The Adventures of Gwen Potter | Draco Malfoy

Chapter 5

By the time Harry and Gwen finished making tea, three letters had arrived for Harry — and for some reason — Gwen. (mind you, three each.) They were addressed in green ink.

"I want—" Harry and Gwen began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before their eyes. Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day, he stayed at home and nailed up the letterbox.

"See," he explained to Aunt Petunia while drinking his tea, "if they can't deliver the letters, they'll give up."

"Vernon, I think we ought to tell them—" Aunt Petunia said. She was cut off by Uncle Vernon, who said, "Petunia, if we tell them, we'll have to deal with them threatening to turn us into frogs!"

On Friday, no fewer than 24 letters arrived. Since they couldn't go through the letter-box, they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few of them even forced through the small window in the downstairs toilet.

Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters (yet again), he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so nobody could go out. Aunt Petunia pointed out that she couldn't go grocery shopping, but Uncle Vernon ignored her.

On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. 48 letters to Harry and Gwen found their way into the house, rolled up and inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very perplexed milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living-room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded most of the letters in her food mixer. Gwen saw her stuff a letter or two into her pocket, and wondered why.

"Who on Earth would want to talk to you two this badly?" Dudley asked Harry and Gwen in amazement.
"Wouldn't you like to know." Gwen grinned.
On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the table looking rather tired and ill, but happy.

"No post on Sundays," he reminded them happily as he spread marmalade on his newspapers. (A/N: I know. What?)

Meanwhile, in a castle far, far away.. a witch named Professor McGonagall said, "Challenge accepted!" She took a biscuit and ate it.
Dumbledore began to laugh. "Honestly, Minerva. For once, I agree with you. Also, could you pass me a biscuit? I'm hungry."
"Get it yourself, lazy."
"Fiiine."

Back at 4, Privet Drive, "No damn letters today—" Uncle Vernon continued.

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, 60 or 80 letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry and Gwen leapt into the air trying to catch one—
"Out! OUT!"

Uncle Vernon seized them around the waist and threw them into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.
"Can I please call the police on him for child abuse?" Gwen asked Aunt Petunia.
"Go for it, but I don't think that'd work for more than a minute or two, knowing Vernon."

"That does it." he said finally, trying to speak calmly but pulling great bits out of his moustache at the same time. "I want you all back here in 5 minutes, ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"

He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that nobody dared to say a word. 10 minutes later, they had practically punched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding towards the motorway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his TV, video and computer in his sports bag.

They drove for hours. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then, Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turning and drive in the opposite direction for a while.

"Shake 'em off... shake 'em off," He would mutter whenever he did this.
"Shake who off? The police, because I called them and told them about the child abuse?" Harry smirked.
"Wait, what are you talking about, boy?" Vernon instantly stopped the car.
"You heard him."
"Whatever, it's not like they'll catch up to us."

They didn't stop to eat or drink anything all day. By nightfall, Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he'd missed 5 TV programmes he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.

Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley, Gwen and Harry shared a room with two beds — Harry and Gwen managed to fit in one of them — with damp musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry and Gwen stayed awake, sitting on the window-sill staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering...

A/N: Heyy! This is the 5th chapter for The Adventures of Gwen Potter. It's mostly just full of travelling, like I said in chapter 4.