A/N: OoTP spoliers.

Chapter 3 – Hyde and Seek

"Hurry now, Harry we're almost there," said Mr Weasley as they hurried along.

"Almost where?" Harry felt like saying. They had been hurrying along on foot through Little Whinging towards another suburb Dorset Meadows for at least twenty minutes now. He was feeling tired, his stomach had a dull ache and his arm was throbbing almost painfully.

They stepped from the concrete pavement onto a dirt path and headed into a park. It was still quite early in the morning on a Sunday, and not many people were out yet. Harry could see two women jogging on the other side of the park, their golden retriever trotting along beside them. At this sight Harry felt a pang of sadness – albeit strange, this scene had reminded him of his Godfather.

Mr Weasley stopped in the middle of a small playground with trees on one side and a fort on the other. Climbing up to the top of the fort, he scanned the surrounding area in all directions and gave the thumbs-up signal to Tonks who then turned to Harry.

"Now this is highly unorthodox," she said to Harry with a grin, "but in these times we have to take risks in order to stay safe." With that Harry felt the familiar feeling of an egg being cracked open over his head. Tonks handed Harry his broom and told him to get ready. She then proceeded to tie his trunk to her broom, let Hedwig from her cage, and tied the cage to her broom as well. She then disappeared from Harry's view as she performed the Disillusionment charm on herself.

"Are we all set then," Mr Weasley's voice said from somewhere on Harry's left.

"Yes," said Tonks.

"Did you remember to do everything?" Mr Weasley questioned Tonks.

"Yes, Arthur," she said irritably.

"Okay, Harry," Mr Weasley said, "see this light here? (a light appeared) Follow that so you know where to go. But don't worry, we'll know if you stray too far."

With that the light started to rise into the air and Harry kicked off. His Firebolt rose quickly into the air, a surge of happiness and exhilaration at flying again coursing through his veins. The wind whipped through the Gryffindor Seeker's hair, making it even more unkempt as they rose high into the sky.

"Only about twenty minutes more," Harry heard from somewhere up ahead.

He was just concentrating on following that light now as he was beginning to feel dizzy and was finding it increasingly difficult to stay upright on his broom. The light faded from his sight as his broom began to dip towards a park down below.

" WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU FORGOT TO TIE HIM TO YOU!" Mrs Weasley shrieked at the top of her voice.

"I'm sorry," came a barely audible whisper from Tonks.

Mrs Weasley stormed past into the kitchen followed by Tonks and Mr Weasley, who closed the door behind them.

"What are they arguing about now?" Ron looked up from polishing his Cleansweep.

"I'm not entirely sure," said Hermione, "but I think it could be Harry." She got up from sitting next to Ron and walked over to the door and looked outside.

"Anyway," she said a mischievous grin appearing on her pretty face as she closed and locked the door, "he's going to be back soon so we had better make the most of our time together. When he gets back we're going to have a lot of cheering up to do."

Harry awoke to the sight of a beetle crawling across his glasses. He picked it up gently, and as he sat up placed it onto a blade of grass next to him. He looked around. The park wasn't as small as he thought it was. There were large trees everywhere, great big sandy paths, and flower gardens. In the distance there were two riders on horses and nearby some squirrels were frolicking about in a garden. Emerald green eyes looked in each direction, but they couldn't spot Tonks or Mr Weasley.

He slowly got to his feet and picked up and examined his Firebolt. It seemed to be in perfect condition – like it had never even been used. Harry wondered how long he had been visible once he noticed that the Disillusionment charm had worn off. If there had been a search party earlier they would have missed him…

In the distance he could see cars and red double decker buses moving along. Supposing that's where a road would be, he started walking towards the traffic with his Firebolt slung over his shoulder, thinking he could find out where he was.

As he approached the road he instantly knew where he was – Hyde Park London. He had been here once with the Dursleys for a Sunday picnic in which he had been ordered to sit in the car for two hours. Although the Dursleys never knew, he had spent those two hours wandering on his own and had just arrived back before they appeared with a sick looking Dudley who had eaten too much for lunch.

Following the main road along for a while, he came to a tube station, Marble Arch. He had decided that he couldn't fly to Grimmauld Place as he didn't really know the way and because his Disillusionment charm had worn off. So he had decided on taking the underground and walking to headquarters, as he was sure he knew the way. His only problem was he didn't have any money for a ticket.

In the subway, he picked up a discarded ticket and hunched towards the tiled walls and tried to transfigure it discreetly so it would read the present date. At least if the ticket machines rejected the metal strip, he could claim that his ticket was faulty because it had the correct date on it. It seemed to work slightly; if you squinted, the numbers formed the correct date. Harry was sure that he could have done a better job of it, but it would have to do for now. The Order was probably panicking with his disappearance and he couldn't risk being seen by any Death Eaters.

As he approached the ticket turnstiles he began to feel nervous. There were two policemen inspecting the tickets, as the machines seemed to have broken down. He decided to go ahead anyway with his plan.

The officer closest to him extended his hand for the ticket as Harry approached. As the policeman looked at it, and then at Harry, a frown started to crease his face. He beckoned the other officer over, whom on instruction, carefully looked Harry up and down.

"Been in a fight 'av yeh?" the second policemen asked Harry as he moved closer.

"No," said Harry quickly.

"Looks like a runaway this one," the policemen said placing a strong muscly hand on Harry's shoulder while turning to the other, "smells funny, and looks dishevelled, malnourished and like he could use some medical attention."

The policeman with Harry's ticket nodded and gave Harry's badly transfigured ticket back to him.

"I'll radio children's services to come and collect him from the station," ticket-returning policemen said as he began to walk off.

"Wait!" Harry said quickly, a plan starting to form in his head, "you're right, I did run away – but I'm on my way home."

Muscly hand looked at him quizzically. "Alright then, we'll take you home first. If that doesn't turn out you're coming back to the station with us."

Harry hoped that someone from the Order would be outside Number 12 Grimmauld Place when he returned.