Chapter 382: Let Yourself Go
"Right now?" Harry said, startled.
His heart thudded hard in his chest, part excitement, part unease.
"Why not?" Dudley swung his legs out of bed and started pulling on his clothes.
"But…" Harry tried to say something, but he did not even know where to begin. Too many thoughts crowded his head at once. It was night. They were not allowed out of bed. Black was still roaming somewhere outside. Would it be too dangerous to go out now? And…
Then, suddenly, Harry tossed all of it aside.
To hell with not being allowed out of bed. To hell with it being dangerous.
"Let's go."
He dressed without another moment's hesitation.
The two of them crept out of the dormitory, then broke into a run, heading outside.
When they opened the portrait, Sir Cadogan blinked awake, bleary and confused.
"Halt! It is night. What are you two doing?"
Harry's body stiffened.
Dudley did not even bother answering. He seized Harry's sleeve and dragged him towards the grounds.
"Stop, you mangy cur, and duel me! Defeat me, and only then may you leave!"
"Come back!"
Sir Cadogan roared behind them, but Harry and Dudley were already gone.
Under the curtain of night, the two of them ran wild across the lawns outside Hogwarts.
The sky was pitch dark, not a single star in sight. A thin, steady drizzle fell, but neither of them felt cold.
"Oh, brilliant! I haven't felt this free in ages. This is incredible!" Harry shouted, arms spread wide.
Everything around them was so quiet, as though the whole world had folded itself into the darkness.
Only his voice echoed back. In that moment, it felt as if the world belonged to him alone.
"Still nervous?" Dudley asked.
"Not even a little," Harry said, laughing.
"Come on. The Quidditch pitch," Dudley said, and waved him on.
As they ran, Dudley spoke in Hermes' language.
"Firebolt 2001, to me."
Harry heard the words, but did not understand them. "What did you just say?"
"The Summoning Charm," Dudley replied. "It lets something far away fly straight to you. I called both our brooms."
Harry's eyes lit at once. "That's a good one. When are you teaching us?"
"After you've mastered the Patronus Charm," Dudley said, "I'll teach you the Summoning Charm."
No sooner had he finished than a fierce whistling cut through the darkness.
The next moment, two brooms tore down from the sky and came to a halt in front of Dudley and Harry.
"I bet you can't fly faster than me right now," Harry said, and leapt onto his broom, shooting off into the night.
"That's not a given!" Dudley replied, vaulting up after him.
Whoosh!
Like a bolt of lightning, Dudley speared up into the sky, chasing after Harry.
In that instant, it was as though all their worries fell away.
Even Dudley seemed to forget he was a Beyonder. He was grinning like a child, flying through the night with reckless joy.
Harry was the same. He forgot the pressure of the match, forgot Sirius Black, the traitor who had sold out his parents, forgot all the burdens and hatred he carried. For the first time in ages, he felt like a real child again, light and happy…
The wind screamed past their ears, and everything, for a little while, became easy.
"Harry, I'm faster than you!" Dudley pushed his broom to its limit and flashed past him.
"I'm catching up!" Harry shouted back, leaning into the chase, cutting a bright path through the dark.
An hour later, the night finally began to thin. The sky paled to a faint, grey-white wash.
It was still dim beneath the heavy clouds, but there was the first hint of morning, of the world waking.
They dropped back to the ground.
"That was unbelievable," Harry said, breathless. "I've never ridden a broom at night before."
"Trying something new usually feels good," Dudley said.
They rested for a short while.
"Come on," Dudley said at last. "We should eat."
Harry still had a match ahead of him. He could not push himself too far.
"All right," Harry said, taking a steadying breath. Carrying his broom, he followed Dudley towards the Great Hall.
And then Dudley felt it.
He glanced back towards the Forbidden Forest. Something was watching them.
"What is it?" Harry asked, following Dudley's gaze, but he could only see darkness.
"It looked like an animal," Dudley said. "Big."
He had only caught a glimpse, a black shadow. When he tried to focus, it was already gone.
"The Forbidden Forest is full of magical creatures," Harry said. "Probably some large animal."
"Mm." Dudley did not sense anything else, and he did not press it. The two of them soon returned to the Great Hall.
"Oh!" Ron blurted the moment he saw them, hurrying over. "Where have you two been? I got up, and you were gone. I thought you'd come down early for breakfast, but you weren't here either!"
"Harry and I went for a broom ride," Dudley said with a grin.
"You went flying in the middle of all this?" Ron looked ready to explode. "That's against school rules, and Black could show up any time! It's dangerous!"
He leaned in, scandalised. "And why didn't you wake me up?!"
"That last bit is the real issue, isn't it?" Harry said, rolling his eyes.
"You were sleeping like a log," Dudley said. "We weren't about to risk waking you."
"You two are unbelievable," Ron said, seething. "Something that fun and you didn't even ask me. If it happens again, I'm reporting you, I swear I will."
"Reporting what?" Hermione walked over from nearby, catching the end of it.
"Reporting us for eating breakfast without inviting him," Dudley said lightly.
Hermione blinked. "What?"
"All right, nothing's wrong," Dudley said, cutting it off. "Eat. If you don't, Wood will be over in a minute to nag you again."
Harry nodded and started eating with real appetite.
He had not felt hungry earlier, but now he was starving. Everything tasted good. If he did not have a match soon and could not afford to eat too much, Harry suspected he could have cleared the entire table.
Hermione watched him, the corner of her mouth twitching. "Did you get into a fight last night?"
"With myself," Harry mumbled through a mouthful, a grin tugging at his lips.