Revised Chapter 1

The Heart Bond
Version 3.0
By: Jay T. Prorter

It was a dreary, fog filled day on Privet drive, and the raven-haired boy with the jagged scar on his forehead was matching it perfectly. He had been laying in his bed staring into the white eternity of the ceiling, for the two days since he’d returned home to the Dursleys. Although he had yet to come down when he was called there had been no repercussions as there usually would have been. His Aunt and Uncle instead had taken to ignoring him ever since their run in with Mad-Eye at the train station. If it was out of fear for interacting with more people like him, or just a new form of neglect they were trying, Harry didn’t care.
These past few weeks had been the worst in his entire life, worse even than the day he saw Cedric get killed. His mind was plagued with the memories of that horrible night at the Department of Mysteries. Only two weeks ago he not only saw many of his closest friends get severely injured he witnessed his godfather being murdered at the wand of Bellatrix Lestrange. And although Hermione and the others had told him time and time again, he was still blaming himself for involving all the people he loved and cared for, for almost getting them killed, and for Sirius getting murdered. Harry had gone down to the Ministry thinking he was going to save him; instead he fell into a trap and led his godfather to his death.
He slammed his fist into his mattress in frustration. “It just isn’t fair! I was going to live with him. We were going to be a family!” He screamed hoarsely into his pillow for the hundredth time that day, hunger and exhaustion making him dizzy. He rolled onto his back as he watched the ceiling start to spin in several colours of black and silver. He closed his eyes to try and make it stop but it just kept going, spiralling tighter and tighter together until it was a whizzing blur of silver until all of a sudden it morphed into a small glass box filled with what looked like mercury. Harry’s eyes shot open, startled by the little box. It hadn’t been the first time it had occurred in the past few days. It seemed that every time he tried to shut his eyes he was either haunted by the shocked look on his uncle’s face as he fell into the veil, or this odd little glass box. He never managed to see more of it than just the small glimpse and moments later even that faded from his memory as if he had never even thought of it.
Harry sighed, rubbing his bloodshot eyes as he propped himself up against the bed and looked out the mist covered window. The same senseless grey mass of fog was hanging outside of his window just as it had been since he came home. Everything seemed to be pressing down on him from every direction, the room was beginning to make him claustrophobic, yet he was too weak from lack of sleep and food to go anywhere. And even if he could, where would he go? He thought to himself as he stroked Hedwig’s soft white feathers. The Weasley’s certainly wouldn’t want him to stay with after putting both Ron and Ginny in so much danger, and Hermione had already headed to her own home to recuperate from her injuries. Harry began to panic again as he worked down the list, he really did have nowhere to go. If something were to happen he would be alone, perhaps he could go stay at Hogwarts? Even in his delirious state he tossed the thought out the moment it came him, imagining what spending the summer with Snape would be like.
Harry continued to stare out the window, following the small beads of water as they worked their way down the windowsill. His eyes began to droop again as exhaustion swept over him once again. Trumping his worry about whom he would stay with, Harry lay back down in his bed to another seemingly endless dream of Sirius falling.
Harry woke the next morning to the continuing gloom of thick grey fog, he stood up from the bed wincing from the injuries he’d gotten from the fight in the Department of Mysteries. They weren’t serious, just enough small cuts to remind him of the fight. Harry flicked on the light in the bathroom, the mirror reflecting his grief stricken, emaciated face. His resemblance to what Sirius looked like in the cave not two years ago was startling. He now saw the same desperation and sorrow from Sirius’ face reflected in his own.
He splashed some water over his face and brushed his hair back some. Because he wasn’t allowed to use magic outside of school he hadn’t been able to shave in three days so a rather mangy beard was starting to form. He rubbed his scar absentmindedly, since the time Voldemort had entered his mind he hadn’t felt any of the usual pricks or tingles that he was now accustomed to. Harry assumed that it didn’t have anything to do with what he was doing, but was because Tom felt the pain during his little foray into Harry’s mind too. One less thing for me to worry about I guess, Harry thought as he flicked the light off and went back to his room.
He lay in his bed for the rest of the day; doing the same thing he did the day before, and the one before that. As the rest of the world passed by Harry attempted to make heads or tails of what had happened in the past weeks. While the deaths and events at the Department of Mysteries were shocking enough, the words of the prophecy echoed in his head seemingly gaining strength the more he attempted to ignore them. The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… but what power do I have. If Dumbledore can’t even scratch him how am I supposed to kill him? Harry thought to himself, more and more anxiety building as the true weight of this obligation began to take shape.
As the days went by he began to fill scrolls and scrolls with chunks of the prophecy, sometimes in order, sometimes barely legible. He didn’t know exactly what he was doing as he scribbled fiercely but his hand continued to spell out the foreboding paragraph over and over again. By his fifth day back home Harry had been reduced to a sliver of his old self, only this time it was not caused by any direct abuse from the Dursleys, in-fact they seemed to be quite content with Harry’s apparent desire to starve himself to death. This was not entirely true however, Harry didn’t want to starve, he didn’t even want to be hungry. He was eating occasionally; thankfully he still had some of the snacks he’d bought on the train back, yet most of the time it refused to stay down. While surviving on almost nothing was certainly taking its toll on him, he felt no concern, nothing could be worse than what he put Sirius through.

