Chapter 3
Dudley's next year at Smelting was very similar to the first and seemed to nearly fly by, the only difference being his occasional dreams of flying cars, odd creatures, invisible people and his cousin. Then it was summer again and his cousin was home – still with locks on his door but now with an unbarred and partially broken window. His dad had fixed the outside of the house but the inner window frame was still cracked.
Once again the summer started off quiet, like all the ones before, but Dudley couldn't help but anticipate what magical event would take his cousin away this year. Would it be terrifying, like the giant, or cool, like that flying car? The thoughts bubbled in the back of his mind and distracted him even as he hung out with his gang. Then everything exploded at once, as it always seemed to happen with magic, thought this time it was a bit more literal.
Aunt Marge had been visiting for a week already when it happened. Dudley despised the woman.
She loved too pinch his cheeks and coo at him but never gave him anything he liked. His mother always forced him to dress in annoying, ugly, clothes and act nice when she showed up and then there was that nasty dog of hers, Ripper.
It had nearly bitten him more than once, an often chased Harry up trees (which was funny but then Harry was in a tree then he couldn't chase him). It also slobbered. A lot.
But anyway, Aunt Marge was complaining about everything over dinner again when she started on Harry and Harry's parents. Dudley had sort of been expecting that, Harry had been even better at avoiding her than usual till she had requested his presence at dinner – she probably asked for Harry to be there just to talk down at him. She seemed to have a quota of insults she needed to dish out every time she came over and Harry was a good target, however while cramming so many insults in at once she obviously went too far.
Dudley knew this for a fact, and not just because items started exploding and Aunt Marge blew up like a balloon, but because he had never seen Harry get that angry before. He knew Harry's moods, especially his cousin's anger and frustration, after all he was usually the instigator of such things in the smaller boy, but he had never seen Harry look like this before. His face was flushed, teeth and hands clenched, standing tall with chin raised, angry, sparkling, shiny, glowing green eyes looked on Aunt Marge's trembling but still growing form. His black hair and baggy clothes were moving in a nonexistent wind and small explosions only reinforced his hard glare and short words as the lights flickered and he left, grabbing his stuff and vanishing into the night.
The only thing Dudley could think afterwards even as two strange wizards in blue 'robes' came in to un-inflate Aunt Marge and erase her memory - were that he was glad he had never gotten Harry that angry at him and that he had never known that his cousin, the freak, could be so… impressive.