if just about to faint.

"Ennervate," and just before Dudley fell, he caught himself.

Aunt Petunia began yelling and the smiles were gone from Harry's face in an instant.

"You aren't supposed to be using magic outside Hogwarts!" she yelled.

Did she think he caused Dudley to pass out? And it was then that Harry had the sudden realization about the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry. Perhaps if he... just kept quiet... no one would bother him? And besides, he had saved their lifes, not tried to kill them!

"He killed one!" screeched Dudley.

Did he really have to mention those snakes were deadly?

And before judgement reached Harry's head, "FINE, GET KILLED!" Harry turned around and started towards the door. "Accio snake." The live snake came flying into Harry's hand. Another flick of the wand and it was on top of Dudley. Yet another flick and Dudley was screaming. Harry was at the door with his back turned to the three of them.

"Just scare him," Harry snickered. The snake wrapped itself around Dudley's legs. He ran down the hallway and onto the stairs above the cupboard under the stairs and sat. The screaming of Dudley assured him they hadn't yet gotten the snake off Dudley's legs. "By the way," he yelled up the stairs, "those snakes are deadly."

In an effort to help them, they just yelled at him. He could hear them all yelling "wingardium leviosa," but he knew it wasn't doing anything. Finally he heard the cage break again and what sounded like Dudley killing the living snake.

"Wingardium leviosa," he said to himself, waving his hand lazily.

The glass cage banged against the wall outside of their bedroom and shattered into what sounded like a hundred pieces.

Harry stormed back to their room and when he entered; they were tending to Dudley's snake bite. They all yelled at Harry but he didn't hear anything. The sound of his own thoughts blocked anything useless they had to say. Fuming, Harry had a sudden strange experience. He looked down at his hand and quickly hid it because it looked as if it were glittering.

No, can't be. That's ridiculous!

One instant he was standing in a doorway and the next he was standing in his bedroom, Hedwig, wand and all. He stood frozen for a minute. The snake bit Dudley but he still didn't care. Had he just Disapparated? He thought to himself how dangerous Apparating can be and especially didn't want to get splinched as he didn't think Disapparating improperly and leaving behind body parts wasn't going to just tickle. And doing it with Hedwig on his shoulder taking her along... Never in history has someone been able to Apparate and Disapparate taking someone with them.

Strangely eager to try again, one instant he was standing in his bedroom, and the next, inches from Ron. The glitter had stopped. Hedwig had been thoroughly frightened. She fell onto the floor with a thud flapping her wings and causing quite a commotion. Ron blinked his eyes and looked up at Harry.

"H-," a pause in his thoughts. "Harry?"

"I, well, umm."

Ron checked his window. It was still closed. He looked at the door. The trap Fred set up was still secure.

"How you... Me dreaming, am I?" Ron's brain hadn't turned on yet. Harry felt quite queazy and took a seat on the floor. "What are you -- how'd you get here!"

Harry stared at him and blinked. He really didn't know how it happened, either.

"I -- I heard Uncle Vernon screaming so I went into his bedroom. Dudley had bought pet snakes while I was away and the cage had broken while they slept. I recognized them from a Care of Magical Creatures class and remembered they were deadly. They were threatening Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia. I told the snakes to stop, repaired the cage, put them back..." Harry calmed himself down a little bit. "Aunt Petunia yelled at me and Dudley was angry I accidently killed one repairing the cage..."

Ron sat up, silent.

"I set the other snake to tie up Dudley's feet," Harry went on, "and it bit him... I walked out for a minute then back in. They were all just screaming at me." His calmness didn't last long. Harry took a big swallow, then a deep breath. A few seconds of silence. "Disappeared. I... I Dispparated." There was a tone of fear in his voice.

He didn't want to tell Ron that his skin was glowing. That would only cause more alarm. Then, Ron looked at Hedwig.

"WHAT?!" he shouted and looked as he did when he first saw Hagrid's pet, Fluffy (a rather large three-headed dog). "You can't Disapparate! That takes loads of practice!"

"I don't know. One minute... I-I was standing in their door. The next... I was in... my room." Hedwig had calmed herself by now, but not before waking up Fred and George. They heard Harry say "Disapparated" and jumped.

"Hewicamwitchoo?" Ron stumbled over his words. "Lots of people can do that but no one can do it and take someone with them..." Ron gave him a blank stare.

"Don't say the A word, please." Fred needed to put his two cents in.

"You're just jealous because last time you tried it you ended up with eyes on your butt." George felt happy at his comment. "And it took Dad several tries to put your --"

"Can you do it again?" interrupted Ron and then looking up at Harry.

An unexplained sadness came washing over Harry. A tear ran down his face. What does it matter about magic he could or couldn't do? Pride entered him for once while being around the Dursleys and they just snapped at him. He never really knew why Aunt Petunia ever insisted Harry would act so weird. In his opinion, they are the weirdos. What's a disappearing glass guard or two? Did Uncle Vernon really think he could escape that rain of letters?

