Summer Snaps by Aqua666

The summer after Harry's first year at Hogwarts started out rather well. His family had come to get him from the station and had treated him very carefully ever since. Afraid that Harry might cast some kind of spell on them, they'd stayed as far away from him as possible. His aunt still made him do too many chores but at least he was allowed to eat some the food he cooked and nobody dared to stop him from getting a glass of water when he was thirsty.

Dudley and his gang stayed as far away from him as possible. Or at least, Dudley did. The gang tried to start trouble on the few occasions they saw Harry working in the garden, but Dudley always thought of some excuse to pull them away. Harry's cousin was afraid of him, had been since Hagrid had given him a tail last summer.

All of this would have been perfectly fine in Harry Potter’s mind, if he could have had access to his stuff. He’d been prepared for his wand to be taken as soon as they got home. He had however, held out hope for his books. That was, until he stepped through the front door and his trunk with all his belonging inside were locked up in the cupboard.

So now, not only did he have to spend his days working his ass of. Never speaking with anybody unless he’d done something wrong and his aunt or uncle felt the need to yell at him. He had to spend his evenings in his room with absolutely nothing to do but think. To top it all off, none of his friends had written to him.

Without the constant reminders that things had changed, he might have come to believe he’d gone mad. For years, he had been alone, without friends. He’d been conditioned to believe magic didn’t exist for over a decade. Magic had only been real to him for a year, which was not long at all when compared to the first decade of his life. Being back at Privet Drive, his friends strangely absent, could almost convince him that it hadn’t been real.

But there was still Hedwig, who was currently making a racket over being locked in her cage. Harry didn’t mind the noise, he understood her frustration. Being locked away was not fun, and when one was used to flying free it had to be even worse. Harry could only thank his luck star that his family welcomed it if he left the house as soon as he was done with his chores. At least he had a bit of freedom, which was more than he could say for Hedwig.

The freedom didn’t last long though. Only a few weeks into the summer holiday, something unexpected happened. Harry was rather pissed at the little elf who had caused all the troubles. Not only had the creatures taken his letters, he had done magic and got Harry locked away. Now he would never get to see his friends again, and he still didn’t know what they had written him.

Maybe, if Harry had been a different kind of person, he would have been somewhat scared of the creatures warning. He was quite certain that normal eleven year olds would stay away when they were told of a threat on their life but Harry was everything but normal. To him, Hogwarts was his home, the one place he felt safe. He wasn’t going to let that be taken away from him, no matter what.

Being locked in his room was taking a toll on him though. Each day became harder. Hungry and bored, he started to worry if he would ever get out. Surely, somebody would come to get him if he didn’t show up at school in time. They just had to. Right?

During the night, Harry couldn’t sleep because of the nightmares. During the day, he couldn’t relax because of the memories. He paced around the room so many times, he was astounded every time he made another round and the floor didn’t cave in.

It was a good thing they hadn’t locked him in the cupboard. The extra room to move and possibility to stare out the window, as well as having Hedwig close, were the only things keeping him sane. Without them, he might not have remembered who he really was. Nor would the Weasleys have been able to save him.

~*~ HP ~*~

The summer after his second year had started out only slightly better than the last. His family was just as bad and his life seemed just as dreary as it did for so many years. The letters from his friends were his only comfort for weeks.

The week with Aunt Marge was particularly problematic but he’d almost made it, before he lost it completely. He knew it was stupid, losing control like that. He just couldn’t help it. The way Aunt Marge talked about his mother, he just couldn’t deal with it. At school, Snape made nasty comments all the time. But the man was a lot more eloquent and would never say anything as cruse as crude as Aunt Marge. Nor did he ever say anything nasty about Harry’s mum; Snape only ever mentioned James.

Seeing Aunt Marge blow up had brought a smile to Harry’s face that hadn’t vanished for quite a time. Even as he stormed out of the house, pulling his trunk behind him, he could not stop his mouth from twitching. After being scared to death by the dog and he was thrown around the knight-bus for a bit, he had a not so satisfying talk with the minister of magic.

Harry didn’t like the man, though he wasn’t able to put his finger on why. Something about the way he talked, it made Harry feel icky. Even when he said that Harry wouldn’t be expelled for the magic he’d done, something felt of. Luckily, the talk was over quickly and Harry had been allowed to spend the rest of the summer on Diagon Alley.

