I must not tell lies

Escaping the Dursleys

Harry woke up with a start, panting for breath as his blurred vision adjusted to the light streaming through the window. He had unfortunately had a restless night as mind was plagued with memories of the graveyard, the snake like Voldemort, and the death of Cedric.

Harry finally calmed his breathing and extended his right arm, searching blindly for his glasses that had obviously fallen off his face. He made no attempt to hold in the groan of pain caused by a full night on the lumpy old mattress. After a bit of rummaging around, he found his circular glasses and rested them on his nose, clearing his vision.

Memories of the previous night came rushing back to Harry as his mind registered the still vaguely familiar surroundings of the room he had been in for four years. It was still odd bearing in mind what had been his 'bedroom' for as long as he could remember.

Harry went over to the door after changing into some of the clothes he had in his trunk, he had been smart and bought some muggle clothes from a shop designed to give wizards clothes that can disguise them as muggles.

He tried to open the door and to his surprise, it actually opened. He went downstairs to the kitchen, he saw that none of the Dursley's were downstairs, however he did see a certain set of keys on the table. Harry's eyes widened as he realised that they were Vernon's house keys.

The boy made an instinctive descision then and there, so he ran to the table and grabbed the keys. He quickly but quietly ran upstairs to collect and shrink his final belongings.

With all his things ready, Harry wrote out a note telling the Dursleys that he'd be at his friends house otherwise there was the possibility that they would tell Dumbledore that he'd gone missing, which would defeat the purpose of his escape.

He needed to make sure that neither of the 2 sides of the war knew what he was doing. The light couldn't know he wasn't with them anymore, and the dark couldn't know that the light lost their best 'weapon'. 

Harry couldn't allow either side to win, both of them would make things far worse. The light would restrict any and all 'dark' magic things and would almost erradicate the traditions of the wizarding world, they would most likely expose magic to the muggle world, and as we all know: muggles love things that are different. With all of their weapons, the wizarding world would be attack and destroyed instantly.

The dark winning would lead to a lot of casualties. The leader of the dark is a psychotic, mentally-unstable maniac with a long list of deaths to his name. He wasn't always insane if his 16 year old soul piece was anything to go by, Tom Riddle was a good person who had been wronged and turned into a monster. Sadly, Tom was too far gone by the time he was reborn, Voldemort was all that was left.

So Harry grabbed his stuff and left the house, locking the door behind him. He put the keys back through the mail box before turning around and walking away. When he got off the driveway, he felt himself pass through a magic barrier, suspiciously it didn't feel like the protective wards at Hogwarts, it felt almost trapping, like it wasn't trying to keep something out, but keep him in.

Harry shook his head to concentrate on his goal, reaching a place he could stay. His first thought was his best, the Leaky Cauldron. He would be able to rent a room and it was right next to Diagon Alley if he needs it.

Making up his mind, Harry went to the bus stop... again. This time the bus was a lot fuller, though the back seat was available again.

This bus ride felt a lot longer as he had only recently woken up, meaning he was fully awake, and unable to take a nap. He didn't have an existential crisis this time, however he did have an internal panic, worried that the Dursleys would alert Dumbledore of Harry's disappearance. Though that was quickly pushed aside when he remembered that they hated everything magic, so they would never send Dumbles a letter via owl.

Arriving at the bus stop near to the pub, Harry hopped off and started walking over to the magical gateway. He was a lot older now, he'd even taken part in a highly dangerous tournament that could have easily resulted in his death, so he was no longer fearful or the slightest bit worried about the people in the pub as he had been the first time he visited it. 

He opened the door, letting the sunlight bleed into the constantly dark room. Some of the occupants hissed away at the unwelcomed light, whereas the non drunk ones just remained unbothered. 

Happy at the lack of attention, Harry walked up to the bar so he could ask Tom about a room. Said man just looked at the nearly fifteen year old and his eyes widened comically before he regained his composure and offered him room 14, to which Harry accepted and walked upstairs. 

Upon arrival to his temporary room, Harry saw that Hedwig was waiting for him, despite the owl never being summoned or told of his escape. The boy smiled and stroked her feathers the way he knew she liked, while complementing her. "Clever girl".

Harry regrew his trunk to its normal size and put it at the end of his bed. He lay down on the bed, not tired, yet not feeling up to actually doing anything. Hedwig perched on the end of his bed and Harry smiled at her. 

He was finally free.