- 1 -

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS

1. The Escape

Harry slunk warily along the footpath, his head slightly bowed, eye’s darting up and down the street, glancing every now and then left and right. His right hand hovered over the pocket in his worn out faded jeans where his wand lay hidden, but within easy grasp. His fist was unconsciously clenching and unclenching. Most people would

have found the misty cool night air soothing, pleasant, but Harry was on edge.

As he rounded the corner of Privet Drive, he stopped. His head turned to survey the street before him. There was nothing out of the ordinary, but he knew someone was there, somewhere, lurking in the darkest corners, or hidden by magic. He could feel their presence as sure as he knew he was standing there himself. He waited for

someone to show. He never knew who it would be, but he could predict their appearance down to the last second. He stood for a moment, almost overwhelmed by his impatience. It had been the same every night ever since he had been at his Aunt and Uncles. And tonight, as before, a figure gradually emerged from the nothingness.

Harry was able to make out the features as it made it's way towards him. It was Kingsley Shacklebolt. After scanning the area as soon as he had seen Harry, Kingsley had removed his invisibility cloak and given Harry a quick nod in greeting. When they were within a few feet of each other, Harry spoke.

‘What’s happening? Who’s here with you?’ His voice was calm, but his look was determined.

‘Goldstein is at the other end of the street’ Kingsley said in his deep voice ‘But he’ll be replaced by Tonks at midnight. I’m on until dawn.’ Even as he spoke, he never stopped surveying the area. ‘Nothing to report?’

This is how the quick exchanges between Harry and his guard had gone every night.

‘No, nothing.’ Harry’s eye’s barely met Kingsley’s as he looked down at his shuffling feet. ‘So … when am I getting out of here?’

‘Nothing yet I’m afraid.’ Kingsley was used to Harry’s impatience, he had stood guard five out of the eight nights since Harry had returned to Privet Drive. ‘Give it a bit of time,’ he said ‘things are not as … easy … as they were.

It’s going to take a fair bit of organizing. As it is Podmore has to leave early …’ he brushed his hand over his bald head ‘so I’m going to be hear alone for about half an hour.’

Harry looked up suddenly, and then looked back at the ground just as quickly, his eyes seeming to be searching for something. This was it! He thought. This was what he’d been waiting for. It was only a short amount of time, he would have to cut it close, but he knew he could do it. With one guard gone, he could slip through.

‘Is there any other news?’ Harry always dreaded asking this, but he had to know. If he was going to go through with his plan, he had to learn everything he could about what The Order knew. There was silence as Harry waited, eyes still lingering on the ground. He was sure if Kingsley caught his eye, he would see the guilt Harry

tried so hard to conceal. Kingsley cleared his throat.

‘Some of the usual stuff.’ he said, though he seemed hesitant. ‘A few more missing people … they found Fudge’s body late last night.’

Harry looked away in disgust. Fudge hadn’t been his favourite person in the world. When Harry had returned from the graveyard, clutching Cedric Diggory’s dead body during the Triwizard Tournament over two years ago, Fudge had refused to believe that Voldemort had taken form again. And in the year following, he had gone to great

lengths to discredit Harry in every way possible, squashing most of Dumbledore’s efforts to get people to believe in Harry and to prepare for Lord Voldemort’s return. But for all Fudge’s faults, he did not deserve the hand that fate had dealt him.

Harry took a deep breath and turned back to Kingsley. Somehow this news had given him the push he needed. He now held such resolve that he was right in his plans, that he could look Shacklebolt directly in the eyes.

‘What are Voldemort and his Death Eaters up to? They must have a plan! You must know something from following the trail of blood they leave behind.’ Harry said this with such loathing that Kingsley barely grimaced at the mention of the name Voldemort, but pulled back slightly from Harry, seemingly more uncomfortable with his tone.

‘We don’t know … exactly.’ Kingsley said evasively. This was the final straw for Harry, he could tell Kingsley was reluctant to say too much, and finally the pressure of the past eight days, sitting uselessly in his room at the Dursleys waiting for news, biding his time unable to rest as he waited for his chance, suddenly burst to the surface.

‘If you think’ he said gravely ‘that Dumbledore didn’t know I was ready for this,’ his eyes blazed threateningly ‘then you’ve already lost to Voldemort!’ his body was rigid with frustration. Kingsley seemed exceedingly uncomfortable, but Harry didn’t care. If he was going to get out of Privet Drive tonight and take on the task Dumbledore had left him to do, then he needed information, and he needed it now. Harry had no intention of going after Voldemort yet. He had to find and destroy all of the Horcruxes, the artefacts

that contained the pieces of Voldemort’s shattered soul, before he could do that. No, he needed information so he could avoid detection. If he was going to do this, he was going to have to do it alone, and the last thing he needed was for Voldemort to find out what he was up to. With the exception of Ron and Hermione, no one would

know where he was, not the Order, not Mr. and Mrs. Weasley … not even Ginny.

