THIS IS A RE-EDITED VERSION OF CHAPTER THREE

Chapter 3: Happy Birthday Again

Harry woke up, feeling very woozy. He looked around. He was in a place he recognized at once. It was the Hut on the Rock, the place uncle Vernon had escaped to from the letters, the place Harry had celebrated his eleventh birthday.

Harry sat up, and felt Hagrid's coat fall off him onto the floor. He looked over at Hagrid, who was sleeping soundly on the couch. He blinked, and looked down at himself. He was a lot smaller than he had been a moment before…in fact, he was eleven.

Where were Ron and Hermione? he thought. And what was he doing here? The last thing he remembered was looking at a Little Thing, Hermione had poked at it, and then, there had been a blue…light…something…he couldn't remember anything else.

He looked over into the doorway to the other room to find Dudley staring at him. "What happened?" Dudley asked shakily.

"What?" Harry asked.

"You! You were sleeping, and then there was a blue light…it was like a tornado…and then you went all strange. It was magic, wasn't it?"

"Um…" said Harry. "No?"

Dudley didn't believe him.

"It was magic!" he said.

"Fine," Harry answered. "It was magic." Dudley closed the door quickly between them.

Harry looked at Hagrid. Maybe he should wake him up, he thought, and tell him what had happened. But would Hagrid even believe him?

He heard Dudley's voice behind the door, and then Uncle Vernon's and Aunt Petunia's. He could clearly make out the word 'magic' being repeated several times. Harry wasn't thinking very straight. He stood up, and looked around the room. He didn't have time to wake Hagrid, he thought wildly, the Dursleys would be after him any minute. He had to get away.

Harry ran to the door and threw it open. Outside, the storm had stopped, and the sea was still, in the pre-dawn light. He looked down at the boat.

Inside, he heard the Dursleys getting out of bed.

Harry ran down the slope to the boat, and got in. He began to row. He looked back at the Hut. It wasn't getting any farther away! Then he realized he had forgotten to untie the rope that held it there. He undid the rope, and started to row again. He couldn't go very fast—he was only eleven, and not very strong. He was so frantic that he dropped one of the paddles—but that was alright, since they were attached to the boat. He picked it up again and kept rowing. He was halfway across when he realized the foolishness of what he had been doing. Hagrid had his key, and was going to take him to Diagon Alley. The Dursleys couldn't do anything to him. He had no plan at all.

Harry turned to begin rowing back, and came face to face with a mermaid.

For one awful moment Harry and the mermaid stared at one another in silence, and then Harry gave a yelp and scrambled for the paddles. He rowed like there were Dementors after him, all the way to the shore—he got out of the boat and began to run—he kept running—he slowed to a walk—he looked around.

He was in a city. And, unfortunately, he was lost.

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