On June 23, 1980, Petunia Dursley gave birth to a daughter. The name that she and her husband Vernon gave her was Julie Anne Dursley. Vernon and Petunia were proud of their baby, and considered her the perfect addition to their lives. The Dursleys saw themselves as perfectly normal and would not have wanted it any other way.
Privet Drive, where they lived at number four, was a street in Little Whinging, a town near London. It was a rather boring town, and most of its neighbourhoods consisted of boxy houses that all looked alike with gardens both at the front and the back. The majority of the residents in this community were rich and snobby.
Being the head of Grunnings, a drill-making company, Vernon made good money and therefore they had everything they desired. Petunia was a housewife and she spent her days taking care of her child, cleaning the house, preparing dinner and spying on the neighbours. For all their seemingly idyllic existence, the Dursleys had a secret and they were terrified that anyone would find out.
Petunia's sister was a witch. They did not speak, but Petunia did inform her sister about Julie's birth. Approximately five weeks after that, Petunia's sister also gave birth to a child, a boy named Harry. Vernon and Petunia hated the idea of their daughter mingling with a kid like that, and they saw it as another reason to pretend those people did not exist. It was a simple yet peaceful life, until one day everything changed.
On November 1, 1981, Petunia had just kissed Vernon goodbye as he was about to leave for work, when outside on his doorstep he found some sort of bundle with a note. 'What the…' he said. 'Petunia!'
Petunia quickly made her way to the front door, where she found a baby. The baby had a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt on his forehead, and attached to the bundle was a note. Vernon and Petunia read the note together. 'Something about blood. What a bunch of baloney!' Vernon said, when the two of them had finished reading, 'we can't possibly take this kid in!'
Petunia just sighed and picked the baby up. 'Trust me, dear, we must. We have no choice.' The family was going to make sure, though, that their perfect daughter would always be their number one and that this boy would not negatively affect her in any way.
The boy, whose name was Harry James Potter, was made to sleep in a cupboard under the stairs even though the Dursleys had the room. Over the years, pictures of Julie growing up decorated the living room, but there were none of Harry. The Dursleys did not need any unnecessary reminders of his existence.
Sometimes weird things happened, though. One time Petunia gave Harry a truly awful haircut, just leaving a pluck of hair to hide that 'hideous scar', only for him to have all of his hair back the next day. Another time he had ended up on the roof of the school, but for all he knew he had simply jumped over a fence. It had also happened a few times that total strangers seemed to recognise him on the street. The funny thing was that all of those strangers were wearing robes.
Harry lived a miserable life at the Dursleys, getting no love or any form of positive attention, and was basically used as a slave. When he was younger he had dreamt of some unknown relative coming to get him, but like most dreams that one never came true.
On June 23, 1991, it was the day of Julie's eleventh birthday. She had brown eyes and shoulder length dark blonde hair. She was of average height and in good physical shape, due to her being an avid gymnast. She was spoiled, arrogant, conceited, selfish, narcissistic, petulant, unkind, lazy, manipulative, sly, and fairly intelligent. She could be the politest person on the planet if it served her interest. She liked gymnastics, cooking, reading, taking naps, eating chocolate, watching television and most of all annoying Harry. She took after the example set by her parents and loved to bully and humiliate him. At school, she was the primary reason for Harry's lack of friends, as she was the queen bee and nobody dared to go against her. She never let an opportunity pass by to get Harry in trouble; just the other week she intentionally made him trip while he was carrying a tray. He was sent to his cupboard without any meal.
Harry was woken up by knocking on his cupboard door. 'Up! Get up! Now!' Petunia said, smacking the door once more before walking back into the kitchen. Harry groaned and took his glasses when suddenly he heard someone running down the stairs. The footsteps stopped about halfway down.
'Wake up, cousin! It's my birthday!' Julie screamed excitedly. She jumped on the staircase a few times, causing dust to fall on Harry's head, before she ran down. When she saw Harry trying to get out of the cupboard, she meanly pushed him back in on her way to the kitchen.
'Oh, there she comes, the birthday girl!' Petunia said when Julie entered the room. Vernon also wished his daughter a happy birthday, and then Petunia and Julie hugged each other. When Harry entered the kitchen, Petunia immediately told him to cook breakfast ('Don't you dare burn anything! I want everything to be perfect on Jewel's special day!'), before leading Julie to the table loaded with presents.
She did not exactly gasp with delight or do anything else a normal human being would do; she just stared at her presents for a few seconds before turning to her parents. 'How many are there?' she asked suspiciously.
'36, I counted them myself' Vernon told his daughter, who met his words with a glare.
'36?! Last year I had 37!' she spat.
