𝐋𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐭 ✓

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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟔: 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦 𝟗 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬

My last month with my family wasn't fun. True, Dudley was now so scared of Harry he wouldn't stay in the same room and he was still afraid of me, while Mum and Dad didn't shut Harry in his cupboard, force him to do anything, or shout at him — in fact, they didn't speak to him at all.Half terrified, half furious, they acted as though any chair with Harry in it were empty. Dad and Mum rarely talked to me. Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while. Harry kept to his room, with his new owl for company and the night strolls around the backyard we usually did. He had decided to call her Hedwig, aname he had found in A History of Magic. I had decided to name mine Atkins, even though it was a boy's name. 

Our school books were very interesting. I lay on my bed reading late into the night, Atkins swooping in and out of the open window as she pleased.It was lucky that Mum didn't come in to vacuum anymore to my room or to Harry's, because Hedwig  and Atkins kept bringing back dead mice. Every night before I went to sleep, I ticked off another day on the calender I had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first. On the last day of August Harry thought he'd better speak to his aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day, so he went down to the living room where they were watching a quiz show on television. 

"Come on, Harry, say it," I whispered to him. 

He cleared his throat to let them know he was there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room. 

 "Er — Uncle Vernon?" 

 Dad grunted to show he was listening. 

"Er — I  and Diane need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to — to go to Hogwarts." 

 Dad grunted again. 

 "Would it be all right if you gave me a lift?"

 Grunt. I supposed that meant yes. 

 "Thank you." 

 We was about to go back upstairs when Dad actually spoke. 

 "Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"

 Harry nor I didn't say anything. 

 "Where is this school, anyway?" 

 "I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time. 

He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket. 

 "I just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read. 

His aunt and uncle stared.

 "Platform what?" 

 "Nine and three-quarters," I and Harry said. 

"Don't talk rubbish," said Dad. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters." 

 "It's on our ticket," I said, taking out mine too. 

"Barking," said Dad, "howling mad, the lot of them. You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother." 

"Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly. 

 "Taking Dudley to the hospital," growled Dad. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."