"As I've already said, the next year of memories are worse than any we've seen so far so please older students look out for younger ones and make sure you look out for you friends as well" Hermione says as she puts the last disc in.
The sound of the front door slamming echoed up the stair and a voice yelled,
“Oi, You!” Sixteen years of being addressed thus left Harry in no doubt whom his uncle was calling; nevertheless, he did not immediately respond. He was still gazing at the mirror fragment in which, for a split second, he had thought he say Dumbledore’s eye. It was not until his uncle bellowed, “BOY!” that Harry got slowly to his feet and headed for the bedroom door, pausing to add the piece of broken mirror to the rucksack filled with things he would be taking with him. “You took your time!” roared Vernon Dursley when Harry appeared at the top of the stairs. “Get down here, I want a word!” Harry strolled downstairs, his hands deep in his jeans pockets. When he reached the living room he found all three Dursleys.
“Yes?” asked Harry.
“Sit down!” Harry raised his eyebrows.
“Please!” added Uncle Vernon, wincing slightly as though the word was sharp in his throat.
"Did he really say please to you" Rory asks looking slightly shocked.
Harry sat. Vernon began to pace up and down, Aunt Petunia and Dudley following
his movements with anxious expressions. Finally, his large purple face crumpled with concentration, Uncle Vernon stopped in front of Harry and spoke.
“I’ve changed my mind,” he said.
"What's he changed his mind about?" Lily asks looking at the screen in confusion.
“What a surprise,” Harry said.
“Don’t you talk in that tone” began Aunt Petunia in a shrill voice, but Vern Dursley waved her down.
“It’s all a lot of claptrap,” Vernon said, glaring at Harry. “I’ve decided I don’t believe a word of it. We’re staying put, we’re not going anywhere.” Harry looked up at him. Vernon Dursley had been changing his mind every twenty-four hours for the past four weeks, packing and unpacking
ad repacking the car with every change of heart. Harry’s favorite moment had been the one when Vernon, unaware that Dudley had added his dumbbells to his case since the last time it had been unpacked, had attempted to hoist it back into the boot and collapsed with roars of pain and much swearing. “According to you,” Vernon said now, resuming his pacing up and down the living room, “we, Petunia, Dudley, and
I are in danger. From from”
“Some of ‘my lot,’ right,” Harry said.
“Well, I don’t believe it,” repeated Vernon, coming to a halt in front of Harry again. “I was awake half the night thinking it’s over, and I believe it’s a plot to get the house.”
“The house?” repeated Harry. “What house?”
“This house!” shrieked Uncle Vernon, the vein in his forehead starting to pulse. “Our house! House prices are skyrocketing
around here! You want us out of the way and then you’re going to do a bit of hocus pocus and before we know it the deeds will be in your name and”
“Are you out of your mind?” demanded Harry. “A plot to get this house? Are you actually as stupid as you look?”
"Yes, yes he is" Rory said smiling at Harry who smirked back.
“Don’t you dare!” squealed Aunt Petunia, but again, Vernon waved her down.
“Just in case you’ve forgotten,” said Harry, “I’ve already got a house, my godfather left me and Rory one. So why would I want this one? All the happy memories?” There was silence.
“You claim,” Vernon said, starting to pace yet again, “that this Lord Thing”
“Voldemort,” Harry said impatiently, “and we’ve been through this about a hundred times already. This isn’t a claim, it’s fact, Dumbledore told you last year, andKingsley and Mr. Weasley” Vernon hunched his shoulders angrily. “Kingsley and Mr. Weasley explained it all as well,” Harry
pressed on remorselessly. “Once I’m seventeen, the protective charm that keeps me safe will break, and that exposes you as well as me. The Order is sure Voldemort will target you, whether to torture you to try and find out where I am, or because he thinks by holding you hostage I’d come and try to rescue you.”
"Personally I'd of let him" Rory says as Sirius and James nod in agreement.
Vernon’s and Harry’s eyes met. Then
Vernon walked on and Harry resumed.
“You’ve got to go into hiding and the Order wants to help. You’re being offered serious
protection, the best there is.” Vernon said nothing, but continued to pace up and down.
“I thought there was a Ministry of Magic?” Vernon asked abruptly.
“There is,” Harry said, surprised.
“Well, then, why can’t they protect us? It seems to me that, as innocent victims, guilty of nothing more than harboring a marked man, we ought to qualify for government protection!”
“You heard what Mr. Weasley and Kingsley said,” Harry replied. “We think the Ministry has been infiltrated.” Vernon strode to the fireplace and back, breathing so heavily that his great black mustache tippled, his face still purple with concentration.
“All right,” he said, stopping in front of Harry yet again. “All right, let’s say, for the sake of argument, we accept this protection. I still don’t see why we can’t have that Kingsley bloke.”
"Seriously I'd of given up, let them get on with it. If they died they died"
"Aurora" Lily scolds. Rory just shrugged.
"She has a point Lily, you see the shit that family put them through" Sirius said looking at Harry and Rory.
“As I’ve told you,” he said through gritted teeth. “Kingsley is protecting the Mug I mean, your Prime Minister.”
