A good Beginning (Harry Potter)

Chapter 6: Definitely not favouritism

Harry ran through the corridors of Hogwarts, the news that Harry Potter had stood up to 7th year   Slytherins had passed around the school like wildfire, as Harry's little legs pattered as fast as they could people stared at him in awe and murmured. He soon arrived at Professor McGonagall's office, opened the door, shut it as quickly as possible and rested his back against the door. Harry looked up to see his father, his 2 godfathers, Dumbledore and McGonagall looking at him curiously.

'Dad, when you said that I'm famous, you didn't mention just how famous! People are just staring at me like I'm some object!' Harry began, his heavy breathy starting to slow down now.

'Well of course your famous, you got rid of the most powerful dark wizard and you brought your parents back from the dead' his father replied

'You died?!', Harry said, he was shocked that his parents had never mentioned this to the child, although he began to understand just why they didn't, 'and I brought you back from the dead?!'

'Let's not focus on the past Harry, what really matters is the present, for now' ,Dumbledore said, 'tell me Harry, what gave it away that you were Harry Potter in the first place?'

'Well Professor, I was walking to the library to get a book on animagi, I saw three Slytherin 7th years pin a Ravenclaw girl against the wall. They told her that she had to do their Transfiguration homework and they called her a person with mud in their blood', Harry whispered this last part.

'The leader of their group then used a spell on her, sectumsempra, and the girl started bleeding all over her body. So I sent my phoenix pratonus to go and heal her whilst I raised the bullies into the ceiling and made it so that they sunk into it. I grew them extra long beards and started to yank on them and they started to yell in pain; the girl then hugged me and asked who I was, so I told her the truth.' Harry was now out of breath for reciting this fairly long story, he looked at Dumbledore to try and figure out how the old man felt about this story, Albus wore a look of slight amusement and admiration.

Harry then turned to Sirius, who was beaming with glee, and began to say:

'This child is a genius, Prongs! I tell you, genius! Standing up to 7th year Slytherins! Everyone is in for a shock when he comes to Hogwarts'. Everyone was beaming at this prospect because Harry had proven himself to be a very brave person on several occasions; meaning that he had a very likely chance of being in Gryffindor.

***********************************************************************************************

It was Christmas once again, the Potters were happy to go to Lily's parents' house, but they weren't too pleased when Petunia turned up and called them freaks again.

This year, Dudley got a total of 35 presents, which Harold and Rose Evans laughed at because they thought that Dudley was a lost cause and there was no way which they could make him like their other grandson.  Harry got a nice assortment of presents, some joke items from Zonkos and some magical Honeydukes candy which he ended up sharing with Dudley after a temper tantrum and grudging looks from his parents and grand parents. James got Lily a beautiful emerald encrusted necklace whilst Petunia recieved £100 from her 'loving' husband.

At lunch, a massive argument broke out between Petunia and her parents; Petunia was complaining to them that they didn't love Dudley as much as they favoured the 'freak' (Harry). It was a very uncomfortable atmosphere, with Vernon once again trying to say that magic has no place in the world and that all the Potters were poor, James tried to tell him that they lived in a manor but Vernon said that they probably broke in.

Dudley as ever, was piling food onto his plate, so much so that at one point he even had more than Vernon. The fat child reached for the mashed potatoes but couldn't pull it towards him so he decided to turn to Harry and shout:

'You freak! Give me the potatoes!'. Lily clenched her fork and gritted her teeth, no one should speak to her son like this, no one. Harry reassured his mum that he was fine and with a smirk he handed over the potatoes and said:

'Dudikens, you have some gravy on your chin!' Dudley snarled and tried to wipe his chin but there was no food present. Harry smiled and said, 'No Dudikens, your other chin!'. Mr and Mrs Evans began to snicker whilst the Potters burst out laughing. Vernon tried to reach across the table in an attempt to throttle Harry, but failed miserably when Harry raised an eyebrow in amusement, causing all the gravy to leap up and spill on the walrus of a man's face.

Harry's grandparents were now laughing in hysterics, Petunia however wasn't, she threw her fist down to the table and began to shout.

'Mum! Dad! You are clearly favouring the freak over my perfect Dudikens!'

'Petunia! Don't call Harry a freak, we aren't favouring the child, we're not liking the way which you're raising Dudley. You're feeding him too much. You're  spoiling him too much. You need to get a hold of your child' Grandpa retorted. With that, Petunia and Vernon stormed out, picking up all their presents and grabbing Dudley by the hand whilst he looked longingly at all the food.

Grandpa and Grandma both turned to Harry who was grinning and said in unison, 'We're proud of you Harry'.