Chapter 1 - Owls

                                        

                                              
            
                              
Owls
                              
      A boy named Harry Potter stood staring out his window into the dead of the night. This would seem normal for a boy who just could not fall asleep, but for this boy, it was quite usual. He was tall and skinny, and his jet-black hair stood up chaotically on his head. He wore clothes that were too big for him and glasses that had been broken many times. However, what was most unusual about his appearance was a thin, lightening shaped scar on his forehead. A scar that had marked him as a child.
                              
      Lord Voldemort is the reason Harry got the scar. He was the most powerful Dark wizard ever known, and his name alone struck fear into the hearts of people if even mentioned. He had even targeted Harry before he was born. Voldemort found him when he was a baby, came into his home and killed his parents. However, as Voldemort tried to kill Harry, his spell was reflected off Harry and back on to Voldemort. While it left Harry with just a scar, Lord Voldemort was reduced to almost nothing and fled into hiding.
                              
      Afterward, Harry was sent to live with his Muggle, or non-magical, aunt and uncle. For ten years, they never told Harry that he was a wizard or that wizards even existed. On his eleventh birthday, he found out about the wizarding world when he was invited to come to Hogwarts, a renowned magic school. The secret came out, much to his aunt and uncle's dismay, for they despised even the mentioning of anything "unnatural". Their excuse for Harry's absence during his five years at Hogwarts was that they had sent him to St. Brutus's Secure Center for the Incurably Criminal Boys, and the neighborhood treated him as such.
                              
      Harry sat on his bed and let out a breath of exhaustion. He looked over at his desk, with quills and inkbottles scattered all over it, and thought of writing letters to Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger, his best friends. He knew he should write to them, as instructed, but he felt he had nothing left to say. He did not want to talk about Sirius or about Cedric, or anything for that matter. He wanted to forget. All of it. He did not want to visit the graveyard or hear the whispers behind the veil anymore. However, what he was really avoiding was something Ron and Hermione could not know.
                              
      Hermione encouraged him to talk about what happened, and Ron seemed concerned, too. They really did not know what was bothering him. He avoided their questions and concerns with "I'm not ready" and "see you soon" responses. He knew that he would have to tell them eventually, but he also knew that he could avoid them for a while. So, he stuck to his plan and did not give in. If the loss of his godfather, Sirius, and his friend, Cedric, was not enough, he did not want them to know the other thing on his mind. They would not understand.
                              
      Harry spent hours pondering the situation and he was tired of it. He knew it would not just go away, but he could pretend. Harry watched the sky grow brighter as the rays of sun started to shine over the horizon. He had had maybe a couple hours of sleep. It was a typical night for him. Besides, the only sleep he had consisted of nightmares of Lord Voldemort killing his friends and family.  
                              
      Hedwig, his owl, flew into his room with a dead mouse in her beak. She soared gracefully over to her cage and gave Harry a sympathetic look. Harry could tell she was concerned. He walked over to her cage and stroked her a few times. She gave a reproachable hoot and bit his finger affectionately. Harry heard movement as his aunt and uncle got out of bed. He did not bother to say "good morning" to them as they passed his door. He barely left his room, which had been typical for the last five years.  
                              
      Four years ago, Uncle Vernon put bars on his window and a lock and cat flap on his door in an attempt to keep him from returning to Hogwarts. It failed. Ron and his brothers, Fred and George, came and rescued Harry. After that, his aunt and uncle did not try to stop him again.