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I appreciate it very, very much and it motivated me a lot.
Again, I'll apologize ahead for easy language or mistakes!
Chapter 2: The Vanishing Glass (Dudley Dursley)
It was 8:30am on a sunny Saturday morning when a loud shrilling alarm disrupted the peaceful silence in the biggest bedroom in Privet Drive number 4. Dudley Dursley woke with a start. He roared angrily and smashed his big arm onto the nightstand, knocking off the annoyingly ringing clock and with a loud bang it shattered on the ground.
He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been cars, guns and police chases in it. Dudley was strongly reminded of one of his computer games he had been playing for hours yesterday. With a grunt he rolled over to the side again. Stupid alarm, he thought. If he wasn't mistaken it was Saturday, which means that he normally wouldn't get up for another few hours.
Dudley closed his eyes, intending to fall back asleep, but after only a few moments there was s soft knock on the door and his mother entered the room. "Where is my little birthday boy?", said Petunia in a singing baby voice. Dudley jumped. His birthday, of course, now he remembered why he had set the alarm! He turned to his mother and yawned extensively. "Where are my presents?"
His mother smiled affectionately. "Duddydums, they are downstairs... get dressed and come down, will you? Breakfast is almost ready too." Dudley yawned again but he didn't quite manage to hide his excitement. He lifted himself off the bed and grabbed the clothes his mother had laid out for him yesterday. It took him a while to get his jeans on; for some reason they seemed to get tighter every week. His mother was presumably too stupid to do the laundry properly, he assumed.
A few minutes later the boy bolted down the stairs loudly, making sure to startle his stupid cousin out of his sleep. He wouldn't let the little git miss the chance of watching him opening his presents. Dudley almost trembled in pleasant anticipation when imagining the envy on Harry's face that would undoubtedly show. Petunia waited at the bottom of the stairs to escort her son into the kitchen excitedly.
When Dudley entered the room his gaze immediately fell upon the table which was loaded with presents. It looked as though he had gotten the new computer he wanted, as well as a second television and a racing bike, which he only wanted because his friend Malcolm had one too and it was an imposition to watch him show off with it. His dad and Harry were already there, although the freak was still busy frying eggs at the stove. Was he being extra slowly, trying to provoke him?
"I'm hungry", moaned Dudley as a morning greeting and grinned satisfyingly when his mother shot Harry a nasty, warning look.
The boy seemed to understand and got a move on; Dudley was still counting his presents when Harry put the plates of eggs and bacon on the table. Dudley's face fell as soon as he had finished counting the parcels. "Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year." They can't be bloody serious!
His mother tried to defend herself. "Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mommy and Daddy."
"All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley annoyed, going red in the face and thinking of turning over the table. How can they dare to give him less presents than the year before? They couldn't embarrass him like this, especially not in front of the scrawny git who was wolfing down his bacon like a pig for some reason.
Luckily his parents were really easy to manipulate; his mother offered to buy him two more presents when they were out later. Dudley had forgotten how many presents he had just counted and tried to remember.
"So I'll have thirty . . . thirty . . ."
"Thirty-nine, sweetums."
"Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."
His father chuckled. "Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair and the boy snatched his head away.
He had just started to unwrap his presents when the telephone rang and Petunia left to answer it. His father and cousin watched him yank open parcel after parcel and Dudley was pleased to notice that Harry didn't succeed in hiding his jealousy entirely. However, only a few moments later his happiness turned into horror when his mother returned and announced, that the old bat called Mrs. Figg wouldn't be able to take Harry today and that his parents didn't seem to be able to find another babysitter either.
Harry eventually suggested leaving him in the house alone but Dudley couldn't fail to notice the excitement in his cousin's voice, no doubt thinking about the television and computer.
This had to be the worst day of Dudley's life yet.
Even though he hadn't been crying in years he knew that if there was one thing his mother wouldn't be able to bear it was seeing her little boy upset, and so he put on a tormented expression and began to wail loudly.
"I ... don't … want ... him ... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled, pretending to sob violently. "He always sp-spoils everything!" Through the gap in his mothers arms he could see the acidulous look his cousin gave him and shot him a nasty grin in return. He'd make sure that the freak wouldn't be allowed to come and he would remind his father to lock him into the closet. Unfortunately, the doorbell rang only a few moments later and Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once when his best friend Piers Polkiss strutted into the room.
