Dursley Dream

Chapter 2: RECOVERY AND RECOLLECTION

    If his breathing didn't slow down there would be no air left for anyone else. Dumbledore walked over to Harry, flipped him over and put a strange diamond in the middle of his chest. It was no bigger than one inch. It was glowing a very light white and left off what could only be described as an angel's voice letting out one heavenly tone.

    Harry's breathing slowed down considerably, his heart rate slowed to normal and feeling came back into his body. The fear remained but his eyes were still twitching slightly.

    "A Rest-Easy charm," said Dumbledore smiling.

    Harry's eyes stopped twitching. Dumbledore tried to move him but he wasn't responding. Dumbledore took a few steps over to Aunt Petunia. There were large gashes on her body (and the other two as well) but the bleeding had stopped. He mumbled something under his breath and the cuts vanished. He repeated this with Uncle Vernon and Dudley. In a few moments time, their breathing had become heavy and they were standing up simultaneously.

    "Your boy just saved you from something rather terrible," Harry heard Dumbledore telling them.

    "He also got our son bit by a snake," snarled Uncle Vernon. "You know how much we had to pay? It's coming out of that boy's dinner," snapped Uncle Vernon. He was clearly unphased by facing Voldemort.

    "You do not remember it, do you?"

    "Remember what? I don't need to hear from you. Freaks! The whole lot of you!"

    Dumbledore thought to himself for a few seconds while Uncle Vernon tried to speak.

    "A memory charm. Good thing I --" Dumbledore began to say, but just then, the wooden planks blocking the fireplace bursted open. Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley and Ron were staring at Harry, looking as if they had just seen a dementor. Uncle Vernon whipped his head towards them, fury in his eyes. Before he could say anything, Ron was the first to let the news out.

    "Snape sent us an owl --".

    "What --", Mrs. Weasley said, desperately trying to get a word out.

    "-- happened?" And so did Mr. Weasley.

    Someone needed to break the confusion and lower the tension.

    "I think Harry should rest in a slightly bigger room tonight," Dumbledore suggested calmly.

    "He will not," Uncle Vernon snapped again. Dumbledore floated Harry up to Dudley's room. Uncle Vernon naturally disagreed with this but all attempts at speaking were stopped by a sudden muting of his mouth. Everyone tracked Dumbledore's steps up to Dudley's room (including Dudley).

    Dumbledore thought for a moment, then said, "He will rest here for the night. I will explain to the Weasley's what happened and the Dursleys will not attempt to move Harry from this room."

    He ushered them all out of the room, muttered something and tapped his wand to the door knob. Uncle Vernon put his hand to the knob and tried to open it. A light but forceful shock filled his hand. Dumbledore gave him a light stare and walked back down to the kitchen.

    Harry could hear their footsteps fall off in the distance. He laid there motionless but breathing normally (the first time in a long time). Fear was dying down and his spirits began to rise. Dumbledore had bullied the Dursleys into giving Harry Dudley's room.

    A shed of tears then tore through his ears from downstairs. Was Aunt Petunia crying? The thought was ripped from his head when he suddenly blacked out for a brief moment. He could feel the strange glitter on his hands again. Harry heard the crying again and a lot of murmuring. A bright flash of green light streaked across Harry's eyes... but he was wide awake.

    The crying continued to grow louder and, unexplainably, his eyes force themselves closed. All he could see was black. Suddenly a flash of the kitchen appeared before the blackness in his eyes but quickly turned to black again. He noted Dumbledore leaning over on a chair. Who was he talking to? Loud screams filled his ears but were gone as quick as they had come. Harry's eyes shot open but he wasn't scared, he was simply too tired to care.

    The green light flashed before his open eyes once more but were forced closed again. There was yet another very quick view of the kitchen. Dumbledore was standing up and appeared to be screaming very scared. Dumbledore screaming? Harry's eyes were forced open for a third time. The green light flashed and his eyes were forced shut. Louder screaming filled his ears once more and a bloody shot of Dudley appeared in the kitchen. His arms were cut off and he was on the floor. Harry's eyes blinked uncontrollably and saw the green light flash three more times. Deafeningly loud screams filled Harry's ears. Before he went out, he got one last quick glance of the kitchen and this time, everyone was on the floor, dead and bloodied. Body parts were strewn all over. Dumbledore's great beard and hair were still attached to his chin and head. Harry was fast asleep.

    His eyes were weak. He had a good night's sleep, very good in fact. Probably too good because it took a few minutes before his eyes would stay open. Sitting next to him was, unfortunately, Snape.

