The courting

Chapter 1. The truth

"Now leave!" Vernon screamed and pushed me into my bedroom. Well, it was Dudley's second bedroom originally, but I was allowed to sleep in here.
At least, when I did all the chores.
I sat in one of the corners and curled up into a ball. The room was full of Dudley's broken toys, sometimes I think I was thrown in here because I am a broken toy too. 

My body was full of bruises, scars and burns. When Vernon gets drunk, he starts hitting me. I was his personal punching bag. Aunt Petunia always made me do all the chores and I was rarely allowed to eat the food I made, so I was thin and small too.
5' 1'' isn't a good height for a soon to be 17-year-old. I'm not sure if Dudley even knew that I lived in this house. 

But there wasn't long, until Dumbledore would send someone to pick me up and then I would be safe. Well, not safe, because Dumbledore wanted that Ron, Hermione and I went on the hunt for horcruxes.
Last year he faked his death to be able to work from the background, he thought that being in the constant spotlight would ruin the plan of the Order.
But what about me? 

Why can't I go into hiding, away from the spotlights? I never asked to be the boy-who-lived. I never asked to be famous.
Because all that came to a price, the price of a family that loved me.
The price of friends that were true friends. 

I knew that Ron was only my friend because I had money, and he always tried to bring me and Ginny closer together.
And Hermione was my friend because compared to Ron and me she seemed even smarter. I never wanted to be like this. I didn't want to die in a fight over something I didn't even understand. 

Over this summer I realized that I never knew for what Voldemort fought. Or Dumbledore. I was just told that Dumbledore was good, and Voldemort wasn't. I had blindly followed that man, for the greater good, as he said.
I pulled my torn shirt a bit over my naked legs and waited. I didn't know for what.
Vernon wouldn't let me out to have some food, and he beat me today already. I started to crawl out of my corner and tried to stand. 

Standing was hard, because Vernon hit my knee today and it still hurt. I looked out of the window and saw that it was dark already, and Hedwig's cage was empty. She went hunting, most likely.
When I tried reaching the bed, I heard the door opening. 

Fastly I scrambled back into my corner and curled up again. Maybe I was too loud and Vernon decided to teach me a lesson?
Please no! I was in pain already, I didn't need more. I began to hyperventilate when a much leaner person entered the room.
Did someone break in?
Would they hurt me?
I was seeing black when the person came nearer: "You don't need to be scared." The last thing I remembered was being picked up, and then I lost consciousness.

When I woke up, I wasn't in some dark chamber or bound to a wall. 

I didn't feel like I was in pain. When I looked around in the room, I saw a pretty nightstand and mint green walls. Under me was a comfortable bed with nice pillows and a mint green comforter. In front of the bed was a trunk and on the wall was a big cupboard, together with a writing desk and a chair.