Chapter 2 - Another Wizard
Next day Harry awoke tired and achy. The sort of tired and achy that makes you think you've been hit by a train. He got up and went downstairs to make breakfast for everyone and quickly eat his. He wanted to get back to his room as soon as possible. He didn't want to see the looks of recrimination on his relatives' faces. Or have to listen to a tirade off Uncle Vernon.
While back up in his room, he heard Dudley call out that he was going round to the Polkiss's. Apparently Piers had been bought a corn snake and Dudley wanted to see it. So long as they don't bring it back here, Harry thought. Given Aunt Petunia's opinion of snakes he was reasonably sure he wouldn't have to deal with Dudley, Piers and a snake.
Dudley left his parents' house and headed down Magnolia Crescent. He was surprised the Piers had a snake, what with the incident with the freak last summer. Piers said on the phone when he told Dudley about his snake that his parents had got him it to try to get him to like snakes. Piers admitted that it was a very pretty snake, and he'd been assured it would always remain small and wouldn't bite him, and anyway, it wasn't venomous.
When Dudley got to the Polkiss's he was taken up to Piers' room to view the snake. It was pretty, Piers was right - bright shades of red and orange and a tiny little tongue that flicked in and out of its mouth. Dudley could tell Piers wasn't entirely keen on the whole concept of having the snake in his room, but managed to not make a derogatory remark about it. Piers was someone he used, and he wasn't about to ruin their friendship, if you could call it that. Instead of deriding Piers about being scared of the snake at the zoo, he went with Harry bashing.
"Not a bad snake there, Piers." said Dudley trying to sound interested. It was to him, rather boring. It just sat there. The only thing it had going for it was the colour. "At least it's not like when that freak of a cousin of mine shoved you into the snake enclosure." A bit of artistic licence about the events of that day wouldn't hurt.
"Yeah, your cousin's just plain weird. " said Piers with a shudder of memory.
"You wouldn't believe what he did yesterday." said Dudley. His parents had told him many times to never tell anyone about anything Harry did. It was one of the few things he could do that made his parents mad with him. But yesterday had really shaken Dudley, and he really wanted to tell someone about it. His sense of self-preservation made him edit a few details though. Having Piers' parents ring up his and demand what the hell Harry was doing after Dudley had overshared wouldn't be a good outcome.
"He completely flipped out while making dinner. The food he was making ended up on the walls and ceiling, he scattered the chairs round the room, Dad ended up on his arse with a cooking pot on his head." Dudley smirked at that. His Dad was not pleased that he now had an egg-sized lump on his forehead. He hoped it would go down before he had to go into work the next day. Vernon had a number of important meetings to chair. "But worst of all, I was thrown across the room that hard I ended up unconscious! He could have killed me!"
Unfortunately Piers picked up on the wrong detail of the tale from Dudley's point of view.
"The Potter idiot threw you across the room, Big D?!" he asked with a mixture of humour and incredulity. The unvoiced laughter clearly painted across his face.
"Yeah, he went completely psycho, he was super strong. You know, strong like when really little people get the strength to lift cars off kids." said Dudley, hoping that this would go unchallenged as correct and would leave some of his dignity intact. He fervently wished he'd never complained about Harry. This conversation was really going downhill.
"Oh, yeah, that." said Piers, eloquent as ever.
"Hey - I've still got a concussion, you know!" said Dudley, going for the sympathy vote.
"Well, like you said - the boy's just a freak." With that came the end of that conversation. What more was there to be said?
"Right, Big D, I've got to feed this thing. It eats frozen mice. I'll go get one from the freezer. Back in a minute. You could take some home with you, and put them in the freak's bed to thaw." Dudley thought about that, a calculating look crossing his face. Seeing this, Piers sniggered.
While Piers was out of the room, Dudley heard a voice,
"I'm cold. Make its warmerss in here." Dudley looked round.
"Who's there?" he asked.
"You cans hear meee boy?! Greetingssss, ssspeaker. I've never come acrosss a ssspeaker before." Dudley thought the voice was coming from the vivarium where the snake was kept. Refusing to entertain the idea that the snake was speaking - who would? - he decided that Piers was playing a practical joke on him.
"Nice one, Piers, I can't even see the speakers that the sound comes from - you've got it coming right from the viv. Clever!"
