Alumni Adventures
- By: Tea and Scones

Harry sat in his garden and remembered something Hermione had told him about the Muggle world. He'd heard that a lot of Muggles were in lockdown because of a virus and it instantly made him think back to when he was living with the Dursleys. They were pretty much giving him cabin fever without knowing it!

He remembered how he'd spent a lot of time outside or in his room, getting lost in his books once he'd been told he was a wizard. Hogwarts had been an escape for him. When he'd been at Privet Drive it had felt like he was suffocating and trapped in his room. Even going outside to the garden hadn't been of his own free will! Aunt Petunia had made him do chores in the garden or sent him outside and he hadn't been allowed to go far. It felt like he couldn't go anywhere, even Mrs. Figg's house hadn't been much of an escape!

The summer before his second year was particularly hard. Harry sighed as he remembered when Uncle Vernon had placed a lock on his room and he wasn't allowed to leave his room unless his uncle let him out. That had felt like a prison and luckily he had some of his things or he would have struggled being trapped in his room. That was really the breaking point and he sympathized with the Muggles mostly stuck in their homes. It made him think hard about how he had been trapped in his bedroom with bars on the window and a cat flap to give him food three times a day. It certainly was not a great time for him at all and he had felt trapped and isolated and lonely. Hedwig hadn't even been allowed out! So he'd had no way of being able to communicate with Ron or Hermione, and that hadn't helped matters.

He thought back to how he had barely managed every time that he'd gone back to the Dursleys. The day that he'd left had brought another kind of trapped feeling, but once Voldemort had been defeated once more the days had shone brighter! Somehow, he wanted to reassure the Muggle population that the lockdown would end, and when it ended they'd see everything new fresh eyes and things would be brighter. As much as a lockdown made people get cabin fever it was also a time to do things and then the world would seem brighter on the other side. It would pass and people would be stronger than before because of it.