wizards followed, all still eyeing Harry curiously. Too risky. We've set up Headquarters
somewhere un-detectable. It's taken a while…'
Mad-Eye Moody was now sitting at the kitchen table swigging from a hip flask, his
magical eye spinning in all directions, taking in the Dursleys' many labour-saving
appliances.
'This is Alastor Moody, Harry' Lupin continued, pointing towards Moody.
'Yeah, I know,' said Harry uncomfortably. It felt odd to be intro-duced to somebody he'd
thought he'd known for a year.
'And this is Nymphadora -'
'Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus,' said the young witch with a shudder, 'it's Tonks.'
'Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only,' finished Lupin.
'So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora,' muttered Tonks.
'And this is Kingsley Shacklebolt.' He indicated the tall black wizard, who bowed.
'Elphias Doge.' The wheezy-voiced wizard nodded. 'Dedalus Diggle -'
'We've met before,' squeaked the excitable Diggle, dropping his violet-coloured top hat.
'Emmeline Vance.' A stately-looking witch in an emerald green shawl inclined her head.
'Sturgis Podmore.' A square-jawed wizard with thick straw-coloured hair winked. 'And
Hestia Jones.' A pink-cheeked, black-haired witch waved from next to the toaster.
Harry inclined his head awkwardly at each of them as they were introduced. He wished
they would look at something other than him; it was as though he had suddenly been
ushered on-stage. He also wondered why so many of them were there.
'A surprising number of people volunteered to come and get you,' said Lupin, as though
he had read Harry's mind; the corners of his mouth twitched slightly.
'Yeah, well, the more the better,' said Moody darkly. 'We're your guard, Potter.'
'We're just waiting for the signal to tell us it's safe to set off,' said Lupin, glancing out of
the kitchen window. 'We've got about fifteen minutes.'
'Very clean, aren't they, these Muggles?' said the witch called Tonks, who was looking
around the kitchen with great interest. 'My dad's Muggle-born and he's a right old slob. I
suppose it varies, just as it does with wizards?'
'Er - yeah,' said Harry. 'Look -' he turned back to Lupin, 'what's going on, I haven't heard
anything from anyone, what's Vol—?'
Several of the witches and wizards made odd hissing noises; Dedalus Diggle dropped his
hat again and Moody growled, 'Shut up!'
What?' said Harry.
'We're not discussing anything here, it's too risky,' said Moody, turning his normal eye on
Harry. His magical eye remained focused on the ceiling. 'Damn it,' he added angrily,
putting a hand up to the magical eye, 'it keeps getting stuck - ever since that scum wore
it.'
And with a nasty squelching sound much like a plunger being pulled from a sink, he
popped out his eye.
'Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?' said Tonks conversationally.
'Get me a glass of water, would you, Harry,' requested Moody.
Harry crossed to the dishwasher, took out a clean glass and filled it with water at the sink,