Harry Potter and The order of Phoenix-Unseen

ลำดับตอนที่ #4 : Chapter 2 : Mirror-Munchies

Chapter 2- Mirror-Munchies

          Harry woke up what felt like days later to him, though it must’ve been only a few minutes. He shook himself up, and ran over to Hedwig. She looked like she had been mauled by a garbage disposal. Harry picked her up into his arms and put her chest to his ears. She was still breathing, and he could feel her heart beating.

          Harry set her down on a bed, and looked through his cauldron for his wand. When he found his wand, he took it out of the cauldron, and pointed it at Hedwig.

          “Anicure!” said Harry. Even though he wasn’t allowed to use magic out of school for fun, if a life and death situation arose, it was legal.

          A small glowing fish, bird, and dog flew out of Harry’s wand and into Hedwig. She glowed bright yellow for a second, then went back to her normal white. She opened her eyes, and ruffled her feathers. Hedwig then flew back to her cage, and let out a large hoot. As she flew over, Harry looked around his room, and almost screamed when he saw Dudley, just sitting there in a chair in the corner of his room.

          “Dudley…” gasped Harry. “What are you doing here?”

          “I have something for you,” he said, standing up with his arms behind his back.

          “Dudley,” sighed Harry, “I don’t have time for this right now, my owl is hurt and-”

          “Here,” said Dudley, extending his arm to Harry. Right on top of his palm, there was a small, brown box. What was he up to? Dudley had never given Harry a real present in his life! Could it really be real?

          “Take it,” said Dudley, sensing Harry’s hesitation. Harry was almost afraid to take it, it was probably just another one of his pathetic jokes. “I promise its not a joke, just take it, alright?”

          There was something about the way he said it that convinced Harry. With a questioning look on his face, Harry grabbed the small box out of Dudley’s hand, and opened it. Inside, there was the most beautiful watch he had ever seen.

          It was made out of some sort of green crystal, it shimmered all over. At the place in the watch where the face would be, there were a tiny snake-head, with two red rubies for the eyes, and its tongue going around as the hand. It was intricately carved all over, to look like not just any snake, but a Basilisk! The king of all snakes!

          “Th- thanks, Dudley,” said Harry, having no clue what to think. Throughout his entire life, Dudley had never even said one nice thing to Harry, much less give something to him… voluntarily. Maybe he had turned over a new leaf.

          “Happy Birthday!” said Dudley.

          “What?” said Harry. “Um… there’s still several weeks until my birthday, Dudley.”

          “I know, but since we’re leaving for Hawaii next week, I figured I won’t have time to give it to you on your actual birthday.”

          “Where did you find it?” asked Harry, still looking it over and admiring it.

          “I found it in the basement,” he said. “It was in a box labeled ‘Lily’”

          Harry immediately looked up at him. Lily? Lily Potter? His mother?

          “You mean my mom?” asked Harry quietly.

          “Yeah,” said Dudley. “I think we got a box of her stuff from her will. Even though my mom hated her, she still couldn’t throw it out.”

          Harry looked at Dudley, then at the watch. Somehow, knowing that it had once belonged to his mother made it appear to be even more beautiful.

          “But why are you giving this to me?” asked Harry, putting the watch on.

          “Come on,” said Dudley, smiling and patting Harry’s shoulder, “can’t a cousin do something nice every now an then, huh?”

          “Other cousins, yes I’m sure. You… no way,” said Harry. Dudley let out a sigh     “Harry, I haven’t told anyone this… no one at all.”

          “What is it?” asked Harry, interested.

          “Well, a little into my school year last year, I started having these dreams,“ said Dudley. “Only, these weren’t dreams of floating in the air, or falling, or whatever. No, these were dreams with a message. They were telling me something.”

          “What were they telling you?” asked Harry.

          “That I should be doing something that I’m not,” said Dudley, extremely seriously. “So, I tried everything. I tried losing more weight, but the dreams wouldn’t stop; I tried to do better in school, but the dreams wouldn’t stop; I even tried having a girlfriend for a while, but that didn’t make them stop.

          “So, one night, I laid awake in bed, contemplating what I could possibly be doing that I wasn’t: being nice to you, treating you like a human being.”

          “And have the dreams stopped?” asked Harry.

          “Ever since I proclaimed to myself that day that I would be nice to you for the rest of our lives… yes. I realized that I should have known to be that way ever since you first came here. Just because you can make glass appear, and talk to snakes doesn’t mean you’re a bad person… in fact, it makes you kind of cool.”

