Once Upon a Time

ONCE UPON A TIME
- CHAPTER TWO

(Authoress: The reason I cut the last chapter where I did was so that this would be just the beginning of the flashback (the one really long one).)

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It had begun in his summer after Fourth Year, and he had been yearning to get away from the Dursleys. Some deity must have either liked him, or been really drunk and didn't know what they were doing, because, moments after that thought, Uncle Vernon had walked in, dressed in a light blue button-down shirt and brown slacks. The man was virtually a frosting-covered pig.

*Flashback Begins* (A/N: And it won't end for another few chapters, so get comfy.)

"We, as in, Dudley, Petunia, and I, are going to the cinema."

Harry had been lying on his "bed", staring at the ceiling while the man had been speaking, and his gaze, nor his position, didn't change.

"You do that," he had said, appearing emotionless. Inside however, he was jumping up and down. 'Yes! Yes! Yes! Perfect timing!' was his somewhat steady mantra.

"You are not to leave the house."

"Right."

"You are not to touch anything in this house that doesn't belong to you."

"'Kay." 'Does the door knob on the front door count as technically mine? 'Cause I'm leaving.'

Vernon, more than slightly surprised at the teen’s lack of emotion, huffed, then turned and left the room. Harry heard him thump down the stairs, the front door open and close, and the Dursleys' car drive off soon after.

The teen waited for about ten minutes, to make sure the Dursleys hadn't turned around and come back, and then stood up.

"Do you think they could have taken any longer?” Harry asked Hedwig, smirking slightly, receiving an affirmative sounding 'hoot' in response. "I mean, it's been nearly two weeks into the summer already, and all of them have never been gone at the same time."

"Well," he continued, opening the door to her cage and sticking his arm out so she could hop on. "Since I'm leaving for a few hours, it's only fair that you get to get out and stretch your wings for a while, isn't it?"

A relieved 'hoot' was his response, more like an owl's sigh than anything.

Uncle Vernon had realized that, if Hedwig couldn't get out regularly, then something bad would happen, and he'd get into trouble. So therefore, Hedwig was no longer locked in her cage all the time, but Vernon's one rule about her was that Harry couldn't let her out when he thought someone in their neighborhood would see her.

"You know that really thick forest a little ways behind the park? The one that's pretty dark, even in the day? Go there. It's dark, so you can hunt to your heart's content. I think you should come back around sunrise tomorrow, okay?"

Hedwig gave another affirmative 'hoot', and nipped his ear affectionately, her way of saying, 'Stay safe.'

"You stay safe too, girl," he told her as he opened the window and let her fly. "Stay safe."

With that, the Potter scion closed the window and turned to his school trunk. Opening it, he reached into the depths and pulled out a cloth bag. It was an outfit that he had bought ages ago at a secluded clothing store in Hogsmeade, so he could go places and not have to wear Dudley's hand-me-downs. It consisted of a dark green t-shirt that showed off his lithe frame and made his eyes look brighter in contrast, a pair of tight, black, faded jeans that flared out at the bottom of the legs and almost covered his trainers, a pair of dark green Converse. A blue, nearly-black belt and his hair in a low ponytail completed the ensemble.

Harry took a look at himself in the mirror in his wardrobe as he finished dressing.

'Hmm, not bad,' he thought, turning his head to the left and the right as he took a good look at himself. 'In fact, I think I could break a heart or two. Especially since my new glasses look a lot better than my old ones.'

With that, he grabbed his cloak, drawing the hood over his head. He safely locked all of his belongings in his trunk with several spells, his bedroom door with the same, and left the house, Shrinking his trunk and taking it with him as he pocketed his wand.

"Knight Bus!" he called, when he was safely away from prying Muggle eyes, raising his left hand; he had taught himself to be ambidextrous in his spare time in Third Year.

BANG!

The large, purple triple-decker bus boomed into sight, the air it blew into the park timing perfectly with the natural wind that blew through the park.

"Where're 'ou 'eaded?" asked Stan Shunpike, the conductor, as Harry boarded the bus.

"The Leaky Cauldron," Harry muttered, lowering his voice an octave or two.

"'Ou 'eard 'im, Ern," Stan told the driver. "Th' Leaky Cauldron."

"What's ya name?" Stan asked him, starting up the conversation with his usual question of identity.

"Will Turner," Harry replied, taking a seat in a rather comfortable armchair, which "just happened" to be the colours of a rainbow, only less bright then normal, so people would still retain their sight.

"Well, Will, what're 'ou 'eaded t' th' Leaky Cauldron for?"

"I've got some shopping to do in the Alley."

"Don't ev'ryone?"

"Right."

A silence fell between them, broken only by the sound of the bus booming as it stopped to let people off, then boomed again as it kept going.

"Will, did 'ou 'ear about 'ow 'Arry Potter said tha' 'Ou-Know-'o's back?"

"Yes. What do you think about it?" Harry asked. He licked his lips and stared at Stan for his reaction.

"We don't know 'bout nobody else, but me an' Ern believe 'im, don't we Ern?"

A grunt in response was Ern's reply, which Harry hoped was, and took for, a 'yes'.

"We all knew tha' 'e was goin' t' come back, tha' 'e twern't really gone. T'was only a matta' o' time."

Another silence fell between them, in which Harry now knew that he thought of Stan as, at the least, a possible ally.

BOOM!

"'Ere's your stop, Will. Th' Leaky Cauldron," Stan announced, pointing out the window at the pub.

"Thank you," Harry said, handing him the four Galleons he had put into his pocket for this occasion.

BOOM!

The bus blew out of sight as soon as Harry got off.

It slightly unnerved him to go through the pub and into the Alley without being noticed as, well, himself.

"Let's see...." he thought aloud, looking through the window's of the few clothing shops that the Alley had, "no.... no.... no.... yesss."

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(Authoress: Oh... I wonder what he saw.... Wait, I know what he saw; I wrote it. But, you, my faithful readers, will have to wait until I post the next chapter. Don't forget to review!)