| s-102
| She was already wearing a salmon-pink cocktail dress. |
| s-103
| Harry washed his hands and bolted down his pitiful supper. |
| s-104
| The moment he had finished, Aunt Petunia whisked away his plate. |
| s-105
| As he passed the door to the living room, Harry caught a glimpse of Uncle Vernon and Dudley in bow-ties and dinner jackets. |
| s-106
| He had only just reached the upstairs landing when the door bell rang and Uncle Vernon's furious face appeared at the foot of the stairs. |
| s-107
| Harry crossed to his bedroom on tiptoe, slipped inside, closed the door and turned to collapse on his bed. |
| s-108
| The trouble was, there was already someone sitting on it. |
| s-109
| Harry managed not to shout out, but it was a close thing. |
| s-110
| The little creature on the bed had large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls. |
| s-111
| Harry knew instantly that this was what had been watching him out of the garden hedge that morning. |
| s-112
| As they stared at each other, Harry heard Dudley's voice from the hall. |
| s-113
| May I take your coats, Mr and Mrs Mason? |
| s-114
| The creature slipped off the bed and bowed so low that the end of its long thin nose touched the carpet. |
| s-115
| Harry noticed that it was wearing what looked like an old pillowcase, with rips for arm and leg holes. |
| s-116
| Th-thank you, said Harry, edging along the wall and sinking into his desk chair, next to Hedwig, who was asleep in her large cage. |
| s-117
| Just Dobby. |
| s-118
| Er – I don't want to be rude or anything, but – this isn't a great time for me to have a house-elf in my bedroom. |
| s-119
| Aunt Petunias high, false laugh sounded from the living room. |
| s-120
| The elf hung his head. |
| s-121
| People goggled through the bars at him as he lay, starving and weak, on a bed of straw. |
| s-122
| Then the Dursleys appeared and Dudley rattled the bars of the cage, laughing at him. |
| s-123
| Leave me alone. Cut it out. I'm trying to sleep. |
| s-124
| He opened his eyes. |
| s-125
| Moonlight was shining through the bars on the window. |
| s-126
| And someone was goggling through the bars at him: a freckle-faced, red-haired, long-nosed someone. |
| s-127
| Ron Weasley was outside Harry's window. |
| s-128
| Harry's mouth fell open as the full impact of what he was seeing hit him. |
| s-129
| Ron was leaning out of the back window of an old turquoise car, which was parked in mid-air. |
| s-130
| Grinning at Harry from the front seats were Fred and George, Ron's elder twin brothers. |
| s-131
| Why haven't you been answering my letters? |
| s-132
| Bit rich coming from you, said Harry, staring at the floating car. |
| s-133
| Stop gibbering, said Ron, we've come to take you home with us. |
| s-134
| If the Dursleys wake up, I'm dead, said Harry as he tied the rope tightly around a bar and Fred revved up the car. |
| s-135
| Harry moved back into the shadows next to Hedwig, who seemed to have realised how important this was and kept still and silent. |
| s-136
| The car revved louder and louder and suddenly, with a crunching noise, the bars were pulled clean out of the window as Fred drove straight up in the air – Harry ran back to the window to see the bars dangling a few feet above the ground. |
| s-137
| Panting, Ron hoisted them up into the car. |
| s-138
| Harry listened anxiously, but there was no sound from the Dursleys bedroom. |
| s-139
| When the bars were safely in the back seat with Ron, Fred reversed as close as possible to Harry's window. |
| s-140
| Locked in the cupboard under the stairs, and I can't get out of this room – |
| s-141
| Fred and George climbed carefully through the window into Harry's room. |
| s-142
| You had to hand it to them, thought Harry, as George took an ordinary hairpin from his pocket and started to pick the lock. |
| s-143
| There was a small click and the door swung open. |
| s-144
| Watch out for the bottom stair, it creaks, Harry whispered back, as the twins disappeared onto the dark landing. |
| s-145
| Harry dashed around his room, collecting his things together and passing them out of the window to Ron. |
| s-146
| Then he went to help Fred and George heave his trunk up the stairs. |
| s-147
| Harry heard Uncle Vernon cough. |
| s-148
| At last, panting, they reached the landing, then carried the trunk through Harry's room to the open window. |
| s-149
