“Vernon, don’t!” Dudley could hear her cry from the other side of the door. He had let go of Dudley’s collar now and was standing there in the dark staring him down. Dudley was a big guy, but still not half the size of his father. He suddenly felt frightened, perhaps even more so than by the giant that had taken his bed early that morning.

“What’re we- no, we’re going to walk straight into it!” Dudley almost shouted as she picked up the pace and fought with him to pull him through the barrier. He had closed is eyes as they were about to hit, but the impact he had expected never came. Instead he opened his eyes and found a massive scarlet steam engine. Dudley had been on a train quite a few times, but none looked as magnificent as this one.

By dinner Dudley couldn’t help but feel pretty good about himself and how his day had gone; that was until a Ravenclaw hurried over to the end of Hufflepuff table and said something excitedly into the ears of one of the older students.