Here's the second installment of my A Look Back series! A Look Back: The Chamber of Secrets! You don't necessarily have to read the first one to understand this. It can be a stand-alone, but reading the first one will give you some context, as this one picks up right where the last one left off!

Alright! Here we go on our second journey! I hope all of you like this one as much as you liked the first!

"What could be more exciting than meeting Voldemort, nearly being killed, and being in a coma for three days?" Sirius asked, looking a little like he didn't want to know. "That seems to be more than exciting enough."

"For Harry?" Fred asked. "Of course not. That may be more than exciting enough for some people, but not him."

Sirius groaned and turned to his godson. "You know, your dad loved excitement too. But he didn't nearly get himself killed his first year. But I suppose, as long as you didn't nearly die this year too…?" he asked, trailing off hopefully.

There was an awkward silence as Harry looked around at Ron and Hermione, and then over to Ginny. All of them knew that… well, he'd come even closer to death second year. If it hadn't been for Fawkes, after all…

Sirius finally shook his head and began rubbing at his temples in an imitation of Remus. "Alright, if I'm not getting an answer I guess it's best to just keep plowing on through the story. Why don't you start with how your summer was? Hopefully your relatives… no, those terrible excuses for human beings you were forced to live with were more decent to you?"

There was another awkward pause. Harry didn't exactly want to speak up and tell everyone- or more specifically Sirius- about how that summer had been. But he knew he had no choice, as he'd promised to tell everything exactly as it was.

"Well, I could say that. But I figure you wouldn't want me to lie to you," Harry said. "I'd like to be able to say that was true, but it isn't. If anything, that summer was worse than ever before."

"Worse? Worse how?" Sirius asked angrily.

"It wasn't so much that they treated me worse that was the worst part. Although they certainly were… less fond of me. It was just that I knew all about Hogwarts and how great it was and how much I missed everything to do with it. Well, everything except Snape. And I was stuck there at Privet Drive with no link to that whole world that I was a part of. The only link I had was Hedwig, but she was locked in her cage at all times."

"They kept Hedwig locked in her cage?" Ginny asked, sounding furious. "What would they do that for?"

"They figured that I'd use her to send messages to all my freaky friends, and they weren't about to let that happen."

"But that's… that's cruel! Keeping in animal locked up in such a small cage day after day!" Ginny exclaimed. Hermione nodded too, a frown on her face.

"Believe me, I know. Hedwig didn't like it at all," Harry said. "She would screech a lot. And Uncle Vernon didn't appreciate that, either."

"It's his own fault for not letting her out at all," Hermione said indignantly.

"I told him that. She was bored, and she needed to be let out at night. But he didn't care. He just threatened to get rid of her," Harry said.

"Oh, he wouldn't dare," Sirius said, eyes narrowing dangerously.

"I don't think it was much more than an empty threat," Harry said. "If we could take a moment to remember, my uncle is very good at those. He was probably just still afraid that I'd get Hagrid to come back and turn Dud into an actual pig."

A few people snorted, Sirius included. "Still," he said after a second, "they better not take any of your things away from you." Harry made a face at that, causing Sirius's still amused expression to fade. "What?" he asked, a darker look already forming on his face.

"Well," Harry said, carefully approaching what he was going to say. "They didn't technically take my stuff away. They just… didn't let me have it either."

"What do you mean didn't let you have it?" Sirius asked, gripping the arm of his chair very tightly.

"They kind of… took all my wizarding stuff and locked it in my old bedroom under the stairs," Harry said gently. It didn't quite spare Sirius's reaction, however.

"They locked your things away? How dare they do that! They took everything from you?" he said angrily, half rising from his seat.

"Sirius, stop," Harry said, shaking his head and attempting to calm his godfather down. "This was three years ago, okay? I've got all my stuff now and I'm fine, alright?"

Sirius stopped and sat back again, looking a little sheepish as he always did when he got angry enough to have an outburst.

"We're all angry at how Harry's relatives treated him, Padfoot," Remus said, "but we can't go getting ourselves into any trouble because of it."

