Chapter Two
"Race for Sanity"

Page One

Harry ran down the street with his bag over his shoulder. He didn't have any money and he didn't have anywhere to go, except back to the Dursley's house. He had to retrieve his trunk of wizarding things because he didn't think he'd be able to get back to London without his wand at least.

Harry ran down the street as fast as his legs would carry him, not wanting to waste a second. He knew that as soon as Mrs. Figg realized that Harry couldn't possibly be in the bathroom that long, she would flip out… after all she was insane.

Harry decided to take a shortcut; he jumped over a hedge and ran through someone's open front door. He knew exactly where to go in the house because all of the houses were the same on Mrs. Figg's street. Harry took a right turn through the living room where a man was sitting on a sofa reading the newspaper.

"Hey!" shouted the man.

"Oh, don't bother to get up," called Harry. "I'll just show myself out… thank you!" He took a left to the dining room and straight on through the kitchen. A woman was standing at the kitchen sink, scrubbing dishes. As Harry sped by, he heard her mutter, "Tut, kids, they never slow down..."

Harry leapt through the back door and he vaulted over the back fence with the aid of a trampoline. He landed in the back neighbor's yard where a man was standing at a grill, holding a spatula. The man looked as if he had seen a ghost. He stared, motionless, as Harry flew over the fence and into this man's yard. A woman came out of the house, screamed and dropped a plate of orange jell-o that was in the shape of the houses of parliament.

Harry landed on his feet and then fell to his knees. He gasped for breath and looked up.

"Bloody he-.." muttered the man, still staring and holding his spatula. The burgers lay forgotten on the flaming grill, being charred into little briquettes of ground beef.

The woman at the back door just stood there, staring at Harry, the remains of an orange jell-o parliament lying at her feet.

Harry looked from one frightened face to the other, rose to his feet and brushed off his knees.

"Sorry," chuckled Harry. "I'll just be going, then," he motioned to the back door.

"Do you mind terribly if I just go on through?"

The man at the grill, still staring, shook his head and pointed his spatula at the back door. The woman moved out of the way of the door, also staring, still awestruck by seeing a boy fly over their back fence.

"Thanks!" said Harry jovially. He waved to the two people as he went into their house.

They were nice, thought Harry as he dashed through the house. He reached the front door and pushed it open. One more street and he'd be home free.

He ran across the street and decided that instead of going through more houses, he'd go along a small rainwater ditch that ran between two houses. He ran through the ditch only thinking of how he was going to manage to break into the Dursley's house.

Finally, Privet Drive. He had never been so happy to see it. He turned and started skip-running to number four's door.

He got to the door and tried to open it; it wouldn't budge, it had been dead-bolted.

Harry's mind started racing. As if a light bulb had appeared over his head, an idea popped into his mind. The Weasley twins, Fred and George had taught him how to pick locks when he was 12. If only he could find the right tools. Harry started looking around the house. He came upon some loose chicken wire left beside the back porch that Mrs. Dursley had used to wrap around some tomato plants.

Perfect! thought Harry. He grabbed the wire and started bending it into two sticks. He went to the back door and started picking the lock. A few tense moments later the door latch gave way and the door swung open.

Harry ran into the kitchen and went directly to the closet under the stairs. He got out the wires again and picked the lock into the closet. It opened almost immediately.

As soon as the closet door opened, Harry heard something outside. He went to the living room window to see what it was. He peeked through the curtains and saw two police cars coming up Privet Drive.

They can't know I'm here, can they? Harry thought frantically. He waited at the window to watch where the police cars would go. Sure enough, they drove right up to number four's drive.

Harry didn't wait at the window to see what they'd do. He ran back to the closet and threw open his trunk. He extracted his wand from amidst robes and books. He thought that he might need his wand if the police started after him.

He closed the trunk once more and pulled it to the back door. He pushed it out the back and as he was doing so he heard pounding on the front door. The police were breaking in through the door; they had seen movement inside.

Harry grabbed his trunk and went around to the side of the house to see what the police were doing. He heard one officer talking on a two-way radio.

"Yes, sir. You can tell Mrs. Figgers, or whatever her name is, that the boy isn't here. We came to look for him but we saw suspicious movement inside. We suspect a burglar, sir, we're investigating now."

Harry started laughing; he had to put his fist in his mouth to stifle the noise. Mrs. Figg had called the police upon finding that Harry had gone out the bathroom window. Harry would have to be more careful now that the police were after him. He turned around and decided to sneak out of the back yard gate. He went through the gate and he was in an alley in between the Dursley's house and their back neighbors. He went down the alley, turning every now and then down a different alleyway until he was sure he had gone far enough so the police wouldn't find him. He pushed his trunk up against a wood fence and sat down, his entire body exhausted.

After much contemplating, Harry remembered how last year, when he had run away from the Dursley's, he fell into the street and the Knight Bus arrived. He sat there for a while trying to remember how he had done it. It was an accident, but it turned out to be a very lucky accident.

While he was sitting there, a cat came down the alleyway running in a straight line, as if it knew where it was going. A large, black, shaggy dog was following it.

A black shaggy dog? thought Harry. He stood up immediately and shouted excitedly, "Sirius!"

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