Thin Pages

The Vanishing Glass

Disclaimer, I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters and this is not a way for me to criticize the books. It's just how I believe the characters would react if they read JK Rowling's brilliant work.

In This Chapter: We learn what Harry's life is like with The Dursleys, Dudley celebrates his birthday, and Harry gets consequences for his accidental magic.

Chapter 2

Draco was sitting in his dormitories, the book open in his lap to the second chapter. His closest friends were there, Blaise, Pansy, Crabbe, and Goyle. They had formed a sort of reading club for DADA that the other Slytherins in their year weren't interested in. As they didn't have a double defense period, they hadn't finished the first chapter, and they came together in Draco's room to finish it as a group that evening. Umbridge wanted them to read the second chapter for homework where they would briefly discuss it the next class and read as much of the third chapter in class the next day as possible. They thought it hilarious that Umbridge managed to find works on Potter, making fun of the fact that they now knew that Potter was so obnoxious because he grew up with those muggles.

"It's a shame no one on his father's side was alive." Pansy had said distastefully. "Blood Traitors as they were, they still were aware of pureblood customs and could have brought him up with more sense."

Yes, it had all been very funny, at first. Then, Draco read something that made all of them stop laughing at once, that Harry Potter slept in a cupboard.

Draco had paused. He opened his mouth to speak, and then closed it again. He looked up at his friends, who looked just as stunned.

"Read that over again?" Pansy asked. Draco cleared his throat and reread the line that told them that Harry Potter, Boy Who Lived, slept in a cupboard.

"Potter slept in a cupboard?" grunted Crabbe.

"With spiders..." Blaise shivered. Blaise knew Weasley had a fear of spiders as well, from their third year when Lupin had them work with the bogart. It was the only thing he had in common with the blood traitor, he was not very much a fan of the arachnids. "Maybe he only slept in the cupboard that night. Maybe there's something wrong with his room and that's where he slept while they fixed it."

They all nodded, though none of them really bought it. For one thing, he could sleep on the couch, or the floor, or, Merlin, anywhere else. Plus, that's not what the sentence had implied. Draco rolled his eyes and was about to go back to reading. It wasn't like he liked Potter. He actually found it pretty amusing that the wizarding world's Golden Boy slept in a cupboard, even if just once.

It didn't get much better after that, however. After a page or two, they decided if they were going to get through this chapter, they had to have the same rule Umbridge gave them during class and just not interrupt during the reading of the chapter. That being said, you could see on everyone's faces that this wasn't nearly as funny as they thought it was going to be. Pansy in particular seemed to be having a hard time with it, and began to write notes down like she was in class.

That didn't stop them from flipping out when they found out Potter was going to be locked in the cupboard without meals. Draco didn't know if it was Goyle's stomach that made him react the way he did, but even he had shouted out. And Pansy...

"Those miserable little-" Pansy had to cut herself off and take a deep breath. "How much more is there in this chapter?" she had asked.

"Less than a page." Draco answered.

"Good." Pansy spat. "Because this isn't fun anymore."

But there was this one time when Blaise and Pansy started laughing, and they wouldn't tell Draco why. When they finished the chapter, Draco wasted no time. "What were you two laughing about?"