This is the last chapter I'll finish under NaNoWriMo 2022, but there are plenty of other things partially completed that I plan to continue to chip away at.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
MASS MURDERER ESCAPES AZKABAN
In perhaps the most frightening news to come out of Azkaban Prison in the last decade, if not all time, the Ministry of Magic reported this morning that notorious criminal Sirius Black has escaped from the North Sea fortress, oft thought impregnable.
Sirius Black will be a name familiar to many, and dredges up terrible memories from the war against He Who Must Not Be Named, not twelve years gone. Often considered the mist infamous prisoner ever held within Azkaban's walls, Black was a fervent supporter of You Know Who, up to and even beyond his defeat by the infant Harry Potter.
All of Britain and Ireland were still celebrating the news of You Know Who's downfall when we were reminded, suddenly and horribly, that the worst had not yet completely passed. Only a day after Harry Potter's triumph, Black, for reasons known only to himself, blew up an entire intersection in muggle London, killing twelve muggles and a wizard with a single curse.
Many have speculated what Black was trying to accomplish. Some say he was out for revenge; others that he was merely lashing out in anger and frustration. The theory has been put forward that he believed he would assume command of You Know Who's forces upon his master's death, and was attempting to assert his dominance and authority. Still others say he simply went mad from the shock of it all – a hypothesis supported by the fact that Black did not resist or attempt to flee when the Ministry came down on him, and indeed did nothing but laugh as they apprehended him and took him away.
Black's escape is troubling not least because of who he is and what he is capable of, but also because of what it represents. There have been zero escapes from Azkaban Fortress, to say nothing of the island, since the Ministry began using it as a prison in 1718. How Black was able to manage it, despite being a top security prisoner, is as yet unknown. A chief concern at present is that he may be able to free other prisoners as well, though no evidence has yet surfaced to indicated he has attempted this.
The Ministry is urging all citizens to be alert and aware for as long as Black is at large. Rufus Scrimgeour, head of the Auror Office, made a brief statement this morning regarding what he considers a matter of public safety:
'Black is extremely dangerous, and a powerful and skilled wizard. He should not be approached under any circumstances. We urge anyone who thinks they may have seen him to contact the ministry immediately as long as it is safe for them to do so.'
Aurors and Hit Wizards have been mobilized up and down the country in pursuit of Black, some even taken off other cases. The dementors of Azkaban, its traditional guards, have also been mobilized with limited Ministry approval as part of the search. The public is also warned to stay away from the dementors.
'If you see any, just get out of their way and let them do their job,' says Minister for Magic Cornelius Fudge. 'Merlin knows we don't want any accidents. The sooner we catch Black, the sooner they can all go back to Azkaban where they belong.'
Asked if he is confident that Black will be caught, Fudge asserts that he is.
'It's only a matter of time,' he answers. 'We've got practically the whole ministry looking for him, and it's not like before when he had a bunch of fellow Death Eaters to rely on. He's on his own. We'll get him; of that I have no doubt.'
One thing remains clear: the magical population of Britain will remain on edge until Sirius Black is once again behind bars.
Underneath the article there was a black and white picture of Sirius – the same one Harry remembered seeing on the Knight Bus all those years ago. It was the very first picture he'd ever seen of Sirius, his sunken face and long matted hair looking like they'd been pulled tight over a skull.
Harry grinned. It wasn't exactly the way he liked to see Sirius, but he'd been waiting for this article for two and a half weeks. Finally, here was confirmation that the plan had worked; Sirius had taken the bait and gotten himself out.
Now they just needed to make sure they could keep him safe until they could clear his name, because they definitely intended to do that. It was a shame they couldn't just hand Wormtail over to the dementors straight away, but if they could do that, they would have done it from the start. No, the little rat still had his part to play, but he would play his part in Harry and Ginny's plans first.
He wanted to talk to Ginny and get her thoughts on this latest development, but as usual he'd have to wait until the evening. Unlike him, who could do whatever he liked most of the day every day and not be bothered by anyone else in the house, she had an entire family around her at all times, coming and going and poking their noses into things, or so she described it. Harry could do with a few noses poking into things; living in a house where nobody wanted you there and wouldn't care if you left did get lonely after a while.
