Cursed Heritage

Disclaimer: These characters do not belong to me. Nope. Not mine.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^Chapter 1: Arrival^^^^^^^^^^^^^


It was the second week in August. The sun was bright in the sky and it was ridiculously hot, as it had been for the past month. Harry was in the back garden of Number 4 Privet Drive, painting the fence. Since the end of his fifth year, the Dursley’s behaviour towards him had improved dramatically, however they had yet to treat him as an actual, wanted member of the family.

He stood up, looking at his progress with a slight smile on his face. It would take a lot to get him down today. He was due to floo to the Burrow in under three hours to spend the remainder of the summer with the Weasleys. Since the death of Voldemort last year, the wizarding world had become a much safer place. There were still some Death Eaters hiding out in remote places, however the immediate danger had passed and it was only a matter of time before Aurors caught the remaining few. Dumbledore had decided that it was perfectly safe for him to spend the last two weeks of the holidays with the Weasleys, for which he was grateful.

He and Ron had been owling each other all summer, and he had been amused and pleased to find that Ron had finally found the courage to ask Hermione out. They had so obviously fancied each other for ages. The whole of Hogwarts knew, and last Harry had heard, even the teachers had been betting on when they would get together. He was genuinely pleased for them. They deserved to be happy, especially after the events of the past few years.

A cool breeze blew through the backyard, and as he finished the fence, Harry found himself thinking about next summer. He was about to enter his seventh year at Hogwarts, and after graduation he had no desire to ever return to Privet Drive, nor anywhere in the near area, but he still hadn’t decided fully what he wanted to do with his life. Part of him still wanted to try out becoming an Auror, though a larger part of him was beginning to think that maybe he would begin training as a medi-wizard. He had spent the last two years witnessing horrific injuries, and had developed a tremendous respect for Healing magic. He straightened up and sighed. He had to pass his N.E.W.T.s before anything else, and he was definitely not looking forward to the amount of work that the teachers were bound to expect him to do this year.

Gathering his brush and the tin, he made his way to the shed to put them away, and headed in for dinner. Since Mr. Weasley had destroyed the living room wall, there had not been a gas fire in the hearth. Aunt Petunia had decided that an open hearth with no actual fire was much more tasteful, (ignoring the fact that in winter the central heating bill was enormous), and so it was possible for their fireplace to be added onto the floo-network. His aunt and uncle had been surprisingly calm about him using their fireplace to do magic, though he strongly suspected this was because they were so relieved to be finally getting rid of him, that they would endure pretty much anything.

After dinner, he went upstairs to collect his belongings, which he had packed this morning. Hedwig hooted softly in the corner, and smiling he went and let her out of her cage.

“Go on, you might as well fly to the Burrow, I know you hate flooing.”

He opened the window for her, then closed it and the now empty cage, gathered his trunk and his Firebolt, and made his way to the living room. Aunt Petunia was sat in the corner, and since she didn’t seem to be doing anything other than look around nervously, Harry had to assume she was waiting for him.

“So. You’re off then?” She looked at him and he was surprised to see a soft look in her eyes.

“Yes.”

“And you won’t be coming back?”

“No, I won’t.”

“Right. Well then. Erm, goodbye. . .”

It was the most surreal moment of his life so far, and that was saying a lot. Fighting Voldemort and his Death Eaters, fine. Learning to transfigure a table into a bat was somewhat difficult, however it was standard procedure in McGonagall’s class. Even putting aside his differences with Snape was believable given the circumstances in which it had happenedavinaving his aunt looking suspicious like she was about to burst into tears at any moment, simply by saying goodbye to him probably for good was just not something he could quite get his head around.

“Well, thanks. I guess I’d better be going now.” He felt slightly awkward, as though maybe he should say something else, but he didn’t get the chance.

“Of course, of course.” She didn’t seem too sure where to look now that it came down to the actual magic part.

Sighing softly, he took out a handful of floo powder from the bag Ron had sent with his last letter and threw it into the fire. “The Burrow” he said as he jumped into the green flames.

He span round and round, and briefly had time to think that Hedwig was extremely lucky to be able to miss out on this, before he was falling out of the fireplace at the Burrow, and his trunk fell out of his hand, bursting open on the kitchen floor.

Ron was obviously waiting for him, and as soon as the fire had burst into flame had come hurrying over, only to be knocked to the floor along with Harry’s trunk. Laughing he got to his feet and helped Harry to stuff all of his clothes back into the trunk. “It’s about time! What took you so long?”

“Sorry. My aunt suddenly decided to take it into her head that I needed a proper goodbye, and then apparently changed her mind.” Harry smiled happily, looking around feeling truly at home again.

“Weird. Well never mind, you’ve finally escaped those muggles for good!” Ron enthused with obvious delight. “Come on, Mum’s around somewhere. Last I saw her, she was trying to find Ginny’s old dress robes”

Shaking his head and smiling to himself, Harry allowed himself to be pulled out of the kitchen.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^End of chapter^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That\'s it. Please please review. If you like it, I\'ll post the next chapter soon. Promise!