***
HER EARS WERE PRESSED against the doo as she listened to the voices inside it. There were three voices, and it belonged to her brothers: Ron, Fred and George. Grace was eavesdropping on them as they made plan on how to get to Harry. And that was enough to get her interested.
"But what if Mum or anyone caught us?" she heard Ron's voice.
"No one will know if we're careful." this was Fred.
"But I know."
All three heads turned toward the door where Grace had just appeared. She was staring at them with a grin on her face.
"What are you doing here Grace?" Ron asked furiously. "You're supposed to be in bed."
"And you're supposed to be asleep." Grace said and plopped on Ron's bed.
Turning toward Fred and George, she said. "Take me with you."
"No." George shook his head. "We're not taking you with us."
"Mum'll go hysteric if she finds out we took you with us." said Fred.
"Oh, please." Grace whined at them. "Please. please I want to go too."
They shook their head.
"Fine," She suddenly stood up. "Mum will be very happy when she finds out what you three have been planning."
Before she could walk another step, Ron grabbed her hand and pulled her down on the bed again.
"Are you crazy?" He hissed.
"Well?" She looked at Fred and George waiting for an answer and ignored Ron.
They both looked at each other, before looking at her. "Fine then. You can come."
"Oh Thank you!" She leaped in excitement.
"Keep it down!" Fred said. "You'll wake someone."
Grace nodded and zipped her lips.
And then they set off with their plan. After getting out of house, they very quietly took out the car that their father had magically updated and set off with it to where Harry lived.
It took more than an hour to reach there, and Grace wasn't feeling sleepy at all. She was staring down out of the window as they flew over houses and colonies. At last they reached there.
"Are we here?" Both Grace and Ron asked at the same time.
"Yes." Fred answered.
They moved toward the window, which had bars outside. Grace felt bad for Harry as he had to live with such horrible muggles. Ron opened his side of window which was facing directly Harry's window.
"Do you see him?" Grace asked him as he peered over the bars.
"Yeah." Ron answered. "He's sleeping — no, he has woken up now —"
And true to his words, Harry appeared on the other side of the window, and pushed it open so that they could talk through the bars.
"Ron." breathed Harry, "Ron, how did you —? What the —?"
"Hi Harry!" Grace said appearing next to Ron.
"Grace?" Harry said surprised.
"All right, Harry?" asked George.
"What's been going on?" said Grace. "Why haven't you been answering our letters? I've asked you to stay about twelve times, and then Dad came home and said you'd got an official warning for using magic in front of Muggles —"
"It wasn't me — and how did he know?" Harry asked
"He works for the Ministry," said Ron. "You know we're not supposed to do spells outside school —"
"You should talk," said Harry, staring at the floating car.
"Oh, this doesn't count," said Ron. "We're only borrowing this. It's Dad's, we didn't enchant it. But doing magic in front of those Muggles you live with —"
"I told you, I didn't — but it'll take too long to explain now — look, can you tell them at Hogwarts that the Dursleys have locked me up and won't let me come back, and obviously I can't magic myself out, because the Ministry'll think that's the second spell I've done in three days, so —"
"Stop gibbering," Grace cut him off. "We've come to take you home with us."
"But you can't magic me out either —"
"We don't need to," said Grace, jerking her head toward the front seat and grinning. "You forget who I've got with me."
"—with us." corrected Ron. "It was my plan."
Grace ignored him.
"Tie that around the bars," said Fred, throwing the end of a rope to Harry.
"If the Dursleys wake up, I'm dead," said Harry as he tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car.
"Don't worry," said Fred, "and stand back."
The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air. Grace looked down to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet above the ground. Panting, Ron hoisted them up into the car.
When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to Harry's window.
"Get in," Ron said.
"But all my Hogwarts stuff — my wand — my broomstick —"
"Where is it?"
"Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can't get out of this room —"
"No problem," said George from the front passenger seat. "Out of the way, Harry."
Fred and George climbed catlike through the window into Harry's room. George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock.
"A lot of wizards think it's a waste of time, knowing this sort of Muggle trick," said Fred, "but we feel they're skills worth learning, even if they are a bit slow."
There was a small click and the door swung open.
"So — we'll get your trunk — you grab anything you need from your room and hand it out to Ron," whispered George.
"Watch out for the bottom stair — it creaks," Harry whispered back as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing.
At last, panting, they reached the landing, then carried the trunk through Harry's room to the open window. Fred climbed back into the car to pull with Grace and Ron, and Harry and George pushed from the bedroom side. Inch by inch, the trunk slid through the window.
"A bit more," panted Fred, who was pulling from inside the car. "One good push —"Harry and George threw their shoulders against the trunk and it slid out of the window into the back seat of the car.
"Okay, let's go," George whispered.
But as Harry climbed onto the windowsill there came a sudden loud screech from behind him, followed immediately by the thunder of very loud voice.
"THAT RUDDY OWL!"
"I've forgotten Hedwig!"
