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Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
I own nothing but the original characters I make.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 52: Home Sweet Home
The train arrived at the station. Luna and Hermione grabbed their things and left the cabin. Harry turned around right before crossing the door and pointed his wand at the small wooden cage.
A moment later, the three mice began to grow in size until they broke through the cage and returned to their normal shapes.
Harry left the boys groaning in pain and stepped off the train.
The families of the students had already arrived at the station and were having emotional reunions, while also wondering why they had come back several days earlier with no proper explanation.
Harry continued to move past them, trying to hide his disgust for such shows of affection.
But once he crossed the barrier and arrived at the Muggle side, he did not feel much better.
There were Muggles walking around all over the place. This filled him with anger, and he wanted nothing more than to take out his wand and start tearing them to pieces.
"That will have to wait…" He had to remind himself that to achieve his goals, he was going to need a lot of patience.
Rushing into things would only lead to mistakes, and this time, he could not afford to make any.
Right now, he had no preparation set in place in case he died again. If that were to happen, it would truly be over for him.
"Boy!"
Someone shouted at him from behind. Even before turning around, Harry could feel the hatred emanating from his uncle.
"There you are! About time you showed up." Vernon huffed while pointing at him. "Come on, boy, I don't have all day for this."
Harry picked up his briefcase and went towards the disgusting creature.
Vernon was not able to pick up on the subtle changes that had occurred in his nephew, other than his lack of glasses. "What did you do with your glasses? I'm not buying you another pair, you hear me?"
If memory served him well, Vernon had not bought the first pair either. It had been one of his teachers in his first year who had done it for him when she noticed that Harry was unable to read the words on the board.
Vernon grabbed his arm and dragged him away. "Let's go. Your freaky friends made me come here after work. Why are you even here already? Did you get kicked out of school?"
'I suppose being treated like this is still preferable to love and compassion.' Harry was trying to see the little mercies in life as his uncle almost pushed him to the car.
He still was not pleased by having a Muggle treat him in such a demeaning way.
'I had originally planned on killing this man immediately after getting to the house. But perhaps I could come up with something more creative to do with him,' Harry thought.
It was starting to get dark by the time they reached the house.
Vernon grabbed his suitcase and the cage containing his owl before urging him inside.
Harry followed him but was also paying attention to something else. It was very faint, but he felt someone else's presence around the house.
'Is the house being watched?' He wondered if someone was spying on him, and who that person was working for.
It could be someone from Voldemort's side, Dumbledore's side, or even someone from the Ministry, like an Auror sent on an assignment.
There were just too many people aware that this was his house, making it a very unsafe place for him to live in.
He had little trust in those protections that Dumbledore had mentioned in the past.
'I'll need to find a better place as soon as I can,' he thought.
"Finally!" The furious man huffed as he dropped all Harry's belongings in a rough way right at the entrance. "Put all the freaky stuff inside the broom closet and get the rest to your room."
"Freaky stuff?…" Harry raised an eyebrow.
He didn't think that his uncle's face could get any redder. "Look, boy… I spent all day working, and then I had to go fetch you at the station. Do not test me today!" His fat finger was pointed directly at Harry.
"Vernon, you are home." Petunia walked from the kitchen. Her smile immediately disappeared when she saw Harry. "And you brought him…" A smirk appeared on her face. "We received a letter from your school, informing us that you would be returning a few days before the arranged date. So what happened there?"
"The Headmaster died." Harry looked around the house. He could feel something strange in the air.
'Are those the protections?… there is something off about it.' He was sure that the previous owner of this body would not have noticed, but he was a lot more sensitive when it came to dark magic.
"What?!"
Apparently, his news had shocked his aunt and uncle.
"That weird old man is dead?" Vernon asked.
"Albus Dumbledore is dead?" Petunia looked shocked. That was because she still remembered the stories her sister had told about that old wizard and how incredible he was.
"Yes, he was murdered." Harry looked around. "Where is Dudley?"
Petunia frowned. "Your cousin is in his bedroom… what do you mean by murdered? Who killed him?."
"Oh…" Harry smiled as he pulled his wand out. "That would be… me."
Vernon and Petunia looked at each other.
"What are you doing?!" Petunia looked horrified.
"Boy, don't point that thing at us!" Vernon snapped and tried to grab him, despite being clearly terrified of magic.
Harry was quick to knock Vernon out with a sleeping charm before doing the same to his aunt.
"Things are going to be a bit different this summer." His eyes moved to the stairs. "Now, let's go say hi to my dear cousin."
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