A Visitor and shopping

What were they talking about down there? Harry balled up the Chocolate Frog wrapper and tossed it into the garbage can. He gave a frustrated sigh and picked up, "Defense against Dark Wizards". The small book opened in his hands ad began to glow.

"Uh oh!" Harry said. Dumbledore wouldn't give him anything dangerous, would he? The book began to grow, growing very heavy in Harry's hands. It was soon roughly ten times its original size and Harry was forced to prop it against his pillows. He began flipping through the pages of the massive book. Dumbledore must have placed a shrinking charm on it. How else could anyone lug that thing around?

A tapping sound interrupted his reading. He turned to the window. "Hedwig!" Harry cried opening the window. The snowy owl fluttered over to his bed and waited patiently for Harry to remove her burden. He quickly untied the letter from her leg and Hedwig flew over to her cage for a drink of water.

"Thank you, Hedwig." Harry said while opening the letter. It was from Hermione.

Dear Harry,

In 1982 the Ministry outlawed the use and the brewing of diet potions. Maybe, you could ask Madam Pomfrey how to help Dudley. Wow! I can not believe the Dursleys are being nice to you. Are you sure they are who they say they are? Perhaps, you should test them. Have them sit in the same room as you for an hour and see if they turn into someone else.. Like aliens. Snape may have cursed them into submission! I guess his bullying comes in handy. Mum and Dad don't want me to go to Victors for the summer. They said they don't see me all year, they want my summers. Have you heard from Ron yet?

Love, Hermione

"Harry, come down and say good bye to Professor Dumbledore." Aunt Petunia called from down stairs.

Harry jumped up and rushed down stairs, hoping to over hear some of their secret conversation. He would have to owl Ron as soon as Hedwig had a chance to rest a bit. Harry knew he would appreciate the news from Hermione.

Professor Dumbledore and aunt Petunia were standing in the hall. Dumbledore was talking. "All the arrangements have been made. There will be three fully trained wizards and an auror there. I assure you, it is perfectly safe." He then turned and looked up at Harry who had been lurking on the stairs.

Harry bounded down the stairs wearing a sheepish grin. "Sorry, I didn't want to interrupt."

"Curiosity is not a crime Harry. Just approach with caution." Dumbledore said firmly.

"Yes, sir." Harry said while inspecting his shoes.

"Now, Harry be sure to study this summer. The O.W.L.S. are a very important part of your student career."

"Yes, sir I will. Thank you for letting me borrow your book, and please thank Professor Snape fore me too." Harry said earnestly.

"Of course. Now, I really must be on my way. I promised an old friend I would drop by while I am in the neighborhood."

Harry nodded and wondered who Dumbledore knew in a muggle neighborhood. Aunt Petunia ushered the old wizard out and said, "Harry, we really should be going now. She grabbed the car keys from the table and dragged Harry out of the door.

*** *** *** *** *** ***

Dudley had showered and was ready to go when they arrived at the park. They ate out for lunch. While they were waiting for their lunch to arrive aunt Petunia sprang a little surprise on them.

"All right boys. We are going shopping. You both need some new clothes.", she said grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Harry choked on his cherry coke. "What?" He asked looking at his aunt as though she had just grown a second and third head.

"Vernon and I decided that the both of you need some new clothes.", she explained.

It turned out that Harry had actually been blessed all these years receiving Dudley's hand me downs. Aunt Petunia forced the boys to try on, what seemed like, hundreds of outfits. She finally approved of three pairs of jeans, five t-shirts, four dress shirts, two pairs of dress pants, a new pair of Nikes, and a pair of black Doc Martin boots.

Some of Dudley's former spoiled self made an appearance. He argued with aunt Petunia over a shirt that said, "Got Wood?". She ended the argument very quickly when she snapped loudly at him, "My boy- boys will not wear that pornographic filth!" People had turned to look at what she was yelling at, and Dudley turned a rather lovely shade of crimson.

They picked up uncle Vernon and headed home after shopping. The boys played wizards chess against Uncle Vernon. Their tag team efforts proved to be in vain. The chess pieces were quite fond of Uncle Vernon and told him as much.

