Deeper Than Blood

Chapter 2

Harry groaned when he woke up to find the sun peeking over the horizon. Another day that he was left to the devices of the Dursley household. Things had been particularly bad this summer. Dudley had obtained a key to Harry's prison and had made a regular habit of waltzing in when Harry had just started eating the one meal he was allowed a day and snatching it from his grasp. Sometimes he would just leave after that, throwing his soup on the floor so Harry had to lick it off the wood and sometimes he'd beat harry beyond passing out and take the food with him. It really depended on Dudley's mood that day.

His stomach didn't so much as rumble anymore. Crawling under his bed to lift up the one floorboard that had some candy in it was the only food he was sure he would get in a single day. Already, he had rationed himself out a little bit, enough to get him to his birthday at least. He just hoped Dumbledore would follow through this time; he would likely starve if he didn't.

Harry had already convinced Fred and George Weasley to pick him up if they hadn't heard from him by August 2nd. They were old enough to apparate, and could easily grab Harry and his things from downstairs and whisk him off to safety. It was meant solely as a backup plan, he was counting on Dumbledore to send someone after him before his birthday. The candy wouldn't last much longer and with the way things were the last week, Dudley likely wouldn't be allowing him to eat. He had been kicked out of yet another boarding school for misconduct and was in a particularly sour mood because of it.

As the sun crept over the horizon more and more, Harry briefly thought about bargaining with his aunt again. If he could just get out of here to do some chores, maybe he could avoid Dudley and his anger. But the last several times were met upon deaf ears. She didn't want him out of this room and wasn't allowing him the opportunity to plead his case.

He had gotten really good at telling time by the location of the sun. For instance, it was about ten in the morning, and Harry's cousin would be waking up in two hours. He just had to hope that maybe Petunia had made herself lunch early today...

No such luck was bestowed upon him. His vegetable stock soup was on time: noon as always. He just wished he could stomach drinking it faster than Dudley could bust through his door. He awaited the sound of the lock...and it didn't come. He sipped his soup as silently and as quickly as he could handle without throwing it all up again and once he was done put the bowl on the other side of the cat flap for the first time in days. Dudley had been gracious enough to shatter the rest on the floor for him.

Once he was done, and much fuller than he thought possible, he went to sit on the bed. Sunshine had doused the rest of the room, and he was sure he would get sunburnt if he sat in it for too long. That had happened last summer, and the beatings felt so much worse with a sunburn.

Dudley's attack never came that day. Harry was too anxious, it wasn't right. The silence in the house was unnerving to say the least. He was at least used to Petunia playing god awful music downstairs while she obsessively cleaned her house. Not even a TV was on, and it was nearing supper time. The sun was casting a shadow over their house, cooling Harry's room far sooner than everyone else's bedrooms. It didn't help that they had taken all the duct work for his bedroom out of the house. Heating and cooling his room weren't important to them as long as he was the one using it. He knew once he was out of there for good, the ductwork would be reinstalled for Dudley to just have one giant room.

The longer the house was quiet, the more nervous Harry got.

Eventually he must have drifted to sleep, because the sound of his uncle pounding up the stairs awoke him with a start. He jerked up out of bed, silently hurried across the room and sat on the floor behind his dresser. The smaller and more insignificant he made himself seem, the less likely they would bother with him. He heard Dudley stomp to his room and heard the soft rattle of one of the locks being undone.

Lock after lock was being undone, winding Harry up with so much suspense that he almost passed out. When the door finally burst open, it slammed against the wall with the force that had been behind it. Vernon was purple with rage already, hands fisted at his sides and steam practically pouring out of his ears. He turned to slam the door shut and locked it from the inside. Harry's eyes opened wide with fear. Vernon had never locked the door from the inside before, he had never even closed the door. Dudley usually watched, blocking the one exit that would be temporarily available to him.

Whatever his uncle planned on doing, it wasn't good.

He watched, his knees pulled tightly to his chest, as Vernon loomed closer and closer. He hadn't started yelling-also a very, very bad sign. Harry cowered into himself with fright. Voldemort himself didn't instill this much fear into him, and yet here he was, ready to piss himself and Vernon hadn't even said or done anything yet.

Vernon yanked him to his feet by his hair. He tried to hold in his cry, as that would only result in a worse beating. He felt himself being thrown like a rag doll, weak with starvation, onto his bed. Pulling himself into a tight little ball, he braced himself for the blow that didn't come. Instead, he was yanked to his feet again, this time by his wrists. They were so small, Vernon had a free hand that was currently yanking his pants down.

Once he realized this, his body started struggling in panic. He knew in his mind that he was only making things worse for himself, but he couldn't bring himself to stop his legs from attempting to fight back. He felt the large hand make contact with his face.

"Don't you dare fight me on this. You've caused enough trouble for this family, and since beating the magic out of you didn't work I'm going to have to fuck it out of you instead. This is what you get for having those fools as parents." Harry whimpered involuntarily. Surely Vernon knew he couldn't help who his parents were...

Harry's body continued to fight Vernon off until it collapsed with exhaustion. Starving him seemed to do the trick. He could hardly fend for himself, leaving him too exhausted to even cry out anymore. Harry's mind shut down, unable to comprehend what was happening to him. His involuntary screams eventually ripped his throat so raw he had no voice left.

When Vernon was done with him, he yanked Harry's pants back on quite roughly and tossed him to the floor, spitting on his face. He left and Dudley came in, oblivious to what just happened, and kicked Harry into unconsciousness.

He didn't wake up to hear the locks being redone on the outside of the door, and he didn't wake up to the loud POP's signalling people apparating outside the house. He didn't hear the shouting match Vernon was having with the strangers, and he didn't hear Narcissa Malfoy rush up the stairs, blast the door open, or yell for Severus. He didn't even flinch when she apparated him away from the Dursley's forever.