My Own Imagination

BRRIIINNNGGG!!!!!!!!!! BRRIIINNNGGG!!!!!!!!!! BRRIIINNNGGG!!!!!!!!!! The shrill cry of the telephone rang out, startling Harry so much that he almost jumped out of his skin. He tried as much as he could to shut out the irritating noise, and to return to what he was thinking about, but the next noise was so loud and shrill that even Harry could not ignore it.

"HARRY POTTER! GET OUT OF YOUR ROOM RIGHT NOW! AND I MEAN NOW!"

Harry sighed. It was going to be another of those days again. He walked slowly to his bedroom door, and paused to muse if it had anything to do with the telephone call. Even before he could reach the door, however, the door burst open.

Uncle Vernon stood at the door, his face purple and contorted. His eyes bulged dangerously, nostrils dilating, and at that particular moment, he was clenching a cordless phone so tightly that Harry though the phone would be crushed any moment.

"Your friends from your school called you up," he hissed. "Someone called... called Wr... Wron... or something like that."

"Oh, you mean Ron? From Hogwarts?" Harry asked brightly, attempting to pretend that nothing was wrong with Ron calling.

"DON'T MENTION THAT... THAT..." Uncle Vernon burst out, and Harry flinched momentarily.

"So, erm... Can... Can I take the call?" Eyes hopeful, fingers crossed, Harry asked with a tone that was not unlike a dog begging for its food.

Eyeing him suspiciously, Uncle Vernon shoved the phone into Harry's chest so hard that Harry doubled over, but immediately took the phone from Uncle Vernon's tightly-clenched fist.

"Ron? You there?" Harry asked into the phone receiver.

"HARRY!!! WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG TO ANSWER?! (DAD, NO! I'M TALKING TO HARRY! YOU CAN TEST OUT THE PHONE LATER!) HARRY? SORRY!!! MY DAD WANTS TO TINKER WITH THE PHONE!!!" Ron's voice came over so loud that Uncle Vernon, who was standing behind Harry, trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, jumped.

"Ron? Erm... You can try talking softly... I can hear you very clearly... Too clearly..." Harry yelled over the phone, wincing slightly.

"What? Is this okay?" A very slightly muted voice came over the phone.

"Yeah, sure... Anything up? What's so urgent that you had to call me?"

"Mum wants to take you to Diagon Alley tomorrow to get your books since school starts the day after next. Can you ask the Dursleys and see if they let you go?"

At this, Harry repressed a grin. Uncle Vernon, still behind him, had given a scowl. He snatched the phone away from Harry and yelled into the receiver.

"TELL YOUR PARENTS THAT THEY CAN COME, BUT THEY ARE TO COME BY CAR AND THAT THEY AREN'T TO BRING THOSE TWO TWINS KIDS OF THEIRS ALONG!!!"

With that, Uncle Vernon slammed the phone down and glared beadily at Harry, who was trying very had to suppress a gleeful grin. Dudley, who had presumably overheard the commotion, peeped in through the wide open doorway. Uncle Vernon then turned his attention onto his grossly overweight son.

"Dudley, have you seen the new MegaShooter Version XXIV 9.99 I bought for you? It's the latest on the market, you know... It cost me quite a hefty sum... Why don't you go and play it now?" And with this, both father and son walked from Harry's room. But before they left, Uncle Vernon left Harry a parting shot.

"If you friends appear in some crazy way or other, you're going to get it from me boy... So you better make sure they arrive in a NORMAL way... Or else..." His lips curved up, and he slammed the door.

Hoping and wishing fervently that the Weasleys would come in a way acceptable to the Dursleys, Harry turned to his bed and started packing up absently.

***************************

It was eight a.m. the next day. Harry had absolutely no idea when and how the Weasleys would arrive. He glanced around at his neatly packed bedroom, and went down to breakfast, trying as he did so to step lightly, so as not to irritate the Dursleys, all of whom would be very nervous today.

