After school that afternoon, when Howl was tending to the flowerbed, he saw Harry's haircut for the first time.
Harry had combed his hair up from its original bird's nest state, and the hair at his temples easily flared out. But to avoid hurting the little guy who had taken the initiative to make a change, he was very strong—he held back his laughter!
He then stood with Harry in the flowerbed and patiently taught him the basic operations of hair styling.
Under Howl's guidance, Harry learned very quickly.
However...
Harry inexplicably felt that when Uncle Howl taught him how to style his hair, he was more serious than when he taught him magic.
He even thoughtfully took out books on clothing to help him improve his aesthetic sense.
Harry scratched his head, unsure what expression to make. The current situation had somewhat exceeded the scope of his emotional management.
He could only helplessly take the book and return to the study.
Afterward, he first performed a routine cleaning of the entire Castle, and then he also noticed that Moonlight Fortress had already activated.
Watching the trees and mountains slowly recede behind him, Harry could only exclaim in admiration.
The gentle breeze quickly made him forget the taunts of his classmates at school that day, and he quickly adapted to life after school started.
Harry even felt that life could continue like this forever.
A week passed quickly, and Harry had grown accustomed to exposing his scar.
When the people at school realized that Harry didn't care about their taunts, they gradually let it go.
Outside the school gate, Dudley stood with his cronies, among them Piers, who had previously pranked Harry with Dudley. Except for him being relatively thin in this small group, the others all appeared tall and burly.
At least, compared to others of the same age, this was the case.
"Brother D, it's finally the weekend, where should we go to play?" A boy looked at Dudley. Everyone looked to him as their leader; he was the biggest and strongest one.
"Play my ass," Dudley said, looking bored, the fat on his face jiggling twice: "All the money's gone."
Ten pounds wasn't a large sum, but it was certainly not small in those days.
In just five days, Dudley had spent all of it along with his usual pocket money.
More accurately, he had eaten it all.
"Then let's go to your house to play games," another person suggested.
At this, Dudley became even more annoyed: "My game console is broken."
"Ah?"
Hearing this, several people looked disappointed. That game console was Dudley's birthday present, and it hadn't been long since he'd broken it.
They hadn't even had enough fun yet.
"Brother D, look." Suddenly, someone pointed to a figure at the school gate.
Dudley turned his head and saw Harry walking out of school.
Honestly, during this time.
No, it should be said for a long time, Dudley had always been very annoyed with Harry.
From the very beginning, when he was chased by wild dogs during the holidays, he had held a grudge against Harry.
Later, Harry occupied his room. Although it was just a room he used to pile up broken toys, he didn't know why his parents insisted on giving that room to Harry.
And then later, Harry actually helped neighbors fix things on the street every day, inexplicably becoming a little expert praised by everyone in Privet Drive...
In short, Harry's actions had long since made him very unhappy.
Ever since he went to work at Number Thirteen, Privet Drive, Dudley initially thought that this guy should be as tired as a dead dog every day, returning home only to eat leftovers and then be thrown into the cupboard for confinement.
Now, he could visibly see that this guy had grown taller, was no longer so thin and small, and even his spirit had improved quite a bit.
Especially—his guts had grown!
He actually dared to talk back to him, and with that completely contemptuous expression!
Dudley's face revealed an undisguised malicious grin, and he rubbed his hands together, saying, "I know where there's money."
Dudley had already learned through neighborly gossip that Harry had accumulated a small stash of money by fixing things for people.
Harry walked quickly down the street, a smile on his face, seemingly in a good mood.
This weekend, Uncle Howl was going to Diagon Alley for some errands. After getting Howl's permission, Harry borrowed Mrs. Hudson's landline and invited Hermione to go to Diagon Alley with him.
He didn't have many friends at school, so he naturally looked forward to the weekend.
As he walked, several figures suddenly stepped forward and surrounded him.
"Oh, look who it is, isn't this my dear cousin?" Dudley looked at Harry, wanting to put his arm around him, but Harry quickly dodged away.
"Dudley, what do you want?" Harry said, looking at Dudley.
"What do I want? Of course, I'm concerned about you." Dudley looked at Harry: "Harry, you see I have nowhere to go, why don't you... pay me some rent for staying in my room?"
"You won't get a single penny from me." Harry looked at Dudley, his face expressionless.
It was expected that Dudley would try to get his hands on his small stash of money; he had already put the money in the study of Moonlight Fortress.
Just then, Piers, who knows when, darted behind Harry and grabbed his hand.
Dudley also took this opportunity to hold Harry's head: "Alright, never mind. We're bored anyway, come play some games with us."
"Dudley, let me go!" Harry struggled, but compared to Dudley, his strength was completely insufficient.
Soon, he was dragged away from the school gate and into a small alley.
"No money? Well, I've seen you wearing this ring for a while, what's it made of? Silver?" Saying this, Dudley grabbed Harry's hand, wanting to take off his ring.
But no matter how hard Dudley tried, the ring seemed to be rooted to Harry's finger, completely unremovable.
"Damn it!" Dudley helplessly flung Harry's hand away.
"Make them let go of me, Dudley!" Harry roared. He was held by Dudley's friends but still stared fixedly at Dudley.
"What does it have to do with me? It's not like I wanted them to tie you up," Dudley said.
"You're always like this, acting recklessly, self-righteous. Just like a baby, even the fat on your face is like that," Harry retorted angrily.
Bang—
Blood streamed from Harry's nose, and he suddenly felt dizzy. Before he could react, a flurry of punches and kicks from Dudley rained down on him.
Dudley's friends also let go of Harry; they wouldn't hit Harry, after all, if the school caught them, it would be reported to their parents.
But Dudley was different; this was a brawl between brothers after an argument, and the school couldn't interfere too much.
"Do you think you're so smart?" Dudley roared: "You're just a parasite."
Harry found it difficult to fend him off. He wanted to do something, but then he thought that doing so might attract the Ministry of Magic and cause trouble for Uncle Howl.
Yes, he couldn't cause any more trouble for Uncle Howl.
It was just being bullied by Dudley again; it was nothing, it had happened before anyway.
Don't be controlled by emotions!
He kept telling himself this, while also trying to use his body to block Dudley's punches.
"You think I'm a baby who needs to be taken care of? Is that it?" Dudley cursed, clearly enraged, some words completely unfiltered as he roared out:
"I think you're jealous that I have a mom and dad. Your parents died in a car accident and just left you, and your ugly scar.
It's ridiculous, you even expose it, you think you're unique—"
Dudley was halfway through his sentence when suddenly, a huge impact burst from Harry's body. Everyone was directly slammed against the wall by an invisible force, dizzy and disoriented...