Chapter 4: Several Hard Tasks
Harry woke up feeling miserable, yet it took him awhile to figure out why. In a few minutes’ time it all came rushing back: someone had been attacked by Dementors, someone he might possibly know, and it would be reported in the Daily Prophet this morning.
He and Ron dressed slowly, trying the stave off the moment when they would hear the dreadful news. Even after being completely dressed both sat down on their beds, not moving.
“Maybe they won’t notice we’re missing,” said Ron quietly. Harry highly doubted it, though he didn’t say so aloud.
Sure enough, five minutes later Hermione poked her head into the doorway and said, “Breakfast.”
“Do we have to?” Ron asked her.
“Oh, the Daily Prophet article,” Hermione said in an understanding voice. “Well, the Dementor attack was on the front page…” Her voice suddenly shook as she added, “It wasn’t anyone we know, but it was sad. A nine year old boy out with his parents…His soul’s gone now…” Harry and Ron stared at her, open mouthed, in horror. “I left before they started to scan the rest of the Prophet.”
“So…is it safe to go down?” Ron asked after a few seconds’ time.
“Unless there’s anything else we don’t want to know in the Prophet,” Harry said grimly. “But we’ll have to go down anyway. Who else is down there?”
“Oh…Ron’s parents, Lupin, Tonks, Ginny, Kim, Fred, and George,” Hermione told them. “Ginny wanted to come up, but one person was enough.” Secretly, Harry realized that he would have wanted Ginny as much, if not more than Hermione to come upstairs and talk to them.
Just a few weeks before Harry and Ginny had been dating, before Harry broke it off. As Harry saw, Voldemort would go after those whom Harry loved (he had done so before), so distancing himself from Ginny would protect her. But it wasn’t easy.
The two boys got off their beds and followed Hermione down the stairs and into the kitchen, where they were met by a surprise.
Everyone had their eyes on Kim, who was speaking into a blue device that looked like a walky-talky. She was saying, “No-Ron, just tell them I’m doing a-a school course in another country for awhile. Tell them that it was an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“But Kim,” said a voice-a male’s voice-coming from the device, “your parents are geniuses! They’re not going to believe it-“
“They have to!” Kim said desperately.
“What are you really doing? Why can’t you tell us?” said a different, younger sounding voice, also male.
“Wade-“ Kim started but the first voice cut across “I’m your best friend, Kim! Why can’t you tell me?”
“Ron!” Kim groaned. “I just-can’t! Please…remember the time you went to that ninja school and couldn’t tell me what happened?”
“Ninja school?” Ron Weasley whispered next to Harry incredulously.
“Well…yeah,” said the Ron over the communication device. “But you found out…”
“Because Yori let you tell me,” Kim finished for him. “But this is different. Unless they let me tell you, I can’t. Its difficult, that’s all I can say.”
“Alright,” said the Ron on the device grudgingly, “I’ll tell them. Good luck on your ‘secret mission’, whatever it is.”
“Thanks,” Kim said, looking relieved. “And Wade, you’ll back him up?”
“Got it,” said Wade’s voice. “Bye Kim, good luck!” The device turned off. Kim pocketed it and turned to face everyone.
“Muggles have ninja schools?” Ron asked, still amazed. “And you thought magic was weird?”
“Who were those people, anyway?” Tonks asked Kim curiously. “They sounded American…Well, you are so they should be…”
“Oh, that was my best friend Ron and my other friend Wade,” Kim explained. “They and my parents wanted to know where I went.”
“Ah…” said Tonks. “Right, and you can’t tell them. Hard, isn’t it?” Kim nodded. “But its for a good cause.”
“I still don’t know exactly how we’re going to do what we’ve got to do,” Kim said quietly.
“Neither do we,” said Ron. “But we’ve got a general idea. There are just some things that we…don’t know.” These words brought Harry to remember something.
“Do any of you know a place we-Ron, Hermione, Kim, and I-could stay while we…fulfill our mission?” Harry asked the room at large. “Voldemort will probably search here first if he finds out we’re up to something, and you haven’t got a Secret Keeper, and even if you did a Secret Keeper they might still tell him…Like Peter Pettigrew did to my parents, so…”
“I might have an idea, but I’ll have to look in on it and get back to you,” said Lupin. “It should work out, though we still might end up using a Secret Keeper. Its less obvious than if you were to just stay here.” Harry nodded, and looked around again.
“I’ll ask Mad-Eye if he knows anywhere,” said Mrs. Weasley. “He should be coming around soon.”
“Well,” said Ginny, who for some reason looked tense, “now that that’s all settled, let’s eat some breakfast.” Everyone sat down and soon began eating a very nice breakfast, which had been cooked by Mrs. Weasley.
Over the next few days Harry made preparations to go to the Dursley’s, his Aunt and Uncle’s house, which he knew Dumbledore wanted him to do before his seventeenth birthday. The reason behind this was a good one; Harry’s mother died to save him, and in doing so gave Harry a special protection, love, that would protect him until he became of age. He had to return to the Dursley’s every summer before then because his Aunt Petunia was his mother’s only living blood relative, and the magic protecting him would only work while he could still call the Dursley’s house home.
The problem was, Ron and Hermione wanted to come with him. Harry knew they had packed for a night or two already, yet he also knew that their coming with him could be disastrous. The Dursley’s-his Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and cousin Dudley-all hated magic beyond anything else. Harry couldn’t begin to imagine their reaction if he brought a witch and a wizard, both of whom were already of age and therefore qualified to do magic outside of Hogwarts, into their house. Uncle Vernon would surely lose control and take it out on Harry.
But even the day before Harry was to leave for the Dursley’s house, Ron and Hermione yet again stated that he wasn’t leaving without them, and that they could handle anything the Dursley’s threw at them (figuratively and literally).
“What if something happened to you?” Hermione asked him. “We wouldn’t be there to help you!”
“Yeah, mate, and then we’d feel guilty about it. We’re going with you no matter what!” Ron added forcefully. And so Harry had no choice but to take them.
It was very early in the morning when Harry, Ron, and Hermione woke up. They were going to the Dursley’s by Apparating, and it had to be completely dark, as it would look very weird to a Muggle to just have several people appear out of thin air. With large backpacks on their backs, they headed outside to meet Lupin, who said, “I’m going with you, just in case something happens.”
Harry couldn’t see what could possibly happen between the time they got there to the time one of the Dursleys let them in, but didn’t say anything. He was more worried about whether the Ministry was going to reprimand him for Apparating without a license, even though they had not the last time. There was a chance that they could be paying better attention in this case, seeing as he was going to be Apparating into a Muggle area. Lupin, who seemed to read his mind, said, “As long as nothing goes wrong, you’ll be fine. Besides, these days the Ministry has more pressing matters to deal with than underage magic. Are you all ready?”
Harry, Ron, and Hermione, shivering slightly in the cool morning air, nodded. “All right then,” Lupin said. “One…two…three.”
Harry half-turned, and felt the familiarly unpleasant sensation of being pushed through a small rubber tube, but it was over within seconds, and he soon found himself facing Number Four, Private Drive. “Shall we?’ Lupin asked, on his right.
He, Harry, Ron, and Hermione walked up the driveway to the door. Harry rang the doorbell, though hesitantly. They heard muffled footsteps.
Then the door opened to reveal a grumpy looking Uncle Vernon, who was large with small, beady eyes, a large mustache, and very little neck. He squinted at them, and then, upon noticing Harry, cried “What in the ruddy HELL are you doing here?!”
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