          “Um… thanks Dudley,” said Harry.

          “Hey, you want to come downstairs?” asked Dudley. “You must get awfully bored up here all by yourself.”

          “Um… sure,” said Harry, still overwhelmed by Dudley’s sudden and complete change of heart. “Just let me check on Hedwig.”

          “Alright,” said Dudley, smiling as he left the room.

           Once Hedwig had been settled back into her cage, Harry sat down on his bed. So many questions were burning in his mind: Why was Dudley being so nice to him? Was it really because of the dream? And before… what was up with the black phoenix in his room? He didn’t even know phoenixes came in black! And what had caused his forehead to hurt when he saw it? Harry rubbed his eyes and walked over to the mirror in his room, and lifted up his bangs to reveal a lightning shaped scar on his forehead.

          This scar made Harry even more unusual, even by wizard’s standards. Harry was the only person to ever survive an encounter with Lord Voldemort, the most powerful and evil wizard in over a century. Voldemort barged into Harry’s parent’s house one night when Harry was only one year old. Voldemort killed his mom and dad, and when he tried to kill Harry, his curse backfired, turning him into a weak, powerless creature that over a course of thirteen years returned back to his original power with the help of his most faithful servant, Peter Pettigrew or Wormtail. The reason Voldemort’s curse had backfired is because his mom, Lily, sacrificed her life for Harry giving him a shield against Voldemort’s powers. However, last year, Voldemort used some of Harry’s blood to rise again, letting him get passed Harry’s shield.

          Ever since Harry’s first encounter with Voldemort, he has had the lightning shaped scar as a symbol of where the curse hit him. It had hurt other times during the course of his life, but only when Voldemort had been close, or had an extremely evil thought. So, how could his scar have hurt when Voldemort wasn’t near? It must have had something to do with the black phoenix that was in Harry’s room.

          Now that Harry was thinking, what was that phoenix doing in his room? Was it a spy for Voldemort? The only other phoenix Harry knew of was Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes. But, Fawkes was red and beautiful and it most certainly didn’t cause Harry to faint. This phoenix Harry just saw was black with dark flames all around it, it was like nothing Harry had ever learned or heard about.

          Harry suddenly remembered Dudley. He ran downstairs, avoiding the large mass of wrapping paper that was still there. He arrived at the bottom of the stairs, still being slightly cautious: this could be on of Dudley’s more elaborate jokes. He still didn’t trust him completely. 

          “What took you?” asked Dudley, holding his hands behind his back like he did when he was hiding the Basilisk watch.

          Oh, um… nothing,” said Harry. “What’cha got there?”

          “This,” said Dudley, his eyes twinkling, “is the secret of my success.”

          “What success?” asked Harry. Dudley looked surprised. He waved his hand all over his body.

          “How I lost over five hundred pounds!”

          “Oh, that success…”

          “Yeah,” said Dudley, not shrugging it off anywhere as fast as Harry was. “Anyway, here it is.” He showed Harry what he was hiding behind his back. It was some sort of rectangular package… it looked like some sort of video game.

          “What is that?” asked Harry skeptically.

          “The single greatest thing ever…” said Dudley, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The secret to my success…”

          “How did that help you?”

          “Well,” said Dudley, “whenever I got hungry, I just popped this video in, and watched it. Soon, I was far too busy laughing to worry about eating. Not only that, but this video taught me everything I know, like logic. I didn’t understand it in school, but after just watching this, I finally comprehended how, if you weigh as much as a duck, then you are a witch.”

          “Oh really…” said Harry, wondering if Hermione weighed as much as a duck.

          “Come on,” said Dudley, beckoning Harry to the living room, “let’s watch it!”

          Harry, having already finished his little amount of summer homework, had nothing better to do. So, he decided to join Dudley in watching his little video. Though, he would have liked to have had some time to ponder and research that black phoenix he saw.

          They sat down, and Dudley put the movie on. For the next hour and a half, they bonded like they had never before. Laughing, repeating lines, and making fun of the movie together, it was a truly new experience to Harry, and he liked it.

          For the next week, Harry and Dudley watched the movie several times each day, while Uncle Vernon was at work, and Aunt Petunia was away visiting friends or shopping. Fairly soon, Harry and Dudley were practically acting out each scene together, Harry felt as though he were back at Hogwarts with Ron… only there had he ever had this much fun.

          But, once Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia popped their horrible heads into the house, Dudley transformed into a slightly less mean version of the way he used to be; he didn’t want to look too changed in front of his parents. Apparently, he still thought very highly of them.

