Beginnings - Harry Potter Fanficiton

Chapter 1

"Bye, dad!" I shout as I walk out the door, "I'll see you tonight!"

"Have a good day at school! Chinese food tonight!" Dad shouts back as I close the door behind me. I do a small act of celebration ("Yes!") as I walk down the driveway and begin to head down Privet Drive towards Jaden's house.

As I look forward, I can already see that he's outside waiting for me. "You're late," he calls out, looking unimpressed.

I smile sheepishly and shrug, "You know how it is."

He snorts, he definitely does not know how it is.

The two of us walk in pleasant silence as we walk down the street. Privet Drive is just another suburb street; every house looks the same with it's perfectly tended lawn and blooming garden. I can think of a lot of people who would hate how every house is so similar but it brings a small semblance of home with each house I look at.

I notice disdainfully that Dudley, my cousin, is walking with his gang of friends on the other side of the road. Dudley's gang consists of two types of people; overweight boys like Dudley who hold down their victims and skinny gangly boys like Piers Polkiss who kick the victim once they can't move.

My family and Dudley's family have never been really close. Of course, my family is just my dad and I - my Aunt Petunia is my mom's sister. I'm not really sure why our families have never gotten along but my dad said it's always been that way, even before mom died. Aunt Petunia had apparently hated how 'special' my mom was, whatever that means. Whenever I'd ask my dad what made her special he would just look distracted and change the subject.

I turned back to Jaden. "How was your weekend?"

"Eh," Jaden shrugged, "Same old, same old. My mom got me the new Super Mario Bros game so I spent most of my time playing it."

I was a little confused - Jaden always invited me over when he got new games. I didn't question it though, I know his parents have been fighting a lot and it's been hard on him. "Nice, I've heard it's got great reviews."

"Yeah, I believe it," he said, trailing off. He didn't really sound all that interested in the conversation at hand. "You excited for summer?"

I smiled; summer was always the best time of year. Fun road trips, crazy escapades - one adventure after another. "Yeah, for sure. Have your parents said anything about you being allowed to come to Glasgow with us?"

"Yeah, they said I could, thank god," Jaden said, grinning from ear to ear. It was nice to see him this happy - quite frequently I would notice the smile on his face drop when he thought nobody was looking. "I'm really looking forward to it. When do we leave?"

I tried to recall the date, and it reminded me of the conversation I had with my dad about it. He had seemed hesitant and almost kind of sad. Before answering, he had said, "Wow, you'll be turning 11 already this year, won't you?"

Of course, he knew my age. That was why it was so curious. It's not like I'm getting my driver's license or anything - although I guess I will be going into secondary school after this summer. I answered Jaden after a moment of silence: "I believe the 9th or 10th? I'm not totally sure but I'll ask my dad tonight."

Jaden nodded and we walked in silence for a few minutes, simply enjoying each other's company. When they made it to school - it really wasn't very far from their homes on Privet Drive - they parted to find their lockers, hidden somewhere deep within the halls of Kingsway Public School.

The day was overall uninteresting - but it almost always was at this time of year. With summer so close, everyone wanted to do nothing except to finish as soon as they could. There were only three days left of the term and there was really no reason to go to school anymore at all. My dad always stresses the importance of always going - "You never know what great moments you might miss!" he always says, looking wistfully off in the distance.