"Hey, Dudley," Harry said, trying to sound happy.
"Who may I ask are you guys?" Petunia asked.
"We are Ron, Hermione, and Draco," said Draco, pointing at each as he named them.
"Didn't we see you last year?" Vernon asked Ron.
"Yes, I was one of the people who came to take Harry to the Quidditch World Cup," Ron said.
"And what are you doing here this time?" Vernon said.
"Who cares?" Dudley asked, his eyes fixed on Hermione.
"I thought you were on our side," Petunia angrily yelled at him.
"There are no sides," Harry said.
"What are they doing here?"
"Um," Harry said. He wasn't supposed to talk about magic, but in this case, to tell the truth he kind of had to. "I wished that I could talk to my friends longer when you told me to hang up yesterday. When I got back upstairs, wishing owls were sitting there and suddenly Ron and Hermione appeared where one of them was. Then Ron wished he knew who sent Hermione a letter, and Draco appeared out of thin air where he had been. Then, when I was about to wish them back home, they all said at the same time the same wish, telling me what to say and the third owl vanished. I answered the door
because Ron and Hermione are getting picked up."
Dudley still had his eyes on Hermione. "I think we should just let Harry's friends go home. I mean, their parents will be worried, right?"
Just then, the doorbell rang. Ron's parents were there.
"Hello, you must be the Dursleys. We came last year to pick up Harry for the Quidditch World Cup. Somehow, Ron and his friend Hermione Apparated right to your house last night. They sent us an owl stating that they were stranded here and needed me to pick them up. May I take my children home now?" Mrs. Weasley said.
"No, you may not. I need to talk to, Hermione you said her name was, well I need to talk to her," said Dudley as he grabbed her with one hand and pulled her away.
"What is he doing?" said Ron and Vernon.
"I don't know," said the rest of the group.
Dudley took Hemione into the upstairs. On the way there, Hermione saw a sign that said, "The Doom Room." Dudley pushed her into the room and locked her in. He then walked back downstairs.
"Where's Hermione?"
"Going to the lavatory," Dudley replied as he grabbed Ron and pulled him upstairs.
"Where is he going?" Harry asked Uncle Vernon.
Uncle Vernon smiled guiltily. "Nowhere."
"You obviously know, this is your house."
"If you want to know, then follow him," Vernon replied.
"Fine, I think I will!" Harry said as he beckoned for Draco to follow, along with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
They all reached the room labeled, "The Doom Room." "Harry, was that room there before?" Draco asked.
"No, it wasn't."
"Do you think that it is a trick?" Draco asked Harry nervously.
"What is going on, Harry?" said Mr. Weasley.
"I don't know."
The hallway seemed to never end. Finally, Harry ran into Dudley, who grabbed the four and pushed them all into the room. Inside, there were five snakes, four of which were dead. The remaining one, Harry realized, was the exact same boa constricter he himself had set loose at the zoo. It was curled all around Hermione, and it looked like she was having trouble breathing.
"Harry, help!" Ron said. One of the other snakes had awaken and was now advancing on Ron. Suddenly Harry remembered--he could speak Parseltounge! "Stop!" Harry said in a hiss. The snakes immediately stopped and all curled up, asleep. They saw a door on the other side of the room, and the six all went through this door. On the other side, they saw hundreds of combinations, all flying around. "The combinations must be how to open the next door!" Harry said.
"Okay. Draco, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, grab that side of the room. Harry, Ron and I will grab this side. There are safes all over the room, each with a number. Grab the combination and try it on this one," Hermione said, pointing to the safe right in front of the door. On it, the number "822" shone brightly in gold letters. However, before they even had time to start, they heard a familiar scream from the snake room.
"Draco? Are you there honey?" came a voice from the room, breathlessly.
"Draco! Is this another one of your pranks?" came the cold voice of Draco's dad, Lucius.
"Harry, can you help them? We'll work on this while you get them," said Hermione and Draco. Harry nodded.
Harry headed back through the way he came and saw a terrible sight--Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were being held down by the snakes! And right next to them was, "Dudley!"
"Harry, I am not supposed to be here!" Dudley said. "Did you 'magic' me here? I'm telling!"
"Mr. Potter, can you help me out here?" said Mr. Malfoy.
"Back off!" said Harry in a hiss. Once again, the snakes drew off of Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy and Dudley. Dudley sprinted out of the door he had came in and locked it shut again, panicstricken. "Come on," Harry said to a dumbfounded Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy.
