Harry Potter and the Order Of the Phoenix [7]
“Of course not Uncle Vernon,” said Harry, trying not to laugh. He shot Harry one last dirty look, and then climbed inside his car, and shut the door.
“Goodbye Harry!” yelled Dudley, sticking his head and one arm out of his window As the car was pulling out of the driveway. That was a mistake.
“What did you say?” asked Uncle Vernon, immediately stopping the car. Harry saw Dudley go red, recognizing what he did.
“I… um… said goodbye to Harry,” said Dudley nervously.
“You do NOT say goodbye to that… thing!” said Aunt Petunia.
“Oh come off it mom!” said Dudley. There were expressions of shock on Aunt Petunia, Uncle Vernon, and even Harry’s face. Dudley never spoke like that to his parents.
“Dudley… I…”
“Mom, why do you insist on treating Harry like that?” asked Dudley, appearing to look more confident while speaking freely now. “He’s just as much a part of this family as I am and yet you keep treating him like he’s some sort of diseased alien!”
“Dudley!” yelled Aunt Petunia. “He is NOTHING like us! He does the… magic thing! He’s.. different!”
“Didn’t you learn that we should accept other’s differences in Elementary School, mom?” said Dudley. “Trust me, I’ve been spending the last week with Harry, and let me tell you, I wish I’d been spending the last fifteen years like that with him!”
“DUDLEY!” yelled Uncle Vernon. “You’ve been associating yourself with him!? What is wrong with you!?”
“No, what’s wrong with YOU dad?” said Dudley.
“We will discuss this later, Dudley,” said Uncle Vernon, immediately turning the car back on, and backing the rest of the way out of the driveway. He evidently wanted to get out of there as fast a possible, before someone heard him say ‘magic’ or ‘wizard’.
“Goodbye Harry!” yelled Dudley from the car as they began speeding down the road. “Please, don’t write to me! We’ve got some pretty big animals at school, and I don’t want Hedwig to get hurt! And don’t forget! We are the knight who say-” His last word was cut off, they were far away now. But, Harry knew he said ‘nee’.
Harry stood there for a few seconds, still staring down the road that the Dursleys had driven away on. From that moment on, he knew that things would be completely different between him and Dudley.
Harry suddenly snapped back to reality, and remembered that he had to go to Mrs. Figg’s house. He shuddered at the thought: cats everywhere, mess everywhere, old, cranky lady… yuck. The last thing he wanted to do was spend the rest of his summer vacation at her house. Harry stuck his hands into his pockets and began to think… what else could he do?
Then, he felt a piece of parchment in his pocket, and he pulled it out. Harry hit himself on the forehead for not remembering Ron’s map. Why spend the rest of summer with Mrs. Figg when he could spend it with Ron?
Harry dashed back up to his room, and got ready to leave. Hedwig was in no condition to travel, she was still recovering from her massacre. That made him think: since the whole Weasley were wizards, and five out of nine of them are fully qualified, they should know more than he does about these things. Maybe they would know something about black phoenixes.
Harry packed up all of his possessions (which did not amount to much) into his cauldron. He swing the cauldron onto his broom, and he put Hedwig in his jacket. Harry walked downstairs, and opened the door. The air was warm, but not humid at all. The sky was a perfect blue, and he was about to spend the rest of his summer with his best friend. Though, something was still troubling him: then black phoenix. But, he shouldn’t let it get to him that much though. Chances are, Hedwig must’ve met it on one of her trips, and got in a fight. Maybe it came back to get revenge. And the fact that he fainted, maybe it didn’t even have to do with his scar at all, maybe he bumped his head on his door (he was getting taller) or, maybe Uncle Vernon hit him, even though they had never physically abused Harry before. All in all, it was not that big of a deal, and Harry shouldn’t let it