and texture of the kitchen unit behind him. He seemed to have become a human chameleon.
‘Come on,’ said Moody, unlocking the back door with his wand.
They all stepped outside on to Uncle Vernon’s beautifully kept lawn.
‘Clear night,’ grunted Moody, his magical eye scanning the heavens. ‘Could’ve done with a bit more cloud cover. Right, you,’ he barked at Harry, ‘we’re going to be flying in close formation. Tonks’ll be right in front of you, keep close on her tail. Lupin’ll be covering you from below. I’m going to be behind you. The rest’ll be circling us. We don’t break ranks for anything, got me? If one of us is killed —’
‘Is that likely?’ Harry asked apprehensively, but Moody ignored him.
‘– the others keep flying, don’t stop, don’t break ranks. If they take out all of us and you survive, Harry, the rear guard are standing by to take over; keep flying east and they’ll join you.’
‘Stop being so cheerful, Mad-Eye, he’ll think we’re not taking this seriously,’ said Tonks, as she strapped Harry’s trunk and Hedwig’s cage into a harness hanging from her broom.
‘I’m just telling the boy the plan,’ growled Moody. ‘Our job’s to deliver him safely to Headquarters and if we die in the attempt —’
‘No one’s going to die,’ said Kingsley Shacklebolt in his deep, calming voice.
‘Mount your brooms, that’s the first signal!’ said Lupin sharply, pointing into the sky.
Far, far above them, a shower of bright red sparks had flared among the stars. Harry recognised them at once as wand sparks. He swung his right leg over his Firebolt, gripped its handle tightly and felt it vibrating very slightly, as though it was as keen as he was to be up in the air once more.
‘Second signal, let’s go!’ said Lupin loudly as more sparks, green this time, exploded high above them.
Harry kicked off hard from the ground. The cool night air rushed through his hair as the neat square gardens of Privet Drive fell away, shrinking rapidly into a patchwork of dark greens and blacks, and every thought of the Ministry hearing was swept from his mind as though the rush of air had blown it out of his head. He felt as though his heart was going to explode with pleasure; he was flying again, flying away from Privet Drive as he’d been fantasising about all summer, he was going home … for a few glorious moments, all his problems seemed to recede to nothing, insignificant in the vast, starry sky.
‘Hard left, hard left, there’s a Muggle looking up!’ shouted Moody from behind him. Tonks swerved and Harry followed her, watching his trunk swinging wildly beneath her broom. ‘We need more height … give it another quarter of a mile!’
Harry’s eyes watered in the chill as they soared upwards; he could see nothing below now but tiny pinpricks of light that were car headlights and street lamps. Two of those tiny lights might belong to Uncle Vernon’s car … the Dursleys would be heading back to their empty house right now, full of rage about the non-existent Lawn Competition … and Harry laughed aloud at the thought, though his voice was drowned by the flapping robes of the others, the creaking of the harness holding his trunk and the cage, and the whoosh of the wind in their ears as they sped through the air. He had not felt this alive in a month, or this happy.
‘Bearing south!’ shouted Mad-Eye. ‘Town ahead!’
They soared right to avoid passing directly over the glittering spider’s web of lights below.
‘Bear southeast and keep climbing, there’s some low cloud ahead we can lose ourselves in!’ called Moody.
‘We’re not going through clouds!’ shouted Tonks angrily, ‘we’ll get soaked, Mad-Eye!’
Harry was relieved to hear her say this; his hands were growing numb on the Firebolt’s handle. He wished he had thought to put on a coat; he was starting to shiver.
They altered their course every now and then according to Mad-Eye’s instructions. Harry’s eyes were screwed up against the rush of icy wind that was starting to make his ears ache; he could remember being this cold on a broom only once before, during the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff in his third year, which had taken place in a storm. The guard around him was circling continuously like giant birds of prey. Harry lost track of time. He wondered how long they had been flying, it felt like an hour at least.
‘Turning southwest!’ yelled Moody. ‘We want to avoid the motorway!’
Harry was now so chilled he thought longingly of the snug, dry interiors of the cars streaming along below, then, even more longingly, of travelling by Floo powder; it might be uncomfortable to spin around in fireplaces but it was at least warm in the flames … Kingsley Shacklebolt swooped around him, bald pate and earring gleaming slightly in the moonlight … now Emmeline Vance was on his right, her wand out, her head turning left and right … then she, too, swooped over him, to be replaced by Sturgis Podmore …
‘We ought to double back for a bit, just to make sure we’re not being followed!’ Moody shouted.
‘ARE YOU MAD, MAD-EYE?’ Tonks screamed from the front. ‘We’re all frozen to our brooms! If we keep going off-course we’re not going to get there until next week! Besides, we’re nearly there now!’
‘Time to start the descent!’ came Lupin’s voice. ‘Follow Tonks, Harry!’
Harry followed Tonks into a dive. They were heading for the largest collection of lights he had yet seen, a huge, sprawling criss-crossing mass, glittering in lines and grids, interspersed with patches of deepest black. Lower and lower they flew, until Harry could see individual headlights and street lamps, chimneys and television aerials. He wanted to reach the ground very much, though he felt sure someone would have to unfreeze him from his broom.
‘Here we go!’ called Tonks, and a few seconds later she had landed.
Harry touched down right behind her and dismounted on a patch of unkempt grass in the middle of a small square. Tonks was already unbuckling Harry’s trunk. Shivering, Harry looked around. The grimy fronts of the surrounding houses were not welcoming; some of them had broken windows, glimmering dully in the light from the street lamps, paint was peeling from many of the doors and heaps of rubbish lay outside several sets of front steps.
‘Where are we?’ Harry asked, but Lupin said quietly, ‘In a minute.’
Moody was rummaging in his cloak, his gnarled hands clumsy with cold.
‘Got it,’ he muttered, raising what looked like a silver cigarette lighter into the air and clicking it.
The nearest streetlamp went out with a pop. He clicked the unlighter again; the next lamp went out; he kept clicking until every lamp in the square was extinguished and the only remaining light came from curtained windows and the sickle moon overhead.
‘Borrowed it from Dumbledore,’ growled Moody, pocketing the Put-Outer. ‘That’ll take care of any Muggles looking out of the window, see? Now come on, quick.’
He took Harry by the arm and led him from the patch of grass, across the road and on to the pavement; Lupin and Tonks followed, carrying Harry’s trunk between them, the rest of the guard, all with their wands out, flanking them.
The muffled pounding of a stereo was coming from an upper window in the nearest house. A pungent smell of rotting rubbish came from the pile of bulging bin-bags just inside the broken gate.
‘Here,’ Moody muttered, thrusting a piece of parchment towards Harry’s Disillusioned hand and holding his lit wand close to it, so as to illuminate the writing. ‘Read quickly and memorise.’
Harry looked down at the piece of paper. The narrow handwriting was vaguely familiar. It said:
The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
– CHAPTER FOUR —
Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place
‘What’s the Order of