| s-2
| Harry wasn't listening. |
| s-3
| He made a grab for the letters, but Dobby jumped out of reach. |
| s-4
| Ah, sir, this is a danger you must not face! |
| s-5
| Give me my friends' letters! |
| s-6
| Before Harry could move, Dobby had darted to the bedroom door, pulled it open – and sprinted down the stairs. |
| s-7
| Mouth dry, stomach lurching, Harry sprang after him, trying not to make a sound. |
| s-8
| He jumped the last six stairs, landing catlike on the hall carpet, looking around for Dobby. |
| s-9
| Harry ran up the hall into the kitchen and felt his stomach disappear. |
| s-10
| Aunt Petunia's masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of cream and sugared violets, was floating up near the ceiling. |
| s-11
| On top of a cupboard in the corner crouched Dobby. |
| s-12
| Harry Potter must say he's not going back to school – |
| s-13
| Dobby gave him a tragic look. |
| s-14
| The pudding fell to the floor with a heart-stopping crash. |
| s-15
| Cream splattered the windows and walls as the dish shattered. |
| s-16
| With a crack like a whip, Dobby vanished. |
| s-17
| There were screams from the dining room and Uncle Vernon burst into the kitchen to find Harry, rigid with shock, covered from head to foot in Aunt Petunia's pudding. |
| s-18
| At first, it looked as though Uncle Vernon would manage to gloss the whole thing over (Just our nephew – very disturbed meeting strangers upsets him, so we kept him upstairs) |
| s-19
| He shooed the shocked Masons back into the dining room, promised Harry he would flay him to within an inch of his life when the Masons had left, and handed him a mop. |
| s-20
| Aunt Petunia dug some ice-cream out of the freezer and Harry, still shaking, started scrubbing the kitchen clean. |
| s-21
| Uncle Vernon might still have been able to make his deal – if it hadn't been for the owl. |
| s-22
| Aunt Petunia was just handing round a box of after-dinner mints when a huge barn owl swooped through the dining room window, dropped a letter on Mrs Mason's head and swooped out again. |
| s-23
| Mrs Mason screamed like a banshee and ran from the house, shouting about lunatics. |
| s-24
| Mr Mason stayed just long enough to tell the Dursleys that his wife was mortally afraid of birds of all shapes and sizes, and to ask whether this was their idea of a joke. |
| s-25
| Harry stood in the kitchen, clutching the mop for support as Uncle Vernon advanced on him, a demonic glint in his tiny eyes. |
| s-26
| Harry took it. |
| s-27
| It did not contain birthday greetings. |
| s-28
| Dear Mr Potter, |
| s-29
| We have received intelligence that a Hover Charm was used at your place of residence this evening at twelve minutes past nine. |
| s-30
| As you know, underage wizards are not permitted to perform spells outside school, and further spellwork on your part may lead to expulsion from said school (Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery, 1875, Paragraph C). |
| s-31
| We would also ask you to remember that any magical activity that risks notice by members of the non-magical community (Muggles) is a serious offence, under section 13 of the International Confederation of Warlocks' Statute of Secrecy. |
| s-32
| Enjoy your holidays! |
| s-33
| Yours sincerely, Mafalda Hopkirk |
| s-34
| IMPROPER USE OF MAGIC OFFICE |
| s-35
| Harry looked up from the letter and gulped. |
| s-36
| He was bearing down on Harry like a great bulldog, all his teeth bared. |
| s-37
| Well, I've got news for you, boy. I'm locking you up you're never going back to that school. Never. And if you try and magic yourself out – they'll expel you! |
| s-38
| And laughing like a maniac, he dragged Harry back upstairs. |
| s-39
| Uncle Vernon was as bad as his word. |
| s-40
| The following morning, he paid a man to fit bars on Harry's window. |
| s-41
| He himself fitted a cat-flap in the bedroom door, so that small amounts of food could be pushed inside three times a day. |
| s-42
| They let Harry out to use the bathroom morning and evening. |
| s-43
| Otherwise, he was locked in his room around the clock. |
| s-44
| Three days later, the Dursleys were showing no sign of relenting and Harry couldn't see any way out of his situation. |
| s-45
| He lay on his bed watching the sun sinking behind the bars on the window and wondered miserably what was going to happen to him. |
| s-46
| What was the good of magicking himself out of his room if Hogwarts would expel him for doing it? |
| s-47
| Yet life at Privet Drive had reached an all-time low. |
| s-48
| Now that the Dursleys knew they weren't going to wake up as fruitbats, he had lost his only weapon. |
| s-49
| Dobby might have saved Harry from horrible happenings at Hogwarts, but the way things were going, he'd probably starve to death anyway. |
| s-50