“Exactly he’s the best!” Vernon said, pointing at the blank television screen. The Dursleys had spotted Kingsley on the news, walking along discreetly behind the Muggle Prime Minister as he visited a hospital.
“Well, he’s taken,” Harry said. “But Hestia Jones and Dedalus Diggle are more than up to the job”
“If we’d even seen CVs” began Uncle Vernon, but Harry lost patience. Getting to his feet, he advanced on his uncle, now
pointing at the TV set himself.
“These accidents aren’t accidents the crashes and explosions and derailments and whatever else has happened since we last watched the new. People are disappearing and dying and he’s
behind it Voldemort. I’ve told you this over and over again, he kills Muggles for fun. Even the fogs they’re caused by dementors, and if you can’t remember what they are, ask your son!” Dudley’s hands jerked upward to cover his mouth. With his parents’ and Harry’s eyes upon him, he slowly lowered them again
and asked,
“There are more of them?”
“More?” laughed Harry. “More than the two that attacked us, you mean? Of course there are, there are hundreds, maybe
thousands by this time, seeing as they feed of fear and despair”
“All right, all right,” blustered Vernon. “You’ve made your point”
“I hope so, because once I’m seventeen, all of them Death Eaters, dementors, maybe even Inferi which means dead bodies enchanted by a Dark Wizard will be able to find you and will certainly attack you." Petunia was looking at Vernon, Dudley was staring at Harry. Finally Vernon blurted out,
“But what about my work? What about Dudley’s school? I don’t suppose those things matter to a bunch of layabout
wizards”
“Don’t you understand?” shouted Harry. “They will torture and kill you like they did my parents!”
“Dad,” Dudley said in a loud voice, “Dad I’m going with these Order people.”
“Dudley,” Harry said, “for the first time in your life, you’re talking sense.” Harry glanced at the carriage clock on the mantelpiece. “They’ll be here in about five minutes,” he said, and when none of the Dursleys replied, he left the room.
Back in his bedroom, Harry fiddled aimlessly with his rucksack, then poked a couple of own nuts through the bars of Hedwig’s cage. They fell with dull thuds to the bottom, where she ignored them.
“We’re leaving soon, really soon,” Harry told her. “And then you’ll be able to fly again.” The doorbell rang. Harry hesitated, then headed back out of his room and downstairs.
“Harry Potter!” squeaked an excited voice, the moment Harry had opened the door, a small man in a mauve top hat was sweeping him a deep bow. “An honour, as ever!”
“Thanks, Dedalus,” Harry said, bestowing a small and embarrassed smile upon the dark haired Hestia. “It’s really good of
you to do this. They’re through here, my aunt and uncle and cousin”
“Good day to you, Harry Potter’s relatives!” Dedalus said happily, striding into the living room. The Dursleys did not look at all happy to be addressed thus. Dudley shrank nearer to his mother at the sight of the witch and wizard. “I see you are packed and ready. Excellent! The plan, as Harry has told you, is a simple one,” Dedalus said, pulling an immense pocket watch out of his waistcoat and examining it. “We shall be leaving before Harry does. Due to the danger of using magic in your house Harry being still underage, it could provide the Ministry with an excuse to arrest him we shall be driving, say, ten miles or so, before Disapparating to the safe location we have picked out for you. You know how to drive, I take it?” he asked Vernon politely.
“Know how to? Of course I ruddy well know how to drive!” spluttered Vernon.
“Very clever of you, sir, very clever. I personally would be utterly bamboozled by all those buttons and knobs,” Dedalus said.
“Can’t even drive,” he muttered under his breath, his mustache rippling indignantly, but fortunately neither Dedalus or Hestia seemed to hear him.
“You, Harry,” Dedalus continued, “will wait here for your guard. There has been a little change in the arrangements”
“What d’you mean?” Harry said at once. “I thought Mad-Eye was going to come and take me by Side-Along-Apparition?”
“Can’t do it,” Hestia said tersely. “Mad-Eye will explain.” The Dursleys, who had listened to all of this with looks of utter
incomprehension on their faces, jumped as a loud voice screeched “Hurry up!” Harry looked all around the room before realising that the voice had issued from Dedalus’s pocket watch.
“Quite right, we’re operating to a very tight schedule,” Dedalus said, nodding at his watch and tucking it back into his waistcoat. “We are attempting to time your departure from the house with your family’s Disapparition, Harry thus, the charm breaks as the moment you all head for safety.” He turned to the Dursleys. “Well, are we all packed and ready to go?”
None of them answered him. Uncle Vernon was still staring, appalled, at the bulge in Dedalus’s waistcoat pocket.
“Perhaps we should wait outside in the hall, Dedalus,” murmured Hestia.
“There’s no need,” Harry muttered, but Vernon made any further explanation unnecessary by saying loudly.
“Well, this is good-bye, then, boy.” He swung his right arm upward to shake Harry’s hand, but at the last moment seemed unable to face it, and merely closed his fist and began swinging it backward and forward like a metronome.
