“Is there anybody there?” said Harry,
Knocking on Privet Drive’s door,
And the Knight Bus roared away,
After Stan had thrown Harry’s luggage on the floor:
And Hedwig flew out of her cage and hovered,
Above Harry Potter’s head:
And he knocked on the door a second time;
“Is there anybody there?” he said.
But Aunt Petunia did not open the door for Harry,
Nor did Uncle Vernon’s head descend from the immaculate sill,
To comment on his untidy hair and lateness,
So Harry stood, perplexed and still.
But only a host of gossiping neighbours,
That dwelled across the street from them,
Stood listening in the quiet of the moonlight,
To the voice of Harry, who had arrived two hours late, at ten:
Scared, they stood away from Harry and his unruly hair,
As Harry insisted the door swing open to reveal relatives inside,
But then was shaken from his dreaming of what should have been,
By Hedwig’s token hunting call,
Harry felt, in his heart, a strangeness,
The Dursleys’ absence answering his cry,
While Hedwig flew silently,
‘Neath the starred and silent sky;
For he suddenly turned to the gossiping crowd
And said louder, and lifted his head: -
“Tell them I came, and no-one answered,
That I kept my word,” he said.
The crowd said nothing but listened intently,
Though every word he spoke,
Fell echoing through the shadowiness of the still house,
To the truth, Harry awoke:
Ay, the crowd did not see the Knight Bus summoned again,
But to the Muggles' besmusement he paid his money and left,
For The Burrow, and the crowd felt his strangeness,
Without Harry, for a wizard they were bereft.