| The cat-flap rattled and Aunt Petunia's hand appeared, pushing a bowl of tinned soup into the room. |
| s-51
| Harry, whose insides were aching with hunger, jumped off his bed and seized it. |
| s-52
| The soup was stone cold, but he drank half of it in one gulp. |
| s-53
| Then he crossed the room to Hedwig's cage and tipped the soggy vegetables at the bottom of the bowl into her empty food tray. |
| s-54
| She ruffled her feathers and gave him a look of deep disgust. |
| s-55
| He put the empty bowl back on the floor next to the cat-flap and lay back down on the bed, somehow even hungrier than he had been before the soup. |
| s-56
| Supposing he was still alive in another four weeks, what would happen if he didn't turn up at Hogwarts? |
| s-57
| Would someone be sent to see why he hadn't come back? |
| s-58
| Would they be able to make the Dursleys let him go? |
| s-59
| The room was growing dark. |
| s-60
| Exhausted, stomach rumbling, mind spinning over the same unanswerable questions, Harry fell into an uneasy sleep. |
| s-61
| There was a big photograph on the front of a very good-looking wizard with wavy blond hair and bright blue eyes. |
| s-62
| As always in the wizarding world, the photograph was moving; the wizard, who Harry supposed was Gilderoy Lockhart, kept winking cheekily up at them all. |
| s-63
| Mrs Weasley beamed down at him. |
| s-64
| Don't be so ridiculous, Fred, said Mrs Weasley, her cheeks rather pink. |
| s-65
| Yawning and grumbling, the Weasleys slouched outside with Harry behind them. |
| s-66
| The garden was large, and in Harry's eyes, exactly what a garden should be. |
| s-67
| The Dursleys wouldn't have liked it – there were plenty of weeds, and the grass needed cutting – but there were gnarled trees all around the walls, plants Harry had never seen spilling from every flowerbed and a big green pond full of frogs. |
| s-68
| There was a violent scuffling noise, the peony bush shuddered and Ron straightened up. |
| s-69
| This is a gnome, he said grimly. |
| s-70
| It was certainly nothing like Father Christmas. |
| s-71
| It was small and leathery-looking, with a large, knobbly, bald head exactly like a potato. |
| s-72
| Ron held it at arm's length as it kicked out at him with its horny little feet; he grasped it around the ankles and turned it upside-down. |
| s-73
| Seeing the shocked look on Harry's face, Ron added, It doesn't hurt them – you've just got to make them really dizzy so they can't find their way back to the gnomeholes. |
| s-74
| He let go of the gnome's ankles: it flew twenty feet into the air and landed with a thud in the field over the hedge. |
| s-75
| Harry learned quickly not to feel too sorry for the gnomes. |
| s-76
| He decided just to drop the first one he caught over the hedge, but the gnome, sensing weakness, sank its razor-sharp teeth into Harry's finger and he had a hard job shaking it off until – |
| s-77
| The air was soon thick with flying gnomes. |
| s-78
| The moment they know the de-gnoming's going on they storm up to have a look. |
| s-79
| Soon, the crowd of gnomes in the field started walking away in a straggling line, their little shoulders hunched. |
| s-80
| Just then, the front door slammed. |
| s-81
| He's back! said George. |
| s-82
| They hurried through the garden and back into the house. |
| s-83
| Mr Weasley was slumped in a kitchen chair with his glasses off and his eyes closed. |
| s-84
| He was a thin man, going bald, but the little hair he had was as red as any of his children's. |
| s-85
| He was wearing long green robes which were dusty and travel-worn. |
| s-86
| Mr Weasley took a long gulp of tea and sighed. |
| s-87
| Find anything, Dad? said Fred eagerly. |
| s-88
| Just Muggle-baiting, sighed Mr Weasley. |
| s-89
| of course, it's very hard to convict anyone because no Muggle would admit their key keeps shrinking – they'll insist they just keep losing it. |
| s-90
| Mrs Weasley had appeared, holding a long poker like a sword. |
| s-91
| Mr Weasley's eyes jerked open. |
| s-92
| He stared guiltily at his wife. |
| s-93
| Yes, Arthur, cars, said Mrs Weasley, her eyes flashing. |
| s-94
| Mr Weasley blinked. |
| s-95
| Just so you could carry on tinkering with all that Muggle rubbish in your shed! |
| s-96
| He looked around, saw Harry, and jumped. |
| s-97
| Very pleased to meet you, Ron's told us so much about – |
| s-98
| I – I mean, he faltered as sparks flew from Mrs Weasley's eyes, that – that was very wrong, boys – very wrong indeed |
| s-99
| They slipped out of the kitchen and down a narrow passageway to an uneven staircase, which zigzagged its way up through the house. |
| s-100
| On the third landing, a door stood ajar. |
| s-101
| Harry just caught sight of a pair of bright brown eyes staring at him before it closed with a snap. |