Flamel's and the Stone - Chapter 3: Dudley's Eleventh Birthday
Disclaimer: I do not own anyone and this chapter is edited a little for better reading and understanding.
P.S: This is not a book reading chapter more of a break and filler chapter but please read as it may help in future chapters.
No 4 Privet Drive - The Next Day
It felt like two seconds later than when Harry was last asleep when he heard Aunt Petunia's shrill voice ordering him "Up, get up now."
Harry woke up as Aunt Petunia rapped on the door again.
"Up," she screeched and Harry sat up but made sure to not bash his head against the underside of the stairs like he had done a few times before which hurt, a lot.
As Aunt Petunia walked towards the kitchen Harry started getting dressed.
As what sounded like Aunt Petunia putting the frying pan onto the stove Harry walked to his cupboard door listening for his Aunt.
"Are you up yet," Aunt Petunia demanded.
"Yes Aunt Petunia," Harry said just as he was opening the door and going out of his cupboard.
"I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."
"Yes Aunt Petunia," Harry said and walked to the kitchen to see Dudley's presents before he started watching and frying the bacon.
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon on their other sides.
"Comb your hair!" he barked, his usual way of a morning greeting to Harry.
Harry was now onto frying up the eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother.
Harry turned off the hobs and began plating the fried foods and put the plates of egg and bacon on the table when he was done, which was a difficult task as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.
"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."
"Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, its here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy." Petunia said trying to keep her son calm.
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face.
Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his small portion of the bacon as fast as possible as he remembered what happened in the book.
Aunt Petunia quickly said, "And we'll buy you another two presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?"
Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…" Harry thought he looked rather constipated doing all of that thinking.
"Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.
"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."
Uncle Vernon chuckled.
"Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father, 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.
At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.
He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.
"Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take him."
She jerked her head in Harry's direction.
Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap knowing that he would be able to go to the zoo for the first time in his life as was said in the book.
"Now what," said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harry as though he'd planned this?
Harry still felt sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg.
"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.
"Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy."
"What about what's-her-name, your friend, Yvonne?" Uncle Vernon asked.
"On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia and then slowly said, "I suppose we could take him to the zoo… and leave him in the car…"
"That car's new he's not sitting in it alone…"
Dudley began to cry loudly.
"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.
"I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs, "he always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.
Just then, the doorbell rang — 'Oh, good Lord, they're here!' said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother.
Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.
Before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside.
"I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
"Yes sir," Harry said politely.
While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Harry, the bank, and Harry were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorcycles.
"…roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.
Harry reminded himself of his promises and notes, so he kept his mouth shut about his dream.
It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry what he wanted before they could hurry him away, they bought him a cheap lemon ice pop.
"It really isn't bad at all," Harry thought with a happy feeling at many of the things from the book coming true, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head, who, looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond and snickered mentally at his thoughts from last nights reading.
Harry had the best morning he'd had in a long time. He was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting him when bored or just wanting to hit something.
They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harry was allowed to finish the first.
Harry was happy because it was delicious even though it was about half eaten already by his cousin.
After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.
Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.
"Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.
"Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.
"This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.
Harry followed Dudley, Piers, Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia and saw many reptiles that he found very fascinating making him glad that he did not try and speak to the snake as he would not have gotten a chance to experience the Zoo better than he could have if he did not read the book.
They went to a nearby restaurant for dinner after spending most of the day at the Zoo where both Harry's uncle and aunt bought a few things for Dudley from the Zoo Gift Shop, then Uncle Vernon drove them all home after dropping off Piers at his house where his mother was waiting for him.
Right after Harry was asked/yelled at to go to bed by his Aunt and Uncle he said, "Happy Birthday Dudley," to his cousins amazement but Harry ignored this as he went into his cupboard hoping to read more of the book if it appeared.
He then went to sleep, wishing to see the book when he woke up.
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