As promised, Lockhart got him practicing the bubble-head charm almost immediately.

"Very useful charm this, Dudley," he said. "Produces a bubble of oxygen around your head that allows you to breathe when underwater."

"How long does it last, Professor?"

"That depends on your skill, now, we'll just practice here for now—it may take a while for you to get it right," Lockhart said, rolling up his sleeves. "It's been a while since I've cast this, so I might be a bit rusty. The incantation is Bulla Oxygen"

Lockhart waved his wand but nothing happened. "Hang on, sorry—Bulla Oxygeni! Bulla Oxygeni! Bulla Oxygeni!" on the third attempt, a shimmering bubble appeared around Lockhart's head, making his features look oddly enlarged. It looked fragile, Dudley was unsure if he'd trust it to hold up at the bottom of the lake.

"As you can see, a tricky charm—with this I have a steady supply of oxygen everywhere I go," Lockhart's voice sounded muffled.

He waved his wand and the bubble disappeared. "Now, you try, remember—Bulla Oxygeni!"

Dudley waved his wand and cast the incantation, but nothing happened.

"Of course, I forgot, sorry—the wand movement. Very impotant. Grip the wand lightly in your fingers and swirl a figure of eight with a nice big swish in the end. Go on ..."

Dudley swirled his wand.

"Bigger than that—like you're signing your name on a letter. That's the ticket!" Lockhart said. "Now, try again—Bulla Oxygeni!"

They practised for almost an hour before Dudley finally managed to produce a bubble around his head. It disappeared pretty quickly, but Lockhart was pleased.

"It's a start, Dudley, it's a start—all spells start from somewhere. Do you think even I could cast the hormorphus charm perfectly immediately? No—it took a great deal or time and effort to be able to master the spell. Practice makes perfect, Dudley—keep at it and you'll have the hang of it in no time. You have myself as your guide afterall."

The next day, they met Lockhart again, this time to continue their Patronus lessons. This time, Hermione had decided to join them, deciding that despite the piles of homework that they had, learning a patronus was too important.

"Afterall, You-Know-Who is bound to use Dementors if he comes back! Better to be prepared!"

Lockhart had spluttered. "You-Know-Who returning? Perish the thought! He's gone for good, I hope!"

"Dumbledore thinks he might return," Dudley said.

"Yeah," said Dean. "And there's also Malfoy who might help him."

"Right, well—there's nothing we can do about all that, so let's get on with the lesson, shall we?" Lockhart said hurriedly to change the subject.

While Ron and Dean could only produce faint puffs of vapour, by the end of this lesson, Dean's patronus was taking on more of a shape—but, even though it was more solidly formed than Lockhart's, it didn't last as long, vanishing after only 10 seconds.

"I reckon you'll manage it next lesson," Ron said, grudgingly.

"The trick is to focus on a happy memory," said Dean.

"I know that!" Ron said irritably.

"Then focus harder," said Dean.

Ron tried to push him into the vanishing step, but Dean was too quick and leapt over it.

The start of December brought wind and sleet to Hogwarts. Drafty though the castle always was in winter. Dudley was glad of its fires and thick walls every time he passed the Durmstrang ship on the lake, which was pitching in the high winds, its black sails billowing against the dark skies. He thought the Beauxbatons caravan was likely to be pretty chilly too. Hagrid, he noticed, was keeping Madame Maxime's horses well provided with their preferred drink of single-malt whiskey; the fumes wafting from the trough in the comer of their paddock was enough to make the entire Care of Magical Creatures class light-headed. This was unhelpful, as they were still tending the horrible skrewts and needed their wits about them.

"I'm not sure whether they hibernate or not," Hagrid told the shivering class in the windy pumpkin patch next lesson. "Thought we'd jus' try an see if they fancied a kip...we'll jus' settle 'em down in these boxes..."

There were now only ten skrewts left; apparently their desire to kill one another had not been exercised out of them. Each of them was now approaching six feet in length. Their thick gray armor; their powerful, scuttling legs; their fire-blasting ends; their stings and their suckers, combined to make the skrewts the most repulsive things Dudley had ever seen. He too was sick of the Skrewts by now. He wished they were studying Dragons class looked dispiritedly at the enormous boxes Hagrid had brought out, all lined with pillows and fluffy blankets.

"We'll jus' lead 'em in here," Hagrid said, "an' put the lids on, and we'll see what happens."

But the skrewts, it transpired, did not hibernate, and did not appreciate being forced into pillow-lined boxes and nailed in. Hagrid was soon yelling, "Don panic, now, don' panic!" while the skrewts rampaged around the pumpkin patch, now strewn with the smoldering wreckage of the boxes. Most of the class - Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle in the lead - had fled into Hagrid's cabin through the back door and barricaded themselves in; Dudley, Ron, Dean, Neville and Hermione, however, were among those who remained outside trying to help Hagrid. Together they managed to restrain and tie up nine of the skrewts, though at the cost of numerous burns and cuts; finally, only one skrewt was left.

"Don' frighten him, now!" Hagrid shouted as Ron and Dudley used their wands to shoot jets of fiery sparks at the skrewt, which was advancing menacingly on them, its sting arched, quivering, over its back. "Jus' try an slip the rope 'round his sting, so he won hurt any o' the others!"

"Yeah, we wouldn't want that!" Ron shouted angrily as he and Dudley backed into the wall of Hagrid's cabin, still holding the skrewt off with their sparks.

"Well, well, well...this does look like fun."

Rita Skeeter was leaning on Hagrid's garden fence, looking in at the mayhem. She was wearing a thick magenta cloak with a furry purple collar today, and her crocodile-skin handbag was over her arm.

