Chapter Three
A/N: Thank you for your reviews. I'll be trying to post daily so stay tuned. Please do excuse the spelling mistakes and do try to get people to read my story. Please. E-mail me at dilshan_k@hotmail.com. I love mail. This one is small but the next I assure will be much much bigger. I promise.
After reading the letter, Harry scanned the room for the object Dumbledore mentioned in the letter. But he couldn't see anything that hadn't been there earlier. It wasn't too difficult to search for something in his room as it was barely furnished and had nothing in it that he didn't take to Hogwarts at the end of the summer. What could it have been?
He re-reads the letter. It had been something he had used before, but he had used many magically powerful things. Had Hegwig lost it? But she had never before lost something; she had been a very faithful owl to him. He took another glance at Hegwig and Harry still saw great concern in them and she had barely moved since he had untied the parchment from he leg. It seemed as if she was trying to say something, but what? Sure, he could talk to snakes, but not for other animals. Was she trying to tell him something about the object Dumbledore mentioned?
According to Dumbledore, Voldemort was gaining power, very fast and Dumbledore seems to worry about him in a way he had never done. Could thing be that bad in the Wizarding world? Every time he came to the Dursley's house for the summer he was completely isolated from the Wizarding world. He felt as if he could just about do anything for a copy of the daily prophet. But just then, Hegwig fluttered her wings and got he self into a flight. He swooped around the room for a while and then dived out of the room.
It seemed as if she wanted Harry to follow her. He quickly ran towards the door but then stopped when he remembered something. Everyone who wrote to him had asked for him to be careful, so what could be so harmful in him taking his wand with him. The Dursley's weren't around and it was dark enough for no one to see him with it. So he turned around and started towards the loose floorboard where he kept his Hogwarts trunk. He pulled his trunk out and took out his wand. Without wasting time in closing it, he sprinted out of the room, down the stares and out the front door heading towards the direction where she was heading when he last saw her.
There wasn't much of a front lawn at number four Private Drive. The front yard was relatively dark except for the light from the street lamps at Private Drive and the light from the bright moon that night. He looked around but no sign of Hegwig could be seen. Where could she have gone? Then he heard a hoot, which he could clearly identify as one of Hegwig's. She must be hooting to guide him, he thought.
But if she's trying to lead him to what ever Dumbledore gave her to deliver to him, why hadn't she dropped it off in his room as usual. Was it something that you cannot carry into the house? A hipogriffin for his protection? He had met one of them before, Buckbeak who he handed over to Sirus so he could escape from the grasp of the Ministry. But where could he keep a Hipogriffin in the Dursley's house and how was he going to keep it hidden from the muggle neighbours? He put that thought aside. I'll think about it once he sees what it was, he said to him self and kept of heading the direction of the hoots. He put his wand through several belt loops of his jeans so that the point was facing forward and that there was several inches of it pointed back so that he could easily take it out.
It had been nearly two hours since he started to follow the hooting and the last hoot had been nearly fifteen minutes ago. He wasn't sure if Hegwig was still directing him. He had no idea where he was. Could it have been the hooting of another owl that sounded just like Hegwig? He was lost; he hadn't traveled much out of the Dursley's house except to school, and he hadn't surely ever traveled this away. He looked around for a landmark to remember in case he had to return but there wasn't anything-specific building or place he could call extraordinary. The area was almost abandoned.
The houses had no lights switched out and the streetlamps had gone out. There wasn't a single sound except the ones made when he inhaled and when he stepped on the concrete pavement, which was littered with tree leaves. The area reminded him of ghost towns he had read in muggle books when he use to attend an ordinary muggle school.
He stopped walking and stood there at a clear open area. He didn't want to step another foot until he heard one of Hegwig's hoots. To his right was a construction yard, which was guarded by barbwire. He could see construction vehicles and material stacked up next to a half built building, which now stood at around five storeys. To his left there was a dark alley that he could see was littered by all sort of garbage.
As he stood there he heard Hegwig's hooting once again from somewhere behind him. When he turned around to see where it was coming from, a big white ball was heading straight towards him. He almost jumped out of the way, before realizing that it was Hegwig. She hooted once more and landed sharply on top of his shoulder. Her hooting was echoing from all directions of the deserted area. Harry was more than glad to see Hegwig as he was beginning to feel a bit creepy standing in the middle of nowhere while Voldemort was hunting him down. This was just the kind of place that he expected Voldemort to hang out but Hegwig would never lead him to Voldemort, would she?
As he was thinking this over he felt as if something had touched the shoulder that was opposite to the one that Hegwig was. Harry quickly turned around startled and reached for his wand. Hegwig gave a deafening scream and took off from his shoulder. She had left a trashcan full of feathers all over his face in the process. This had slightly distracted Harry but he managed to get his wand out and pointing out by the time he had completely turned around.
Once he had completely turned around, all he could see was a dirty ragged robe. It had to be a man, but it couldn't be Voldemort. Voldemort wasn't this tall. Harry looked up and his doubts were confirmed. It wasn't Voldemort but a much more fearful face had replaced it. The man was at least seven and a half feet tall and seemed to be so broad shouldered that he couldn't fit both shoulder ends into one vision. The man was standing right in front of him with his hand still on top of Harry's shoulder. He was around the same size as Hagrid and had the same menacing look. But Hagrid was as harmless as a small child was, but was this man too the same? Was he someone Voldemort had sent to pick him up?
Harry
took a step back. He saw something that resembled a smile on the man's face. It
wasn't evil but neither was it very cheerful. What was he doing here? The man
Smiled once more at Harry. Harry couldn't even move a muscle of his body. It
seemed as if he had been rooted to the place where he was standing. Next, the
man bent down as if try to get a good look at Harry. But Harry too could see
him. The only light that was available, the one from the bright moon wasn't as
good as a electric bulbs back at the Dursley's but they were good enough for
Harry to get a good look at the man's face.