'Yes, well, some of them are quite a bit bigger than last year' Vernon tried to calm her down, while Harry rolled his eyes.
'I DON'T CARE HOW BIG THEY ARE!' Julie screamed and she slammed the table with her palms. At this point Petunia stepped in. She gently placed her arms around Julie's neck.
'Now, now. Here's what we're going to do, when we go out we'll buy you two new presents! How's that, Juliebee?' Satisfied with that, Julie grabbed the nearest present and began opening it. The phone rang and while Petunia went to answer it, Harry and Vernon watched Julie happily open up present after present. When Petunia re-entered the room, she looked rather worried.
'Vernon, we have a problem. Mrs Figg tripped over one of her cats and broke her leg. She can't take the boy.' Mrs Figg was an elderly woman who lived across the street, at number eleven. Whenever the Dursleys did not want to take Harry with them, such as on Julie's birthday, other family outings or when they went on vacation, they dumped him at Mrs Figg's. Harry hated it there; the house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg always made Harry look at pictures of her cats.
Upon hearing the news, Julie's mouth fell open in horror and she abruptly stopped unwrapping the present she was holding. 'How selfish of that woman to break her leg on my birthday! Doesn't she realise that my birthday only happens like once a year?'
'So, what do we do now?' Petunia asked, ignoring her shocked daughter.
'We could phone aunt Marge' Vernon suggested.
'Don't be silly, she can't stand him.'
While her parents were discussing various possibilities, Julie slowly continued unwrapping her presents, eyeing her parents suspiciously and shooting Harry an angry look, as if it was somehow his fault.
'We could just leave him here' Petunia said. Harry liked that idea. He could enjoy some peace and quiet, watch television at his leisure and maybe even play some games on Julie's computer.
'And find the house in ruins when we get back?' Vernon said.
Petunia sighed. 'Looks like we're out of options. We'll have to take him with us to the zoo.'
'But I don't want him to come! He always ruins everything!' Julie whined. Petunia hugged her daughter again.
'Don't you worry, popkin. I'll see to it that he won't ruin your special day. Okay?'
Julie said nothing, glaring at her mother instead.
'How about we'll buy you even more presents?' Petunia said quickly.
'How many more?'
'As many as you like, sweetheart.'
'Okay, mummy' Julie said after a few seconds, now smiling sweetly at her mother, who, feeling most relieved, hugged her again. Over her mother's shoulder, she shot Harry a nasty grin and then continued opening her presents. It was actually amazing how she could always get her parents to give her anything she wanted, as long as she acted angry or upset enough. Her parents never corrected her and always gave positive attention to her wrong actions, which made it no surprise that Julie was a rather angry, impulsive, manipulative and irresponsible person. After she had opened all of her presents, which took a while, the family headed to the car. While Petunia and Julie got in, Vernon stopped Harry for a moment.
'I'm warning you now, boy. Any funny business, any at all, and you won't have any meals for a week. Get in!'
It was a warm Sunday afternoon and there were a lot of families at the London Zoo. Harry kept his distance from the three Dursleys and actually really enjoyed the day out. Nothing special happened, except for when Julie threw a tantrum in the restaurant when her sorbet was not 'big enough' and she was given another one. Harry could not believe his luck when he was allowed to finish her first sorbet.
After that they went to the reptile house, where they looked at a large boa constrictor. It was sleeping on a rock, and directly behind the glass was a little pond with brown water. On the back wall there was a nice painting of a jungle and the side walls had plants as well as some signs with information.
'Make it move!' Julie said. Vernon looked up from his little guide book and rapped the glass. It did not work. Julie then rapped the glass much harder. 'MOVE!'
Harry could not help but sigh. 'He's asleep!' he said pointedly, looking at his cousin.
'I don't give a flying flapdoodle, he's boring!' she scoffed, before turning to another enclosure.
'Sorry about her, she doesn't understand what it's like, lying there day after day, having people press their ugly faces in on you' Harry said. Suddenly the snake looked up and blinked. 'Can you hear me?' Harry asked incredulously. The snake nodded. 'It's just… I've never talked to a snake before. Do you, I mean, do you talk to people often?' The snake shook its head. 'You're from Burma, aren't you? Was it nice there? Do you miss your family?' The snake turned its head towards a sign that said Bred in Captivity. 'I see,' Harry said sympathetically, 'that's me as well, I never knew my parents either.' Suddenly he heard running.
'Mummy, dad, come here! You won't believe what this snake's doing!' Julie screamed, before planting her elbow in Harry's ribs. She put her hands on the glass wall, while Harry, who had fallen to the ground, glared at her. Suddenly the glass just disappeared, causing Julie to lose her balance and topple into the enclosure with a shriek. With a loud splash she landed straight into the muddy pool, instantly becoming soaked through. Despite his shock Harry could not help but laugh, and he watched as Julie shivered from both cold and fear when the snake slid right above her out of the exhibit, coming to a halt in front of Harry.