Sirius nodded, still looking a little bit sour. "Continue, Harry."

"Right. Anyway, that was part of why that summer wasn't any fun. There was also the fact that I didn't hear from anyone, too. Not a word. No letters, no messages, nothing."

"No one sent you anything? But Ron and Hermione surely…" Sirius said, looking over to the two he'd mentioned.

"I didn't get anything," Harry said again. A few accusatory glances were sent Ron and Hermione's way, and Harry kept talking, eager to get through this portion of the story. "In fact, I'd been back exactly a month and nothing. I remember that day because not only did it particularly memorable because of a few… events, it was also my birthday."

"I don't suppose particularly memorable means that you had a great birthday party and lots of cake and a few nice gifts, would it?" Mrs. Weasley asked hopefully.

"Of course not!" Harry said, laughing. "In fact, they clean forgot about my birthday. Well, at least my aunt and uncle did."

"You can't be saying Dudley actually remembered?" Ron said, looking surprised.

"Well, for a minute I'd almost thought that my uncle had remembered. We were eating breakfast and he was particularly angry because I'd said the word 'magic'. I was only saying 'you forgot the magic word' because Dudley hadn't said please when he asked me to pass him the bacon. But Uncle Vernon freaked out and shouted about my 'abnormality' some before he settled down," Harry said, slightly amused at how easy it had been to set his uncle off.

"Abnormality," Sirius muttered contemptuously, shaking his head slightly. Harry ignored it.

"Uncle Vernon then said something like 'we all know today is a very special day'. And then he went on to talk about how he was having a few clients over for a business dinner."

"Of course. He cares more about making his money than about you," Hermione said scathingly.

"Oh, he definitely does," Harry said, causing a few other people to look slightly disgusted. "Of course, then they started going over this ridiculous schedule of where everyone would be and what they'd be doing. Aunt Petunia would be waiting to graciously welcome them and Dudley would take their coats. She'd usher them into the lounge and Dudley would offer his arm. And every time my uncle asked me what I'd be doing, I'd just say 'I'll be in my room, making no noise and pretending I'm not there'."

"That's a fine way to spend your birthday, pretending you don't exist," Remus said, a little forced smile on his face.

"It wouldn't have been that bad," Harry said, ignoring most of the upset looks sent his way. "In fact, that probably would have been better than what actually happened."

"What did happen?" Sirius asked.

"Well, my uncle told me to stay out of my aunt's way while she was cleaning, so I went out to the back garden. And like always, I started thinking about Hogwarts and how I missed everything, and especially everyone. And I started thinking about Voldemort. I'd just been staring at this bush while I was thinking, not really paying attention. But I realized that the bush was staring back at me," Harry said.

"Wait, the bush was looking at you?" Fred asked.

"Has dear Harry gone slightly mad being cooped up with his relatives at this point?" George added gently.

Harry rolled his eyes. "No, I wasn't going crazy. Although that probably isn't such a bad guess. Either way, the bush was staring at me. There were big green eyes peering through it and looking at me."

"What was watching you?" Ginny asked, eyes wide.

Ron suddenly nodded his head, smiling. Harry figured he's understood what had been watching had been none other than Dobby the House Elf.

"Well, I would have gone to investigate, but Dudley came outside just then. He said he knew it was my birthday and he asked me why I didn't have any gifts or letters from any of my friends from that freak place," Harry said, shaking his head again.

"Your cousin never gives up, does he?" George asked, sounding irritated for once. Harry laughed.

"No, he doesn't. He asked me then why I was staring at the hedge, and I told him I was trying to decide which spell would be best to set it on fire."

The Twins both snorted. "I bet he loved that."

"Oh, he definitely did. He started blubbering and saying that I wasn't allowed. So I started saying random things like 'hocus pocus' and 'jiggly wiggly' or some other made up things to scare him. And it worked, too. Because he ran inside to tell Aunt Petunia that I was doing magic."

"But you can't do magic outside of Hogwarts!" Ginny exclaimed. "Wouldn't your aunt know that?"

