Life Turned Upside Down
Chapter 1: Unexpected Visitors
DISCLAIMER: As I haven't yet managed to brew a Polyjuice Potion that actually works, I can't claim to be J.K.Rowling.
Thump. Thump-thump.
Weird, thought Harry sleepily. I'm dreaming that something's jumping on my bed.
Thump-thump.
Why would something want to jump on my bed?
Thump-thump.
What kind of thing is jumping on my bed in the middle of the night?
Thump! "Harry Potter sir!"
What kind of thing calls me – OH.
"HARRY POTTER SIR!"
Great. Now I'm dreaming about Dobby.
"Harry Potter sir! Sir must wake up! Harry Potter sir is the greatest wizard in the world, Harry Potter sir cannot let them get you, Harry Potter sir must wake up!"
Wha–
"AAAAAAAAHH!" Harry yelled in fright as his eyelids were pried open and he came face to face with a pair of great glass orbs.
"Dobby is so sorry, Harry Potter sir, Dobby shouldn't have scared Harry Potter! Dobby is a bad elf!"
Dobby began pulling his ears and banging his head on the floor. "Bad elf ….bad elf …bad elf…"
"Dobby! Stop it!" Harry, now fully awake, grabbed Dobby by the collar to stop him from hurting himself. "What's the matter? What are you doing here at – he checked his watch – four in the morning?"
Dobby looked up with a panicked expression. "Harry Potter sir in trouble! Harry Potter sir must leave!"
Harry stared at Dobby, bewildered. "Leave?"
Dobby began babbling quickly, at the same time busying himself packing all Harry's belongings he could see into Harry's trunk.
"Dobby is in Hogwarts kitchens, sir, and suddenly Headmaster calls Dobby for tea. Dobby sees three people in Headmaster's office, sir. The bad people say Harry Potter killed Cedric Diggory. The bad people coming for Harry Potter. Harry Potter must run!"
Harry sat down suddenly on his lumpy bed. Triwizard… Cedric … dead … murder …Harry…run…
"They think I killed Cedric."
The sentence, spoken aloud, allowed the reality to sink in. Slowly.
Dobby nodded earnestly. "Harry Potter sir must leave!"
"But…but wouldn't Dumbledore warn me? Dumbledore would warn me if such a thing happened, wouldn't he? Dumbledore will help me, I know he will…."
"No time, Harry Potter sir! The bad people come for Harry Potter right away!"
"WHAT? You mean they're on their way here now?"
"That's right, Harry potter sir! Here – Dobby finished packing Harry's trunk and shrunk it – Harry Potter must leave at once!"
Harry slipped his trunk into his pocket, undecided. A "pop" outside the house made his mind up for him.
"Thank you, Dobby….."
Pop. Pop. Two more Aurors appeared.
"GO!!"
The first one rang the door bell.
It seemed to take an eternity for Uncle Vernon to stir and answer the door. Harry stood by his bed, frozen, as he heard the door creak open.
"WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING? RINGING MY DOORBELL AT THIS TIME OF THE NIGHT!" bellowed Uncle Vernon in a towering rage.
There was no mistaking Dawlish's cold voice. " We are here by order of the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge, to arrest one Harry James Potter who is charged with the murder of Cedric Diggory during the Triwizard Tournament on the…."
Arrest. Harry. Murder.
It was amazing how Uncle Vernon's attitude could change so quickly.
"Oh, so you've come to take him away, is it? Murder, eh? Can't say I'm surprised. Come in, this way." Uncle Vernon's voice as full of what sounded so unbelievably like glee it was almost scary.
"Harry Potter sir!" whispered Dobby urgently.
Harry snapped out of his daze. Dawlish and the other Aurors were presumably seated in the living room (where the stairs led to) thus effectively cutting off that exit route. He heard Uncle Vernon asking the Aurors to wait while he went to "wake the boy" and panicked. Frantically scanning the room, he found that there was nowhere to hide.
Conclusion: He was trapped.
"Harry Potter sir! Headmaster calls Dobby! Harry Potter must escape!" Dobby's eyes were wide with fear for Harry. As the calls of the faraway Headmaster grew increasingly impatient, Dobby disappeared with a tiny crack, leaving Harry all alone.
Okay. Don't panic. thought Harry. What would Hermione say in a situation like this? Analyze the situation and come up with possible options. Sneaking downstairs and out of the back door wasn't an option. That left the window. (Boom-boom. Uncle Vernon was ascending the stairs. Good thing he was obese with heart problems.) Harry parted the curtains a crack and peeked outside, only to see an Auror on guard in the garden.
He ducked down quickly in case the Auror looked up and suppressed a groan. Escape was now totally out of the question. The other option was hiding. Wait, there was no place to hide. Wonderful.
Come on, Hermione always has a brilliant idea for any situation, thought Harry desperately. You've been around her for four whole years, surely you can remember some of her wise words……
Flashback
"But that's impossible!" protested Ron.
"Nonsense. Nothing is impossible as long as you think and plan properly."
"You do know that no amount of planning is going to resurrect the dead, right?"
"Of course there are always exceptions, but that's beside the point. So we hang around long enough to get the password, then we….."
"Mione, hiding in the Slytherin common room for an hour to eavesdrop on them undetected is bloody impossible."
"Not if you know where to hide."
"If the Slytherins know their common room as well as we know ours, there won't be anywhere to hide."
"That's where the Polyjuice Potion comes in," smirked Hermione a trifle smugly. "Sometimes the best place to hide is in plain sight."
End Flashback
In plain sight! That was it!
Now he just had to figure out how.
A/N: If you haven't figured it out yet, the flashback is from second year. I'm already working on chapter 2 but I'm not sure when it will be out. And lastly, REVIEW!!