"Harry! Did you get them?" Draco said.
"Yes, they are right here!" Harry said. Suddenly, he remembered something. Mr. Weasley was there. Arthur Weasley came up to Harry to make sure he was okay and saw Draco's parents staring him in the face.
"Lucius?! Are you responsible for this?"
"No, Arthur Weasley, why are you here?" Lucius said, and Harry inturrupted.
"Dudley is playing another one of his pranks on me. That boy you saw? That was my cousin. We just need to find the right combination. That will open the door, and then we will see where it leads to," Harry said.
The eight people all searched for at least an hour. Finally, after 700 combinations had been tried...
"I got it!" Draco exclaimed. "On this paper it says that this works for safe number 822!"
"Great job!" said Harry.
"Splendid," said Ron.
"Can we get out of here already?" said the Malfoys.
"Why, scared of the flying papers?" said Arthur Weasley.
"No, I just came to get Draco and go home, not to be locked in this 'Doom Room' here!"
"Well, let's go then," said both Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Malfoy.
"Wow, did our mums just agree on something?" said Ron and Draco.
"That's a first!" Ron said.
"Look, let's just get a move on to the next challenge," Draco said.
The eight of them went through the next passageway to see two different paths to take. "We need to split up," Harry told the group.
"How about Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, Ron, and me, and in the other group, Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy, Draco, and Harry?" said Hermione.
Harry wanted to be with his friends, but it seemed that this was the most logical split. Harry therefore went down the passageway with the Malfoy family.
Finally, about ten minutes later, he ran into a door. They pushed it open to see the most bizarre machine ever.
In front of them was a giant vacuum. At the minute it was turned to 'off' so they looked around. It seemed that the vacuum would suck you up and then you would go through a giant tube. Then you would fall on a platform, surrounded by mice. Whichever way they let you pass is the way you would go. If you went to the left tube, you would slide back down and have to start over again. One out of ten times, the mice would let you pass through the right tube. This would lead to another platform, this time inhabited by spiders. Whichever way you were allowed to pass was the way you would go. If you went down the left tube, you would end up right in a dead end. One out of six times you would end up here. The central tube led to a platform with a sphinx. If you answered the question correctly, it seemed that it would lead exactly where the right tube at the spider platform would have led you to. If you got the question wrong, you would drop down and end up in a dead end which was inhabited by a snake. If you landed here you were lucky. All that was left to do was to pass the boggart at the end. If you did, you would go into the next room. If the boggart hurt you, then you would end up in the last dead end, this one being a true 'dead' end. Inside was Devil's Snare, which strangled you immediately when you landed in here.
"Oh. My. God," said Draco.
"Ron's probably glad he doesn't have to deal with this. He hates spiders," Harry told them. He walked over and said to Draco's dad, "You first." Harry turned on the vacuum and Mr. Malfoy shot up it. He then watched Mr. Malfoy get lucky and make it past the mice in the right passage. Then, he turned back on the vacuum and Mrs. Malfoy shot up this time. She, too, got lucky and made it past the mice correctly. "Your turn, Draco," Harry said as he pushed the button once more, and Draco shot up it. It seemed that so far, Mr. Malfoy had gotten to the sphinx. He seemed to be having trouble answering the question. Finally, he guessed and correctly got the answer, and he was allowed to walk on. Lastly, Harry stood under the vacuum and said, "Flipendo!" The button was hit and he too was dragged upwards to the slide. "I wonder what Ron and Hermione are up to right now."
Hermione and Ron were having problems. It seems that they had gone through the wrong passageway. "Did we hit a dead end?" Ron asked his parents.
"Lumos!" said Hermione, lighting the way back to the fork in the passageway. This time they took the other path, and found themselves to be the sole inhabitants of the area. Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind them. "Someone is already in the progress of trying to pass the next challenge. If you answer my question correctly, you may join them. If you answer incorrectly, you will never get out of here. Are you up to the challenge?"
"I guess so," Ron said.
"Bring it on!" said Hermione.
"I'm up to it!" said Mr. Weasley.
"Alright, if everyone else agrees," said Mrs. Weasley.
"Here is the riddle. A man is caught somewhere where he is restricted from. The natives capture him. He is allowed one final statement, and it would determine how he died. If what he said was true, he would be boiled in water. If what he said was false, he would be fried in oil. However, he was set free because of his final statement. What was the statement?"
"Easy, he said, 'you will fry me in oil.'" Hermione said quickly.
