voice down in the hall,’ she added in an urgent whisper.
‘Why?’
‘I don’t want anything to wake up.’
‘What d’you —?’
‘I’ll explain later, I’ve got to hurry, I’m supposed to be at the meeting – I’ll just show you where you’re sleeping.’
Pressing her finger to her lips, she led him on tiptoe past a pair of long, moth-eaten curtains, behind which Harry supposed there must be another door, and after skirting a large umbrella stand that looked as though it had been made from a severed troll’s leg they started up the dark staircase, passing a row of shrunken heads mounted on plaques on the wall. A closer look showed Harry that the heads belonged to house-elves. All of them had the same rather snout-like nose.
Harry’s bewilderment deepened with every step he took. What on earth were they doing in a house that looked as though it belonged to the Darkest of wizards?
‘Mrs Weasley, why —?’
‘Ron and Hermione will explain everything, dear, I’ve really got to dash,’ Mrs Weasley whispered distractedly. ‘There —’ they had reached the second landing, ‘– you’re the door on the right. I’ll call you when it’s over.’
And she hurried off downstairs again.
Harry crossed the dingy landing, turned the bedroom doorknob, which was shaped like a serpent’s head, and opened the door.
He caught a brief glimpse of a gloomy high-ceilinged, twin-bedded room; then there was a loud twittering noise, followed by an even louder shriek, and his vision was completely obscured by a large quantity of very bushy hair. Hermione had thrown herself on to him in a hug that nearly knocked him flat, while Ron’s tiny owl, Pigwidgeon, zoomed excitedly round and round their heads.
‘HARRY! Ron, he’s here, Harry’s here! We didn’t hear you arrive! Oh, how are you? Are you all right? Have you been furious with us? I bet you have, I know our letters were useless – but we couldn’t tell you anything, Dumbledore made us swear we wouldn’t, oh, we’ve got so much to tell you, and you’ve got things to tell us – the Dementors! When we heard – and that Ministry hearing – it’s just outrageous, I’ve looked it all up, they can’t expel you, they just can’t, there’s provision in the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery for the use of magic in life-threatening situations —’
‘Let him breathe, Hermione,’ said Ron, grinning as he closed the door behind Harry. He seemed to have grown several more inches during their month apart, making him taller and more gangly looking than ever, though the long nose, bright red hair and freckles were the same.
Still beaming, Hermione let go of Harry, but before she could say another word there was a soft whooshing sound and something white soared from the top of a dark wardrobe and landed gently on Harry’s shoulder.
‘Hedwig!’
The snowy owl clicked her beak and nibbled his ear affectionately as Harry stroked her feathers.
‘She’s been in a right state,’ said Ron. ‘Pecked us half to death when she brought your last letters, look at this —’
He showed Harry the index finger of his right hand, which sported a half-healed but clearly deep cut.
‘Oh, yeah,’ Harry said. ‘Sorry about that, but I wanted answers, you know —’
‘We wanted to give them to you, mate,’ said Ron. ‘Hermione was going spare, she kept saying you’d do something stupid if you were stuck all on your own without news, but Dumbledore made us —’
‘– swear not to tell me,’ said Harry. ‘Yeah, Hermione’s already said.’
The warm glow that had flared inside him at the sight of his two best friends was extinguished as something icy flooded the pit of his stomach. All of a sudden – after yearning to see them for a solid month – he felt he would rather Ron and Hermione left him alone.
There was a strained silence in which Harry stroked Hedwig automatically, not looking at either of the others.
‘He seemed to think it was best,’ said Hermione rather breathlessly. ‘Dumbledore, I mean.’
‘Right,’ said Harry. He noticed that her hands, too, bore the marks of Hedwig’s beak and found that he was not at all sorry.
‘I think he thought you were safest with the Muggles —’ Ron began.
‘Yeah?’ said Harry, raising his eyebrows. ‘Have either of you been attacked by Dementors this summer?’
‘Well, no – but that’s why he’s had people from the Order of the Phoenix tailing you all the time —’
Harry felt a great jolt in his guts as though he had just missed a step going downstairs. So everyone had known he was being followed, except him.
‘Didn’t work that well, though, did it?’ said Harry, doing his utmost to keep his voice even. ‘Had to look after myself after all, didn’t I?’
‘He was so angry,’ said Hermione, in an almost awestruck voice. ‘Dumbledore. We saw him. When he found out Mundungus had left before his shift had ended. He was scary.’
‘Well, I’m glad he left,’ Harry said coldly. ‘If he hadn’t, I wouldn’t have done magic and Dumbledore would probably have left me at Privet Drive all summer.’
‘Aren’t you … aren’t you worried about the Ministry of Magic hearing?’ said Hermione quietly.
‘No,’ Harry lied defiantly. He walked away from them, looking around, with Hedwig nestled contentedly on his shoulder, but this room was not likely to raise his spirits. It was dank and dark. A blank stretch of canvas in an ornate picture frame was all that relieved the bareness of the peeling walls, and as Harry passed it he thought he heard someone, who was lurking out of sight, snigger.
‘So why’s Dumbledore been so keen to keep me in the dark?’ Harry asked, still trying hard to keep his voice casual. ‘Did you – er – bother to ask him at all?’
He glanced up just in time to see them exchanging a look that told him he was behaving just as they had feared he would. It did nothing to improve his temper.
‘We told Dumbledore we wanted to tell you what was going on,’ said Ron. ‘We did, mate. But he’s really busy now, we’ve only seen him twice since we came here and he didn’t have much time, he just made us swear not to tell you important stuff when we wrote, he said the owls might be intercepted.’
‘He could still’ve kept me informed if he’d wanted to,’ Harry said shortly. ‘You’re not telling me he doesn’t know ways to send messages without owls.’
Hermione glanced at Ron and then said, ‘I thought that, too. But he didn’t want you to know anything.’
‘Maybe he thinks I can’t be trusted,’ said Harry, watching their expressions.
‘Don’t be thick,’ said Ron, looking highly disconcerted.
‘Or that I can’t take care of myself.’
‘Of
