As what Harry informed his cousin, they would leave the Surrey on Saturday evening at seven o'clock sharp. Harry wanted to roll his eyes at his Aunt's sentimentality. Dudley was just going to leave five days a week at most so they didn't have to act as if the fat git was going to some juvenile hall or rehab facility and stay there for years. But Midas was there giving him a look that clearly told him not to react. He, of course, not wanting to be in more trouble than he already was with his guardian, just stayed silent.
"Mr. Dursley please don't let go of the book," Midas instructed whilst setting up the portkey book in front of them.
"Let go, Dudley, and your body parts will scatter about the world," Harry added making Midas glare at his direction. He didn't care about Midas' glare. If that oaf was scared it would make sure that he wouldn't actually let go of the book. Fear did work in mysterious and sometimes marvellously harsh ways.
"1...2...3..." Their world started spinning after Midas finished counting. Slowly, it stopped spinning, and when it came to a full stop, all of them fell on a rug, apart from Midas who was in a standing position.
"Dudley, get off!" Harry snarled at Dudley who was on top of him. "You're breaking my bones you oaf!" Dudley was unable to stand, not until Midas lent a hand. Midas helped him up on his feet as well. He coughed, and gasped for air at the same time fixing a glare on Dudley.
"Boys, break it up." There was an underlying warning in Midas's voice. "Harry don't be too grumpy, it's his first time on a portkey."
"Doesn't mean he should fall on over me," he talked back. Midas gave him a stern look. "Whatever."
"Harold, fix that attitude of yours before I extend your grounding until the start of the next school year," said his guardian austerely. "Keep up that attitude kid and I won't sign your Hogsmeade slip."
Harry huffed and crossed his arms petulantly. "Fine."
Midas sighed deeply. "Very well," the man said, "Harry, Ethan you know where your rooms are. Dudley I'll show you to the guestroom where you'll be staying." Ethan nodded and went to his room on the right wing whilst Harry went to his room on the left wing.
"Should've let him stay in a pigpen outside the castle grounds," Harry muttered as quietly as he can whilst walking away from Midas, pulling his trunk along. He didn't like unwelcome people around him.
Harry stopped walking to face a non-moving portrait of an old couple, Mr. and Mrs. Flamel. He sighed, he really missed the old couple. They were such nice teachers and grandparent figures. A pity that they had to end their existence by destroying the stone and it was all because of that stupid megalomaniac, Voldemort. Sighing once more, he continued to walk until he reached the end of the hall near at the entrance of a balcony. At the right side before that entrance was the door to his room in the castle.
Harry opened the door slowly, feeling every moment of it. He clapped his hand twice and then light coming from the torches illuminated the large room. A living room set was in the middle of the room and a large four-poster bed on the right side.
"Porthos!" he called.
"Called Porthos so soon, master Evandrus?" Porthos said whilst in a bowing position. "What can Porthos do for master?"
Harry shrugged. "I need someone to talk to, I guess," he said with uncertainty. He just called for Porthos on a whim.
"Mr. McGregor is outside, Master, why not him?"
Harry scoffed. "I don't want to talk to him," he said stubbornly, releasing his hold on his trunk as he stomped to the couches.
Harry heard Porthos sigh before his clothes and his belongings started rearranging themselves on their respective places.
"Now what is bothering Master Evandrus?" Porthos asked, taking a seat beside him.
What was bothering him anyway? He only started acting that unruly when Professor Dumbledore made him Mr. Postman, and then there was Midas grounding him and having Snape postpone his mastery for the whole academic year, and then there was Dudley Dursley staying in his castle. Rationally speaking, there was no reason for him to be that riled up. Professor Dumbledore just told him some concerns and asked that he deliver a letter; Professor Snape and Midas rightfully punished him for basically disobeying them and managing to get near Death's hand, again; And Dudley was there to learn from him. No reason right? Or maybe he was angry that he was going to teach Dudley against his will. What did that old man have in mind anyway when he made him Dursley's tutor? He was certainly not a teacher material.
