Chapter 548: Dudley meets a Dementor

"What the hell are you doing?!"

As Harry grabbed his wand and cautiously peered out the window, a force came from his side, knocking him to the side, and Harry stumbled a few steps, falling to the ground on his butt.

"What the hell are you doing?!"

His Uncle Vernon repeated, his small eyes staring at Harry and his wand in horror and rage, as if he had seen something terrible.

Harry ignored him, got up from the floor done and tried to make his way to the window, to find out what was going on outside.

The sound was familiar to him: it was the sound of someone using the Apparition Charm, and he had heard it dozens of times when Fish had fought Voldemort, so he couldn't be wrong!

The window, however, was occupied by the hulking figure of his Uncle Vernon, now sporting an ugly, maniacal grin, waving to the neighbors who had also poked their heads out at the sound.

"What a lovely evening!" His Uncle Vernon waved to Mrs. 7, who lived across the street and watched from behind the mesh curtains, and said loudly, "Did you hear the car backfire? It gave Petunia and me a fright!".

Then he turned his head to one side, glared at Harry, who was trying to get closer, and shouted through his teeth: "Put it away! Come on. Don't let anyone see you."

Harry hesitated, put the wand back in his pocket and craned his neck to look out the window.

"Let me see! That's the sound of someone using the Apparition Charm!"

At Harry's words, an already nervous Aunt Petunia immediately let out a panicked scream.

Her Uncle Vernon's fat face quickly turned purple as he pushed Harry away again and quickly closed the window.

"There's nothing out there, you little lunatic! That's the sound of a car backfiring, not your kind of Apparition...a fantasy..."

"Apparition, one of the ways many wizards use to move quickly."

Explained Harry politely, only to receive an even harsher shout from Aunt Petunia and an angry shout from his Uncle Vernon, "Don't say those words! I'm not interested in your freaky tricks!"

He seemed to be in denial,

Harry was reminded of Fudge, the Minister of Magic.

"I'm going for a walk."

Harry lost interest in explaining to the two of them, he said quietly, then turned his head and walked out the door.

But Uncle Vernon stopped forcibly in front of him.

"What are you trying to do?!" he looked at Harry sternly, glancing from time to time at Harry's pocket where he kept his wand.

Of course, Harry understood what Vernon was worried about, neither he nor his Aunt Petunia wanted anything to do with wizards, nor did they want to be thought of as weirdos by their neighbors.

"Don't worry, I'm just going for a walk." Despite his anxiety, Harry did his best to look unconcerned. "You should know that we're not free to use magic in front of you."

"Don't say that word!" bellowed Aunt Vernon, then watched in shock and anger as Harry slowly walked past his.

He would have liked to lock Harry up and forbid him to leave the house if he could, but he was worried about the cat-eared boy knocking on his door, and he had heard that Harry had a murderous godfather who had escaped from prison two years earlier.

So, although Vernon was reluctant, he didn't dare go and stop Harry, but watched as he opened the door and went out.

As soon as Harry was out, he quickened his pace, running across the lawn in front of the gate, over the garden wall, and out into the street, looking around.

He had his right hand in his jeans pocket, clutching his wand tightly in his trouser pocket in case any Death Eaters came upon him.

However, after circling the area and crossing several streets, Harry found nothing out of the ordinary, which made him hesitate.

Maybe it wasn't a magical sound, or maybe he was so desperate for a hint of contact with his world that he had made a fuss over a perfectly ordinary sound.

Was he sure it wasn't the sound of something breaking in a neighbor's house? Or, as his Uncle Vernon had said, just the sound of a car backing up.

A sense of frustration and loss came over Harry, and then the despair that had been plaguing him all summer overwhelmed him once again.

Harry would have preferred to be attacked by a Death Eater or something else than to have everything that was happening to him kept from him, at least so he could learn a little about the magical world instead of being uninformed.

Harry made his way to the Magnolia Road playground, the gates were locked but he hopped through with ease, stepping onto the dry grass.

The park was as empty as the surrounding streets, and Harry made his way to where the swings were, found one that Dudley and his friends hadn't had time to destroy, and sat on it, one arm on the chain, staring crestfallen at the ground, his mind whirling with all sorts of thoughts.

There was worry about Voldemort, resentment for Dumbledore, Sirius, Ron and the others, and most of all, frustration that everyone was keeping the truth from him.

Harry didn't know how long he had been sitting on the swing, until the sound of someone talking interrupted his tormented thoughts.

It was Dudley Dursley and his friends, singing vulgar songs, talking about which boy had been bullied today and laughing obnoxiously.

They didn't notice Harry sitting on the swing, joking and laughing as they walked past the playground.

This was a great disappointment to Harry, if they had seen him they would have gone after him, what would Dudley have done? He certainly didn't want to embarrass himself in front of his friends, but he couldn't bring himself to mess with Harry....

It was one of the few pleasures Harry had here, watching Dudley's dilemma, teasing him, enjoying his helplessness.

When the voices of Dudley's group died away and their figures rounded the corner and disappeared, Harry sighed in disappointment.

There was no way he was going to provoke Dudley, because if he was being bullied by them, then he would be justified in using his magic, but if he was provoking them, then it would be hard to explain to the school and the Ministry.

Besides, Sirius' letter was asking him not to act recklessly and to stay out of it....

Heck, he'd never done anything like that, which was one of the reasons Harry was so resentful.

Harry jumped off the swing and headed for the Dursleys' house with his head down.

His Aunt Penny and Uncle Vernon seemed to think that if Dudley showed up at any time, it was time to go home, and if it was after that time, it was too late.

If Harry had gone home after Dudley, he had no doubt that he would have been locked up until his knocking would have alerted the neighbors to open the door and let him in, all the while denigrating him for being late as a "juvenile delinquent."

Had it not been for Fish's threats, they probably would have treated him even worse.

Harry sighed again at the thought of Fish, who hadn't been as secretive about himself as the others, and Harry was sure Fish wasn't hiding anything from him.

But...

It was so hard to get Fish to write!

So far, he had only received a "Happy Birthday, Harry" from Fish.

Soon, Harry caught up with Dudley and his friends, and followed quietly behind them, waiting for Dudley's friends to leave before approaching he.

"Hey, Big D!" Harry called out to Dudley.

"Oh," he turned around, frowning at the sight of Harry, "It's you."

Dudley muttered, then quickened his pace. He didn't want to talk to Harry, he didn't dare do anything to him when no one else was around.

Harry took two steps closer to Dudley and asked with a smirk, "Since when did you become 'Big D'?"

"Shut up!" growled Dudley viciously, before picking up his pace again and heading for home.

But Harry didn't want to let Dudley go, he also quickened his pace and continued to verbally taunt his cousin, watching the other's anger boil over as he tried to contain himself, which helped lighten Harry's depressed mood.

Dudley, already experienced enough at this, ignored Harry's jabbering in his ear and walked sullenly home, knowing that once there, Harry would have to shut up.

Just as the two were about to reach the Dursley house, something strange happened.

The dark blue, starry night sky suddenly turned black, without a single ray of light: the stars, the moon, the dim street lamps at the ends of the alleyways, all disappeared at once. The noise of cars in the distance, the rustle of leaves in the near distance, also disappeared.

The night, which had been soft and pleasant, suddenly became bitterly cold. They were surrounded by an impenetrable darkness, deep and silent, as if a giant hand had covered the whole alley with a thick curtain of cold so that they could see nothing.

A terrible name popped into Harry's head....

Dementors!