Harry Potter shut his eyes and held his breath, listening with all his might.
"Harry James Potter, where are you?" His aunt's voice had gone from actual calling to a tone of talking to herself, and Harry let his breath out in relief, missing the first part of whatever she said next. "...have you seen Harry?" he heard as his ears cleared.
"I saw him run outside," his cousin answered, adding a few more bits to this initial explanation, but Harry had stopped listening at 'outside.' It guaranteed he wouldn't be found any time soon.
And maybe when she does find me, she won't be angry anymore. Or not hitting angry, anyway. Just yelling angry.
But I don't even know what I did. I just know I dropped the plate, and I didn't want it to break—and it didn't. It floated down to the floor, like it was a puff of cotton or a feather.
He'd looked up from the plate, sitting unbroken on the kitchen tiles, to the stunned faces of aunt and uncle, and he'd run as quickly as he could to the hiding place he'd found. It wasn't perfect, but it would do. Especially with his cousin saying he'd gone outside.
Why would he say that? He saw me run past. He knows where I really went. Why did he lie?
Harry jerked his head towards the ceiling, where voices were rising in an angry duet.
"Boys?" came a deep, precise voice from somewhere in front of the boxes. The children so addressed froze.
Harry and his cousin looked at each other for a moment, both indicating the little entryway to Harry's hiding place with their index fingers. Then Harry swallowed, put his shoulders back, and crawled out from between the boxes. Danny followed him, dusting off his hands fastidiously as soon as he could stand up.
Swallowing once more, Harry nodded.
"Mm-hmm," Danny mumbled, staring at the floor.
Harry pulled in one shaky breath and obeyed. Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon were nowhere to be seen, nor was Dudley.
And he's too big to hide.
The thought made him smile, and Aunt Cissy returned the expression from where he could see her around what he realized must be Uncle Russ' shoulder. Danny, sitting against his mother, fanned a hand to say hello.
Not afraid. Harry considered this. It had been a long time since he had been not afraid. He wasn't sure he knew what it felt like.
Harry nodded sleepily, though most of the words were now going past his ears without entering. He'd heard something about girls, which might be a problem if they were the kind who squealed about everything and thought boys were icky.
But if they belong to Aunt Cissy's cousins, they'll probably be all right. And Danny's friends with one of them already, that's good too.
Go away where? Harry wondered, but he wasn't interested enough to go to the trouble of asking. After all, it wasn't like he wouldn't get another chance. He was here to stay.
Cradled in his Uncle Russell's arms, listening to his Aunt Narcissa and his cousin Daniel detail all the people he would meet and the things he would learn in the next weeks and months and years, Harry Potter drifted off to sleep, the wounds in his heart finally starting to heal.