Harry's thoughts reminded him of the time, earlier in the summer, when Dudley got his new car. Dudley and his gang and the Dursleys were outside admiring the car in loud voices. Harry was listening to them through his window.

"So peaceful without that boy around, isn't it?" said his Uncle Vernon, watching Dudley and his gang whisper to each other about the car. (probably planning to go race it)

"Now how can you say that?" his Aunt sounded stern, "he hardly ever speaks. Sometimes it just feels so bad the way we treat him."

A long uneasy silence followed this. It seemed that maybe his Uncle Vernon was lost for words. Why was Harry's Aunt defending him? This confused Harry. Then came the sound of four doors opening and a car starting.

"Drive carefully boys," said Uncle Vernon, " we don't want any accidents." Harry heard him chuckle merrily. Obviously he had no idea what was about to happen to that car. The car drove off, and Harry heard his Aunt and Uncle come inside. This was the only incident (until now) in which Harry's Aunt didn't criticize, speak badly, or ignore Harry. He wrote to Lupin about it. Lupin told Harry that maybe something was changing within his Aunt. Maybe it was the fact that Harry had lived with his Aunt for sixteen years and Lupin hadn't, but he felt Lupin was dead wrong.

His thoughts continued to puzzle him, but he had to focus on the situation in front of him for now. Ginny stirred, and then got up slowly. She seemed very disoriented.

"Ginny," said Harry softly, "are you okay?"

"What?" she asked, like she had no idea where she was, then she saw Harry. "Harry!" she said suddenly, flinging her arms around him. "Oh Harry, it was terrible, so terrible."

"What happened?" he asked, "you said something about an attack."

"Dementors!" she said suddenly, scaring the @#$% out of Harry.

"Dementors?" Harry asked checking his pulse, "tell you what start from the beginning."

"Okay," she said clearing her throat, "it all started yesterday when mum told Dumbledore that she wanted to go back to the Burrow. She said she didn't want headquarters to make you hurt for Sirius any more than you already did. Dumbledore thought about it, then told her that it was a bad idea. He said You-Know-Who would probably have the house watched. Mum didn't believe him. She said they had no reason to watch the Burrow. Dumbledore said that the decision was hers, but again he advised her strongly against it. Well, when we got there this morning everything seemed all right. Mum, Ron, and I were settling back in when Fred and George left. That was when everything went wrong. First every light in the house turned off. Even the sunlight that was shining through the windows was gone. Then came this unbearable cold. It was then that we realized what was happening. We all pulled out our wands. We saw hooded figures outside the house floating past the windows. Then we heard the sound of the door falling. So many of them glided in. There were at least twenty of them in the kitchen alone. Ron and Mum started trying to make a patronus, but it was no good. They were overwhelmed. Ron passed out and Mum dropped her wand as she bent down to help him up. I was so scared, Harry. I just ran out of the kitchen straight through all of the dementors. I felt one hand grab on to my sweater so I took it off. When I reached the fireplace I picked up the floo powder and threw it in the fire. As the fire blazed green I dashed in to it yelling out Privet Drive. I wasn't sure where it would take me, but fortunately I ended up here. The last thing I remember was seeing all of your faces. Then I guess I passed out." She stopped, catching her breath.

For a moment Harry just stared at her, completely lost for words. Then regained composure and said reassuringly: " I wrote to Dumbledore as soon as Fred and George left. If anyone can help them, he can."

"Oh Harry, I don't want to stay here while they might still be in danger. Lets leave."

"How?" Harry asked.

"We'll take the Knight Bus, but come on lets go!" she said rushing him.

"Okay, okay," said Harry.

Within five minutes of dirty looks from his Uncle Vernon, Harry, Ginny and all of Harry's possessions were at the front door.

"Time to go." said Ginny, walking out.

"Wait." Harry stopped her.

"What is it?"

"Go flag down the bus, I'll be there in a minute."

"What are you going to do?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Um, okay?"

Making sure that Ginny was outside, Harry walked doubled back to the kitchen. There he found the Dursleys, all arguing quietly. They stopped when they saw him enter. Harry walked around the table to where his Aunt was, put his arms around her and said softly: "Thanks." He then turned on his heel and walked out, leaving a very confused family behind him.

Outside Ginny was standing alone with Harry's things.

"You didn't flag down the bus?" Harry asked curiously.

"No, truthfully, I wanted to see what you were doing." She said smiling, "That was a very kind thing you did. Who knows? They just might welcome you back next summer.

"Sure," said Harry, "and Hagrid will be frightened by an oversized skrewt." He watched Ginny raise her wand arm. It was then that he noticed how pretty Ginny got over the summer. He gazed at her for a second, then shook it off, remembering that she was his best friends little sister. He was slightly distracted by a large, triple-decker bus landing on the pavement in front of him. It was purple and bore the words "The Knight Bus" in large golden letters. As he grabbed on to an end of his trunk and Ginny lifted the empty owl cage, the doors of the bus opened.

"Welcome to The Knight Bus," said an oddly familiar voice.

They looked up and were surprised to see the face of Lupin smiling down at them. He looked young as ever but his hair was still gray and thinning.

"Well, are you getting on?" asked another familiar voice, this one female. Tonks appeared behind Lupin, her hands on his shoulders.

"Yeah, sure." said Ginny.

"Where's Stan?" Harry asked.

"Oh, he's right here," replied Tonks, "he wouldn't stop complaining about him being in charge and not us so we had to quiet him down." Stan waved merrily at Harry as he got on board.

"How'd you guys get here?" asked Ginny.

"Well, when Dumbledore got your letter he told us to get on The Knight Bus and head for Little Whinging, then he left, along with Snape and Moody," said Tonks. "So, you want to tell us what happened?" she added, her tone changing completely. Harry lay down on an empty bed as Ginny started to tell her story.

"Well, you guys remember the argument, yesterday?" she began. Harry was only half listening. Before he knew it he was asleep.