Harry sighed. "I don't know," he finally said to Porthos before relating everything that he had in his mind, mostly about unwittingly agreeing to be a blasted tutor. "Ugh...I hate it that I don't know things. I only know that my ire got fuelled due to the fat git's tactless aunt." He was definitely not over Marge Dursley slandering his guardian. Had he very little control of himself, he would've blasted the woman with his magic, damning what the consequences would be. Nemo me impune lacessit, he thought severely. Or in his case, no one insults his family without impunity.
"Master says that not everything gets served in silver platter, be it life, wealth, knowledge or information." Porthos bowed to him respectfully saying "goodnight." before popping out of the room without even a warning, leaving Harry alone once more in his thoughts.
Being alone didn't last long though because Midas came through the door after a knock.
"Harry, may I speak with you?" Midas said in a calm voice. Harry just shrugged in response. Midas walked over to the couches and sat down on the one opposite of him.
"Alright Harry, what is with this attitude of yours?" Midas asked him pointedly but calmly. "Ethan told me that you've been hot headed ever since the dinner. Harry, do you not like that your cousin is here, that you're going to teach him? If so I'll take over the job for you." Harry was still just looking down on his feet, not knowing what to say.
"Harry please, answer my question."
"I'm just frustrated, alright!" he exclaimed, looking straight into Midas' face. "Ever since the start of it all I've been frustrated at about everything that's been happening. It was alright before, I accepted my punishment, losing my apprenticeship for a year hit me harder than I expected, there's you taking all my privilege and then there's...there's during the dinner days ago I found out that I'm that mudblood's -"
"Harry," Midas said his name warningly when he used that word.
"Fine, when I found out that I'm his teacher and then I'm in that annoying aunt of his's presence, my mind became scrambled again I don't know why!" He brushed away the tears from his eyes that he didn't notice were falling before sighing. "I don't know okay? This place was supposed to be mine, where nobody uninvited will be here and now he's here in my castle."
"So, you just don't want him here?"
"Of course I don't want him here!" he snapped. "I- he's uninvited! I didn't even know that I'm supposed to bring him here! He got to be here first even before the others who are perfectly welcome here!"
"I'm not supposed to feel this way. I'm not supposed to think this way," Harry said when he noticed that Midas was just listening attentively to what he has to say. "It's irrational to think this way, dad, it really is. I'm not even making any sense at all. There is no reason for me to be this angry that he's here apart from I just got coerced into teaching him." Midas just listened to him rant.
"Didn't your godfather realise that I'm not supposed to be doing magic?" he questioned Midas with a frown. "That I'm supposed to follow the law?"
"Harry, sometimes there are more important things than playing nice with the law."
"I know that!" he said irritably. "But I'm disobeying the law in his due, not mine. I'm disobeying the law for him, him of all the people that I could possibly do that for! He's not even my friend. He's only my blood relative, my only cousin on my mother's side as a matter of fact." And then it hit Harry. Most probably, the main reason why he was completely riled up was because he was breaking the law. He was breaking the law not for his interest but for another person's. Another person whom he wouldn't give a knut should that person be in trouble, or even in a life-threatening problem.
"If my meddling Godfather forgot to tell you, Harry, you have permission from the ministry to use magic," Midas placated. "You and Mr. Dursley are exempted from the law for the whole summer holidays. Not that they can detect the magic here but, it's just for precaution."
"He couldn't have told me that tiny bit of info?" he questioned in annoyance.
"And how will you react about it hmm?" Midas asked him, looking amused.
"Ok," he conceded, "so maybe I'll throw a hissy fit about it dad."
"Are you alright now, sonny?" asked Midas.
Harry took a deep breath. "Yeah, I'm good."
"Very well," Midas stood up, "goodnight Harry."