"Idiot, you knows that I isss sspeaking to yous. Pay attention, boy. Make it warmer in here!" Dudley swallowed. He was scared. Was he off his rocker? He thought a snake was speaking to him. Did he bang his head last night when he fell? He looked around the room more carefully for the source of the voice. Nothing. He went out of Piers' room to listen at the top of the stairs, but unfortunately for his sanity he could hear the unmistakable sounds of Piers in the kitchen talking to Mrs. Polkiss. Dudley went back into Piers' room and looked at the snake.
"You can understand me? I can understand you? How? Do you speak English?"
"No, imbeciles, yous ssspeaks ssnake. Lissten to yourssself! does that woulnd like English?!"
Before Dudley had chance to either process that information, or respond, Piers was back in the room with the frozen mouse. Looking a bit white at the thought of holding a mouse and feeding a snake - although not as white as Dudley currently was - Piers lifted the lid of the vivarium and threw in the mouse. Dudley clearly heard,
"Thank youss, boy." from the snake, as it crunched on it's breakfast. Dudley's eyes bulged a bit wider at understanding the words.
"Come on, Big D, let's go to the park." said Piers.
"Sure. Um. Before we go, is your snake warm enough in there? It's a bit chilly in here, perhaps it needs its vivarium heating a bit more."
"Good idea." said Piers and turned the heat mat up two degrees.
"I issss gratefuls, sspeaker." Dudley heard. A look at Piers clearly showed that the snake had just hissed, rather than spoke from the other boy's point of view. Dudley was thankful when they got out of there, and into the fresh air. Knocking a few younger kids off the swings in the park was just what needed right now. Clear his head a bit.
They went to the park and spent a happy half hour shoving around the younger kids (surreptitiously so that their parents couldn't see) until the park emptied and they had the swings to themselves. With no-one left to bully, it didn't take long for them to get bored and head home. Not wanting to go back to the room with the snake, Dudley invited Piers back to Privet Drive. On their way back they saw two young children both holding an ice-cream. Time for some fun, thought Dudley. They both took up as much of the pavement as they could, and made themselves look menacing as they approached the children - a girl who was about eight and a boy around five. The children were standing in front of the Post Office, waiting for presumably a parent who was in side. The ice-creams were just getting unwrapped.
"Fancy an ice-cream, Piers?" asked Dudley, looking at the children meaningfully.
"Absolutely, Big D." came the reply. The two boys loomed up to the children. The little boy squeaked.
"You want to share those ice-creams, don't you?" Dudley asked, with harmonics of retribution for non-compliance resonating in his words. The girl shook her head.
"Mummy bought us them. It's the weekend. We always get an ice-cream at the weekend."
"Give me that!" said Dudley, making a grab for the food.
"No!" said the girl, and took at step back protecting her ice-cream and her brother. Dudley was not in the mood to lose out to a kid. First Harry yesterday, then the bloody snake this morning and now this.
"Hand me that ice-cream now!" came Dudley's voice, suddenly deeper and more penetrating. It bypassed all thoughts of argument, straight into the hindbrain. Both of the children were standing there, with their arms held straight out offering their ice-creams towards the boys. Dudley and Piers took the ice-creams and walking away.
"That was cool, mate!" exclaimed Piers. He was truly impressed.
Dudley felt a bit strange, but he couldn't put his finger on why. They ate their ice-creams and returned home to Privet Drive for lunch. By the time they reached the front door, Dudley had forgotten all about the strange feeling he'd got when he commanded the children hand over their treats.
After lunch, Dudley and Piers spent the afternoon in Dudley's room playing on the computer console he'd given for his birthday.
Professor Dumbledore was sitting at his desk at Hogwarts doing his paperwork. The summer holidays gave him a chance to get everything outstanding completed and to prepare everything for the coming year. There were also a couple of professors that liked to stay at Hogwarts for either the whole of the summer, or part of the summer, and he used the opportunity to get to know them better. The school year was so busy, that socialising with the staff took a back seat to the day-to-day business of the school.
An owl arrived for him from the Ministry. Dumbledore unfastened the letter from its leg and began to read. It was from Mafalda Hopkirk. It informed him that underage magic had been detected near Privet Drive. It was far enough away from the Potter residence that they could not discount the possibility that Harry was not responsible, however the Improper Use of Magic Office would be sending a representative to check the whereabouts of Harry Potter at the time in question. It continued to tell him about the importance of the Decree for the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery (as if he didn't know), and further implied that Dumbledore should keep a tighter rein on his students. Mafalda also explained she was aware that Dumbledore and Professor Snape had been to the Dursley residence the evening before to deal with a particular situation and that if Harry Potter could not be brought into line informally then more official channels would be used.
