Harry ran upstairs and slammed his bedroom door. Dobby the House Elf had disappeared before anyone could see him. Although Harry supposed that it was for the best, he was not at all happy with the fact that he was the one who had been blamed for dropping the large pudding onto Vernon's boss' wife's head.

Harry was furious at Dobby for hiding all of his letters from Ron and Hermione and for trying to get him to stay at 4 Privet Drive instead of going back to Hogwarts. He didn't really care whether or not he was in 'grave danger' - as Dobby had put it - because Hogwarts was his home, and he wasn't going to give it up.

Flopping down angrily onto his hard bed, Harry spotted something on the floor. A stack of unopened envelopes tied together with a piece of string. A smile spread across Harry's face for the first time in a month; Dobby had left all of Harry's letters behind!

Picking them up, Harry moved over to the window. There had to be at least fifty letters in there from Ron and Hermione. One by one, Harry opened the letters and read each of them carefully. At first, they were all rather short, seeing as neither Ron or Hermione would have been able to say much without a reply from Harry. Then, the letters grew longer as both of them began asking why he wasn't replying.

Harry noticed that, by that point, Ron had long since given up on writing to him, as the remaining letters were all from Hermione. Harry decided that Ron had run out of parchment as opposed to just giving up on getting a reply.

After that, however, Hermione's letters became very urgent. She kept asking if he was okay and seemed very concerned that he had not replied. The most recent one said that Hermione had - somehow - gotten permission from her parents to go and stay with Ron for the final part of the holidays, and that it was rather boring there without him.

Frowning, Harry moved over to his desk to write a letter. He hadn't gotten any further than, Dear Hermione, when he realised that he couldn't send the letter to her. Uncle Vernon had locked Hedwig up and barred his window up tightly to stop Harry from escaping. Vernon had told him he was never going back to 'that bloody school' again.

Screwing up the small piece of parchment that he and Ron had stolen from the Charms classroom to use for letter-writing and tossing it sourly into the bin, Harry got into bed properly. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, but, when he did, he had a very strange dream.

He was in a cage. People were everywhere, staring at him open-mouthed. He could see Dobby in the crowd saying,"Harry Potter is safe there, Sir!" Then the Dursleys appeared and began rattling the bars of his cage. Some of the other people grew nearer to him, goggling at him through the bars...

Harry opened his eyes. A blinding light shone through his window. And someone was goggling at him: a bushy-haired, buck-toothed, brown-eyed someone.

Hermione Granger was outside Harry's window.

***********

"Hermione?" Harry whispered, putting on his glasses and crawling over to the window. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw what she was sat in: a large, turquoise Ford Anglia was floating outside his bedroom window.

"Hello Harry." She stared at him, confused,"Are you all right? Why haven't you been answering my letters?"

"First off, I hadn't been getting-"

"Oi! No time for chit-chat! This is a rescue mission!" A red-haired boy poked his head around Hermione and looked out of the open window.

"Ron!"

"Yup, in the flesh." Ron said sarcastically,"Now, c'mon, let's get you out of there!"

An indignant cough came from the front seat.

"I believe you're forgetting someone?"

"And another someone!"

"Fred! George!"

"Indeed!" They chorused, both giving half-bows to Harry, making them all laugh.

"All right, mate," Ron reached over the back of his seat and pulled a rope from the boot of the car,"stand back!" He tied the rope around one of the bars as Harry did as he was told. Passing the rope around so that everyone in the car was holding a part of it, he whispered,"Ready, Fred?"

"Naturally."

"Mission breakout is a-go!" George cheered.

Fred put his foot down hard on the pedal. The car shot forwards in the air, taking the bars with it. It pulled back around to Harry and they all gently dropped the rope with the bars dangling from it into the garden.

"C'mon, then! Get your stuff!"

"I can't, it's downstairs."

"We'll get it!" The twins climbed out of the car and into Harry's room,"Bit small in here, isn't it?"

"Where's this stuff of yours then, Harry?"

"Locked in the cupboard under the stairs." Harry sighed,"I don't know how you're going to-"

"Just leave it to us!" They grinned, creeping out of the room.

"Do you need some help, Harry?" Hermione asked.

Harry scratched his head,"Yeah, thanks."

Hermione started to get out of the car and put her foot on the windowsill. Harry grabbed her hand and pulled her in.

"Thank you." She beamed, brushing her skirt down and turned to the window,"Ron?"