That night, he silenced his door and apparated to a small village down in the New Forest. There was a chip shop there that was open late, and the owner didn't consider it odd to see kids in there alone, even at that hour.
He'd been inside for only a few minutes when the door opened and Ginny strolled in. She spotted him right away and came to sit in the booth he'd chosen up against the window.
'Food's already coming,' he told her as she sat down.
'Brilliant, I'm starving,' she said.
'How is that possible?' he asked.
'Mum's over at Auntie Muriel's,' Ginny explained. 'She's come down with something, or claims she has, anyway. We had to fend for ourselves for dinner.'
'I still don't see how that's a problem,' he said. 'I mean, Ron and the twins are hopeless of course, but between you, your dad, and Percy...'
'Percy can't cook to save his life either,' said Ginny. 'One of the few things he ever failed at, though I maintain it's because he never tried. He's old fashioned, Percy. Cooking is "wife's work".' She made a face. 'He's never said as much, of course, he's not that boorish, but whether he realizes it or not that's how he views it. And Dad's got roped into the chaos at the Ministry thanks to Sirius. Everyone's doing overtime, no matter how unrelated their job is to catching him.'
'Right, I forgot about that,' said Harry.
'And me, well, I knew I was coming here with you, so why bother cooking anything?'
'Fair enough,' said Harry. At that moment, their food arrived. It smelled heavenly; he was rather hungry himself. 'Cheers.'
They tucked in. Fish and chips was something that was sadly missing from the Hogwarts menu – in fact, Harry had been shocked to discover that most wizards had never eaten it before at all.
'I do miss this at Hogwarts,' he said. Not that the food there wasn't brilliant, but sometimes you just wanted something greasy and disgusting.
'I remember the first time you took me to a place like this,' said Ginny, smiling fondly between bites. 'I thought you were having me on at first.'
'I remember, too,' he said, laughing at the memory. She had sarcastically told him to go ahead and take them to the real restaurant now he'd had his little joke. When he'd insisted it was the real restaurant, she'd actually seemed a little annoyed. Until she tried the fish.
'I'm glad you talked me into it,' she said. 'Though it's probably for the best we can't eat this all the time.'
'Hmm,' Harry agreed. 'Has your dad said anything to you all about what's going on yet?'
'He hasn't had the chance,' she said. 'I mean everyone's aware because of the paper this morning, but all we got was a floo call from him at around four o'clock saying he'd be home really late and to not wait up for him.'
'Is it mostly going the same as last time?' he asked. 'The way they're getting a jump on it, I mean. I didn't hear about ti until days after the fact.'
'As far as I know,' she replied, finishing the last of her chips and reaching across to steal some of his. He'd ordered extra in anticipation of this. 'I mean, I wasn't paying super close attention at the time. I do remember the sense of fear that was going around, and Dad did have to stay late at the office, so I'd say it's mostly the same. Do you think moving up the timetable is going to make any difference? I mean, they just did the prize drawing two days ago, so we definitely would've have been in Egypt yet for that picture to be taken.'
'It's only a week or two difference,' Harry said. 'I can't see it affecting things too greatly. He never made a move until after school started anyway, and we've left him in there long enough.'
'Oh, I agree on that!' she said quickly. 'I just wanted to make sure there wasn't anything we were overlooking.'
'If there is and we haven't spotted it by now...' he said, leaving the implication hanging.
'Good point,' she said. 'I'm just worried. This is the first time our plans have relied so much on what someone else is going to do.'
'It won't be the last,' said Harry darkly. 'But I know what you mean. We've prepared as best we can. Fretting about it now isn't going to do anything except give us a headache, or maybe an ulcer.'
'Rich coming from you,' she teased.
'Har har,' said Harry.
'Was there anything else we needed to talk about?' Ginny asked.
'I don't think so,' said Harry. He sighed. 'Remember when our dates were just about spending time together instead of scheming and plotting all the time?'
'Fondly,' she said. 'Though given that we could just as easily scheme and plot through the mirrors, I'd say this is as much about spending time together as anything.'
She had a point. He just wished they could afford to go places during the day, but even if the Dursleys wouldn't notice him out of the house for hours at a time, the Weasleys surely would notice Ginny gone. He tried and failed to think of other things they could do late in the evening.