'Thanksssssss' it said.
'Er, anytime' Harry replied.
People started screaming and running when the snake headed for freedom, and amidst the echoing screams Julie slowly clambered out of the pond to get out of the cage. However, she could not. She panicky felt with her hands until she came to the realisation that the glass had reappeared, which meant that she was stuck inside. 'Mum, mummy! Help me!' she screamed with fear in her voice. Petunia and Vernon, walking by, spotted their unfortunate daughter trapped in the exhibit. Petunia shrieked and ran to the cage, with Vernon following.
'My darling girl! How did you get in there?! Who did this to you?! Is there a snake?!'
Seeing Julie's predicament and hearing her scream for her mummy made Harry laugh so hard that he had a stream of tears running down his face. That is, until Vernon caught him laughing and shot him a very threatening look. Harry's grin disappeared at once. He suddenly realised just what had happened and that he was now in big trouble. While Julie (who was almost crying) and Petunia kept screaming and rapping the glass, a serious fear came over him.
Some twenty minutes later, park service got Julie out of the cage through a hatch in the back and gave the family a blanket for free, which they wrapped around her. She was very distraught and whimpered all the way home, apparently feeling very cold, wet and humiliated. To say her birthday was ruined would be an understatement. When they got home, Petunia immediately put her daughter under a hot shower ('It's all right, sweetheart. We'll get you out of these terrible clothes!'), while Vernon furiously asked his nephew what happened.
'I swear, I don't know! One minute the glass was there and then it was gone, it was like magic!' Harry said earnestly.
Vernon scoffed and shoved Harry into the cupboard. 'There's no such thing as magic!'
Vernon locked Harry in the cupboard for three weeks. He was allowed out only two times a day for toilet breaks, and for the rest he just stayed in it. He did get a meal a day, even though Vernon had said that he would not. It was the most severe punishment he had ever been given. He did not regret the incident, though, for he felt that Julie had gotten exactly what she deserved. He just did not understand how the glass could disappear and then reappear; it did not make any sense.
By the time his punishment was over, the summer vacation had started. He grabbed his book and went to read in the sunny garden, when he saw Julie was already doing the same thing there. She looked up when he sat down in the chair opposite to hers, but she did not say anything until about ten minutes later. 'Hey, do you want a drink?' she asked.
Harry looked up in surprise. 'Er, a glass of water would be nice.' She got up and went inside, only to return with one glass of apple juice. She put it on the table in front of her and continued reading. 'Er, did you forget my drink?' Harry asked politely.
Julie looked up from her book and smiled smugly. 'No, I just asked you if you wanted a drink, I didn't say I would actually get you one.' She broke into a fit of giggles and Harry sighed.
'That's not very nice.'
'Who said I was nice?'
Harry decided to not let her get to him and got up to get a glass of water himself, as he had gotten thirsty. When he came back he saw Julie had placed her feet on his chair.
'Julie,' he said calmly, 'what are your feet doing on my chair?'
Once again Julie looked up. 'What's your chair doing underneath my feet?' she replied pointedly.
At this point Harry had had enough of her little stunts; he promptly grabbed the chair and pulled it away from Julie, who instinctively strengthened her feet's grip. As a result, she flew off her chair and landed with her bottom on the concrete terrace. 'Ow!' she screamed, getting up and looking at her hands that had partially taken the hit. She glared at Harry and ran past him inside. 'Mum, mummy! Harry pushed me off my chair and it really hurt!'
Sure enough, Julie came back with Petunia in tow. Petunia did not give Harry a chance to tell his side of the story and made him clean all of the windows by means of punishment. With Harry washing the garden side windows, Julie went back to her chair. She did not get back to her book, but just watched with amusement how Harry did his chore. Harry felt incredibly stupid; he should never have let Julie get to him like that. He did, however, feel somewhat proud of himself when he did not react to Julie throwing her apple juice at the window ('You missed a spot!') he had just finished cleaning.
The next day Petunia and Julie went to London to get her Smeltings school uniform, consisting of a red tie, a white blouse, a red blazer, grey stockings and a grey skirt. Smeltings was the same school that Vernon had attended, and despite having some doubts about sending her to a boarding school they were certain that it would be a good school for their daughter. Not least because Smeltings had a very competitive sports programme, and so Julie could continue developing as a gymnast, under professional guidance.
When Harry entered the living room he saw Julie posing in her uniform, with Vernon and Petunia fawning over her and taking pictures. 'Aw, can you believe it Vernon, our little girl is growing up so fast!' Petunia said rapturously.