          Finally, the day came when the Dursleys would leave for Hawaii, and Harry would be sent to Mrs. Figg’s house. Either out of a newfound respect for him, or a prolonged fear that he may break the magical rules to get revenge on them (Harry chose the latter) the Dursleys did not drive him to her house, but were allowing them to walk to her house since it was so close.

          “There’d better not be anything missing when we get home, boy,” said Uncle Vernon to Harry, face to face as he was stepping into his car.

          “Of course not Uncle Vernon,” said Harry, trying not to laugh. He shot Harry one last dirty look, and then climbed inside his car, and shut the door.

          “Goodbye Harry!” yelled Dudley, sticking his head and one arm out of his window As the car was pulling out of the driveway. That was a mistake.

          “What did you say?” asked Uncle Vernon, immediately stopping the car. Harry saw Dudley go red, recognizing what he did.

          “I… um… said goodbye to Harry,” said Dudley nervously.

          “You do NOT say goodbye to that… thing!” said Aunt Petunia.

          “Oh come off it mom!” said Dudley. There were expressions of shock on Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and even Harry’s face. Dudley never spoke like that to his parents.

          “Dudley… I…”

          “Mom, why do you insist on treating Harry like that?” asked Dudley, appearing to look more confident while speaking freely now. “He’s just as much a part of this family as I am and yet you keep treating him like he’s some sort of diseased alien!”

          “Dudley!” yelled Aunt Petunia. “He is NOTHING like us! He does the… magic thing! He’s.. different!”

          “Didn’t you learn that we should accept other’s differences in Elementary School, mom?” said Dudley. “Trust me, I’ve been spending the last week with Harry, and let me tell you, I wish I’d been spending the last fifteen years like that with him!”

          “DUDLEY!” yelled Uncle Vernon. “You’ve been associating yourself with him!? What is wrong with you!?”
          “No, what’s wrong with YOU dad?” said Dudley.

          “We will discuss this later, Dudley,” said Uncle Vernon, immediately turning the car back on, and backing the rest of the way out of the driveway. He evidently wanted to get out of there as fast a possible, before someone heard him say ‘magic’ or ‘wizard’.

          “Goodbye Harry!” yelled Dudley from the car as they began speeding down the road. “Please, don’t write to me! We’ve got some pretty big animals at school, and I don’t want Hedwig to get hurt! And don’t forget! We are the knight who say-” His last word was cut off, they were far away now. But, Harry knew he said ‘nee’.

          Harry stood there for a few seconds, still staring down the road that the Dursleys had driven away on. From that moment on, he knew that things would be completely different between him and Dudley.

          Harry suddenly snapped back to reality, and remembered that he had to go to Mrs. Figg’s house. He shuddered at the thought: cats everywhere, mess everywhere, old, cranky lady… yuck. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the rest of his summer vacation at her house. Harry stuck his hands into his pockets and began to think… what else could he do?

          Then, he felt a piece of parchment in his pocket, and he pulled it out. Harry hit himself on the forehead for not remembering Ron’s map. Why spend the rest of summer with Mrs. Figg when he could spend it with Ron?

          Harry dashed back up to his room, and got ready to leave. Hedwig was in no condition to travel, she was still recovering from her massacre. That made him think: since the whole Weasley were wizards, and five out of nine of them are fully qualified, they should know more than he does about these things. Maybe they would know something about black phoenixes.

          Harry packed up all of his possessions (which did not amount to much) into his cauldron. He swing  the cauldron onto his broom, and he put Hedwig in his jacket. Harry walked downstairs, and opened the door. The air was warm, but not humid at all. The sky was a perfect blue, and he was about to spend the rest of his summer with his best friend.          Though, something was still troubling him: then black phoenix. But, he shouldn’t let it get to him that much though. Chances are, Hedwig must’ve met it on one of her trips, and got in a fight. Maybe it came back to get revenge. And the fact that he fainted, maybe it didn’t even have to do with his scar at all, maybe he bumped his head on his door (he was getting taller) or, maybe Uncle Vernon hit him, even though they had never physically abused Harry before. All in all, it was not that big of a deal, and Harry shouldn’t let it spoil his good time.

          Suddenly, as Harry came out of thought, he realized he was already flying in the air. Harry lost his balance for a second at the initial shock, but then, he realized what was going on and got his balance back. Flying came more naturally to Harry than anything else in the magic world, which was probably why he didn’t even realize that he was doing it.