'Not long now and you'll come to stay with us again,' said Ginny, reaching across the table to put her hand on his. 'Between Ron and I, we'll be able to talk Mum and Dad into it. It probably won't take much convincing.'
'If you can get me out of there before Aunt Marge comes to visit, that would be brilliant,' Harry said. He knew Dumbledore would insist he stay at least past his birthday, and he thought it wise to give it another couple of years before fighting the old man too much on it.
'It depends on if they have any holiday plans for us, but without the money from the galleon draw I doubt it,' said Ginny.
The two of them got up and left the chip shop, and walked hand in hand down the street for a while, enjoying the night air and their time together. When they finally apparated to their respective homes, Harry was in higher spirits than he'd ever been at Privet Drive.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
The very next day, Sirius was on the morning news broadcast. Muggles were warned that he was armed and extremely dangerous, and not to approach him under any circumstances but to call the government tip hotline. Essentially the same thing the magical population had been told, only the muggles would have no way of knowing how dangerous Sirius (supposedly) was.
Uncle Vernon had a good time ranting angrily about criminals and thugs, and how useless the government was in controlling them, which put him in a good mood for most of the day. Harry had other things on his mind.
Given that Sirius had no idea where Wormtail was in the summer, he would have no choice but to wait for him at Hogwarts. Harry knew (or rather, was relatively sure) that Sirius would come south first to see him before heading back up north for this, and Harry was hoping to catch a glimpse of him.
There were other things to be done as well. He'd been putting it off, giving himself some time to unwind, but now that things were in motion again he stirred himself back into action.
He'd been leaving the house to wander around most days so that the Dursleys would grow accustomed to it and not wonder where he was going. Not that they were likely to care, but anything that might cause the slightest bit of suspicion had to be squashed.
Today, he had a specific destination in mind. He'd never been there, though he had seen it more than once, and had a fair idea how to find it.
It took a while to find a secluded enough spot from which to disapparate. Little Whinging was full of suburban folk going about their days, and several were nearly if not equally as nosy as Aunt Petunia. There was a small wooded area near a park several streets down from Privet Drive that served well enough. He made sure to don his invisibility cloak as soon as he was among the trees, just in case. This was also important in that he didn't know if there would be any muggles around when he arrived at his destination, either.
Turning on his heel, he felt the familiar squeezing sensation and next second popped into being on a narrow lane overlooking the village of Little Hangleton.
This was just a fact-finding mission, he reminded himself as he collected his bearings. He was near a bend in the lane and had a clear view of the village laid out in the valley below. Just ahead, to the right, there would be a break in the hedgerows, with a long dirt track leading to a secluded copse of trees. If he went farther down the lane, it would pass by very near to this copse, but though the hedge was shorter there, there was no break in it.
Harry knew that there had to be enchantments all around the area, to keep muggles out and to prevent anyone magical from poking around as well. He would be very surprised indeed if anyone save himself and Dumbledore (and Ginny, since he had told her about it) even remembered this place existed.
He had no intention of testing his mettle against these enchantments today. For one thing, he was alone, and if anything went wrong there would be no one to help him or even know where he'd gone. For another, he wasn't even entirely sure they were something he could handle by himself in any case. He didn't even know what they were, how thorough or numerous they might be, or how large the area they covered.
That last was what he aimed to find out. From there he could survey the grounds and make conjectures on what type of protective spells he might encounter. He would carefully test for each one, one at a time. It was a process he was expecting to take most of the summer. If he didn't finish by the time school ended, he'd have to pick it up later on, though there would be a risk if Voldemort decided to take up temporary residence in the Riddle House. True, it was on the other side of the valley, but Harry didn't like the idea of Voldemort being so close by while he prodded around one of the dark lord's precious horcrux hiding places.
The most obvious place to begin his search was the gap in the hedgerow and its accompanying dirt track. He rounded the bend in the lane, and had to search for a minute or so to find it; it had been out of use for so long that the hedges had very nearly overgrown it completely.