Dumbledore placed the letter on his to-do pile and continued with his work humming to himself and eating his ever present bowl of lemon drops. An hour later another owl arrived from the Ministry. Again it was from Malfalda Hopkirk. Confirmation had been received that Harry had spent the whole day inside the wards of Privet Drive. The magic had not been him. However, muggles in the area of the accidental magic occurrence had been interviewed. The Post Office clerk had seen out of window that on the street outside were two boys bullying two small children at the time and place in question. Thinking one of the younger children had performed accidental magic to protect themselves, the wizard investigating had found out the address of the children from the clerk - the children's mother had an account at the Post Office - and had gone round to the house. A few probing questions and memory modifications later resulted in the knowledge that neither of the children had performed magic.
Based on the descriptions of the boys from the Post Office clerk, and all the information that the Ministry kept about Harry, one of the two boys matched the description of Dudley Dursley. It would be a great coincidence if the accidental magic of yesterday and today were unconnected, so the wizard had gone to number four Privet Drive to find out what he could without being seen.
Mafalda then wrote about how the department can test for wizards. One of the tests they use to test whether someone is a wizard or not is to place an object charmed to be unseen by muggles near them. If they see it, they're a wizard; if not, they're a muggle. The investigating wizard transfigured a leaf into a butterfly and charmed it to be unseen. He then guided it up to the window of the room in which Dudley was. It flew against the glass. The investigating wizard was in perfect position to see Dudley react and try to catch the butterfly, much to the consternation and then amusement of his muggle friend in the room at the time. From this, in can be concluded that Dudley Dursley is a wizard.
At that point the letter ended abruptly, with a kindest regards. It was clearly now the problem of Dumbledore to deal with breaking the news to Dudley and his family that he was a wizard. Dumbledore sighed. Merlin help us all, he thought.
Dumbledore sat and pondered what to do for a good quarter of an hour. While he was thinking, a letter magically appeared on his desk. Automatically written and addressed by the castle, the letter's existence confirmed that it was indeed Dudley who had performed magic, and that as a wizard, his place at Hogwarts had been confirmed. Usually one of the professors wrote the letters based on names provided by Hogwarts, but it seemed that the castle had saved them a step this time.
He placed the letter in his robes, got up, and went to find Professor Snape - one of the professors staying at the castle for part of the holidays. He did a lot of brewing for St Mungo's and used the school's laboratories for the task. He found Severus relaxing in his study.
On being invited into the potion master's study he offered him a lemon drop as he popped one into his mouth. Severus declined.
"Severus, a matter involving the Dursley family has arisen. Have you been to see Harry yet today? Yesterday you said you would go do a check up on him."
"Not yet, Albus, I was going to go round after dinner this evening - give the boy a day to recover." He wasn't about to say out loud that it also had given him the day to mentally decide what to ask the boy so that he could find out what the hell was going on in that household. But now what was the problem? Why had Albus come to him?
"Severus, it appears that Dudley is a wizard." There was a moment's silence.
"What!? That great lump of a whale of a boy? No more brains than a chicken! And he's a wizard?! Albus, there must be some mistake." Snape exclaimed. It was rare he lost his composure, but the concept of that idiot being a wizard was beyond comprehension.
"The Ministry has checked and confirmed it. Dudley Dursley is a wizard."
"How did it happen, Albus? Something to do with yesterday evening and the Potter boy?"
" If there's ever been an incident of a wizard giving someone else wizard capability I don't know of it, but there's a first time for everything." said Dumbledore. "Perhaps Harry just wanted..." Dumbledore trailed off, realising who he talking to.
"Harry wanted what, Headmaster? There's something you know that you're not telling me."
"I have my suspicions. That is all. I'm not going to share just my suspicions, you should know that by now." replied Dumbledore enigmatically. Snape knew Albus wasn't about to share and gave up.
"Does Dudley Dursley even know?" Snape asked, changing track, his thought process coming to what could be an entertaining conclusion.
