Harry Potter 03 - Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

place and climbed the stairs; looking back, he saw an enormous backside and a shiny bald head buried in a box. Harry reached the door at the top of the stairs, slipped through it, and found himself behind the counter of Honeydukes – he ducked, crept sideways and then straightened up.
    Honeydukes was so crowded with Hogwarts students that no one looked twice at Harry. He edged amongst them, looking around, and suppressed a laugh as he imagined the look that would spread over Dudley’s piggy face if he could see where Harry was now.
    There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-coloured toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were ‘Special Effects’ sweets: Drooble’s Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-coloured bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps (‘breathe fire for your friends!’), Ice Mice (‘hear your teeth chatter and squeak!’), peppermint creams shaped like toads (‘hop realistically in the stomach!’), fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons.
    Harry squeezed himself through a crowd of sixth-years and saw a sign hanging in the furthest corner of the shop (‘Unusual Tastes’). Ron and Hermione were standing underneath it, examining a tray of blood-flavoured lollipops. Harry sneaked up behind them.
    ‘Urgh, no, Harry won’t want one of those, they’re for vampires, I expect,’ Hermione was saying.
    ‘How about these?’ said Ron, shoving a jar of Cockroach Cluster under Hermione’s nose.
    ‘Definitely not,’ said Harry.
    Ron nearly dropped the jar.
    ‘Harry!’ squealed Hermione. ‘ What are you doing here? How – how did you –?’
    ‘Wow!’ said Ron, looking very impressed. ‘You’ve learnt to Apparate!’
    ‘’Course I haven’t,’ said Harry. He dropped his voice so that none of the sixth-years could hear him and told them all about the Marauder’s Map.
    ‘How come Fred and George never gave it to me !’ said Ron, outraged. ‘I’m their brother!’
    ‘But Harry isn’t going to keep it!’ said Hermione, as though the idea was ludicrous. ‘He’s going to hand it in to Professor McGonagall, aren’t you, Harry?’
    ‘No, I’m not!’ said Harry.
    ‘Are you mad?’ said Ron, goggling at Hermione. ‘Hand in something that good?’
    ‘If I hand it in, I’ll have to say where I got it! Filch would know Fred and George nicked it!’
    ‘But what about Sirius Black?’ Hermione hissed. ‘He could be using one of the passages on that map to get into the castle! The teachers have got to know!’
    ‘He can’t be getting in through a passage,’ said Harry quickly. ‘There are seven secret tunnels on the map, right? Fred and George reckon Filch already knows about four of them. And the other three – one of them’s caved in, so no one can get through it. One of them’s got the Whomping Willow planted over the entrance, so you can’t get out of it. And the one I just came through – well – it’s really hard to see the entrance to it down in the cellar – so unless he knew it was there –’
    Harry hesitated. What if Black did know the passage was there? Ron, however, cleared his throat significantly, and pointed to a notice pasted on the inside of the sweetshop door.
     
    BY ORDER OF THE MINISTRY OF MAGIC
    Customers are reminded that until further notice, Dementors will be patrolling the streets of Hogsmeade every night after sundown. This measure has been put in place for the safety of Hogsmeade residents and will be lifted upon the recapture of Sirius Black. It is therefore advisable that you complete your shopping well before nightfall.
    Merry Christmas!
     
    ‘See?’ said Ron quietly. ‘I’d like to see Black try and break into Honeydukes with Dementors swarming all over the village. Anyway, Hermione, the Honeydukes owners would hear a break-in, wouldn’t they? They live over the shop!’
    ‘Yes, but – but –’ Hermione seemed to be struggling to find another problem. ‘Look, Harry still shouldn’t be coming into Hogsmeade, he hasn’t got a signed form! If anyone finds out, he’ll be in so much trouble! And it’s not nightfall yet – what if Sirius