Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [6]
Ever since Harry’s first encounter with Voldemort, he has had the lightning shaped scar as a symbol of where the curse hit him. It had hurt other times during the course of his life, but only when Voldemort had been close, or had an extremely evil thought. So, how could his scar have hurt when Voldemort wasn’t near? It must have had something to do with the black phoenix that was in Harry’s room.
Now that Harry was thinking, what was that phoenix doing in his room? Was it a spy for Voldemort? The only other phoenix Harry knew of was Dumbledore’s phoenix, Fawkes. But, Fawkes was red and beautiful and it most certainly didn’t cause Harry to faint. This phoenix Harry just saw was black with dark flames all around it, it was like nothing Harry had ever learned or heard about.
Harry suddenly remembered Dudley. He ran downstairs, avoiding the large mass of wrapping paper that was still there. He arrived at the bottom of the stairs, still being slightly cautious: this could be on of Dudley’s more elaborate jokes. He still didn’t trust him completely.
“What took you?” asked Dudley, holding his hands behind his back like he did when he was hiding the Basilisk watch.
Oh, um… nothing,” said Harry. “What’cha got there?”
“This,” said Dudley, his eyes twinkling, “is the secret of my success.”
“What success?” asked Harry. Dudley looked surprised. He waved his hand all over his body.
“How I lost over five hundred pounds!”
“Oh, that success…”
“Yeah,” said Dudley, not shrugging it off anywhere as fast as Harry was. “Anyway, here it is.” He showed Harry what he was hiding behind his back. It was some sort of rectangular package… it looked like some sort of video game.
“What is that?” asked Harry skeptically.
“The single greatest thing ever…” said Dudley, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The secret to my success…”
“How did that help you?”
“Well,” said Dudley, “whenever I got hungry, I just popped this video in, and watched it. Soon, I was far too busy laughing to worry about eating. Not only that, but this video taught me everything I know, like logic. I didn’t understand it in school, but after just watching this, I finally comprehended how, if you weigh as much as a duck, then you are a witch.”
“Oh really…” said Harry, wondering if Hermione weighed as much as a duck.
“Come on,” said Dudley, beckoning Harry to the living room, “let’s watch it!”
Harry, having already finished his little amount of summer homework, had nothing better to do. So, he decided to join Dudley in watching his little video. Though, he would have liked to have had some time to ponder and research that black phoenix he saw.
They sat down, and Dudley put the movie on. For the next hour and a half, they bonded like they had never before. Laughing, repeating lines, and making fun of the movie together, it was a truly new experience to Harry, and he liked it.
For the next week, Harry and Dudley watched the movie several times each day, while Uncle Vernon was at work, and Aunt Petunia was away visiting friends or shopping. Fairly soon, Harry and Dudley were practically acting out each scene together, Harry felt as though he were back at Hogwarts with Ron… only there had he ever had this much fun.
But, once Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia popped their horrible heads into the house, Dudley transformed into a slightly less mean version of the way he used to be; he didn’t want to look too changed in front of his parents. Apparently, he still thought very highly of them.
Finally, the day came when the Dursleys would leave for Hawaii, and Harry would be sent to Mrs. Figg’s house. Either out of a newfound respect for him, or a prolonged fear that he may break the magical rules to get revenge on them (Harry chose the latter) the Dursleys did not drive him to her house, but were allowing them to walk to her house since it was so close.
“There’d better not be anything missing when we get home, boy,” said Uncle Vernon to Harry, face to face as