"There's also another thing," he added, resulting in Midas sitting down again. "I got angry during the dinner because of that fat git's aunt slandering you."
Midas blinked. "Slandering me?"
Harry nodded. "She said you're irresponsible and all for letting Ethan and I live alone and I got angry. Was always angry after that."
"You and Ethan don't think I'm irresponsible do you?" Midas questioned him.
"Of course not!" he said vehemently. "You're the most responsible dad I know."
Midas smiled, ruffling his hair. "I'm glad you think so sonny boy, so just don't mind her, alright?"
"Ok dad."
"Alright, good night again, sonny."
"Goodnight dad." Midas gave him a hug before leaving the room.
"Porthos!" he called out and Porthos instantly appeared.
"You are one meddling little house-elf," he said to Porthos in amusement.
Porthos shrugged. "It did help young master," the house-elf pointed out.
"Yes it did," he agreed. "And that is why I'm lucky to have you as my house-elf."
"Porthos is flattered, master, very flattered." Porthos said before popping away.
Harry was in a fairly good mood the following day although he did frown a bit and was close to throwing a fit when Midas didn't allow him to tag along in Diagon Alley to buy Dudley a wand and some other supplies for the incoming school year, except the books because Hogwarts was yet to send a letter regarding the required books.
So in the middle of the afternoon, Harry Evandrus was alone inside a castle whilst Midas, Ethan and Dudley were in Diagon Alley to buy their respective things and Seraphim was out of the castle hunting for some food in the nearby woods. Harry took it as a perfect time to practice his Animagus form. He flew straight to his room as soon as the three left for Diagon Alley, figuratively speaking of course. He locked the doors just to be sure that no one would just barge in his room.
He said the password in front of his two-way mirror before calling for his brother. He waited for a couple more minutes before Lars appeared.
"Oh hello brother!" Lars greeted him with a grin. "How is it going there? Are you alone?"
"It's fine, and yes I'm alone," he replied. "Are you as well?"
"Yeah, I'm in my room. Uncle Remus is gone for the week because of his furry little problem and uncle Sirius is in the Auror office." It was perfect, Harry thought. They can practice their forms without any interruption for the time being.
"What time will he return?"
"Uncle Sirius? Six o'clock probably," Lars said uncertainly. "I'm not really sure."
"That's good enough," he said to his brother. "Here's what you'll do, cast a silencing charm around your room, wandlessly, and we'll practice our forms." Lars nodded like a bobble-head before waving a hand around. "Right, all done. What's next?"
"The usual, Lawrence, focus on the form that you want to take. We are in what part now?"
"Head."
"Yes, head," he agreed. "Do all the transformations that we have practiced and then try the head. You go first and I'll check." Lars nodded at him before closing his eyes. Slowly, his brother's skin, from the hand upwards, changed into feathers, except his head.
"Again," Harry ordered. Lars nodded and shut his eyes again and soon, feathers started to cover Lars' whole neck. The transformation stopped at that.
"You look like a mascot without a mask," Harry remarked, to which his brother replied with a scowl. "Speak, Lawrence." His brother opened his mouth but instead of speaking, his brother coughed out small phoenix feathers.
"This...is...gross..." Lars said in between his choking session. Harry couldn't help but laugh at his brother's state. "Is...not...funny...snake...boy..."
"Believe me it is," he said to his brother. "Try changing back." Lars concentrated again and reverted back to his human skin.
Well mostly human.
Lars's whole face turned into feathers instead of remaining human. Harry just hoped that his brother would manage to remove it before Sirius arrives. If not then his brother's grounding might extend for the next lifetime or so and then if Sirius would relay it to Midas, Harry would be grounded until his death.
"Oh come on!" Lars exclaimed in exasperation when after a few more tries, he still couldn't get rid of half feathers on the other half of his face.
"Lawrence, relax," Harry said to his brother. "Try it again later, but for now, check mine, alright?" Lars took a deep breath before nodding.
