Harry heard shuffling outside his door.
"Are you awake?" Dudley whispered as loudly as he dared.
"Nope. I'm dreaming all of this." Harry heard Dudley sigh. He rolled his eyes. "You sure you should be here? What'll your parents think if they see you?"
"You might've thought of that before you exploded the pudding—"
"It wasn't me!" Harry hissed a little louder than was prudent. "Do you honestly think I'd be that stupid?"
A tiny, snorting laugh came from the other side of the door. "You might've been tempted. After all the times you had to repeat you'd 'be in your room, making no noise and pretending you're not there'," Dudley recited his father's instructions to Harry word-for-word.
"Ugh, don't..."
"So did this have something to do with your disappearing mail?"
"Yep." With that, Harry launched into the tale of his meeting with Dobby and the warning he had been given.
"Oh, no. You're going to get in even more trouble at Hogwarts this year."
"Let's hope I get there first," Harry muttered to himself.
"Oh, yeah, about that. Dad really wants to try to keep you away. Again. He's promised to install bars on your window in the morning," Dudley, who had heard him anyway, told him in a far too cheerful voice.
"What now?" Harry got up from his bed and walked over to the locked door.
"Yeah... He sounded serious. Maybe you should try sending Hedwig again while you still can?"
Harry began pacing his room agitatedly. "And what if Dobby tries to hurt her again? He's spent stealing my mail for weeks now, he's not going to just let me contact my friends now – not after getting me locked up here—"
"Did he at least give back the letters he stole?"
"Yes, they're all here." He looked towards his bed, where he had stuffed the letters under his pillow in his haste to keep the Dursleys from seeing them. "Hermione's written every few days, even though I never replied. And even Ron's letters have grown more urgent. I don't know what they must think of me..."
"With any luck, they'll suspect that something's wrong – It's not like you never get in trouble."
"If only I could contact them, let them know I'm stuck here..."
"What if you used the disillusionment charm on Hedwig?"
"What? No! I don't want to get expelled!"
"Well..."
Harry made a frustrated noise. "If only I had remembered to ask Hermione for her address or telephone number—"
"Oh, yeah! Great idea. I could call her and—"
"Well, that's just it! I didn't ask her. And it would have made things so easy. Dobby would never be able to stop a message sent the muggle way – he wouldn't even figure out I had sent one! It's so stupid. It's just so easy to forget about muggle things like that in the magical world..."
"Well, don't you remember anything about where she lives? Maybe she mentioned it at some point."
"I've tried to remember. All she's ever mentioned is that she's from London. Her parents are both dentists, but—"
"We might be able to look them up in the yellow pages—"
"Do you happen to have the London yellow pages lying around somewhere?" Both boys sighed.
"Well, maybe you'll think of something else," Dudley said, trying to sound hopeful.
"Yeah, maybe," Harry replied more sceptically. "Or maybe Uncle Vernon will calm down by tomorrow and let me out." He snorted.
Soon after, the boys said goodnight and went to sleep, without having come up with another plan. In the morning, Dudley found it impossible to stay in the house while his father continued in his mad behaviour. He paid a man to fit the bars on Harry's window, while he himself installed a catflap. Dudley's mother was not much better, shouting abuse and threats at Harry whenever she passed his room. Dudley tried arguing against them, but his father was beyond reasoning, and all his mother could talk about was her failed trip to Majorca.
Fed up with his parents' behaviour, he finally left the house. He wandered aimlessly, but his feet soon took him on the familiar path to the playground.
Snuffles met him excitedly, circling him.
"Sorry, Snuffles. No Harry today," Dudley said morosely. His tone was off, causing the dog to sit down in front of him, looking alert. His shoulders drooped. Slowly, coaxed by the dog's behaviour that strangely resembled genuine interest, Dudley told all that had happened the day before. Snuffles stayed close to him and this time it was him who tried to cheer Dudley up by trying to play with him, until Dudley's friends came by and invited him to go along with them, glad to have caught him without his pesky cousin's company.
