He didn't even want to imagine what Dudley would do to him, should he catch him. Outright flattening him was the first thing that came to mind. He had also heard how Dudley had threatened one kid with punching him into the face. That sounded like the most likely thing he would do to Harry after catching up with him. Either way, Harry knew he would be in for lots of pain.
He'll beat me up if he catches me! Anything to make him fall behind! ANYTHING! Harry wished dearly, not wanting to get beaten up by Dudley.
"Wahhh!" -boff!-
That sounded like Dudley had fallen, but Harry was not stupid enough to stop and look. He just thanked fate for hearing his wish and made a dash for it, vanishing into a small alley between houses and out of sight, so that Dudley wouldn't be able to follow him any longer. He could catch his breath once having found a hiding place.
Already feeling a pain in his side from the running, Harry spotted a really good hiding place just ahead when he saw the open and currently empty tool shed of the street sweepers and quickly ducked into it, closing the door behind himself but leaving it unlocked.
Trying to get his hammering heart under control, Harry thanked whatever fortune had made Dudley stumble. That was really lucky... he thought.
Dudley meanwhile was cursing while trying to sit up after he'd fallen flat onto his face - which had hurt. Getting up was not easy due to his bulk hindering him. It had went so well and he would have gotten the pipsqueak, if not for suddenly stumbling. Now Potter had made a run for it and was nowhere in sight. He was sure the boy would tell everything to his guardians, so there would be no chance to catch him for some time.
Looking down, he finally saw what had made him fall.
"Huh, what is that...?" Dudley gasped when seeing that his shoelaces were now tied together.
There was no way they could have been like that before, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to chase Harry. It was like all of a sudden they had become tied together while he was running after his prey. However, that had to be impossible, right? After all, how could that have happened, since there was no thing like snapping your fingers to cause magic to happen.
He decided while trying to separate his shoelaces to better say nothing to his parents, as they wouldn't believe him if he told them.
...Granger home, October 3rd...
Sitting at the desk in her room, Hermione Granger felt that the world was unfair.
School really was not turning out as she had hoped, as this school year continued where the previous one had left off. Oh, she was getting nothing but praise from her teachers for her accomplishments and she was easily the best student in class and year, but that helped little with the other students. They were now starting to actually resent her and made no secret of that very fact.
How can I make friends when they can't stand me?she thought, remembering how small tight-knit groups had developed, leaving her out.
It was not only that however. She had heard the other girls make fun of her bushy hair and her steadily developing overbite in cruel words she was meant to hear. The boys were little better, since she could hear the resentment from them when calling her a teacher's pet and pest in their conversations. Again, they made no effort to hide their words from her.
Hermione couldn't understand why they didn't like her while putting away the now finished homework, having decided to do all of it in one go right after school was over, so that it was done with. Of course, with that distraction now gone, it left her with her frustration at her social situation.
She found it incredibly unfair that the other students were cold to her just because they were less talented than her. Was it her fault that they were not applying themselves properly to school work? It did not exactly cross her mind that perhaps she should be more humble about her abilities and try being less aggressive at always trying to be the best in class, which was riling up the other students. Alas, Hermione had gotten it into her head that being aggressive about being the best was proving her worth, thus starting a vicious cycle.
Her obliviousness could partly be chalked up to her young age, though she also was starting to tune out this truth unconsciously. After all, people didn't want being confronted with things they didn't like and thus started to ignore these things, even if being unaware of doing so. That however was a fact she would only discover once being older and wiser.
Not wanting to dwell on her school problems, she wanted to do something else. Right now she didn't feel like reading even further ahead in the school books than she already did, as that would only remind her of her problems.
I really need something to distract myself. I WANT something to... Her thought stopped when noticing something.
Sitting on her desk was a book she could have sworn had not been there a moment ago. Perhaps she simply had not been attentive enough to her surroundings while feeling sorry for herself? Reading the title, she recognized it as a storybook her father had bought her, but she had not yet gotten to actually reading it. Strange, she could have sworn she'd put it into her bookshelf.
"Ah, who cares..." she finally decided.
Lying front down on her bed she opened the book to read about the strange adventure on a mysterious island.
...the Burrow, October 12th...
"I have to say, Arthur, it really seems to start to work. Sure, Ronald at first didn't take it seriously, but now he seems to start to get into it," Molly Weasley told her husband while sitting with him over some tea at the kitchen table.
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