A week into his self-imposed imprisonment the storm broke, literally, outside the sun was shining brightly for the first time since he arrived back home. Even though he was still severely depressed Harry couldn’t help but let his spirits lift slightly at the sight of Hedwig gliding happily about in the summer’s air. Outside everything seemed hyper-realistic, every leaf was the most vibrant green and the pavement of the road the deepest black. Although it was finally nice once again Harry felt as if he were a spectator, only viewing from his little white window, not close enough to touch or experience the life outside. As he continued to stare morosely out his window he noticed a grey spot materialize on the horizon, one that he soon recognized to be that of an owl. He opened the window to let the ash-grey owl into the room. Harry assumed that it was from one of his friends, probably writing to tell him how sorry they were, or how it wasn’t his fault. Unfurling the scroll just a little confirmed his hunch, and, in no mood to read Hermione’s explanations of condolences, tossed it on the desk. The owl gave him a disapproving glare and hopped out of the window after taking an owl snack from Hedwig’s cage.
This same thing carried on for several days, the letters becoming more frequent, and not only from Hermione, but from Ron, Ginny, Neville, and even Luna. In the back of his mind he occasionally thought that perhaps he should write something, just show them he was still alive, but then the thought of having to explain his feelings to someone resulted in him tossing the whole lot into his school trunk. If they want to know how I am they can come and get me. He thought to himself clamping the latch down on his trunk and sinking back onto his bed. This very thing happened just a week after that very wish entered Harry’s head.

