Harry was locked in the cupboard again. His stomach growled in protest against three days without food. He was strictly monitored when he was brought out, and had been unable to smuggle anything into his cupboard. Water alone wasn't enough to quell the hunger pangs. He curled in on himself and tried to find oblivion as an escape from his situation.

The cupboard door opened and he felt a feeble thump on his back before hearing the door close and the padlock snap shut again. When he managed to summon up the energy, he turned and found a nearly empty packet of crackers on the floor. Relieved, he tried unsuccessfuly to ration them. As he licked the crumbs from the packaging, he hoped this was a sign that his punishment would soon be over. Vernon and Petunia had been much more irate lately, with him at least, and they now punished him for much less cause than before. His current predicament had come about when he had failed to serve Vernon a prompt second helping during dinner. For his deficiency in predicting his uncle's whims, Vernon had smacked him soundly and yelled that if he didn't want the proper family to eat, then he wouldn't be getting anything himself.

In the evening, after he heard the dinner party guests leaving (what did they do to get such favourable treatment?), he heard Petunia and Vernon mention 'the boy' and perked his ears up.

'They sent a letter... ...checking up on him... ...if we don't reply..."

He heard only snatches before they went upstairs and out of earshot. He wondered if there had been a letter for him, and what would make anyone interested in him. He fell asleep amid fantasies of his parents who, he was sure (mostly), would like him better than Dudley.

The doorbell woke him the next morning and he pressed his ear to the grate on the cupboard door to give himself warning of his relatives' doings. He felt his uncle come down the stairs and listened as Vernon made his way to the front door.

'What's the likes of you doing here?' he heard his uncle thunder. 'You don't belong where respectable people live.'

'Then I must surely find welcome here', said a cold voice. 'But I shall sadly not be taking advantage of that. As soon as my errand is complete I will hasten on my way. I have been sent to check on Potter. He is now a burden on my time as he is on yours, although I, fortunately, will be only shortly inconvenienced.'

'Well, if you want to see the boy so much, have a gander, much the good it'll do you.'

Footsteps approached and the door was unlocked and opened. 'Out with you, boy!' Vernon barked at him. Then, turning to the man beside him, he said, in not much more pleasant tones, 'Well, what do you make of him? He isn't much, but he's a darn sight better than he would have been if we hadn't taken him in.'

Snape stared at Potter. He was nine and rail-thin and six inches shorter than his cousin who lingered in a door frame, too reluctant at his presence to enter.

'Better than what? He's clearly malnourished, and those bruises aren't making him any prettier. This is exactly the sort of thing that I am not supposed to find on this inspection. Thanks to your less than perfect care, I now have to endure an extension of his miserable presence as I escort him to Dumbledore.'

'Some gratitude, after all we've done for him. Do we at least receive compensation for the past eight years?' said Petunia, who had joined them.

'The satisfaction of a job well done', Snape tossed back sarcastically. 'If we send him back here, I'm sure he'll arrive with a gift basket for all your hard work. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must be off and I'll be taking him with me. You there!', turning to Harry at last, 'follow me.'

'Do as he says, boy', said Vernon. 'Take your things and go.'

Harry ducked back inside his cupboard and, after a moment of pondering, pulled his pillow out of its case and shoved his two changes of clothes inside along with all his socks and the yo-yo that he had found at school. He then pulled his shoes onto his feet and exited the cupboard.

'You don't even have a normal luggage? Well, if you're quite done, hurry up, I'm not here on vacation', Snape called from the front porch, having already made his way outside.

Harry went out to the man whose name he didn't even know and followed as the man strode briskly down to the street corner.

'Hold!' the man said, with his hand extended stiffly. Harry grasped it and felt a sudden squeezing along his entire body. He tried to release the hand but found he had no control over any part of his body. In the middle of thinking that he was surely going to pass out, he found a gasping breath entering his lungs. They were standing before massive wrought iron gates, behind which a castle loomed in the distance.