Mindful of what he might be facing, Harry's first action was to pick up a small rock from the side of the lane and toss it down the narrow path. Nothing happened. Glancing around for witnesses, he severed a branch from a nearby tree and summoned it to him. He stuck it through the gap in the hedge, keeping a firm grip on his end. Again, nothing happened. He waved it around. Nothing. He poked at the hedges with it. Nothing. He levitated as far down the tack as he could see, and still, nothing.
The easy part over with, Harry now moved to the next page of his auror training. He cast a very basic, wide-ranging magic detection spell. It would tell him if there were any active enchantments about, though not what they were. He received on a faint echo, which might mean any spells cast on the hedge were extremely subtle, had been masked from detection in some way, or else he was picking up residual feedback from the much more powerful enchantments he knew existed deeper in, around the copse and the shack within it.
He cast a few more detection spells, these aimed at detecting dark magic specifically. Again the results were inconclusive.
He was at this point reasonably confident that the outer section of the hedge, at least, did not contain any enchantments that could kill him. This made sense, since if they were too near public access, they could be tripped by passers by accidentally, which would only serve to draw attention to the shack – the last thing Voldemort would want.
Very carefully, his wand held ready – to disapparate or defend himself, whichever necessary – Harry placed a foot through the gap and onto the dirt track. Again, nothing happened. He repeated everything he had done before, even summoning back the stick and sending it down again.
Wondering if he was being reckless, Harry lifted his other foot and strode forward. He was now fully within the hedge. Someone passing by on the lane behind him was not likely to see him unless sspecifically looking for him.
Fully aware that there were ways to defend a passageway like this without using any spells, Harry conjured a handful of bluebell flames, the same ones Hermione was always so fond of. If he were a wizard trying to keep people out – specifically people would would be looking for traces of dark magic, like aurors – he would have hidden some devil's snare within the hedgerows on either side. It wouldn't register with any sort of detection charms, and would be likely to strangle anyone to death before they were able to realize what was happening.
Taking each step as slowly as he could manage, Harry crept down the narrow track one foot at a time. The hedges were pressing in on him from either side; if there was devil's snare – or something else – in there, it would be on him before he had a chance to react.
About three yards in, he wend to take a step and realized his foot was caught, tangled up in something. Immediately he released the bluebell flames down toward the ground, but whatever had hold of him didn't let go. He looked down, pointing his wand…
And saw that it was just an ordinary root, to be expected in an overgrown hedge like this one.
Exhaling greatly in relief, Harry recalled the bluebell flames to his hand lest they burn the whole hedge down. As he did, however, he heard a definite rustling sound, and the hedges on either side ahead of him were shaking. There was something in there, then. Something that hadn't liked his fire. Whether devil's snare or something else, he felt he'd had enough adventure for one day. It was time to take what he'd learned, go home, and develop a plan of action for tomorrow.
Disentangling his foot from the root, Harry raised his wand to disapparate...and found that he couldn't. Panicking for only half a second, he got his head on straight and cast another detection charm. Sure enough, there was an anti-apparition jinx that started only a few feet in from the road. It was no wonder he hadn't noticed it before, anti-apparition spells were notoriously faint and by their nature extremely difficult to detect unless you were already inside one, or you already knew it was there. Still, he cursed his own stupidity. This was exactly the sort of thing he should have been expecting. Of course Voldemort wouldn't want anyone to be able to make a quick escape once they'd stumbled onto his traps.
Walking backwards, retracing his steps (he wasn't about to turn his back on that thicket), he made his way back out onto the road as slowly as he'd come in. Happily, he encountered no trouble, and was back out in the sunshine before he knew it.
Taking a few deep breaths to calm himself down, Harry raised his wand, turned on his heel, and disapparated, reappearing moments later in the same wooded park in Little Whinging he'd departed from earlier in the day. He whipped off his invisibility cloak, stashed it in his pocket, and began the walk back to Privet Drive. It had been a very productive day.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
Harry spent the next few weeks probing the area around the Gaunt shack bit by bit, piece by piece. He discovered that the unbroken hedge behind the house – the part much closer to the winding country lane – also contained devil's snare (for he was now sure that was what it was), but only on the side facing away from the road. The stones in the wall underneath were also cursed; if anyone tried to climb over them, they would soften like clay and the would-be trespasser would find themselves encased in rock. It was not unlike the trick steps on so many of the staircases at Hogwarts, though much more sinister.