"How did you get that so quickly?" said Ron as the door opened. The sight in front of them was extremely new to them. They saw Draco and Harry on the final platform with the door, and Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were at the sphinx having trouble. They saw the vacuum and therefore cast 'flipendo' on the switch. They were all sucked up the tube. When they landed on the platform with the mice, they all were lucky and passed through the correct tube. Ron looked forward and saw the spiders, and immediately said, "Hermione, can you get the spiders to move for us? You know I hate spiders!" An invisible tube came and picked up Ron. He was extremely scared, but the tube moved him over to the final platform. When he landed, he heard a voice.
"You have been chosen."
"What?" Ron asked.
"We heard you don't like spiders, so we helped you out. Aren't you grateful?"
"Thank you so much," Ron said.
Hermione, on the other hand, was still having trouble. She was also at the sphinx, and the riddle was extremely hard. At long last, she pulled the answer and the three continued. However, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were having trouble passing the spiders. They were not allowing passage to any of the tubes. They finally moved, allowing the two into the sphinx platform. They, too, got the answer correctly and moved on. Once all of them had reached the end, they opened the door. At this exact minute, the platform broke. All eight of them fell down into another room. Eight rooms were off of this new platform. Each of them took a room. These bubbles filled with air and lifted off into the air. They reached the next door and pushed it open. Harry shoved open the door to see, "DOBBY!"
"It is Dobby, sir. Dobby found out that Harry Potter was stuck, so Dobby wanted to help. Does Harry Potter need Dobby's help right now?" Dobby said to him.
"Dobby, what are you doing here?" said the Malfoy family.
"Hi, old Masters. What is you doing to Harry Potter?"
"We are trying to get out of here. Draco somehow Apparated right near me and his family came to take him home," said Mr. Malfoy.
Finally, the four got out of the Doom Room. They crept downstairs to see Dursleys staring at them, their eyes fixed in a way that Harry yould have been happy to see if he wasn't dreading the punishment.
"So, you got out alive. How did you do it?" said Vernon.
"I would also like to know that," said Petunia.
"Well, we first ended up in a room with a bunch of snakes, said Harry.
"Then Harry got us out of it," said Hermione.
"Then we got stuck in a room full of combinations," continued Ron.
"And then we heard my parents' shreiks of concern. They finally had gotten here, and now they were stuck in the snakes' lair." said Draco.
"Harry went in and saved Draco's parents, then he came back in," Mr. Weasley said.
"After over 700 tries, we finally got the right combination."
"Then, we split up," Ron continued.
"The Weasleys and Hermione went one way, the Malfoys and I went the other way," added Harry.
"We ended up in this giant tube thing," said the Mr. Malfoy.
"The rest of us ended up at a dead end," said Hermione.
"So we turned back around," said Ron.
"We had to answer a question, and when we finally got it right we all were in the same room. We then had to get lucky and pass through," said Mrs. Weasley.
"We ended up lucky and finally all got on the platform, but it dropped. We finally ended up back here, where you seem to be waiting for us," said Draco.
"Well, we congratulate you on a job well done. You obviously are great witches and wizards to be able to have passed through that challenge," said Petunia.
"Whoa! Wait a minute! How come I never could mention that I was a wizard, but all of a sudden you are saying that we are all great ones?" Harry asked curiously.
"Why does that matter?"
"Because you must be trying to make all my letters seem false! And that 'Doom Room' was never there before, why is it there now?" said Harry.
"I can't believe that you think we would change just for visitors! You know, Crystal dumped Dudley because she likes you," said Aunt Petunia.
"Yea right," said Harry, but Hermione cut in.
"She does like you. I saw the glances between you two yesterday, and I would know that look," said Hermione, half in tears once more.
"Why do you cry every time you talk about this?" Harry asked.
"I don't want to talk about it!" said Hermione.
"Okay then," said Harry. "Really, what is wrong?"
"I told you, I really don't want to talk about it," said Hermione, and by the tone they knew it was her final word.
"Let's go outside, I want to talk to you," said Ron, Dudley, and Draco to them at the same time.
"What is going on?" said Hermione as the three pulled her outside. Harry followed, wondering what they were up to.
Harry decided to spy on them. Letting Dudley taking Hermione away again was not a good idea or safe one at the least. After they all argued who should say what they wanted to first, and totally out of the blue, in unison, Draco, Ron, and Dudley all said sincerely, "I like you."
"Who may I ask are you guys?" Petunia asked.
