Harry Potter

chapter 3. Letters from no one.

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry his longest-ever punishment.

By the time he was allowed out of his cupboard again, the summer holidays had started

and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control

airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she

crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.

Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who

visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and

stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. The

rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favourite sport: Harry Hunting.

This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering

around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where he could see a tiny ray of

hope. When September came he would be going off to secondary school and, for the

first time in his life, he wouldn't be with Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle

Vernon's old private school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on the

other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this

was very funny. "They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall,"

he told Harry. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"

"No, thanks," said Harry. "The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head

down it - it might be sick." Then he ran, before Dudley could work out what he'd said.

One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings

uniform, leaving Harry at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out

she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of

them as before. She let Harry watch television and gave him a bit of chocolate cake

that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.

That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brandnew uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers, and flat

straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other

while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.

As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly

that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she

couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry

didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked

from trying not to laugh. There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry went in

for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. He went to