There were also muggle repelling charms placed around the shack itself, which made sense. Muggles were far more likely to stumble on the place by accident, and if served Voldemort better to keep them away that allow them to be killed; if dozens of people started to go missing around a ramshackle old wizard house, it would definitely draw unwanted attention. It was wizards who might know what they were looking for that he would really want to dispose of.
He kept Ginny appraised of his progress, though as she reminded him, he was far more knowledgeable about fighting the dark arts than she was, so it would be unlikely she'd have any suggestions he might find useful.
'You never know,' he told her. 'It's not all dark curses and stuff. Look at that devil's snare; we could sure use Neville at a time like this.'
'Our Neville, you mean,' she said.
'I dunno,' he replied. 'Even this Neville might very well already know more about Herbology than either of us ever will.'
The devil's snare did indeed present a problem. The easiest way to get rid of it would be to simply burn the hedges away, but Voldemort would surely have planned for that. He might even have been counting on it. Harry remembered all too well the cave, where the potion Dumbledore had been forced to drink made him desperately thirsty, with only one source of water available to him.
Finally he decided there just wasn't anything else for it. He wasn't making any progress otherwise; he would have to try it.
He cordoned off a two foot section of the hedge on the left side. He had marked out the area where the devil's snare infestation began, so he had a good idea what he was working with. He had also (very carefully, of course) been cutting away at the hedges on either side so that the path was now once again wide enough to walk along without brushing against them. This did not seem to set off any triggered defenses, though he hadn't expected it to. Cutting devil's snare did not kill it or even hinder it for very long, so Voldemort wouldn't have been worried about anyone trying.
Making sure the rest of the hedge was protected from the fire he was about to start, Harry double checked all his precautions. He had a rope tied round his waist that was fastened to the ground outside by the lane, and it was charmed to pull him out should it experience any prolonged tension or resistance. He had his broomstick strapped across his back in case he needed to make a quick getaway, and he had his mirror in his pocket in case he needed to call Ginny for emergency help. They had agreed that keeping their secrets was less important than making sure he got out of there safely, though that was still an absolute last resort.
His blood pounding in his veins so that it felt like his whole body was throbbing, Harry cast the spell that would set the isolated section of hedge on fire.
Nothing happened at first. He stepped back quickly, just in case, but there was only the standard popping and cracking sound one would expect.
There did seem to be a lot of it though, for a live hedge. Harry was just about to move forward again to investigate when three orange blurs shot forward out of the hedge and attached themselves to the non-burning one opposite, where they immediately began scuttling in his direction.
Again, Harry experienced the briefest moment of panic. Rushing toward him – they would be on him in seconds – were three freshly hatched, highly venomous, Sardinian striped salamanders.
They were very small, being hatchlings, but very fast, and very angry. Most magical species of salamanders were harmless, but the Sardinian striped variety were very territorial and aggressive, and possessed a venom strong enough to kill in minutes. True to their nature as creatures of magical fire, it was a very painful death, too. It gave one the sensation that they were burning up from the inside out.
Thinking quickly, Harry cast a shield charm just in time for a leaping salamander to smack into it. Its orange and black striped body was splayed in midair against his invisible shield, and it dropped down to the ground. This didn't help his situation; it would be much harder to keep track of it down there, especially when he still had to keep his eye on the other two still running along the hedge. He yanked hard on his safety rope, and a moment later was very roughly jerked out of the narrow passage, where he tumbled unceremoniously into the lane. Any muggle choosing that exact moment to pass by would surely be in for a confusing sight.
He had to time to concern himself with the International Statute of Secrecy, however. Whipping his broomstick off his back, he released the rope from his waist with his wand and kicked into the air, just as the three salamanders burst out of the passage after him. Now safely in the air, Harry was able to take careful aim and hit each of them with a powerful freezing charm. It wouldn't hold them for long – he would need to drown them later – but he was safe for the time being.
Harry knew even his auror training wouldn't have been sufficient to get him out of that one.
'That was all down to you, Hagrid,' he thought, thanking his old friend thoroughly in his head for the knowledge of magical creatures he'd somehow managed to import upon Harry over the years.
