Harry Potter and the Gift of Memories [Harry Potter Fan Fiction]

Chapter X: The Beginning of a Journey

 The moment Harry arrived home, he received the very expected summons from his uncle.

“Boy!”

Sighing, Harry made his way into the living room where his uncle sat watching television. Over at the table, Dudley was scarfing down food like it would disappear if he ate too slowly, and Petunia flitted around her son heaping praises on how adorable he looked in his school uniform. It was a sight that Harry only spared a brief glance towards before focusing on Vernon.

“Yes, Uncle Vernon?”

The walrus of a man released a brief grunt, not bothering to look away from the news channel he was watching.

“Spending time at that trollop's house again, were you?”

Harry's fingers twitched as the desire to blast Vernon through a wall for insulting his best friend nearly overpowered him. He resisted, but only just.

The man seemed to be getting bold now that the day for Harry to leave had finally come. Harry could only hope Vernon Dursley would not be completely insufferable during the trip to King's Cross. At the moment, he wasn't all that sure if he could hold himself back from reacting violently. He still felt the keen ache from his goodbye to Lisa.

“What time do you need to leave?”

“As soon as I get packed we can go,” Harry answered.

Vernon grunted. “Then hurry up. I don't have all day. I need to be at work soon.”

Harry nodded, resisting the urge to roll his eyes, and made his way upstairs. As he closed the door to his room, he sank down to the floor using the wall to support his back and sat on his butt.

This day had started off much worse than he had initially expected. Everything was more difficult than he had assumed it would be. He had known that leaving his best friend would be hard, but he hadn't been prepared for how much it would hurt. His emotions felt raw, as if someone had peeled his carefully crafted defenses and then poured the proverbial salt over his open wounds. It was so bad that he had very nearly used his magic on his Uncle, something he had not done since he was seven.

Needing a moment to center himself, Harry forced himself to go through some light breathing exercises. It would not do for him to be an emotional wreck when he arrived at the Hogwarts Express. He needed to present an image of strength. He could ill afford to be seen as weak.

Thankfully, he had grown accustomed to meditating and didn't need much time to clear his mind and regain control over his emotions. It only took five minutes at the most, though it was the longest five minutes of his life.

His eyes were forced open when a pair of clawed feet landed on his left knee and a hoot garnered his attention.

“Hey, Hedwig.” Harry softly stroked the snowy owl's feathers.

Hedwig gave him a hoot of concern, amber eyes staring into his green ones.

“I'm fine,” he reassured her, only to yelp when she nipped his fingers hard enough to draw blood. “Ok, I'm not fine,” he admitted with a sigh. “But I'll get over it, so you don't need to worry.”

His reassuring smile didn't seem to work on the strange bird. Hedwig gave him a deadpanned look that somehow seemed to say 'it's when you tell me not to worry that I worry the most.'

Harry shook his head ruefully. He still wasn't sure how he could understand Hedwig so well, or how she seemed to understand him so perfectly. It was almost like they were reading each other's minds. Whatever the case was, Harry planned on looking up any information pertaining to their situation when he got to Hogwarts.