Fortune of Fate (A female Harry Potter fanfiction)

[3]

  That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited Rose in her cupboard.

  ''Where's my letter?'' said Rose the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. ''Who's writing to me?''

  ''No one. It was addressed to you by mistake,'' said Uncle Vernon shortly. ''I have burned it.'' 

  ''It was not a mistake,'' said Rose angrily, ''it had my cupboard on it.''

  ''SILENCE!'' yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.

  ''Er- yes, Rose- about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking... You're really getting a bit big for it... We think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.

  ''Why?'' said Rose.

  ''Don't ask questions!'' snapped her uncle. ''Take this stuff upstairs, now.''

  The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors, one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom. 

  It only took Rose one trip upstairs to move everything she owned form the cupboard to this room. She sat down on the bed and stared around her. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bend because Dudley sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. Those were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched.

  From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, ''I don't want her in there... I need that room.. Make her get out..''

  Rose sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday she'd have given anything to be up here. Today she'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it. 

  Next morning, at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet, Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and still didn't have his room back.

  Rose was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing she'd opened the letter in the hall. 

  Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.

  When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Rose, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging on things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted. ''There's another one! 'Miss R. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Pivet Drive-''

  With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Rose right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact Rose had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Rose's letter clutched in his hand.

  ''Go to your cupboard- I mean, your bedroom,'' he wheezes to Rose. ''Dudley- go- just go.''

  One day, after the letters kept coming and coming, Uncle Vernon, who had had enough, didn't go to work that day. He stayed home and nailed up the mail slot. ''See,'' he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, ''If they can't deliver them, then they'll just give up!''