Ron peered down from the car window and shook his head, wide-eyed,"No way in hell am I climbing out of a flying car. Never."

Harry and Hermione rushed around the room, collecting Harry's things and passing them to Ron. It didn't take Fred and George long to get his trunk, but it did take all five of them a long time to get it into the car. Harry, George and Hermione pushed the trunk from Harry's room whilst Fred - who had gotten back into the car to help the 'weakling' - along with Ron pulled it onto the back seat. Hermione pulled herself into the back, sliding over into the middle of the backseat as George clambered back into the front seat whilst Harry went to get Hedwig from his desk. As he picked her cage up, however, she let out a loud shriek.

"THAT RUDDY BIRD!" Uncle Vernon was awake. Harry handed Hedwig to Ron and grabbed Hermione's outstretched hand. She pulled as he tried to climb in, but Uncle Vernon was faster. He burst into the room and grabbed Harry's foot. Ron reached over and pulled on Harry's other hand.

"Drive!" Harry yelled to Fred, who did so immediately. The car door was swinging open, so Harry was able to get in rather easily once his uncle had released him. Vernon was left, shouting and swearing, with Harry's right shoe.

Slamming the door shut behind him, Harry turned to Ron and Hermione,"Hi there."

"Bloody hell, Harry!" Ron laughed,"What was that about?"

"He doesn't want me to leave." Harry panted.

"Why not?" Hermione asked.

"I don't know. I'm just glad he didn't manage to stop me, or else we'd all be in trouble."

"Eh, a little trouble never hurt anyone!" George grinned.

"Yeah, we've been in trouble countless times before, haven't we, Georgie?"

"Why, yes we have, old chap. There's many things worse than getting into trouble, Harry, just you wait!" George looked at Harry through the wing-mirror and winked. Harry shared a dark look with Hermione and Ron.

"So," Hermione changed the subject,"why didn't you answer our letters?"

**********

"Keep your voices down, we don't want Mum to wake up!"

They had all just made it back to the Weasleys' house. The drive had been lengthy, but very enjoyable. Harry had regretfully explained to Ron and Hermione why he hadn't been getting their letters and why - once he had gotten them - he could not reply. He told them everything that Dobby had said to him, causing the trio to launch into an animated discussion on who the family keeping Dobby enslaved was. Their initial suspicion was the Malfoy's. Hermione had then remembered with elatedness that, along with permission to stay at Ron's for the last part of the Summer, her parents had said that she could stay at Hogwarts for Christmas too.

"That was just about all they said to me over the holidays..." She murmured to Harry darkly when Ron joined in with a conversation that the twins were having in the front seats.

Although they had left 4 Privet Drive when the sky was pitch black, the sun had risen and Harry assumed it was around seven o'clock.

"All right," one of the twins whispered, starting to drag Harry's things out of the boot,"we go upstairs silently and, when we come down for breakfast, we say,'Mum, look who turned up in the night!' Then we can get on with life and she'll never know we took the car."

"Okay." Hermione took Hedwig's cage from Ron

"I sleep at the...at the top..." Ron's face went a sickly green as he turned to face the house. Mrs. Weasley was storming out of the front door. She stopped when she reached the small, wooden sign that read The Burrow and placed her hands on her hips bossily.

"Words cannot begin to describe how furious I am! Beds empty! No note!"

"B-but, Mrs. Weasley-" Hermione stammered.

"Car gone - could have crashed - out of my mind with worry - did you care?"

Hermione looked taken aback,"No...no, we weren't trying to-"

"-Never, as long as I've lived - you wait until your father gets home!"

"Please, just listen-" There were tears in Hermione's eyes.

"You could have died - you could have been seen - you could have lost your father his job-"

"They were starving him!" Hermione cried,"There were bars on his window! His uncle took his shoe!" She narrowed her chestnut brown eyes at Mrs. Weasley.

Molly moved her mouth, but no words were formed. Never in her life had she thought that Harry Potter -the Harry Potter - could have been starved and kept prisoner by his relatives.

After a minute of terrified silence, Mrs. Weasley spoke in a shaky voice,"I...c-come in, H-Harry. I've made b-breakfast..."

"Th-thanks, Mrs. Weasley." Harry's voice was equally as shaky as hers.

Hermione mouthed, sorry, to him. Harry just shook his head. She relaxed a little after that.