Hagrid launched himself forward on top of the skrewt that was cornering Dudley and Ron and flattened it; a blast of fire shot out of its end, withering the pumpkin plants nearby.

"Who're you?" Hagrid asked Rita Skeeter as he slipped a loop of rope around the skrewt's sting and tightened it.

"Rita Skeeter, Daily Prophet reporter," Rita replied, beaming at him. Her gold teeth glinted.

"Thought Dumbledore said you weren' allowed inside the school anymore," said Hagrid, frowning slightly as he got off the slightly squashed skrewt and started tugging it over to its fellows.

Rita acted as though she hadn't heard what Hagrid had said.

"What are these fascinating creatures called?" she asked, beaming still more widely.

"Blast-Ended Skrewts," grunted Hagrid.

"Really?" said Rita, apparently full of lively interest. "I've never heard of them before...where do they come from?"

Dudley noticed a dull red flush rising up out of Hagrid's wild black beard, and his heart sank. Where had Hagrid got the skrewts from? Hermione, who seemed to be thinking along these lines, said quickly, "They're very interesting, aren't they? Aren't they. Dudley?"

"What? Oh yeah...ouch...interesting," said Dudley as she stepped on his foot.

"Ah, you're here. Dudley!" said Rita Skeeter as she looked around. "So you like Care of Magical Creatures, do you? One of your favorite lessons?"

"Yes," said Dudley. "I'm pretty good at it—got full marks last year." Hagrid beamed at him.

"And how about you, Neville?" Rita said, catching sight of Neville. "I wanted to interview you after the first task—great performance by the way."

"It's good class," Neville said, shortly.

"Lovely," said Rita. "Really lovely. Been teaching long?" she added to Hagrid.

Dudley noticed her eyes travel over Dean (who had a nasty cut across one cheek). Lavender (whose robes were badly singed), Seamus (who was nursing several burnt fingers), and then to the cabin windows, where most of the class stood, their noses pressed against the glass waiting to see if the coast was clear.

"This is o'ny me second year," said Hagrid.

"Lovely...I don't suppose you'd like to give an interview, would you? Share some of your experience of magical creatures? The Prophet does a zoological column every Wednesday, as I'm sure you know. We could feature these - er - Bang-Ended Scoots."

"Blast-Ended Skrewts," Hagrid said eagerly. "Er - yeah, why not?"

"She's gonna twist everything she says," Hermione muttered as they headed back to the castle. "Like she did with Neville."

"Come on, Rita's not that bad. She interviewed me a few times, remember, and was always fair—Lockhart speaks fondly of her," Dudley replied.

"Just as long as he didn't import those skrewts illegally or anything," said Hermione. They looked at one another - it was exactly the sort of thing Hagrid might do.

"Hagrid's been in loads of trouble before, and Dumbledores never sacked him," said Ron consolingly. "Worst that can happen is Hagrid'll have to get rid of the skrewts. Sorry...did I say worst? I meant best."

Dudley Dean and Hermione laughed.

Dudley had a free period after lunch and smiled smugly at Dean and Ron as they headed to Double Divination. "Should have given it up, shouldn't you?" he said. "Then you'd have time to relax—like me," he spread out on the sofa comfortably.

He had just started reading a comic when a voice said behind him.

"Did you hear my lion in the first task?"

He jumped, dropping the comic and twisted his head around. Sure enough, it was Luna and Ginny. He hadn't heard them approach.

"Yeah, it was loud," Dudley said, budging up on the sofa to make room.

"It took a while to get the spell right," Luna said. "Lots of people thought it was stupid, but I though it would give you and Neville some support."

"It did," Dudley assured her. "Thanks—I could even hear it over the dragon!"

"I can't believe that was the first task," Ginny said. "If that was first, what will they have in store for the second?"

"Thanks, that's a great pep talk," Dudley said, sarcastically.

Ginny laughed. "You know what I mean though, I'd love to see how they're gonna top dragons. I mean, that was brilliant—not you getting injured, obviously. But seeing them up close, I can see why Charlie loves them so much."

"I'd be toast if it wasn't for him," Dudley admitted.

"He was very brave," Luna said. "Did you know quite a few girls in Ravenclaw like him?" She said this matter-of-factly.

Ginny, who often teased Ron about his crushes and was a bit of a gossip looked stunned at the thought that her older brother was apparently the subject of a crush among girls at Hogwarts.

"Don't tell me your surprised?" Dudley asked. "He's a dragon tamer Gin, of course girls are going to like him."

"Quite handsome too," Luna said.

Dudley nodded. "And muscular," he said. "And wasn't he a quidditch captain when he was here?"

"I'm beginning to think you have a crush on him too," Ginny huffed.

Dudley scowled while Luna giggled. Despite his annoyance, he couldn't help but notice that Luna had a cute, high-pitched giggle.

"Speaking of crushes, what about Neville and Lavender," Ginny said. "Where did that come from? That's been the talk of the Hogwarts girls toilets."

"Is that all you do in there? Gossip?" Dudley asked.

"Yep," said Ginny. "Because it's a place away from prying eyes. Your name crops up sometimes too,"

"By who?" Dudley asked quickly. "Not Eloise Midgen, I hope!"

Ginny laughed. "You'll just have to find that out for yourself, Dud," she said. "Coming Luna? We need to finish our potions assignment."

"No, come on, Ginny, you can't just say that and leave!" Dudley said.

"It doesn't matter," Ginny said, sweetly. "We all know who you've got a crush on. I just hope you're smarter than Ron and actually make a move this decade," she said, waggling her eyebrows and looking back and forth between himself and Luna.