The peaceful silence was suddenly disturbed by a loud bang. Startled birds flew hastily out of the tree into the black night. Harry looked around, trying to identify the source of the sound while taking his wand out of the pocket of his trousers andclutching it tightly in his hand. Several long minutes followed and when no one appeared Harry stood up and decided it was time to go home. His relatives would be sound asleep by now and he could sneak in and steal some food from the kitchen.
Every single day of the summer had been the same. He would return home somewhere between two and four in the morning and then lie awake in his bed for a while before finally falling asleep only to be woken up again at half past six to make breakfast for his uncle. After breakfast he had an unreasonable list of chores to complete. If he hadn’t completed them all by dinner, he would get kicked out of the house so his relatives could enjoy the meal he had cooked for them without the presence of their freaky nephew.
Due to the long days and the lack of sleep the vacation seemed to be lasting an eternity. Just a couple of days left in this hellhole, thought Harry. He would spend the last week of vacation at the Burrow. While he was looking forward to it, he was also afraid. Every night he had terrible nightmares filled with people being tortured and dying because of things he had done. Regularly he would wake up screaming, waking everyone in the house. If he did that at the Burrow… Harry swallowed and pushed his concerns away. He would have to find a way to make sure he didn’t have nightmares or wake up the others with his screams.
Hearing sirens of ambulances and the fire brigade, Harry started to walk faster. The closer he came to Privet Drive, the louder the noise grew. When he turned the corner he could see a lot of people gathered on the street in the close proximity to number 4. Behind them a fire roared like a beacon in the night. Harry’s heart skipped a bit and fear clouded his brain. The house had already collapsed and what remained of it was still on fire. The flames had spread to the next building which the fire fighters were doing their best to put it out.
Quickly Harry put his wand in one of the many pockets of his over sized cargo trousers and ran towards the commotion.
“What happened?” Harry asked an elderly man.
“There was an explosion. It’s a miracle that the other houses weren’t damaged,” muttered the man distractedly, he seemed fascinated by the dancing flames. “If the fire hadn’t spread, there wouldn’t have been any damage to the other houses.”
“And what about the people who live there?”
“What do you think?”
They were dead. They could not have survived that. Harry stared at the fire as if in a trance. He could hear only the beating of his heart. Every single beat reminded him that the heart of his aunt, uncle and cousin would never beat again. How could this have happened? A gas leak? No. It was Voldemort and his Death Eaters. How had they found the house? How did they breach the wards? Did they think that he was crushed beneath the debris? A hand on his shoulder made him jump. Quickly he turned around and stared right into the dark eyes of Severus Snape.
“You’re alive,”said Snape.