Aunt Petunia, who was still sticking to their supposed diet stubbornly even though it had proved itself to be ineffective (Dudley had gained even more fats instead of losing it). Privately, Harry thought to himself that the reason for the ineffective diet was due to the fact that Aunt Petunia gave her son at least triple the amount of food the others received. As a result of that, Uncle Vernon had showed slight decreases in his size, Aunt Petunia had become even skinnier, though all Dudley had achieved was a definite downturn in his temper. Harry, thanks to all the food that Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and the others had given him, remained the same. Whenever he received excess food, he would send them to Sirius, who sent him letters, not by tropical birds nor normal owls, but by bats. Harry assumed that he was in Trannsylvania, or some obscure place like that.

For that particular morning, Dudley had one large box of cereal, and a carton of milk, while his parents had a bowl of cereal and a glass of milk each. Harry received half a bowl of cereal and no milk at all, but he did not mind. In fact, he didn't even notice. He was absentmindedly thinking of all the food he could stuff himself with at Diagon Alley, while spooning cereal into his mouth, accidentally dropping cereal down his clothes when his spoon missed his mouth.

"When's that woman coming to pick you up?" Uncle Vernon growled at him, while darting glances at the clock on the mantelpiece.

"Er..." Harry realized that he had no idea of when the Weasleys would pick him up. It could be at night for all he knew.

Uncle Vernon, who seemed to know instantly, grumbled under his breath, "I knew it... Oh, speaking of that, we're going out. You, however, are going to wait at home for those people of yours."

Ignoring Dudley's snigger, Harry nodded. He knew exactly what the Dursleys were trying to do. They hoped that the Weasleys would come late at night, and by then Harry would have waited a whole day at the doorstep, looking for all the world like a forlorn child that no one wants. Still, at least he would be out of the Dursleys' reach by nightfall. With this thought in mind, Harry went up to get his stuff down, pretending not to hear the evil chuckles of the Dursley family.

***************************

"Harry! Harry! Wake up, Harry!! Come on... Oh, this is no use... Wait a second... Electrocate!" All of a sudden, Harry felt like a bolt of lightning had struck him--electricity surged through his body, and he sat upright suddenly, dazed, for a moment forgetting what had happened.

Hermione and Ron beside him; Mr Weasley stood on the pavement with his wand outstretched, and looking guiltily around him to see if any Muggle had noticed his spur-of-the-moment decision to wake Harry using magic.

All of a sudden, Harry suddenly realized that he was sitting on a pavement, and the sun was just starting to set. The Weasley's car was parked on the road nearby, and all the Weasleys were present, and all seemed to be extremely anxious about him. It was only then Harry remembered the incidents of the morning, and surmised that he had fallen asleep whilst waiting.

"Harry, what happened? Why were you lying on the pavement? Where are the Dursleys? Were you attacked? Is that why we couldn't wake you up? Are you alright?" Questions were immediately bombarded, and Harry started to explain that he was alright, and that the Dursleys had gone out and left him to wait for the Weasleys.

"Of all the..." Mrs Weasley spluttered, obviously fuming with rage at the Dursleys for leaving Harry in a state like that. "They... They actually locked you out of the house and went to... to enjoy themselves?!"

"I'm all right, Mrs Weasley, really, I'm fine," Harry quickly said, in an attempt to her down. Even Ron and Hermione looked furious.

"How could they do this to you? I mean, regardless of everything, you are still their relative aren't you? These people are just too much!" Hermione said with furrowed eyebrows, in a tone of righteous outrage, while Ron looked ready to take out his wand and start cursing the Dursley's house.

"All right dear, calm yourself down and lets get Harry back to our house to get refreshed before we leave for Diagon Alley... Come on, it's getting quite late..." Mr Weasley, who was busying himself with the car, and did not hear what Harry had told his wife, assumed that his wife was just working herself up over nothing. He ushered her into the car, and the twins, who were disappointed to find the Dursleys (especially Dudley) not at home, picked up Harry's baggage, and followed their father into the car. Harry, supported by Hermione and Ron, followed suit.

