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Harry Potter gently woke from a bad dream, reliving seeing his parents again in the Little Hangleton graveyard with Cedric a month prior. The key slowly turned in the lock, Harry grabbing his wand before the key fell and the door burst open with a flash of light.
"Professor Moody?" Harry noticed his former teacher, "What are you doing here?"
"Rescuing you, of course."
The ex-Auror loped out into the darkness of Privet Drive, a witch and a wizard crouched on both sides of the road facing away from the house, poised to defend Harry.
"Where are we going, the letter said I'd been expelled from Hogwarts?"
Moody grunted, "Well you haven't been, not yet. Kingsley, you take point."
"But the letter said..."
Kingsley Shacklebolt waved his hand, "Dumbledore has persuaded the Minister to suspend your expulsion, pending a formal hearing."
"A hearing?"
"Uh huh."
Everyone formed a line, apart from the witch and wizard, with Harry in the middle between Kingsley and Moody.
"Don't worry, Harry," an Auror-in-training, Tonks, reassured, "we'll explain everything when we get back to headquarters.
Moody growled at her, "Shh! Not here, Nymphadora!"
She turned, her bubblegum hair turning red in anger, "Don't call me Nymphadora."
Moody rolled his eyes, tapping his staff on the road, broomsticks flying into the hands of all of the witches and wizards, the two scouts turning around.
"Lori? Cedric?"
They smiled at him as they caught their brooms and mounted on the tarmac. Moody looked at them all, "Stay in formation, everyone. Don't break ranks if one of us is killed."
Harry looked at Moody in shock as they flew into the air, forming a defensive circle around him, with Lori and Cedric flying out at the sides as escorts.
They flew with the trails from the speed of their brooms causing the River Thames to swirl behind them, Moody's long coat skimming the water occasionally.
No one attacked them, or even seemed to notice them when they landed gracefully in the park by a long row of houses with wrought iron fences and balconies.
Moody went first, Lori and Cedric covering the rear as he hit his staff against the floor again, the entire row of houses shifting outwards to sprout a new dwelling.
"In ya go, son." Moody looked at Harry.
The house was gloomy on the inside, even more so than the exterior. Lori and Cedric pocketed their wands as they closed the door behind them, politely walking past Harry and into the meeting room.
