Harry
stared at the parcel for a moment. Then he reached out his hands, lifting it
from the kitchen surface. It seemed shapeless; there was no way of telling what
it was. We weighed it in his hands; it seemed neither heavy nor light...it was
not truly anything in particular.
Harry's feelings of curiosity overcame him, and he made to open the package and
see what was inside it. Yet as his fingers closed around the old, brown paper
covering it, he found he could not rip it off...
Harry
frowned in confusion. He tried to tear off the paper again...yet nothing
happened.
"What's going on?" he said aloud to himself.
He tried for a third time, and put the package back on the kitchen unit in
frustration. It was the most curious sensation Harry had ever experienced -
wanting to do something, but not being able to make your body obey your
brain...
Suddenly it hit Harry. A spell! That was why he couldn't open it. But...that
made absolutely no sense at all. If Petunia had given him the gift, why would
she make him unable to open it?
Harry glanced out of the window and panicked. The sun was getting lower.
He grabbed the parcel and the letter and ran upstairs to his room.
Throwing the two items onto his bed, he glanced around the room. He didn't have
long...he just had to gather up the essential things he might need.
He took his Firebolt, his wand, his wizard robes and a cloak; one normal warm
cloak and the other his invisibility cloak. Stuffing them into bag, he saw
again the things he had deposited onto his bed. He grabbed them, and threw them
into the bag as well.
He paused for a moment, looking around. Was there anything else he might need?
His spellbooks, his cauldron?
No, Harry thought firmly. Only take what you need. I can live without
those.
He looked around his room one final time, and his eyes fell on Hedwig and
Hermes asleep in Hedwig's cage. He wondered for a moment what to do, but
remembered suddenly that the Dursleys were coming home, and that even if they
did not look after them, someone from the Order was bound to come after they realised
he was no longer answering his letters.
"Goodbye," he said aloud.
And with that he turned, ran down the stairs, through the kitchen, and out back
into the garden.
Harry took
his bag into the garden, staring at the sun, trembling. He knew that, at last,
something was about to happen.
The bottom of sun was about to dip out of sight. Harry knew he had to watch the
sunset from beginning to end...and it was about to begin now...
He stared in anticipation, wanting nothing more than to know what was coming,
and to experience what it was.
The bottom of the sun lowered out of sight. Harry stood watching it, knowing
one single thing in his head.
It had begun.
Harry felt
himself shaking; he couldn't keep his hand steady, but he held firmly onto the
bag and continued to watch the sun. It continued to lower, slowly but steadily.
Harry heard the voice echo inside his head once more as he stared at the sun.
The voice that he had entrusted so much too...
When you see the sun lower opposite you, look to the sky. Behold, you will
find answers...
But what did it mean?
That was what he had to find out.
The sun was nearing being halfway out of sight now. Harry continued to stare at
it, shaking. He just needed to know...
It was
funny, Harry thought, how he'd never really noticed the sun before. Never
watched it rise or fall.
It was...it was beautiful.
Partially because it was going to reveal to him some answers, but also...its
orange, shimmering glow...the way its fading light illuminated the clouds with
so many astonishing colours...and the fact that it was going to give him some
answers...
The sun was nearly gone. Harry stood there, apprehensive, watching the tip of
it disappear from sight.
Suddenly, it was gone.
Harry looked to the sky as he had been directed. He could make out several
stars, faintly. He'd never been a brilliant astronomy student; stargazing had
never really appealed to him...but he saw just then, how beautiful some of the
faint glows truly were.
He carried on staring at them. They seemed to glow brighter...the sky seemed to
darken...the atmosphere around him changed...
Harry lowered his head. He stared.
He has no longer in the garden of Number Four, Privet Drive. He was certainly
still outside, that much he could make out, but the night that had fallen
around his so suddenly enveloped all that was around him. He could see faint
outlines...that was all...
Harry suddenly noticed a faint glow behind him. He began to turn, and, as he
did so, a voice spoke.
"Good evening..."
Harry faced the voice, but who it had come from he could not tell. For the glow
had suddenly brightened so much that he could not tell who it hid...