"Are you guys ready to go?", asked Piers' mother. Petunia hesitated. "Well... we do not know where to … I mean … my nephew, he is … he doesn't like the zoo, so we allowed him to stay with a neighbor but she can't take him now and-"
Mrs. Polkiss turned to Harry, who was still sitting at the table, and smiled.
"You know, they did some renovations recently and now they have a lot of exciting new animals and shows … Maybe you can pull yourself together? … Please, I'm sure you don't want to spoil your cousin's birthday, do you?"
Dudley wanted to hit her; she was ruining everything! Harry was seemingly astonished at first, but then he returned her smile and said: "No, I don't want to spoil it for him."
"Great", laughed Mrs. Polkiss and beamed. "Well, I'll get going, be good Piers, will you? I'll pick you up at 5pm. Goodbye!"
Dudley was smoking with rage while his parents exchanged a nervous and angry look; apparently they thought that they couldn't leave Harry at home now, in case Piers would talk about it later. His mother then left the room, probably going upstairs to prepare for departure.
"Your stupid mother just ruined my birthday, thank you very much", he spit at Piers, who looked guilty.
"Aw man, I'm sorry. I don't know why she did that, I've told her that your cousin is a loser and that I can't stand him."
Dudley didn't listen; his dad had just pulled Harry off the table furiously and pushed him into the hall, closing the door behind them.
"Ssssh", Dudley hissed. As silently as possible he sneaked up to the hall door.
"I'm warning you," he heard his father whisper threateningly, "I'm warning you now, boy ... any funny business, anything at all... and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."
Dudley grinned when Harry tried to assure Vernon that he wasn't going to do anything. I guess we'll see about that, he thought. It wouldn't be the first time that his cousin got in trouble for doing... something.
Half an hour later the group was on their way to the local zoo.
It took Harry only fifteen minutes to set his uncle off for the first time. Dudley and Piers sniggered loudly when Harry almost made Vernon crash into the car in front by babbling about a flying motorcycle. It got even better when his dad turned around and yelled at Harry loudly, spraying his face with spit. Maybe this day wouldn't be so bad after all.
It was a very sunny day and the zoo was crowded with people. They had to queue up at the entrance and when they had finally gotten the tickets Dudley was already close to throwing a tantrum. His dad seemed to smell danger and bought chocolate ice cream for Dudley and Piers. It would have made him feel better but of course the stupid van lady had to ask Harry what he wanted, forcing his parents to buy him an ice cream too. At least they made sure to only buy him a cheap lemon chop stick.
They walked around the zoo for what felt like days; at lunchtime Dudley and Piers started to get bored. The sun was burning down mercilessly and Dudley was panting and sweating. He was also hungry and so they sat down in the cozy zoo restaurant. Two double cheeseburgers with fries later, Dudley's stomach still rumbled; his parents ordered a knickerbocker glory for him and Piers, which turned out to be an effrontery. Two little scoops, hardly any whipped cream and … fruits. Simply disgusting!
"Is this a joke? I won't eat this!", he screamed at his mother, kicking the table hard. "This birthday sucks, I want to go home!"
"D-Don't worry darling, mommy.. mommy will get you a new one okay?", Petunia said, trying to calm him down.
Dudley was fuming and didn't even care that his parents allowed Harry to finish the dessert. The waitress tried to hide her anger when she served the second knickerbocker glory, this one at least twice as large as the one before. Finally... but really, was it that hard?
After lunch they went to the reptile house where it was pleasurably chilly and dark. There were a lot of huge hairy spiders and impressive venomous snakes. Dudley and Piers were quite fond of the thick, man-crushing phytons and cobras and they quickly found the most enormous snake there was. It could have wrapped its body twice around his dad's car and crushed it into a trash can but sadly the snake seemed to be fast asleep. Dudley pressed his nose against the glass, ordering his father to make it move. Vernon tapped on the glass two times but the Brazilian snake still didn't move.
"This is boring", he moaned and walked away. He wanted to go home; only reluctantly he looked at the following terrariums, already thinking about his new computer games.