***************************

It was a bright sunny morning. Harry and Cho Chang were playing catching at the Quidditch field, on broomsticks. Cho Chang was good at flying; she spun circles so fast that he had to put on extra speed. Round and round the Quidditch pitch they flew, and Harry did a maneuver that allowed him to be far closer to his target than he was before. He reached out to tag her, but accidentally fell out off his broomstick... He flailed his arms wildly about...

"Oooff!! Harry!! What's with you!!" A startled voice, which he immediately recognized as Ron's, came from his right. Harry instantly woke up from his wonderful dream. Looking about dazedly, Harry realized that he had swung his arms right into Ron's chest, who was still doubled over, gasping for breath.

"Oh... Oops, sorry, Ron, I was having a dream... Erm, you alright?" Harry asked while feeling all about him for his spectacles.

"Here," Hermione handed Harry his spectacles, who put it on immediately and looked around. It was only then he realized that they were in the Weasleys' car, a few hundred metres above the land. "Oh look, we're reaching the Burrow soon," Harry exclaimed, pointing at a familiar structure ahead of them.

"Yeah, you've been asleep for quite long... What's with you? You've been asleep for most of the day," Ron, who seemed to have recovered his composure, asked.

"Suppose I've been quite tired. Gosh, I'd be glad to be back at the Burrow again," Harry said, glancing around, and wincing slightly as the car touched down with a jolting bump.

***************************

When they reached the Burrow, Harry had a quick bath and dinner before going up to Ron's bedroom, where he and Ron chatted till midnight. As Harry had been falling asleep for most of the day, he was feeling wide awake even though Ron was yawning every five seconds. In the end, Ron fell asleep in mid-sentence, and Harry quietly extinguished the lamps and crept into bed.

Harry did not know when he fell asleep; but when he awoke it was in a flurry of activity, and everyone started talking to him at once.

"Oh, Harry, there you are! Care to have some cheese omelette?"

"Harry, go and pack your bags, we're leaving in a few minutes time for Diagon Alley!"

"Erm, Harry, could you come here and teach me how to operate this... erm... stalitite?" (by Mr Weasley, of course)

"Hi Harry! Come and sit here..."

It was quite an honour, of course. At the Dursleys, they tended to ignore him as though he was transparent; but at the Weasleys, he was treated as something like a VIV (very important visitor).

Harry went over to Mr Weasley and very kindly what was wrong with the satellite (oh, you mean this is called a satellite not a stalitite?), went upstairs to get his bag downstairs, and sat beside Ron and Hermione before taking a slice of cheese omelette from Mrs Weasley. Suddenly ravenous, Harry wolfed down his breakfast.

***************************

Diagon Alley was, as usual, bursting with people. Wizards and witches were dressed in splendid robes, mostly multi-coloured and with varying shades, and they bustled about, shoving their way around the stores in Diagon Alley, most of which contained signboards, which bounced about, announcing sales and discounts and new items in stock. Children, who usually could not afford the items on sale, would peer through the glass window, staring longingly at the dazzling display of items, while their parents tried vainly to drag them away from the various shops. There were the usual number of patrons to frequent the alehouses there, and occasionally, one or two would stagger out of the shop bawling off-key songs. Wizards getting drunk were a rare sight, but a funny one nonetheless. The other shops, which sold stuff like broomsticks, useful wizarding pets, spell books, cauldrons, wands, etc, etc, also had their fair share of customers. A harried witch, who obviously had more children than she could take care of, hurried from shop to shop, and bought much of each item (eight cauldrons which contained eight sets of spellbooks inside it), lumbering unsteadily from one end of the street to another, until she was out of sight. The sight of Diagon Alley was truly a sight to behold.