Molly and the Weasley boys led Harry and a still teary Hermione into their small yet welcoming kitchen. Harry was served a noticeably larger amount of food than anyone else, which he eventually deemed a good thing, as he was starving. Everything was so delicious and it seemed to fill an empty hole in his stomach that he hadn't really known was there. Mrs. Weasley had decided that they were all going to go to Diagon Alley for their school supplies the following Wednesday.

Harry's enjoyment was stopped as a small, familiar, red-headed figure appeared in the kitchen. She stopped dead at the bottom of the stairs in a long nightdress, stared open-mouthed at Harry for a moment, and ran back up the stairs.

"Was that..." Harry started.

"Ginny." Ron said in an undertone to Harry and Hermione,"My sister. She's been talking about you all Summer, Harry. She'll be wanting your autograph soon enough!" He chuckled, although neither Harry nor Hermione found it very amusing at all. Later that morning, Hermione gave Harry a late birthday present.

"I just thought...if you hadn't been getting all of our other letters...there was no guarantee..." She stammered

To his great surprise, Hermione had bought Harry two defensive spell books and a Quidditch book: Charms of Defence and Deterrence by Catullus Spangle, Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard, and Beating the Bludgers - A Study of Defensive Strategies in Quidditch by Kennilworthy Whisp.

"Woah!" Harry mused,"These are great! Thanks, Hermione!" He gave her a quick hug.

They spent the rest of the day de-gnoming the Weasleys' garden. Although none of the Weasley boys thought it was fun, Harry and Hermione enjoyed it greatly.

Once Arthur Weasley had gotten home from work, Molly had given him a hard time about the kids' 'adventure' in his car. The trio had snuck upstairs and gotten ready for bed. Ron was sharing his room with Harry, and Hermione had been sleeping in Ginny's room since she had arrived. Harry and Hermione both agreed that this was the nicest house that either of them had ever been in.

**********

"Harry! There you are! Are you alright?" Hermione came running towards Harry and hugged him.

"Yeah," Harry grinned sheepishly,"I'm okay. I just wound up in some place called Knock-turn Alley. I was in a shop and then Malfoy came in with his father. They started talking about how they wanted to sell some stuff the Malfoy's dad didn't want anyone to see him with. Then, they started going on about school stuff. At first, Malfoy was whining to his dad about not having a broom even though I do, and how unfair it is that I'm on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He said it was all because I'm famous for having 'that stupid scar on my face'."

"What?" Rage boiled up inside Hermione as Harry watched her face grow red,"That's completely unfair! You earned your spot on the team; you're a natural Quidditch player. It isn't unfair, you just have talent!"

"Thanks. But then," Harry's face darkened,"he started going on about how all the teachers love me. He told his dad that all the teachers have their favourites - he said all of the teachers adored you - and then his father snapped at him because 'Draco should have been ashamed that a girl of no wizard family beat him in every exam'!" It was Harry's turn to get angry.

"Oh, don't worry about it." Hermione assured him shakily,"Most Purebloods can't stand people like me. They think we're a disgrace to 'their kind'-"

"-But you're not! You're the best witch in our year! Probably even better than most of the older years too!"

"Thank you, Harry." Hermione turned pink,"But I honestly wouldn't dwell on it too much. Wait, what did you do to your glasses?" She peered at Harry. The left lens of his glasses was badly cracked, and the bridge was almost completely snapped in half.

"I...er..."

"Oculus reparo!" Hermione said, flicking her wand in front of Harry, a small grin appearing on her face,"There. Much better."

"I'm definitely going to have to remember that one." Harry grinned back.

Then, however, something very odd happened. As he looked up into Hermione's sparkling eyes, Harry felt his insides flip over. Then, everything else around them just sort of disappeared. Harry didn't have a clue what was going on and, quite frankly, he was terrified, but that didn't seem to matter. All he could think about was the girl in front of him. She was beautiful, stunning, even though Harry seemed to be the only person who could see that. As he was so unsure of what was happening to them, Harry was unsure of what to do. He settled on just standing still and looking straight into Hermione's eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but someone else beat her to it.

"Oh, there you two are! Mum's been out of her mind with worry!"

Whatever it was that had been happening to Harry and Hermione was broken by Ron and the twins. As the pair followed Ron over to Gringotts, they shared a dark look.

Did you feel that too? Harry mouthed to Hermione. She nodded gravely. What was it? She shrugged.