Author's Note: This idea popped into my head as I was reading Sorcerer's Stone for the ninth time (I'm not exaggerating). I'm on a Harry kick and highly recommend Harry Potter and the Nightmares of Futures Past. It's an excellent read and is still being updated. I just started chapter 26 of CotL. It should be out in a week.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry. It's very sad since I love Harry…
Dudley's Decision
Kari Minamoto
Mr. Dursley never liked anything out of the ordinary. Any mention of anything imaginative would turn his face purple, especially anything his freeloading nephew might mention.
Mr. Dursley had worked for years to try and squash the…abnormality out of Harry to no avail. On the boy's bloody birthday a giant (although Mr. Dursley would never say this word aloud considering the connotation it would hold) came and gave the blasted boy the letter. The letter he had been trying to keep from Harry (for his own good of course).
And to add insult to injury the monster of man had given his precious son Dudley, a pig's tail. Now how could he go to Smeltings in the fall with the ruddy thing?
No, Vernon Dursley was not having a pleasant summer. He had even taken to ignoring the boy that had been dumped on his family years before. Vernon Durley's nightmare had only begun the day that Harry got his letter.
Mr. Dursley had taken up the task of collecting the mail every morning sine that fateful letter came. When he heard the mail slot open and the letters fall onto the rug he put his paper on the table and rose to get the mail. Ever since the disaster with Harry, he never had the boy get the mail again, unless it came from a damn bird. Really why would anyone want to use birds to deliver their mail, did they realize how messy they could be? What about distraction by rats that could cause them to go a different way? Honesty, the mail carrier was much more reliable.
As Mr. Dursley bent down to get the mail he froze. Sticking out from behind the small stack of mail was an all too familiar envelope. He quickly stashed the bills on the table and looked at the letter. If it was possible to be both red with anger and white with shock at the same time, Vernon Dursley achieved this. A small bit of magic in and of itself.
He continued to stare at the envelope:
Mr. D. Dursley
Second Largest Bedroom
4 Privet Drive
Little Whinging
Surrey
The same emerald ink and seal from that boy's letter less than a month before.
"Petunia!" He roared even if she was only one room away.
She came running out and peered around Mr. Dursley's body to stare at what he was holding. She said nothing but gasped and covered her mouth with shock.
"I'm burning it," he stated and went to the fireplace and began a fire quickly (even if it was the middle of a heat wave in August) and threw the letter into it.
Harry had just wandered down the stairs, his curiosity getting the best of him, to see what his uncle was so enraged by.
Mr. Dursley must have realized the set of eyes staring at him since he turned around and stared at the boy.
"What are you doing boy!" he exclaimed in a manner that was more a statement than a question.
"I…I was just wondering…what was going on," Harry said nervously knowing that he couldn't ask questions, but he better answer when they were asked of him.
"Go back upstairs!" He yelled.
Harry did as he was told.
Mr. Dursley stared back into the fire, and if possible the glare would have set the letter on fire without any help.
Harry was sitting on his bed examining his textbooks. Who could have guessed school could be so interesting. He stared longingly at the crude calendar he had made on his wall; two weeks left until September 1st. He would finally have escaped the Dursey's and for a whole school year too. It was the best birthday present he was ever given!
The door suddenly squeaked open and to Harry's surprise his cousin was standing there holding his buttocks and looking extremely nervous.
"What was dad yelling about?" Dudley demanded but there was still a hint of trepidation in his voice.
"Dunno," Harry responded not taking his eyes off a book titled The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection.
"You know! I know you do so tell me!" Dudley continued to demand. "Or you'll be sorry." A nice threat always makes people do what you want and is a perfect ending to a sentence.
"I don't know Dudley sorry, but did you know there are spells to make people stop talking?" Harry added in an offhanded voice.
Dudley left the room immediately to find his father.
His large footsteps could be heard at the top of the stairs as he charged down them away from Harry as quickly as possible and hopefully to demand an answer from his father.
Dudley came down the stairs to find both his parents sitting in the living room talking in hushed voices.
"Harry said he was going to make me stop talking with you know what," Dudley told his parents to get their attention.
Mr. Dursley stood up and headed for the stairs, no doubt to yell at his nephew about the you know what and threatening his son with it.
With his father gone he decided to ask his mother. "What was dad screaming about?"
"Nothing," His mother answered with pursed lips.
Mr. Dursley's voice could be heard booming upstairs, as Dudley started throwing a tantrum downstairs about wanting to know what was happening, and then there was the loud noise outside that brought a hush over the entire house. Then there was a knock on the door, which almost made the house shake.
