Harry Potter 14

Dudley began tocry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying -- it had been years since he'dreally cried -- but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, hismother would give him anything he wanted.

"Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" shecried, flinging her arms around him.

"I...don't... want... him... t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretendsobs. "He always sp- spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grinthrough the gap in his mother's arms. Just then, the doorbell rang –

"Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically -- and a moment later,Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was ascrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people'sarms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cryat once.

Half an hourlater, Harry, who couldn't believe his luck, was sitting in the back of theDursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first timein his life. His aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else todo with him, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harry aside."I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face rightup18 close to Harry's, "I'm warning you now, boy -- any funny business,anything at all -- and you'll be in that cupboard from now untilChristmas."

"I'm not going to do anything," said Harry, "honestly” But Uncle Vernon didn'tbelieve him. No one ever did. The problem was, strange things often happenedaround Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make themhappen. Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers lookingas though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cuthis hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left"to hide that horrible scar."

Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the nextday, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had beenbefore Aunt Petunia had sheared it off He had been given a week in his cupboardfor this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how ithad grown back so quickly.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's(brown with orange puff balls) -- The harder she tried to pull it over hishead, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted ahand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had decided it musthave shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't punished. On theother hand, he'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof ofthe school kitchens. Dudley's gang had been chasing him as usual when, as muchto Harry's surprise as anyone else's, there he was sitting on the chimney. TheDursleys had received a very angry letter from Harry's headmistress tellingthem Harry had been climbing school buildings. But all he'd tried to do (as heshouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jumpbehind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Harry supposed that thewind must have caught him in mid- jump.

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to bespending the day somewhere that wasn't school, his cupboard, or Mrs. Figg'scabbage-smelling living room.