I always seem to forget dislaimers, but I hate them. So, to keep people happy: I'm making a fortune off of my writing. Absolutely. Sue me in to the ground. Merlin knows I have tons of money.

...and I'm a chronic liar. Of course, I could be lying about that too.

A short little one-shot. I may or may not make a sequel to this. Depends on how reviews go.
It is HP/SS, very mild slash - so mild, they are not even in the same room. If you squick on slash, go read my other one-shot, which is 100 het.

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A Promise of Things to Come

As they did at the end of the previous year, the Order of the Phoenix was on hand when Harry was delivered to his relatives. Once again, they warned the Dursleys that Harry was to be fed regular, nourishing meals and not to be overworked. They were not to lay a single finger on him, in any shape or form.

With that, Harry was not sure whether to be scared, embarrassed or happy around his uncle. In the end, on the ride back to Privet Drive, he decided to just keep quiet and see what Vernon would do. Judging by the level of redness in his neck and ears, he was plotting.

So be it. If he was going to be a jerk, despite the threats from the Order, Harry would be ready. He fingered his wand, hidden in his jacket pocket, and made a silent decision that he no longer gave a damn about Fudge or his decrees or the stupid Ministry and their rules against underage Magic. The bureaucracy-choked morass that passed for the Ministry deserved what it got, and if they were too idiotic to realise the difference between someone in danger and some kid just tossing off a spell for jollies, than that was too damn bad.

Of course, there was the small matter of his wandless magic. Harry had discovered a neat little secret about this particular talent of his. Apparently, if his source of said information could be trusted, wandless magic is entirely untraceable. Tracers are put on wands, but they can't trace a hand or whatever part of the body you cast through. Yet another detail he discovered about his magic: it is innate, therefore, he could cast it from anywhere – his head, his eyes, his toes – the possibilities were endless.

Harry was quite thoroughly sick and tired of people dying to defend him, and thanks to the Prophecy, he needed to live. Let Dumbledore treat him like his little toy weapon. He would comply, for now. Just let Vernon even twitch in the wrong direction, and he would find himself on the wrong end of a wand, or a toe, or hell, he could even burp on Vernon, with some very nasty results. A somewhat evil grin crawled across Harry's lips.

Harry heard a whimper coming from the seat next to him, and realised that Dudley was sliding over to the window, as far away from Harry as he could. "Y-your eyes," Dudley gasped out.

Harry flicked his sight up to the rear view mirror and saw that his eyes were sparking. He took a several deep breaths and they returned to their normal green colouration. Harry smirked at Dudley. "Sorry. Wizard's temper, you know how it is." The look on Dudley's face was priceless and Harry turned to look out his window so that Dudley couldn't see him trying to hold back a chuckle.

The rest of the ride 'home' was uneventful. Out of the corner of his eye, Harry spied Dudley glancing at him, but they were fleeting glances. Harry reckoned that Dudley was having a mental battle with himself on whether to tattle to his father about Harry's leaking magic or to keep his fat trap shut, either to ignore everything altogether or to pummel Harry in private.

Harry smirked again at his reflection in the window. He couldn't wait to put Dudley in his place. Not only that, but Harry had discovered a few of Dumbledore's meddlesome tricks, one of which being that Dumbledore laced the food at the closing feast with a tracer agent to keep track of those he deemed needed tracking. Harry appeared to eat at the closing feast, but he had picked up on his mother's considerable talent at charms. After all, he was a second generation Marauder. Making it appear as if he were eating the food in front of him was not that difficult, especially when you pack enough wandless magic up your sleeve to level a building.

One final turn and the Dursley cavalcade arrived at their destination. Harry exited the auto, carefully extracting Hedwig's cage so as not to disturb the sleeping owl. He moved to get his trunk from the boot, but feeling somewhat careless, he barely gestured with his hand and willed his trunk to shrink to the size of a deck of cards. Now easier to manoeuvre due to size, he slipped the trunk in to his jacket pocket and walked to the door of the house.

"Get inside boy," his uncle spat. Harry flashed a toothy smile at his uncle and with delight, said the two words he had been wanting to say to him for quite some time.

"Sod off." With that, Harry went inside, mounted the stairs, entered his room, and slammed the door closed. As an afterthought, he magically sealed the door to prevent what he knew would be coming. He gave Vernon all of three minutes before he could expect them to arrive. Enough time to get Hedwig comfortable. He coaxed her out of her cage, and then transfigured it to a large and comfortable perch, which he knew she preferred.

Sure enough, as soon as that had been accomplished, he heard his uncle thudding up the stairs like a cloud of thunder about to throw a temper tantrum.

Harry grinned to himself and waited for a highly anticipated noise to occur. He was not kept waiting too long. Vernon's thudding footsteps came down the hallway, the doorknob rattled at his heavy handed touch, and then THUD. Vernon smashed face first in to a locked and warded door. There was a cacophony of profanity, followed by furious rattling and thrumming on the door.

"Potter! Open the damn door this instant!" his uncle bellowed.