A deafening shout from the direction of the sleeping boa constrictor made him jump.
"DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"
Dudley spun around and ran up to his friend as fast as he could; Piers was standing next to Harry in front of the glass, shaking with excitement.
"Out of the way, you," Dudley shouted, punching his cousin in the ribs who fell to the floor. Dudley withheld a laugh; Harry was such a weakling.
Greedily he leaned against the glass, not daring to blink. The snake was now awake, it's head raised ... staring at them. He didn't know why Piers had been so excited though, but before he could ask him, he suddenly seemed to lose his balance, his body jerking forward. The handrail in front of the terrarium saved him and Piers from falling into the enclosure and the boys managed to catch themselves, leaping back with howls of horror. The glass has vanished!
The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. Dudley and Piers screamed loudly when the snake wiggled past them closely, touching their ankles. Dudley could have sworn he heard it hissing and he struggled to get up as fast as possible.
"Mommyyyy!", he bawled in horror and from the sound of it other people had noticed the slithering snake now too, screaming in panic.
"DIDDY DARLING!", his mother screeched, running up to him and embraced him tightly.
Chaos erupted and it took the shocked keeper of the reptile house a while to figure out what had happened. It was the zoo director himself who invited the family, the freak and Piers into his office a few minutes later and made a cup of strong, sweet tea for his mother. The director apologized over and over again, promising an investigation of the incident. Dudley and Piers hardly paid attention; they couldn't stop gibbering, trying to get it into the adults' heads that the glass of the terrarium had simply vanished into thin air, but nobody listened.
His parents then wanted to drive home immediately and when they were back in the car, Dudley thought it was now time to emphasize that he had almost died, already looking forward to receiving a sweat I-am-sorry-Diddybums fifty-pound note. But best of all, for Dudley at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry was talking to it, weren't you, Harry?"
His father waited until Mrs. Polkiss had picked up her son before starting on Harry. He was so angry that he could hardly speak; the only words he managed to get out were: "go", "cupboard", "stay" and "no meals". Dudley was shaking with laughter. He didn't doubt for a second that Harry had actually 'spoken' to the snake, considering his cousin was a brainless blithering idiot who probably thought animals could understand English, but he didn't really see the drama. In fact, Dudley couldn't comprehend why his parents were so furious about this because even he had to admit that there was no way Harry could be blamed for a glass that strangely vanished into thin air, but he nevertheless enjoyed seeing the freak getting punished. It was what he deserved, after all.
Harry had lived with them for almost all his life and everything Dudley had ever been familiar was, that his cousin was different. He didn't know how or why, but there had to be a reason why his parents didn't treat him the same way they were treating Dudley, right? Maybe it was the fact that Harry wasn't their real son; it was obvious that his mother didn't like to talk about her sister, Dudley didn't even know his aunts first name. Maybe it also had to do with all those strange, unexplainable things happening around Harry sometimes. There had been quite a few weird incidents the last few years, after all. Every now and then even people, complete strangers, acted oddly around his cousin, beckoning at him, and once a man even bowed in front of him and shook his hand. Be that as it may, it was obvious that his parents wanted to make Harry's life as miserable as possible and who would he be to question that? Anyhow, it was not his problem, was it?
Dudley lay in his bright room much later, his stomach filled, looking back upon his birthday. Overall, it had been a good one and now that he was in safety, even the incident with the snake suddenly appeared awesome and exciting. He grinned contentedly when he imagined his friend's faces at school on Monday, surely they're gonna admire him for his bravery. Maybe he could add a few more details to the story to make it even more exciting; for as long as Piers kept his mouth shut, there would be no problem. Harry wouldn't say anything and even if he did, nobody would listen to him anyway, Dudley and his gang had made sure of that a while ago. Their classmates kept away from the freak with his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, for they didn't want any trouble with Dudley's gang.
It would make me really happy if you guys liked it! Please let me know :)
BTW: Did anyone notice how I tried to mirror the beginning and the end of the first and second chapter with sentences of the original book? I doubt this will work for every chapter but I thought it would be a nice touch!
Next chapter will be from Petunia's POV.
I hope I will be able to finish writing it until next weekend