'Proudest moment of my life!' Vernon said.
'Will I have to wear something like that too?' Harry asked, kind of ruining their moment.
'You, go to Smeltings?' Petunia asked, annoyed as always when he dared asking a question.
'Ha!' Vernon scoffed. The two of them burst out laughing, and Julie joined in after a few seconds.
'Don't be so stupid, you're going to the state school where you belong!' Petunia said and as if to emphasise her words she walked over to the kitchen, where she had put a laundry-basket on the kitchen counter. 'This is what you're going to be wearing, when I finish dying it.' She lifted something grey and very soggy out of the basket.
'Those are just some old clothes, they'll fit me like an elephant skin!' Harry protested.
'They'll fit you well enough!' Petunia said pointedly, 'now go get the post!' Harry sighed. Well, at least for the first time he would not have Julie with him at school, and so maybe he could actually make friends there. When he went to get the mail, he was shocked to find that one of the three letters was addressed to him. After all, he had never received any mail before. Mr. H. Potter, The Cupboard under the Stairs, 4, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey. Harry stared at the letter in disbelief, then started making his way to the kitchen. He gave the letters to Vernon, still captivated by the letter that really was his. That is, until Julie rushed over to him and snatched the letter right out of his hands.
'Dad, look, Harry's got a letter!' she screamed, handing it over to her father.
'Hey, give it back, it's mine!' Harry said.
'Ha, who'd be writing to you?' Vernon asked him in a mocking tone. He turned the letter over and saw what it was about. His grin disappeared immediately, and he looked at Petunia, who had also seen the letter. 'Julie, Harry, out! Now!' Vernon said loudly, immediately sparking protests from both of them.
'I want to know what it's about!'
'It's my letter, give it back!'
To regain control Vernon slammed the table, startling both children. 'OUT!' he bellowed.
'Come' Julie whispered to Harry, before softly touching his arm and leading him out. Harry figured she had the right idea and followed. In the hall they tried to overhear Vernon and Petunia but to no avail; they could not hear a thing. Harry glared at his cousin.
'You idiot! If you hadn't taken it from me, I'd have been able to read it!' he snapped at her.
'Hey, that's not fair, how could I know that? Also, bit rich calling me an idiot when you could've just put the letter in that cute little cupboard of yours and read it there, you halfwit!' she retorted. Harry realised that she had a point. Why did he not do that? Why did he not just put it in his cupboard before bringing Vernon the other mail? The rest of the day he kept thinking about the letter. Who would write to him?
The next couple of days letters kept coming in, sometimes at extremely odd places. One morning Petunia even found them inside a bunch of eggs! Since the letters were addressed to the cupboard, Vernon and Petunia decided that it would be best to move Harry to the smallest bedroom, which was currently used to store all of Julie's possessions that could not fit in her bedroom anymore. When Vernon told his nephew the good news during breakfast, Julie's face fell immediately. 'What? You can't possibly be serious, then where am I going to put all of my stuff?' she asked, containing her anger.
'Don't worry Juliebee, most of it can easily fit in the garage' Petunia said soothingly. Julie shot her mother a dirty look.
'And what if it won't?' she asked, now definitely sounding angry.
'How about you go upstairs in a minute and see which things you really want to keep and which things you aren't really fond of anymore? Then we can put the good stuff in the guest's bedroom and move the other stuff to the garage' Petunia said.
'I don't see why he'(she looked at Harry with disdain) 'can't just stay in his cupboard, like he's done for like ten years already!'
Harry did not say anything. He surely liked the idea of getting that bedroom, but he would rather be in his cupboard with the letter than in the bedroom without. Still he decided that it was best to just take it, and worry about the letter after. While he was gathering his stuff, he heard Julie argue with her parents.
'I need that room! How can you do this to me?! Don't you love me anymore?!' Harry then heard his aunt say something very quietly, and apparently that made Julie realise that she was not going to win this battle and succumbed to the inevitable. Maybe she did not care much about the bedroom after all and just did not want Harry to have it, or did her parents manage to convince her that it was for the best. Anyway, when Harry had finished grabbing his stuff he made his way to the bedroom; it only took him one trip to move all of his belongings. When he entered the room, he saw Julie was indeed scanning the shelves.
'So, you finally came out of the closet? I guess we're neighbours now. I hope my new plasma screen TV won't disturb you too much.'
'What new TV?' Harry asked.
'Oh, just the one I'm getting by means of compensation for losing this room to you,' she said, 'pretty neat, huh? Then we both got something today.' Harry sighed. So that is why she had suddenly given up the fight.
