Chapter 2, Book 3, "The Knight Bus"

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Still Harry's POV

We walk several streets away before I collapse onto a low wall in Magnolia Crescent.

Anger is still surging through me and Polaris, who is listening for anything that isn't the frantic thumping of my heart.

But after ten minutes alone in the dark street, a new emotion overtakes me: panic.

Whatever angle I look at it, I have never been in a worse fix.

We are stranded, alone, in the dark Muggle world, with absolutely nowhere to go.

And the worst of it Is, we both just did serious magic, which means that we are almost certainly expelled from Hogwarts.

We broke the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry so badly, I am surprised that Ministry of Magic representatives aren't swooping down on me where I sit.

"Harry, don't worry about the ministry, they know neither of us did it intentionally. We'll be alright." Polaris says to me, clearly trying to comfort me.

"But we broke the Decree for the Restriction of Underage Wizardry, and we're both underage." I argue, trying to stay calm.

"There are some exemptions to that law, accidental magic is one of them." Says Polaris, who kneels down next to me.

Polaris then snaps his head behind me and stands up. He pulls out his wand, and stares at the narrow gap between the garage and the fence of the houses behind us. "What is it?" I ask, also staring at the alleyway.

"I hear a heartbeat, and it's beating the way it does when someone's awake. Somebody's watching us." He replies, not taking his eyes off of the alley.

"Lumos," Polaris mutters, and a light appears at the end of his wand, almost dazzling him.

He holds it high over his head, and the pebble-dashed walls of number two suddenly sparkle; the garage door gleams, and between them, I see, quite distinctly, the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes.

There is a deafening BANG and I throw up my hands to shield his eyes against a sudden blinding light ...

A second later, a gigantic pair of wheels and headlights screech to a halt in front of me.

When I raise his head, I see a triple-decker, violently purple bus, which has appeared out of thin air. Gold lettering over the windscreen spells The Knight Bus.

Polaris extinguishes his wand and turns around, while a conductor in a purple uniform leaps out of the bus and begins to speak loudly to the night.

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board and we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve - "

The conductor stops abruptly. He catches sight of me, still sitting on the ground. Polaris pockets his wand and helps me to my feet. Stan Shunpike is only a few years older than Polaris and I; eighteen or nineteen at most, with large, protruding ears and a fair few pimples.

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