    "Had a good night's sleep?" asked Snape.

    "What are you doing here?" said Harry.

    "Professor Dumbledore --" and Harry instantly froze. "Er, I put a memory charm on you. The Rest-Easy charm relays thoughts for the next few minutes and I saw the visions you were having. Part of the effect of it is that it removes some parts of recent memories from thought into it's designated Pensive. Of course, you won't know what I'm talking about." Snape stood up. "At least, that is, until I use the counter charm. It's every bit as powerful without the counter-charm, worry not." He was right, Harry didn't have a clue. "Get yourself together, get out of bed, remove those horrid Muggle clothes and come with me." Harry was still wearing Dudley clothing. The choice between this and his school robes wasn't hard. Snape left the room and Harry changed.

    "Come on Potter, I don't have all day," Snape yelled up at Harry.

    Harry thought to himself, "Every bit as hateful as usual. Snape, will you ever change?"

    He just hoped the Rest-Easy charm still wasn't relaying his thoughts. But it wasn't, because Snape had kept his same tone of voice and muttered some more while banging on Dudley's door.

    "All right, all right!" Harry shouted.

    He pulled the door open and Snape nearly fell over, still banging. They walked down the stairs and over to the fireplace. Snape turned to look at Harry.

    "We're going on a field trip," Snape told Harry. "You'll find out the details along the way."

    Harry really didn't feel like going anywhere with Snape at the moment.

    "Can't you just kill me and we'll call it even?" he suggested.

    Snape did nothing more than stare at him for a few seconds, look up at the fireplace, pull some floo powder out of his bag and tossed it onto a newly-burning fire.

    "After me," he said. Snape stepped into the fire and shouted, "the Burrow."

    Harry didn't bother asking himself why he wanted to stop at the Weasley's. He took a step into the fire, put his glasses in his pocket, closed his eyes and said, "Burrow."

    Harry never liked traveling by fireplace. He made sure not to pay attention to the trip and he couldn't arrive at the Weasley's soon enough. "This day is starting just as bad as the others," he thought to himself. The charm wiped his memory clean of the past day's events. All for the better, though. Harry was partially unconscious during the vision and didn't fully absorb it. As much as he wouldn't mind one of the Dursleys getting hurt, he would never wish one of them to die.

    Mrs. Weasley was the one who spoke first.

    "I've been checking old books on multi-person apparition."

    "Wow, multi-person apparition?" Harry asked.

    "Snape?"

    "The charm, remember?"

    "Oh, yes. Well anyway, it is old magic. Old and powerful. Many tried and not too many lived. Those that did were horribly deformed." Mr. Weasley listened intently.

    "And our friend did it at the age of fourteen," he said inquisitively.

    Everyone shot an eye at Harry. The same instant, everyone realized what they were doing as though they hadn't noticed and faced each other again. Harry looked around at all of them with confused eyes.

    "I do not think it is anything to-", started Snape and the last word reverberated on his lips for a moment. He continued, "worry ourselves over?" Snape kept his head and mouth in the same position of the last word for a few seconds. Harry looked indifferent. "The other matter which concerns us more is that with Dumbledore and the Weasleys."

    Harry's hearing turned for the worse as soon as this sentence finished. For a while, all he could hear was mumbles. This talk must be important because words were going back and forth between them all so fast Harry could not keep up.

    Mr. Weasley was in the middle of talking when Harry's hearing returned. "Where are they? Most importantly, what happened? Before Dumbledore... left us... he said it was for recovery and recollection."

    "What was?" piped up Mrs. Weasley.

    "You know."

    "Sorry, I don't."

    Snape got angry. "This isn't getting us anywhere. What about the other magic?"

    "Nothing on that one," answered Mr. Weasley. "Heard about someone do that, but they certainly didn't go clean through several walls and exit on the other side of a stone castle."

    "Maybe he faked it!" Ron had been listening in. He turned to see who else was in the room. "Harry!"

    "Oh, hi Ron." He looked up at Snape, Mr. Weasley and Mrs. Weasley. "Can I go? I don't know what you're talking about and I've got this pounding headache."

    Before anyone else could open their mouths, Snape said, "Fine."

qHarry followed Ron to his bedroom. They both took a seat on a bed.

    Ron began, "Do you have any idea what they are talking about?"

    "Nope!" Ron said something under his breath but Harry couldn't make it out. "Dyou want to go to Diagon Alley? I found out what books I need for next term. Better get them while I don't have to worry about Mum bugging me."

    "Let's go," Harry said and looked at what Ron was doing. Ron took out some floo powder but Harry stopped him immediately. "No, do we HAVE to use that?"

