Harry had heard of Mad-Eye Moody long ago. But his first real brush with him came at noon a week before the start of term.
Perhaps calling it a brush with him was not quite right. It would be more accurate to say that Harry heard the latest news about him.
The former Head of the Auror Office, now a retired Auror, had made a rubbish bin in his neighbourhood explode.
When Harry heard the news, he was dumbfounded.
He knew the streets where that neighbourhood was located. It did not seem particularly far from Privet Drive. And being not particularly far from Privet Drive meant it was a neighbourhood with plenty of Muggles, perhaps even mostly Muggle residents.
In that case, the commotion from an exploding rubbish bin would probably attract quite a few Muggles' attention.
After all, public safety in the United Kingdom had always been fairly good. At least petrol bombs, cars ramming police stations, and other spectacles frequently staged in a certain land of freedom were not so common in the United Kingdom.
From the news he had received, the local police had gone to Moody's house and nearly arrested him.
Of course, Muggle police could not possibly arrest a former Auror who was now a veteran wizard. Unless they opened up with heavy firepower right from the start.
The police could not possibly do that. They did not even have heavy firepower. Naturally, then, Moody could not possibly be caught.
This caused quite a commotion.
By rights, this should have been a job for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, but for some reason it had landed on Mr. Weasley's shoulders.
Was it because the thing that had exploded was a Muggle rubbish bin? That was the only possibility Harry could think of.
Still, from