‘Look,’ Kingsley said, he was fidgeting with the invisibility cloak hanging fluidly in his left hand. ‘I don’t know what good it will do you to know too much right now anyway. You-you can’t leave until you turn seventeen in a few weeks, it’s safer that way. You will be better protected here than anywhere else until then, now that Dumble…’ he

trailed off with an awkward hand gesture. ‘Well … you know what I mean.’ He gave Harry a steady look, ‘It’s what he would have wanted.’

Harry let out a heavy sigh and his body slackened slightly. He knew he could not tell Kingsley why Dumbledore would have understood, he could not tell him about the Horcruxes, about Dumbledore’s dying wish, so he resigned himself to returning to No 4, where he would sit and wait, now his chance had come. Harry turned to

leave, hunched over, defeated, and had only gone a few paces when Kingsley called after him.

‘See you same time tomorrow night, then.’

Harry turned slowly and looked at Kingsley ‘Yeah,’ he said quietly ‘I’ll be here.’ A sinking feeling crept over Harry as he turned his back on Kingsley. Would he ever see him again? Would he ever see any of them again? He straightened himself to his full height and resumed his state of readiness as he moved quietly back up Privet Drive.

He knew what he had to do, the path lay before him, and he would walk that path alone, as he had done many times before.

~*~*~*~*~

Harry could see the dim glow of light seeping through the small gaps in the curtains as he reached No.4. Someone was still awake. Harry crept up to the house and with great care, turned the handle and pushed the door open as quietly as possible, unwilling to give his Uncle yet another opportunity to start ranting at him, a favourite past time of his. It seems the Dursleys had decided the best way to repay Harry for inflicting Dumbledore on them last summer, was to make his life with them even harder for him than before. He suspected that it had a lot to do with Dumbledore’s comment about their beloved, and hopelessly spoiled dope of a son Dudley, who in their eyes was a perfect angel who could do no wrong. He stepped over the threshold then eased the door back into place and released the handle, but no sooner had he turned to mount the stairs when he saw his Uncle’s stocky figure standing in the doorway to the kitchen, arms crossed over his rounded stomach. His eye’s glittered dangerously, as he glared at Harry, a smug satisfaction etched on his face. He had obviously known Harry had snuck out, and had been waiting there for him, ready to catch him. Harry had the impression of being like a deer caught in the headlights of a car.

‘I knew you were up to something!’ his uncle said in quiet triumph ‘I said to Petunia you had been sneaking around, and now …' his eyes narrowed ‘now I’ve got you!’ his barely suppressed glee at springing Harry was turning his face purple. ‘Where have you been boy?’ he demanded ‘Out terrorizing the neighbours? Prowling around the streets, causing trouble no doubt!’

Harry thought this was a bit rich.

His cousin Dudley was the biggest thug in the neighbourhood, yet somehow his Aunt and Uncle had always

managed to explain away his behaviour as ‘boisterous youth’ or ‘having a bit of roguish fun’. But Harry knew the truth; Dudley was a prat. Uncle Vernon’s eyebrow arched high on his forehead as he approached him, his arm raised and his finger jutting

accusingly at Harry. ‘OUT WITH IT!’ he yelled sharply ‘Where have you been going every night?’

Harry was mildly astonished that his Uncle was even interested enough in his activities to realize he had been disappearing off on a regular basis.

A trickle of playful wickedness ran through him.

‘I’ve been reporting to my guard, actually.’ Harry said casually, watching for his Uncle’s reaction. A deep sense of satisfaction filled Harry as he saw his uncle falter immediately, his face slackening.

Uncle Vernon choked out the word ‘G-Guard?’

‘Yes,’ said Harry ‘that’s right …’ He paused for effect, his Uncles eyes grew wide with uncertainty ‘Guard.’ Harry finally confirmed ‘they’re posted just down the street, been there ever since I got back from school. You’ve met some of them before … at the station.’

Uncle Vernon looked like he had been hit with a Silencio charm. His lips were trying to form words but no sound was coming out. Harry was enjoying himself immensely. He knew his uncle would not have forgotten his encounter with the formidable figure of Mad-eye Moody a year ago. Harry added with a measured tinge of exasperation ‘They insist I keep them updated with how things are while I’m here.’ He sighed dramatically.

‘They’re quite overprotective really...’