"Well, she knew I didn't actually do anything, because both Dudley and that bush were perfectly intact. But she still tried to hit me with a frying pan she was washing and then set me a very long list of chores to do outside."

"She tried to hit you with a frying pan?" Hermione asked, looking upset.

"Yeah, but I ducked," Harry said, shrugging. He didn't really want to tell everyone the next few things, but he knew he had to, so he just talked quicker to get through it all. "Anyway, I spent the rest of the day doing chores. Cutting the grass, tending to the flowerbeds, spreading manure, painting the bench, washing the car, the windows and a bunch of other stuff. Those are the ones I can remember that I did, but I know there was more. Though I do remember Dudley sitting around and eating ice cream while he watched me. And how tired I was when I finally came inside. It was around half seven, I think. Aunt Petunia gave me dinner- a slice of bread and a lump of cheese- and then ushered me upstairs just as the doorbell was ringing and Uncle Vernon's clients got there."

"All of that on your twelfth birthday?" Mrs. Weasley asked quietly after a few seconds of silence. "That's horrible."

"It wasn't very pleasant, no. But again, it's all over and done now. And this is how many times now that I've had to remind you all of that throughout this whole thing?" Harry said. He looked around at everyone, eyebrows raised. They all seemed to try to take the shocked and angry expressions off of their faces as his glare hit them, but most of them just succeeded in looking less surprised and more upset. Harry rolled his eyes. Again. "And of course, I'm fine now. It wasn't that bad."

"You play down everything that happened so much," Sirius said, shaking his head and looking grim. "They make you do all of that stuff and work you so much, then give you so little food. That's not acceptable. My godson- Lily and James's son shouldn't have to deal with that."

"And just weeks after you'd faced Voldemort and nearly died, as well," Remus said, looking just as sour as the rest of them.

Harry sighed again, becoming slightly. "So the Dursleys weren't always fair to me. But you all wanted me to tell you about what's happened. And Sirius, you made it very clear that I wasn't to skip anything, including what happened at Privet Drive. But honestly, that stuff isn't anything compared to what happened with Voldemort at school, is it? I had to do a day of chores on my birthday or I got a bad supper. But as we've established by now, I've had worse than that. So can we please just not make such a huge deal out of it all? Going back on all this stuff in such fine detail isn't exactly the easiest thing I've ever done, or the most pleasant."

A few people were looking slightly abashed, others a bit sad. But most of them nodded solemnly.

"I'm sorry, Harry," Sirius said gruffly after a few seconds. "But you do have to realize, learning all of this isn't easy either. How you came into danger and nearly died, and then had a hard enough time at your relative's home on top of everything else."

Harry nodded as well, realizing his godfather was likely true. It was silent in the room for a minute as everyone reflected on everything that had happened so far, attempting to see things from the other's point of view. At least, until Hermione spoke up.

"Maybe… maybe we should take a break from this," she said slowly. She turned a little bit pink as all eyes turned towards her. "It's just, it's getting late anyways. And we'd all probably be calmed down a little bit in the morning."

"Hermione's right," Remus said. "It would do us some good to get some rest. We'd be able to come at this with a clearer head."

"Of course, look at the time," Mrs. Weasley said, standing up. "Ginny, dear, you should have gone to bed an hour ago!"

"Mum," Ginny groaned, crossing her arms. "I'm fine. This was important!"

"Yes, it was. But off to bed with you now. The same goes for the rest of you!" Mrs. Weasley said, looking around to her other children.

Harry stood up and stretched, relieved that Hermione had spoken up. A break was exactly what they needed in his opinion. It would break the tense atmosphere that hadn't really left since he'd told them about going down the trapdoor.

He wished everyone goodnight and started up the stairs to his room, followed by Ron. And he climbed into bed fifteen minutes later, rubbing at his scar and attempting to get it to settle down enough for him to sleep peacefully.

So, have I started off alright? Review please! This may be a new chapter in the story, but nothing has changed- I still love to hear what you all have to say!