The year that changed it all

Summer

Harry's POV

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It's only been a week since I have gone back to live with the Dursley's but it feels like it has been a month.

On the first day back, I was ordered to make the dinner as soon as I walked through the door. I was already exhausted since they once again didn't bother to pick me up from the station. I had to walk for quite a while before catching the night bus for the last stretch.

I quickly put my trunk away in my room and went downstairs to cook. I didn't complain because I knew that I would only get a worse punishment than I was already guaranteed to get. I stood there at the stove in the kitchen, I was making whatever the Dursley's wanted and what they wanted was steak, mashed potatoes, carrots, and broccoli. I also made a gravy since they always complain that there is no gravy. I stood there while tending to the steak that was being cooked. My mind wandered and I was thinking about all the events that happened this year at Hogwarts.

I was pulled from my thoughts at the smell of burning. The steak was being burnt. It was nearing dinner time so I didn't have any time to cook a new one. I decided to just try and cut off the burnt bits and serve the steak with the nice side facing up.

I served the food on the table that I had previously covered neatly with knives, forks, plates, and glasses. As I was walking away from the table to go back to my room as always, I heard Vernon...

"What is this boy?!" He screamed at me.

I knew what he was talking about but I pretended that I knew nothing about the steak's condition and I gave him a questioning look. He then stood up from the table, grabbed me by my arm in such a tight grip that it left a mark. He dragged me up stairs into Dudley's second room which is now mine. He pushed me onto the floor and started at me.

(Warning, Abuse starts)

He punched my face until he heard my nose crack. He then moved onto my chest. Ramming his sausage fingers and fists into my ribs until he heard another crack. He stood up and looked at me like I was some sort of road kill that he had just stepped in.

(Abuse ends)

"No food for a week!" He shouted at me and I could see balls of spit flying out of his mouth.

He slammed the door and left back to the table. I could hear the loud thuds on the stairs as he went down them.

I just lay there on the floor not being able to move much. I wish I could use magic to heal my wounds but I'm not allowed to do magic outside of school.

It has now been a few days since then. I feel a bit better and I just want to get away from the Dursleys so I'm heading over to the old playground. When I get to the playground I decide to sit on the swing as the rest of the children are all on the merry-go-round. I read through the newspaper but mainly I am lost in thought. That is until none other than my very 'kind' and 'loving' cousin Dudley appears before me with his pathetic gang of thugs.

He starts insulting me, making fun of the way I talk in my sleep due to the nightmares I have.

"Don't kill Cedric!" He says.

"Who's Cedric, your boyfriend?" He laughs at me with his friends laughing behind him.

This makes me angry, it not only reminds me of Cedric, someone who helped me and lost their life trying to save me, but it also angered me because Cedric was not my boyfriend. Draco was, and I didn't want anyone to joke about that.