Chapter 1
This was it. The beginning of the end. The grand finale. The last straw. Potter was going down.
Dudley Dursley was ready to do whatever it took to get his cousin knocked down a peg or two (or ten…hopefully ten) and his plan involved a lot of punching and kicking. There was only one obstacle in his plan…the twig that Potter called a wand. That was the only thing that had kept Dudley from pummelling his cousin every day that summer, and every day the summer before, and every day they had to spend together in the last 5 years. Potter couldn't be happy to be an annoying git of a cousin to take up valuable space in his parent's home. He had to go turn into a bloody wizard and completely change the power structure in the house at Number 4, Privet Drive.
Before the letters had come, life was good for Dudley. He was pampered by his parents (still was, actually), feared by the neighbours and his classmates (nothing had really changed there either), and he had the ability to rule over his scrawny cousin. Potter never actually feared Dudley, and he never shrank away whenever Dudley walked into the room, but it didn't matter, because one word to his parents, and Dudley had the power to make Potter go without dinner, or wash the laundry or mow the lawn. When the letters came though, and Potter turned into a wizard, Dudley lost his hold on his cousin. Any time he'd try to get Potter into trouble, the weirdo would just threaten him with an engorgement charm (whatever the hell that was…Dudley wasn't going to stick around to ask) or something equally ominous sounding and smugly walk away. And Dudley was left quite irritated and full of a longing for vengeance.
And now, after several days of planning (having done much of the thinking involved during television advertisements for feminine products and mechanical beds) Dudley knew what to do to put himself at the top of the power structure. Potter's twig had to go. Without that stupid bit of wood, Potter was just the nothing Dudley knew he'd always been and always would be. Let Potter try to stand up for himself like a real man.
So one Thursday morning, Dudley woke up half an hour earlier than normal and dressed as quietly as possible, then stood with his ear pressed to his bedroom door, listening to the sounds in the hallway. Footsteps went past, the bathroom door closed and a few minutes later the shower started. Potter was out of his room and his belongings were now unguarded. Show time.
Dudley slinked out of his room and crossed the hallway to Potter's room (which by rights was Dudley's second bedroom, but when the weirdoes started spying on the family, his parents moved Potter out of the closet for appearance's sake). It was lucky Potter was a poor orphan, cause Dudley didn't have time to go through a bunch of wizard junk.
His cousin's room was rather bare, especially compared to Dudley's cluttered bedroom. There was a small banner with a lion on it tacked to the wall by his bed. A pile of papers and feather quills sat on the desk top (stupid wizards apparently hadn't heard of ball-point pens). A couple framed photos sat on the bedside table next to the clock and a round mirror lay on the bed next to the pillow. No sign of the wand anywhere. Apparently Potter wasn't stupid enough to leave it lying around.
With a groan, Dudley bent down to look under the bed when his foot caught against a slightly raised floor board. Bending down and inspecting it further, Dudley realized that the board could lift up and things could be stored underneath. Pulling up the floor board revealed a nice little hoard of wizard junk. Bottles of insect wings and silver powder, books about charms, hexes and potions, a broomstick servicing kit…and Potter's wand sitting on top of the lot.
A happy giddiness spread through Dudley's rotund body as he wrapped his fingers around the slim bit of wood. Potter would never be able to fight him off now. Things could finally go back to normal. Dudley would once again reign supreme. Life would be perfect again.
But maybe Dudley shouldn't just take the wand. Maybe he should take the books too. And all the other junk. That would really teach him. Then Potter definitely couldn't hurt him. Yes, that's what he'd do. He'd take it all.
Dudley grabbed for the books next, picking up a brown leather volume first. It didn't have any writing on the cover, but it was rather heavy. A passing curiosity came over him, causing Dudley to open the book to see what was inside.
He expected fairy dust to fly out from the pages, or for vivid diagrams depicting a decapitation reversal. What he found was something he would never have thought to find.
Harry's journal.