It really was an ingenious trap, he thought, slowly descending while keeping a wary eye out in case there were any more salamanders he hadn't yet spotted, and worthy of Voldemort. Most magical salamander eggs could remain unhatched for decades unless sufficiently heated. Just like the lake full of inferi, Voldemort had devised a double-layered trap that would be nearly impossible to escape from if one was caught up in it. Anyone intruding would find themselves entangled in devil's snare, and if they managed to maintain the presence of mind to light a fire, they would soon after be accosted by deadly salamanders.
It lacked the elegance of the cave, of course, in that once triggered, it would need to be reset – hedges regrown, eggs replaced, and so on – but given that this hiding place had been arranged by a younger, less experienced Voldemort, it was to be expected that the defenses would be slightly more crude in comparison.
Touching down, Harry conjured a leather sack, and gingerly levitated all three frozen salamanders into it. He tied it tightly shut, and magically reinforced the knots. Then he charmed the bag to make it impermeable.
Knowing it would be irresponsible to leave without making sure there were no more live salamanders running around, Harry once again summoned his long branch, and began beating both sides of the hedge with it. Anything resting in them would be irritated enough to come out. Once he reached the area where the trap began, he stopped. The salamanders wouldn't fare any better against devil's snare than he would. This young, they wouldn't be capable of generating enough heat to ward it off, and their venom would be of no use against it.
Taking up the leather sack, Harry apparated to a lake up north – the same lake, as it happened, that he, Ron, and Hermione had once jumped into off the back of a dragon – flew out over it on his broomstick, and dropped the sack full of salamanders into it. It floated, and he only then remembered to removed the charm he'd placed on it, at which point it began slowly filling with water, and finally sank. He felt a little bit guilty, but there wasn't much else he could do with them – even Hagrid would have a lot of questions regarding how he'd come upon three exotic magical creatures that were non-native to Britain while living in muggle Surrey – and simply letting them loose was absolutely out of the question.
~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~
'That was an awfully big risk you took all by yourself,' Ginny told him crossly that evening.
'I know,' he said. 'But I was being as careful as possible without not doing anything at all, and you can't come during the day, and we'd be mad to try tackling Voldemort's traps after dark.'
Ginny still looked angry, like she wanted to argue but knew she didn't have anything with which to counter his reasoning. He knew he'd get an earful the moment she came up with something, whenever that happened to be.
'Look, we know this needs to be done,' said Harry. 'And if you can come up with a way to get out of the house for a few hours without your parents wondering where you've gone, I'm all for it. But at least now I've got a better idea what I'm up against. I'm taking my dragon hide gloves with me next time, and I've ordered some boots as well so they can't bite at my ankles.' That had worried him more than he was willing to share with her.
'What about the rest of you?' she said. 'Unless you've got a dragon hide shirt and cloak and trousers I don't know about...'
'Just my regular cloak will be enough,' he said. 'As long as I concentrate on only burning one small section of hedge at a time, they won't be able to sneak up on me or overwhelm me with numbers,' he said.
'You're taking a lot for granted,' she said. 'Like the fact that you've uncovered all of his protections. What if there's a third layer after the salamanders that you don't know about yet and it catches you off guard and there's no one there to help?'
'What do you suggest, then?' he asked, trying not to grow frustrated himself. He knew she was only coming from a place of concern.
'Give me a day or two to see if I can't work out a way to ensure everyone will leave me a lone for a couple of hours,' she said. 'If I'm there with you, even if I can't do anything more useful than call for help if you need it, it'll put my mind more at ease.'
Harry considered this. It wasn't as if they were in a race against time to get this done – well, they were, but they had years – and he'd made a lot of progress already. A couple of days wouldn't hurt anything.
'All right, then,' he said. 'Go ahead and see if you can't manage it. I won't pretend it won't be easier – not to mention less nerve-wracking – with you there.'
Two days came and went, and Ginny was still at a loss for ideas, though she had started letting it be known that there were times she just wanted to be by herself and left alone. Her idea was to wean her family into the idea so that she could have longer and longer periods to herself.
