Holiday time always flashes by, and after spending Christmas at Hermione's house, Harry thought for a long time before finally going to Number Four, Privet Drive.
That is, the Dursley Family's place.
It was an established fact that the Dursleys family fed him and allowed him to study. If he acted like an invisible person during the Christmas holiday, not even showing his face, he would look down on himself.
The moment Penny opened the door, her face instantly turned as cold as an icicle hanging from the eaves.
They stared at each other for a long time.
"Darling, who's out there?" Vernon's voice drifted from the living room to the front door, along with the warm air.
"Harry," Penny replied coldly, then turned around, "Come in, quite sensitive, that nose."
Heavy footsteps sounded, 'thump, thump, thump,' and on the second floor, Dudley's chubby face appeared. The moment he saw Harry, his face instantly turned a liver-red, and then he reluctantly walked downstairs.
Harry finally understood what Petunia meant; a lavish dinner was laid out on the table, and he was an outsider.
Vernon's expression was also not good, but everyone remained silent, not speaking. He very reluctantly added a chair to the dining table, then told Harry to get his own bowl and chopsticks.
"I thought you'd come back wearing a tattered robe and a dirty pointed hat," Penny said cuttingly, as she picked up a piece of bacon for Dudley.
"We have cleaning and mending charms; we rarely wear dirty or torn clothes," Harry said, trying to be as gentle as possible.
However, this simple sentence had an incredible effect on the others in the house. Dudley gasped, choked, and his face turned bright red.
Petunia shrieked, as if she had heard terrible news. Vernon jumped up, veins bulging on his temples, his fat face close to Harry's, pointing his finger at Harry's nose and roaring.
"Don't! In our house! Say words like that!!"
Vernon's spittle hung in the air in front of Harry's face. Harry stared back at the large face without flinching, then put down his dinner fork and raised his hand to push away Vernon's finger from his nose.
"Alright, I respect the rules of this house," he said calmly.
However, this display left Penny almost breathless. Vernon sat down, watching Harry like a short-winded rhinoceros.
Harry's calm, unruffled demeanor just now made him feel unfamiliar and difficult to deal with. When bluster and roaring were useless, he suddenly felt a sense of powerlessness.
The entire dinner table remained silent for a long time, until Dudley clamored to watch TV while eating, and Vernon began to curse the stupid people he encountered at work.
After dinner, Harry returned to his room, that small, dusty room.
He opened the window, not daring to use his wand, but instead waved his fingers and whispered a spell: "Cleanse anew--"
The next moment, an unprompted wind appeared, sweeping the entire room clean.
Then he discovered Dudley, with a stiff expression, outside the door. Harry glanced at him, simply nodded, and then closed the door.
However, after a short while, Dudley knocked on his door. He poked his head in and asked somewhat cautiously, "Want to play video games?"
Harry thought for a moment and did not refuse.
Dudley's room had a lot of food, and Harry also took out some magical candies. Looking at the constantly hopping frog, he exclaimed in admiration.
He was very curious about magic.
It should be said that no one is not curious or yearns for it.
But because of his parents, he never dared to talk about these things at home.
The two chatted for a long time, and Harry also told him about some things that happened at school...
When it was late, as Harry was leaving, Dudley called out to him.
"What is it?" Harry turned his head.
Under his gaze, Dudley's face gradually turned red, as if he couldn't breathe. He stammered, his body stiff like a large, pot-bellied iron barrel for storing materials.
"S-sorry."
His voice was quick and soft, no different from panting.
Harry was stunned. He looked at Dudley's face. To be honest, the last time he had seriously looked at that fat face was a year and a half ago in the alley of St. George's Primary School, when his magic had surged and he had slammed Dudley against the wall.
After that, they never spoke to each other again; the two brothers did not exist in each other's worlds.
It seemed that after this year, Dudley had changed for the better?!
Had he gone to middle school and been taught a lesson by the older students, realizing he wasn't the best in the world?
Well, Harry didn't want to think about these things anymore. He just nodded: "No one lives in the past forever."
In the following days, the entire Dursley Family household quickly returned to its former state. Harry and Dudley's relationship had indeed changed after that night, but Vernon and Penny remained as they were.
Especially Penny, when she saw Harry returning from school, she would unconsciously think of the past.
Back then, whenever Lily came back from that damned magic school, her pockets would be full of toad eggs, and she would turn teacups into mice.
And her parents would only talk about Lily all day long, Lily this, Lily that. They were delighted to have a witch in the family. Only she knew that Lily was a complete monster.
And now, it was just like before.
Whenever she saw Harry, that resentment in her heart would rush to her mind.
Fortunately, Hogwarts's Christmas holiday was not long, and she didn't see those eyes every day.
At the end of the holiday, Chris's car stopped on Privet Drive, taking Harry to the train station in the city. They still chose to take the Hogwarts Express to school.
Time passed quickly, until one morning, when Harry saw the sunlight from Black Lake penetrate into the common room, he suddenly realized that the Easter holiday had already arrived.
Stepping out of the dungeons, he couldn't help but exclaim. This was the first time in months that he had encountered such good weather. The sky was clear and bright, as blue as a forget-me-not flower, and the air carried a hint of summer approaching.
After Potion Class that morning, he and Hermione walked towards Hagrid's hut. Since the weather had turned cold, they had visited Hagrid less often, as it was indeed very cold.
However, what they didn't expect was that the closer they got to the hut, the stranger it felt. The entire hut's doors and windows were tightly shut, and the curtains were drawn tightly, letting in no light.
They knocked on the door repeatedly. Hagrid first cautiously called out, "Who's there?" before opening the door, quickly leading them inside, and then hurrying back to close the door.
The hut was stiflingly hot. Despite it being such a warm and sunny day, a roaring fire still burned in the fireplace. If Hagrid's hut didn't move, he would have suspected there was a fire demon here too.
Then, his gaze fell on a black, oval object in the middle of the fireplace, pressed down by a kettle.
Hagrid brought out a plate of stoat sandwiches. He immediately noticed Harry observing the fire and quickly urged them to sit down. Seeing Harry shift his gaze, he quietly let out a sigh of relief.
He said somewhat awkwardly, "Oh, why did you two come so suddenly? I didn't prepare anything."
Harry took a sip of hot tea, looked at Hagrid's expression, and then spoke directly: "Hagrid, you know that keeping a dragon without permission is illegal, right?"
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