The Longest Year

by Antea-Aevum

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Chapter 1: Attack

Harry jerked awake, knocking his head into the slanted ceiling, a fist reflexively flying to grind into his forehead trying to stop the sharp pain growing in his scar. The 15-year-old bit his lip, hunching over his knees as he tried to keep the pain in bay. The small cupboard, barely adequate to house a small kid much less a teenager seemed to close around Harry as he held his forehead with his left hand and groping around with his right to turn on the tiny lightbulb hanging on a thin wire which was banging into the back of his head.

His shaking hand found the switch and he gave it a yank, the small glow of the weak lightbulb bathing the cramped space in an eerie orange. He found his glasses easily (he always placed it beside the thin mattress) and slipped it onto his face. His indistinct world came into sharp focus and he closed his eyes, falling with his back to the mattress. That meant his lower half body met the cold wooden floor as the mattress was not big enough to accommodate his entire frame.

Voldemort was planning something. Something he had yet to know, all that was conveyed through the scar was that he was angry it wasn't going as he planned. Everytime his sickeningly loyal death eaters brought back unwelcome news (which was pretty much all the time), Voldemort never hesitated to use the Cruciatus curse. Harry had lost count of times he had wondered to himself why the death eaters were so damn loyal to someone who regularly tortured them. Bunch of fools. That was what Voldemort always called them. And Harry fully agreed. Bunch of fools.

The pain finally receding, he reached under his mattress to pull out a crumpled calendar. He picked up the blue colored pencil lying beside his mattress and crossed out a number. "Another 25 days to Hogwarts," he whispered to himself. He stared at the calendar for a few minutes before returning it to its hiding place.

He propped himself up with his elbows and glanced around the small space. His knees were bent, the toes touching the door of the cupboard and he sighed. He flexed the fingers on his right hand and held it out over his stomache, palm up. "Accio," he whispered and his socks flew into his hand. He grinned.

Wandless magic was something he had discovered he could do last summer. Even so, he had credited it to a momentary burst of uncontrolled magic and he never really tried to tap into them. He could only do simple charms and this summer, he had found out that if he really concentrated, he could levitate pots and pans and even make spoons stir the broth by themselves like how Mrs. Weasley did in her own kitchen. That seriously lightened the burden of endless chores the Dursleys constantly piled onto him.

The upside was that wandless magic was not traceable and somehow, doing magic secretly throughout the summer made up for the lonely days and nights he had to go through before seeing Hogwarts, Ron and Hermione again.

His wand and the rest of his school things were in the garage. He had let Hedwig go and he surmised she'll probably be at the Weasleys. He sat up, hunching over so he wouldn't hit his head again and touched the doorknob with one finger. It glowed a light blue before the door clicked softly and swung open. Harry crept out of the cupboard, listening for any sounds before he straightened up and tiptoed to steal a glance at the large grandfather clock standing in the hall. It was 2.45 am.

Harry half-ran to the kitchen noiselessly, opened the back door and set out towards the garage. Another touch and the door swung open. He walked towards his trunk nestled in the farthest corner and cammouflaged with various broken chairs and tables. He carefully levitated all the junk aside and fell to his knees before his trunk and threw open the lid. He had managed to complete his Transfiguration homework last night and Potions way before; Potions essays are never meant to be procrastinated on, it's a do-or-die thing. Tonight, Charms was next. He pulled out a roll of empty parchment, his quill and a half empty bottle of black ink. He fished out his Charms text and lowered the trunk lid.

Unrolling the parchment on the flat surface of the trunk top, he flipped open the book, studied the question and dipped his quill into his ink bottle.

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"Get the paper, boy!" Vernon barked as he trampled down the stairs. "And my coffee better be on the table before I reach the kitchen!"

Very familiar with the routine (which was exactly the same for the past decade, orders and the time needed for Uncle Vernon to reach the kitchen from the stairs), Harry had already made the cup of coffee and had the newspaper right in front of Uncle Vernon's place.

Uncle Vernon huffed disappointedly when he saw everything was in place but he settled down nonetheless as he dipped his buttered toast into his coffee. He coughed violently. "Damn you, boy! Don't you know the proper way to toast bread? This is barely edible!"

Harry ignored the way Vernon gobbled all six pieces of toast despite what he just claimed. Dudley came in next, his folds of fat wobbling as he settled down into a chair. "Toast! I wanted bacon and eggs this morning!"