| Fred climbed back into the car to pull with Ron, and Harry and George pushed from the bedroom side. |
| s-150
| Inch by inch, the trunk slid through the window. |
| s-151
| Uncle Vernon coughed again. |
| s-152
| Harry and George threw their shoulders against the trunk and it slid out of the window into the back seat of the car. |
| s-153
| But as Harry climbed onto the window-sill there came a sudden loud screech from behind him, followed immediately by the thunder of Uncle Vernon's voice. |
| s-154
| Harry tore back across the room as the landing light clicked on. |
| s-155
| He snatched up Hedwig's cage, dashed to the window and passed it out to Ron. |
| s-156
| He was scrambling back onto the chest of drawers when Uncle Vernon hammered on the unlocked door – and it crashed open. |
| s-157
| For a split second, Uncle Vernon stood framed in the doorway; then he let out a bellow like an angry bull and dived at Harry, grabbing him by the ankle. |
| s-158
| Ron, Fred and George seized Harry's arms and pulled as hard as they could. |
| s-159
| Petunia! roared Uncle Vernon. |
| s-160
| But the Weasleys gave a gigantic tug and Harry's leg slid out of Uncle Vernon's grasp. |
| s-161
| Harry couldn't believe it – he was free. |
| s-162
| He wound down the window, the night air whipping his hair, and looked back at the shrinking rooftops of Privet Drive. |
| s-163
| Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were all hanging, dumbstruck, out of Harry's window. |
| s-164
| The Weasleys roared with laughter and Harry settled back in his seat, grinning from ear to ear. |
| s-165
| Let Hedwig out, he told Ron. She can fly behind us. |
| s-166
| George handed the hairpin to Ron and a moment later, Hedwig had soared joyfully out of the window to glide alongside them like a ghost. |
| s-167
| Harry told them all about Dobby, the warning he'd given Harry and the fiasco of the violet pudding. |
| s-168
| There was a long shocked silence when he had finished. |
| s-169
| 'Definitely dodgy' agreed George. |
| s-170
| He saw Fred and George look at each other. |
| s-171
| Well, said Fred, put it this way – house-elves have got powerful magic of their own, but they can't usually use it without their master's permission. |
| s-172
| I reckon old Dobby was sent to stop you coming back to Hogwarts. |
| s-173
| Someone's idea of a joke. |
| s-174
| Draco Malfoy? said George, turning around. |
| s-175
| He was a big supporter of You Know Who. |
| s-176
| Harry had heard these rumours about Malfoy's family before, and they didn't surprise him at all. |
| s-177
| Draco Malfoy made Dudley Dursley look like a kind, thoughtful and sensitive boy. |
| s-178
| Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing, said George. |
| s-179
| Harry was silent. |
| s-180
| Judging by the fact that Draco Malfoy usually had the best of everything, his family were rolling in wizard gold; he could just see Malfoy strutting around a large manor house. |
| s-181
| Sending the family servant to stop Harry from going back to Hogwarts also sounded exactly like the sort of thing Malfoy would do. |
| s-182
| Had Harry been stupid to take Dobby seriously? |
| s-183
| I thought it was Errol's fault at first – |
| s-184
| He's ancient. |
| s-185
| It wouldn't be the first time he'd collapsed on a delivery. |
| s-186
| The owl Mum and Dad bought Percy when he was made a prefect, said Fred from the front. |
| s-187
| I mean, there's only so many times you can polish a prefect badge. |
| s-188
| You're driving too far west, Fred, he added, pointing at a compass on the dashboard. |
| s-189
| Fred twiddled the steering wheel. |
| s-190
| He works in the most boring department, said Ron. |
| s-191
| Like, last year, some old witch died and her tea set was sold to an antiques shop. |
| s-192
| This Muggle woman bought it, took it home and tried to serve her friends tea in it. |
| s-193
| What happened? |
| s-194
| Fred laughed. |
| s-195
| He takes it apart, puts spells on it and puts it back together again. |
| s-196
| If he raided our house he'd have to put himself straight under arrest. |
| s-197
| It drives Mum mad. |
| s-198
| A faint pinkish glow was visible along the horizon to the east. |
| s-199
| Fred brought the car lower and Harry saw a dark patchwork of fields and clumps of trees. |
| s-200
| Lower and lower went the flying car. |
| s-201
| The edge of a brilliant red sun was now gleaming through the trees. |