Dudley's mood improved throughout the summer as the date of the Quidditch World Cup drew nearer. He had sent a short statement to Rita Skeeter about the Dementor attack at the end of his third year at Hogwarts, and true to Lockhart's word, the journalist had filled in the blanks with her Quick-Quotes Quill. Or more than fill in the blanks, Skeeter had managed to turn his few sentence statement into a full interview, using words he had never even heard of, let alone actually used. The story was on the third page of the issue that Lockhart had sent for him.
Dudley Dursley Speaks on Dementor Attack
As reported by the Daily Prophet, a number of students including Dudley Dursley—the talented young wizard and protégé of Gilderoy Lockhart—were attacked by a number of Dementors on the grounds of Hogwarts. Only quick thinking in using fire to repel the Dementors managed to hold them off until a timely intervention by headmaster of Hogwarts Albus Dumbledore and head of Gryffindor House Minerva McGonagall, who used the immensely difficult patronus charm to pursue the dementors off school grounds.
"It was terrifying," Dudley Dursley said in a statement. "The Dementor was actually lifting up my face to perform the kiss when Professor Dumbledore arrived. I could see its gaping mouth, feel its icy, sinister breath on my face and its eyes were blank sockets—it was the scariest experience of my life."
Dursley is no stranger to danger, having faced Professor Quirrell who was attempting to steal the Philosopher's Stone in a plot to resurrect You-Know-Who and, in his second year, faced down Slytherin's Serpent, the great basilisk, alongside his mentor Gilderoy Lockhart.
Dudley criticized the decision to have Dementors stationed at Hogwarts in the first place. "I get that they were guarding the castle against Black, but he still got in. All year, students were having breakdowns and collapsing because of them. It made it a very strenuous place to be, having their continued presence around the castle. I am certain that stationing Aurors outside the school instead would have achieved the same goals. My friends and I came within a whisker of receiving the Dementor's kiss."
Gilderoy Lockhart, the former Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who had a successful tenure at the school and struck up a close friendship with Dursley, also criticized the Hogwarts curriculum. "Anti-Dementor training is a must," he stated. "If I was still there, learning the patronus would have been the first thing on the agenda." Lockhart issues a further warning about the Ministry's use of Dementors. "They serve their purpose," he said in a statement, "But cannot be trusted. That was evident when they attacked Dursley and his friends at Hogwarts. I'd advise everyone to practice repulsing a Dementor attack, just in case there are future incidents. Be sure to check out my upcoming talkshow, The Lockhart Hour, where I will discuss defence against Dementors with none other than Mildred Marchbanks of the Ballycastle Bats."
Dudley had also gotten a letter from Ron saying his dad had got some tickets for the Quidditch world cup. Percy, apparently, was going to apparate to Dudley's house to pick him up as Arthur often found himself working longer hours at the Ministry since the expansion of the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. Dudley had never had much to do with Percy Weasley—he was older than he and Ron and was very studious and a bit of a stick in the mud. Which was surprising, given how the rest of Ron's siblings were—Fred and George were pranksters, Bill was a cool cursebreaker, Charlie worked with dragons and Ginny was fun, mischievous and never took anything seriously.
The next few weeks, Dudley spent hanging out with his friends, doing some of his homework, often with the use of several owls for help to Hermione, Dean and Neville. Neville was the best in the year at herbology and sent Dudley some notes he could use on his essay on biting pinecones.
On his birthday, his parents took Dudley to an international friendly football match to see England play. Dudley invited his friend from Hogwarts, Dean Thomas to the game since Dean was a big football fan. "I still like football better than … the other sport," Dean had said, talking about quidditch. Dudley enjoyed both. He had tried to break into the Gryffindor quidditch team as beater, but the Weasley twins were too good. He hoped that when they left, he would get his shot at playing for Gryffindor. Dean hoped to play chaser, but since Gryffindor had the three best chasers in school, he too had failed to make the cut.
Finally, in August, the day arrived to go to the Burrow. Dudley would stop there for the rest of the summer. He had forwarded his trunk on to the Burrow via muggle post—Arthur had given him the address of the local post office in the nearby muggle town of Ottery St. Catchpole and promised the twins would pick it up when it arrived.
"How's your friend getting here?" Vernon asked, a little anxiously as he peered out the window. Even though he was accepting of Dudley as a wizard, he was stil fearful about the neighbors seeing even the smallest hint of anything magical. He looked like he was expecting Percy to show flying on a magic carpet.
"Apparation," Dudley said. "Sort of appearing from thin air," he added, seeing his dad's confused look.
A couple of minutes later, there was a faint crack from the back garden, then a few seconds later, there was a knock at the door.
"Why didn't you come to the front door?" Vernon muttered by way of greeting as he opened it to reveal the tall, thin, bespectacled figure of Percy Weasley.
"We've got to be careful using magic in muggle areas," Percy replied. "It would be a serious breach of the Statue of Secrecy if someone saw me appear out of nowhere. No, I thought best to apparate in your back garden, rather than out front. Especially since I work for the Ministry of Magic now under Mr. Crouch—I need to set an example," Percy said. He offered his hand to Vernon Dursley who hesitated a few seconds before shaking it briefly.
"Percy Weasley, it's good to meet you, Sir, and there's Dudley I see—all ready?"
Dudley nodded. "Yeah, let me say goodbye."
He went back to the living room to say goodbye to his mother, then returned to the kitchen where Percy was waiting. He was looking curiously around at all the appliances.
"I studied Muggle Studies you know, it's amazing how you find ways to cope without magic," he said. "My father—he works for the Misuse of Magical Artifacts Office. Between you and me, he is a bit obsessed with muggles. He collects plugs," he said, in a whisper, as if afraid someone else would hear about Arthur Weasley's muggle obsession. "And batteries—he has a large collection of batteries."
Dudley hesitated, before sliding open the draw where Petunia usually kept odds and ends such as elastic bands, scissors, clips and, yes, batteries—he grabbed a standard AA battery, a fat square one and a tiny watch battery, figuring Arthur would like them.
"Enjoy yourself at this … what do you call it … Kwidpatch World Cup thing," Vernon said, seizing Dudley in a strong hug.
"Quidditch," Dudley corrected. "I'll be fine, it's just a world cup. Nothing's gonna happen."
He followed Percy out of the house. "Right, have you apparated before? No, well, nothing to it. Just grab my arm, that's it, and relax."
Before Dudley could relax, his whole world spun around and he missed Vernon's cry of astonishment as they vanished out of sight.