"You said you wanted buttered toast with strawberries and cream last night," Harry said patiently.

"No, I did not!" Dudley cried. "Dad, I did not!"

"No, he didn't," Uncle Vernon said. He looked at Harry. "What are you staring at? Make the damn bacon and eggs!"

Harry turned around and placed a pan over the stove wordlessly before he did something he would regret to his cousin.

"Oh, Dudley, my sweet little handsome boy! Did you have a good night's sleep?" Aunt Petunia's shrill voice interrupted the sizzling sound the oiled bacon was making.

"No! Harry here at another of his nightmares right at three am, I couldn't sleep at all until eight," Dudley replied. Harry could literally hear his smirk.

Considering he was working on his essay until 6.30 am, that must have been his twin keeping Mr. Dursley Junior up all night playing the latest video game.

"I told you, one more squeak out of you keeping my boy here awake, you sleep in the garage!" Vernon's snarled. "And look here when I'm talking to you!"

Harry whirled around and nearly slammed Dudley's plate of bacon and eggs in front of him before he caught himself and forced himself to place the plate gently onto the table. "Yes, sir."

"Hrmphh." Vernon got up and kissed his wife and son. "I have to go, see both of you tonight at Pine Trees okay?"

"Yes, honey," Petunia turned her cheek towards her husband. "Eight, sharp."

"Eight, sharp," Vernon beamed. He turned back to Harry his smile morphing into a growl. "And brush up on your cooking for God's sake!"

He let himself out through the back door. Petunia cleared her throat as she cut a piece of toast neatly into two. "You heard your uncle. We are going out tonight to celebrate our anniversary. We'll probably be late but that isn't an excuse to laze around. Clean the kitchen and scrub the floors. If I find a single spot of dirt, you start again. You hear me?"

"Yes, Aunt Petunia," said Harry, blowing happy fanfares on tiny trumpets mentally. "It shall be spotless."

Aunt Petunia snorted.

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His aunt and cousin left for their dinner at 7.30 pm, his cousin giving him a kick to his leg before he got into the car. Harry rubbed the sore spot and scowled when the car was safely out of sight. He locked the door and stretched, moving into the kitchen. Without further delay, he launched into his cleaning. He scoured the stoves, wiped the cupboards, washed all the crockery until they shone under the light and scrubbed the tables and chairs. It was amost nine-thirty when he was done. Exhausted, he sank into one of the chairs and looked at the mop, bucket and the bottle of cleanser sitting in the corner.

He sighed and leaned his head onto the table. He hadn't had enough sleep for days, finishing up the endless chores his uncle created for him every morning until late at night, waking up from the pain Voldemort was sending through the damned scar and doing his homework right up to sun set.

One quick nap.

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"Everything is going smoothly as intended, my Lord," a death eater said respectfully as he knelt before Voldemort.

"Is that muggle woman out of the house?" Voldemort hissed.

"Yes, my Lord. When she returns, we shall kill her. The wards will collapse with her and Harry Potter shall be with you before midnight comes."

"Very good," Voldemort cackled. "Very good!"

The Cruciatus curse followed as Voldemort's evil laughter filtered through the cries of pain.

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Harry convulsed in reflected pain as he gasped and curled into a fetal position. The cold kitchen tiles helped him regain focus as the bitter cold seeped through his thin shirt and into his heated body. He vaguely registered his legs half tangled with the rungs of the wooden chair and realized he had fallen off the chair. His head ached, half from the curse and half from hitting the hard floor.

Voldemort. Aunt Petunia.

He got on all fours, wildly searching for the clock before realizing he was looking in the wrong direction. His world spun crazily as he turned around to look at the small clock sitting on the fridge behind him. Eleven-thirty!

He got to his feet, swaying precariously. Who? Who to tell? Dumbledore? McGonagall? How to reach them? They never told him how to reach them! Mrs. Figg? He stumbled to the back door, scrabbling for the doorknob before remembering that Mrs. Figg had embarked on a cruise for seven days. She was coming back tomorrow.

Shit.Shit.Shit.Shit.Shit.Shit.Shit.

SHIT.

Wand.

The door gave under his weight and he lurched out into the night. He ran towards the garage, the door banging open before he even saw it and held out his hand. "Accio!"

His wand sped into his hand, smacking soundly against his palm. He stared at it. What was the wand for? He could do wandless magic for Merlin's sake. Idiot!

