On Monday morning, Harry made his way down to breakfast, having formulated a plan in his mind.  He was going to ask Uncle Vernon if he could leave with Ron the following night and if Uncle Vernon refused, then he would threaten to tell his friends at Grimmauld Place.  The Dursleys had been extremely frightened by Harry's welcome party at Kings Cross Station that they had laid off denying him of the things that he wanted.  This meant that Harry could now watch the news with them without dealing with horrible comments.

            He walked into the kitchen to find Aunt Petunia busying herself with the stove and Uncle Vernon sitting at the table, reading the newspaper.  As he sat down Aunt Petunia gave him the tiniest glance and Uncle Vernon shuffled his paper nervously.

            "Uncle Vernon?" Harry asked, in the most polite voice he could muster, to the newspaper sitting across from him.

            Uncle Vernon let out a loud grunt, which he took to mean that he had heard him speak.

            "My friend, Ron, from Hog-school invited me to stay with him for the rest of the summer.  Can I meet him in front of your house tomorrow at around seven?"

            "Fine…" Was the reply.

            Harry got up, not wanting the half-muffin that he was going to get for breakfast, and ran upstairs to write to Ron.

* * *

            At 7pm the next day, Harry found himself sitting by his trunk and Hedwig (in her cage) in front of the Dursley's house.  He was so happy to be going back to Grimmauld place and even to see Ron and Hermione again.

            He knew that he wouldn't have to flag down the Knight Bus, because Ron had probably already instructed the driver to come to his Aunt and Uncle's house.  So, he waited.

            The bus didn't show up until about 7:30 and by this time, the street lamps had gone on.  He heard banging overhead, and pulled his things out of the way just in time before a large purple, triple-decker bus screeched to a stop where he had just been.           

            Soon, the doors opened and a pimply boy with large ears stepped out onto the pavement.  "Good evening!  I am Stan Shunpike, and we are here to pick up Mister Harry Potter to bri-"

            "Yeah, yeah, I know!" Shouted Harry, so that Stan stopped speaking into the night and turned to face him directly.

            "All right then!" He said, "Let's get a move on!"

            He lifted Harry's trunk along with Hedwig and loaded them onto the bus.  When Harry got on, he saw three red-haired people and one brown and bushy haired person sitting at the far end.  After paying 11 sickles to Stan, he made his way to the back to sit with Mrs. Weasley, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione.

            "Hullo, mate!" Said Ron, happily.

            "Hi,"  Harry said to everyone.

            "Hello, Harry dear," said Mrs. Weasley, "I'm so glad that you could make it."

            "Harry!  It's great to see you!"

            Harry sat down in-between Ron and Hermione, who glanced at each other nervously.

            Harry, guessing what they were nervous about, said, "I'm okay…about Sirius, you know."

            They both smiled at him and Hermione actually hugged him.  It took him a few minutes to fully recover from this shock, before he said, "So, how's your summer been?"

            "We'll talk about it later," said Ron, "too many people here."  And as Harry looked around, he noticed seven or eight other witches and wizards, not including Stan Shunpike and Ernie, the driver.

            In no time at all, Stan was shouting, "Grimmauld Place, right-o you five!"  And soon, they were walking up the steps to number twelve.  As soon as Harry entered the place, five people rushed up to greet him: Lupin, Mudungus Fletcher, Tonks, Moody, and Bill Weasley.

            He took one look around the place and instantly knew - he was finally back where he belonged.