"Not yet. Neither does anyone else in the household." Snape grinned. Not what you'd call a pleasant grin, but rather an expression containing a certain amount of malice.
"Please let me be there when Petunia finds out." Snape begged.
"Of course, my boy. I wouldn't let you miss it for the world." replied Dumbledore with a twinkle in his eye. With that, Snape put on his best wizard robes - just the thing for visiting Privet Drive, thought - and the pair apparated to the doorstep of number four, Privet Drive.
Snape rang the doorbell. A bellow was heard from within,
"Boy, go answer the door. If they're selling anything tell then to get lost! If it's the brats from the garden behind wanting their ball back, tell them I gave it to the dog!"
Charming, thought Snape. The door opened. He got a certain amount of happiness from the look of horror on Harry's face to find two wizards dressed as wizards on the doorstep.
"Um. Sirs, erm..."
"Harry, we need to talk to all of you. Is now a good time?" asked Dumbledore gently.
"Who is it, boy?" yelled Vernon.
"Um. Headmaster Dumbledore and Professor Snape, Uncle Vernon." said Harry, nice and loudly, to be heard the whole way down the street. Snape smirked. That brought Petunia running.
"Then do not leave them on the doorstep, boy." she said, and ushered them quickly inside, her eyes darting furtively up and down the street before closing the door. They went into the living room, half of which doubled as a dining room for when guests came for dinner. Unwilling to make them comfortable on the couches in the hope that they would leave quicker, Petunia reluctantly offered them seats at the table. They were not, however, offered any refreshment. All six of them sat around the table. Snape made sure he took a seat from which he could watch Harry. This exchange might provide him with some valuable answers to some of his as yet unspoken questions.
Snape looked at Potter carefully. The boy looked withdrawn, and to be honest, downright petrified of them being there. Snape knew that Petunia hated magic, although it wasn't always that way, there was that time she begged to go to Hogwarts. But since then, she'd marrying a bullish, bore of a man, who did a boring job, lived in a boring house, and had what to Snape seemed, a boring existence. He could understand that having two wizards in the house wasn't going to sit well with Petunia, but to the point of scaring the living daylights out of Potter? He just couldn't fathom it. Potter's whole demeanor seemed to be centred around making himself as small as possible, not being noticed, doing as he was told. It's a shame he didn't follow that rule at Hogwarts, doing what he was told, but Snape had to admit, if this was what following the rules made Potter, he'd rather he broke the odd rule and was a normal child than be like he looked right now.
"What has the brat done now?" demanded Vernon, eyeing Harry maliciously.
"We have not come regarding Harry." said Dumbledore, carefully. "This afternoon, accidental magic was detected near the Post Office in the village. Accidental magic is like the magic Harry did when he ended up on that roof that time." he said, his eyes twinkling. Harry grimaced and tried to look even smaller under the glares from his aunt and Uncle. "We know that Harry did not leave the confines of this house or garden today. However, someone here was outside the Post Office today, and did indeed perform magic." Harry looked confused. Dumbledore continued.
"Dudley," he said, turning to look the boy straight in the eyes, "Were you outside the Post Office today?"
"What are you implying?!" fumed Vernon. "Dudders wouldn't ever do any of that freaky stuff!"
Snape watched Harry carefully. Potter was thinking, processing, working it out. Snape saw the look on Potter's face clearly when he realised what Dumbledore was saying. Dudley had done magic. Therefore Dudley was a wizard. There was shock in his emerald eyes, followed by something that it took a while for Snape to decipher. Dumbledore was speaking again.
"Dudley, has anything out of the ordinary happened around you recently?" and as Vernon opened his mouth to speak, Dumbledore said irritatedly, "and I don't mean the incident yesterday with Harry. I mean has anything happened because of something you said, thought or did?"
Dudley thought for a moment, then looked guiltily around. There was no way he would admit to taking things off other people to his parents. They thought the sun shone out of his backside. Dudley opened and closed his mouth. He didn't know what to say. He was saved from speaking by Dumbledore.
"I think you realise that something like that happened. I'm not going to make you tell us all now, many incidents of accidental magic occur because of stress or fear. But sometime, perhaps you could share that with me." Dudley breathed a sigh of relief.
Snape was still studying Harry. Harry was now looking in amazement between Dudley and Dumbledore, and sending the odd glance to Petunia and Vernon. Vernon was looking shocked, bright red, the bump on his head standing out, and Petunia was looking something else. Proud perhaps? Snape realised what it was on Harry's face. It was hope. Undisguised hope. But hope of what? And why?
