The Boy Who Couldn't See: Year 2

The Worst Birthday

TW: i reference past abuse quite a bit in this chapter

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Not for the first time, Harry sits across from his uncle and listens with a blank face as he yells about Hedwig.

"Third time this week!" he yells and Harry resists the urge to roll his eyes. "If you can't control that owl, it'll have to go!"

Harry sighs, "She's bored. She's used to flying around outside. If I could just let her out at night —"

"Do I look stupid?" Uncle Vernon snarls. "I know what'll happen if that owl's let out."

"Actually, you do look —"

Thankfully, Harry's idiotic words are drowned out by the sound of Dudley letting out a long, loud belch. Harry's lip curls in disgust.

"I want more bacon," Dudley demands.

"There's more in the frying pan, sweetums," Aunt Petunia says. "We must build you up while we've got the chance. I don't like the sound of that school food..."

"Nonsense, Petunia, I never went hungry when I was at Smeltings," Uncle Vernon says. "Dudley gets enough, don't you, son?"

Harry does roll his eyes this time.

"Pass the frying pan," Dudley says in his direction.

Harry frowns, saying, "You've forgotten the magic word."

And just that one word makes everything explode. Dudley gasps and falls to the floor, Aunt Petunia screams, and Uncle Vernon jumps up so quickly that his chair falls backwards.

"I meant please!" Harry quickly says. "Not —"

"WHAT HAVE I TOLD YOU," Uncle Vernon interrupts him, his spit hitting Harry in the face, "ABOUT SAYING THE 'M' WORD IN OUR HOUSE?"

"I didn't mean —"

"HOW DARE YOU THREATEN DUDLEY!" Uncle Vernon's fist collides with the table.

"I wasn't —"

"I WARNED YOU! I WILL NOT TOLERATE MENTION OF YOUR ABNORMALITY UNDER THIS ROOF!"

Harry sighs quietly, "Okay. All right."

The chaos dies down and Harry shakes his head slightly. This fight, of course, can be prevented from happening again, but Uncle Vernon, as soon as Harry arrived back at the house, had locked all of his possessions away in his old cupboard and padlocked Hedwig's cage shut. Yes, Harry has summer homework, and yes, he needs to practice for Quidditch, and yes, he wants to talk to his friends, but none of that matters to Uncle Vernon. Uncle Vernon couldn't care less, actually. So, Harry is going to go back to school with none of his work done and be complete rubbish at Quidditch and his friends are going to be angry with him for not talking to him. Though, they haven't been sending him letters so perhaps he can be angry with them as well.

This last fact is the most concerning of them all, really, besides Hedwig not being able to stretch her wings or hunt for food. Harry is out of owl treats and he never bothered to buy owl food because owls feed themselves, so he has to sneak some of his own dinner upstairs to feed her so she doesn't drop dead while he sleeps.

Second to that, though, is the fact that Ron and Hermione haven't sent Harry one letter. And he really expected one today! It is his birthday, after all. He's twelve now; it's officially been five years since Harry completely lost his vision. That had been a fun day, July 31, 1987. Of course, his vision couldn't have gone on a different day, no, it had to happen on his birthday. Harry went to bed the night before his seventh birthday able to see light changes and shadows, though he wasn't able to read properly, and woke up on that fateful Friday unable to see what he could the day before. He had completely refused to emerge from his cupboard and had earned three days without food but he had been freaking out too much to care at the time.