No one had moved until Harry had appeared from the upstairs in his to big shirt and pants and opened the door. A wide grin appeared over his face. "Hagrid!"
"How yeh doin' Harry?" the man told the boy.
"Fine, I've been reading my books that we got in Diagon Ally. I never found my old school books as interesting," Harry replied, if possible, his smile widening.
"I'm here on Hogwarts business again, mind if I come in," Hagrid asked.
Harry was about to step aside when Mr. Dursley came flying down the stairs.
"Leave this house immediately, you are breaking and entering!' He yelled.
"Sounds familiar Dursley, but see, Harry here opened the door fer me and I'm sure he'd let me in," Hagrid stated winking at Harry.
At this Hagrid came the rest of the way through the door. The Dursley household which never would have fit the half-giant suddenly expanded to accommodate the extra height.
Mr. Dursley was scarlet with rage as Hagrid walked over to Dudley.
"Get lost, haven't you done enough damage!" Mr. Dursley yelled still trying to maintain the façade of bravery.
Hagird pretended not to hear him as he handed the obese boy a letter. Dudley Dursley looked scared at what the man who had given him a tail was doing but hungrily opened the letter before his mother could rip it out of his hands.
His greedy face turned to a look of utter confusion before he stared at the large man.
"What kind of joke is this?" he spat nastily.
Hagrid shook his head instead of shaking the arrogant boy in front of him.
"No trick, that's yeh letta from Hogwarts," Hagrid said although he did not seem all that happy to be giving the boy the letter.
The feeling was mutual across the room.
His mother took the letter from her son and read it:
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
Headmaster; Albus Dumbledore
(Order of Merlin First Class, Grand Sorc., Chief Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)
Dear Mr. Dursley,
We are sorry this letter has arrived late but we had to find the proper contact information since it was not on file and prior magic within the household had solely been attributed to Mr. Harry Potter. We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.
Term begins on September 1. We await your owl as soon as possible.
Yours Sincerely,
Minerva McGonagall
Deputy Headmistress
Mrs. Dursley pursed her lips again but didn't say anything. Mr. Dursley strode across the room and grabbed the letter from his wife and ripped it to pieces.
"How did this happen!? It doesn't matter, he will not go! He will go to Smeltings just like me and his grandfather. No one in this family is going to go learn magic tricks!' Mr. Dursley yelled.
Hagrid looked astounded at thickness of the Dursley family.
"Well, there's magic in the family on yeh wife's side since Lily was one o' the best witches I've eva' seen. Harry'll be just as good as her and his father. Since Lily was a witch there's magic probably somewhere in the family, it turns up every so often. So it came from Lily's sister's side. The big lump of a boy should also make his own decision, not yeh Muggles. He showed magic at some point but the ministry assumed it was Harry as McGonagall said. Didn't realize the mistake until the two of um weren't in the same area. So Dursley, what's yeh answer?"
Hagrid now gazed at the chubby boy who's eyes looked as cold as ice.
"Why would I want to be considered a freak," Dudley responded as his parents sighed a breath of relief.
"So how do we get rid of this thing so that he can be normal," Mrs. Dursley asked the giant.
Hagrid just laughed, "Yeh think yeh can just get rid of magic! Yeh clueless yeh know. A person's born with it. Like yeh born with certain parents. It's a part o yeh if yeh want it or not forever. This just means that yeh boy won't be trained if he doesn't go."
Mr. Dursley exploded yet again, "What do you mean by this! I want him NORMAL, do you not understand that word!"
Hagrid was easily the louder of the two and his patience had finally evaporated.
"THERE ARE DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS OF NORMAL DURSLEY YEH PRUNE! I SEE HARRY THERE AS NORMAL AND HE'S A WIZARD TOO! SEND AN OWL SAY'IN YEH GOIN' OR HOGWARTS WILL ASUME THAT YEH AREN'T!" He roared at the Dursleys and then turned to Harry. "Harry, I'll see yeh in a few weeks, when yeh have dropped this lot for a school year."
Hagrid left in a huff leaving the Dursely house in silence.
The day Harry found platform 9 ¾, met Ron and Hermione, and started his amazing adventure, he did so alone.
The Dursley's never sent an owl.
The End.
I know, it's weird but it kept flying around my head so then I had to write it. I tried a little different writing style, and I hope that I got Hagrid accent decent (I'm horrible with accents. I either overuse or underuse them). I was originally going to have it with Dudley going to Hogwarts, but come on, even if Dudley was a wizard there is no way he'd end up going to Hogwarts. The Dursley's are just too thick.
Please read and review!