Harry closed his eyes and concentrated on his transformation. He could feel the change crawling up. When he opened his eyes once more, he saw his brother cracking up, laughing like a hysterical maniac.
"You're literally a snake boy, brother," Lars said in between laughs. Harry scowled at his brother before looking at a bigger mirror. He certainly was surprised when he saw what he looked like. His hair was gone, his head was full of green and slimy looking scales, (which, honestly, was a bit disgusting), his eyes were of yellow green slits and, when he opened his mouth, his tongue was also that of a snake.
"Well thissssss isssss annoying," Harry said pointing out that his tongue kept slipping out, just like a snake's.
"At least you didn't choke, snakey."
Harry scowled once more at the nickname. "Between 'bossman' and 'snakey', I prefer bossman."
"Well, speaking of bossman, snakey, where's Raph?"
Harry shrugged. "The snake is outside of the castle," he answered without much care. "That's where animals belong do they not?"
"Oh yeah?" Lars challenged. "Then how come Hedwig is always with you?" Harry looked behind him to see Hedwig perched on top of his window.
"Touche'" he said to his brother.
Harry and Lars practiced for maybe an hour or two before they stopped. Lars showed disappointment when Harry had to stop their practice immediately. As much as Harry wanted to continue it, he couldn't, not for the time being because Midas had already arrived. Before going out of his room, Harry made sure that all of his body parts were already human. Midas would hang him on his toes or something of the like when the man found out that he was doing illegal, not to mention dangerous transformations.
Thankfully, his guardian didn't notice something out of the ordinary.
Midas left the castle that same day. They had a talk again before Midas left, something about controlling his temper, floo-calling if something bad should happen, and behaving themselves.
Harry made a study schedule for Dudley. He dared his cousin to throw a hissy fit about it but to his immense relief once more, Dudley conceded. After their lunch, Harry instructed Dudley to meet him in the library at thirteen hundred hours sharp, not a minute later, and if Dudley would be late for just one minute, everyone would be free forget about the lessons.
Harry stayed in a dark part of the huge library of Flamel castle as soon as he finished fixing all the things that they wiould need. A minute before one o'clock, at the same time Harry looked at the clock, Dudley arrived in the library. He didn't show himself to his cousin immediately, rather he went on to observe what his cousin would do whilst he wasn't there.
At first, Dudley seemed disappointed and frustrated. Most probably, it was because of his apparent absence. And then Dudley sat down on the chair by the table where Harry had placed the books that they be using. Consequently, Dudley took the book and seemed to be scanning through the pages. Harry thought that maybe his cousin was not going to be as inept as he assumed.
"You truly are interested," Harry said, stepping out from the shadows. Dudley jumped at his sudden appearance and the echoing of his drawling voice inside the large library.
"You've been there –wherever you were, all along?" Dudley questioned. Harry just nodded in response to his cousin's question.
"Don't do that, Harry, please don't," Dudley pleaded to him after a deep sigh. "I don't want to die early of a coronary."
"Lose weight and you won't," he retorted wryly. "By the by, where is Ethan?"
"Uhm," Dudley looked clueless for a moment before saying "I think he said something about going to the stables?" Harry pressed a hand on his forehead thinking about his brother who might get out of bounds with horse riding. He called for Porthos and ordered the house-elf to make bloody sure that Ethan wouldn't get himself killed whilst riding a horse. After that, he started discussing the lesson with Dudley. According to the Headmaster's missive, he would need only teach his cousin about the basics of all the subjects apart from History of Magic.
Harry showed Dudley the schedule that he had made. In the schedule, Dudley need only be in the castle for four days a week so there's a day that Dudley can just lounge about the castle unless he wanted to go home early. Transfigurations, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Charms, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, and Flying. Transfigurations would be on the same day as Astronomy, the latter being during midnight and the former during the afternoon. Defence would be on the same day as flying because he would only teach Dudley to fly for just an hour a week. Potions and Herbology, Harry would teach it both on the same time because the two were related. And then there's Charms.