          Harry took out Ron’s map and attempted to decode the horrible handwriting. Ron’s house didn’t seem too far away from where Harry was, and if he went fast enough, he could make it there within the hour.

          Harry flew for what felt like only a few minutes to him since he was enjoying it immensely, it had been the first time he had flown in almost a moth, and it was and even greater feeling than he had remembered. It was no wonder he had that dream of flying, he was craving it so much.

          Ron’s house was coming into focus, right beneath the clouds Harry was flying through. It was not that hard to miss, it was a massive house that leaned over to one side so much that you would expect it to fall over in the Muggle world, but in the magical world anything was possible.

          Harry zoomed down towards the house faster than he had ever done so before. He  had never flown in such an open place as the open sky itself before, so he had never had the opportunity to gain as much speed. As he went closer and closer to the house, the anticipation of meeting Ron rose.

          Harry was soon just a few feet from the Weasley’s house, he slowed down considerably, and when he was near their door, he came to a complete stop and dismounted. He put his broom over his shoulder, and walked up to the door.

          Harry, not being used to wizard doors, looked around for a doorbell. Instead, he found a shiny sphere that was attached to a gold rod coming out of the house right next to the door. Harry put his hand on the sphere, and it turned green. Harry then pushed down on it and when he pushed it all the way down, the entire Weasley house flashed a bright green, the same as the sphere had.

          This took Harry by such a surprise that he tripped over his cauldron that was behind him, and landed on one of his books. As he was rubbing his back from the initial pain, the door opened, and Mrs. Weasley appeared in the doorway. She was a plump woman with fiery red hair and a loving personality. As soon as she saw Harry lying on the ground, she cupped her hands over her mouth and ran out to him.

          “Oh my goodness! Harry! What are you doing here?” she asked.

          “Well… err… uh…” mumbled Harry.

          “Oh, say no more! We’re happy to have you, you know, and I’m sure Ron will be just delighted to see you. Come in, come in!” she offered Harry her arm, and he grabbed onto it. She helped him up, and they walked into the house. Once they were inside, Harry stood in the middle of the kitchen, looking around for Ron.

          “Harry dear, Ron’s up in his room. You can put your stuff up there.”

          Harry nodded, and walked over to the stairs. He had been to Ron’s room so many times before, he knew where to go. But, just as he was about to go on the first step, he saw Mrs. Weasley coming down the stairs. She looked at him and her mouth dropped open.

          “Harry!” she said, “What- what are you doing here?”

          “Uh, you just let me in,” replied Harry, slightly confused.

          “But I’ve been her the whole time- oh no…” her face suddenly turned to an look of anger. “Those twins! Arg!” She stomped down the rest of stairs, and Harry moved out of the way. Just as he turned around though, he was face-to-face with another Mrs. Weasley. The Mrs. Weasley that opened his door was right behind that one, each had an expression of surprise and confusion on her face.

          Even though oddities were probably common in the world of wizardry, Harry had never experienced anything like this before. Seeing three copies of the same person at the same place and time was very strange. Suddenly, the Mrs. Weasley that Harry met when he turned around, spoke:

          “Fred! George! This time you’ve gone too far!” she said to the two others. Both turned red, and they said the same thing at once:  

          “What do you mean?!”

          “Creating some sort of item that transforms you into someone else! The world just isn’t prepared for that sort of thing, and neither is this house!”

          “How dare you yell at me! I’m your mother!” yelled the Mrs. Weasley that opened the door.

          “Fred, George! Change back right now!” said the Mrs. Weasley that Harry had met on the staircase.

          “No, you change back!” said the other two.

          Harry felt so confused right now, his brain should have exploded a while ago.

          “Sorry Fred, sorry George,” said the Mrs. Weasley that was on the staircase calmly as she pointed to her eyes. “Your eyes gave it away, your item needs tweaking. I’ll never forget that you both are the only ones in the family with blue eyes.”

          After these words, the other two Mrs. Weasley’s  took out their wands, and pointed them at themselves.

          “Epistrefus!” they both yelled. Their skin suddenly turned into a clear liquid that quickly dripped off, collecting in a small puddle at their feet. When all the liquid had dripped off, Harry recognized what was left as Fred and George Weasley, Ron’s older, identical twin brothers.

          “I can’t believe you would play a trick on Harry! Especially since it’s because of him that you even have those things at all!” said the real Mrs. Weasley.

          “Yeah, sorry Harry. It was just a perfect opportunity,” said Fred.

