"J. K. Rowling - The Prisoner of Azbakan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowling J. K)

Harry was several streets away before he collapsed onto a low wall in
Magnolia Crescent, panting from the effort of dragging his trunk. He sat
quite still, anger still surging through him, listening to the frantic
thumping of his heart.

But after ten minutes alone in the dark street, a new emotion overtook
him: panic. Whichever way he looked at it, he had never been in a worse
fix. He was stranded, quite alone, in the dark Muggle world, with
absolutely nowhere to go. And the worst of it was, he had just done
serious magic, which meant that he was almost certainly expelled from
Hogwarts. He had broken the Decree for the Restriction of Underage
Wizardry so badly, he was surprised Ministry of Magic representatives
weren't swooping down on him where he sat.

Harry shivered and looked up and down Magnolia Crescent.

What, was going to happen to him? Would he be arrested, or would he
simply be outlawed from the wizarding world? He thought of Ron and
Hermione, and his heart sank even lower. Harry was sure that, criminal
or not, Ron and Hermione would want to help him now, but they were both
abroad, and with Hedwig gone, he had no means of contacting them.

He didn't have any Muggle money, either. There was a little wizard gold
in the money bag at the bottom of his trunk, but the rest of the fortune
his parents had left him was stored in a vault at Gringotts Wizarding
Bank in London. He'd never be able to drag his trunk all the way to
London. Unless...

He looked down at his wand, which he was still clutching in his hand. If
he was already expelled (his heart was. now thumping painfully fast), a
bit more magic couldn't hurt. He had the Invisibility Cloak he had
inherited from his father -- what if he bewitched the trunk to make it
feather-light, tied it to his broomstick, covered himself in the cloak,
and flew to London? Then he could get the rest of his money out of his
vault and... begin his life as an outcast. It was a horrible prospect,
but he couldn't sit on this wall forever, or he'd find himself trying to
explain to Muggle police why he was out in the dead of night with a
trunkful of spellbooks and a broomstick.



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Harry opened his trunk again and pushed the contents aside, looking for
the Invisibility Cloak - but before he had found it, he straightened up
suddenly, looking around him once more.

A funny prickling on the back of his neck had made Harry feel he was
being watched, but the street appeared to be deserted, and no lights