I felt I was neglecting you Hyperkitti, my sole reviewer. So here's a lovely long chapter just for you. REQUIANA
On the evening of the 24th of August, Harry sat with growing despair on his bed. Re-reading Ron's letter again, he sank deeper into his pit of despair. Ron hadn't mentioned anything about getting to Diagon Alley. He was sure they wouldn't pick him up. Not after the last time. The Dursleys wouldn't be too happy with another fireplace blasted into the sitting room wall.
With a leaden feeling in his stomach he went downstairs. It wasn't really worth a try but what choice did he have? On entering the kitchen he noticed Dudley eating yet more chocolate. The diet had been thrown aside when he had shown considerable force in the schools boxing tournament. He now terrified the life out of his mother and she fed him whatever he wanted. He hadn't won fairly you understand. But any show of force terrified Petunia, and this was considerable force. The poor opponent's ankle was recovering very slowly from his fall from the ring.
Uncle Vernon threw Harry a glance that seemed to suggest he was a rather large slug. The chances of a lift were dwindling already; his Uncle obviously hadn't gotten over the 'owl incident'. 'Yes?' he barked.
'I was er, wondering if I could er, get a lift to London tomorrow.' On seeing the look on Vernon's face he continued swiftly, 'Or you could lend me the money for a train fare? I wouldn't mind, I'm used to trains' he began to babble, 'It wouldn't be any trouble, I could hope off to get my school things-' He'd gone too far. Damn, he shouldn't have mentioned the school. He was screwed.
'Well' His Uncle said, with a growing expression of nastiness. 'We could I supposeā¦If we weren't off for the weekend with Mr. Boswick! Or have you forgotten him! Let me remind you, he's only the boss of my boss who we're taking away so he can promote me! You've obviously forgotten. You're staying with Mrs. Figg.' After this outburst Harry wasn't likely to forget again. How could he have been so stupid?
He climbed the stairs feeling weary with disappointment and flopped down on his bed. His trunk was packed but he wasn't going anywhere.
The next morning he awoke to the very loud sound of the doorbell. The Dursleys were last minute packing whilst Dudley watched some last minute television. 'I'll get it' he murmured to no one on particular. He opened the door to find a tall red-headed man on his doorstep. 'Mr. Weasley!' he exclaimed in surprise. It was indeed Arnold Weasley and for the first time since meeting him, Harry could've easily mistaken him for a muggle. He was dressed in a suit with no crumples or creases and looked almost completely normal, if a little eccentric.
'Hello Harry' he smiled down. Harry looked past him down the driveway and saw a perfectly normal red car parked in the road. In the back was Ron, grinning at him and mouthing something he couldn't make out.
He looked back into the darkness of the hall. 'Don't worry about that lift; I'll just be off now'. He was answered with a grunt as he dashed upstairs and dragged his trunk down. As he stopped panting at the doorway 'Mr. Weasley looked at him expectantly. Harry rolled his eyes and went to the kitchen door. 'See you next summer, have a nice holiday'. With that he was happily heaving his trunk down to the car. He opened the boot and noticed that some things never changed. He slid the trunk in with ease alongside bad-tempered looking TV and what seemed to be yet more biting tea-sets.
(A/N I always liked the biting tea-sets!)