Aunt Petunia had occasionally checked in on Harry over the past week and a half under the premise of trying to “find one of Dudder’s toys.” Each time Harry would just stay in the same place on his bed, ignoring his Aunt’s staged search for the imaginary toy. She doesn’t care if I don’t eat; I bet she just doesn’t want me to die on the linens. He thought to himself sourly. So, the next time Harry heard a knock on the door he assumed it was Petunia just coming in to make sure that he had not vomited on the rug, or somehow turned the room into his wizard’s shanty; although it was late at night, nearly eleven, he wouldn’t have put it past her to try and catch him doing magic or whatever other evils they imagined him capable of.
Outside his door he heard a loud commotion going on between three people, two he knew to be his Aunt and Uncle, and the third was oddly familiar. Although it sounded as if they were just outside his room he was only able to make out parts of the conversation due to the overlapping voices in the argument.
“You can do no such-!”
“I can and I am…just try and…”
“I’ll call the police….”
“And tell them what?”
“Just put it down...”
“…Keep that away from…”
“YOU HAVE NO DAMN…”
“Step back if…”
BANG! The door burst open in a blast of smoke and light, in its place appeared the shimmering white light of a wand and the face of its owner, Remus Lupin.
“Professor! What’s going-” Harry said hoarsely, jumping out of bed to meet him.
“Harry, hurry! We don’t have much time I’m afraid, we need to get to the safe house.” Moony said, stopping him mid-sentence. He flipped the room’s light on and began to move towards his trunk.
“THAT’S IT I’M CALLING THE POLICE. YOU CANNOT JUST BLOW UP WHATEVER YOU FANCY. YOU HAVE NO BLOODY FUCKING RIGHT!!!” Vernon shouted, his face a shade of red even Harry had never seen. Although adamant in his statement it was lessened some in his refusal to come within twenty feet of the wizard.
“Silencio!” Moody said, pointing his wand at a rather shocked Uncle Vernon. Petunia and Dudley peeked out nervously from the corner of the hallway, not daring to go face to face with the wizard.
Harry frowned at the current course of events, “Professor, what the bloody hell is going on? Is everything okay? Voldemort isn’t…”
“Shhh,” Moony once again cut him off as he grabbed Harry’s broom and cloak from the closet, minimizing them along with the trunk, and stuffing them in his cloak. “Grab Hedwig’s cage, we might not be able to come and get it. And make sure you have your wand out.”
Harry grabbed the cage and when he turned back around saw Lupin already halfway out of his room, pushing past the mute Uncle. He rushed to catch up with him, skilfully ducking a punch Uncle Vernon had thrown. They rushed down staircase, not even acknowledging his aunt and cousin on the way down. They burst out the front door of the house and were immediately joined by several wizards, all of whom moved with speed and skill. As they continued to walk briskly down the street Lupin talked to one of the wizards. “Are you sure that this is a valid threat, what we’ve just done broke nearly a dozen Muggle Wizard Relations acts. We’ve had false alarms before.”
“I am positive about this one Remus, it came from Tobias who is stationed in Knockturn Alley. He managed to intercept part of a conversation between Pettigrew and some other Death Eater.”
“Hold on, you’ve seen Wormtail? Why didn’t you capture him, he has enough information to stop more than one attack! He knows where Voldemort is…” Harry said, struggling to keep up with the ever-quickening pace of the group due to his current state.
Lupin looked over his shoulder, “Harry we had to let him go so we can follow him without suspicions being raised. He’s already led us to dozens of people who we have now confirmed to be Death Eaters. I know you want to punish him, Merlin knows I want the same thing, but his time will come.” He gave Harry a weak smile and turned back to the wizard to his left, “We’re far enough away now Ashe, you stay here to watch for signs of an attack we’ll meet you later at headquarters.”
Then man gave him a quick nod and popped out of sight, Lupin didn’t say a thing just held out his arm. Harry instinctively took a hold of it and waited tensely, he’d never apparated before and was nervous after hearing so many horror stories about it passed around the Gryffindor commons. Lupin looked at him and winked. Instantly Harry felt as if the top of his head was being sucked through a very thin pipe, maybe even a straw. The sensation grew stronger and began to travel down his body until it felt as if he’d been turned into spaghetti. As soon as it happened, however, it was over and Harry collapsed to the pavement gasping for breath.
“Blimey Professor, you could warn me next time!”
Lupin smiled and held out his hand to help Harry back up, “Sorry Harry, I forgot that you hadn’t apparated yet, you’ll get used to it soon enough however. First things first though, I have not been your professor for nearly three years now so I do not see it necessary for you to call me that.”
“Oh, right… sorry about that. Habit I guess. What can I call you then?”
“Why not Moony? It’s simple and it’s nice to have a reminder of simpler times,” Lupin said smiling.
“Okay, well Moony, where exactly are we and why are we here?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t guessed yet, we’re going to Order Headquarters, it’s just about half a mile away. We apparate at this old playground to give us some cover and so we can’t be followed as easily.” Moony started to walk and talk, following a small path through the overgrown park. “We had to get you out of Privet Drive as soon as possible. As you heard we had a tip that Voldemort was planning to attack your neighbourhood sometime in the next twenty-four hours. While we know he couldn’t directly harm you there we felt it wouldn’t be prudent to leave you all alone. On Dumbledore’s orders we extracted you, seems like you’ll be spending the rest of summer here.”
