Leaving Privet Drive
Although it was great to see his Aunt and Uncle fretting, Harry was a little concerned about what type of transportation arrangements the Weasleys would make to get him to their place. Harry did love the Weasleys, but being wizards, their idea of proper transportation was probably miles away from what the Dursleys would be.
However, it turned out that his fears were unfounded. A few days after Harry sent Errol with his return message, a rather ordinary looking car pulled up in front of the house one evening. Harry, who was washing the living room windows, peered out and saw Mr. Weasley, Ron, and the twins, Fred and George, climbing out of the car. He threw his rag into the bucket of water he was using and looked over at his Aunt and Uncle, who were taking turns watching TV and watching him work. "They're here!" he said, trying not to look too excited, since the Dursleys really frowned upon anything that made Harry very happy. "I'll answer the door."
"Do you believe this?" Uncle Vernon growled. "Just showing up, without a phone call first? What kind of people are these. Weasleys?"
"Obviously not very well bred," Aunt Petunia agreed with a sniff of her constantly upturned nose.
Harry ignored him and went to the door. After all, they needed something to complain about, or their day just wouldn't be complete. He opened the door, just before Mr. Weasley had a chance to ring the bell.
"Oh, hello Harry!" Arthur Weasley exclaimed. "I was just about to try out this doorbell thingie. I've never had the chance to ring a muggle doorbell before."
"Err. well, that might not be the best idea," Harry said, looking over his shoulder, at the Dursleys who were coming up behind him to see what was going on. "I mean, we already know you're here."
Mr. Weasley could barely contain his disappointment, fascinated as he was, with all things having to do with Muggles. His disappointment vanished when he saw the Dursleys. He smiled and walked past Harry, into the house to greet them. "Hello! You must be Harry's Aunt and Uncle, it's a pleasure to meet you." He held out his hand.
There was an awkward moment, as Uncle Vernon simply ignored Mr. Weasleys outstretched hand, but just gaped at him. For Mr. Weasley was wearing a faded wizard robe, clean, but worn and patched in several places. Harry was quite used to seeing robes like these--most wizards and witches wore them--but to Uncle Vernon, they were entirely wrong.
Harry barely noticed the awkward silence from his guardians, as he greeted his best friend. "You don't know how glad I am to see you," he whispered into Ron's ear.
Ron looked past him at his Aunt and Uncle and nodded. "Can't say as I blame you," he whispered back. "Cripes, they make flobberworms look soft and cuddly."
"Does your aunt always look like she's been sucking lemons?" George mumbled softly into Harry's other ear.
"And does your Uncle have a stick up his backside?" Fred inquired, a bit louder than George, but still not loud enough for the Dursleys to hear. "Or is that just some fashion statement for Muggles this year?"
Harry tried not to laugh by bit his lower lip and settled on grinning instead.
"My, my, what a lovely home!" Mr. Weasley exclaimed, as he walked past the Dursleys and looked around with keen interest. He had obviously decided to ignore Uncle Vernon's rudeness in his excitement to be in a real muggle household. He looked over at Harry's Aunt and Uncle and beamed. "Can't tell you how happy we are that you've agreed to let Harry come and stay with us for a bit. My wife is all excited, as is the rest of the family. We quite enjoy Harry's company, but I'm sure you do too."
Aunt Petunia stared at him, as if he suggested she should kiss a bug. Uncle Vernon's face turned beet red. There was very little they enjoyed less than the presence of Harry Potter and they found it almost impossible to believe anyone else would.
"Uhm, let me just go get my things," Harry said, deciding the best plan would be to get out of here as soon as possible. "My trunk is upstairs."
"Boys, why don't you help Harry with his things?" Mr. Weasley suggested. The three Weasley boys nodded and followed after Harry as he hurried up the stairs.
Once in Harry's room, which seemed very crowded with four boys in there, they hurried to grab Harry's things. Fred and George grabbed his trunk and carried it out of the room. Harry looked around the room carefully, making sure he wasn't going to leave anything behind. He had cleared his stash of food under the floorboards last night, locking it safely in his trunk.
"I think we have everything," Harry said.
"Good," Ron grabbed a bag and let Harry take Hedwig's cage. "The sooner we get out of here, the better. Harry, your aunt and uncle give me the creeps."
"That's nothing," Harry murmured. "You haven't met Dudley."
Harry was actually hoping that they would all escape without a chance to meet Dudley, but apparently, that wasn't in the cards. When he and Ron went downstairs, they saw Dudley (he was a little hard to miss) standing inside the hall, looking very nervous. He had been out visiting one of the neighborhood boys, but had returned.
Harry tried not to laugh. The last time Dudley had met a wizard, he had ended up with a pig's tail, which had to be removed at a London Hospital.
Mr. Weasley didn't know about this encounter, and was smiling at Dudley. "You must be Harry's cousin. So nice to meet you!"
Dudley whimpered and tried to slide away, his arms crossed over his chest, over the rather bulky sweatshirt he was wearing, even though it was a hot, summer day. Harry bet that at this moment, Dudley suddenly wished he wasn't so enormous. Boys like Dudley could "slip away" about as easily as a hippopotamus.
Mr. Weasley looked at Vernon and Petunia with a puzzled expression on his face. "Harry never mentioned his cousin being so shy," he commented. Harry could tell he was actually worried about the boy.
Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia said nothing. Uncle Vernon's eyes were narrowed into steely slits and Harry could tell he wouldn't have minded a bit of magic right now, if it could make the Weasleys and himself just disappear.
Fred and George had taken Harry's trunk out to the car, and were returning now. Mr. Weasley beamed at them. "Harry's trunk all set?" he asked.
They nodded. Fred looked up at Harry and winked, then looked over at Dudley, who was still attempting to inch his large bulk down the hallway. "Hi Dudley!" he called out. "Sorry we didn't see you pass outside!" He managed to sound convincing, even though it was next to impossible to believe Dudley could pass anyone without being notice.
"Yeah," George agreed, also giving Harry a sly wink. "We were so looking forward to meeting you, Harry's told us so much about you." He started moving past the Dursleys and his father, trying to get closer. "Why, you're almost a legend at Hogwarts!"
Harry suppressed a smile. At the mention of the name Hogwarts, Uncle Vernon's face grew even redder while Aunt Petunia's seemed to drain of all color.
"Really!" Fred agreed. "The way Harry talks about you, you're considered larger than life around the place!"
"Boys," Mr. Weasley said slow, trying to flash the twins a look of stern warning, but they were too intent on Dudley to even notice. Dudley himself was folding his arms tighter around his chest, as if it would make him smaller.
"In fact," George continued, advancing on Dudley. "We'd consider it a real honor if we could shake your hand."
"Why, yes!" Fred agreed. "It'll make us the most popular kids in Hogwarts, if we can actually say we shook the hand of the infamous Dudley Dursley. It would show them all that we can brush up with folks in the big time."
"It would just do tons for us," George went on.
"A real whale of a treat."
Harry was stuck somewhere between being horrified and wanting to fall on the floor laughing. It was taking everything he had not to at least burst out in a fit of giggles. Ron wasn't doing nearly as well, but had his hand over his mouth to stifle the worst of his laughter.
Dudley backed into the wall. "Noooo!" he shrieked.
"You get those nasty boys away from my Duddums!" Aunt Petunia shouted, starting towards Dudley
"Boys!" Mr. Weasley said sternly.
It was too late. George had grabbed onto Dudley's right hand, while Fred grabbed on to the left. They pulled them away from his body, attempting to shake them, but a sudden clatter interrupted them.
The clatter was the sound of several objects hitting the floor and the objects themselves were coming from under Dudley's sweatshirt. A bag of chips, a box of cookies, four candy bars, two individually wrapped snack cakes, and a bottle of fizzy drink, which exploded on the tile and began spraying liquid all over the place.
"My hallway!" Aunt Petunia wailed, "I ju-" She never finished the sentence, as the bottle spun around, and slammed her in the face with foaming liquid.
"Dudley!" Uncle Vernon roared. "I've been starving myself all summer for your diet, and you're smuggling in food?"
"I have to, Dad, I'm dying of hunger!" Dudley whined as he raised his hands to his face to fend off a spray of fizzy drink. The drink spun around, emptied the last of the drink all over Uncle Vernon.
"My!" Arthur Weasley said in open admiration as he looked at the quantity of drink soaked food lying on the floor around Dudley. "Are you sure you don't have a bit of wizard in you? I can't see how anyone could hide that much food under a shirt!"
Uncle Vernon turned to Mr. Weasley, his face so red that Harry half expected blood to start spurting out his pores. "My son doesn't have any of that foolishness inside him!" he thundered.
"I'm sorry, " Mr. Weasley began, openly puzzled at Mr. Dursleys hostility. "I wasn't meaning to insult Dudley, but you have to admit, that is an enormous quantity of food to have been hiding under-"
"Get out of my house, now!" Uncle Vernon shouted.
Harry was caught between laughter and being mortified. He hated seeing Uncle Vernon turn on the Weasleys like this, especially because it really wasn't their fault Dudley was smuggling in food. If Dudley hadn't been such a greedy little pig, this never would have happened. "Mr. Weasley, I really think we should leave," he suggested.
"Perhaps that is for the best," Mr. Weasley agreed. "Come on boys, let's go."
"Yes!" Aunt Petunia wailed. "You take your filthy children and get out of our sight! Your type shouldn't be allowed around good folks like us!"
Mr. Weasley had been headed to the door with Ron, the twins, and Harry, but he suddenly stopped. Harry looked up and saw something in his face that he almost didn't recognize. Harry had seen it often in the face of Uncle Vernon, but never in the good-natured Arthur Weasley.
It was anger. Not an unhappy sort of displeasure as he sometimes showed when the twins were up to mischief; this was genuine, furious anger. He turned to the Dursleys. "My children are not filthy. And it is not their fault that your son is a-a- very large boy!" Then, before the Dursleys could respond to this attack, he spun on his heel and walked out the door, behind the boys.
No one said a word as they piled into the car, which on the outside looked like an ordinary sedan. Inside, it was much larger. Harry half expected Uncle Vernon to come running outside, just to yell out the last word, but thankfully, he stayed inside.
Mr. Weasley climbed in the back seat with the boys. There was a Wizard, probably from the Ministry of magic behind the drivers seat, wearing an emerald green robe. The driver said nothing, merely drove out of the driveway and down the street.
Despite the awkwardness of the whole situation, and the tension that was radiating from Mr. Weasley, Harry couldn't help but smile. It would be quite a while before he saw Privet drive again and that was just fine with him.
End of chapter Two