HP, t3, r3

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

He sat quite still, anger still surging through him, listening to the frantic thumping of his heart.

to be in a fix

And the worst of it was, he had just done serious magic, which meant that he was almost certainly expelled from Hogwarts.

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.

the rest of the fortune his parents had left him was stored in a vault at Gringotts Wizarding Bank in London.

A funny prickling on the back of his neck had made Harry feel he was being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted, and no lights shone from any of the large square houses.

someone or something was standing in the narrow gap between the garage and the fence behind him

If only it would move, then he’d know whether it was just a stray cat or — something else.

the garage door gleamed, and between them Harry saw, quite distinctly, the hulking outline of something very big, with wide, gleaming eyes.

His legs hit his trunk and he tripped

His wand flew out of his hand as he flung out an arm to break his fall, and he landed, hard, in the gutter

Harry snatched up his wand again and scrambled to his feet

Harry snatched up his wand again and scrambled to his feet

Close up, he saw that Stan Shunpike was only a few years older than he was, eighteen or nineteen at most, with large, protruding ears and quite a few pimples.

Harry rummaged once more in his trunk, extracted his money bag, and shoved some gold into Stan’s hand

A tiny wizard in a nightcap at the rear of the bus muttered