them and their kind.... He couldn‘t see howhe and Petunia could get
mixed up in anything that might be going on-- he yawned and turned over
-- it couldn’t affect them....
How very wrong he was.
Mr. Dursley might have been drifting intoan uneasy sleep, but the cat
on the wall outside was showing no sign ofsleepiness. It was sitting as
still as a statue, its eyes fixedunblinkingly on the far corner of
Privet Drive. It didn‘t so much as quiverwhen a car door slammed on the
next street, nor when two owls swoopedoverhead. In fact, it was nearly
midnight before the cat moved at all.
A man appeared on the corner the cat hadbeen watching, appeared so
suddenly and silently you’d have thoughthe‘d just popped out of the
ground. The cat’s tail twitched and itseyes narrowed.
Nothing like this man had ever been seen onPrivet Drive. He was tall,
thin, and very old, judging by the silverof his hair and beard, which
were both long enough to tuck into hisbelt. He was wearing long robes,
a purple cloak that swept the ground, andhigh-heeled, buckled boots.
His blue eyes were light, bright, andsparkling behind half-moon
spectacles and his nose was very long andcrooked, as though it had been
broken at least twice. This man‘s name wasAlbus Dumbledore.
Albus Dumbledore didn’t seem to realizethat he had just arrived in a
street where everything from his name tohis boots was unwelcome. He was
busy rummaging in his cloak, looking forsomething. But he did seem to
realize he was being watched, because helooked up suddenly at the cat,
which was still staring at him from theother end of the street. For
some reason, the sight of the cat seemed toamuse him. He chuckled and
muttered, "I should have known."
He found what he was looking for in hisinside pocket. It seemed to be a
silver cigarette lighter. He flicked itopen, held it up in the air, and
clicked it. The nearest street lamp wentout with a little pop. He
clicked it again -- the next lamp flickeredinto darkness. Twelve times
he clicked the Put-Outer, until the onlylights left on the whole street
were two tiny pinpricks in the distance,which were the eyes of the cat
watching him. If anyone looked out of theirwindow now, even beady-eyed
Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn‘t be able to seeanything that was happening
down on the pavement. Dumbledore slippedthe Put-Outer back inside his
cloak and set off down the street towardnumber four, where he sat down
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