"Are we clear about that?" he questioned his cousin once he had explained the schedule thoroughly.
"Yeah," Dudley answered. "Don't get me wrong, I like the schedule, you know, starting in the afternoon, but why the afternoon?"
"Because, Dudley," he began with a drawl, "believe it or not, my summer holiday does not and will not revolve around you. I have things to do, a lot of things as a matter of fact." Those things included his homework and an essay that he needed to write for Potions Monthly regarding the restorative draught he invented.
Dudley's brows furrowed. "Then why'd you agree to teach me if you have a lot of things to do?"
Harry ran a hand on his hair. "I got coerced into teaching you, alright?" he replied. "I got coerced, in a manner of speaking."
"But you said you were informed," Dudley asked, confused.
"Yes, I was informed that I will teach you," he confirmed. "I thought what the Headmaster meant, when he said that I teach you, was only about the Wizarding world. Now, I guess the Headmaster and I had something different in our minds when I said that I will do as he ordered."
"So, you agreed without actually agreeing?" Dudley said in understanding. "Did I get that right?"
Harry shrugged. "Yes, I suppose so if you put it that way."
"How are you in muggle school?" he asked his cousin, holding off the questions for a while. "Are you an achiever or something of that sort?"
Dudley chuckled humourlessly. "If you can call bullying different children every day as an achievement or something," his cousin said drily. "I'm nothing of that sort. I don't like school at all. It's boring. I just want to have fun."
"In short, you're an indolent twit," Harry concluded. "That wouldn't do at all. How do you suppose you can achieve something in your life if the only thing that you want to do is laze about?"
Dudley just shrugged. "I've never thought of it, I guess. I'm not much of a future thinker."
"It's nothing to do with being a future thinker," he said austerely to his cousin. "Common sense should have been enough. If you don't work hard, you get nothing. Life isn't served on a silver platter, Dudley Dursley. You may have been born with the privilege to get anything you want but that won't last for the rest of your life."
"I get what you're saying," Dudley interrupted. "I should change my attitude."
"Evidently," he said sarcastically.
Harry observed as his cousin went quiet. His cousin was oddly agreeable, very much so towards him. It was very unlike the first time they'd met.
"You weren't this resigned the first time I met you," he remarked curiously. "What happened?"
Dudley shrugged. "I don't know," said his cousin, "I guess I just realised that it's not so good to be pushed around."
"And how, may I ask, did you come by that epiphany?"
Dudley shrugged again. "Well, I got a taste of my own medicine. There's a bigger bloke than me in Smeltings, an older one and he's a bully as well, and I guess you would know the rest."
"I see." Got a taste of his own medicine indeed. "Well, Dudley, I can't say I'm not glad that you have reached that conclusion even if you should have seen it with your own eyes that getting beaten up to pulp is not very good at all."
"Yeah, I suppose it was daft of me to wait being beaten to a pulp by Darren before seeing how wrong I was." The name caught Harry's attention very much. Of course there were many people with the name 'Darren' but he still had to ask.
"The last name of that Darren," he began, slightly cautious and unhopeful that it wasn't the same person he was just thinking about, "wouldn't happen to be Gainsborough, would it?"
Dudley blinked. "Yes," his cousin drawled. "You know him?"
Harry wagged his eyebrows. "Well, same experience as you," he told his cousin. "His aunt is the one managing an orphanage."
"Wool's orphanage," Dudley said.
"Yes that," he confirmed. "When I ran away, that's where I've been for nearly a year before running away again and…...I suppose you'd know the rest."
"Now on to other matters." Harry wished not to reminisce about the past. "Do you play sports?"
"No, too lazy for that," Dudley admitted. "But I think football looks nice, and boxing."
"Well, there's a sport in school though I'm not really the best person to tell you about it." He would be an incredibly biased informer regarding Quiditch.
