The summer of Harry's ninth birthday started out as one of those unremarkable summers many children whined about ones school started again. Nobody wanted to be the child that didn't have a single summer story when school started again. Nobody except for Harry Potter that was.

Harry did his best to stay out of trouble and for the first six weeks of the summer that went perfectly well. Besides the occasional scolding from his aunt for not doing a chore correctly, nothing truly remarkable happened. Dudley's friends were away for the first three weeks, leaving Dudley to spend his days alone playing computer games.

By the time the gang returned, the Dursleys had gone on vacation and Harry was staying with Mrs. figg for two weeks. Most of those weeks were spend learning the names of all her cats. But she also took him to the store a few times and even went swimming with him on an extremely warm Sunday.

Then the Dursleys came back and Harry continued his days doing chores. Nothing really happened for another week, as Dudley and his gang spend most of their time away from Privet Drive. The second to last week of the summer, the weather turned and Harry's luck followed.

Dudley and Piers were bored and came inside while Harry was making lunch. Sitting down Piers started insulting Harry, doing his best to get a laugh out of Dudley. Harry wasn't cooperation though, ignoring their efforts of taunting him and making their little game a lot less funny.

Soon Piers got frustrated and decided to take things into his own hands. Just as Harry was picking up the large plate with the sandwiches, Piers pushed him and the plate went flying. Afraid of getting punished, Harry scrambled and tried to catch the sandwiches before they fell to the floor. Somehow, he managed to catch every single one of them and ended up standing straight with a neatly stacked plate of sandwiches on the plate.

Both Dudley and Piers were staring at him with wide eyes. Afraid someone else had seen him, he looked around the kitchen and caught his aunts gaze. The look on her face made him deflate instantly. She was mad. He'd done something that shouldn't have happened and he would be punished for it. No matter how hard he protested that he hadn't meant to do anything. With a sad sigh, he put the plate down on the table for the others and went to the cupboard. His aunt didn't say a word but followed him and locked the door as soon as he was in.

~*~ HP ~*~

In 1990 Dursley Dudley was given a bonus and the whole family went on vacation. Well, that is the family minus Harry Potter. It wasn't the first time the Dursley's went on vacation without him, nor would it be the last time. Under normal circumstances, Harry would have spend their vacation with Mrs. Fig, the crazy cat lady from across the street. She was a nice lady who gave Harry something to eat every time she saw him. So overall, Harry didn't really mind staying with her. If it hadn't been for her obsession with those cats of hers, he might even have liked it.

But sadly, Mrs. Figg was as mad as a hatter and so, Harry was overjoyed when, the day before the Dursleys were leaving, she called to say she wouldn't be back on time. Apparently there had been a storm in the north and the road back was littered with tree branches and would be inaccessible for at least two days. Uncle Vernon had thrown Harry into the cupboard after she'd hung up, saying that it was all his fault for causing the freaky whether in Scotland.

Harry was so used to being blamed for everything, he didn't even blink at his Uncle's ridiculous statement. So what if Harry had done some pretty freaky stuff over the years. Growing back his hair and flying onto a roof was nowhere near the enormity of changing the weather in the whole of Scotland. Though, Harry had to admit that changing the weather did seem more likely from a scientific standpoint. After all, they had created a tiny storm in a bottle not that long ago.

Not willing to give his family any more reason to punish him, Harry had stayed in the cupboard without complaint. Well, no verbal complaint. His stomach started complaining about the lack of food as soon as his aunt started cooking, but that couldn't be helped.

The next morning, neither is aunt, uncle of cousin woke him up to make breakfast. Instead, Harry was woken by the banging of suitcases being pulled through the little hall. After a few minutes of banging and cursing, the house went silent. Well, except for his uncle stomping through the hallway and banging on his door.

They were going on vacation and would not be back until the next week. Harry would have to stay home alone for two days. At which time, Mrs. Figg would be back and Harry was to go to her place. They would leave the door to the cupboard open since he had to get out himself in two days. That was not to make him think of leaving the cupboard though, as he was only allowed to do so if he needed to go to the bathroom, and he better make sure to go back to his room directly afterwards.

As his uncle closed and locked the front door behind himself, Harry let out a long sigh. He was alone. And he would stay that way for a whole week. He waited in his cupboard for a few hours just to make certain his family wasn't coming back for some reason or another. When he was sure they wouldn't, Harry left his cupboard and twirled around the house.

His uncle had disconnected the electricity, so Harry wouldn't have any light or heat for the next week, but he didn't really care. It was summer, the sun would provide him with both heat and light. Harry laughed and went upstairs to Dudley's rooms. Normally, he was only allowed in there when he needed to clean the rooms. Now though, Harry had the freedom to do as he pleased.

