Chapter 119: Harry Runs Away from Home
Chapter 119: Harry Runs Away from Home
Harry woke up at 1:00 AM on August 1st.
His mind had triggered a protective instinct, luckily using unconsciousness to shield him from the events of his birthday and carry him into the next day.
He had no idea what had actually happened while he was unconscious.
When Harry awoke, Sherlock and Kingsley were staring at him. Harry first met their gaze with confusion, then suddenly jumped up from the chair.
"Where's that cloaked monster! And the horse-faced one! Where's that horse-faced monster!"
Sherlock looked at him with a puzzled expression.
"The cloaked monster is a Dementor, the Azkaban guard, and it's long gone. As for the horse-faced one, who's that?"
Harry, agitated, gestured with his hands and described it with his face.
"It's a monster with a face exactly like a horse, with pink curly hair, and a terrifying laugh!"
Hearing this, Sherlock and Kingsley exchanged a glance, both seeing the exasperation in each other's eyes.
"You're probably talking about Tonks. She's a natural Metamorphmagus and can change her face into any shape she wants", Kingsley muttered. "But why would she turn into a horse face to scare you?"
"She's not a monster, she's a person!" Harry panted, still clearly shaken.
Sherlock patted his shoulder reassuringly.
"Calm down, Harry. This is the Ministry of Magic, specifically the Auror Office. There's no safer place than here."
Harry slowly regained his composure, scratching his head.
"Right, this is the Ministry of Magic. Wait! Why is my hair so sticky!"
He grimaced, bringing his hand to his nose after touching his hair, and smelled a sweet Chocolate scent.
Tonks, in her nervousness, had misdirected the cleaning spell, leaving some residue in Harry's hair.
Sherlock almost burst out laughing at Harry's predicament. He raised his wand and said,
"Alright, Harry, you have two options for cleaning up: a cleaning spell or I can conjure some water for you to wash yourself."
Harry grumbled.
"Let's go with the cleaning spell. Water alone probably won't get it clean."
Sherlock used the cleaning spell to tidy Harry's hair again. Only then did Harry realize how naive he had been, having actually believed that Sherlock's Jinxed Mouth had disappeared, and now he suspected that the temporary ineffectiveness in France must have been due to some special reason.
At this time, the entire Auror Office was almost empty, with only a few Aurores on night duty. Everyone else had gone home.
Harry finally introduced himself to Kingsley, learning that he was an Auror at the Ministry of Magic.
"Come on, I'll take you to a nice Muggle restaurant for a late-night meal. We used to go there after missions."
Kingsley led them to a 24-hour restaurant in London and treated them to a hearty meal. To make up for Harry's missed birthday, they ordered a small cake and planned to sing "Happy Birthday", but Harry vehemently protested, threatening to refuse to eat if they did.
Harry, having survived another day, was finally sent back to the Dursleys by Sherlock, who managed to interrupt a professor's curse to "wish you a good night's sleep."
But Harry's misfortune didn't end there.
The next day, Aunt Marge, upon waking up, found Harry back at the Dursleys and immediately began to mock him relentlessly.
Harry didn't respond, having long grown accustomed to her taunts, and couldn't muster any anger.
Apart from coming out for lunch, he spent the rest of the day in his room, opening the birthday gifts sent by Hermione, Ron, and Hagrid via owl.
Hermione, though in France, had sent him a broomstick maintenance kit, which made Harry exceptionally happy. He had always wanted to buy one from Diagon Alley but never had the chance. Hermione had thoughtfully included it as a birthday gift.
Ron sent him a pocket Sneakoscope from Egypt, a magical device that detects untrustworthy people and sounds an alarm if it senses one.
Hagrid gave Harry a biting book, which took him a while to subdue to prevent it from causing trouble outside his room.
Sherlock's gift, which he had received the previous day, was a new cage for Hedwig, who seemed very pleased with it.
However, Harry couldn't stay in his room all day. For dinner, he had to come out and eat with Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and the detestable Aunt Marge.