'Oh, wow, my video camera! I completely forgot about it' she went on. She grabbed it and inspected the microphone that came along with it, while aiming the lens at Harry. Harry looked at the shelf she had been emptying. He spotted Julie's first television set, that she had thrown out of the window in a fit of rage upon hearing that her favourite show had been cancelled. He also saw her kick scooter, some stuffed animals, a colouring book and some worn dolls. Ultimately the video camera was the only thing that she wanted to keep, and she threw the other things in the plastic bag that she had brought along.
'All right, you got everything you need?' Harry asked.
'Yup, I think so' Julie said, looking around the room once more.
'Very well, then I'd like you to leave my room' Harry said. It felt good saying that.
'Fine, it smells in here anyway' Julie sneered and then she left, slamming the door in her departure, leaving Harry alone in his new room. It was not much; all there was in it were a bed, a bedside table, a desk, a chair, the shelves and a wardrobe, but at least it was his.
Moving Harry from the cupboard to the smallest bedroom did not stop letters from coming in, and Vernon tossed all of them into the fireplace. One morning the family was having breakfast. 'Fine day, Sunday. In my opinion, best day of the week. Why's that, Julie?'
'I don't know, daddy.'
'Because there's no post on Sunday?' Harry asked.
'Ah, right you are, Harry! No post on Sunday. Ha! No blasted letters today!' Vernon said, and barely had he finished when a letter came flying through the fireplace right across his face. About two seconds later about a thousand letters came shooting out of the fireplace, straight into the living room. The noise was deafening, and the Dursleys all started screaming. Harry managed to grab a letter and ran away with it, only to be grabbed by Vernon before he could open it. 'Give me that letter!' he screamed.
'Get off! Let go of me! They're my letters!' Harry screamed back.
'That's it! We're going away, far away, where they can't find us! Pack some stuff for a few days, now!'
Petunia and Julie, who had followed Vernon and were now standing in the kitchen door, looked at each other speechless.
About ten minutes later everyone was in the car, Julie a bit shocked and quiet because Vernon had told her off for packing so slowly. It could well have been the very first time that her father was angry with her, and it had affected her a bit. Vernon drove for what seemed like hours, and it had gotten dark by the time they got to a hotel.
Harry had bad associations with long Dursley car rides. When Julie and Harry were eight, they went to Great Yarmouth for the weekend. That was actually the only time that Harry had been taken on vacation by the Dursleys, because normally they always dropped him off at Mrs Figg's. After about thirty minutes into the journey, Julie started complaining that she was nauseous; she had a pretty bad case of motion sickness at the time and the pills her parents had gotten her did not work. Disaster struck when they were about halfway there, and Julie vomited all over the floorboard in front of her. Vernon immediately took the first exit and Harry let out a sassy 'ew'. Maybe as a result of that, Vernon made Harry clean the car, while Petunia and Julie walked around on the parking lot, Petunia trying to calm down her whimpering daughter. When they went back on the road again, Petunia made Julie and Harry switch seats and the smell lingered for the entire duration of the trip until Vernon had the car cleaned professionally.
Vernon parked the car and went inside to ask if there were any rooms available, while Petunia, Julie and Harry stayed in the car. 'Mummy, I'm hungry!' Julie complained as soon as her father had slammed the car door shut. It was the first thing she had said since their departure, which was rather out of character considering she usually would not stop talking. Harry realised that he was hungry too.
'It's going to be okay, sweetie' Petunia said, but her voice was shaking a bit. Apparently she did not feel comfortable with the situation either. Julie just sighed and leaned her head against the window, presumably because she was feeling tired. Vernon came back smiling.
'We're in luck! They have two rooms left. Let's go!' He led his family to two tiny rooms farthest from the reception. Vernon and Petunia shared one room, while Julie and Harry got the other. To their horror there was only a double bed, that nearly took up the entire room.
'Wait a minute, I'll actually have to sleep in the same bed as you? Wow, and I thought this day could literally not get any worse!' Julie whined.
'Believe it or not, but I'm also not exactly looking forward to this' Harry said pointedly.
Julie looked at him. 'It's like a thousand times grosser for me to do this than it's for you so pipe down!'
Harry kept his cool. 'Your father said that the rooms we got were the last ones left, and considering how he's been acting today I don't think it'd be very wise for you to bother him with your complaints.'
Julie did not want to admit it, but she realised that her cousin had a point; she did not want to be told off again, she was not used to that and she did not like it at all. She sighed. 'There's not even a TV in here. I already missed about four shows that aired during the day, and now I'll miss like three more' she said.
'Can you stop being such a princess?' Harry asked annoyedly.