From that point on, Harry’s summer had become much better. In fact, it turned into the best summer yet the next day. He’d gone to Gringott’s, thinking he might as well go out and buy his stuff now. However, when he asked access to his family vault, the goblin told him he would not gain access until he was seventeen. Apparently, the mountain of gold in Harry’s vault was only a small part of his inheritance.

Grinning happily, he’d gone to the trust vault and asked the goblin if he could divide it into six even piles. He just grunted but did as Harry asked without any other complaints. Harry didn’t ask how much there was in each pile, they looked even enough to Harry. Staring with the left pile, he counted out 200 galleons and put them in his pouch. He probably didn’t need that much money but it wasn’t even a quarter of the money in the first pile.

Walking through Daigon Alley, it took all his willpower not to run into the Quidditch shop and order that new broom. But that wouldn’t make sense, he had money true, but he also had an amazing Nimbus 2000. The Firebolt was new and beautiful but there were other things to spend his money on. Besides buying everything he needed for school, Harry had bought himself some new clothes as well as enough books to make Hermione happy.

Staying at the Leakey Cauldron for the summer didn’t just mean he had more freedom than ever before. It also mean that the ministry wouldn’t be able to tell if he used magic. After all, they hadn’t been able to tell the difference between his own magic and Dobby’s. And this place was crawling with witches and wizards. As long as he made sure nobody saw, they would never find out.

So, Harry had included the spell-books for the next two years as well as a few other books that looked interesting, and started practising. He had tried the charms for the next three years in three days after buying the books. He managed about half of the spells in only a few tries and left the others for another date.

He read the transfiguration text but decided against trying any of those spells. He didn’t want to risk transfiguring something and then being unable to undo it. As for Defence Against the Dark Arts, he skimmed through one of the books for five minutes before deciding never to open it again. There was simply nothing important in there.

Most of the days, he sat outside in the sun. Reading one of his books or doing his homework while eating one of Florean’s ice-creams. Once in a while people came up to him, but most just stared and stayed away. He’d found it bothersome at first but had gotten used to the regular interruptions within a few days.

On the day he was doing his potions homework, one of those interruptions turned out to be more informative than anything he had read to date. Harry was just re-reading his work when he felt a presence behind him. He’d plastered on a smile almost automatically and turned around. Only to look directly into the snarling face of Hogwarts’s Potions Master.

“I see our celebrity has ones again found a way to get special treatment.”

Sighing Harry turned back to his parchment and continued revising. Snape sat down on the other side of the small table. Harry just ignore him, he really didn’t want to get into a snit with the professor. Those never ended well for Harry. Of course, the professor had different plans.

“Well Potter, what have you got to say for yourself?”

Sighing in annoyance, Harry looked at the man. “All I’m asking for is to be treated as a human being. Is that really so special?”

Instead of answering, Snape took the parchment and started to read. Harry had seen the man’s eyes narrow and lips thin at his words, if only he knew what the minute expressions meant. He did know the disgusted expression on the man’s face as he read the essay though. As the professor took his time to read Harry’s essay, the boy amused himself by guessing where the man was by reading the different expressions he made.

Not much later, Snape put the essay down and glared at Harry. “Buy yourself a copy of Basic Brewing and Indispensable Ingredients. The essay lacks basic knowledge on the different techniques, as well as information on the combination of the different ingredients and the dangers.”

Harry blinked a few times, he hadn’t expected anything useful to come from the professor. The man had never really seemed interested in divulging anything remotely informative. Nodding slowly, Harry took back his parchment and noted the names of the books Snape mentioned. Putting his stuff away, he continued eating his ice-cream, doing his best to ignore Snape.

“Why do you insist on putting yourself in danger? You must not value your life if you’d be willing to give it up for a mediocre dessert.” Snape sneered at him.

Rolling his eyes, Harry put down the spoon and glared back. “How am I putting my life in danger?”

“There is a mass murderer on the loose, Potter.”

“So what? There are mass murderers on the loose every day. What makes this one so special? It’s not like he can be worse than Voldemort.”

Snape sucked in a breath and hissed “Sirius Black is directly responsible for the death of your family. You should have a care Potter, he might just come after you.” With that, the professor stood and walked away, black cape billowing behind him.

Harry stared at the now empty chair for a long time. Doing his best to cope with this new revelation. Why was it that everybody had it out for him? Sighing deeply, he picked up his bag and returned to the Leakey Cauldron, leaving the potions book to be bought another day.