Chapter 1
Mr. and Mrs. Lee, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.
Mr. Lee is a lawyer, for L&L Law Firm, a Lee family firm started by his grandfather. He is a tall, thin man, with deep black hair and sharp blue eyes, too complete his look is a huge bushy mustache.
Mrs. Lee a tall and thin women, with short curly blonde hair and big hazel eyes and nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which proves as useful as she spends so much of her time peeking over garden fences, and spying on the neighbors.
The Lee's also have a small son called Sunwoo, who in their opinion is perfect and can do no wrong.
The Dursleys have everything they could ever want, but they also have a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it.
They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Kims. Mrs. Kim was Mrs. Lee's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Lee pretended she didn't have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unLeeish as it was possible to be.
The Lees shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Kims were to show up in their neighborhood, let alone come knocking at their door,
The Lees knew that the Kims had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. Nor did they want to. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Kims far away; they didn't want Sunwoo near a child of that kind.
When Mr. and Mrs. Lee woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday, our story begins, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Lee hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work, and Mrs. Lee gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Sunwoo into his high chair. None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.
At half past eight, Mr. Lee picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Lee on the cheek, and tried to kiss Sunwoo good-bye but missed, because he was in the middle of a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.
Mr. Lee laughed and smiled fondly as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.
It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something odd — a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr. Lee didn't realize what he had seen — then jerked his head around to look again.
There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Lee blinked and stared at the cat. It stared right back.
As he drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, looking at the sign; cats can't read maps or signs.
So he gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing but the cases he was working on and how he hoped to insure his clients won their cases in court. But right on the edge of town, court proceedings were quickly thrown from his mind.
As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he kept noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People dressed in cloaks.
Mr. Lee couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes, the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some ridiculous new fashion trend. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a group of these people standing together while whispering excitedly.
Mr. Lee was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr. Lee that this was probably some silly stunt, these people were obviously collecting for something . . . yes, that's it.
The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, he arrived at the firm and with his mind back on building and ensuring the win for his court cases.
Mr. Lee always sat with his back to the window in his office on the third floor. If he didn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on reading that morning. He didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though the people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl soared through the sky.
Most of them had never seen an owl even at night. Mr. Lee, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people, made several important phone calls and shouted some more.
He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he decided he'd walk across the road to buy a sandwich from a small cafe.
He'd forgotten about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the cafe. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy.
This bunch were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way past them, clutching a bag with his sandwich and chips that he caught a few words of what they were saying.
"The Kim's , that's right, that's what I heard —"
"— yes, their son, Hongjoong —"
Mr. Lee stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it. He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind.
He was being stupid. Kim wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Kim who had a son called Hongjoong. Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure that's his nephews name anyway.
There's no point worrying Mrs. Lee; she always gets so upset at any mention of her sister. He doesn't blame her, if he had a sister like that he doesn't know what he'd do, but all the same, those people in cloaks were just weird. Best to not think about it.
Though he tried, he still found it a lot harder to concentrate on reading that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.
"Sorry," he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr. Lee realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground.
On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!" And the old man hugged Mr. Lee around the middle and walked off.
Mr. Lee stood rooted to the spot. He had just been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.
As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw, and it didn't improve his mood, was the tabby cat he'd seen that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.
"Shoo!" said Mr. Lee loudly.
The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behavior? Mr. Lee wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.
Mrs. Lee had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Sunwoo had learned a new word "Won't!". Mr. Dursley tried to act normally.
When Sunwoo had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:
"And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The newscaster allowed himself a grin.
"Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"
"Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."
Mr. Lee sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Kims . . . Mrs. Lee came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. "Um — Yejin, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"
As he had expected, Mrs. Lee looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.
"No," she said sharply. "Why?"
"Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Lee mumbled. "Owls . . . shooting stars . . . and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today . . ."
"So?" snapped Mrs. Lee.
"Well, I just thought . . . maybe . . . it was something to do with . . . you know . . . her kind."
Mrs. Lee sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Lee wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Kim." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their son, he'd be about Sunwoo's age now, wouldn't he?"
"I suppose so," said Mrs. Lee stiffly.
"What's his name again?
"Hongjoong. A weird, unusual name, if you ask me."
"Oh, yes," said Mr. Lee, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I agree."
He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Lee was in the bathroom, Mr. Lee crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something. Was he imagining things? Could all this really have something to do with the Kims? If it did . . . if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.
The Lees got into bed. Mrs. Lee fell asleep quickly but Mr. Lee lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Kims were involved, there was no reason for them to come near his family.
The Kims knew well what he and Yejin thought about them and their kind. . . . He couldn't see how he and Yejin 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.