    "Oh, no, not really," said Ron. He pointed at a plug on the floor. "Here, touch that. Dad made a portkey for me because I told him I would be going without Mum. Took a little persuading, but he agreed. It will work exactly two times. I'll keep the one at the other end in my pocket when we get there."

    Sure enough, he touched it and, feeling a jerk behind his navel, was whisked away in a swirl of color from Ron's bedroom to just behind the magic brick wall at Diagon Alley. Ron's father worked at some place (Harry couldn't recall the name of at the moment) to protect Muggle objects from being bewitched. One of his fascinations was taking apart things and putting them back together. He took apart a car once, and bewitched it to fly. That gave Harry and Ron a trip they'll never forget. He also liked to collect plugs. Plugs from vacuums, plugs from lamps, plugs from computers (though Mr. Weasley had no idea what a computer was) and even spark plugs. No one besides him really knows why. Ron appeared a few seconds later.

    "Ah, first on the list is..." He peered down at the list. A frown crossed his face. "'Ron You're So Gullible'? What the bloody hell is this?" Harry started to laugh so hard he couldn't help almost rolling on the floor.

    "You didn't even read it? Who gave it to you, Fred?" Ron turned redder than usual. Harry was now on the floor. "I bet your dad was in on the joke," Harry could barely get out.

    "Keep laughing." No need to tell Harry that. "Let's go back."

    He looked at a plug on the floor with a note saying "Ron" attached to it and touched the portkey first.

    "Ron?" said Harry in a worried voice as Ron waved his hand with the plug in his fingers.

    He hadn't disappeared and Harry's laughing stopped. Whenever Mr. Weasley gave Ron a portkey, it always worked. He had been in on Fred and George pranks before but never gave Ron a dud portkey. Harry stood straight as a stick for a quick second, the hair on the back of his neck stood straight and he heard a voice in his head say, "They should be back by now?" Harry kept this fact from Ron at the moment because he didn't see Harry until he went normal again and he hid the small sparkle of glitter.

    "Oh, now what are we going to do?"

    "I guess we walk." Ron folded his arms at the thought of traveling like a Muggle. "Look what we're wearing." Ron was dressed in some new robes his parents had bought him. "We can't go walking out into town like this, they're going to give us funny looks!"

    "And?", said Harry, giving Ron a cold stare of his own. By now, Harry was used to getting funny looks. He was forever known as the boy with the scar on his head and everyone that saw him for the first time never failed to say his name in full. His first year at Hogwarts he got more funny looks than most people get in a life time. Then it happened.

    "Harry Potter!" said a little voice.

    Harry groaned. A small elf walked up to the two of them.

    "Go away," growled Harry.

    "Ok, Harry Potter!"

    He groaned some more rolling his eyes.

    "Ron, do you see what I have to put up with? Getting funny looks isn't all that bad."

    Ron had to agree and so they walked. Out through the Leaky Cauldron, out through the street and into the land of funny looks... and funny looks they did get.

    "I really wish they wouldn't do that," gulped Ron.

    "You get used to it after a while."

    They walked down a few streets and a few people shot piercing glares at Ron in his funny-looking clothing. People had seen others wearing robes before but it was still always strange to see. Harry became happy. Finally someone to share in his digust with! But Ron needed something else to think about.

    "What was Snape doing at our house?"

    "I don't know," Harry replied. "I don't want to be where he is, that's for sure."

    Harry stopped walking and stood still. His body froze again and his vision blacked out. He feelt the glitter but didn't know where it was this time. He saw Dumbledore standing up in a kitchen and appeared to be screaming. Dumbledore screaming? The weird vision was gone in an instant.

    "What? What is it?" Ron gave him a concerned look.

    "N-nothing." Harry was slightly disturbed but tried to continue as if it was nothing.

    They started to walk. Ron tried talking again in a few minutes.

    "I should probably tell you about --" and it happened again. Harry stood frozen. His eyes were forced closed and a green light flashed quickly. His eyes shot open as suddenly as they closed. Ron stood dumbfounded.

    "It's nothing," Harry lied.

    They walked the rest of the way silently, taking a Portkey Ron knew about to bring them many miles closer to his house. Ron was rather disturbed the entire trip back to his home not only at Harry but at the funny looks. Harry was quite indifferent but if just one more person pointed at his scar and screamed "HARRY POTTER!" he would be forced to grow warts on their nose. It was one thing around the wizard world, but another in Muggle Country.

    They knocked on the door of the Burrow and stepped inside.