No.

Alert the ministry.

With the wand?

Harry wracked his brains. The brilliant idea that struck him when he was standing at the kitchen was lost in the haze of pain, panic and confusion.

Get expelled!

Get expelled so Dumbledore would be alerted and will come to check what was wrong!

Harry raised his wand.

But what if this was not a vision? He would get expelled. He briefly entertained a vision of himself standing in front of the ministry and Dumbledore, explaining himself. He hesitated.

The sound of an engine cut through the quiet night. They are back!

Harry dropped his wand arm and slowly walked to the front, making sure to stay hidden. Uncle Vernon manuevered his car into the porch and Dudley jumped out. Aunt Petunia was drawing the gate shut when a sudden flash of white of a death eater's mask down the street made Harry spring into action.

"Aunt Petunia!" Harry shouted, barrelling into his aunt, knocking her sideways onto the ground just as a jet of green light shot out, hitting the air right where Aunt Petunia was two seconds ago.

"What is happening?" Vernon's angry voice thundered.

"Harry!" Petunia snapped as she shoved her nephew off her roughly. "What are you doing!"

Flipped onto his back, Harry could see a large group of death eaters running towards the open gate. He jumped to his feet. "Get away!" He shouted to the Dursleys. "Hide!"

"What hogwash is this?" Vernon started but yelped as jets of green light started to zing across the black night.

Harry fell to his hands and knees, scrambling for cover. Rolling behind huge bushes of some flower he didn't recognize, he grabbed his wand from his pocket and gave it a sharp flick. "Lumos!" The wand flared to life.

Perhaps it was a bad move. Half of the death eaters looked towards the bush as the bright yellow light pierced the night. "Nox!" Harry cried, starting to crawl away. "Lumos! Nox! Lumos! Nox!" He cried a few times for good measure. "Accio!" He pointed it to the nearest flowerpot and sent it careening into the head of the nearest death eater. "Alohomora!" The neighbor's car unlocked with a loud crack.

That should do it.

"DADDDDD!" Dudley's wails broke through the confusion.

"Get into the house! Get into the -- oooff!" Harry fell to the ground as a death eater caught him by his ankles, pulling him towards the clearing.

"Potter," he snarled, lifting his wand.

Harry kicked away and fell onto his right just as a body binding spell broke free from the death eater's wand. Harry's hand flew out and gave the spell a mighty shove and for a moment, he wasn't sure it worked but the spell gave an almighty tremble then sped straight back to the death eater and with a surprised shout, he fell into a full body bind.

More death eaters were coming and he kicked free of the earth, propelling himself to his feet running towards the house. He spared a look back and saw neighbours pouring out of their houses in confusion before scrambling back inside screaming as death eaters hell-bent on getting them chased after the terrified muggles. "Stupefy!" He shouted hoping that his aim wasn't off.

It wasn't. The death eater trying to kill Miss Fiffy from Number 6 collapsed in a heap.

"MUMMMMMYYYYY!" A sharp cry of a small girl reached Harry's ears.

Alright. Change of plans.

Harry turned aside just in time to avoid a bone-breaking curse before taking off towards the open gate and into the chaos, neatly dodging several curses. He felt something wet trickle down his pant leg and realized that he was bleeding but adrenaline dulled the pain to a nonexistent level. He launched himself at the death eater advancing on the girl, both of them rolling to the ground.

"Potter," the death eater hissed. He grasped Harry's wrists and rolled on top of him, punching him squarely in the eye.

Ignoring the sharp pain, he brought his knee up in a vicious kick right into the man's solar plexus and as the death eater staggered backwards, brought his foot to stamp right where it would hurt most for all men. He pushed off him and turned towards the girl but a flash of green light from another death eater and she was dead.

He cursed and held his palm up, concentrating on building a shield before someone got him. A spell lanced towards him and bit into his stomach. He gasped, his hand coming up bloody from the wound.

"Expelliarmus!"

His wand flew out of his hand at the same time Harry flung his palm out, "Accio!"

Both the death eater's and his wand came flying back to him. He stunned the death eater easily.

Shield. Raise a shield. Come on. Shield. Shield.

