Shake it, Bake it, Brew it

Bon Voyage

Last Time:

Harry took a deep breath calm down and whispered, "Lumos."

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"Come on ... please work." Harry whispered, he had been trying to create light without a wand for an hour. It wasn't going well at all. Just when he was starting to get frustrated his uncle bashed on the door just to mess with him. Both he and Hedwig were startled so badly that they jumped.

Harry fumbled in the dark to find his feathered friend and stroke her soft feathers for comfort ... for both of them. "I need to calm down or this won't work." He whispered as he heard his family settle down to sleep.

Once everything settled down Harry took a deep breath, gave himself a moment to concentrate and tried again. "Lumos."

Relief flooded the young wizard as a brilliant white light cascaded throughout the small room revealing every detail. It was, in fact, the coat closet in the hall that was tweaked to be a prison cell. Among the few items in the room was a metal bed frame with a thin mattress and flimsy blanket and a bucket in the corner, which he guessed was supposed to be a toilet. Even Hedwig, who was practically glowing, looked disturbed by the room, but happy for Harry's success.

It was too much to hope to stay in Dudley's second bedroom. No, they couldn't have that, but they might have been too worried about being watched so they moved him. If someone was watching they would see Harry go upstairs and not suspect a windowless prison cell. At least, that's what made sense to Harry. He knew they would gladly shove him back into that cupboard if they thought they could. At least, they painted the walls. There in big black letters haphazardly splashed on the wall above his cot was 'FREAK' ... how considerate.

With one hand he brushed some tears from his eyes as carefully knelt next to the heavy metal door. Harry examined the door carefully. He remembered five different locks and he wasn't sure what to do now other than wandlessly unlocking the door.

"Ok ... I'll drop the light and try. It'll get dar- ... who am I kidding? You probably handle the dark with ease." He chuckled as the owl hooted at him in a way that felt sarcastic. With a simple wave of his hands the light went out and he rested his palms against the door, "Alohomora." He said trying to repeat it exactly how Hermione did ...

Clicking from the first lock releasing made Harry want to jump for joy, but before he repeated the spell to unlock the other locks a frightening realization hit him. What will he do next?

If he tries to just grab his trunk and run with no plan then he will be caught either by Death Eaters or Dumbledore. Then he'll be either killed or locked back in with stronger locks. Maybe with spells too depending on who got him. And if the things he took were discovered what would happen? He didn't want to think of it ...

But what would happen if his uncle found even just one of the locks unlocked? A sickening feeling settled in Harry's stomach as he thought about that. It was obvious ... even if Vernon thought it was a mistake on his part it would be used as an excuse to beat the young wizard. So what now? He was so close to a massive amount of knowledge, but no means to safely get to it ...

Wait ... That's it! The books! If there was a spell to unlock then there should be one to lock! All he had to do was get out of here, get the cupboard open, take the bottomless bag, find the spell that locks and lock himself back in before anyone notices. He had to move fast.

After muttering the unlocking spell a few more times the door swung open. Harry bolted down the stairs as fast and as quietly as he could. All he could hear was his blood pounding in his ears as he frantically unlocked the cupboard. The door to his former bedroom opened and he grabbed his trunk. With shaking hands he pulled out the bottomless bag, clicked the padlock in place effectively locking the trunk back in the cupboard and raced back upstairs.