Chapter 2

What? What just happened? Why did nobody else see it? It was huge! How did Dedalus kill it if he didn't see it? What? What is happening? I want everything to go back to normal!

These thoughts whirled through my brain as Hestia, with our luggage hovering above her head, took hold of my clammy hand and Dad gripped the other with his meaty paw. I was jerked out of my daze when the ground disappeared from beneath my feet and my vision spun. I tried to yell but my breath was whipped away. Before I knew it, I landed with a thud in someone's driveway, my body colliding painfully with the tarmac. I closed my eyes, willing the world to stay still.

"Dreadfully sorry about that, chaps."

I opened one eye to see Dedalus gathering our suitcases up from where they lay in a heap next to the front door of a small terraced house.

"I should have warned you that disapparating isn't exactly pleasant the first time, but heyho, at least we're here safely!"

I clambered groggily to my feet to take in my surroundings. I was standing in a small driveway, empty of any cars, on a street of terraced houses. Dad was helping Mum brush grass off her coat from where she had landed in the small garden in front of the house, that I assumed was the safe house we had been promised. It was far from my imaginings of a castle surrounded by a moat and armed guards. The house didn't seem very safe at all.

"Dedalus, Hestia-" I began, but was abruptly cut off by Dedalus.

"No time for questions now, dear boy," he said, turning towards my parents, "Why don't you all go inside, while we... check the security."

Dad loitered outside, reluctant to enter the house but headed for the door, which was marked number thirty-seven, after Mum shoved him forward.

"But what about the thing, I just saw? why-"

"Now, Duddy," Mum spoke to me in the sing-song tone one uses when talking to small children, "You heard what the man said, come inside."

I cast a quick glance at the two wizards who were waving their wands in circular motions at the bottom of the drive, before following her through the door, which opened onto a small cloakroom.

"Oh, isn't this exciting, moving into a new home!" Mum trilled. I didn't bother to point out that just this morning she had been refusing to leave Privet Drive to live among wizards or, as she called them, mental cases. She must have thought the screaming-at-something-nobody-else-could-see incident had really shaken me up and was trying to make me feel better about our situation.

"Petunia!" Dad bellowed from deeper inside the house, "Come and see this painting! I could swear it was moving! I must be going mad!"

Mum frowned, and rushed off in the direction his voice was coming from. I moved from the cloakroom into the living room, lingering at the window, trying to get a look at what Dedalus and Hestia were doing. I half listened to Mum and Dad arguing about whether or not the painting was moving, hoping they stayed there so that when the wizards came into the house, I could question them on the monster I had seen Dedalus kill. He did kill it, I know he did. Maybe Mum and Dad weren't at the right angle to see it, and Dedalus pretended nothing had happened so he didn't alarm them...

I watched as he and Hestia waved their wands, their mouths moving and forming words I could not hear through the window. The air in front of them was writhing and vibrating, so the houses on the other side of the street looked more like shimmering splodges of colour than buildings. Several minutes later, Hestia tucked her wand into the sleeve of her billowing, black robes and said something to Dedalus. He finished his mutterings and turned to answer her. I moved closer to the window, trying, and failing, to read their lips. What felt like hours later, they started moving towards the house.

I sprang from my look-out point and hurtled back into the cloakroom as the door swung open and Hestia appeared hauling Mum's large pink suitcase, her flowered rucksack slung over her shoulder.

"Dudley," she nodded coolly at me.

"Hestia, did you see the-"

I trailed off as Dedalus scurried over the threshold, Dad's luggage in tow.

"Where's my stuff? Do I have to bring it in myself?"

"Well, about that," Dedalus deposited the turquoise hold-all and the golf bag on the floor and went into the living room. I followed him, pushing past Hestia who was struggling to collapse the handle of Mum's case.

"To be blunt, you will not be staying here with your parents." The words tumbled from his mouth in a rush. I raised my eyebrows, taken aback.

"Are you telling me, that not only have I left my childhood home, but I am now leaving my only family members as well?"

Dedalus gulped.

"Y-Yes."

Hestia appeared in the doorway and sighed.

"There's something we have to tell you."