“Ready, Diddy?” asked Aunt Petunia, fussily checking the clasp of her handbag so as to avoid looking at Harry altogether.
"That poor kid, I think I'd act like that if my mother called me Diddy" James said laughing.
Dudley did not answer, but stood there with his mouth slightly ajar.
“Come along, then,” Vernon said.
He had already reached the living room door when Dudley mumbled,
“I don’t understand.”
“What don’t you understand, popkin?” Petunia asked, looking up at her son.
Dudley raised a large, hamlike hand to point at Harry.
“Why isn’t he coming with us?” Vernon and Petunia froze where they stood, staring
at Dudley as though he had just expressed a desire to become aballerina.
“What?” Vernon said loudly.
“Why isn’t he coming too?” asked Dudley.
“Well, he he doesn’t want to,” Vernon said, turning to glare at Harry and asking, “You don’t want to, do you?”
“Not in the slightest,” Harry said.
“There you are,” Vernon told Dudley. “Now come on, we’re off.” He marched out of the room. They heard the front door open,
but Dudley did not move and after a few faltering steps Petunia stopped too.
“What now?” barked Vernon, reappearing in the doorway. It seems that Dudley was struggling with concepts too difficult to put into words. After severmoments of apparently painful internal struggle he said,
“But where’s he going to go?” Petunia and Vernon looked at each other. It was
clear that Dudley was frightening them. Hestia Jones broke the silence.
“But surely you know where your nephew is going?” she asked, looking bewildered.
“Certainly we know,” Vernon said. “He’s off with some of your lot and his sister, isn’t he? Right, Dudley, let’s get in the car, you heard the man, we’re in a hurry,” Again, Dursley marched as far as the front door, but Dudley did not follow.
“Off with some of our lot?” Hestia looked outraged.
“It’s fine,” Harry assured her. “It doesn’t matter, honestly.”
“Doesn’t matter?” repeated Hestia, her voice rising ominously. “Don’t these people realise what you’ve been through? What dangers you are in? The unique position you hold in the hearts of the anti-Voldemort movement?”
“Er no, they don’t,” Harry said. “They think I’m a waste of space actually, but I’m used to”
“I don’t think you or Rory are a waste of space.” If Harry had not seen Dudley’s lips move, he might not have believed it.
"He got nicer as he got older" Rory said surprised at Dudley’s words.
As it was, he stared at Dudley for several seconds before accepting that it must have been his cousin who had spoken
for one thing. Dudley had turned red. Harry was embarrassed and astonished himself.
“Well er thanks, Dudley.” Again, Dudley appeared to grapple with thoughts too unwieldy for expression before mumbling,
“You saved my life.”
“Not really,” Harry said. “It was your soul the dementor would have taken” He looked curiously at his cousin. After opening his mouth once or twice more, Dudley subsided into scarlet faced silence. Petunia burst into tears. Hestia Jones gave her an approving look that changed to outrage as Aunt Petunia ran forward
and embraced Dudley rather than Harry.
“S–so sweet, Dudders” she sobbed into his massive chest. “S–such a lovely b–boy s–saying thank you”
“But he hasn’t said thank you at all!” Hestia said indignantly. “He only said he didn’t think Harry was a waste of space!”
“Yeah, but coming from Dudley that’s like ‘I love you,’” Harry said.
“Are we going or not?” roared Vernon, reappearing yet again at the living room door. “I though we were on a tight sched-
ule!”
“Yes yes, we are,” Dedalus Diggle said, who had been watching these exchanges with an air of bemusement and now seemed to
pull himself together. “We really must be off, Harry” He tripped forward and wrung Harry’s hand with both of his own. “good luck. I hope we meet again. The hopes of the Wizarding world rest upon your shoulders.”
“Oh,” Harry said. “right. Thanks.”
“Farewell, Harry,” Hestia said, also clasping his hand. “Our thoughts go with you.”
“I hope everything’s okay,” Harry said with a glance toward Petunia and Dudley.
“Oh, I’m sure we shall end up the best of chums,” Diggle said lightly, waving his hat as he left the room.
"I doubt that" Barty Crouch Jr says with a smirk.
Hestia followed him. Dudley gently released himself from his mother’s clutches and walked toward Harry. Then Dudley held out his large, pink hand.
“Blimey, Dudley,” Harry said over Petunia’s renewed sobs. “did the dementors blow a different personality into you?”
“Dunno,” muttered Dudley. “See you, Harry.”
“Yeah” Harry said, taking Dudley’s hand and shaking it. “Maybe. Take care, Big D.”
Dudley nearly smiled, then lumbered from the room. Harry heard his heavy footfalls on the graveled drive, and then a car
door slammed. Petunia, whose face had been buried in her handkerchief, looked around at the sound. She did not seem to have expected to find herself alone with Harry. Hastily stowing her wet handkerchief into her pocket, she said,
“Well good-bye,” and marched toward
the door without looking at him.
“Good-bye,” Harry said. She stopped and looked back. She gave him an odd, tremulous look and seemed to teeter on the edge of speech, but then, with a little jerk of her head, she bustled out of the room after her husband and son.