Harry, as always, was fascinated by Diagon Alley. Although this was definitely not the first time he had visited Diagon Alley, the place nonetheless held a special significance for him--it was the first magical place he had ever visited. He still remembered the time Hagrid took him here, and he was amazed at the sight of all these that he had never seen before. At that time, he was taken by everything he saw. Now, after all these years, he still had a special fondness for this place that had shown him all that he could do. Shaking himself out of his nostalgia, Harry looked around and found himself in front of a sign which read "Gringotts Bank". The Weasleys had already gone in front of him and passed through the doors. Harry hurried ahead to keep up with them.

The ride to the vaults was thrilling. Wind ran through his tousled hair, and he felt a surge of adrenaline pass through him, with Ron (this is cool!) and Hermione (oh no...) beside him and the Weasleys in another wagon behind them. All too soon, the ride ended with a bump in front of the Weasley's vault. Mrs Weasley put her hand on the door, which opened easily. Harry looked away when Mrs Weasley felt in all four corners of the vault before giving vent to a sigh, returning empty handed. He felt even worse when they reached his vault, filled sky high with Galleons. Shoving enough Galleons to last him for the time being, Harry quickly closed the vault and the goblins then led the wagons back.

***************************

Five hours later found Harry, Hermione and Ron sitting in a shop enjoying ice-cream. In that mere five hours, Harry, Ron, and Hermione had exhausted almost all the shops in Diagon Alley, emptied at least half of their money bags, and laden with several bags each. At last, unable to support the weight of the bags any longer, the trio stumbled into the nearest shop they could find, and plopped down all their purchases (which filled up a entire corner of the store, earning them some dark looks from the bartender) and bought some ice-cream, hoping to soothe their aching legs.

"Ah... Now this is so much better..." said Ron, who was happily licking at a cone which giggled and squirmed under his grasp while he licked at it. It was the first time Harry had ever seen such ice-creams, but he was assured by the others that it had been on sale for quite some time.

"Mmmm..." Hermione answered, apparently too busy to even think up of a reply. Harry grinned at them and continued licking and tickling his cone, which seemed to be ultra-sensitive.

This, to them, was heaven. A well-deserved break after hours of spending Galleons for the things they wanted...

"Well, well, well... So we meet again, Potter..." a drawling voice sounded from somewhere behind them. Even before he spun around, Harry knew how it was.

"Potter and his gang." Draco smirked. "Potter and his Mudblood gang..."

"Don't..." Hermione hissed as Harry and Ron lunged forward simultaneously as she tried to hold them back desperately.

"What's with you, Granger? Afraid of being caught up in a fight? Not surprising... Considering..." Draco left it hanging, while Crabbe and Goyle, at his side as usual, grinned.

"You know what, Malfoy? I'd rather have Hermione as a friend than the slime that you have in your dormitory," Harry retorted, his chin sticking up slightly.

Draco darkened briefly, but recovered his composure just as fast, and changed topic in the lightning of an eye. He glanced at Ron, who was gripping his wand so tight that Harry was afraid it might break again.

"Dear, dear... Weasley... I just saw your parents... They were at a bargain shop... Bargaining for some tattered dress robes... Tsk tsk tsk... Are they for you? It'll look nice on you, I'm sure it would..." Crabbe and Goyle roared with laughter.

Hermione, her face deceptively calm, stilled Ron, who was looking fit to fight a tiger, and walked up to Malfoy holding her ice-cream in her hand.

"Malfoy? I reckon this might do you good." She smiled sweetly, and pushed the ice-cream cone into Draco's face. Then, with all the people in the store staring at her, she turned to Harry and Ron, who were staring at her with astonished faces, and grinned.

"Come on, we've still got a lot of places to go." And with Harry and Ron in tow, she stepped out of the shop, with Malfoy dripping ice-cream behind them.

Once out of the shop, she broke into a toothy grin.

"God, I've wanted to do that for ages!" she exulted. Harry and Ron stared at each other, too surprised for words.

***************************

It was close to twilight, and the sun was just starting to wane. The sun, however, was unlike Harry, Ron, and Hermione, whose energy was almost inexhaustible. After their encounter with Malfoy, they continued to tour around Diagon Alley, and made their purchases more furiously than before. It was as though the more Galleons they spent, the faster they could forget about Malfoy. And indeed, by that time, Harry had already forgotten about the unpleasant encounter with his arch enemy. It was just too fantastic a day for it to be spoiled by Malfoy.