"How about a favourite subject in school?" he asked instead. "Any subject that you had a particular interest in."
Dudley looked up before answering. "Well I did like history, with the wars and all that stuffs."
"Well then perhaps you'll like History of Magic in school. Let's see, what else?" Harry paused. "Well I guess that's it." A thought entered, Harry's mind.
Harry cleared his throat. "Can you understand me?" he asked Dudley in parseltongue. Dudley frowned at first, giving Harry the initial assumption that Dudley can't understand him but then Dudley said "Of course I can. I'm not that daft."
Harry smiled in wonder. "Interesting," he drawled out, slightly unnerving Dudley by the looks of it.
"What–"
"Just stay there." Harry whistled a tune. It was part of Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker. He made it as a signal for Seraphim. A few minutes later, Seraphim appeared, slithering on the floor of the library whilst complaining about the call. Seraphim thought the whistle call inappropriate for someone who wasn't a dog.
"Do say hello to Seraphim," he instructed his dumbstruck cousin as he scooped up Seraphim.
"Uhm….hi?" Dudley said with a hint of uncertainty. Seraphim's head turned to him then to Dudley.
"Hello, bosssman'ss cousssin," Seraphim's greeting made Dudley jump up and back from the chair.
"Your snake can talk!" exclaimed Dudley after a few bouts of stammer.
"Wrong, Mr. Dursley." Harry said with a smirk whilst petting Seraphim's head. "You can understand their language or have you never had the experience before?" Dudley's uncomfortable and slightly guilty expression proved the latter otherwise.
"It was only one time," said Dudley, returning to his seat. "I thought I was imagining it in the zoo."
"You have nothing to worry about, Dudley Dursley," he said in parseltongue.
"I guess," Dudley answered with a shrug. "At least now I know I'm not going insane." Harry found it interesting that his cousin still replied in English as opposed to Parseltongue.
"Curious." he mused out. "You can understand the language but not speak it. Truly curious."
"You –you can do both?"
"Naturally," he answered proudly. "My guess is, it's due to you being a muggleborn. Parseltongue is a magical trait. Our ancestor who was a squib wasn't able to speak it. But nevertheless, it runs in our blood."
"Squib? Ancestor? Our blood?"
"A squib is a person who have magical parents or parent yet is not magical himself," he informed Dudley. "A muggleborn –which is what you are, is the opposite."
"And our blood? What do you mean by that?"
"Our blood through our ancestor Edmund Secundus," he said to his cousin.
"We are descendants of Salazar Slytherin. Edmund Secundus is his second son," Harry continued. "Salazar Slytherin is one of the founders of Hogwarts…." And then Harry went on to tell his cousin the things about their bloodline. He became quite annoyed though that Dudley would sometimes interject a comment whilst he was speaking, even more so when he said that they were related to the Dark Lord who started the second wizarding war. Dudley would interject things like 'no bloody way', 'we're related to a psycho?' and something of the like. When he was done, he repeatedly told his cousin not to tell it to anybody, including his parents. No one may know that Dudley was related to Slytherin so telling people that he could understand, though not speak, snake language was very out of the question. The world cannot yet know their line, not until they managed to clean their ancestor's name.
"There's also another thing you should know," he said to Dudley, "but I want your word that you're not to repeat it to any soul, especially not to your mother and father."
Dudley looked oddly at him for a second before saying, "Sure, why not?"
"A proper word, Dursley, or else I'll have you make an unbreakable vow with me." Seeing Dudley's confused expression, he explained the mechanics of an Unbreakable Vow.
"Alright, you have my word that I won't share the information to anyone at all," said Dudley, sounding all sincere.
"Your relative, Myrtle Ann Dursley-"
"The one who-"
"Yes," Harry cut off his cousin rather tersely. "Her. It was no freak accident that killed her. Lord Voldemort, back when he was a teen-"
"Murdered her." That was the last straw for Harry. Not really liking being interrupted, he said rather loudly "cease your bloody interruptions!" Dudley leant back a bit at his outburst. Harry had always been irascible when it came to people who would frequently interrupt him.
