Chapter Two: Mine

Harry stood in the middle of the room, a broken paintbrush in his hand. Half the bristles were missing from the inch-thick tip, and what was left was clumped together with old paint. Even the handle was desecrated, the end snapped off, with the words DUDLEY DUR still visible. A broken easel stood in front of him, its legs uneven, resting precariously on a thick book.

Harry dipped the brush in the half empty pots of congealed paint, and delicately painting toys onto the blank canvas. A teddy, with an eye missing, and its cotton coming out. A patched ball which was half its normal size. A Jack-In-The-Box with its spring broken. Each damaged toy was designed to the last possible detail.

Harry frowned as he painted stains on the teddy, shading and detailing the dried vomit that lay inside the ears. His breath slowed as he darkened the grey-blue ink slightly, in order to show the clear tape that covered holes in the ball. He shuddered while he painted the hat, designing crumples and rips all over.

The teddy's single eye almost twinkled when Harry looked at it. If a painting of a toy could portray love, this one did. So did the plastic soldiers, their broken, twisted arms raised in a salute, their melted faces smiling from the wreckage of their faces.

Broken toys and trinkets littered the floor, piled on shelves and desks and chairs, and broken wind chimes hung on the windowsill, spreading the sun into winking patterns all over the toys.

Harry dipped the broken brush again, and with a deep breath, began to hastily, sloppily scrawl DUDLEY DURSLEY on everything in the painting.

Bright red letters appeared on the teddy, its black button eye glaring at Harry.

Words wrote themselves on the plastic soldiers as they raised their weapons in a clear threat.

As each toy was claimed by DUDLEY DURSLEY, each toy looked accusingly at Harry.

Harry flipped the painting over, the room of requirement automatically drying the paint. After he signed the painting, he lifted up the broken, red brush, and wrote over it.

ARTIST: DUDLEY DURSLEY
DATE: October 23rd
TITLE: Mine