Given the choice of returning to his home, where Harry was locked in the room next to his, or hanging out with his friends – such as they were – he chose the latter. Their rowdy behaviour grated on his nerves more than usual, but at least time passed quicker, and with less worry.
When he was walking home late that afternoon, he met Snuffles again. The dog unexpectedly ran up to him and dropped a large, paper-bound book in front of him. It took a moment for Dudley to get over his surprise and actually look at the cover. It was London's yellow pages.
"How – how—" was all he could say, in his astonishment. Before he could do more, Snuffles turned around and ran away.
Dudley's parents would not go to sleep for hours yet, which was the only time he could talk safely to Harry, stretching his patience beyond anything he had to endure before. Finally, the house fell silent and all the lights were switched off. He waited until he could hear his father's snoring before walking over to Harry's door.
"Hey, are you awake?" he whispered like the night before. Silence followed. He called again, a bit louder. Hedwig hooted in reply this time. "Hedwig, you have to wake him up. Quietly." It seemed an odd idea to give such instructions to a bird. But animals tended to act rather oddly around Harry.
"Wha'?" Harry's sleepy voice could be heard soon after.
"Harry, wake up!" Dudley hissed as loudly as he dared.
"Dudley? Did something happen?" Harry was alert at once, his voice moving closer to the door.
"Yeah, and you'll never guess what." Despite his words, he did not make Harry guess. He told him all about Snuffles' help. "And here's the telephone," he finished, pushing the cordless telephone through the catflap, followed by the yellow pages.
"Oh, and before I forget-" Another item was pushed through the catflap – a badly wrapped package. "I wanted to give you this yesterday, but... Anyway, happy birthday."
Harry thanked him and opened the package. It contained a few sweets and some owl treats. There was also a sandwich, wrapped in kitchen paper.
"I thought you might be hungry, that's why..." Dudley explained.
"I'm starving. This is the best present you could've thought of," Harry answered truthfully before taking a large bite. After the cold tinned soup he had been given, it tasted delicious. Hedwig agreed as she accepted the owl treats gratefully.
Without wasting any more time, Harry picked up the phone. A few wrong numbers later, a man's sleepy voice answered him.
"Richard Granger speaking. Who am I speaking to?"
"I'm trying to call Hermione. Does she live there?" Harry held his breath, hoping this would finally be the correct number.
"Who's calling her at this time?" came the man's suspicious answer. Harry breathed in relief.
"Hi, sorry for the late call. My name's Harry, I'm one of her friends—"
"Harry? My daughter has been worried sick all summer about you! She must have written you at least a dozen letters—"
"Yeah, sorry about that. Long story, but not really my fault. The thing is, my aunt and uncle have locked me in my room and I don't know if they'll let me out before school begins. They're not really happy about me going to Hogwarts, you see. So I wanted to tell her to pass on the message that I'm stuck here—"
"You – What? What do you mean, locked you in?"
"Er, well, they found out I'm not allowed to do magic outside of school, so they've locked my door and put bars on my window, so Hedwig can't carry my letters. Dudley – that's my cousin – slipped the phone through the catflap so I could call you—"
"Wait – just, wait for a moment—"
Harry heard some shuffling in the background, followed by far away voices.
"Hello, Harry. I'm Jean, Hermione's mother," a woman's voice answered him next. "We had no idea things were so bad in your family. Hermione's been worried all these weeks, but we just thought... Anyway, of course we won't leave you there. If you give us your address, we'll drive over tomorrow—"
"Wait, you can't do that. Dudley'll get in so much trouble if his parents realise he's helped me—"
"But—" This was followed by more background discussions.
"Don't worry about that, Harry, we'll think of something," Hermione's voice came over the phone all of a sudden, causing Harry's heart to skip in joy. "How have you been? What's happened? Ron and I both tried to contact you—"
"It's a long story, Hermione," Harry interrupted his friend's panicky questions. "It's good to hear your voice. Sorry if I woke you up—"
"Never mind that. Please tell me what's been going on—" She was interrupted at that point.