          “We saw you flying in, and we just finished some of them,” said George.

          “Oh, it’s okay,” said Harry, “I liked them. What were they anyway?”

          Fred and George looked at each other and smiled. They both reached into their pocket, and pulled them inside-out. About fifty, tiny gray spheres fell out, though they stayed suspended in mid-air due to Fred and George’s magic.

          “They’re Mirror Munchies! Only a galleon each, a huge bargain!” said George, smiling. “They transform you into whatever person is closest to you. Best used in crowds.”

          “They took us forever to get right,” said Fred. “Once we tested one on Ginny, and she turned into her toast. Once we got it to only change into people, we tested it on Ron, and every time he got near someone, he turned into that person. Now that was a confusing day.”

          “Here Harry,” said George, offering several Mirror Munchies to Harry. “Take some as a token of our gratitude. If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have been able to get all the ingredients to make them.” Harry took them all and put them into his pocket.

          “Oh yeah, and that’d be too bad. It’s a real sad world without Fred and George’s crazy stuff,” said a voice coming down the stairs. Harry turned and saw Ginny Weasley coming down. Harry was amazed at the sight of her. He knew that she had a crush on him, but had never returned those feelings until now.

          Ginny must’ve grown over the summer, she was now just a little shorter than Harry, and her long flaming-red hair went all the way down her back. She walked over to a cabinet, took out a green apple, bit into it, and then walked back upstairs. Harry could still hear her eating, and he kept his eyes on her as long as he could until Fred’s voice broke his daze.

          “Oh, don’t mind her Harry,” he said. “She’s just upset because she woke up four different days as four different animals. I mean, I can understand not liking being a giraffe, what with your head hitting the ceiling and all, but you’d think she’d like waking up and seeing a horse or a flamingo face in the mirror, I thought girls liked those sort of things.”

          They all laughed, and Harry decided to head up to Ron’s room. He once again grabbed his stuff, and ran up the crooked steps to the very top. He came to a door that had a plaque on it that read: “Ronald’s Room”. Harry knocked, and he heard Ron say, “Come in.” Harry opened the door, and walked through.

          Ron was on his bed reading some Quidditch book. When he looked over and saw Harry, his face turned to a smile, and he walked over.

          “Well I’m glad I went through all that trouble to make that map now,” said Ron.

          “Yeah, thanks”, said Harry as he set his stuff down on the floor. “That saved my life. The Dursleys were leaving for Hawaii, and if I didn’t have your map, I would have had to stay with Mrs. Figg all summer.”

           Harry walked over to Ron’s bed to see what he was reading. The book was laying cover-up on top of the covers, it was Quidditch Tips and Tricks. Seeing the look of confusion on Harry’s face, Ron spoke.

          “Well, it’s a new year, and since there’s an open spot on the Gryffindor Quidditch team, I guess I might try out.” He shrugged his shoulders, and looked at Harry for his approval. Harry had been the youngest player on a Hogwarts Quidditch team, and his team had only lost one game while he was on it. He was the unspoken champion of Hogwarts Quidditch.

          “Sure, you’ll do great Ron,” said Harry who wasn’t absolutely sure if that was true. Ron was an okay player, but Harry never seen him show the level of skill necessary to be on a team. Just then, one of the reasons Harry had come to the Weasley’s, besides to be with Ron, came to his mind: the black phoenix.

          “Uh… Ron?” proposed Harry.

          “Yeah Harry,” replied Ron, who began looking at his book again.

          “Um… well… your dad’s a wizard, and so are three of you brothers and I was just… well… wondering if any of them had ever come across a… black bird before…”

          Ron lifted up his head from the book, and raised an eyebrow.

          “What kind of ‘black bird’,” he asked.

          “More of a… black phoenix,” said Harry.

          “A black phoenix? What are you talking about Harry…” then suddenly his face dropped and went white, “did you see something Harry? What was it? Does it have something to do with You-Know-Who?”

          Harry didn’t know what to say to this, so he just decided to tell the truth. He told Ron about what he saw when he entered his room, and what it had done to Hedwig. Ron was silent throughout the whole thing until the very end.

          “Well, I’ve never heard of such a thing, Harry. But-”, he was cut off by the “dong” of a clock somewhere. Harry knew from previous experience that this was an alarm to signal when someone arrived home.

          “Hey! Dad’s home!” said Ron excitedly. “If anyone of us knows anything about it, it’d be him!” Ron jumped up, and burst through the door when Harry stopped him.

