Harry Potter and the Fight For Freedom
Saying Goodbye
“GET UP NOW!” Aunt Petunia yelled.
Now he was in trouble. He opened his door and went downstairs. As he opened the kitchen door he heard Uncle Vernon say “Go get the mail, boy.”
He turned around and walked back down the hallway. When he reached the door, he bent down and picked up the mail that was lying on the floor by the front door.
“Here’s the mail,” Harry said as he came into the kitchen.
Uncle Vernon took the mail and started rifling through it. Harry sat down at the table and began eating the eggs, bacon, and toast Aunt Petunia just put in front of him.
“I want some more," Dudley suddenly demanded
“Now Dudley, dear, you know you can’t, you have to loose some of that weight,” Aunt Petunia responded.
Ever since Harry came back from Hogwarts after his second year Dudley always had a letter from his school nurse at Smeltings, notifying the Dursleys that Dudley needed to go on a diet and loose some weight. Of course, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon always thought this was absolute rubbish, so they paid no attention to the letters. Yet when Dudley returned this summer, not only did he have another letter from the school nurse, he also had one from his doctor. It was then that Harry’s aunt and uncle decided Dudley would go on a diet. This did not go over well with Dudley, so Aunt Petunia made a drastic cut on everyone's diet, not merely Dudley's.
Harry finished his breakfast and ran back up to his room. He flopped down on his bed and started thinking about the dream he had only a few hours before. He didn’t think too much about it as ever since Voldemort returned about three years ago, he’d been having all sorts of weird dreams. Suddenly, a tapping sound came from his window. He sat up and looked over at it. There on his window sill sat a little red screech owl. Harry got up off his bed and walked over to his window. He opened it up and the little owl flew in and landed on his desk, holding its leg out so Harry could remove the letter tied to it. He sat down on his bed and opened it. It was from Professor Lupin and it read:
Hello, Harry.
I hope your summer is going alright. I am writing to let you know that tonight (July 15) a group of members from the Order will be coming to get you and bring you to the new location of the Order of the Phoenix at 11 o’clock. Be ready to go. They will be arriving and leaving by broom. I suggest notifying your aunt and uncle. Until tonight,
R. J. Lupin.
Harry read the letter two more times before getting up to tell his aunt and uncle. Harry walked through the kitchen and into the living room where they were both watching T.V. They looked up at him coldly.
“Um… Uncle Vernon?” Harry asked.
Uncle Vernon grunted in response.
“I…have a letter here I thought you should read,” Harry said.
Uncle Vernon extended his arm for the letter not taking his eye off the TV till he had the letter in hand. Harry stood there quietly while his uncle read the letter and his aunt watched him.
He handed the letter back to Harry and said “All right”.
Harry turned to leave when Uncle Vernon told him to take his seat. Harry never was told take a seat before unless he was in trouble, and he could tell from the tone in his uncle’s voice and the atmosphere of the room that he was not in trouble. He took a seat in the armchair by the TV.
“I want to make one thing perfectly clear boy. I don’t want you to come here again. I will allow you if you want to come back and collect your belongings but then you will leave. You have put my family in enough danger these past few years, and I will not allow you to stay longer and put this family in more danger. If you stay or show up again, especially if that Voldy guy…”
“Voldemort,” Harry whispered under his breath.
“…is still alive, you put this entire family in danger. Do you understand me boy?” Uncle Vernon asked.
“So let me get this straight, you’re kicking me out?” Harry asked in response.
“Well…yes,” Uncle Vernon replied.
Harry got up and stormed out of the living room, through the kitchen and all the way up the stairs. When he reached his room, he went inside and slammed the door shut, making both Hedwig and the other little owl jump. He kicked his trunk in anger and sat down on his bed. He couldn’t believe his uncle was kicking him out of the house. Harry never really had much of an intention of returning after he left, but being kicked out went just a little far.
He spent most of the day looking for his school things. He found most of them either stuffed in his closest, or under his bed. After gathering up most of his possessions, he did his best to cram it into his school trunk, and then struggled to close it shut. After finally closing his trunk he went over to his desk and sat down in his chair.
“Are you waiting for a reply?” Harry asked the little screech owl.
The owl gave a little hoot, which Harry took as a yes. So he grabbed some parchment, ink and a quill and wrote a little note back to Lupin. After writing the note to Lupin and sending the little owl off on its way Harry looked over at his alarm clock, 6:30. He still had a little more than four and a half hours before the Order of the Phoenix members arrived. At around seven o’clock Aunt Petunia called Harry down for supper. He was still mad at Uncle Vernon when he sat down at the table, so he ate his supper without talking, then got up from the table and headed back upstairs. As Harry reached the kitchen door he expected Aunt Petunia or Uncle Vernon to tell him to do the supper dishes, but to his surprise they said nothing as he walked out of the kitchen.
Harry passed the extra time he had by working on his Animagi essay, for Transfiguration. Around nine o’clock, Harry finished it and started on his Potions essay about the proper way to make The Draught of Living Death. Harry was thinking so much on Snape’s assignment that he didn’t hear the door bell ring or the soft knocking at his door. It wasn’t until the person on the other side of the door knocked again that Harry heard it. Not looking up from his essay he said, “Come in.”
When his door opened, he looked up from his Potions essay to see Tonks standing in his doorway.
“Tonks!” Harry exclaimed “What are you doing here?”
“Well its 11 o’clock isn’t it? I’m here to take you to Headquarters,” she replied “Come on, hurry up the rest are waiting downstairs with your Aunt and Uncle”
“The rest?” Harry asked
“You’ll see when you go downstairs” Tonks answered.
Harry packed up his work and put it in his trunk.
“Do you have your Cloak Harry?"
“Err… yeah one minute,” Harry replied.
He opened his trunk and pulled out his Cloak, causing textbooks and robes to fall out of his trunk and all over the place.
“Here let me fix that for you Harry,” Tonks said
With a flick of her wand all his books and robes packed themselves back into his trunk neatly.
“Well, it’s obvious you’ve been practicing that charm, nice,” Harry said as Tonks closed his trunk.
“Yeah, I have,” She replied standing back up. “Evenesco.”
Harry’s trunk disappeared into thin air.
“Grab your cloak and let’s go.” Tonks said heading towards his door.
Harry grabbed his cloak and looked over his shoulder to see if he forgot anything, then he noticed Hedwig.
“Err…Tonks, what about Hedwig?" Harry asked
Tonks turned around and saw the sleeping Hedwig locked in her cage.
“Well we can’t leave her here now can we? Evenesco,” she muttered again, and Hedwig and her cage disappeared.
“Now we can go,” she said over her shoulder as she left his room.
With one more look around his room, he walked out and closed the door behind him.
As Harry reached the bottom of the stairs he saw that Tonks had come with Kingsley Shacklebolt, Alastor Moody and Remus Lupin.
“Hello Harry,” Lupin said as he saw him. “Ready to go?”
“Sure, I just have to grab my broom," Harry replied.
Harry walked over to the cupboard under the stairs, opened it and pulled out his Firebolt.
“All right then,” Lupin said opening the door “Let’s go.”
Kingsley, Moody and Tonks left first while Lupin held the door. Harry stood there facing the Dursleys, with his Firebolt in one hand and his Invisibility Cloak in the other.
“Well, bye then,” Harry said before turning around to leave.
He walked out of the house behind Lupin, closing the door behind him.