Harry tried not to laugh out loud as he retorted with a firm "No. You truly do not think I am that daft, do you?" Harry was in near hysterical laughter. He could physically picture his fat-arsed uncle, bellowing like an overblown steam engine, chuffing in righteous anger.

"BOY! If you do not open the door this instant, I will break it down and take the cost out of your skinny hide! OPEN. THIS. DOOR!" Harry frowned slightly. Who was he calling skinny? The past year, Harry had packed on at least 30 pounds and 3 inches, topping him out at 5'7. His previous years of malnourishment would mean he would never be tall, but at least he wasn't a squirt any longer.

Now insulted, Harry decided to grant his uncle's wish of opening the door. He jumped up on his bed, willed the wards down and unlocked it.

Vernon heard a click from the door, and testing the lock for the fourth time, he discovered it opened. He threw the door open, and it slammed in to the wall. He took one large step in to the room and prepared to rip a strip off of his worthless nephew. The second his gaze went to what was on the bed, he shut his mouth as quick as he could and his face went from angry purple to white as a sheet in the space of less than a second.

Cat. BIG cat. Big black cat, laying lazily on the bed, it's tail switching back and forth, like a languid metronome. Despite his fear, he could swear the damn cat was laughing at him.

"None of your freakiness boy! Get rid of the cat!" He frantically looked around for the boy, but could not see him anywhere. The jaguar's ears folded flat against its head, and it bared its teeth in a loud hiss, aimed straight at Vernon.

Vernon Dursley was a bully. As such, he was only mean when he was the strongest. Even an idiot could see he was spectacularly outclassed at the moment. He back-pedalled straight out the door, slammed it shut and rammed all 11 locks home. If the boy was going to be a freak all summer, he could damn well do it without food and a loo. No cat was wandering around his house!

Harry transformed back from his Animagus form, laughing the entire way. He wrapped his arms around his stomach as if it would help the pain of laughing non-stop for several minutes. The look on his uncle's face was SO very worth any trouble he might get in to at a later date.

Harry wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. He heard the last lock on the door slide in to place. "Stupid Muggle." he muttered under his breath.

A quick thought and all of the locks undid themselves. Harry walked over to the door and opened it. He locked eyes with his uncle as Vernon was half way back down the staircase. Harry snickered at his uncle and calmly said, "Meow," and chuckled to himself again.

"Don't worry Uncle," Harry said. "You don't want me here, I don't want to be here, and in one month, I'll be gone. Leave me alone, don't even think of touching the locks on my door, don't even talk to me, and we will both survive the next month with the minimum of injuries. Deal?" Harry's tone brokered for no argument.

"Boy," started Vernon.

"No." interrupted Harry. "Deal or no deal. The choice is yours. Choose now."

Vernon glared at his nephew, but knew when he had been bested. "Deal," he growled out. With that, he stomped down the rest of the stairs and went outside. Harry heard the door to the car slam, the vehicle start and Vernon drove off.

'Good riddance,' thought Harry to himself. 'Now, I can get started on a proper summer.' He turned around and went back in to his room, closing the door, warded and locked it. He retrieved some parchment, his ink and quill and jotted down a quick letter. It was simple and to the point. He rolled it up and sealed it with a quick spell. He turned to Hedwig.

"Hello beautiful. Ready to send a quick note for me?" Hedwig cooed at him and stuck her leg out, ready as ever. "You know where this is going, don't you girl?" he gently asked the bird. She hooted gently, nibbled at his earlobe and launched out the window.

Harry smiled to himself. Oh, what an interesting summer this would be. He couldn't wait until his birthday. He would be done with the Dursleys forever.

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Severus Snape looked around at the majestic beauty surrounding his cottage. He loved this place. To his knowledge, no one but he knew of its existence, and that is the way he preferred it. Situated deep in the Highland Mountains of Scotland, he had all of the peace that he could possibly ask for. The Headmaster was not entirely thrilled that he was not staying at the school this summer, but Snape really wasn't that concerned. He had preparations to make. He would be having a guest in a little less than a month, and he wanted the gardens in excellent condition by then.

He heard a swoop of wings, and he drew his wand. Relaxed as he was, he was still ever-suspicious, and his guard was never down. Relaxing when he saw it was only Hedwig, he held out his arm for her to land on.

Hedwig meticulously stuck out her leg for the Potions Master to remove the note, and he did so. Without removing his eyes from the note, he reached in to a robe pocket and retrieved a treat for his messenger. She accepted delicately and then launched up and left, flying back to her human.

Severus undid the spell on the note to unseal it and read the message inside. A rare grin passed across his features, spreading in to his eyes. He chuckled quietly as his brain created a mental picture of what Harry had done to his so-called uncle.

SS

It worked! I took your advice and decided to call his bluff. I can't be sure, but he will need to change his pants several times before July 31 rolls around.

See you soon!

Love, always,

HP

Oh, it would be an interesting summer, indeed. Severus was looking forward to Harry coming away from the Dursleys in a decent mood for once. Oh, yes, he was definitively looking forward to this summer.

It held great promise of things to come, in more ways than one.

Fin.