HP 7 (3)

Harry had been planning this night since he had arrived back at the Dursleys, and now that his chance had come he felt a surge of adrenalin pulse through him. He had some last minute tasks to do before midnight came, but almost everything he would need, lay in a state of readiness.

Mad-eye Moody had been his main obstacle, his magical eye saw right through almost everything, including invisibility cloaks, and Harry felt sure Moody could see through the walls into his very room at times, and on the nights Mad-eye took guard duty, he was quite certain he would not have been able to slip by him.

Tonight however, Moody was not going to be a problem, and with only Kingsley on for maybe thirty minutes, he had his chance. Harry knew the guard changed at midnight and he glanced at the digital clock by his bed. 10.35pm, that would give him about an hour before he was to leave Privet Drive, forever.

Harry drew in a deep breath as he leapt to his feet. Taking out some parchment and ink from his desk draw, he sat down and started to write. As the quill scrawled across the page, Hedwig twittered in anticipation, keen to be put to use again. She had gone out only once in the past eight days, and that was to deliver a short, hastily written note to Ron that contained nothing of interest. It was not safe to pass information by owl.

Ron would be back at The Burrow, trying to learn anything he could by stealthily listening in on his father and Bill.

On the train back from Hogwarts Harry, Ron and Hermione had sat in a compartment they kept to themselves, conceiving various tactical ways of gathering information while Ron and Hermione were at The Burrow. Hermione had arranged to stay after spending only a week with her family. They occasionally looked up when interrupted by Order members who were patrolling the train, or fellow students like Neville who wandered in. But they were, for the most part, left alone. The loss of Professor Dumbledore had imparted a sombre mood upon the Hogwarts Express.

Every time the compartment door had slid open, Harry expected - hoped, to see Ginny’s face; he sat through the train journey back to London feeling like part of him was missing. It was the beginning of the end of what had been for Harry the most wonderfully comforting thing he had ever known. His heart would have liked nothing more than to have Ginny sat beside him; the smell of her hair drifting lazily in the air and the comforting warmth of her body leaned against his. But he knew she could not be with him, he had made that choice. She understood he had to leave her behind. She understood he must face this challenge without her. She understood.

Harry looked at the message he had just finished writing, it was as bland as the one he had sent Ron, but it’s purpose was far more important. He was rolling it up and sealing it when Hedwig fluttered down from her perch and landed on the desk in front of him. She held out her leg expectantly. Harry smiled at her affectionately and scratched her neck ‘I’m not sending it yet.’

She nibbled at his finger a little too vigorously and Harry pulled it away ‘Ow!’ he breathed laughing softly, rubbing the red marks that she had left. She flapped her wings huffily and retreated to her cage for a drink. ‘You’ll just have to be patient, it wont be long.’ He laid the scroll on his bed and reached for a knapsack. He had discovered it while searching one of the closets in his room days before; it had been bought for Dudley to take on a camping trip the Dursleys embarked on many summers ago. It had lain discarded and forgotten ever since.

Harry bent down and lifted the loose floorboard under his bed. There lay a reasonable store of provisions that he had managed to collect. He had been sneaking around the house in the gloom of night using his invisibility cloak. His Aunt Petunia put the missing food down to Dudley’s inability to stick to his diet; his cousin had frequently left traces of midnight binging strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other.

One night, because of Dudley's veracious appetite, Harry had almost been sprung.

While heading up to his room after having just raided the pantry for supplies, Harry met Dudley coming in the opposite direction. He had snuck out of his own room and was descending the stairs, heading straight for Harry who was concealed under his cloak. The sheer size of Dudley meant there wasn’t enough room for them to pass one another without Harry making significant contact with him. Harry was holding some packets of instant porridge, dried peas and some tinned fruit in his arms, and in his scramble to back down the stairs, he dropped a tin of apricot halves. It fell with a loud clunk, and then to his dismay, continued to roll down the stairs, Harry's feet dodging it, as he backed down the steps in an effort to get out of the way of Dudley.

Thunk … thunk … thunk was all his startled cousin heard on the stairway below him. Dudley could see neither Harry, nor the tin of apricot halves still hidden under the cloak.

When Harry and the tin came to a halt at the bottom of the stairs, he looked up and saw in the gloomy light from the street lamp outside, the look of sheer terror on his cousins bloodless, white face. Dudley's lower lip wobbled uncontrollably as he turned, stumbling over himself in his rush to get back to his room, inaudible squeaks escaping him as he heaved his weight against the door and slammed it shut.

He did not venture out in the small hours of the morning again, which turned out to be very convenient for Harry indeed.

Harry shoved some clothing and a bottle of water on top of the food he retrieved from the cavity, and then packed several other items carefully in the outside pockets of the pack. It was now heavily bulging as it lay on the bed. He reached in the closet for his broom, and placed it beside the scroll. He took out the invisibility cloak from his trunk and placed it over the back of the chair, and then lastly he packed his trunk with everything else he owned. It took him some time to check and double check that he had packed everything; he could not afford to leave anything behind this time as he had no intention of ever returning.

Hedwig had been watching him from her cage, her head swivelling this way and that as she followed him round the room. She let out a small screech as Harry sat down at the desk to write one last note.

Aunt Petunia,

I want to thank you, for you have done more than you know.

Because of you my mother did not die in vain.

Harry

He placed the parchment squarely in the centre of the desk, stood back and looked to Hedwig. ‘Okay,’ he said quietly raising his arm ‘come here.’ She fluttered down and settled onto Harry’s outstretched arm. ‘I need you to go to the park and wait for me there Hedwig.’ He said ‘Do you understand?’ She hooted softly and launched herself out of the window into the night.

Harry locked his trunk, flung the pack on his back, grasped his broom and swung his invisibility cloak over him.