Dear Mr Potter,

      Further to our letter of approximately twenty-two minutes ago, the Ministry of Magic has revised its decision to destroy your wand forthwith. You may retain your wand until your disciplinary hearing on the twelfth of August, at which time an official decision will be taken.

      Following discussions with the Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, the Ministry has agreed that the question of your expulsion will also be decided at that time. You should therefore consider yourself suspended from school pending further enquiries.

      With best wishes,

      Yours sincerely,

      Mafalda Hopkirk

      Improper Use of Magic Office

      Ministry of Magic

      Harry read this letter through three times in quick succession. The miserable knot in his chest loosened slightly with the relief of knowing he was not yet definitely expelled, though his fears were by no means banished. Everything seemed to hang on this hearing on the twelfth of August.

      ‘Well?’ said Uncle Vernon, recalling Harry to his surroundings. ‘What now? Have they sentenced you to anything? Do your lot have the death penalty?’ he added as a hopeful afterthought.

      ‘I’ve got to go to a hearing,’ said Harry.

      ‘And they’ll sentence you there?’

      ‘I suppose so.’

      ‘I won’t give up hope, then,’ said Uncle Vernon nastily.

      ‘Well, if that’s all,’ said Harry, getting to his feet. He was desperate to be alone, to think, perhaps to send a letter to Ron, Hermione or Sirius.

      ‘NO, IT RUDDY WELL IS NOT ALL!’ bellowed Uncle Vernon. ‘SIT BACK DOWN!’

      ‘What now?’ said Harry impatiently.

      ‘DUDLEY!’ roared Uncle Vernon. ‘I want to know exactly what happened to my son!’

      ‘FINE!’ yelled Harry, and in his temper, red and gold sparks shot out of the end of his wand, still clutched in his hand. All three Dursleys flinched, looking terrified.

      ‘Dudley and I were in the alleyway between Magnolia Crescent and Wisteria Walk,’ said Harry, speaking fast, fighting to control his temper. ‘Dudley thought he’d be smart with me, I pulled out my wand but didn’t use it. Then two Dementors turned up —’

      ‘But what ARE Dementoids?’ asked Uncle Vernon furiously. ‘What do they DO?’

      ‘I told you – they suck all the happiness out of you,’ said Harry, ‘and if they get the chance, they kiss you —’

      ‘Kiss you?’ said Uncle Vernon, his eyes popping slightly. ‘Kiss you?’

      ‘It’s what they call it when they suck the soul out of your mouth.’

      Aunt Petunia uttered a soft scream.

      ‘His soul? They didn’t take – he’s still got his —’

      She seized Dudley by the shoulders and shook him, as though testing to see whether she could hear his soul rattling around inside him.

      ‘Of course they didn’t get his soul, you’d know if they had,’ said Harry, exasperated.

      ‘Fought ’em off, did you, son?’ said Uncle Vernon loudly, with the appearance of a man struggling to bring the conversation back on to a plane he understood. ‘Gave ’em the old one-two, did you?’

      ‘You can’t give a Dementor the old one-two,’ said Harry through clenched teeth.

      ‘Why’s he all right, then?’ blustered Uncle Vernon. ‘Why isn’t he all empty, then?’

      ‘Because I used the Patronus —’

      WHOOSH. With a clattering, a whirring of wings and a soft fall of dust, a fourth owl came shooting out of the kitchen fireplace.

      ‘FOR GOD’S SAKE!’ roared Uncle Vernon, pulling great clumps of hair out of his moustache, something he hadn’t been driven to do in a long time. ‘I WILL NOT HAVE OWLS HERE, I WILL NOT TOLERATE THIS, I TELL YOU!’

      But Harry was already pulling a roll of parchment from the owl’s leg. He was so convinced that this letter had to be from Dumbledore, explaining everything – the Dementors, Mrs Figg, what the Ministry was up to, how he, Dumbledore, intended to sort everything out – that for the first time in his life he was disappointed to see Sirius’s handwriting. Ignoring Uncle Vernon’s ongoing rant about owls, and narrowing his eyes against a second cloud of dust as the most recent owl took off back up the chimney, Harry read Sirius’s message.

      Arthur has just told us what’s happened. Don’t leave the house again, whatever you do.

      Harry found this such an inadequate response to everything that had happened tonight that he turned the piece of parchment over, looking for the rest of the letter, but there was nothing else.

      And now his temper was rising again. Wasn’t anybody going to say ‘well done’ for fighting off two Dementors single-handed? Both Mr Weasley and Sirius were acting as though he’d misbehaved, and were saving their tellings-off until they could ascertain how much damage had been done.

      ‘… a peck, I mean, pack of owls shooting in and out of my house. I won’t have it, boy, I won’t —’

      ‘I can’t stop the owls coming,’ Harry snapped, crushing Sirius’s letter in his fist.

      ‘I want the truth about what happened tonight!’ barked Uncle Vernon. ‘If it was Demenders who hurt Dudley, how come you’ve been expelled? You did you-know-what, you’ve admitted it!’

      Harry took a deep, steadying breath. His head was beginning to ache again. He wanted more than anything to get out of the kitchen, and away from the Dursleys.

      ‘I did the Patronus Charm to get rid of the Dementors,’ he said, forcing himself to remain calm. ‘It’s the only thing that works against them.’

      ‘But what were Dementoids doing in Little Whinging?’ said Uncle Vernon in an outraged tone.

      ‘Couldn’t tell you,’ said Harry wearily. ‘No idea.’

      His head was pounding in the glare of the strip-lighting now. His anger was ebbing away. He felt drained, exhausted. The Dursleys were all staring at him.

      ‘It’s you,’ said Uncle Vernon forcefully. ‘It’s got something to do with you, boy, I know it. Why else would they turn up here? Why else would they be down that alleyway? You’ve got to be the only – the only —’ Evidently, he couldn’t bring himself to say the word ‘wizard’. ‘The only you-know-what for miles.’

      ‘I don’t know why they were here.’

      But at Uncle Vernon’s words, Harry’s exhausted brain had ground back into action. Why had the Dementors come to Little Whinging? How could it be coincidence that they had arrived in the alleyway where Harry was? Had they been sent? Had the Ministry of Magic lost control of the Dementors? Had they deserted Azkaban and joined Voldemort, as Dumbledore had predicted they would?

      ‘These Demembers guard some weirdo prison?’ asked Uncle Vernon, lumbering along in the wake of Harry’s train of thought.

      ‘Yes,’ said Harry.

      If only his head would stop hurting, if only he could just leave