Throughout the summer Harry had spent with Dursleys forced him to get used to arguments. He had almost completely forgotten just how common it is for the Dursleys to argue about random stuff; today, an annoyed uncle Vernon snapped when Hedwig hooted from Harry's room that is upstairs.
"It's the third time this week! Does that bloody owl of yours have to keep waking us up?!"
"She's bored," Harry tried explaining, "she's used to flying outside, you can't blame her, let me just let her out for the night-"
"Do you take me for a fool?!" Uncle Vernon practically exploded, "I know just what will happen when you let her out!" He exchanged a dark look with his wife, aunt Petunia.
"Like what?" Harry is genuinely curious just what his uncle thinks he'd do when they'll allow him to let Hedwig outside for a while.
"Like - like send bloody letters to your friends!"
"And so if I did?"
"'So if you did'?!" Uncle Vernon almost yelled that out. "You'd spread rumors about us! You'd ruin our reputation."
Harry almost rolled his eyes at those accusations, "as if I would've wanted to tell people about you,"
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Uncle Vernon began yelling, "stop acting so ungrateful!"
"You know what? I'm leaving," Harry stood up, "I'm going back to my room," he turned around and tried to leave.
Suddenly uncle Vernon grabbed him by his hair and then shoved him hard - he went head first, hitting the wall right in front of him.
Harry immediately turned around and before he could stop himself, "what's that for?!" While rubbing the place on his head that hit a wall, acting surprisingly calm.
"What was it for?!" Uncle Vernon is practically fuming at the response, "it's for being so ungrateful! Just because you're apparently famous in your goddamn world and you're attending that bloody school of yours, doesn't mean you can just disrespect us like that!" This is practically the angriest Harry remembers his uncle being - like - ever.
"You. Ungrateful." Uncle Vernon is getting more and more furious after each word, seeming to forget to separate his teeth.
"Ungrateful?!" Harry has no idea why he's reacting, it makes no sense! Voldemort's not near! (Atleast he thinks he isn't...). "What makes-?!" Harry stopped as all of a sudden uncle Vernon slapped him - hard.
"SHUT UP!" Uncle Vernon is close to a volume of a howler, "SHUT YOU BRAT! YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL!" For a good measure uncle Vernon grabs his right shoulder and shoves him once again, making it ache even more, luckily for Harry, this just got him further from uncle Vernon's reach, "WE TOOK YOU IN AFTER YOUR GOD-FORSAKEN PARENTS LET THEMSELVES GET BLOWN UP - WE GAVE YOU A PLACE TO LIVE! FOOD ON THE PLATE! CLOTHES TO WEAR!"
"Oh, yes, but you still made me live in a cupboard-" Harry abruptly stopped again, now becuase his uncle suddenly took off his glasses, "hey! Give me back my-!"
"SHUT UP!" Uncle Vernon suddenly hit his right eye with a fist. "SHUT UP YOU UNGRATEFUL BRAT!" Now his uncle is just repeating himself. "SHUT UP!"
"..." Harry stayed quiet for a while before speaking again, "can I atleast get my glasses back?"
"..." Uncle Vernon is still fuming.
"Please?" Harry tried.
Uncle Vernon grunted but gave him back his glasses.
"Thanks," Harry automatically replied and before he could put his glasses on, uncle Vernon slapped him once again - for a good measure - turned around and walked back to kitchen.
Harry put his glasses on again and walked upstairs to his room.
When he got inside his room he sat down on his bed, glad that he stole one of the bottles from the freezer, inside which the water has turned into ice, and he placed it over his arm which got injured two days ago.
Unlike in Harry's original life, the Dursleys didn't treat him like a bomb that might explode at any time - they began treating him the same way (if not worse) then before he got his letter from Hogwarts even in his original life = he became their burden, their punching bag, their stress relief, their anger relief, their frustration relief. Harry is just surprised he hasn't gotten any bruises on any visible places on his body.
Oh, and they're giving him even less food then they've used to - so Harry began to secretly steal their food and saved it for if they'll ground him and take his privilage of getting food away once again.
And also, they've locked all of Harry's things (Nimbus 2000, his wand (except for Hedwig) in Harry's old cupboard under the stairs - the only things they've let him keep in his room and not lock away in the cupboard are his school books, parchments, quills and ink.
What made them be so lenient on this?
:
"Do you have to lock all of my things away?" Harry asked, not seeing their point.
"Yes!" Aunt Petunia said, annoyed, and crossed her arms, "we don't want you to do foolish things in our house and make the neighbors question what's going on!"
"'Question'?" Harry is absolutely confused now, "just what would they be asking? If someone is - what - doing homework? I don't see anything wrong nor weird about that."
"What will make you shut up?!" She's getting unreasonably angry.
"Probably you not locking my stuff away?" Harry questioned, almost crossing his arms too, out of annoyance that these small things infuriate his aunt; when he saw that she isn't willing to let anything in his possession for now, he added, "or atleast don't lock away stuff that I need to have when I want to do my homework?" Harry tried, "Y'know - school books, parchments, ink..." Harry listed.
His aunt slapped him, but let him keep the things he just listed.
Most of the time Harry had spent at the Dursleys after coming back from Hogwarts he had spent most of his time either in his room or outside - trying his best to spend as little time with his aunt, uncle, Dudley and Dudley's gang.
But one time, at midnight, when Harry's made sure that the Dursleys are asleep he carefully unlocked Hedwig's cage with the key he stole back from her cage.
"Hey," he whispered, "be quiet, but could you deliver this to Ron?"
Hedwig nodded and without a single hoot took the letter Harry was handing to her. She flew towards the window, sat on the window sill, looked at Harry for one last time and flew out of the window.