Three hexes, four curses, one near miss, seven rescued neighbors and two houses later only did he manage to conjure a weak but sufficient shield. Spells and hexes bounced off the invisible shield before two death eaters blocked his way. He moved quickly, bending to charge, knocking both of them and himself to the ground. "Stupefy!" He yelled, stunning both death eaters. He turned around to see where he was. He was almost to the end of the street. Throngs of screaming, unconscious or dead and fighting people occupied the whole stretch of the road. He could see one man brandishing a shovel at a laughing death eater.

Get back to the house. Back lane.

A slashing hex tore into his arm before he snapped out of his thoughts. He ran towards the main street, aiming his wand and palm out to maintain the shield.

He stunned a few more death eaters, fought with his fists, claws and all but he soon accepted that he could not save all of them. He had done his best. He executed a sharp turn and tore into the back lane, heading towards the Dursleys' backdoor. He jumped into the compound, catching sight of Mr. Hornby shouting in fright just in front of his house. He ran towards his neighbour, stunning the death eater in front of him and catching another slashing hex but saved Mr. Hornby who fainted as soon as the stunning curse hit the death eater.

He spotted a killing curse headed his way out of the corner of his eye and he dived to the ground, aiming straight for the protection of the car parked right in front of the door and coming to stop as he rolled against Dudley who was trying to drag his injured mother away from the vehicle and towards the house.

"No killing curse on the boy, you idiot!" Someone shouted.

"Inside! Now!" Harry yanked open the door then yanked at Dudley.

Aunt Petunia moaned. Harry looked down to see her right leg snapped cleanly off leaving a bloody stump.

"Oh, God," Harry murmured.

Screams penetrated the air and Harry shook himself mentally. "Come on!" Sensing Dudley in panic wasn't much help and Aunt Petunia a dead weight, Harry whipped out his wand to levitate them.

"Put that away you freak!" Dudley screamed.

Harry ignored him and flicked his wand at his relatives, sending them shooting into the house rather roughly; he just wasn't used to levitating such...huge objects, mainly, Dudley Dursley.. "I'm so sorry!" He cried. Terror overwhelmed him as he saw three death eaters running towards him. He slammed the door shut and prayed the wards were holding.

Uncle Vernon. Neighbours.

"Where is Uncle Vernon!" Harry yelled, trying to get Dudley to his senses.

"H-He wouldn't m-move..." Dudley wailed. "I-I think h-he's d-d-d-d..." He couldn't seem to say the word and he burst into loud sobs, fists grabbing his mother's shirt.

Harry looked down at his aunt. Blood seeped through her wound forming a dark puddle onto the floor. He tore off his outer shirt, and clamped it to his aunt's wound. "Hold this!" He wrenched one of Dudley's hand towards him and brought it to hold the balled-up cloth against Aunt Petunia's mutilated leg.

The door exploded off its hinges and the death eaters tried to enter but a sharp red light burst into fiery sparks, burning them. One of them whipped out his wand but the wards rejected the spell, bouncing back to them. All of them ducked as one.

"Stupefy!" Harry shouted, the spell's own red light slicing through the ward's red sparks and hitting one of the death eater. The other two stepped nimbly aside.

"Ennervate," one of them said.

Damn.

"Stupefy, stupefy, stupefy, stupefy, stupefy, stupefy..." Harry started chanting.

"Ennervate, ennervate, oh shit, ennervate..."

More screams of innocent women, men and children alike split the air.

But the cruel laughter of a man as he reached out to pull a the woman's head back with her hair to perform the slashing hex was what did it for Harry.

"STUPEFY!" Trembling with exertion, terror, anger and desperation, Harry felt his magic contract into powerful proportions, wandless magic exploding from his fingertips and wand, bending into a huge wave of pink, crashing over the screaming, fighting crowds of wizards and muggles alike.

And everyone crumpled to the ground.

Harry's harsh breathing was the only sound in the suddenly silent night, the magnitude of his wandless magic rendering him speechless.

Then a couple of brown owls flew towards 4 Privet Drive, dropping letters to Harry's feet as they soared past the boy.

Harry looked down. Picked one up. Slashed the flap open and pulled out the folded paper.

Dear Mister Harry James Potter,
The usage of prohibited underage magic has been detected at 12.07 a.m. on the...

Harry crumpled the letter and let it fall to the ground beside him.

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Comments welcome :) Please review! Don't flame or I'll get all defensive and you'll get all worked up and I'll get aggressive then we'll just have to fight. And I think we both have better things to do.

Next chapter probably in a week or more.