Early in the morning, Harry woke up very early.
The rough sheets and the smell of laundry detergent made him uncomfortable, but compared with this cramped room, Harry was even less willing to go out and face the Dursley family.
To maintain the protective magic his mother had left behind, Harry had to return to the Dursleys' home for a month every summer holiday.
Even though Sirius's house was nearby, and even though Uncle Vernon's fists had stopped landing on him after Harry began paying for his own living expenses, that month still felt especially long and agonizing to Harry.
He lay in bed with his eyes closed, reliving his trip to Gulliver's Travels with his friends a few days ago... As if he were not at Number Four, Privet Drive, but moving beneath a vast stretch of grass like a jade forest.
Slender blades of grass formed a green dome above their heads. The sunlight filtered through them into shifting patches of golden light. They had "climbed" a massive stone hill and narrowly escaped an attack by a Longhorn Beetle.
They had ridden giant snails, slowly crawling along vines. To cross a tiny ditch, they had strained to haul over a branch and build it into a bridge. The pride they had felt upon finishing it still echoed in Harry's chest.
Back then, he had excitedly bounced across a huge leaf and accidentally knocked a flexible branch askew. Dew that had gathered all night came splashing down over his head.
"Harry—!"
Padma shouted angrily, but Hermione burst out laughing. "Oh my God, this is so much fun!"
"Hey, try this!"
Ron shouted as he charged out like a raging bull, slamming heavily into a clump of hostas as dense as a forest.
"Splash—"
Icy dew poured down as though