Chapter 51. Harry's Account
"In the castle?" Ron said.
"Haven't we run into Duncan a few times?"
"No, no..." Harry shook his head.
"Then where have you seen me?" Duncan asked quickly, bewildered.
Harry's words drew everyone's attention in the room.
Even Hagrid, who had been rummaging for rock cakes, stopped and looked over curiously.
"Yeah, Harry," Ron said.
"Duncan grew up in a wizarding family like me."
"I don't know..." Harry said, distressed.
"I just feel like he looks familiar, as if I've seen him before, but I can't remember where I saw him.
I've no impression at all..."
Seeing Harry frown and struggle to think, Hagrid hurried forward to reassure him.
"It's all right, Harry.
If yeh can't remember, leave it.
Duncan often went with his grandad to the Muggle world.
Maybe yeh just crossed paths on one o' those trips."
"That's possible," Duncan said cooperatively, though he remembered perfectly well that he had never been to the neighbourhood where Harry lived.
If Harry had never left the Dursleys' house yet claimed to have seen him, this was very suspicious.
In a casual tone, Duncan went on, "Harry, had you ever seen wizard chess anywhere before?"
"No." Harry shook his head, embarrassed.
"Except that day in the common room, I'd never seen it anywhere else."
"I can vouch for Harry!" Ron said with a grin.
"If he had, he wouldn't have been scared stiff by the pieces that move!"
"Then... could you tell us what happened on the day you came to school?" Duncan asked tentatively.
"I don't know if you've heard, but the compartment we were in was attacked that day as well.
I want to see whether the two incidents are connected."
At these words, Hagrid also looked at Harry, all on edge.
Anything related to Harry's safety was a matter of the utmost importance to him.
"I heard about it from Ron after I got to school..." Harry nodded, fell into thought, and only after quite a while did he speak again.
"That morning my uncle didn't take me to King's Cross until it was nearly time for the train to leave."
"I had my ticket and searched for ages, but I just couldn't find Platform Nine and Three-Quarters."
"I had no choice, so I went to ask a guard, but he thought I was joking with him and threw me out."
"After that I searched the station on my own again, but even when the clock struck eleven, I still hadn't found it."
"But when I was about to telephone Uncle Vernon to pick me up, the guard I'd asked before came over again."
"He stopped me, asked to see my ticket, and then told me he knew where the platform was."
"Wait a minute," Ron interrupted, puzzled.
"Didn't he say earlier that he didn't know?"
"Let me finish," Harry said.
"He said he'd thought at first a Muggle had overheard people talking about the platform and was messing about with him.
If I'd shown him the ticket earlier, he would've taken me to the platform already."
"I don't remember the school or the Ministry of Magic putting guards at the station..." Hagrid muttered, his thick eyebrows nearly meeting, yet his voice was clear enough for everyone to hear.
"I was so happy at the time I didn't think about it at all," Harry continued after a deep breath.
"I asked if he could still take me there and he said yes, so I dragged my luggage and followed him."
"But before we'd gone far, everything went pitch-black before my eyes, and when I woke up again, I was already at school..."
"Did yeh tell Dumbledore any o' this?" Hagrid asked, face grave.
Harry nodded.
"I told him as soon as I woke up.
He even went to the station several times.
But he only saw that man's photograph in the guards' office and never met him in person, as if the man had disappeared."
"Maybe that man's already dead.
Someone planned this whole thing.
But why would he do it?" Duncan thought to himself in silence.
"Did you feel unwell after you woke up?" Duncan asked.
"Just a bit tired," Harry said after pondering.
"As if I'd had a very long sleep that wasn't very comfortable."
Duncan went on to ask Harry several more questions, but none of it yielded anything useful.
Just as he had described, Harry had merely slept.
Even he didn't know what had happened on the way.
"Are yeh finished talkin'?" Hagrid came over hugging a big glass jar.
"If it's late, try some o' me rock cakes.
Neville, here, you have a few more."
Duncan, Ron, and Harry all blanched at the same time.
"No, Hagrid, no need, we're not hungry!" they said in unison.
Only Neville accepted one curiously, then took a bite.
Crack.
He felt as if his teeth were about to shatter.
Neville's head turned slowly, looking at Duncan full of grievance.
Duncan whistled and, feigning interest, shifted his gaze to something else.
Time crept by, and they kept playing in Hagrid's hut.
At one point Duncan deliberately suggested wizard chess, but when Harry saw the pieces this time his face was normal, with no special reaction.
When the sun sank westward and the sky reddened, their stomachs began to rumble.
They said their goodbyes and headed for the castle.
After tasting Hagrid's rock cakes, no one dared stay to challenge his earth-shattering cooking skills.
"You two eat slowly.
We'll go on ahead."
In the Great Hall, at the Gryffindor table, Duncan finished the last piece of pie on his plate and spoke with a smile.
"Mm-mm, see... you... later..." Ron mumbled indistinctly, his mouth crammed with chicken legs.
As Duncan and Neville had gone a few steps, Harry suddenly called Duncan's name from behind.
"What is it?" Duncan looked back.
"If you find any clues about that day, could you tell me?" Harry said earnestly.
"I want to know what really happened that day as well."
"Of course," Duncan nodded with a smile.
"I'll go straight to the Gryffindor common room to find you then."
With that, Duncan left the Great Hall with Neville.
On the stairs leading to the Hufflepuff common room, he stopped.
"Neville, you go on ahead.
And feed Pro for me while you're at it.
See if it's been making trouble," Duncan said.
"What about you?" Neville asked.
"I've got something to do.
I'll be back later."
Duncan waved and left quickly.
He couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong and needed to talk to Dumbledore.
After wandering about for quite some time, he finally found the entrance to the Headmaster's office, and that astonishingly ugly stone statue blocking the door troubled him once more.
"What was the password to make it open?"
Duncan thought for a moment and decided to use the simplest method.
He recited every sweet he could think of.
After about a minute, whether because the statue was fed up with the noise or because Duncan had finally hit upon the right sweet, the statue jumped aside, revealing the spiral staircase rising behind it, inviting Duncan to step on.
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