'Sure, as soon as you stop being a twat, which is never.' She angrily threw her suitcase into a corner, then looked back at Harry. 'You do realise that this is all your fault, right? If you hadn't gotten all those blasted letters I'd still be at home, lying in my large bed, watching my favourite shows on my plasma.'
Harry sighed. 'How's it my fault? I can't help someone sending me them, but it must be important considering how many I received.'
'Because, well… it just is.'
'Solid argument.'
'Why are you still talking? Nobody likes a person who doesn't know when to shut up!' Julie spat.
'Ah, that explains why nobody likes you' Harry said coolly.
Julie rolled her eyes. 'Careful now, or you'll have two scars. Anyway, I just spent the entire day sitting in a car and now I got to sleep like this? Maybe I can detach it.' She walked up to the bed, but did so in very agitated fashion, and as a result of that she hit her toe hard against the bedpost. She screamed in pain and danced around the room, holding her foot. Harry could not help but laugh; he did not necessarily laugh because she was hurt, but at the comical fashion of it. Julie glared at him with tears in her eyes. 'Think it's funny, do ya?'
'Yes, very much so.'
She called him a bad name and then went to hold her foot under cold water. A few minutes later it became clear that her complaints had been a waste of energy, as she fell asleep within a minute. It took Harry a bit longer to fall asleep. As the sound of Julie's loud snoring filled the room, he sat by the window, watching the headlights of cars go by. He kept thinking about the letters, and if he would ever know what they were about.
The next morning they enjoyed a simple yet much welcomed breakfast, before they went to check out. 'Eh, these came for you earlier this morning' the hotel receptionist said, handing Vernon a ton of letters. Vernon groaned, took the entire bunch and disposed of them outside. Back in the car, Petunia tried to convince her husband to just return home.
'It's no use, if they can find us here, they can find us anywhere!' she said.
'Yes, daddy, please just take us home!' Julie joined in.
'No way, I'm not giving up that easily!' Vernon said.
'But…' Julie started, only to be interrupted immediately.
'No buts! What I say goes. If it helps any, consider it a road trip.'
'Yes, on the highway to hell maybe!' Julie snapped. Vernon got annoyed with his daughter and glared at her through the rear-view mirror. Julie went quiet immediately, probably intimidated and realising that she should not provoke her father too much. Instead, she just leaned her head against the window, just like she did yesterday.
Evening had fallen by the time they stopped at the coast. Like yesterday they were all hungry and tired. Vernon had gone out of the car and he seemed happy when he came back. 'Everybody out! I got us the perfect place to stay, no way will they find us there!'
He pointed at a rock in the sea, about 200 yards from the shore. Petunia, Julie and Harry all reluctantly got out; it was cold and raining. To their horror, Vernon made them sit on a boat, which he rowed to the rock on which was some sort of run-down cabin. The boat trip only took about fifteen minutes, but it felt like hours. The cold, the rain, the wind and splashing water made them shiver; Julie and Petunia were clinging to each other to keep warm. When they finally reached the rocky island they immediately went inside.
It was the most depressing place Harry had ever seen. There were only two rooms and it smelled really bad. As they ate dinner, consisting of a banana and a bag of crisps, the weather outside worsened; the wind became so powerful that it caused the walls to shake.
'Dad, will we get a refund if this thing collapses?' Julie asked, but she did not get a response. After dinner, Petunia made Julie a bed on the sagging couch using some old blankets she had found, while she and Vernon got a double bed in the other room. Harry was not given any blanket and thus he was forced to find the softest spot on the cold floor. It was about nine p.m. when they went to sleep fully clothed, trying to forget their misery. Harry noticed that Julie was very scared of the storm; she was constantly sitting up and whimpering softly whenever they heard a clash of thunder. After another bang, Julie suddenly started speaking. 'You can't sleep either, can you?'
'No, but at least you got the sofa' Harry said.
'You know, that's not the only thing I've got. Watch!' she said. She got off the couch and walked towards her backpack. To Harry's surprise she took two apples out of it. 'Took them with me from the hotel, because I'm so smart' she said smugly. She began eating one.
'Can I have the other one, please?' Harry asked enviously.
Julie grinned evilly. 'Let me think for a second. No.'
Harry sighed and rolled onto his side, away from her. He felt Julie looking at him, and then suddenly something bizarre happened. Maybe she felt sorry for her cousin as he was lying there on the floor without a blanket, trying to keep warm. 'All right, here you go' she said softly and not only did she hand him the apple, but she also gave him one of her blankets.
'Wow, thank you, Julie' Harry said. He was truly astonished.
'Consider it a birthday present' she said, and Harry realised that it was indeed his eleventh birthday in a few hours. She got back on the couch, looking at him as if she was already regretting what she had done. 'Dad has gone mad, hasn't he? Hopefully tomorrow we'll be back home' she said.