During the meal, Aunt Marge, having had a few drinks, became increasingly offensive.
She immediately began to insult Harry's parents.
"Look, it's always like this with dog breeding. If there's something wrong with the mother dog, the puppies will surely have something wrong with them too!"
Aunt Marge's wine bottle suddenly exploded.
Petunia and Vernon were startled; they knew what had happened. Vernon's face turned pale as he tried to change the subject, signaling for Harry to go back to his room.
Dudley's mouth hung open, staring at the scene in shock.
Harry's hands were trembling uncontrollably. He kept his head down, trying to hide his expression from the people at the table.
He had to endure it. Not only because underage wizards were not allowed to use magic outside of school, but also because he needed Aunt Petunia to sign the parental consent form allowing him to leave the school during Hogsmeade weekends in his third year.
He had to bear these insults, both to himself and his parents!
When Aunt Marge contemptuously called his father a worthless, good-for-nothing, lazy beggar, Harry could no longer pretend he hadn't heard.
He argued fiercely with Aunt Marge, and the magic power within him burst out, transforming her into a helium balloon that floated up to the ceiling.
The Dursleys were in complete chaos, and Harry's anger could no longer be contained.
He rushed back to his room, packed all his things into his trunk, and planned to escape.
Vernon blocked his way.
"You're not leaving!" he roared. "Fix this!"
Harry, feeling reckless, pulled out his wand and pointed it at Vernon, his breathing rapid.
"That's what she deserved! You'd better stay away from me!"
Harry dashed past the obstructing Vernon, carrying his trunk and Hedwig's cage, and walked alone into the dark, quiet street.
With his anger still burning, he ran to Sherlock's house, but no matter how much he rang the doorbell or shouted Sherlock's name, there was no response.
Sherlock wasn't home tonight.
Harry continued dragging his trunk along the street, aimlessly walking.
Until a magic bus pulled up in front of him.
Sherlock had spent the entire day at home, but he chose the nighttime to go out and find an uninhabited area to test the effects of some large-scale, powerful spells using the levitating wand casting system.
He wouldn't perform such experiments at home, and doing them during the day could easily attract Muggle attention. So, he specifically chose this time.
Two wands were floating around him, and Sherlock could control them up to a distance of about ten meters.
Any farther, and he would lose control, causing the wands to fall to the ground.
But ten meters was enough for him to conduct many special experiments.
He spread the wands to their maximum distance of ten meters and cast the spell.
"Thunder Blast."
"Boom!"
A massive explosion echoed across the empty field, the orange firelight illuminating an area of several meters and Sherlock's face.
A normally weakened Explosive Charm wouldn't have such a powerful effect.
But with spells like these, quantity equaled quality. The combined power of two Explosive Charms produced a noise and effect comparable to a normally cast Explosive Charm.
If he could control more wands, the continuous magical bombardment would create a truly artistic scene.
After conducting a series of tests in the field, Sherlock returned home in the middle of the night.
In the following days of August, he resumed his reclusive lifestyle.
His main activity was studying various Defense Against the Dark Arts books in his study. His theoretical knowledge in defensive magic had now reached the level of the original owner.
Especially the two books written by the original owner, along with the notes and materials left behind during their creation, had been thoroughly mastered by him.
While he had to rely on constant test preparation and practice to barely keep up with the advanced Defense Against the Dark Arts classes last semester, he could now delve into more in-depth theoretical explanations.
He no longer felt intimidated by advanced magical theories.
Of course, whether to change his teaching approach for the upper grades would depend on the results of the students' wizarding exams after the start of the school year.
If the exam-focused teaching method proved effective in wizarding exams, Sherlock wouldn't change his teaching style. He would only add some interesting elements to make the study of Dark Magic Defense more engaging.
August passed quickly, and on the 31st, Sherlock prepared to head to Diagon Alley.
He was going to Ollivanders Wand Shop to pick up the 50 wands he had pre-ordered.
(End of Chapter)
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