RAVENCLAW!

19. Home Sweet Home

Harry was sitting on his window sill, letting the chilly morning wind carry away any leftovers of sleepiness. Hagrid's photo book was lying open in his lap as he watched the sun rising, making the boring neighborhood of Little Whinging glow in warm colors.
That's what Harry did to make living here a little more bearable. Every day he set his alarm clock for right about dawn so that he could enjoy a few hours to himself in peace before the Dursleys would wake up. He watched the sun rising higher and higher, lost in the moment, when there was an intense knock on his door. Closing his eyes he let his head fall back against the wall and sighed.

And it's over again.

"Come down and make breakfast, boy!"

"On my way, auntie!"

Luckily Petunia was already out of vicinity. Surely she wouldn't have approved of Harry calling her 'auntie'. Taking a last glance at the clear blue summer sky, he hopped off the sill and closed the window behind him before making his way down to the kitchen. Another day in his living hell and it would be exactly like the last one and exactly like the ones that were coming. He just hoped that his friends could write soon. While he prepared breakfast he managed to slip one slice of bread into his back pocket as Petunia was calling for Vernon and 'Diddikins'. He sat through breakfast, eating not that much, and hurriedly finished the dishes so he could leave to his room for a moment before the Dursleys put a bunch of chores under his responsibility.

"Here you are."

Hedwig almost bit him when he placed the bread in her cage. She hadn't had food since their return from Hogwarts. Harry already had to put up a big fight that she wouldn't be locked away in the cupboard under the stairs - also known as his former bedroom - with the rest of his wizard stuff. Instead there was now a lock keeping the cage closed so he wouldn't send letters to 'other freaks like him'.
He wanted to write to his friends so bad!

"Harry! The lawn needs to be mown!"

"I'm sorry, Hedwig! I wish i could let you out to hunt for a while but-"

"NOW!"

Reluctantly he left the snowy owl to herself and complied with his aunts orders.
He finished the lawn by midday and right after "lunch" (a plain slice of bread) he was told to clean the kitchen - including scrubbing the floor by hand.
Then he had to make dinner - here he finally got an acceptable amount of food to himself - and do the dishes again.
When he fell onto his bed in the evening he only just remembered to set an alarm before falling asleep in a matter of seconds. He had done all of these chores for years now but after a year long break it seemed his body and mind weren't used to this daily exhaustion anymore.

                                   ***

When Harry awoke on the next morning it was from the angry knocking on his door. Looked like he had switched his alarm off and fell back asleep. Shit!
His head hurt a bit, probably it was the leftover dizzyness after sleeping for a long time.

As soon as he sat up he realised it wasn't.
Pain shot through his head and neck, worse than he was used to from his scar. But this wasn't the scar. His sight blackened in front of him and he just managed to get off the bed before he threw up onto the floor.

Shit!!!
He was sick.

Harry couldn't remember ever being sick before in his entire life and suddenly he really wished he was back at Hogwarts again. He could just go to Madam Pomfrey and in no time he would be perfectly well again.
But here? It was scary.
The thought of telling the Dursleys how he was sick and couldn't do much today...
So he decided he wouldn't. After massaging his temples to calm down the headache a bit he took a deep breath and stood up, steadying himself on the desk. The world started to turn in front of his eyes and he closed them.

Inhale...

Exhale...

Inhale...

Exhale...

Everything would be fine he just needed to get into the bathroom.

Inhale...

Exhale...

And go!
With shaky steps he managed to get to his door, out and across the hallway into the bathroom. With every move the headache got worse again. When he arrived, the room went black and he felt like vomiting again but somehow he managed to calm himself down by gripping onto the sink tightly. The light hurt in his eyes when he looked up again so he pressed them shut. Blindfolded like that he reached for the cabinet door and opened it.

'Okay, now think! Petunia keeps the medicine... on the upper right side?'

Carefully Harry stretched his arm towards where he believed he would find the small glass bottles.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE, BOY!?"

The shouting voice made Harry's head explode in another wave of pain which made his eyes water and caused a reflex to push his hands against his ears and crouch into a tiny heap of limbs. In the movement he brushed something cold with his fingertips and soon he heard what it was. (Well, at least he had been right with his guess as to where his aunt kept the medicine.)
Then Vernon grabbed a hold of him and forced him to his feet. Harry saw the room littered with tiny shards of dark glass punctuating his still bare feet which started to burn like hell when the alcohol of some kind of potion entered the small wounds. Overwhelmed from all the pain and dizzyness the world went black - this time for real. Harry was pretty sure he threw up again before he slipped into unconsciousness.

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"Father?"

No answer.
Draco wanted to talk to Lucius about getting a new broom for his birthday - which was the day after, by the way- because he wanted to enter the Quidditch team that year. Seemingly Malfoy senior was not available at the moment. Still his son pushed the door to his office open and immediately froze in his tracks. On the desk there was a dark, wooden box. It was open. And next to it was a diary like book with a black leather cover.
Oh how he remembered this book.
And the pain that came with the memory!

What to Salazar was his father doing with this stuff again?!
Well, this was maybe his only chance to find out. As Draco went straight towards the desk he spotted an already opened letter lying next to the book. He  scanned it with his eyes fast without picking it up in order to avoid making Lucius suspicious. The contents made him gulp. It was from a shop owner in Knockturn Alley. Obviously a reply to a former letter sent by his father. It said something about how he would accept the offer but wanted to see the objects his father wanted to sell first. Also he wouldn't ever buy anything like Tom Riddles Diary. The 'powers of it were not clear enough' and 'he should just give it to any random school girl instead'.

That's a lot of interesting information,
Draco thought. Just as he was about to leave he saw another piece of writing. A short note inside the wooden box.

'This is the key to the Chamber Of Secrets. I trust you to keep it safe. Otherwise it will have consequences.'

A chill was suddenly running down his spine. Not many people dared to threaten his father. When Draco finally left the room, carefully closing the door behind him, he came to the conclusion that he needed to find out more about this 'Chamber Of Secrets'. If his father really wanted to get rid of the book he wouldn't hesitate to actually give it to an innocent school girl and it was probably full of dark magic.
Yes, Draco found dark magic fascinating and he admired his father a lot but risking innocent lives was another thing completely. Also, Draco didn't have much to do anyways and he had a private library - a really big one - at hand, so, why not?