'I hate being eleven,' she complained to him through the mirror one night. 'Everyone wants to make it their business where you are and what you're doing all the bloody time. It's even worse than usual, what with an "escaped murderer" on the loose. As if he'd be hanging around here. If we'd been sent back to when we were fifteen and sixteen, say, we wouldn't be having this problem.'
'No, but we'd be having a completely different problem, I expect,' said Harry wryly. 'Do you really think your parents – or your brothers – would be absolutely fine with the two of us going off together for hours at a time without telling them where we were going or what we were doing?'
She thought about it, then laughed. 'No, I suppose not,' she admitted. 'But we wouldn't have to tell them we were together.'
He looked at her askance.
'I know, I know,' she said, sighing. 'They're not stupid. But I still think it would be easier than trying to get away from them now. At least teenagers are expected to be able to look after themselves for the most part.'
'Well, you're in luck, anyway,' said Harry. 'The dragon hide boots I ordered came and they're too small. I expect someone made a mistake. They can't be enlarged magically, so now I'm going to have to wait for a new pair, so you've got a few more days at least.'
'I told you not to buy clothing by owl order,' she chided him.
'You did,' he said. 'And you were right. If we're lucky these will fit you and then we'll both have a pair. You won't have to stay back so far, and I'll feel better if you're fully protected.' Their plan had been for her to be hovering off the ground on her broom, but this would work better.
Their window of opportunity was closing, however. Harry's birthday was only a few more days away, and he knew from his memories that it wouldn't be long beyond that when Aunt Marge came to visit. Even if Ginny and Ron hadn't managed to get him out of Privet Drive by then, he'd have fat little chance of going anywhere at all with her looming about. Not that he couldn't outmaneuver her, but if he was ever out of her sight for more than five minutes she would always begin expounding loudly and at great length over what sort of illicit mischief he might be up to. Not the best way to keep a low profile.
Finally, with two days to spare, Ginny had some good news.
'I've managed to convince everyone that I need some time to myself,' she reported. 'You'd have thought I was pulling all their teeth right out of their skulls, but I managed it. I even tested it to see if they'd keep their word, and no one came looking for me for two and a half hours! Even if we reduce that to two to be safe, that should be enough time to clear out a bunch of salamanders, don't you think?'
'Provided that's all that's in there, yeah,' Harry said, pleased at this positive development. 'If we do run into anything else, we're backing out straight away; we won't have time to figure it out and make a new plan.'
'No arguments from me,' said Ginny. 'Shall we do it tomorrow, then?'
'Definitely,' said Harry. 'Instead of trying to schedule a specific time, let's keep our mirrors on us. That way if anything happens we won't be surprised. I'll let you know when I'm leaving the house, and you can tell me when you've managed to go off on your own. We'll coordinate from there.'
'Were your field operations always this carefully planned?' she asked.
'Absolutely,' he said. 'Though Robards always said no plan survives first contact, and that definitely tracks with my experience. We generally had the advantage of starting from the same place, though.'
'I'm glad I decided to play quidditch,' she said.
The next morning, after giving Ginny a heads up through his mirror, Harry set out as he always did to walk around the neighborhood. The Dursleys certainly didn't care about escaped murderers. In fact they probably liked the prospect of Harry running into one and was surprised they hadn't been encouraging him to stay out longer ever since they'd seen the news broadcast about Sirius.
He headed from the wooded area whence he had taken to disapparating. As he entered it though, he felt a familiar tingling sensation on the back of his neck, like someone was watching him. He casually glanced around, but didn't see anyone, but in his experience that often meant very little.
His ears perked up, he kept walking, and the sensation didn't go away. Was that the wind rustling through the leaves or someone walking? The gait sounded too fast for a person. An animal, then? He couldn't disapparate unless he was sure. He hadn't put the invisibility cloak on yet, and he couldn't do that if someone was watching him either.
Continuing with the pretense that he was just out for a walk, Harry continued with the pretense that he was merely out for a stroll. He came out the other side of the wood and kept going, turning back to look after forty paces or so. And then a much bigger spanner hit the works than what he'd been worried about a minute ago.
A large, hairy black dog was resting on its haunches just inside the wood, staring at him.
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Now things are getting interesting.
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