Chapter 4

When the clock turned to six a.m. Harry could be found pacing his room. He could hardly believe that he was leaving this dreaded dwelling for good. He also could hardly believe that he was seventeen. Hedwig gave a sleepy sort of hoot. Harry hardly noticed her; he just kept pacing his mind elsewhere.

When he heard his aunt and uncle getting up he tried to calm himself down. At 8:45 he decided to go downstairs. He closed his trunk, which he had packed weeks ago, decided instead of bringing it down he would leave it until they arrived.

Just when he was about to open his door, a magnificent eagle owl soared into his room. It had a letter in its beak, when it saw Harry successfully had the letter it took off. Hedwig looked rather put off that the owl didn't stay. Harry opened the letter and read:

Dear Mr. Potter,

As a now legal citizen of the magic community we at the Ministry of Magic would like to please inform you about the consequences of performing magic in the presence of non-magical beings (muggles). Please carefully read through the enclosed pamphlet. Happy Birthday.

Miranda Gribbenshok

Harry looked at the other pieces of parchment, some of them entitled Muggles and Magic, and The Importance of Silence and Secrecy. Harry was dumbfounded, hadn't six years at Hogwarts taught them anything? But when he thought of Hogwarts made him think of its headmaster. Harry felt that all too familiar lump in his throat, he had lost too many close friends and family in his seventeen years. Shaking his head he thought I know they are all dead and gone but I can't just forget everything like it didn't happen. You can't just give up friends like that cold turkey. Looking back at his clock he was startled to see that it was five to nine.

A minute after Harry came downstairs he realized it would have been better if he had stayed in his room. The tension could not only be sliced with a knife, Harry thought if channeled correctly the tension between his cousin, aunt, and uncle could not only knock down their entire house it probably build a bigger and better one at that. He thought of the last times wizards had come in contact with the Dursleys. When he was eleven a his friend Hagrid had made a pigs tail come out of his cousin's buttocks, when he was twelve Ron and his brothers drove a flying car and tore off the side of the house. When he was fourteen, Ron again had come and it ended up with Harry's cousin supporting another interesting feature on his body, a twelve and a half foot purple tongue. Last year the headmaster of Hogwarts himself had come to get Harry and the Dursleys had had their wine glasses stuck to their head. So now there was tension.

At exactly nine a car pulled into the driveway. A couple got out along with three others around Harry's age. Harry put his face in his hands when he saw two identical red heads. When the doorbell rang, and his uncle hissed at him to get it, Harry hesitantly opened the door.

"HARRY!" The door seemed to explode with noise and people. The entire neighborhood was made up of people like Harry's aunt, nosy and on a personal vendetta against anything unusual. So when yells of hello and how are you were said Harry could see curtains whipping around to see what the commotion was. Harry invited them inside greeting everyone who walked through the door. Hermione's parents were quiet muggles, and Harry wondered how on earth they were going to last the long hours in the car with;

"Harry! How are you old chap? We would have been home earlier except everyone has been hopping about this old wedding our dear brother has been kind enough to have over this summer." This wasn't the first time Ron's twin brothers had been to the Dursleys. I seemed this time they were trying to be on their manners, since it was their fault Harry's cousin had a tongue the size of a baby python.

When all had come into the living room it seemed Hermione's father knew Harry's uncle. They were talking of business while everyone sat, though Harry watched the twin's every move with eagle eyes. Then in a split second making it seem like an accident Fred, one of the twins, set off one of his fireworks.

Completely harmless, the firework bounced off the walls like a pinball. With both twins jumping up and yelling over the screaming firework, Fred then "accidentally" let off a whole bag of the fireworks. Harry wondered what the neighbors saw, inside it looked as if, well as if there were a thousand fireworks going off in a small area.

Harry got close to one of the twins as a giant blue flaming wagon wheel flew past their heads and said "Don't you think you have traumatized them enough?"

It was true the Dursley's did look traumatized, all three were frozen in their seats and they were just staring at small spaces right on the coffee table in front of them. Vernon Dursley seemed to wear a face of compete shock, Petunia Dursley seemed on the brink of fainting from what the neighbors might think, and Dudley Dursley seemed just surprised his parents were so shocked, the visions of flaming fireworks shooting off didn't seem to reach his brain yet. In fact he kept staring foreword when a sparkler was shooting three foot sparkles and spelled dirty words three inches from his nose.

Fred looked at him and then stopped the fireworks with a flick of his wand.

"Party pooper," Harry distinctly heard from behind him. Both the Dursleys and Hermione's parents seemed to be in shock. Hermione seemed to be trying with all her might to hold in silent laughter. Harry quickly got his trunk and they all practically ran from the house.

"Should we have left them like that?" Hermione whispered to Harry as they were leaving. Harry gave a hollow laugh.

"I would be more worried if we were still here when they finally realized what happened."

"Harry! I thought you would want to end your stay here with a bang." Fred looked slightly put out that Harry had made them stop so early. "We brought a huge supply, our final skit was I was going to be beheaded by George." Everyone laughed at this last remark and George came up behind his twin and pretended to act it out.

"Nice guys, but I think we would have had the police to deal with, besides I don't want to be cited for doing magic in front of muggles on my first day of being an overage wizard." Harry said still thinking of the pamphlets he had received that morning.

"Harry, Harry, Harry," George said putting his arm around Harry as if he were his uncle, "when did you get the ministry pamphlets?" He looked as if he were going to start to lecture.

"Uh, this morning, why," but his last word was drowned out by the commotion Fred and George were making.

"Our little Harry is all grown up," George said pretending to wipe his eyes.

"Just like that and their gone," Fred too started to pretend.

"We got the pamphlets as well," George said winking at Harry while Fred pretended to sob on his shoulder. "They sent us three of everything, seemed to think quantity was better than quality, I wonder why."

Harry laughed along with everyone else, and knew that this was going to be an enjoyable drive.