King's Crossed
by Xavien

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Prologue: Heading In A New Direction
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Normally, car rides with the Dursleys were uncomfortable affairs, since both Harry and Dudley were expected to sit in the backseat. As a result, Harry often ended up smashed against the door by Dudley's immense bulk.

However, as Uncle Vernon pulled away from King's Cross Station, Harry found he had room not only to stretch his legs, but also to turn around, and for Hedwig's cage to boot. This was due to the fact that, much to his aunt and uncle's chagrin, Hogwarts let out earlier than Smeltings did. Harry smiled at the notion, watching London pass by as he dreamed of the Dudley-free days ahead of him, three glorious days all to himself while Dudley jammed himself into a desk somewhere in Wales, sweating through final exams.

It was at about this point in his reverie that Harry realized the part of London that was passing by wasn't on the way to Privet Drive. "Er… Uncle Vernon?"

In the driver's seat, Uncle Vernon jerked slightly, as if the mere sound of Harry's voice caused him pain. "What?" he growled without turning around.

"Isn't Little Whinging back that way?" Harry asked, gesturing out the rear window with a thumb.

"We've moved," Vernon responded shortly, and Harry took the purple color of his uncle's face as his cue to shut up.

Later, as the moon shone silently through the London fog, Harry struggled to keep his temper in check as he wrote a letter:

Dear Ron,

I got home alright, if you can call this 'home'. There's just one problem. Turns out Uncle Vernon got a promotion, to a high-level position at his company's main office, so we've moved to the middle of London. The house is "a charming little fix-'er-upper" in Aunt Petunia's words, and GUESS WHO gets to do the fixing…

I had originally planned on submitting the first chapter of this fic along with the prologue since this is so short, but I've gotten impatient with how Chapter 1's progressing. Since my track record for getting new parts out quickly is thus far at a drastic low, I'm not making any promises on when chapter 1 will be out. All I'll say is, I'm Working On It. As for the fourth chapter of The Seeker, well, the bad news is I'm still stuck. The good news is, I'm stuck in a different place, which means progress has been made. One of these days when I'm not so busy (and don't have a saxophone solo to work up by the following Saturday =/ ) I'll sit down and pound on my head repeatedly until I finish it, and won't let myself get distracted by the MWPP series I'm developing on the side. But that's another story. =)

NEXT CHAPTER:
We rejoin Harry and Co. at their new London address, and get a glimpse of how they've adjusted to living in the "big city." More importantly, the Dursley's host yet another business dinner, at which we meet two new characters.

DISCLAIMER (and other stuff that only lawyers care about): Harry Potter, the Dursley's, et. al. are all the creations of J. K. Rowling the Great, Good, Fabulously Talented, Internationally Envied, and now Very Deservingly Wealthy... and who wouldn't be, after writing such an ingenious series? And, yeah, I guess I'd better put something in here about how AOL/Time Warner owns the movie rights to the series, but it remains to be seen whether or not they deserve to be accredited a role in the storyline's development - I'll decide that when the movie is released. Though judging by their past work it should be pretty awesome... more so, even, since the day it's going to be released will be my 19th birthday! What a birthday present! =)

Ja ne! - Xavien