It's not easy to explain, but . . .

Chapter 8

                                                   Chapter 8 : Let's get a few things straight . . .

"They're gone," announced Sirius, as he came into the room.  Seeing Rupert eyeing the noisy cupboard, he grinned.  "It's just a Boggart, Ron . . I mean Rupert . . sorry.

"No problem; I've answered to either or both of those names for half my life, now."  Rupert acknowledged.  "Wonder what form it would take for me?"

"Want to find out?"  Sirius started toward the rattling piece of furniture.

"NO!"  "Not while I'm  in here!"  "No thanks, mate!!"  "Oh! No!"

"Oh, come on.  It can't be that scary, can it?"  Sirius was surprised by their reactions to his offer.

"For you, no; you can do the 'Riddikulus Charm'.  For us, not so much of a thrill; we have no way of protecting ourselves.  Not that you'd let anything happen to us, but  . . . just to be on the safe side," Emma added, her eyes big a saucers, peeking around Rupert at the Boggart's hiding place.

"Right.  Point taken.  Maybe later . . . so, what's the plan?"  Sirius rubbed his hands together.

"We need to tap into your neighbor's electrical supply, to run the TV and VCR,"  Harry advised him, pulling the wrapped, shrunken electronics from Emma's tote. "We were thinking you could make a temporary hole in the adjoining wall and then do a spell on them not to notice the extension cord.  When we're done you can close the hole, the wall looks untouched, Bob's your uncle, back to normal!

"What, the Muggles on this side?"  Sirius pointed to #11. "Mate, they're not even home!  I could hear them talking through the wall the other day and they've gone to visit their family in the West County, and won't be home until after New Years.  There's no problem about the electricity . . . let me show you how it's done."

"We'd better set up in the front parlor, though, as it's bigger," Dan interrupted.

"Oh, right, well, let's shift rooms then," agreed Sirius, as he led the way to the adjacent room, the others following him.  With a bit of a flourish, Sirius pulled his wand and pointed it at the wall. " 'Exoria Ianua'," he intoned, and a plain wooden door appeared in the connecting wall.  Walking over, he opened it and peeked into the adjoining house.  "Better decorator than Mum used, but not by much."

Opening the door, bumping into a magazine rack in the process, he entered followed by Rupert, extension cord in hand.  Looking around, Rupert spotted an outlet, went over, plugged in the cord and then played it out, back into #12. Sirius followed, closing the door, after adding a small notch for the cord in the bottom edge.

"TA-DA!"

"Excellent! Now if you would do the honors and get these back to their normal size," asked Dan, pointing to the miniaturized TV and DVD player sitting on a table Tom and he had positioned in front of the fireplace.

"Engorgio"

After straightening the TV, connecting it to the DVD and plugging them both into the extension cord,  Dan took the remote and turned the TV on, switching to DVD mode.

"Right.  That's ready to go.  Let's put the DVDs right here next to the player and then we'll be all set for the 'show'." Dan turned and took the DVDs from Emma and placed them on the table.

Sirius was circling the TV, obviously amazed at how sleek and thin it was.

"This is not what I was expecting at all, mate.  Do all Muggle TVs look like this, now, or rather, in the future."