Bab 3: One letter too many
If two words could describe Dudley's eleventh birthday, it would be memorable and catastrophic.
First of all, just before the family arrived at the zoo, the place chosen for Dudley's birthday, Harry had the bright idea to talk about his dream from last night about a flying motorcycle. His comment got him a new furious lecture from Vernon and a desperate look from Dudley.
"Why did you even say it?" Dudley had told him exasperated.
It was now a common and sad habit for Harry to tell about weird subjects which completely triggered Vernon anger. But if it was the only thing, it wouldn't be a problem, but strange events happened near Harry. Whether it's his hair growing back in one night just after being cut the day before, or his clothes, some old garments that once belonged to Dudley, shrinking to baby size, strangeness followed Harry. One of the best exemple was that day when the famous "gang" of Dudley tried to catch Harry but the latter strangely found himself sitting right on the school chimney and then swore he only jumped over a low wall.
Indeed, strange things happened to Harry. The day at the zoo was a good example.
During their visit, Piers, the lackey of Dudley that his parents invited, asked them to visit the vivarium. But when the family got inside the building, Dudley barely looked at a certain place when he had a strange look as if he was swallowing a rotten fruit.
"... I hate snakes", he simply told them before exiting the vivarium to sit on a bench.
Petunia quickly followed her son with a worried look on her face while Harry and Piers with Uncle Vernon observed, completely fascinated, a gigantic boa behind a glass. It didn't take long after Dudley and his mother exited the building and screams were heard inside the vivarium. Suddenly an enormous snake was seen crawling at full speed in the zoo and frightening the visitors. For what he heard, Dudley discovered that Piers got into a fight with Harry before the glass separating the snake enclosure mysteriously disappeared and allowing the reptile to flee away as fast as it can. After this little adventure, Harry was locked for a month in his bedroom. Dudley didn't know how Harry could make a glass disappear like that but his parents clearly believed he could.
One month passed since then and Harry could finally go out of his bedroom. School was over and summer came. While on vacation, Dudley participated in several activities before the beginning of secondary school. There was, for example, his drum performance with his music school band, which continued its sessions during summer. He also participated in three tournaments for Boxing and Jiu-Jitsu where he completely crushed the competition. Dudley remembered the judges wanted to let him participate in the Senior competition after seeing his size. Sadly his mother categorically refused. Instead, Dudley got the chance to try different kinds of human sandbags, like a ginger one who flew extremely well in the air.
In fact, during this summer, Dudley tried many things in hope to forget he will soon go to his father's old private School, Smeltings. At first, Dudley didn't really care until he saw the school uniform. After that Dudley begged his parents to put him in a public school. Unfortunately, they both refused.
"Don't worry Duddy. Smeltings is the best school for you, you'll see. Look they even got sticks." Uncle Vernon said to him when Dudley finally put on the Smeltings uniform to please his mother.
In the middle of the living room, Dudley was making a horrible grimace while wearing an undersized Smeltings uniform which included a maroon tailcoat, orange knickerbockers, and flat straw hats called boaters. The package also featured knobbly sticks, for hitting the other boys when the teachers weren't looking according to Vernon. Throughout the show, his parents never stopped praising him while Harry tried as hard as he could to stifle his uncontrollable laugh. Dudley then spent the rest of the evening checking the solidity of his stick on Harry's head.
The next morning Dudley woke up early and went to the kitchen to drink a glass of water but what greeted him instead was a foul smell.
"What is this stench?" Dudley asked his mother who was throwing old Dudley clothes into the sink.
"The School uniform of Harry" she simply replied.
Dudley raised an eyebrow and took a troubled look into the sink before he turned to his drums in the living room. Sitting behind his drums kit, Dudley twirled his drumsticks several times between his fingers, a juggling that he mastered to perfection, before starting to play. Meanwhile, Vernon, shortly followed by Harry, entered the kitchen. As Harry looked discouraged when he saw his uniform, Vernon made just a slight wince before he sat down and read his newspaper. At this moment they heard the click of the mail slot and a flop of letters on the doormat.
"Get the mail Dudley" said Vernon behind his paper.
"I'm playing, send Harry" responded Dudley
"Get the mail Harry".
"I'm eating send Dudley"
"If I get up, I use your head as a drummer" said Dudley.
Harry grunted and then went up to pick the mail. Dudley turned his attention to drumming and started playing an improvised solo when Harry returned from the entrance with a pile of letters in his hand, one of which he was particularly interested in. He placed them in front of Vernon who took them for reading but kept two of them in his hand. Harry then moved towards Dudley with a thoughtful and a little startled expression, with the last two letters still in his hand. Dudley saw him arrive, staring at him for a moment before he stopped playing, whirling his drumsticks in the process.
"Any interesting news" asked Dudley grinning.
"You got a letter" said Harry softly.
Dudley glanced at Harry for a moment after taking the letter that his cousin was handing him over. The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. On the letter we could read:
Mr. D. Dursley
The Bedroom in front of Harry Potter's room
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
Dudley's eyes twitched a little reading the description of the address, something in his gut that he didn't like. When the envelope was flipped over, one could see a red wax seal representing a lion, a badger, a raven and a snake - that Dudley immediately disliked - surrounding the letter H. Dudley could not help but find the letter odd, and even more so when he saw a similar one in Harry's hands.