'That'd be nice' Harry said with his mouth full of apple.
'Well, we'd better get some sleep. It'll probably be another hellish day tomorrow. Good night, Harry' she said and she laid her head on the couch's arm rest.
'Good night' he said. Julie eventually fell asleep, but Harry could not get comfortable even with the blanket she had given him. He looked at her lighted digital watch. 11:50. He would be eleven in ten minutes time. With his finger he drew a birthday cake with eleven candles on the floor, and exactly at midnight he blew them out. 'Make a wish, Harry' he whispered to himself.
BOOM! A deafening noise caused the whole cabin to shake. Harry jumped to his feet and Julie woke up with a start. They watched how the door cracked open, and a giant man appeared. Harry backed away to a corner, while Julie started screaming, too scared to get off the couch. Vernon, holding a gun, and Petunia entered the room, as the giant man casually put the door back in its place. 'Sorry 'bout that' he said.
'I demand that you leave at once, sir! You're breaking and entering!' Vernon said, trying to sound brave, but his voice was trembling. To say the giant man was unimpressed would be an understatement; he walked over to Vernon, grabbed the gun and bended it upwards.
'Dry up, Dursley, yeh great prune' he said. The gun fired, and Julie started screaming again. The giant man now walked towards the couch where she sat frozen with fear. 'Budge up, will ya' he said.
'Y-y-yes, sir' she stammered and she immediately jumped off.
'Y-y-yes, sir' the giant man imitated her as she quickly ran to hide behind her parents. He then sat down and spotted Harry. 'Ah, there yeh are Harry! Last time I saw yeh, yeh was just a baby! Got something for ya. I sat on it but it should taste all right.' He handed Harry a present, which turned out to be a cake. Happee Birthdae Harry was written on it.
'Thank you!' Harry said.
'It's not every day that yer young man turns eleven, now is it?' the giant man said with a smile. He then took out an umbrella and pointed it at the fireplace. Out came two sparks and the fire started. Vernon and Petunia gasped and Julie clearly said 'wow!'.
'Excuse me, who are you?' Harry asked. The warmth of the fire felt nice.
'Rubeus Hagrid. Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. O' course, yeh know all about Hogwarts!'
'Er, no' Harry said.
'Blimey, Harry, yeh never wondered where yer mum and dad learned it all?'
'Learned what?'
Hagrid shot a furious look at the Dursleys. 'Yeh never told him? Yeh never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore wrote yeh?' The Dursleys were too scared to answer, so Hagrid turned back to Harry. 'Yer a wizard.'
'I'm a what?' Harry asked incredulously.
'A wizard, and a pretty good one after yeh've been trained up a bit.' Suddenly Julie snorted; not very loud, but Hagrid heard it as she had moved closer to Harry and Hagrid to hear every word of their conversation. 'Got something to say?' Hagrid asked her, somewhat angered by her interruption.
'Well… him? A wizard? Just look at him, you gotta be kidding!' she said with a smile that was probably the result of both nervousness and amusement.
'Look, yer not pretty enough ter be that stupid so dry up before I step on ya' Hagrid growled at her. Within a second she turned redder than a tomato, while Harry could not help but grin. Suddenly Vernon regained a bit of courage.
'I forbid you to talk to my daughter like that!' he said. Julie smiled at him, probably reassured of the fact that her father still loved her despite his odd behaviour the last two days. Hagrid ignored him and looked at Harry.
'It can't be, you've made a mistake… I'm just Harry' Harry stuttered.
'Well, just Harry, have yeh never made things happen yeh couldn't explain when yeh were angry or scared?'
Harry vividly remembered how he set the snake free about a month ago; it began to make sense now. Upon seeing Harry's face Hagrid chuckled a bit, and then he handed Harry one of the letters he had been wanting to read so badly. As he was reading about how he got accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and which books and equipment he was supposed to bring, Vernon suddenly started speaking.
'He'll not be going! When we took him in we swore we'd have nothing of this nonsense!' he said.
Harry looked up. 'You knew?! You knew and you never told me?!'
Then suddenly Petunia stepped in. 'Of course we knew! With my perfect sister. Oh, how my parents were proud when she got a letter just like yours! A witch in the family, how wonderful! It was always Lily this and Lily that but only I saw her for what she was – a freak! Then she met that Potter, got married and had you and of course I knew you'd be just as weird and freaky and if all that wasn't enough she got herself blown up and I ended up stuck with you!' She was panting after letting that all out, and Julie gently touched her mother's arm, whispering something to her.
'Blown up? You said my parents died in a car crash!' Harry said angrily.
