Harry woke with a start and sat up in a cold sweat, heart racing and
panting silently. The dream had seemed so real. It was the same usual
one, mother pleading, green light, rushing wind, and then that bone
chilling cold, high pitched laugh. But, ever since Voldemort's return the
dream had occurred even more frequently than before.
Harry glanced at his watch, 5:54. He sighed out loud and wished himself a Happy Birthday. Just then an owl he recognized as Pig came flying up and started tapping madly on his window. Quick as a flash Harry was up, feet tip-toeing as quietly as possible across the cold, hardwood floor. When he reached the window he thrust it open, only to fell a gust of cool night air collide with his face. Not bothering to close the window, whose air was starting to feel refreshing, he tried to silently chase down his best friend, Ron Weasley's owl. As he caught the miniature version of an owl right before it flew into his forehead he saw an unfamiliar owl swoop in, drop a letter on his desk, pause for a moment sipping from Hedwig's water dish (she was out hunting) and soar out of the open window. Curious, he tossed Pig's letter away and picked up the letter from the unfamiliar owl. But Pig, seeing the letter she had so "expertly" delivered was not going to be read first, he started flying around the room hooting loudly. Seeing that this was causing an extremely loud racket, Harry, not wanting to wake the Dursleys, picked up Pig's letter, and tore it open Pig instantly ceased making such a commotion.
"Dear Harry", it read
"How has your holiday been going? Everything is fine here. Fred and George have gotten a new owl, Beady. But, I just don't know how they came across the money." Here Harry felt a stinge of guilt, he still had not informed Ron of the money he had given the twins. He continued reading. "Anyway, Beady has been carrying packages in and out of their window, undoubtedly Weasley's Wizard Wheezes because they have mad quite an effort to keep mum from noticing. Sorry I haven't written in a while, we were in Argentina visiting Bill, but you'll never guess why we got to go! Dad won the sack o' galleons game. . ." and here Harry read a lengthy explanation that basically explained muggle lottery, except you entered your wand type instead of numbers. After the explanation Harry's excitement rose as he read the next line,
"Harry, you have to come to our house now that we're back from vacation. How about Sunday, at 1:00 PM? Ask the muggles about the time but don't worry, we are coming to get you, we may just need to change the time. You would of course stay the rest of the summer and catch the train back to Hogwarts. Write back with the answer.
See you soon,
Ron"
Harry sat there having an extremely strong urge to jump up and yell with excitement. He was finally going to leave the Dursleys! This summer had seemed so long and endless –the Durlseys had not yet forgotten the Ton Tounge Toffee.- Now, the hard part came: When to ask Uncle Vernon? Sitting there, trying to think of a good way and time to ask without having him recollect his last encounter with the Weasleys, Harry's eyes fell upon the un-opened letter and he forgot his problem instantly.
Harry glanced at his watch, 5:54. He sighed out loud and wished himself a Happy Birthday. Just then an owl he recognized as Pig came flying up and started tapping madly on his window. Quick as a flash Harry was up, feet tip-toeing as quietly as possible across the cold, hardwood floor. When he reached the window he thrust it open, only to fell a gust of cool night air collide with his face. Not bothering to close the window, whose air was starting to feel refreshing, he tried to silently chase down his best friend, Ron Weasley's owl. As he caught the miniature version of an owl right before it flew into his forehead he saw an unfamiliar owl swoop in, drop a letter on his desk, pause for a moment sipping from Hedwig's water dish (she was out hunting) and soar out of the open window. Curious, he tossed Pig's letter away and picked up the letter from the unfamiliar owl. But Pig, seeing the letter she had so "expertly" delivered was not going to be read first, he started flying around the room hooting loudly. Seeing that this was causing an extremely loud racket, Harry, not wanting to wake the Dursleys, picked up Pig's letter, and tore it open Pig instantly ceased making such a commotion.
"Dear Harry", it read
"How has your holiday been going? Everything is fine here. Fred and George have gotten a new owl, Beady. But, I just don't know how they came across the money." Here Harry felt a stinge of guilt, he still had not informed Ron of the money he had given the twins. He continued reading. "Anyway, Beady has been carrying packages in and out of their window, undoubtedly Weasley's Wizard Wheezes because they have mad quite an effort to keep mum from noticing. Sorry I haven't written in a while, we were in Argentina visiting Bill, but you'll never guess why we got to go! Dad won the sack o' galleons game. . ." and here Harry read a lengthy explanation that basically explained muggle lottery, except you entered your wand type instead of numbers. After the explanation Harry's excitement rose as he read the next line,
"Harry, you have to come to our house now that we're back from vacation. How about Sunday, at 1:00 PM? Ask the muggles about the time but don't worry, we are coming to get you, we may just need to change the time. You would of course stay the rest of the summer and catch the train back to Hogwarts. Write back with the answer.
See you soon,
Ron"
Harry sat there having an extremely strong urge to jump up and yell with excitement. He was finally going to leave the Dursleys! This summer had seemed so long and endless –the Durlseys had not yet forgotten the Ton Tounge Toffee.- Now, the hard part came: When to ask Uncle Vernon? Sitting there, trying to think of a good way and time to ask without having him recollect his last encounter with the Weasleys, Harry's eyes fell upon the un-opened letter and he forgot his problem instantly.