It Could Have Gone That Way; A Harmione Fanfiction

Chapter 14: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Harry ran upstairs and slammed his bedroom door. Dobby the House Elf had disappeared before anyone could see him. Although Harry supposed that it was for the best, he was not at all happy with the fact that he was the one who had been blamed for dropping the large pudding onto Vernon's boss' wife's head.

Harry was furious at Dobby for hiding all of his letters from Ron and Hermione and for trying to get him to stay at 4 Privet Drive instead of going back to Hogwarts. He didn't really care whether or not he was in 'grave danger' - as Dobby had put it - because Hogwarts was his home, and he wasn't going to give it up.

Flopping down angrily onto his hard bed, Harry spotted something on the floor. A stack of unopened envelopes tied together with a piece of string. A smile spread across Harry's face for the first time in a month; Dobby had left all of Harry's letters behind!

Picking them up, Harry moved over to the window. There had to be at least fifty letters in there from Ron and Hermione. One by one, Harry opened the letters and read each of them carefully. At first, they were all rather short, seeing as neither Ron or Hermione would have been able to say much without a reply from Harry. Then, the letters grew longer as both of them began asking why he wasn't replying.

Harry noticed that, by that point, Ron had long since given up on writing to him, as the remaining letters were all from Hermione. Harry decided that Ron had run out of parchment as opposed to just giving up on getting a reply.

After that, however, Hermione's letters became very urgent. She kept asking if he was okay and seemed very concerned that he had not replied. The most recent one said that Hermione had - somehow - gotten permission from her parents to go and stay with Ron for the final part of the holidays, and that it was rather boring there without him.

Frowning, Harry moved over to his desk to write a letter. He hadn't gotten any further than, Dear Hermione, when he realised that he couldn't send the letter to her. Uncle Vernon had locked Hedwig up and barred his window up tightly to stop Harry from escaping. Vernon had told him he was never going back to 'that bloody school' again.

Screwing up the small piece of parchment that he and Ron had stolen from the Charms classroom to use for letter-writing and tossing it sourly into the bin, Harry got into bed properly. It didn't take long for him to fall asleep, but, when he did, he had a very strange dream.

He was in a cage. People were everywhere, staring at him open-mouthed. He could see Dobby in the crowd saying,"Harry Potter is safe there, Sir!" Then the Dursleys appeared and began rattling the bars of his cage. Some of the other people grew nearer to him, goggling at him through the bars...

Harry opened his eyes. A blinding light shone through his window. And someone was goggling at him: a bushy-haired, buck-toothed, brown-eyed someone.

Hermione Granger was outside Harry's window.

***********

"Hermione?" Harry whispered, putting on his glasses and crawling over to the window. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw what she was sat in: a large, turquoise Ford Anglia was floating outside his bedroom window.

"Hello Harry." She stared at him, confused,"Are you all right? Why haven't you been answering my letters?"

"First off, I hadn't been getting-"

"Oi! No time for chit-chat! This is a rescue mission!" A red-haired boy poked his head around Hermione and looked out of the open window.

"Ron!"

"Yup, in the flesh." Ron said sarcastically,"Now, c'mon, let's get you out of there!"

An indignant cough came from the front seat.