'A car crash?!' Hagrid screamed.
'He'll not be going and that's that!' Vernon said firmly.
'Oh, and I s'pose a Muggle like yeh will stop him?' Hagrid asked mockingly.
'Muggle?' Harry asked.
'People who can't do magic, like these three losers here' Hagrid said.
'I won't pay for some crackpot old fool to teach him magic tricks!' Vernon said and then suddenly Hagrid lost his temper.
'Never insult Dumbledore in front of me!' He whipped out his umbrella and pointed it at Julie. Before any of them could realise how weird it was to be threatened by a pink umbrella, there was a flash of red light, a loud bang, and a squeak of pain. Harry watched with both shock and amusement how Julie rolled up her sleeves to find that both her arms were now covered with feathers! All of the Dursleys were now screaming and Vernon pulled both Petunia and Julie, who shot one last terrified look at Hagrid, into the other room.
'Ha!' Harry could not help himself.
'I shouldn'ta done that' Hagrid said and he shook his head. 'Wanted ter turn her into a chicken, but apparently with a voice like that she was already close enough. Please don't tell anyone about this Harry, I'm not s'posed ter do magic ya see.'
Harry nodded. 'All right.'
Suddenly Vernon came bursting back into the room, dragging Julie along with her arm. It was no surprise that she was wincing while he did that. 'I demand that you fix this at once!' Vernon screamed, pulling Julie's arm and showing it to Hagrid. Julie squealed and looked at Hagrid with sheer terror.
'Sorry, Dursley, no can do. I know how ter give 'em, but not how ter remove 'em' Hagrid said.
'So, now what? How are we supposed to explain this to a doctor?'
'Dunno, be creative like yeh were with that car crash story. Anyway, Harry, we better be off, we've fallen behind schedule. Unless yeh'd rather stay of course.'
Harry followed Hagrid outside without any hesitation.
The month of August was not a good time for Harry. The Dursleys were all so mad at him that they ignored him completely, which at first was a good thing, but after a while it became somewhat suffocating and depressing. Julie was supposed to be at gymnastics camp, but because of what happened to her arms she could no longer go. She was too scared to go outside and now spent her days lying on the couch, watching television and wearing long sleeves to cover her feathers. Vernon worked during the week, while Petunia spent most of her time pampering Julie after her traumatic event, bringing her ice cream and cold drinks whenever she called. Whenever Julie saw Harry she glared at him; it was very clear to him that she held him responsible for what happened to her arms.
Harry mostly kept to his room, reading his new school books; he found them all fascinating and he could not wait to go to Hogwarts. One afternoon he went to the kitchen to get a drink, when Julie, hearing the sounds in the kitchen, mistook him for her mother. 'Mummy, can you bring me a glass of water?' she whined.
'Of course, Juliebee!' Harry imitated his aunt.
'Oh' Julie said, feeling slightly embarrassed. Harry looked at her and she quickly turned her focus on the television again. She had started to feel really uncomfortable around Harry, who picked up on that quickly. Much to her displeasure, Harry sat down in the chair next to the couch she was lying on. Suddenly she started to sneeze, loud as always, and her sleeves dropped so Harry could see the feathers on her arms. Feeling extremely awkward, she immediately covered them up again, and Harry grinned.
'Does it hurt when you dry off your arms after taking a shower?' he asked casually.
'Mum's right, you're a freak and I can't wait for you to leave. If I never see you again, it'll be too soon!' she snapped at him, sounding furious.
'Then I guess we've got one thing in common after all, I can't wait to leave either' he said coolly. He stood up. 'But…' he said.
Julie looked at him. 'What?'
'At least your arms will be warm during the winter.'
Julie made a very satisfying angry noise, but at that point Petunia entered the kitchen and to avoid any problems Harry just went back to his room.
Finally, it was the last day of August and Harry decided that he should talk to his uncle about getting to the station the next day. 'Er, uncle Vernon?'
'Yes?' Vernon said without looking up from his newspaper.
'I need to be at King's Cross tomorrow, could you please give me a ride?'
'All right' Vernon said, much to Harry's relief.
'Thank you.'
'But only because we're going up to London anyway, we're taking Julie to a private hospital to have those bloody feathers removed.'
The next day Harry woke up very early, extremely excited about going to Hogwarts. He packed all of his stuff, making sure three times that he had not forgotten anything, and then waited for the Dursleys to wake up. It was painfully quiet in the car. Julie was terrified of the surgery she was about to undergo and did not say anything, and her eyes did not seem to register anything. All in all, Harry was very happy to arrive at the station. The Dursleys drove off as soon as he had unloaded his trunk, and then he started to look for platform nine and three-quarters.