A Place to Hide

The wedding reception erupts into the chaos of fear and panic. Already prepared not to go back to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Harry, Ron, and Hermione apparate far away from the wedding to a random street in London, Tottenham Court Road, to hide in the Muggle world.

Hermione has a huge number of things in her small beaded handbag, on which she has performed an Undetectable Extension Charm. Hermione, therefore, immediately produces extra clothes for Ron and Harry as well as Harry’s Invisibility Cloak. Hermione had them come to this place because she feels that the Muggle world is the safest place for three wizards to hide.

Hermione is wrong, however; as soon as they duck into a coffee shop to plan their next move, a pair of Death Eaters appears. Right in the middle of the Muggle world, the Death Eaters exchange dangerous spells with Harry, Ron, and Hermione. The fight does not last long when Harry, wearing his cloak that turns him invisible, stuns one Death Eater while Hermione petrifies the other one. Seeing the chaos this brawl has inspired, Harry, Ron, and Hermione have to wipe the memories of everyone in the café to escape.

As Hermione panics about how the Death Eaters possibly could have followed them to that random café, Harry and Ron decide that they should hide at Grimmauld Place. Even though it is dangerous, the other members of the Order of the Phoenix have supposedly put jinxes on the house to keep Severus Snape and the other Death Eaters out.

When they arrive at Grimmauld Place, the three encounter a Tongue Tying Curse as well as a horrible, gray, female ghost that rises out of the carpet to attack them. These are all jinxes to help repel Severus Snape. Finally, Hermione casts a spell to tell them if any other humans are in the house. Just when they find out that they are alone, Harry’s scar burns in pain. Voldemort is angry again, but Harry does not know why.

Hermione becomes angry at Harry for being unable to close his mind to Voldemort’s thoughts, but she is soon interrupted by the arrival of Arthur Weasley’s weasel Patronus, which declares the safety of the Weasley family even though the Death Eaters ruined the end of the wedding. Mr. Weasley’s Patronus also instructs Harry, Ron and Hermione not to reply because the Weasley family is being watched closely.

As the pain in Harry’s scar reaches a fever pitch, Harry sees that Voldemort is, in fact, angry at the two Death Eaters who lost him in the café. Voldemort is using Draco Malfoy to torture the two disgraced followers.