"We are Ron, Hermione, and Draco," said Draco, pointing at each as he named them.
"Didn't we see you last year?" Vernon asked Ron.
"Yes, I was one of the people who came to take Harry to the Quidditch World Cup," Ron said.
"And what are you doing here this time?" Vernon said.
"Who cares?" Dudley asked, his eyes fixed on Hermione.
"I thought you were on our side," Petunia angrily yelled at him.
"There are no sides," Harry said.
"What are they doing here?"
"Um," Harry said. He wasn't supposed to talk about magic, but in this case, to tell the truth he kind of had to. "I wished that I could talk to my friends longer when you told me to hang up yesterday. When I got back upstairs, wishing owls were sitting there and suddenly Ron and Hermione appeared where one of them was. Then Ron wished he knew who sent Hermione a letter, and Draco appeared out of thin air where he had been. Then, when I was about to wish them back home, they all said at the same time the same wish, telling me what to say and the third owl vanished. I answered the door
because Ron and Hermione are getting picked up."
Dudley still had his eyes on Hermione. "I think we should just let Harry's friends go home. I mean, their parents will be worried, right?"
Just then, the doorbell rang. Ron's parents were there.
"Hello, you must be the Dursleys. We came last year to pick up Harry for the Quidditch World Cup. Somehow, Ron and his friend Hermione Apparated right to your house last night. They sent us an owl stating that they were stranded here and needed me to pick them up. May I take my children home now?" Mrs. Weasley said.
"No, you may not. I need to talk to, Hermione you said her name was, well I need to talk to her," said Dudley as he grabbed her with one hand and pulled her away.
"What is he doing?" said Ron and Vernon.
"I don't know," said the rest of the group.
Dudley took Hemione into the upstairs. On the way there, Hermione saw a sign that said, "The Doom Room." Dudley pushed her into the room and locked her in. He then walked back downstairs.
"Where's Hermione?"
"Going to the lavatory," Dudley replied as he grabbed Ron and pulled him upstairs.
"Where is he going?" Harry asked Uncle Vernon.
Uncle Vernon smiled guiltily. "Nowhere."
"You obviously know, this is your house."
"If you want to know, then follow him," Vernon replied.
"Fine, I think I will!" Harry said as he beckoned for Draco to follow, along with Mr. and Mrs. Weasley.
They all reached the room labeled, "The Doom Room." "Harry, was that room there before?" Draco asked.
"No, it wasn't."
"Do you think that it is a trick?" Draco asked Harry nervously.
"What is going on, Harry?" said Mr. Weasley.
"I don't know."
The hallway seemed to never end. Finally, Harry ran into Dudley, who grabbed the four and pushed them all into the room. Inside, there were five snakes, four of which were dead. The remaining one, Harry realized, was the exact same boa constricter he himself had set loose at the zoo. It was curled all around Hermione, and it looked like she was having trouble breathing.
"Harry, help!" Ron said. One of the other snakes had awaken and was now advancing on Ron. Suddenly Harry remembered--he could speak Parseltounge! "Stop!" Harry said in a hiss. The snakes immediately stopped and all curled up, asleep. They saw a door on the other side of the room, and the six all went through this door. On the other side, they saw hundreds of combinations, all flying around. "The combinations must be how to open the next door!" Harry said.
"Okay. Draco, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, grab that side of the room. Harry, Ron and I will grab this side. There are safes all over the room, each with a number. Grab the combination and try it on this one," Hermione said, pointing to the safe right in front of the door. On it, the number "822" shone brightly in gold letters. However, before they even had time to start, they heard a familiar scream from the snake room.
"Draco? Are you there honey?" came a voice from the room, breathlessly.
"Draco! Is this another one of your pranks?" came the cold voice of Draco's dad, Lucius.
"Harry, can you help them? We'll work on this while you get them," said Hermione and Draco. Harry nodded.
Harry headed back through the way he came and saw a terrible sight--Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were being held down by the snakes! And right next to them was, "Dudley!"
"Harry, I am not supposed to be here!" Dudley said. "Did you 'magic' me here? I'm telling!"
"Mr. Potter, can you help me out here?" said Mr. Malfoy.
"Back off!" said Harry in a hiss. Once again, the snakes drew off of Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy and Dudley. Dudley sprinted out of the door he had came in and locked it shut again, panicstricken. "Come on," Harry said to a dumbfounded Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy.
"Harry! Did you get them?" Draco said.
