Disclaimer: J.K. Rowlings' field, I'm just playing.
Chapter 1: Leaving at Last
A cool breeze swept through the air over Little Whinging, Surrey. It was a unusually warm night, and this wave of welcome would have been a relief to the residents, had it had come hours earlier for them to enjoy it, but as it was in the very early hours of the morning, darkness covered the sky. The stars seemed to shine brighter, welcoming the wind. No one felt it other than a teenage boy of number four Privite Drive.
Harry Potter sat up lazily in his bed, his hands in his face. He had awoken with a start, and scared his owl Hedwig. Hedwig did not screech with fright, but gave Harry a reproachful look and went back to sleep. Relief swept over Harry. He knew his uncle would come bursting through the door in seconds if he heard Hedwig at this time in the morning, and Harry didn't feel like getting in an argument with his uncle Vernon.
Harry shook his head. He didn't want to think about his uncle. He didn't want to think about anything. He had dreamed again of the night Dumbledore died. He couldn't help but cry. He had lost so much already, his parents, his godfather, and now a great friend. Dumbledore had been the greatest wizard in the world, and now he was gone. He just couldn't get Dumbledore out of his head. He could remember every detail of that night. Every dream consisted of the same thing, Snape sending the killing curse at Professor Dumbledore. The only time he hadn't dreamed of his death was when he dreamed of Ginny Weasley. Even though Harry had actually gotten sleep when he did that, he refused to dream of her again. He couldn't put her in danger, no matter what. She was the only thing that he would have to come back to if he defeated Voldemort.
Harry tried to turn his attention on something else. Ron Weasley was still snoring loudly in the sleeping bag next his bed. How he could stay asleep through the loudest noise was still a mystery to Harry. Next to Ron was Hermione Granger, the smartest witch of Harry's age. He was thankful girls didn't snore; he didn't think he could handle the noise.
His friends had followed Harry off the train, refusing to turn back. Mrs. Weasley had been disappointed that they wouldn't return to with them to the Burrow, but accepted that Harry had to return to the Dursely 's one last time, and even let Ron tag along, though she didn't know the real purpose of why Ron was coming. His uncle tried to refuse his friends joining him, but Hermione's wand pointed right at his throat changed his mind in an instant. When they arrived, they went straight up to Harry's room and went to work. They ordered books from Flourish and Blotts about the Four Founders, trying to find clues on what the mystery Horcrux might be.
Harry sat on his bed, trying to distract himself. He picked up the letters that laid on his dresser next to his bed. The first was from Bill Weasley, inviting him to the Burrow for his wedding, occurring on July thirtieth, the day before Harry's birthday. The other letter was from Ginny, explaining that they needed to talk once he arrived and to remind him that she still loved him. Harry put the letter back on the table. He had broken up with Ginny at the funeral, mainly because as his girlfriend, she was too close and Voldemort would use her to his advantage. He set the letter down, took off his glasses, and laid them down on top of his dresser. He got back into his bed and rolled over. He needed to rest; today was going to be exciting.
Harry woke up with the greeting rays of the sun. He put on his glasses, and not disturbing his sleeping friends, headed to the kitchen. He found it empty, and started to cook breakfast. Hermione and Ron joined him shortly, mainly because Ron was hungry and could smell the food. They sat down at the table and Hermione opened the Daily Prophet. By the time Harry had finished cooking; the Durselys had woken up and sat around the opposite end of the table from Ron and Hermione. Breakfast was silent, mainly because the Durselys were too scared to say anything. Harry decided he might as well tell them the good news he had.
"Uncle Vernon, I have good news," he started. His uncle looked up from his plate.
"You're leaving today?" he said hopefully to Harry.
"Yes, and I'm never coming back. You will never have to worry about a wizard in this house anymore."
"Are you really?" excitement rose in his voice, "We need to celebrate, when are you leaving?"
"Sometime today," Harry replied, trying to control his rising temper.
"Perfect! We are, that is to say Dudley, Petunia and I, will be at the zoo all day, so you better not destroy the house while we're gone, and we expect to find it in perfect condition when we return, understand?" his uncle said sternly.
"Don't worry. I doubt we would want to hang around here, anyways," Harry concluded. Ron and Hermione were staring down Vernon with disgust; evidently they found him extremely rude to Harry. Harry was debating on whether to let them hex him, but in the end decided against it; after all, this was going to be a good day for him.
Harry soon found himself packing his trunk. He had everything packed except his red album. It was a picture album of his parents that Hagrid had given him during his first year at Hogwarts. He opened it and looked through the pictures. They were so happy then, standing alongside with their friends. Even Sirius was in a few pictures. His godfather waved back at him in the picture from his parents' wedding. Just then his aunt Petunia came in.
"I have something for you," she handed him a shoebox, "We're leaving now, lock the door before you leave." And she walked out of the room.
Harry opened the shoebox and pulled out a note.
"These were some of your mothers' things. Most were brought here by friends of hers after she died. They're yours now, seeing how I would rather throw them away."
He put the note aside and peered into the box. The first thing he pulled out was the most beautiful necklace he had ever seen. It was bright gold, with a square sapphire gem in the middle. On the back, engraved, were the words, Lily E. Potter. It was hard to take his eyes off it. Next he pulled out a brown, hard leather bound book. When he opened it, he found it was a picture album of his parents. The first part of the album had pictures of his mother's childhood and through school. After many pages that brought tears to his eyes, he found the same thing of his father, pages full from his childhood to his days at school. There were also picture of Remus Lupin and his godfather Sirius. Harry was pleased to see that in none of the pictures was Wormtail. In the last few pages he found a picture of him as a baby.
After a while he put the album down, and looked at the rest of the contents in the box. In there was a small key to the family Gringott's account, as well as more of his mother's jewelry. There was also a Golden Snitch, the one his Father had stolen his seventh year at Hogwarts. Finally, at the bottom of the shoebox were letters. [i]I'll read these later,[/i] he thought. He put everything back into the shoebox, closed it, and put it on the top of his trunk. He zipped up his trunk and looked around for anything he had forgotten. Finally he let Hedwig out, and told her to go on ahead and meet him at the Burrow. Then he took his Firebolt, Hedwigs' empty cage, and his trunk downstairs. There, by the fireplace, were Ron and Hermione. They were talking privately, then finally noticing that Harry had entered, stopped and turned to face, both blushing. Hermione was first to recover.
"Are you ready to go Harry?" she asked.
"Yes, let's go." He replied. He was finally going home.
Authors note:Thanks for reading, please submit a review so I can get a good idea of my audience. Also, Big thanks to Victoria Weasley, my beta!