"Harry, Richard again. I think the questions can wait until we meet. It is rather late. But she's right, you don't need to worry about your relatives. We'll bring Hermione and say she just wanted to visit you. Then we'll have a little chat with them—"
"Well, all right," Harry conceded all too happily. The prospect of getting out of the Dursley household was just too tempting.
He told them the address and then they argued about whether the Grangers should arrive before or after Uncle Vernon came back from work. Harry preferred the former, but he knew if there was one thing his relatives would not forgive, it was a scene. A late night visit was bound to be a lot less conspicuous. Hermione's parents were also quite serious about wanting to have a talk with Harry's relatives – preferably both of them. It was decided they would arrive late the following evening.
The cousins cheered – quietly – after Harry had hung up, promised to find a way to thank Snuffles, and then finally went to sleep.
While Harry was stuck in his room, unable to do anything but wait for the evening to arrive, Dudley was free to leave the house, which he was only too eager to do. He was afraid he would say or do something to alert his parents, and ruin everything.
He also wanted to meet Snuffles again. Even Harry had been astonished at the dog's cleverness, trying to come up with an explanation for it that sounded remotely plausible. Dudley was far less drawn to mysteries than his cousin. All he wanted to do was thank Snuffles the only way he could think of. It was not difficult to get his mother to make him a particularly large lunch to go, as she had been trying all summer to feed him more.
The reason for that was that Dudley had noticeably lost weight over the past month. All the lunches he had fed Snuffles, together with all the time he had spent playing fetch with him instead of playing computer games might have had something to do with it...
Dudley did not quite manage to surprise Snuffles, who always managed to appear almost as if from nowhere when either of the cousins arrived in the vicinity of their favourite playground. But Dudley did spot him early on and jogged up to him – something he was also finding a lot easier recently.
They shared the food – though Snuffles had most of it – something he was in dire need of – he was still far too skinny. Dudley also told Snuffles all about the upcoming visit. It was odd talking to a dog, but he felt Snuffles should be told how much he had helped. As before, the dog seemed uncannily understanding of everything he was told.
That day, Dudley delayed going home, thinking with more than a little trepidation of the scene ahead – there was no telling how his parents would react to the guests they were about to receive.
Snuffles, unexpectedly, decided to accompany him once he finally turned to go and would not let himself be shaken off no matter what Dudley tried. Once they reached the house, however, he would not even enter the front garden. He sat down in front of the entrance and began to wait.
"Have it your way, then," Dudley sighed resignedly and went in.
The chaos began soon after. Hermione and her parents were the first to arrive. Even by the Dursleys' standards they looked respectable enough to be let in and heard out. But as soon as they mentioned Harry's name, the Dursleys' faces soured. First, they acted surprised as if they had never heard the name. But as Hermione revealed that she was Harry's classmate, they dropped that charade.
"He's asleep," Aunt Petunia answered coldly. "That's what happens when you turn up uninvited. Now, I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave."
"And I want to see Harry before I leave," Hermione said before her parents could reply. "I want to wish him happy birthday. I haven't been able to reach him all summer, you see?"
"And if you had called beforehand, like normal people—" Uncle Vernon began.
"And what exactly do you mean by 'normal people', if I may ask?" Hermione's mother asked.
The conversation deteriorated from there. Dudley debated whether to say something. He did not want to, because there was no telling how much trouble he would land himself in. But he knew his parents would try everything to keep their unwanted visitors from seeing the condition they were keeping Harry in. But of course there was no way Hermione would leave and abandon Harry. He was about to do something desperate, when a loud, crunching noise was heard from upstairs, from the vicinity of Harry's room.
Hermione had had enough at that point. She rushed past the Dursleys, not heeding their angry cries to come back. The adults all felt compelled to follow her up the stairs.
"Harry? Harry! Where are you?" she called.
