Harry looked at Dudley, then at the watch. Somehow, knowing that it had once
belonged to his mother made it appear to be even more beautiful.
“But why are you giving this to me?” asked Harry, putting the watch on.
“Come on,” said Dudley, smiling and patting Harry’s shoulder, “can’t a cousin do
something nice every now an then, huh?”
“Other cousins, yes I’m sure. You… no way,” said Harry. Dudley let out a sigh
“Harry, I haven’t told anyone this… no one at all.”
“What is it?” asked Harry, interested.
“Well, a little into my school year last year, I started having these dreams,“ said
Dudley. “Only, these weren’t dreams of floating in the air, or falling, or whatever. No,
these were dreams with a message. They were telling me something.”
“What were they telling you?” asked Harry.
“That I should be doing something that I’m not,” said Dudley, extremely
seriously. “So, I tried everything. I tried losing more weight, but the dreams wouldn’t
stop; I tried to do better in school, but the dreams wouldn’t stop; I even tried having a
girlfriend for a while, but that didn’t make them stop.
“So, one night, I laid awake in bed, contemplating what I could possibly be doing
that I wasn’t: being nice to you, treating you like a human being.”
“And have the dreams stopped?” asked Harry.
“Ever since I proclaimed to myself that day that I would be nice to you for the rest
of our lives… yes. I realized that I should have known to be that way ever since you first
came here. Just because you can make glass appear, and talk to snakes doesn’t mean
you’re a bad person… in fact, it makes you kind of cool.”
“Um… thanks Dudley,” said Harry.
“Hey, you want to come downstairs?” asked Dudley. “You must get awfully
bored up here all by yourself.”
“Um… sure,” said Harry, still overwhelmed by Dudley’s sudden and complete
change of heart. “Just let me check on Hedwig.”
“Alright,” said Dudley, smiling as he left the room.
Once Hedwig had been settled back into her cage, Harry sat down on his bed. So
many questions were burning in his mind: Why was Dudley being so nice to him? Was it
really because of the dream? And before… what was up with the black phoenix in his
room? He didn’t even know phoenixes came in black! And what had caused his forehead
to hurt when he saw it? Harry rubbed his eyes and walked over to the mirror in his room,
and lifted up his bangs to reveal a lightning shaped scar on his forehead.
This scar made Harry even more unusual, even by wizard’s standards. Harry was
the only person to ever survive an encounter with Lord Voldemort, the most powerful
and evil wizard in over a century. Voldemort barged into Harry’s parent’s house one
night when Harry was only one year old. Voldemort killed his mom and dad, and when
he tried to kill Harry, his curse backfired, turning him into a weak, powerless creature
that over a course of thirteen years returned back to his original power with the help of
his most faithful servant, Peter Pettigrew or Wormtail. The reason Voldemort’s curse had
backfired is because his mom, Lily, sacrificed her life for Harry giving him a shield
against Voldemort’s powers. However, last year, Voldemort used some of Harry’s blood
to rise again, letting him get passed Harry’s shield.
9