"Yes, they are right here!" Harry said. Suddenly, he remembered something. Mr. Weasley was there. Arthur Weasley came up to Harry to make sure he was okay and saw Draco's parents staring him in the face.
"Lucius?! Are you responsible for this?"
"No, Arthur Weasley, why are you here?" Lucius said, and Harry inturrupted.
"Dudley is playing another one of his pranks on me. That boy you saw? That was my cousin. We just need to find the right combination. That will open the door, and then we will see where it leads to," Harry said.
The eight people all searched for at least an hour. Finally, after 700 combinations had been tried...
"I got it!" Draco exclaimed. "On this paper it says that this works for safe number 822!"
"Great job!" said Harry.
"Splendid," said Ron.
"Can we get out of here already?" said the Malfoys.
"Why, scared of the flying papers?" said Arthur Weasley.
"No, I just came to get Draco and go home, not to be locked in this 'Doom Room' here!"
"Well, let's go then," said both Mrs. Weasley and Mrs. Malfoy.
"Wow, did our mums just agree on something?" said Ron and Draco.
"That's a first!" Ron said.
"Look, let's just get a move on to the next challenge," Draco said.
The eight of them went through the next passageway to see two different paths to take. "We need to split up," Harry told the group.
"How about Mr. Weasley, Mrs. Weasley, Ron, and me, and in the other group, Mr. Malfoy, Mrs. Malfoy, Draco, and Harry?" said Hermione.
Harry wanted to be with his friends, but it seemed that this was the most logical split. Harry therefore went down the passageway with the Malfoy family.
Finally, about ten minutes later, he ran into a door. They pushed it open to see the most bizarre machine ever.
In front of them was a giant vacuum. At the minute it was turned to 'off' so they looked around. It seemed that the vacuum would suck you up and then you would go through a giant tube. Then you would fall on a platform, surrounded by mice. Whichever way they let you pass is the way you would go. If you went to the left tube, you would slide back down and have to start over again. One out of ten times, the mice would let you pass through the right tube. This would lead to another platform, this time inhabited by spiders. Whichever way you were allowed to pass was the way you would go. If you went down the left tube, you would end up right in a dead end. One out of six times you would end up here. The central tube led to a platform with a sphinx. If you answered the question correctly, it seemed that it would lead exactly where the right tube at the spider platform would have led you to. If you got the question wrong, you would drop down and end up in a dead end which was inhabited by a snake. If you landed here you were lucky. All that was left to do was to pass the boggart at the end. If you did, you would go into the next room. If the boggart hurt you, then you would end up in the last dead end, this one being a true 'dead' end. Inside was Devil's Snare, which strangled you immediately when you landed in here.
"Oh. My. God," said Draco.
"Ron's probably glad he doesn't have to deal with this. He hates spiders," Harry told them. He walked over and said to Draco's dad, "You first." Harry turned on the vacuum and Mr. Malfoy shot up it. He then watched Mr. Malfoy get lucky and make it past the mice in the right passage. Then, he turned back on the vacuum and Mrs. Malfoy shot up this time. She, too, got lucky and made it past the mice correctly. "Your turn, Draco," Harry said as he pushed the button once more, and Draco shot up it. It seemed that so far, Mr. Malfoy had gotten to the sphinx. He seemed to be having trouble answering the question. Finally, he guessed and correctly got the answer, and he was allowed to walk on. Lastly, Harry stood under the vacuum and said, "Flipendo!" The button was hit and he too was dragged upwards to the slide. "I wonder what Ron and Hermione are up to right now."
Hermione and Ron were having problems. It seems that they had gone through the wrong passageway. "Did we hit a dead end?" Ron asked his parents.
"Lumos!" said Hermione, lighting the way back to the fork in the passageway. This time they took the other path, and found themselves to be the sole inhabitants of the area. Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind them. "Someone is already in the progress of trying to pass the next challenge. If you answer my question correctly, you may join them. If you answer incorrectly, you will never get out of here. Are you up to the challenge?"
"I guess so," Ron said.
"Bring it on!" said Hermione.
"I'm up to it!" said Mr. Weasley.
"Alright, if everyone else agrees," said Mrs. Weasley.
"Here is the riddle. A man is caught somewhere where he is restricted from. The natives capture him. He is allowed one final statement, and it would determine how he died. If what he said was true, he would be boiled in water. If what he said was false, he would be fried in oil. However, he was set free because of his final statement. What was the statement?"
"Easy, he said, 'you will fry me in oil.'" Hermione said quickly.