Grabbing some of the toys scattered around the room, Harry started playing to his heart's content. Around noon, he made himself some lunch and sat down with one of the many books Dudley had never even looked at. He spend the rest of the evening reading by the window where there was just enough light coming in from the streetlights.

The next day he read and had fun all day long. Normal children would be bored after playing alone for so long but Harry had never been so happy. Being able to play with all the toys, not only the ones Dudley had already broken, was something he'd always wanted to do. The fact that Dudley wasn't even there to complain about it was the cherry on top.

On the third day of Harry's vacation, he cleaned all the toys and did a quick sweep of the house before he left for Mrs. Figg's house. However, when he got to the house it turned out to be empty. Mrs. Figg wasn't home yet. Harry sat on the front step of the lady's house until it started to get dark. It seemed that Mrs. Figg wasn't really coming home after all.

Sighing, he went back to number four. But when he got there, he suddenly realized he'd closed the door. And he didn't have a key. Running around back he tried the backdoor, which turned out to be just as closed as the front. He looked around, trying to find an open window or a hidden key, until it was too dark to see. Resigning himself to staying out door for the rest of the vacation, he went into the shed and settled down.

Four days he spend there, only leaving the little shed ones a day to check if Mrs. Figg had come home yet. Which she didn't do until several days after the Dursleys had returned. Not wanting to upset his aunt and uncle, Harry made sure he was working on the garden when they finally returned. Surely, they would let him be if he was doing chores.

And he was right about that. The Dursleys returned and instantly called him to put away their suitcases. When they saw his appearance, his aunt sneered while his uncle grouched that he supposed that they should be grateful that he didn't stink as bad as those disgusting cats.

Harry put their stuff away obediently, had a quick shower and went to his cupboard. Stretching out on the this mattress he sighed. His cupboard was small and sucked all around, but at least he had a mattress, blanket and makeshift pillow. That was more than he'd had the past week. Feeling the extra height beneath his head his smiled at himself. At least he'd been smart enough to hide a few books before he'd left for Mrs. Figg's house. Settling in, he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

~*~ HP ~*~

The summer of Harry's eleventh birthday was one of those pivotal summers that changed everything. He'd started the summer thinking it would be just like any other. Well, except that he was going to another school next year and he wouldn't see Dudley for a whole year. So for once, he had something to look forward to.

But then Dudley's birthday came along and Harry broke the rules. He hadn't meant to do it. Well, he had meant to talk to the snake, no matter how much of a surprise it had been that the animal actually understood him. But when Dudley knocked him over he'd felt the flash of anger roll through him, and all of a sudden the glass was gone.

The resulting weeks of being locked up had been brutal. He was growing bigger, making it impossible for him to stretch out completely. When he was finally allowed out to do chores, he almost thanked his aunt for the work.

Then the first letter came and even though he had no idea what it said, it was the best thing to ever happen. Harry finally had his own room. Sure, it was the old room that Dudley used for storage. It still had a real bed and room enough to actually walk around. Not to mention that Harry knew that there were several loose floorboards he could use to hide stuff. Not that he had much but maybe he could use the space to hide all of Dudley's books before his cousin came to take back his toys.

But the next day more letters arrived and while Harry was elated at the chance to read whatever the letter contained, he was extremely disappointed when his uncle made them all get in the car and drove off. He should have expected it really. Getting the room had been too much good luck, of course they would be leaving after just one night. The fact that the room was switched for a place on the floor of an hotel room and later a spot on the rickety floor of the little shack should not have come as a surprise.

What happened when it was finally his birthday, that was something not even Harry could have imagined. Though, maybe he should have. His aunt and uncle always flipped when magic was mentioned. Not to mention how they reacted when something unexplainable happened. Was it not for the fact that they got pissed about a million and one other things, maybe he would have noticed.

Talking to Hagrid and learning about magic was the most amazing thing ever and had Harry convinced life couldn't get better. He was of course wrong, as he learned the following day. Diagon Alley was everything he could have wished for and more, had he known to wish for something at all.

When Harry finally returned to the Dursleys late that evening, his uncle sent him to his room without supper and ordered him to stay there. The rest of the summer was unpleasant but not as much as some of his previous summers. Dudley was now avoiding him like the plague and neither his aunt or uncle even spoke to him. It had aggravated him at first but he got used to it pretty quickly.

He spend his day in his room, reading his schoolbooks and thoroughly enjoying all his fantasies of this new school he was going to. Soon enough he would be gone from the Dursleys for a whole year. Even better, he would be going to a school for Magic.