Well, I guess Dudley grew up a bit. Most people do sooner or later. So now he's more like his father than anything else, I guess… Except he's even more afraid of magic.

2. Uncle Freak and Aunt Loony

One very important thing needs to be said about the Dursleys: they are Perfectly Normal. At least, if your idea of Perfectly Normal involves calling everyone who is a little less boring than you a freak. And that day they were expecting a visit from people who were, in their opinion, the biggest freaks in the world. Daisy was about to find out, why she had never met Uncle Harry before…

XXX

Daisy looked at herself in the mirror. She wasn't a particularly pretty girl. She did have blonde hair and blue eyes, and this is how beautiful girls are usually described, but she was also rather plump and the best you could really say about her was average. Of course her mother would sometimes say that Daisy looked like a little angel, but mothers of plump children with blonde hair often seem to think angels are round and pink. Daisy realised that she looked rather stupid in the new pink dress she had been forced to wear.

'Why do I have to dress up like this anyway?' she asked.

'We need to show those -' dad was about to begin another speech about freaks, but mum interrupted him.

'This is a very special occasion, isn't it?' she said.

'Well, yeah, but -'

'No but's!' dad snapped. Daisy knew better than to annoy him when he already was nervous.

'All right…' she sighed.

XXX

An hour later the atmosphere in the house was becoming rather unpleasant.

'Freaks like them are always late,' Mr. Dursley muttered, even though the Potters were not really late yet.

'Calm down, Dudley,' Mrs. Dursley told him 'It will be all right.'

'You don't know them, darling,' he told her.

'If you hate them so much,' Daisy said 'then why did you invite them anyway? I mean, if they are really so bad -'

'Sometimes you have to talk to people you don't like, Daisy,' he explained. He had worked for his father's company for a few years and knew business is mostly about talking to people you don't like. And pretending to like them.

'But why?'

'They can be useful sometimes,' he said simply.

'Uncle Harry says you have to go to that magic school,' mum pointed out 'And we can't help you there. You need his help.'

Daisy knew her parents didn't like the idea. She wasn't sure what to think about it herself. Surely magic couldn't be that bad. But if it wasn't, why were mum and dad so afraid of it? She had always been told that abnormal things like magic are… well… abnormal and therefore wrong. Some small part of her, however, was excited about it anyway. Another part of her was worried about that part's sanity.

The doorbell rang, quite suddenly, interrupting her thoughts before she could decide if she was happy, excited, worried, scared out of her mind or dreaming and just about to wake up and realise the Letter had never really existed.

'I'll get it,' she said and went to open the door.

XXX

When she opened the door, Daisy saw three people: a man, a woman and a boy about her age. The man must have been Uncle Harry. Daisy was surprised to see he didn't resamble her dad at all. Neither did the boy, who, Daisy assumed, was her cousin. In fact, it was the woman, who looked most similar to Daisy. She also had blonde hair and blueish-gray eyes. Of course apart from that she didn't look like Daisy at all. She looked rather strange in fact, although Daisy wasn't sure why.

'H-hello,' Daisy said.

'You are Daisy,' The woman didn't really ask a question, she just seemed to know.

'Um… Yes,' the girl said 'How did you know?'

She wondered if it had something to do with being a witch.

'Your dad told my parents about you,' the boy said in an 'isn't it obvious?' tone 'That's why we're here.'

'Oh…' said Daisy and then she turned to the man 'You're Uncle Harry, right?'

'Yes,' he said 'And this is Aunt Luna and your cousin, Jimmy,' he introduced the others.

'I thought you wouldn't come,' dad said when they entered the house.

'We said we would,' Uncle Harry reminded him.

'So, what's all this about?' Mr. Dursley demanded.

'Why don't we sit down?' Mrs. Dursley suggested as she entered the hall. It was clear that she wasn't exactly happy about it all, but she was taking it much better than her husband.

XXX

The atmosphere at the table was rather tense. Everybody was being quite polite and Mrs. Dursley even managed to keep smiling, but you could just feel that something was about to happen. Something bad. Mr. and Mrs. Potter were trying to explain the wizarding world to the Dursleys, Jimmy was looking around, apparently finding a Muggle house as interesting as a wizard's house might seem to a Muggle and the conversation at the table as boring as adults' conversations often seem to eleven-year-olds, Daisy listened and tried to understand, but the world of magic seemed extremely complicated. She wondered why it had to be so. Ever since she got the letter she had been trying to imagine what being a witch might be like, and she had always thought that magic was supposed to make life less complicated. If it didn't, what would anybody need it for?

'What's that magic school like?' she asked Jimmy, hoping that maybe he could actually make it understandable.

'Hogwarts?' he said 'I'm just starting this year too. I only know it's in a big castle, and there are four houses there, and…'

This did, indeed, seem easier to understand, but was soon interrupted by the adults' discussion turning into an argument. The women managed to stay relatively calm, but the men were standing and shouting at each other.

'Get out of my house, you…' dad yelled. Aunt Luna and Jimmy stood up and headed for the door, but uncle Harry only looked at Mr. Dursley.

'You can forbid her to come to Hogwarts, Dudley,' he said calmly 'But she will still be a witch. And you know what uncontrolled magic can do…'

Mr. Dursley looked terrified.

'Are you trying to threaten me, Potter?' he asked.

'No. I am trying to give you advice'

'I DON'T WANT YOUR ADVICE!' Mr. Dursley screamed.

'Sometimes you need things that you think you don't want,' Aunt Luna pointed out.

'I-DO-NOT! Go to your room, Daisy.'

The girl left, knowing that she would hear everything anyway.

XXX

Later that evening, when the argument was finally over and the Potters had left the Dursleys' house, Daisy heard knocking on her bedroom door.

'Come in,' she said. Her father entered.

'So…' Daisy asked him 'am I going?'

Dad didn't say anything.

'I'm not,' she guessed 'am I?'

'You are,' said Mr. Dursley.

Daisy wasn't sure what to think about it again. She was curious about the magical world, but she was also afraid of it.

'They are coming here again in two days, to help you prepare,' her dad informed her 'they're going to take you to some strange place to do your shopping.'