Harry spotted a bug on the floor. He pointed his wand and it and instantly, it was dancing.

The next minute he was back at his room floating with his back touching the ceiling. But he couldn't move. He felt more like passing out and staying that way for a long time. Aunt Petunia was standing in his door as he reappeared. "Win... wingar... di... um..." ...the last memory of that night was Aunt Petunia running to push the bed under him before he hit the floor.

A searing pain from his head forced Harry's eyes wide open, but it wasn't his scar. He was laying on his side in a hospital not facing whoever was in the room. A hand grabbed his shoulder and he jumped not daring to turn over.

"Harry." He didn't recognize the voice and tone, still not moving. "Harry." Something clicked. "I know you're awake." It was Aunt Petunia. Harry never heard her talk to him when she wasn't yelling at him.

"Go away."

"A week, Harry," she said simply. She went to the other side of the bed and gave him his glasses. Harry put them on, grunting. "You've been out for a week." A week? "We had to lie to the doctor and say you took a nasty fall down a big flight of stairs. He didn't believe us but what else could we say, you were floating midair then fell? That owl of yours flew out the window as soon as you came back. All I did was put you back into your bed and hope. Next morning someone woke me up in the middle of the night. That damn owl had brought someone back with it."

Harry turned over. Someone was sitting in a chair behind Aunt Petunia that he didn't see clearly. He looked at his aunt and she looked rather frightened. He heard Uncle Vernon talking.

"I nearly" -- Harry blocked his ears -- "my pants. A black dog was --"

"Sirius?" Harry said in a whisper so weak that no one heard it.

"-- on our bed," Uncle Vernon finished.

Harry blinked, opened his eyes as wide as possible and turned over to look. The figure standing on the far chair got up and walked closer.

"Sirius?" he said again but still no one could have hoped to have heard him.

He tried to sit up, but Sirius pushed him back down. Aunt Petunia walked back to her chair and sat.

"It's okay. I told them the story about what happened at Azkaban, about Pettigrew, about Lupin... we had a week, afterall. I asked them what happened. Said you disappeared right in front of their eyes then a few minutes later reappeared with your back to the ceiling in your room?"

Uncle Vernon looked rather uninterested at the conversation and peered around the room aimlessly.

"I --" Harry felt his throat tighten, "Disapparated three times taking Hedwig with me. After the second, I felt kinda... queazy. Had no way of getting home. Don't remember what happened..."

Harry was still very out of it.

His Aunt and Uncle looked at Sirius and said in harmony, "What?"

Harry stared up at the ceiling with no emotion in his face.

"Apparition and Disapparition. Commonly known by Muggles as..." Sirius looked inciteful and turned to Harry. "Teleportation? Lots of wizard can do it, but I don't ever remember hearing or seeing someone do it and take something with them other than their clothes. That's quite a feat." He turned to Uncle Vernon and went back to a gloomy stare. "You two have absolutely no idea what this boy goes through at school, do you?" Sirius took a step forward. Harry heard his uncle stumble in his chair and Harry let out a low but audible giggle.

"A laugh," said Sirius. "How many of those does this boy have around you two?" He took a step closer to Uncle Vernon. "Maybe you should get yourselves in on what he does or he may just end up like Voldemort."

Sirius transformed into a great black dog. He put Harry's wand under his covers, planted himself up on the bed and rested his head on his paws next to Harry's head. His tail was wagging. Whatever heart (or pity) Uncle Vernon had before was gone now. He stood up and ran to Harry. His mouth opened but before he could say anything they all watched as Harry gripped his head. This time it was the scar.

Passing out or dying, it didn't matter. Writhing madly in the bed, Harry felt as if someone had poured hot lava on his forehead but his squirms didn't last long. Sirius transformed into his godfather, pulled out his wand and muttered "Numbus." Uncle Vernon looked furius and Aunt Petunia gasped. It didn't knock him out, though Harry could simply no longer move, lost all feeling and felt a strange feeling of being unconscious yet conscious at the same time.

"Now he can't feel it," said Sirius. "Would you like me to show you how it feels? What you just saw? That's nothing."

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia didn't change their look but planted themselves firmly in their seats. Sirius' voice became soft and cold.

"There's a curse that causes intense pain. What you just saw doesn't compare. It's like ripping your bones through your skin, preventing you from dying so you feel all of it and turning up the sensitivity on your nerves to max. Your body feels on fire in thousand degree heat but your skin doesn't melt. You want nothing more than to die. Sometimes you can't even scream, but if you do, it can be heard across the world."