Harry was looking at his relatives in disbelief. Dudley was a wizard?! And then hope rose, rearing its head. Hope that if Dudley was a wizard his aunt and uncle would treat him differently. Hope that he wouldn't be called freak, or boy anymore. Hope that he might be treated with just a little compassion.
"Popkin! You're a wizard! You can do magic! I always knew you were special!" said Petunia, enveloping Dudley into her arms and squeezing him tight. Vernon's Adam's apple was going up and down at a great rate of knots. The sudden U-turn in his wife had left him dead in the water.
"Um, yeah, that's great, son." said Vernon, still unsure of what was happening. Wizards were freaky. The boy - Harry - was freaky. Petunia's sister was a freak. She married a freak. The less they had to do with them, the better. And suddenly, his son was a wizard. His mind was having trouble assimilating those two ideas.
Petunia was doing all the talking for the both of them though. "Oh, Dudley, you'll be the best wizard ever! Much better than the son of those two good for nothing idiots." she said with a nasty glance towards Harry.
Snape was watching Potter. He had watched the shock and disbelief, he had watched hope rise, daring for something, and then, he watched hope die. The boy's eyes went dead. There was nothing there. He just stared into space a foot in front of his face and sat there. Snape felt for Harry in that moment. Since when did he think of him as Harry, not Potter? He didn't know what was wrong, but he saw that the boy was ostracised from the rest of the family. He saw that he was last in the pecking order. He felt he should help in some way. There was a bit of his mind screaming at him about Potter being James' son, and he deserved every unkind thing that could possibly happen to anyone. But this was overruled by the voice that said, 'Anything for Lily's son, that was the agreement'. Snape remembered his own childhood. He wore an expression similar to Harry's much of the time. Snape really had to find out what went on in this household! It really was messing with his sense of the world.
"Harry," said Snape, "Yesterday I said I would check you over today. Perhaps we should go do that? If you would accompany me to the kitchen?" Snape rose and went into the kitchen, forcing Harry to follow him, whether he wanted to or not. Snape heard leaden footsteps follow him slowly. He looked at Harry's face. So forlorn.
"Harry. Would tell me what's that matter? Do your aunt and uncle have aproblem with you?" Harry shrugged. "A verbal answer please."
"Not really. They didn't like my parents. You know they told me they died in a car crash." said Harry.
"Harry, I'd like to talk to you..." that was as far as he got. Harry was shaking his head.
"No! Um, sorry. Er, No, sir. Um. I don't want to sound rude, but there's nothing to talk about. Everything's fine. They're just shocked. They were shocked and confused last night too." Harry had thought about this all day. How to persuade his potions professor to leave it the hell alone. He decided he'd be best off denying there was anything wrong. Not to give Snape any lose threads to pull on. Deny everything. And outright lie to his face. However hard that was, it was easier than telling the truth.
Snape sighed. Not yet then, he thought. He performed a quick diagnostic on the boy, and found there was nothing wrong. His ear drums weren't quite right but were healing quickly. Snape suspected Potter's magic was helping there.
"Have you been tired today?" he enquired.
"A bit. This morning. But I feel better now." Keep the answers brief, thought Harry.
Snape knew he was getting nothing further out of the boy that evening, and gestured they return to the living room. Dumbledore had risen from his seat and was preparing to take his leave. He withdrew from his robes a Hogwarts letter addressed to Dudley, and gave it to the boy.
"Welcome to Hogwarts, Mr Dursley. This letter contains everything you need to know about the upcoming school year. If you need support with any of this," he included Vernon and Petunia in this, "please, do not hesitate to contact the Ministry of Magic and they will send a representative to help you understand the wizarding world. We realise for muggles this can be a very daunting process. I'm sure Harry will lend you use of his owl for sending letters." With that, he nodded at Snape, and they both apparated away.
Harry, looking at the three Dursleys, realised he wasn't going to be welcome or included, and went up to his room and fell asleep. He tried to stay awake and process what he'd just found out, but he was too tired to concentrate. He woke up more than once in the night to the sound of voices that drifted in under his door. Vernon and Petunia were having a long conversation about something he couldn't hear, but could guess at. This happened on and off until 3am. Then the household was silent until morning.