"What is that?" asked Dudley.
"A letter" Harry responded.
"I could see that, moron. I want to know for whom" groaned Dudley.
"For me" answered Harry who was going to open his letter.
"Wait what?" said Dudley, snatching the letter from Harry's hands.
"Hey!" protested Harry.
Dudley disregarded him and looked at the letter. It was the exact same letter he received earlier despite the slightly different address written, and to his surprise it was addressed to Harry. Indeed that was new, no one ever wrote something to Harry. No one.
"Who would write to you?" questioned Dudley.
"Give me back my letter" howled Harry.
"What the devil is it up in there?" shouted Vernon.
"Harry got a letter" simply said Dudley.
"Give it back!" shouted Harry.
"What sort of rubbish is that?" growled Vernon before getting up to snatch the letter from his son's hands.
"Sure, just take it" sarcastically said Dudley.
"I want my letter" continued Harry but nobody listened to him.
"Silence!" shouted Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it.
Suddenly, his face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of ashes.
"P-P-Petunia!" Vernon gasped..
Dudley and Harry watched Vernon and his colorful expressions giving the letter to Petunia who took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.
"Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!"
They stared at each other seemingly having forgotten about Dudley and Harry. Dudley, curious about his parents' odd behaviour, tried to catch their attention.
"A problem with the letter? Did Harry's home planet finally call him over" ironically said Dudley.
"I want my letter!" yelled Harry, but still nobody cared.
"SILENCE! BOTH OF YOU! shouted Vernon.
Vernon's answer surprised Dudley. He often saw his father turning red but generally to Harry only, not him. Maybe out of habit or because he was more used to it but Harry didn't give up.
"Give me back my LETTER!" still said Harry.
"Get out of here!" screamed Vernon to him.
"Dudley got a letter too, so why can I have it?" Harry answered him back.
"WHAT?!" shouted Vernon and Petunia together.
The Dursley couple looked at Dudley completely livid. Dudley, who regained his mind, looked at them successively before looking down at the letter he was still carrying in his hand. He had totally forgotten that he had also received one. Petunia looked at her son before staggering in her chair with a horrified look. In contrast, Vernon saw himself growing wings and grabbed Dudley's letter at an incredible speed. He inspected the letter more and more dead than alive and exchanged a glance with his wife who was in an nearly catatonic state.
"You… You two… get out of here… NOW! yelled Vernon at both Dudley and Harry.
The two cousins exchanged a glance as lost as the other. Vernon, eager to see them out of the kitchen, grabbed Harry and Dudley by the collar to throw them out of the room. Although Harry was easily lifted, Dudley did not budge an inch until he walked forward on his own, visibly a little shocked by his parents' reaction. Vernon slammed the door of the kitchen and closed it leaving Harry and Dudley in the hallway. Quickly Harry put his ear on the keyhole of the door to listen while Dudley just sat on the stairs waiting.
"Petunia! Please, tell me you are fine"
"Vernon - Oh Vernon! How can it be? How can Duddy be like him?" Petunia ended up trembling.
"It must be this vermine of Potter! He contaminated our son!" howled Vernon.
"I… I don't think it works like that. I mean… if it was then… I would…"
"It's okay Petunia. It doesn't matter. We will take care of it." Vernon said, trying to reassure her.
"But… How?"
"We will do… nothing. That's it! we will do absolutely nothing! No response in any way whatsoever!" declared Vernon.
"But -"
"No but Petunia! We swore Petunia... We swore that we will never - NEVER! - have one of them under our roof. ESPECIALLY MY SON!" Vernon shouted.
After that Vernon spent some of his time reassuring Petunia as Harry explained what he had heard to Dudley, except for the screams that were well understood throughout the house. The next few days were nevertheless stressful for all. Every day after that, more and more letters came to the Dursleys every morning. Harry had tried many times to get one or two of them back, but Vernon was on the alert to stop him, even going so far as to seal the mail slot to block all incoming letters. But then the Dursleys started to find more and more of these letters all over the house in places that were becoming less and less likely. Although he was also curious to read one of these letters, the half of it being destined for him, Dudley had to refrain from doing so. Since he received his letter, Petunia had never let go of him at all, seemingly thinking that his son would disappear under his eyes any moment now. His mother's pale complexion didn't reassure him, and Dudley preferred not to try to get one of his letters out of fear that Petunia would have a heart attack. So he and Harry found themselves at Privet Drive wondering who would want to talk to them so much.
One morning, after throwing a pile of letters into the fire or blender, Vernon gathered the family together
"That does it! I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!" said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time.
After that, Vernon rushed upstairs with Petunia following him closely. Harry and Dudley were left on their own to pack their bags.
"Yep! That's it. Dad's finally gone mad!"noticed Dudley.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Moustachio
Moustachio Here come the third one.
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And the Fourth, as winter, is coming...
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