His Uncle’s lips suddenly fused together, Harry could tell he had not been able to find a single retort. He was looking everywhere else but at Harry, his arms dangling by his sides as he shifted his weight uncomfortably. He finally cleared his throat.

‘You’d best get to bed.’ He mumbled without looking at Harry and then he turned and disappeared into the kitchen without a word, Harry smirking after him.

Strictly speaking, everything Harry said was perfectly true, so he felt no guilt what so ever that he had unhinged his Uncle. After all, it was only the fact that the Dursley’s were so unkind to him that gave them cause to worry

about his "guard" in the first place.

He headed to his room and sat on the end of his bed, Hedwig hooted softly at him from her perch atop the cupboard. He looked up at her and smiled. She was the one thing that made being at the Dursley's bearable.

~*~*~*~

Harry had been planning this night since he had arrived back at the Dursleys, and now that his chance had come he felt a surge of adrenalin pulse through him. He had some last minute tasks to do before midnight came, but almost everything he would need, lay in a state of readiness.

Mad-eye Moody had been his main obstacle, his magical eye saw right through almost everything, including invisibility cloaks, and Harry felt sure Moody could see through the walls into his very room at times, and on the nights Mad-eye took guard duty, he was quite certain he would not have been able to slip by him.

Tonight however, Moody was not going to be a problem, and with only Kingsley on for maybe thirty minutes, he had his chance. Harry knew the guard changed at midnight and he glanced at the digital clock by his bed.

10.35pm, that would give him about an hour before he was to leave Privet Drive, forever.

Harry drew in a deep breath as he leapt to his feet. Taking out some parchment and ink from his desk draw, he sat down and started to write. As the quill scrawled across the page, Hedwig twittered in anticipation, keen to be put to use again. She had gone out only once in the past eight days, and that was to deliver a short, hastily written note to Ron that contained nothing of interest. It was not safe to pass information by owl.

Ron would be back at The Burrow, trying to learn anything he could by stealthily listening in on his father and Bill.

On the train back from Hogwarts Harry, Ron and Hermione had sat in a compartment they kept to themselves, conceiving various tactical ways of gathering information while Ron and Hermione were at The Burrow. Hermione had arranged to stay after spending only a week with her family. They occasionally looked up when interrupted

by Order members who were patrolling the train, or fellow students like Neville who wandered in. But they were, for the most part, left alone. The loss of Professor Dumbledore had imparted a sombre mood upon the Hogwarts Express.

Every time the compartment door had slid open, Harry expected - hoped, to see Ginny’s face; he sat through the train journey back to London feeling like part of him was missing. It was the beginning of the end of what had been for Harry the most wonderfully comforting thing he had ever known. His heart would have liked nothing

more than to have Ginny sat beside him; the smell of her hair drifting lazily in the air and the comforting warmth of her body leaned against his. But he knew she could not be with him, he had made that choice. She understood he had to leave her behind. She understood he must face this challenge without her. She understood.

Harry looked at the message he had just finished writing, it was as bland as the one he had sent Ron, but it’s purpose was far more important. He was rolling it up and sealing it when Hedwig fluttered down from her perch and landed on the desk in front of him. She held out her leg expectantly. Harry smiled at her affectionately and

scratched her neck ‘I’m not sending it yet.’

She nibbled at his finger a little too vigorously and Harry pulled it away ‘Ow!’ he breathed laughing softly, rubbing the red marks that she had left. She flapped her wings huffily and retreated to her cage for a drink.

‘You’ll just have to be patient, it wont be long.’ He laid the scroll on his bed and reached for a knapsack. He had discovered it while searching one of the closets in his room days before; it had been bought for Dudley to take on a camping trip the Dursleys embarked on many summers ago. It had lain discarded and forgotten ever since.

Harry bent down and lifted the loose floorboard under his bed. There lay a reasonable store of provisions that he had managed to collect. He had been sneaking around the house in the gloom of night using his invisibility cloak.

His Aunt Petunia put the missing food down to Dudley’s inability to stick to his diet; his cousin had frequently left traces of midnight binging strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other.

One night, because of Dudley's veracious appetite, Harry had almost been sprung.

While heading up to his room after having just raided the pantry for supplies, Harry met Dudley coming in the opposite direction. He had snuck out of his own room and was descending the stairs, heading straight for Harry who was concealed under his cloak. The sheer size of Dudley meant there wasn’t enough room for them to pass one another without Harry making significant contact with him. Harry was holding some packets of instant porridge, dried peas and some tinned fruit in his arms, and in his scramble to back down the stairs, he dropped a tin of apricot halves. It fell with a loud clunk, and then to his dismay, continued to roll down the stairs, Harry's