Chapter 4 - The Phone Call

                                        

                                              
***TRIGGER WARNING FOR PHYSICAL CHILD ABUSE***

                              
The Phone Call
                              
The next two weeks went at a slug-like pace. Harry was getting daily requests from Ron, Hermione, or Mrs. Weasley to come and stay with them the rest of the summer. Each time he turned them down with some bogus reason. He still woke up at his traditional time in the middle of the night and he would not go back to sleep. He was exhausted, but the dreams would not stop. He had not taken out the Sirius's medal or his mother's box since the day he got them. It seemed too painful to even think about. He had stopped eating. Aunt Petunia knew this, but brought the food up anyway and took the uneaten food back with her. He had lost a lot of weight. Dudley's clothes looked even bigger on him.
                              
Uncle Vernon was not at all perturbed by his lack of nutrition. In fact, he seemed more upset that Aunt Petunia kept bringing food that he did not eat. 
                              
"You are just wasting it! I'm not paying for food that he isn't going to eat!" was Uncle Vernon's traditional argument at dinnertime. Aunt Petunia finally bent and only sent up breakfast and lunch, mostly because Uncle Vernon was not home.
                              
He stopped answering the door when anyone would knock and he only sent letters because he did not want anyone to show up thinking something was wrong. The pain in his stomach grew. The food pushed under the door was tempting, but one glance at his Hogwarts chest would shatter that temptation. The pain was distracting. It was that or thoughts of his parents and Sirius. He chose physical pain over mental anguish. 
                              
He was worn out and starved. Most of the time, he slept only because he passed out from a lack of energy. He drank water, which he had to force down. Aunt Petunia was getting worried, but Harry ignored her knocks and pushed his chest of drawers in front of the handle a little when he was in his room. However, pure exhaustion stopped him from pushing completely in front of the door. 
                              
Letters back and forth were empty of meaning. All Ron and Hermione did was ask him to come over now, with the brief exception of asking him how his exams went. He only said ok. Hermione would probably faint if she heard how well he did. She got the Medal of Magical Merit, too. Ron wrote that he did ok, but he was not very forthcoming and did not push Harry for more information either. Harry was worried that Ron did poorly, because they would not be in the same classes.
                              
However, their O.W.L.'s provided a topic of conversation for only a day of two, but the topic of Sirius finally came up after ignoring it for a while and they went back to their traditional letters. 
                              
The day after his birthday, Percy sent him a Daily Prophet with a note that said, "Thought you'd want to see it". It had an article on Sirius.
                              
SIRIUS BLACK INNOCENT
                              
DECLARES MINISTRY
                              
The Minister of Magic made a short announcement last night, that Wizengamot reinvestigated Sirius Black's alleged involvement in the massacre that shook the Magical and Muggle communities alike 15 years ago. "It was a unanimous decision by Wizengamot that he'd be cleared of all crimes. Evidence was collected from a variety of sources to prove Black had no connection to You-Know-Who," said the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. "Also we will be informing the entire wizarding community that one of Black's alleged victims, Peter Pettigrew, is alive and is actually the one responsible for the massacre. Pettigrew was seen alive by many people, including Harry Potter." This announcement shocked many people, for Black was long considered He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named's greatest supporter and as the infamous criminal, who was the first to escape from Azkaban. 
                              
Black, however, was killed a month and a half ago by Bellatrix Lestrange in the Ministry itself, during the break-in when You-Know-Who was sighted. Black came to the Ministry to help save Harry Potter, the boy who lived, and was killed in a duel. The Minister added in a final comment, "Black's sacrifice and his long imprisonment are noteworthy of his character and we are honored to have awarded him the Order of Merlin, First Class." The award was presented to Harry Potter, yesterday. Sirius Black was Harry Potter's godfather.