“Don’t ever say that again!�

The scrawny, lanky boy in front of him held what looked nothing more than a mere stick to his face. The larger of the two knew better, however. He knew the boy standing before him was no ordinary kid, but a wizard, and that the stick he was now brandishing was, in fact, a wand. Dudley did not like his cousin Harry at all, but he hated him when Harry tried to threaten him with his freakish magic.

Harry had been orphaned as a young boy, and Dudley’s loving parents has been gracious enough to take the toddler into their home. They always made sure that Dudley knew that he was their only son, and that their nephew was nothing more than an overgrown nuisance. Harry’s mother, Lily, was his mother’s sister. She was a freak herself. She had gone off to some magical school at the age of eleven, leaving Dudley’s mother alone. His mother actually preferred it that way. She never liked her sister, and she hated the man her sister married. She had only been decent enough to take Harry in because they were his only remaining family. She often said if any other family had existed that Harry would have been shipped off immediately.

Dudley attention snapped back to the wand thrust in his face. Harry’s cheeks were growing red, in anger Dudley suspected, and his eyes burned with fury. Just as Harry opened his mouth, to cast a spell – that one Dudley knew for certain – the sky went black. It was as if someone had shut off the electricity of the street lamps and that a sudden storm was brewing.

As Dudley’s eyes tried to adjust to the sudden darkness, he saw Harry’s face no longer looked angry. He now looked confused, maybe even a touch scared. An immediate coolness came over Dudley, and where moments ago he had been overjoyed at the chance to pummel his cousin, he now felt as if the happiness had been drained out of him.

“What did you do? Turn the lights back on!� Dudley’s words were a command, but his voice betrayed his nerves. Not getting a satisfactory response from Harry, Dudley did the only thing he knew to help the situation. He raised his fist, and slammed it hard into the side of Harry’s head. He heard Harry hit the ground. Dudley turned and began to run away from the playground back toward Privet Drive.

Over his panting (for Dudley was not used to having to run from anything at all), he thought he heard Harry call his name and yell for him to stop. But all Dudley could think of was putting as much distance as he could between himself and his loser cousin. A moment later, his foot hit a root in the grass and Dudley tripped, falling to the ground. Before he could get up, a depressed feeling overtook him, and he could feel a cool presence above him.

It was if all the joy he had ever felt in his life was being sucked from his body. For some reason he recalled a day when he was very young when a bully had picked on him because of his large weight. Unbidden images began to swim before his eyes, and he was lost in a memory he did not recall, but that must have happened when he was a very young boy.

---

“No! He is not one of those horrible freaks like her!� Petunia Dursley’s voice was very sharp.

He was in the sitting room, where he could see his mother and father who was holding a piece of parchment. On the floor, a chubby toddler sat playing. Vernon Dursley looked at the parchment again.

“I don’t believe it either, Petunia, dear, but listen to what this Dumbledore fellow wrote: Wizards are born with magical ability. When the school’s magical quill detects the birth of such a baby, the child’s name is recorded in a book, and all children listed there will receive an invitation to Hogwarts the summer after they turn eleven. I’m sure you quite remember Lily receiving her letter –�

“I most certainly do!� Petunia broke in loudly. “It’s just not possible, Vernon. Not Dudders! He can’t be a wizard!�

As though she had not spoken, Vernon continued reading. “It has never been done before, but unfortunately many of the events that are occurring have never happened before. I must ask you to acquiesce to this one request. Take your nephew into your home. Raise him as your own son until the time comes for him to leave for Hogwarts. I know quite plainly how you feel about the wizarding world, Petunia. It is clear to me that you do not want your young son associated with such things as magic. Therefore, if you agree to provide a home for Harry, I shall arrange it so that Dudley’s name is erased from the magical birth record. He will not receive a letter from Hogwarts, and will never know he is a wizard unless you choose to tell him.�

“As if I would ever tell him such a thing!� Petunia’s voice was high-pitched and angry. She then appeared to resign herself to the fact that she must do as the letter asked, and sank onto the sofa. “Oh, Vernon,� she sighed. “I don’t want a wizard in our home. It was horrible enough to have Lily. But I think we have to. Dinky Duddikins can’t possibly become a wizard himself.�

“Of course not,� Vernon humphed. “No son of mine is going to become some wand-brandishing fool!�

“We have to take him in,� Petunia said, though not convincingly.

“If it’s the only way for our little tyke to be spared such a horrible life, then we must do it,� Vernon agreed. His eyes scanned the letter again and he said, “There’s a post script, Petunia: You must allow Harry to call your house his home until he becomes of age. If you send him away at any time prior to that, our agreement will be revoked, and Dudley will receive his invation to the finest magical school in all of Europe.�

Petunia shuddered, and Vernon lowered himself onto the sofa next to his wife. “Petunia,� he asked, “didn’t you say you suspected Lily was a witch long before she actually found out?�

“Yes,� Petunia answered, her eyes narrowing. “Even before she got her letter, every time she would get angry or upset, strange things would happen, and they usually happened to me.�

“What if Dudders shows this magical ability involuntarily, like your sister did?�

Petunia sighed. “We’ll just have to make sure the poor boy never gets angry then, won’t we Vernon? We’ll have to make sure he’s always happy, so that none of these weird things occur…�

---

His mother’s voice drifted off, and suddenly Dudley was blinded by a flash of brilliant white light. The thing on top of him was thrown off, chased away by the charging light. Dazed, Dudley saw Harry with his wand out again, running towards him. He would pummel him properly as soon as he was able to stand. Only a freak such as him would cause such a horrible thing to happen. Only he didn’t have the energy to stand at the moment. In fact, he thought sleep would feel quite nice at the moment. Dudley’s last thought, before he drifted into a state of half awake-half unconscious was, Wait until my father hears about this.