The Gift From Death Year 3

Chapter 2: Third year Part 2

9th, August, 1998...

"Right were starting up where we left off." Harry said. "Just skipping about 5 minutes of walking."

Harry was several streets away before he collapsed onto a low wall in Magnolia Crescent, panting from the effort of dragging his trunk.

"You could just levitate it." Sirius said, "You've already used plenty of magic, it wouldn't matter."

"I'd probably have gotten away with it too." Harry said, "But I was distracted before I could."

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.

"Don't worry, Harry. You wouldn't be." Minerva said. "Even the best witches and wizard's can't always control their emotions."

"I didn't know that at the time." Harry blushed, "I was panicking."

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,

"They won't arrest somebody for underage magic." Lily said. Those who knew about Harry's 5th year looked at each other quickly before looking away.

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.

"Hedwig had left the day before." Ron commented. "I'm guessing she came to find you?" Harry nodded.

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

James and Lily smiled.

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?

"Might not be the best idea, Harry." James said. Harry nodded again.

Then he could get the rest of his money out of his vault and... begin his life as an outcast.