The letter that he gave to her said:
'To Ron
Ron's room, Burrow'
What the actual letter said:
'Hey, Ron,
Hope you've been having a good summer so far! Mines not so great - the Dursleys are insufferable.
(Don't read this letter when someone else then you or Hermione could read it.)
But now onto the actual reason why I'm writing this letter:
Remember how I told you I somehow went back?
Well, I'll tell you (and Hermione) more details once we meet again in person, but, if you won't receive any replies from me that means that your (nor anyone else's) letters are not being received by me.
I also probably won't be able to sent you more letters (atleast not this summer, but I probably won't be able to next summer too...). The Dursleys decided to lock all of my wizarding stuff away in the cupboard (I only managed to convince them to actually not lock away my school books, quills, parchments and ink) - they are especially insufferable this summer.
Could you pass to Hermione that I won't be able to reply to her letters nor actually read them? (Oh, and also tell her that I hope she's having a good summer so far!)
(And please, don't forget to send me Hedwig back, because the Dursleys don't allow me to let her out and I was only able to do this because I stole the key from her cage back from the Dursleys.)
Harry'
Once Hedwig was far away that Harry couldn't see her anymore he finally snapped out of his thoughts. He closed the window, layed back down in his bed and after ten minutes he fell asleep.
Two days have passed and at one in the morning Hedwig arrived back.
Harry woke up at the sound of quiet knocking on the outside of the window in his room.
Harry immediately stood up, opened the window and let Hedwig in - who immediately flew into her cage. She looked like she knew that she would get locked in the cage again, but she seemed surprisingly content with it, seeming like she understands it's necessary if Harry doesn't want to get beaten for letting her out.
"Welcome back," Harry whispered to her, not wanting to wake the Dursleys up, and then he locked her cage, "hopefully we'll get to the Burrow soon, just like before..."
**********
Three more days have passed and Harry woke up with a yawn, but didn't want to get up yet so he stayed in the bed for a little longer.
What surprised Harry the most while he waited for Hedwig to come back is that the Dursleys haven't found out; but he was glad for that, seeing as they hadn't found a reason to punish him.
But he reflexively jolted upwards when he heard three loud, powerful knocks on his door.
"Wake up!" Aunt Petunia ordered him and he heard her footsteps leading downstairs.
Harry sighed and got dressed. Then he looked at the calendar and noticed the date: 31st of June, 1992; his birthday, physically he's 12, mentally?
Mentally Harry is... huh, this is a good question actually, sure he timetraveled when he was seventeen, but how old would he be now since he timetraveled? It's all so confusing, especially since he's noticed that sometimes when he acts like a kid it's not just an act, it's genuine.
When Harry finally got downstairs the breakfast was already on the table, the Dursleys were already eating.
Uncle Vernon just shot him an angry look nonverbally saying: 'you're late' but otherwise did nothing, except for looking back towards his plate and continued to eat.
So Harry just sat down and began eating, just as always his portion was the smallest from all of the Dursleys; whatever, atleast they've given him food.
After two minutes he had finished his Sunnyside-ups with bread.
Unsurprisingly, the Dursleys didn't congratulate Harry on his birthday, either not knowing it's his birthday or just straight up not caring nor knowing.
When Harry was done eating he left and got outside; the Dursleys only stop him from leaving while arguing, otherwise they let him go up to his room or outside (Harry is using this an escape from them).
Harry's been sitting on the bench in a nearby park, whenever he goes there he mostly just zones off and thinks about random stuff.
Suddenly he was shot out of them when he heard a rustle of a bush, when he turned his head to look at the bush he swore that he saw a big pair of eyes - Dobby! It had to be him!
Two seconds later the eyes dissappeared.
After what felt like a half-minute stare at the bush he heard footsteps, when he looked around the first thing he saw were Dudley and his gang.
Harry sighed, stood up and began to walk away.
Or - he tried to walk away. Becuase the gang called out, "oi, Harry! What's up?"
Harry unintentionally froze for a few seconds but as soon as he heard their laughter he continued walking away, but stopped once again as soon as he felt something hit the back of his head - hard.
He immediately turned around and noticed that what they've just thrown at his head was a Basketball ball.
Harry just threw the ball back to them and turned around once again and continued to walk away.
"Don't chicken out, Harry!" Someone from the gang called out.
"How about we do the 'Harry Hunting' again?" Another suggested, Harry froze.
"Hell yea - we haven't done that since two years ago!" The third of them agreed, "what do you think, Dudley?"
"Sure," Dudley said, the grin practically audible.
Immediately, Harry began to run.
"Hey! That's cheating! The countdown hasn't even started yet!" The first person called out.
"Screw it, let's just do it." The second person said.
Harry didn't catch anything else anyone in the gang has said. He has no idea why he's running so fast - it almost looks like he's running for his life - this reminded him of that one time when the Snatchers chased him (as well as Ron and Hermione) in his original life when he, out of frustration, said Voldemort's name and the taboo caused that the Snatchers found them and chased them down, ending the chase by successfully catching them.
"Oi! Slow down!" Someone from the gang called out.
After what felt like ten minutes, Dudley and his gang grew bored of the 'Harry Hunting', seeing as he's running so fast they're unable to catch him.
"This is boring," the second person grunted.
"Let's just stop, this is useless." Dudley said.
"When did your cousin get so fast, Dudley?" The third person asked.
The voices of the gang were fading.
When Harry saw that the gang was far enough continued to run, but as the time went by he was gradually slowing down - not becuase of fatigue or exhaustion, but because of the adrenaline slowly fading away.