Harry was speechless; so much had happened in such a short amount of time that he didn’t exactly know how to feel about the whole thing. He just mutely followed Lupin the rest of the way down the path and up to Grimmauld Place. His stomach turned over when he saw the gaudy pewter knockers and the inscription over the doorway, Tojours Pur. He hadn’t thought about what it would be like to come back to Sirius’ home so soon after what had happened.
Lupin knocked on the door several times until a shout of recognition came from inside. “Listen Harry, I can’t imagine how hard this is for you but I just want you to know that we’re all going to be here for you. Whatever you need, even if you just want to talk, I’ll be there.”
Harry nodded dumbly, his vision narrowing as a wave of grief began to come over him, he probably would have started to cry if it weren’t for the door opening and Tonks rushing out to hug him.
“Blimey Harry! Am I glad to see ya, felt like its been years. Come on, come on, lets get inside, Alastor and I just got back from a mission and were having lunch. I assume everything went well Remus, you got to him in time?” She ushered them inside, looking both ways furtively before closing the door shut and locking it securely.
“Oh yes Tonks, everything went fine, I left Ashe and the others to keep an eye on the place for a while. Figure if anything happens we might at least be able to snag a few men.”
“Merlin knows we wouldn’t be allowed to keep them. Hell, the way Fudge has been running the Ministry lately; he’d probably give them a pardon and throw us in Azkaban for undermining his authority or some rubbish like that. Oy Moody, Remus and Harry are here!” She shouted as she rounded the corner into the kitchen. A moment later the massive magic-eyed Auror appeared in the hall.
“What have those Dursley folks been doin’ to you now Potter. I thought my little speech would have taught them a lesson. Doesn’t matter now does it though, you’re here now, for a while at least.” He said laughing gruffly.
“Alrigh’ Harry, Remus, sit down, sit down! Let’s get some food into you too. Now I don’t know much about cooking but I think we’ll manage, I’ve already got some things cut up in the pot for a stew.” Tonks waved her wand at the hearth muttering “incendio” rather enthusiastically. Instead of the wood catching however the cauldron exploded tossing bits of beef and carrot all over the room.
Thankfully, for Harry and Lupin at least, Moody had been blocking their direct view of the cauldron at the time so they were mostly saved. Mad-Eye however had felt the full force of the explosion and was now covered head to toe in the cold makings of Tonks’ stew.
She didn’t miss a step, just muttered “blimey” under her breath as she waved her wand for the second time cleaning up the room and Moody. “Oh well, why don’t we just stick with bread and cheese? Never hurt anyone did it.”
Lupin stood up grabbing a pot and some supplies from a cupboard. “If you don’t mind Tonks I’d like to try making some pasta. I’ve had to cook for myself for years, plus Harry looks half starved. You can help me if you want?” Tonks, enthusiastic as ever, helped Lupin fill the pot and make the red sauce.
Dinner that night was a rather subdued affair too, actually it was just another serving of pasta, this time cooked entirely by a rather proud Tonks. As the four were finishing up their meals a rather harried face came out of the fire.
“Lupin, its Ashe, the Death Eaters attacked Privet Drive just a few minutes ago. From what we could tell there were only five of them, when we surprised them three of them disapparated immediately, the two others stayed to fight. They managed to break down the front door and punch a large hole through the kitchen before we could stop them. We’ve sent both of them to Auror headquarters, I told them to hold them in detainment there rather than at Azkaban, due to the escapes and all.”
“Great work Ashe, Albus and I shall probably go down and interrogate them tomorrow morning. Is everyone okay, no one saw anything I hope?”
“There were a few park dwellers who saw some rather major damage occur to the house as if by magic, we obliviated them and made it seem like it was a gas leak. The large man at the house was wounded; he was in the kitchen at the time, not much surprise there judging by his size…anyway, he lost his large toe due to some shrapnel. We couldn’t find the toe so we’ve just had to do with obliviating him and making the whole family believe it was a gas line explosion too.”
“Okay, thanks Ashe. Oh, and don’t forget we have a meeting next week to discuss school security” Lupin said. Ashe nodded and disappeared in a flash. He turned up to face Harry. “Well Harry, the headmaster told me that we should keep you here if there was any form of attack on your house. Seeing as that has happened it seems that you will indeed be staying here the rest of the summer. I know it’s not the place you’d want to be, but you and I can work on cleaning up a room for you to stay in okay?”
Harry nodded sadly; just now the true recognition that he would have to stay at sirius’ house was setting in. This was the awful place that he had been practically imprisoned in, with no one to keep him company but Buckbeak and Kreacher.
“Kreacher…” Harry growled, his anger swelling up, remembering the house elf’s role in the events that occurred that night. “…where is he Moony?”
Lupin’s face paled, “Well Harry, after hearing what that he had betrayed you, and was willingly aiding Voldemort, Dumbledore disposed of him. He was quite averse to the idea but there was no other choice; he knew too much to be freed and was too much of a threat to us to be kept around. We had made the decision to send him to a high security detention cell that is top secret. When we came to retrieve him however it tried to attack the Headmaster with an ancient pair of very poisonous snake fangs. Dumbledore was forced to defend himself and in the process ended up killing him.”
Harry just shrugged, “glad he got to him before I did.”