"Excuse me..." Hermione murmured angrily at a passerby who, too laden with bags, barged past her, and pinned Hermione to the pavement wall. Even at this time, the streets of Diagon Alley was still filled, and the three of them found it hard to squash through all the people around them. Several bags of the passerby fell, and they helped to pick them up. It was only then Harry remembered that they had forgotten about the bags they had left in the shop where they met Malfoy.

"Ah no, I don't believe it!" he exclaimed, in the middle of picking up an orange from a pink-striped bag. Hermione and Ron turned to him, faces curious.

"We forgot our bags! They're still the store! You know, the store where we met Malfoy?" he hastily explained, as Ron and Hermione strained to remember.

"Oh, sheesh! I can't believe we forgot that! All the stuff we bought in the morning!" Ron, apparently having remembered, yelled, and led the way back to the shop.

The three of them were a sight to behold as they sprinted back to the shop, knocking into people and muttering apologies in response to the dirty looks that the people they bumped into gave them.

By the time they reached the shop, it was just starting to close. Ron grabbed the door, shoved Harry and Hermione in, and looked around urgently, calming down only when he saw the mountain of bags in the corner.

"You young people have no sense of responsibility... How inconsiderate..." the shopkeeper said, while throwing them looks. Harry and the rest apologized profusely before exiting the store.

"Sheesh... I still can't believe we actually forgot our bags... Imagine if someone had stolen them... All those Galleons lost..." Ron said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, well, we were just too angry with Malfoy remember? And I suppose we were trying to forget all about that incident, and happened to forgot our bags as well..." Hermione trailed off, apparently thinking about something else.

The trio continue to walk down the street, which was less crammed as before, but still quite full nonetheless. At that time, it was already evening, and the sun had retreated. A slight breeze evaporated the heat that had been persisting for the past few days, giving them much needed relaxation as they silently walked back to their inn, where Mr and Mrs Weasley had told them to meet at.

"We'd better hurry, it's quite late." Hermione glanced at her watch, a combination of magic and Muggle technology; it looked for all the world like a normal Muggle watch, with the numbers on it, but if you pressed hard on the watch face, the numbers would sink into the watch and a new face would appear. The new face was not unlike the one at the Weasleys' house -- things like "late", "time to eat", "time to study", etc, etc, etc. From what he could understand, Hermione had invented it herself, and when he asked her about it, she launched into an explanation so complicated it made Harry dizzy just to think of it. He decided maybe it was better not to know the mechanics behind it after all.

They picked up their pace a bit, and hurried through the cobbled street. Just then, they passed by an alehouse, and a drunken wizard came stumbling out, clutching a cup of Butterbeer, and muttering incoherently. He blinked owlishly at a cat primly perched on a nearby wall, and grinned at it.

"Hey kitty kitty... Why don't you come down here n join me for a cup of drink? It's really nice... You should try it sometime..." He leered at it, and the cat made no move to respond.

"Oh come on... Everyone knows you're an Animagus... You can't bluff me..." He laughed raucously and wagged a finger at it. The cat still remained motionless. The wizard, apparently angered by this, screamed at the cat.

"You better change back now, or I'm going to force you! Change! You don't want to? Fine! I shall make you!" he yelled.

At the same time as when he whipped out his wand, the cat suddenly leapt from the wall and cannoned straight into the drunken wizard. The wizard had already taken out his wand and yelled an incantation; but as the cat leapt, he flinched, and the ray of light which emitted from his wand hit a nearby stray dog, who was foraging for food in a bin at that time, instead.

A flash of blinding light hit them, and Harry blinked to clear his eyes. When he at last managed to get them wide open, his jaw dropped. So did the jaws of everybody in the street.

For the dog had transformed into a man, and that man was his godfather.

Sirius Black.