Harry smiled broadly, despite Aunt Marge's insults, which grew more and more stilted the bigger his grin became. This was so much fun, he decided, much better than last time. He'd been too worried about being expelled when he'd blown her up last time, and she hadn't remembered it later. Now she was shooting him nervous looks.

"At his school, did they...perhaps, become a bit too...enthusiastic...with the cane?" she hoarsely 'whispered' to Vernon, "I think he's been conked a bit too hard about the ears." Harry chuckled.

His future and past selves had merged right before she'd asked about caning at St. Brutus, the place the Dursleys told her he went to school. He'd winced as his memories had slid into place, and, as warned, a shard of his soul had been torn off. It shrieked just like the Diary at the end of last year, and he felt bad for a moment, tearing your soul was pretty extreme, but the book said that as long as he only did it once it would only affect his attention span and magical power. Sirius was worth it. The Dursleys however didn't seem to hear the scream, only see him flinch.

"Looks like they did, none of this fuss about coddling the brats I hear about on the news," Marge grinned sadistically. Vernon smiled triumphantly, assured that the Freak was playing along, but, surprisingly, Petunia looked taken aback, before covering the expression with a sneer. Oh, right. The deal was with Uncle Vernon, as far as she knew that was an honest reaction. That she didn't show any further concern only reinforced his belief that coming back for Sirius was the right thing to do.

"Right," he grinned. Marge frowned.

"What are you smiling about boy? Obviously they didn't cane you enough!"

"I was punished every time I was caught," he thought about all the trouble he was NOT going to get into this year and his smile grew. No almost getting eaten, no spying on the professors who could catch him at any time, no fighting with Malfoy...Actually, he hoped that Hermione punched him again. He hadn't seen everything from the proper angle before, as he was holding Ron back.

Aunt Marge was starting to look a little pale. He grinned wider.

-line-

By the time it was dark Harry's smile had nearly reached his ears and his face was so far past hurting that it'd gone numb, but Marge had retired to her room early, claiming to be tired from her traveling. The fact that she backed out of the room, facing Harry said otherwise.

"What was that?!" roared Vernon as soon as her door was shut, "I asked you to play along, not act like some...some..."

"I think I have a bit too much..." Harry chuckled, happiness? hope? smugness? none of those were likely to go over well, "...energy." Vernon turned even more purple, and Petunia spoke up.

"She never got like this at the end of the year. You didn't either, last year."

"I have more magic than Mum. And last year I was still tired from something that happened at the end of the year."

"Because both your parents were freaks? It really is contagious?" It felt a bit slimy takin an explanation Malfoy would use, but he couldn't think of a better way to explain it without tipping his hand. Anyway, here was a good chance to get out of the house.

"Only through blood. I heard taking walks can help?"

"Out! Get rid of that...energy...of yours. You can sleep in the shed when you get back, I'm not leaving the door unlocked."

He scurried out of the house, an unnatural grin on his face, and half a pound of meatloaf in a plastic bag under his shirt. Time to go Dog-catching.

-line-

Snuffles crept forward, flinching every time the loud-fast-smellsbad-things looked at him. Their eyes burned and made him whimper and run, eyes watering. There was something here though, something he had to find. The boy! The boy who smelled like the deer-man who he loved. The boy who laughed and patted his head and wasn't there in the cold-dark place. The boy was here. He didn't know how he knew, but he did. And he had to find him and make sure the rats hadn't eaten him. Rats were evil. He should kill them all. After he found the boy. then the rats would die, especially the rat-man that liked to hide behind the wolf-man. He would kill him lots.