"How did you get that so quickly?" said Ron as the door opened. The sight in front of them was extremely new to them. They saw Draco and Harry on the final platform with the door, and Mr. and Mrs. Malfoy were at the sphinx having trouble. They saw the vacuum and therefore cast 'flipendo' on the switch. They were all sucked up the tube. When they landed on the platform with the mice, they all were lucky and passed through the correct tube. Ron looked forward and saw the spiders, and immediately said, "Hermione, can you get the spiders to move for us? You know I hate spiders!" An invisible tube came and picked up Ron. He was extremely scared, but the tube moved him over to the final platform. When he landed, he heard a voice.
"You have been chosen."
"What?" Ron asked.
"We heard you don't like spiders, so we helped you out. Aren't you grateful?"
"Thank you so much," Ron said.
Hermione, on the other hand, was still having trouble. She was also at the sphinx, and the riddle was extremely hard. At long last, she pulled the answer and the three continued. However, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley were having trouble passing the spiders. They were not allowing passage to any of the tubes. They finally moved, allowing the two into the sphinx platform. They, too, got the answer correctly and moved on. Once all of them had reached the end, they opened the door. At this exact minute, the platform broke. All eight of them fell down into another room. Eight rooms were off of this new platform. Each of them took a room. These bubbles filled with air and lifted off into the air. They reached the next door and pushed it open. Harry shoved open the door to see, "DOBBY!"
"It is Dobby, sir. Dobby found out that Harry Potter was stuck, so Dobby wanted to help. Does Harry Potter need Dobby's help right now?" Dobby said to him.
"Dobby, what are you doing here?" said the Malfoy family.
"Hi, old Masters. What is you doing to Harry Potter?"
"We are trying to get out of here. Draco somehow Apparated right near me and his family came to take him home," said Mr. Malfoy.
Finally, the four got out of the Doom Room. They crept downstairs to see Dursleys staring at them, their eyes fixed in a way that Harry yould have been happy to see if he wasn't dreading the punishment.
"So, you got out alive. How did you do it?" said Vernon.
"I would also like to know that," said Petunia.
"Well, we first ended up in a room with a bunch of snakes, said Harry.
"Then Harry got us out of it," said Hermione.
"Then we got stuck in a room full of combinations," continued Ron.
"And then we heard my parents' shreiks of concern. They finally had gotten here, and now they were stuck in the snakes' lair." said Draco.
"Harry went in and saved Draco's parents, then he came back in," Mr. Weasley said.
"After over 700 tries, we finally got the right combination."
"Then, we split up," Ron continued.
"The Weasleys and Hermione went one way, the Malfoys and I went the other way," added Harry.
"We ended up in this giant tube thing," said the Mr. Malfoy.
"The rest of us ended up at a dead end," said Hermione.
"So we turned back around," said Ron.
"We had to answer a question, and when we finally got it right we all were in the same room. We then had to get lucky and pass through," said Mrs. Weasley.
"We ended up lucky and finally all got on the platform, but it dropped. We finally ended up back here, where you seem to be waiting for us," said Draco.
"Well, we congratulate you on a job well done. You obviously are great witches and wizards to be able to have passed through that challenge," said Petunia.
"Whoa! Wait a minute! How come I never could mention that I was a wizard, but all of a sudden you are saying that we are all great ones?" Harry asked curiously.
"Why does that matter?"
"Because you must be trying to make all my letters seem false! And that 'Doom Room' was never there before, why is it there now?" said Harry.
"I can't believe that you think we would change just for visitors! You know, Crystal dumped Dudley because she likes you," said Aunt Petunia.
"Yea right," said Harry, but Hermione cut in.
"She does like you. I saw the glances between you two yesterday, and I would know that look," said Hermione, half in tears once more.
"Why do you cry every time you talk about this?" Harry asked.
"I don't want to talk about it!" said Hermione.
"Okay then," said Harry. "Really, what is wrong?"
"I told you, I really don't want to talk about it," said Hermione, and by the tone they knew it was her final word.
"Let's go outside, I want to talk to you," said Ron, Dudley, and Draco to them at the same time.
"What is going on?" said Hermione as the three pulled her outside. Harry followed, wondering what they were up to.
Harry decided to spy on them. Letting Dudley taking Hermione away again was not a good idea or safe one at the least. After they all argued who should say what they wanted to first, and totally out of the blue, in unison, Draco, Ron, and Dudley all said sincerely, "I like you."