The following day Harry went about unpacking his rather hastily gathered items from his escape yesterday; Hedwig had arrived at headquarters later the night before and was now tucked safely inside its cage. Lupin had flooed to the Ministry of Magic early in the morning to meet up with Dumbledore and interrogate the captured Death Eaters so Harry was left alone with Tonks. He started to unpack his trunk, pulling out the piles of clothes that had been shoved in there, along with the various textbooks. About halfway down he came upon the stack of letters that he’d tossed in there earlier in the week and forgotten about. You don’t have to reply; you could at least just read them. There isn’t much else to do here unless I want to help Tonks watch the patrol maps. He thought to himself, then finally decided to open at least the top one.
He tore open the envelope from Hermione and sat down on the corner of the bed.

Harry,
I’m so sorry that this had to happen to you on top of everything. Even though you’re saying you’re alright I know you too well, you aren’t. You’re probably blaming yourself for Sirius’ death. It wasn’t your fault; it’s no one’s but Bellatrix and Voldemort’s. Please promise me you’ll forgive yourself for everything including taking us there. We followed you there, you didn’t force us, we’re your friends and we wanted to help. You know we’d all do anything to help you even if it is dangerous. Don’t forget your friends in these times Harry. You and Ron are like my family, and I hope you think that about me.
Love,
Hermione

Harry sighed, no surprises there. He set that one aside and opened up the next letter, he could tell this one was from Ron due to its chaotic almost unreadable scribble.

Harry,
How are the muggles, I hope they’re feeding you better than last year. If not I’ll go over there and give them a piece of my mind! The Cannons are finally winning again after their 5-year losing streak. They beat Ireland 250-130!
Do you know when you can stay with us again? I’ve been asking Dumbledore but he won’t say, just something like ‘all in due time’ Write me if your troll of a cousin is giving you any trouble, Fred and George have some new products to test. Their store is a huge hit, even Mum thinks it was a great idea to start it up now.
See you soon (hopefully),
Ron

P.S. Those weird tentacle things’ marks have finally gone, we’re still not exactly sure what they did.

Harry smiled briefly at the Ron’s fidelity with his Quidditch team; maybe it finally would pay off this year. He was about to reach for the next letter when he heard Tonks call for him form downstairs.
“Harry! Come on down, I made lunch, well tried to at least!”
Harry tossed the letters on his bed and headed downstairs to find out what part of the house Tonks had nearly burned down this time.