Wild Child

1.3. A giant comes to tea

The shack was terrible. It smelled of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.

Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of crisps each and five bananas. I shoved every other crisps into my bag for Socrates.

He tried to start a fire but the empty crisp packets just smoked and shriveled up.

"Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.

He was in a very good mood and adeep spiteful part of me wanted to ruin it.

Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching us here in a storm to deliver post and he wasn't wrong. It made me want to throw my banana at his head.

As night fell, the promised storm blew up around us. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows.

Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, Harry and I were left to find the softest bit of floor we could sleep on.

I wrapped Socrates in my blanket and laid her next to Harry which he was ecstatic about.

Apparently he liked him the best which I wasn't at all bothered about even if I was the one who stole food for him and brought him blankets and then brought him into our warm house.

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on.

I couldn't sleep. I sat with my back against the wall clutching Snuffles tight. Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight.

Harry was also awake staring at Dudley's watch and for a moment I thought he might've nicked it right off his wrist.

There was something creak outside. I was worried the wind was going to just blow the little shack away.

I clutched Snuffles tighter, shutting my eyes. "Please don't blow away, Please don't blow away, Pleas-"

BOOM.

The whole shack shivered. My eyes flew open and Harry sat bolt upright, we stared at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.

BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.

"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.

"SHUT UP!" I yelled over the storm.

There was a crash behind us and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands - that must have been what was in the long, thin package he had brought with them.

"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you -- I'm armed!"

There was a pause. Then --

SMASH!

The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.

I let out a scream and Socrates kept into my lap.

A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.

The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.