Dudley, who was following behind last, again had to resist a very dangerous temptation. He just stopped himself from casually pointing out to her which room his cousin was in.
"Hermione, is that you?" came Harry's voice from behind the door with the catflap, pointing the way.
She pushed against the door, just as it was pulled, making her stumble a bit. There was a red-haired boy kneeling in front of it, holding a hairpin.
"All right there, Hermione?" he said far too casually.
As soon as Aunt Petunia spotted the floating car outside the window, she let out a shrill scream. Her husband followed this up by a lot of bellowing and throwing insults and threats. Hermione's parents, however, had seen enough at that point and threatened to call the police on behalf of Harry. That did it. Uncle Vernon grew impossibly red in the face, while his wife paled to a sickly green.
"Fine. Take the boy. Take him and then get out of my house!" bellowed Uncle Vernon. "Come on, Petunia, let's have a cuppa to calm down. And I want to see neither hide nor hair of you – you abnormal people – by the time we're done. Or I'll be the one calling the police!"
He thundered down the stairs, his wife simpering behind him, shooting resentful looks behind her back.
"Where did you come from?" Hermione began questioning the Weasley boys as soon as they had left.
"You said you were going to rescue Harry! After weeks of silence from him, I hear that from you, without proper explanation! What did you think I was going to do?" Ron shot back.
"But how did you get in... And what is that car?"
"Hermione, could we please talk about this later?" interrupted Harry. "Let me just grab my things, so we can leave."
"Lead the way," said George, wielding his hairpin.
"Do you want me to get the keys?" said Dudley, now stepping fully into the room.
"Dudley! Great! I didn't know if I'd get to say goodbye," said Harry.
"Oh, and keys will not be necessary," George supplied in a confident voice.
He was as good as his word. In no time at all, every last one of Harry's possessions had been assembled outside the house, where both cars now stood next to each other. Snuffles, who was also still there, ran up to Harry as soon as he left the front garden.
"Hey there. Seems like ages since I saw you," laughed Harry. "Thank you for saving me." He patted Snuffles on the head, making the dog bark happily.
"That stray dog saved you?" asked Ron. "Looks kind of mean."
Harry and Dudley instantly defended him and told Ron how Snuffles had come up with exactly the thing they needed most. It was Hermione, who actually knew what the yellow pages were, who was most impressed.
"Yeah, it must have been Harry's magic, right?" Dudley said.
"It must have been," agreed Hermione. "No dog could be that smart—"
"But I didn't do anything!" said Harry truthfully.
"Yeah, just like you didn't do anything that time you turned our teacher's wig blue," snorted Dudley. "Or that time you ended up on the school's roof. That time, it was the wind, wasn't it?"
Harry blushed as his friends laughed. Snuffles once again did his name justice, but this time his snuffling sounded eerily like human laughter.
"That's one very interesting dog you've found," said Fred.
"He is, isn't he? Can you imagine what sorts of things he could be trained to do?" George agreed.
"Oh, I can imagine a thing or two." Fred shook his head. "Shame he's a stray. Don't you wish you could keep him?" he asked the cousins.
"My mum would never allow it," Dudley sadly shook his head.
Jean and Richard sent Snuffles speculative looks, but he really was a very large and mean-looking dog. Richard cleared his throat. "Well, Harry, sorry to interrupt the goodbyes, but I think we need to be on our way. Your aunt and uncle-"
"Yes, of course," Harry agreed at once.
The twins stopped their whispering and nodded to each other. "Well, if you won't let us take Harry with us, I think the least we can do is rescue Snuffles, here," said Fred.
"Really?" Harry hardly dared to believe it.
"Really?" asked Ron as well, but with less enthusiasm and more scepticism.
"Really," confirmed George. "How can we stage a rescue mission without rescuing someone? Don't worry, we'll tell Mum we're just keeping him with us until Harry can join us."
Ron tried to protest, but of course his brothers would not listen. He had to resign himself to sharing the back seats of the car with the overgrown dog. The Weasleys all got in their car, which then lifted a few feet before becoming invisible. They heard the engines start and the car drive off, even though they could not see a thing.
