The Paranoid Harry Potter

Harry stared out of his window. His heart was hammering in his chest. Moments ago he had heard the distinctive crack of somebody apparating. However he could not see anybody on the street at all. This did not mean that nobody was there however. He himself had an invisibility cloak so it was obvious that whoever was out there could also be invisible. There was an invisible Death Eater somewhere out there, watching him, waiting for him to step out of the house, waiting for an opportunity to kill him. He had heard only one crack, did that mean there was only one Death Eater? Could multiple Death Eaters have apparated together? He had no idea. He wished he had a way to see through invisibility cloaks. Why hadn't he ever asked Dumbledore how it could be done. He knew Moody's eye could see through cloaks. Damn it, he should have looked up methods on detecting invisibility cloaks. Okay, he thought, there's at least one invisible Death Eater out there. He could be an assassin waiting for me to step out of the wards that Dumbledore told me were around Privet Drive. Or ... he might just be a scout checking out the protections before coming back with a full Death Eater assault team. First things first, he thought, I need to be ready to move quickly. He rushed to his trunk and dug out his own invisibility cloak. He looked at his trunk, filled with school uniforms and books. He would have to leave it all behind. Pity... or maybe not. He turned to Dobby.

"Dobby, do you know how to make a bag bigger on the inside? I saw this trunk last year that had a whole room inside it. Could you make a normal bag do something like that?"

"House elves be doing that all the time Master Harry Potter Sir. We often need to do it for shopping," said Dobby.

"Excellent, so we can just take one of Dudley's backpacks and... no that wouldn't work... I'd get a warning from the Ministry for underage magic... Since Voldemort owns the bloody ministry, that will just give them an excuse..." he trailed off.

"No Harry Potter sir, No. Dobby can do magic here without setting off the Ministry's underage trackers. Last time Dobby made it look like Harry Potter was doing the magic. Bad Dobby, Bad Dobby," said Dobby, looking like he was about to start ironing his ears any second.

"Great," said Harry, as he decided to ignore Dobby's distress for now. He raced to Dudley's room. Luckily his whale of a cousin was not there. He rooted around frantically in Dudley's closet before he found what he was looking for - a backpack. It looked like Dudley had hardly used it. He grabbed it and raced back to his room.

"Dobby... Dobby... Stop twisting your ears and listen to me. This is important."

Dobby stopped pulling at his ears and turned worshipful eyes upon Harry.

"Dobby, I need you to make the inside of this bag bigger. Then I need you to pack up everything from my trunk and whatever is in my closet as well. Once you've done that, stay in the room and don't come out until I call you. Oh, and stay out of sight. If anyone but me enters the room, I want you to get away to someplace safe," ordered Harry.

He put on his cloak and raced downstairs. The first thing to do, he reasoned, is to see if I can figure out if there's really someone out there or not. If he used the back door hopefully nobody would notice the door opening and closing. He quietly sneaked out the back. It was the hottest day of the summer so far and a drowsy silence lay over the large square houses of Privet Drive. Cars that were usually gleaming stood dusty in their drives and lawns that were once emerald green lay parched and yellowing - for the use of hosepipes had been banned due to drought. Deprived of their usual car-washing and lawn-mowing pursuits, the inhabitants of Privet Drive had retreated into the shade of their cool houses, windows thrown wide in the hope of tempting in a nonexistent breeze. Harry stood behind a large hydrangea bush and surveyed Privet Drive. It appeared to be deserted. Had he been jumping at nothing? He tucked his cloak tightly around himself and started a slow circuit of the house, looking for anything out of the ordinary. He was moving extremely carefully, making sure that he did not make any noise whatsoever. As he passed by the bushes nearest the street he smelled something. Yes, there was definitely a strong smell of alcohol and tobacco. He completed his circuit of the house but did not notice anything else that could be said to be unusual. "Damn," he thought. "There's definitely someone there. Couldn't see him, but I know I could smell him. Now what do I do...?"

Suddenly he was filled with rage. An icy calm, deeply cold rage. A Death Eater was lurking around his relatives house. Waiting to murder him or worse. For all he knew, the minute he stepped out into the street the hidden person would toss a portkey at him, one that would instantly transport him to a dungeon where he could look forward to experiencing Voldemort's cruciatus curse. His brain, that had been utterly focused on escaping now zeroed in on just one thought - Taking the Death Eater out. The question remained - how does one attack an invisible opponent?