Dinner was once again fantastic. Dudley told them all about his practice and his team mates. He was very disappointed because practice had been canceled for the week after next. It seemed that Coach Witherspoon cancelled practice for one week every month due to illness. Harry thought that was quite odd and decided to check is calendar later. As far as Harry knew coach Witherspoon was a muggle, but could muggles be werewolves?

After dinner the boys rushed up to Harry's room with the wizards chess set. They were determined to annihilate uncle Vernon tomorrow night.

Hedwig allowed Dudley to pet her while Harry pulled a few things out his trunk to make the potion.

"Professor Snape gave me a potion to help you. I need to prepare it now. Would you open the window. I don't know how this is going to smell. I have never made it before."

Preparing the potion turned out to be quite easy. Professor Snape had had Dobby pick up all of the prepared ingredients as well as the ones he would need to practice for his O.W.L.S. While bottling up the potion Harry explained to Dudley, "You need to take one fluid ounce every morning before breakfast for seven days."

Dudley eyed the potion and sniffed. "What does it do?"

"It is a health potion. It helps your body adjust and with your continued hard work you will be able to loose weight again." Harry explained.

Harry ducked out of the room to use the bathroom. He cleaned his potions equipment and went back to his room. He found Dudley looking through his parents' photo album.

Dudley looked up embarrassed. "I'm sorry, I was bored. Are these your parents?"

Harry laid his potions equipment on his desk to dry. "Yeah." He answered shortly.

"You look exactly like your dad!" Dudley exclaimed. "You have his hair and everything. You have your mum's eyes. Wow. She was beautiful."

"Yeah," Harry said proudly, "everyone says that."

"Who is this guy?", Dudley asked pointing to a man in the book.

Harry sat down beside him in order to take a closer look. "Oh, that is my godfather Sirius Black. He was their best man."

"What!? The murderer?" Dudley cried.

"Well, he was arrested for murder, but he was innocent." Harry took the book and flipped forward a few pages. "This is the creature that told Voldemort where we were hiding. He is the one that framed Sirius." He said venomously.

Dudley eyed Peter Pettigrew's rat like face and nodded. "He looks like a rat."

Dudley noticed the angry look on Harry's face and decided to change the subject. He took the photo album from Harry gently and placed it back into the Hogwarts trunk. He noticed something silvery and pulled it out. "What is this?" He asked.

Harry grinned. "That is my invisibility cloak. It was my dads." He said proudly.

"No way!" Dudley shrieked. "Do you use this to sneak into the girl's bathroom?"

Harry chuckled. Actually, he had used it to sneak into a bathroom and a girl, ghost girl that is, had been in there. "Not really. I do use it to sneak around, but not to do anything that Professor Dumbledore would get angry at."

Dudley's confused face demanded an explanation.

"He can see through invisibility cloaks.", Harry explained.

"Whoa!", Dudley said placing the cloak back into the trunk, "he must be a very powerful wizard."

Harry nodded. "Yes, he is considered, by most, to be the most powerful wizard of his time. He is a really great man. Even Voldemort was afraid of him when he was at the peak of his powers."

"Wow." Dudley said in an awed voice.

Aunt Petunia knocked on the door. She brought them a tray of soy chocolate milk and soy vanilla biscuits again.

"Thank you aunt Petunia." Harry said.

After she had left Harry said, "These aren't half bad, huh."

Dudley looked away and nodded. "Yeah, they are all right."

Shortly afterward Harry fell asleep. Dudley picked up the tray and left the room quietly. Aunt Petunia came in to remove Harry's shoes, and glasses. She covered him up, closed the extra window, and turned out the light.

"Good night, Harry Potter.", she whispered kissing his forehead. She exited the room; Harry's tranquil breathing following her out.

Thank you again, to all that have reviewed. The next chapter is really going to be interesting. (at least I think so) This one wasn't really great, but I wanted to prove the Dursleys love for Harry a bit more before coming to the next part. I am so excited about the next two chapters! I will probably have them up tomorrow if I can manage to find the time to write them.