Adam had been right about both boys. After one week of the heavy schedule, Harry was much less enthused about the training but continued on with a dogged determination to succeed, without one word of complaint. Dudley, on the other hand, complained and whined constantly but accepted that the schedule was necessary and never refused to do as he was told.
When the end of the week rolled around, Harry had gained six pounds and while he couldn't run the whole hour in the morning, he was running for about forty-five minutes before he slowed to a walk.
Dudley, however, was still walking the entire hour. He had only managed to lose three pounds despite taking the potion at every meal. This confused Adam, since he was sure that he had brewed the potion correctly and even without the potion, the food and daily exercise should have caused more weight loss than Dudley was experiencing.
Adam was just about to pick up the potions book and set about brewing a new potion; it was possible that he had used an expired ingredient and that was what was causing the potion to react differently then it should, when Harry burst from the bedroom he shared with his cousin.
"Dudley's doing magic!" the words left Harry's his mouth at a near shout.
Adam was on his feet in an instant, rushing to help the boys. Adam stopped in the doorway and blinked. Every bit of the furniture in the room seemed to be shaking and spinning crazily, drawers and doors were opening and shutting of their own accord and Dudley had managed to levitate himself and his bed, the only piece of furniture not intent on shaking itself apart, more than two feet off the ground.
Adam could tell by the look on the boy's face that, while he was terrified now, he had been crying and crying hard.
"Dudley, listen to me." Adam coaxed as he eased into the room. When Dudley didn't respond, Adam tried a sterner, louder tone that got the boy's attention. Then, gently, "Dudley, its okay. Everything is okay. I want you to close your eyes and take a deep breath. Just like meditation, Dudley. You need to close your eyes and calm yourself." Adam noticed that the furniture, while still caught in the wild magic in the room, was settling down. He reached his hand out towards the bed that Dudley was levitating on and took over the spell so that once the magic calmed down and stopped, the bed and the boy would not suddenly drop two feet to the ground.
"That's it. Nothing here is going to hurt you. Everything is fine" Adam continued to mummer soothing words and he slowly lowered the bed to the floor. As soon the bed settled, Adam found himself with his arms full of an extremely upset teenager.
"W wh whats happening to me?" Dudley cried.
Adam continued to soothe Dudley, his mind racing. If Dudley was a wizard -- and by the looks of things, he was -- it explained quite a bit.
"Dudley, let's sit down, okay? We need to talk. Harry, why don't you take a seat on the other bed," said Adam, leading Dudley to his own bed.
Dudley had been raised from birth to hate and fear magic. He had watched how his parents treated his cousin and had been rewarded for bullying the smaller boy because of Harry's magic. Adam was sure that Dudley's fear of being treated like Harry by his parents, along with the positive reinforcement for behaving the way he had towards Harry, had caused Dudley to subconsciously lock away the magic.
"So I'm a wizard and now that I don't hate Harry or magic anymore, my subconscious is unlocking my magic?" Dudley asked.
"That's it exactly. Your acceptance of magic and your cousin have removed your fear to such an extent that your subconscious is no longer fighting with the magic to hold it in." Adam stood up and ran a hand through his hair.
"So Dudley is going to come to Hogwarts with me this year?" Harry asked.
"Yes I believe that is best. We will switch Dudley over to your schedule so that he won't have to start as a first year, but he will mostly likely be an independent study student this year. I will do what I can, but even I cannot teach him five years of magic in two months." Adam answered Harry before turning to Dudley.
"Great. Just great! It's bad enough I suck at regular school; now I get to be the Special Ed. kid at magic school!" Dudley snarked as he stood up and began to pace.
"Dudley, try to stay calm. Getting worked up won't solve anything and it might cause more accidental magic. As far as 'sucking' at school, this is most likely the reason for your learning disability. I also think this may be the original cause of your weight gain and why you're not losing weight as fast as you should now."
"I don't understand; why would it cause weight gain or my problems with school?"
"Dudley, magic has to go somewhere. What you need to understand is that you, in and of yourself, do not have any more magic than any other living thing on this planet. It's just that you, Harry and I can use the magic that flows through us. But that's the key: it flows through us. Magic is everywhere; the air, the water, the earth. We breath it in, we consume it at meal time, we bathe our selves in it. Everybody does. Not just you or me but your parents, Duncan, everyone. What sets wizards apart is that something in us traps the magic within our bodies and allows us to use it. It's like the moisture in the air, it builds up and eventually becomes rain because that moisture has to go somewhere. You subconsciously locked down your ability to release that magic. It had to go somewhere, because you weren't using it like Harry or I would." Adam paused trying to see if Dudley was understanding this.
"So a spell is like the rain, then; is that what you're saying?" Dudley responded.
"Yes, Dudley. A spell is like a light summer rain. But if it just builds and builds, you get a heavy shower. Harry and I don't fight our magic, so along with the spells that we do, our bodies also release small amounts of magic just like we do body heat. This helps keep the magic from building up and exploding out of us. What I think happened was that your body had to do something with the magic, so it started to store it in your fat cells. As a matter of fact, I think if we weighed you right now, you'd weigh less than you did earlier today. Not a great amount less, but at least a pound or two."
"Okay, I'm following the weight thing. But why would you think that it would cause Dudley's learning problem?" Harry asked.
"The subconscious is a part of our minds. Dudley was using a large portion of his to fight the magic. That meant that while he could learn, those mental abilities were limited. Like using something that requires two batteries when you only have one.