Sirius' voice became very threatening. "And the best part of it all..." He walked very close to them and said in a slow whisper, "Harry has felt this curse twice." He paused for a bit and began talking normally. "Would you like me to show you how it feels?" Harry heard the two of them take a deep swallow. Sirius turned his attention to Harry who's eyes were wide open again and moving violently. He could feel again and felt the scar upon his forehead searing with white-hot pain. Sirius took another attempt at the Numbing Charm. He succeeded, but not before someone new began yelling.

It would be another week before Harry would see the light of day again.

He awoke once more. A graveyard? The Death Eaters. Pettigrew. A cauldron? And Voldemort? Harry was standing in the middle the ring of Death Eaters. What is this? It was all very real. Had someone used a Time-Turner? Something gripped Harry's stomach like a thousand pound weight. No, he couldn't bear to relive this moment one more time. Definitely not as a dream and certainly not as reality.

"I said bow," Voldemort said, raising his wand -- and Harry felt his spine curve as though a huge, invisible hand were bending him ruthlessly forward, and the Death Eaters laughed harder than ever.

"Very good," said Voldemort softly, and as he raised his wand the pressure bearing down upon Harry lifted too. "And now you face me, like a man... straight-backed and proud, the way your father died... And now - we duel."

Harry began thinking to himself in a fury of thoughts. "No, not again," he muttered under his breath. "I-I-I can't do it."

Voldemort raised his wand, and before Harry could do anything to defend himself, before he could even move, he had been hit again by the Cruciatus Curse. The pain... was not there? Nothing. Not a twitch, not a thing.

Voldemort took a step backwards. "CRUCIO!" Voldemort's cry deafened everyone around them.

Harry stood straight at him and grinned. Voldemort froze in place and Harry walked threateningly up to him.

"Avada kedav-" he began to say but fell to the ground staring up at the sky, unable to move until a minute later, Voldemort laughing all the while, when --

"HARRY WAKE UP!" It was just a dream after all.

He sprung out of his sleep, grabbed his glasses next to him and stood bolt up-right. He was lying on the floor. Dumbledore was charging at him as if to knock him down but stopped right in front.

"Look around, Harry; look what happened," he said frantically.

There was a fear in his voice never before heard. Harry thought that if Dumbledore's hair wasn't already white, it would be now. What could he be so scared of? The answer to that was as simple as looking around. Harry stood in the middle the Great Hall at Hogwarts. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were sprawled all over the floor cut up as if someone had stabbed them several times. Dudley was laying next to Harry's feet, cut up very badly too.

Dumbledore caught his breath and became somewhat less frightened. "Voldemort had Apparated. We disable the protective magic during the summer. All of a sudden, Professor McGonagall runs to find me and says you had Apparated into the Great Hall with your relatives. Voldemort appeared at the same time and --"

"WHAT?!" Harry's breathing became so heavy it was almost as loud as his words.

The dream... what was that about?

"Do --"

"I," Harry interrupted with a single word.

Dumbledore gave Harry the blue stare he does when he has something to reveal. Harry had to collect his thoughts. Telling Dumbledore about the dream or not, well, that was not an option. Telling him about the glittering skin, he didn't know what to make of it. He opened his mouth but nothing came out for a few seconds.

"I had another dream. A flashback," said Harry. He stared at Dumbledore as if he wasn't there. "Back to the graveyard with Voldemort and the Death Eaters." Harry's knees gave way at the very thought and let himself fall backwards. Dumbledore rushed up to him, summoned a pillow and put it under Harry's head. He kneeled over.

"Continue my dear boy, try to continue."

"He tried the Cruciatus Curse but I didn't feel anything. Twice. He - he did it again after the first time. Still... nothing."

Harry was still clearly shocked about the thought of being hit by that curse again even if it had no affect on him during a dream. More shocking though, was what came next.

Voldemort appeared right between the two of them. Dumbledore and Harry looked at each other. Harry stepped back slowly and Voldemort advanced on him, not caring that Dumbledore was there. Harry's mouth was moving but his voice had exited him. Fear filled him as it always had with Voldemort around. Dumbledore started a curse but Harry would have none of this. His voice came back to him and with all his might he shouted.

"NO!" he yelled and everyone within miles could hear.

Dumbledore and Voldemort clasped their ears in a feeble effort to block out the death cry. Still screaming, Harry's arms flung forward as if to cover the picture of Voldemort really being there. Harry saw a sparkle of gold flash quickly in front of him but was gone before he could catch a good glimpse. The next instant, Voldemort was flying high-speed into a wall of the Great Hall smashing into and breaking it. The force so great, chances are he appeared the other side of the building mere seconds later.

Still screaming, Dumbledore, Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, Dudley and Harry suddenly appeared in the living room of the Dursley house. Harry's screaming stopped the second they arrived. Dumbledore stood shocked that he Apparated with Harry and the others. Harry's entire body became weak and his breathing grew even heavier. First his knees gave way, then he fell face down. He was still conscious, but barely, still breathing heavily, but didn't care to be doing so. His eyes were wide open and he was too scared to move.