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Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking |
around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the |
bundle of blankets on the step of number four. |
"Good luck, Harry," he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish |
of his cloak, he was gone. |
A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and |
tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect |
astonishing things to happen. Harry Potter rolled over inside his |
blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside |
him and he slept on, not knowing he was special, not knowing he was |
famous, not knowing he would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. |
Dursley's scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk |
bottles, nor that he would spend the next few weeks being prodded and |
pinched by his cousin Dudley... He couldn't know that at this very |
moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up |
their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry Potter -- the boy |
who lived!" |
CHAPTER TWO |
THE VANISHING GLASS |
Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find |
their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at |
all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass |
number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living |
room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when |
Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the |
photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. |
Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a |
large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets -- but Dudley |
Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large |
blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a carousel at the fair, playing a |
computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. |
The room held no sign at all that another boy lived in the house, too. |
Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for |
long. His Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made |
the first noise of the day. |
"Up! Get up! Now!" |
Harry woke with a start. His aunt rapped on the door again. |
"Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then |
the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his |
back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a |
good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny |
feeling he'd had the same dream before. |
His aunt was back outside the door. |
"Are you up yet?" she demanded. |
"Nearly," said Harry. |
"Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don't you |
dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy's birthday." |
Harry groaned. |
"What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door. |
"Nothing, nothing..." |
Dudley's birthday -- how could he have forgotten? Harry got slowly out |
of bed and started looking for socks. He found a pair under his bed and, |
after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harry was used to |
spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and |
that was where he slept. |
When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table |
was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents. It looked as |
though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the |
second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a |
racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated |
exercise -- unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley's |
favorite punching bag was Harry, but he couldn't often catch him. Harry |
didn't look it, but he was very fast. |
Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harry |
had always been small and skinny for his age. He looked even smaller and |
skinnier than he really was because all he had to wear were old clothes |
of Dudley's, and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harry |
had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair, and bright green eyes. He |
wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape because of |
all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose. The only thing Harry |
liked about his own appearance was a very thin scar on his forehead that |
was shaped like a bolt of lightning. He had had it as long as he could |
remember, and the first question he could ever remember asking his Aunt |
Petunia was how he had gotten it. |
"In the car crash when your parents died," she had said. "And don't ask |
questions." |
Don't ask questions -- that was the first rule for a quiet life with the |
Dursleys. |
Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon. |
"Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting. |
About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and |
shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts |
than the rest of the boys in his class put |
together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way -- |
all over the place. |
Harry was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his |
mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, |
not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay |
smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley |
looked like a baby angel -- Harry often said that Dudley looked like a |
pig in a wig. |
Harry put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult |
as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. |
His face fell. |
"Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two |
less than last year." |
"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, going red in the face. |
Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down |