分节阅读19

  ppoted to disver that dubledore was not waitg the hall, which ant that he had to return to the livg roo
  nobody was talkg dubledore was hug ietly, apparently ite at his ease, but the atosphere was thicker than ld ctard, and harry did not dare look at the dursleys as he said, ”profesr — i39 ready now”
  ”good,” said dubledore ”jt one st thg, then” and he turned to speak to the dursleys once ore
  ”as you will no doubt be aware, harry es of a a years ti —”
  ”no,” said aunt petunia, speakg for the first ti sce dubledore39s arrival
  ”i39 rry?” said dubledore politely
  ”no, he doesn39t he39s a onth younr than dudley, and dudders doesn39t turn eighteen until the year after next”
  ”ah,” said dubledore pleasantly, ”but the wizardg world, we e of a at seventeen”
  uncle vernon uttered, ”prepostero,” but dubledore ignored hi,
  ”now, as you already know, the wizard called lord voldeort was returned to this untry the wizardg unity is currently a state of open warfare harry, who lord voldeort has already attepted to kill on a nuber of oasions, is even greater danr now than the day when i left hi upon your doorstep fifteen years ago, with a letter expg about his parents39 urder and expressg the hope that you would care for hi is though he were your own”
  dubledore paed, and although his voice reaed light and cal, and he gave no obvio sign of anr, harry felt a kd of chill eanatg fro hi and noticed that the dursleys drew very slightly closer tother
  ”you did not do as i asked you have never treated harry as a n he has known nothg but neglect and often cruelty at your hands the best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appallg daa you have flicted upon the unfortunate boy sittg beeen you”
  both aunt petunia and uncle vernon looked around stctively, as though expectg to see one other than dudley seezed beeen the
  ” — istreat dudders? what d39you — ?” began uncle vernon furioly, but dubledore raised his rr for silence, a silence which fell as though he had struck uncle vernon dub
  ”the agic i evoked fifteen years ago ans that harry has powerful protection while he can still call this hoe 39ho39 however iserable he has been here, however unwele, however badly treated, you have at least, grudggly, allowed hi hoeroo this agic will cease to operate the ont that harry turns seventeen other words, at the ont he bees a an i ask only this: that you allow harry to return, once ore, to this hoe, before his seventeenth birthday, which will ensure that the protection ntues until that ti”
  none of the dursleys said anythg dudley was frowng slightly, as though he was still tryg to work out when he had ever been istreated uncle vernon looked as though he had thg stuck his throat aunt petunia, however, was oddly fshed
  ”well, harry  ti for to be off,” said dubledore at st, standg up and straighteng his long bck cloak ”until we et aga,” he said to the dursleys, who looked as though that ont uld wait forever as far as they were ncerned, and after doffg his hat, he swept fro the roo
  ”bye,” said harry hastily to the dursleys, and followed dubledore, who paed beside harry39s trunk, upon which hedwig39s ca was perched
  ”we do not want to be encubered by these jt now,” he said, pullg out his wand aga ”i shall send the to the burrow to await there however, i would like you to
  g your visibility cloak  jt case”
  harry extracted his cloak fro his trunk with difficulty, tryg not to show dubledore the ss with when he had stuffed it to an side pocket of his jacket, dubledore waved his wand and the trunk, ca, and hedwig vanished dubledore then waved his wand aga, and the front door opened onto ol, isty darkness
  ”and now, harry, let step out to the night and pursue that flighty teptress, adventure”
  chapter 4: horace sghorn
  despite the fact that he had spent every wakg ont of the past few days hopg desperately that dubledore would deed e to fetch hi, harry felt distctly awkward as 11 u-y set off down privet drive tother he had never had a proper nversation with the headaster outside of hogwarts before there was ually a desk beeen the the ory of their st face-to-face enunter kept trudg too, and it rather heightened harry39s sense of ebarrassnt he had shouted a lot on