Harry tore back across the room as the landing light clicked on — he snatched up Hedwig's cage, dashed to the window, and passed it out to Grace. He was scrambling back onto the chest of drawers when Harry's uncle hammered on the unlocked door — and it crashed open.
For a split second, he stood framed in the doorway; then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry, grabbing him by the ankle.
Grace, Ron, Fred, and George seized Harry's arms and pulled as hard as they could.
"Petunia!" The man roared. "He's getting away! HE'S GETTING AWAY!"
But the Weasleys gave a gigantic tug and Harry's leg slid out of his uncle's grasp — Harry was in the car — he'd slammed the door shut —
"Put your foot down, Fred!" yelled Ron, and the car shot suddenly toward the moon.
Grace rolled down the window, the night air whipping her hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Harry's house. Harry's relatives were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry's window.
"See you next summer!" Harry yelled.
Grace, Ron, Fred and George roared with laughter and Harry settled back in his seat, grinning from ear to ear.
"Let Hedwig out," he told Grace. "She can fly behind us. She hasn't had a chance to stretch her wings for ages."
George handed the hairpin to Grace and, a moment later, Hedwig soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them like a ghost.
"So — what's the story, Harry?" said Ron impatiently.
"What's been happening?" Grace asked.
Harry told them all about Dobby, the warning he'd given Harry and the fiasco of the violet pudding. There was a long, shocked silence when he had finished.
"Very fishy," said Fred finally.
"Definitely dodgy" agreed George. "So he wouldn't even tell you who's supposed to be plotting all this stuff?"
"I don't think he could," said Harry. "I told you, every time he got close to letting something slip, he started banging his head against the wall."
Fred and George look at each other.
"What, you think he was lying to me?" said Harry.
"Well," said Fred, "put it this way — house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. Someone's idea of a joke. Can you think of anyone at school with a grudge against you?"
"Yes," said Harry, Grace and Ron together, instantly.
"Draco Malfoy," Harry explained. "He hates me."
"Draco Malfoy?" said George, turning around. "Not Lucius Malfoy's son?"
"Must be, it's not a very common name, is it?" said Harry.
"I've heard Dad talking about him," said George. "He was a big supporter of You-Know-Who."
"And when You-Know-Who disappeared," said Fred, craning around to look at Harry, "Lucius Malfoy came back saying he'd never meant any of it. Load of dung — Dad reckons he was right in You-Know-Who's inner circle."
"I don't know whether the Malfoys own a house-elf. . ." said Harry.
"Well, whoever owns him will be an old wizarding family, and they'll be rich," said Fred.
"Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing," said George. "But all we've got is a lousy old ghoul in the attic and gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and castles and places like that; you wouldn't catch one in our house..."
"I'm glad we came to get you, anyway," said Grace. "I was getting really worried when you didn't answer any of my letters. Ron and I thought it was Errol's fault at first —"
"Who's Errol?"
"Our owl. He's ancient. It wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery." Ron explained. "So then we tried to borrow Hermes —"
"Who?"
"The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made prefect," said Fred from the front.
"But Percy wouldn't lend him to me," said Ron. "said he needed him."
"Percy's been acting very oddly this summer," said George, frowning. "And he has been sending a lot of letters and spending a load of time shut up in his room... I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge... You're driving too far west, Fred," he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. Fred twiddled the steering wheel.
"So, does your dad know you've got the car?" said Harry, guessing the answer.
"Er, no," said Grace, "he had to work tonight. Hopefully we'll be able to get it back in the garage without Mum noticing we flew it."
"What does your dad do at the Ministry of Magic, anyway?"
"He works in the most boring department," said Ron. "The Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office."
"The what?"
"It's all to do with bewitching things that are Muggle-made, you know, in case they end up back in a Muggle shop or house. Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. This Muggle woman bought it, took it home, and tried to serve her friends tea in it. It was a nightmare — Dad was working overtime for weeks."
"What happened?"
"The teapot went berserk and squirted boiling tea all over the place and one man ended up in the hospital with the sugar tongs clamped to his nose. Dad was going frantic — it's only him and an old warlock called Perkins in the office — and they had to do Memory Charms and all sorts of stuff to cover it up —"
"But your dad — this car —"
Fred laughed. "Yeah, Dad's crazy about everything to do with Muggles; our shed's full of Muggle stuff. He takes it apart, puts spells on it, and puts it back together again. If he raided our house he'd have to put himself under arrest. It drives Mum mad."
"That's the main road," said George, peering down through the windshield. "We'll be there in ten minutes... Just as well, it's getting light..."
A faint pinkish glow was visible along the horizon to the east.
Fred brought the car lower, and Harry saw a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees.
"We're a little way outside the village," said Grace. "Ottery St. Catchpole."
Lower and lower went the flying car. The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees.
"Touchdown!" said Fred as, with a slight bump, they hit the ground. They had landed next to a tumbledown garage in a small yard, and then were just in front of their house.