          “No Ron!” he yelled after him. “I don’t want them to think I’m crazy or anything, seeing a black phoenix, or that I got scared of a bird if it turns out to be nothing!” Ron turned around and looked at him.

          “Harry,” said Ron, “this is more serious than a bird, an unknown phoenix somehow got into your room, attacked your owl, and put you into a state of unconsciousness! We have to know what it was!” He looked up, and saw the look of pleading on Harry’s face.     “Fine!” said Ron, changing hid mind. “If it makes you feel any better, I’ll make up some other story.”

          “Thanks Ron,” said Harry.

          They walked downstairs quietly, and when they got to the bottom, Harry and Ron saw Mr. and Mrs. Weasley at the table talking quietly. Harry and Ron came up to them.

          “Hey dad,” said Ron, “uh… guess what Harry and I think we just saw through my… uh… telescope.”

          Mr. Weasley looked at Ron suspiciously, stabbed a piece of meat with his fork, put it in his mouth, and started chewing. As he did so, he replied, “What? What did you see?”

          “We think we saw a black phoenix,” said Ron.

          At this reply, Mr. Weasley swallowed his meat quickly and Mrs. Weasley dropped her fork that was almost to her mouth.

          “Now, what makes you think that son?” said Mr. Weasley in a loud voice.

          “Well um… uh…” mumbled Ron.

          “It looked just like a normal Phoenix,” said Harry, “only, it had black flames instead of red.”

          Both Mr. and Mrs. Weasley’s eyes fell upon him, and then Mr. Weasley spoke,

          “Well then,” he said, “if you ever see this ‘black phoenix’ thing again, um… call me up and I’ll have a look, alright?” Harry and Ron nodded, and they sprinted back up the stairs not saying anything until they reached the top.

          “What was that about?” Ron asked Harry when they arrived back in his room.

          “Well,” said Harry, “they either know nothing about it, or they do know something and they don’t want to tell us.”

          “Yeah well, I’ll go with the second one,” said Ron.

          “Me too,” said Harry, “but for now, let’s not worry about it. Hey, I’ve got an idea, let’s go practice some Quidditch in your yard, ok?”

          “Yeah, that sounds good,” said Ron. He grabbed his ancient broomstick from the corner of his room and he and Harry set out to play. They were later joined by Fred and George, and had a mini-game: Harry and Fred against Ron and George. Ron must have been practicing over the summer as Harry was having a tough time keeping up with him, even though he was on the superior broom. The game kept progressing for hours until both teams were tied at four-hundred-thirty. Harry, having been putting off catching the Snitch for so long as to prolong the game, decided it was time to stop, and caught in just a few seconds. After a few exclamations of accolade, they all went in.

          Just as they got inside the house, Mrs. Weasley had dinner ready, and they sat down at the unusually long Weasley table. The first thing Harry noticed as he sat down was Ginny. She was looking even nicer than usual dressed in light-blue not-formal dress. It made him notice her face even more. She appeared to have an expression on her face that read she both did and didn’t want to be seen. Harry guessed she was trying to look nice for him since she liked him, but didn‘t want to actually say anything. Nevertheless, Harry and all of the Weasleys sat began to eat.

          Harry hadn’t eaten so well in over two months. Even though Dudley’s horrific diet was over, the Dursleys decided to still keep Harry on it while they ate normally. Harry almost jumped in surprise when Mr. Weasley asked him is he wanted seconds.

          Despite the wonderful dinner, Harry was feeling quite uncomfortable as Mr. Weasley stared at him for almost the entire time. Harry noticed that Mrs. Weasley was doing the same, and wondered what it was all about. Perhaps they did know something he didn’t. Harry ate the rest of his dinner very self-consciously, and when he finished, Ron declared that he had had enough and they both went upstairs, and to bed.

          Harry climbed into bed, and he and Ron talked for a while: about Quidditch, Hogwarts, just about everything that came to their minds. After they started running out of ideas, though, both of them slowly slipped into unconsciousness.

          Just as Harry was about to fall asleep, he heard a scratch at the window. He sleepily glanced over, and saw nothing there. As he looked away, trying to go back to sleep, he heard it again, louder this time. He sat up in his bed, climbed out, and went to the window. It was raining outside, and Harry could hear the thunder rolling in the distance, getting closer. Harry inspected the area, but saw nothing. He sighed and blamed the wind. Just as Harry was about to go back to his bed, lightning lit up the sky and a face appeared in the window.