"Not bad," said Richard, impressed.
The Grangers had not wanted the teenagers to drive, but had to accept finally that they could not just leave a magical car standing around in a muggle neighbourhood. At least, the Weasley boys would not be stopped on the way, and getting in an accident also seemed difficult to manage.
Then it was time for Harry and Dudley to say goodbye. The cousins shook hands, Harry promised to write, and Dudley promised to call. Then Harry got in the car with Hermione's family and they drove off.
~HP~
Staying with the Grangers was the oddest experience for Harry. Being included in family life, being asked what he wanted to eat, or watch on TV – all very ordinary things, and yet nothing felt more foreign to Harry.
Things got even stranger when Mrs. Weasley came to visit the morning after Harry's rescue and invited him to stay at the Burrow – the Weasleys' home. She also wanted to check up on how Harry was doing, after the stories her sons had told her – and to also confirm her sons' incredible tale. Harry got the feeling that all three boys had been in a lot of trouble, which would have only worsened had he not agreed with everything they had told their mother.
But when she wanted to take Harry back with her to the Burrow, the Grangers interfered.
"He can't leave right away. He's only been here for one night," said Jean. "Let him visit with Hermione for a bit, and then we'll drive him over to your home later in the month."
"Oh, well..." Mrs. Weasley had not expected that. "Oh, but, my husband said you'd had some trouble with using magic, Harry—"
"I didn't mean to—"
"Well, of course. But it can happen sometimes, I suppose. That's why staying at the Burrow might help. No one will be able to tell if you have an accident."
Hermione, of course, wanted to be told about how the wards worked, and while Mrs. Weasley was explaining that to her, Harry had time to consider her offer. Staying at a magical household was bound to be very exciting and he was at once tempted to say yes. The Grangers also looked like they could see the advantage for Harry. And yet, it felt like a rejection of their help, and of Hermione's company.
"Maybe if I stayed a few days?" Harry suggested hesitantly. The happy looks he received from all three Grangers told him he had made the right decision.
"Of course, Harry," Mrs. Weasley smiled kindly. "You can visit whenever you like, and stay for however long you want."
A little over a week later, Harry's letter from Hogwarts found him at the Grangers' house, which was not entirely unexpected. His Hogwarts letters had even managed to find him in a tiny hut on the coast the previous year. Hermione immediately contacted Ron so they could meet up and shop for their school supplies together.
It was also decided that Harry would move to the Burrow at that point. When Dudley called later that day – while his father was at work and his mother had gone shopping – Harry told him about the move which would set an end to the phone calls.
"You know, Artie lives in London, too," Dudley said as an idea occurred to him.
"Yes..."
"If I were to visit him, do you think...?"
"What, visit you there?"
"Yeah."
"Visit where?" asked Hermione, who was reading nearby and had overheard his part of the conversation.
He told her of Dudley's idea, and she in turn, told her parents that evening. Harry himself would not have mentioned it, not wishing to be a bother, but Hermione waved him off when he said so.
"Don't be silly, Harry. Do you know, ever since they've met you, they've stopped worrying about me going to Hogwarts," she confided.
Harry raised his eyebrows. "Right... Because I never get in trouble, of course. You still haven't told them anything about what goes on at school, huh."
Hermione rolled her eyes. "That's not what I mean. They always worry that I don't have enough friends and that I might get bullied, and so on. The magical world still seems so strange to them. And secretive – they haven't really seen much of it. But after meeting your family, they sort of get it now.
"My parents, they... My magic never bothered them. They were happy for me, instead. And curious, and awed, and... The only thing that ever bothered them was that they can't be there for me as much as they want to... They never really believed that magical people still have need to hide. My parents were talking about your family the other day... They both kept saying how they couldn't have imagined such prejudice still existing today... I've been really lucky with my family, haven't I?"
"Yes," was all Harry could say.