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Harry was several streets away before he collapsed onto a low
wall in Magnolia Crescent, panting from the effort of dragging
his trunk. He sat quite still, anger still surging through him,
listening to the frantic thumping of his heart.
But after ten minutes alone in the dark street, a new emotion
overtook him: panic. Whichever way he looked at it, he had never
been in a worse fix. He was stranded, quite alone, in the dark
Muggle world, with absolutely nowhere to go. And the worst of it
was, he had just done serious magic, which meant that he was almost
certainly expelled from Hogwarts. He had broken the Decree for the
Restriction of Underage Wizardry so badly, he was surprised Ministry
of Magic representatives weren't swooping down on him where he sat.
Harry shivered and looked up and down Magnolia Crescent.
What, was going to happen to him? Would he be arrested, or
would he simply be outlawed from the wizarding world? He thought
of Ron and Hermione, and his heart sank even lower. Harry was sure
that, criminal or not, Ron and Hermione would want to help him now,
but they were both abroad, and with Hedwig gone, he had no means
of contacting them.
He didn't have any Muggle money, either. There was a little
wizard gold in the money bag at the bottom of his trunk, but the
rest of the fortune his parents had left him was stored in a vault
at Gringotts Wizarding Bank in London. He'd never be able to drag
his trunk all the way to London. Unless...
He looked down at his wand, which he was still clutching in
his hand. If he was already expelled (his heart was. now thumping
painfully fast), a bit more magic couldn't hurt. He had the
Invisibility Cloak he had inherited from his father -- what if
he bewitched the trunk to make it feather-light, tied it to his
broomstick, covered himself in the cloak, and flew to London? Then
he could get the rest of his money out of his vault and... begin
his life as an outcast. It was a horrible prospect, but he couldn't
sit on this wall forever, or he'd find himself trying to explain to
Muggle police why he was out in the dead of night with a trunkful
of spellbooks and a broomstick.
Harry opened his trunk again and pushed the contents aside,
looking for the Invisibility Cloak - but before he had found it,
he straightened up suddenly, looking around him once more.
A funny prickling on the back of his neck had made Harry feel
he was being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted,
and no lights shone from any of the large square houses.
He bent over his trunk again, but almost immediately stood
up once more, his hand clenched on his wand. He had sensed rather
than heard it: someone or something was standing in the narrow gap
between the garage and the fence behind him. Harry squinted at the
black alleyway. If only it would move, then he'd know whether it
was just a stray cat or -- something else.
"Lumos," Harry muttered, and a light appeared at the end of
his wand, almost dazzling him. He held it high over his head,
and the pebble-dashed walls of number two suddenly sparkled; the
garage door gleamed, and between them Harry saw, quite distinctly,
the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes.
Harry stepped backward. His legs hit his trunk and he
tripped. His wand flew out of his hand as he flung out an arm to
break his fall, and he landed, hard, in the gutter --
There was a deafening BANG, and Harry threw up his hands to
shield his eyes against a sudden blinding light --
With a yell, he rolled back onto the pavement, just in time. A
second later, a gigantic pair of wheels and headlights screeched
to a halt exactly where Harry had just been lying. They belonged,
as Harry saw when he raised his head, to a triple-decker, violently
purple bus, which had appeared out of thin air. Gold lettering over
the windshield spelled The Knight Bus.
For a Split second, Harry wondered if he had been knocked silly
by his fall. Then a conductor in a purple uniform leapt out of the
bus and began to speak loudly to the night.
"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded
witch or wizard. just stick out your wand hand, step on board) and
we can take you anywhere you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike,
and I will be your conductor this eve --"
The conductor stopped abruptly. He had just caught sight of
"Harry, who was still sitting on the ground. Harry snatched up his
wand again and scrambled to his feet. Close up, he saw that Stan
Shunpike was only a few years older than he was, eighteen or nineteen
at most, with large, protruding ears and quite a few pimples.
"What were you doin' down there?" said Stan, dropping his
professional manner.
"Fell over," said Harry.
"'Choo fall over for?" sniggered Stan.
"I didn't do it on purpose," said Harry, annoyed. One of the
knees in his jeans was torn, and the hand he had thrown out to break
his fall was bleeding. He suddenly remembered why he had fallen over
and turned around quickly to stare at the alleyway between the garage
and fence. The Knight Bus's headlamps were flooding it with light,
and it was empty.
"'Choo lookin' at?" said Stan.
"There was a big black thing," said Harry, pointing uncertainly
into the gap. "Like a dog... but massive..."
He looked a-round at Stan, whose mouth was slightly open. With
a feeling of unease, Harry saw Stan's eyes move to the scar on
Harry's forehead.
"Woss that on your 'ead?" said Stan abruptly.
"Nothing," said Harry quickly, flattening his hair over his
scar. If the Ministry of Magic was looking for him, he didn't want
to make it too easy for them.
"Woss your name?" Stan persisted.
"Neville Longbottom," said Harry, saying the first name that
came into his head. "So -- so this bus," he went on quickly, hoping
to distract Stan, "did you say it goes anywhere?"
"Yep," said Stan proudly, "anywhere you like, long's it's
on land. Can't do nuffink underwater. 'Ere," he said, looking
suspicious again, ,You did flag us down, dincha? Stuck out your wand
'and, dincha?"
"Yes," said Harry quickly. "Listen, how much would it be to
get to London?"
"Eleven Sickles," said Stan, "but for fifteen you get 'or
chocolate, and for fifteen you get an 'ot water bottle an' a
toofbrush in the color of your choice."
Harry rummaged once more in his trunk, extracted his money bag,
and shoved some gold into Stan's hand. He and Stan then lifted his
trunk, with Hedwig's cage balanced on top, up the steps of the bus.

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