"Look, if you want to make this tutorial work, don't ever interrupt me, alright?" Dudley nodded. "I bloody loathe it, Dursley, so do keep that in mind."
With the conversation they had, the postponement of the lesson for just an hour turned into nearly the rest of the day. They would just start with Transfiguration next week. Harry couldn't do well if they would drift off from the schedule far more than he already had.
"Why weren't you with your father?" Dudley asked when Ethan had relayed how the two of them met in an orphanage years ago before being taken in by Midas. They were just eating dinner when Dudley started asking questions about their lives.
"Well, long's to be short bud, your dear Uncle James Bighead Potter is the world's biggest asshole," Ethan answered before Harry could. Not knowing, or rather not wanting to say any more about the topic, Harry just nodded in agreement at what his brother had said, focusing instead on his meal that he had hoped to eat in silence.
"Where are we?" Dudley shot another question.
"In the middle of nowhere." Ethan deadpanned then Dudley looked at Harry who immediately gave a look clearly giving the message not to ask anymore question that he wouldn't give an answer to.
They diverted from their schedule on Transfiguration but not on Astronomy. Half an hour before midnight, Harry had his cousin woken up so they could begin their lessons. Dudley acted like a brat at first which completely irked Harry that he ordered whoever house-elf he assigned on Dudley to use a water conjuring charm to get his fat lump of a body off the bed.
"Dudley, I swear, if you refuse to listen to what I'm saying, you're going to have a single step shortcut to the castle grounds." Harry had been trying to get his cousin to focus for the last fifteen minutes since they started to no avail.
"Harry," Dudley whined, "why can't we just do this in the morning?"
"Can you see the constellations during daytime, Dudley?" When Dudley yawned, Harry felt a vein popping on the side of his head. "Alright, that's it. You're going back to Privet Drive tomorrow." If Dudley won't listen to him because of sleepiness then to hell with it with the teaching stuff that he is supposed to do.
"Oh come on you rotter," Dudley protested, "you know I'd gladly listen to you when it comes to magic. But, man, come on it's the bloody midnight!"
Harry sneered. "Porthos!" The instant Porthos appeared Harry immediately ordered the house-elf to get Dudley a cup of bloody coffee.
"Drink the blasted caffeine drink and stop whining," Harry practically barked.
"Now, are we done here and may you please start listening to everything that I'm teaching you?" Dudley nodded. "Thank you!" Harry supposed that the lessons for the rest of the week went well after that, except the occasional shouting that Harry did whenever his cousin wasn't listening to what he was saying.
Harry's diagnosis of his cousin when he taught the subjects for the first time was far from outstanding but it did exceed his expectations. Dudley was a bit hopeless in Astronomy because he couldn't even be bothered to imagine the constellations. His cousin had exceeded his expectation in Defence and Charms because he had a hang of using jinx and some charms, most probably because he was interested in it considering that the common notion in the muggleworld about wizards was wand-waving.
His cousin was passable in Herbology but not so much in Potions because he had no grace with regards to using the tools. His cousin had always ended up destroying the ingredients.
Transfiguration, Harry wasn't sure what the length of his cousin's ability in the subject was when it would to that subject because, like many first years and first time users of magic, he was unable to transform the match into a needle, he had only managed to transform it half-way but Harry took it as a good sign that maybe his cousin was not entirely hopeless in that area.
And lastly, Flying. It was well, Harry supposed. Dudley had proven his foresight wrong by not being overly excited to try and do stupid stunts.
All in all, everything went positively well. Dudley was quite a good student when he was not hungry or sleepy. And, for someone Harry would call a dunce, Dudley could grasp concepts well, like Lars, but not so much in an overall application. Harry just hoped that his cousin would still be like that for the rest of their little tutoring session and, of course, when in school.