The Time-Meddlers [Harmione]

3. Summer with the Dursleys

With Hedwig on his shoulder and watch on his wrist, Harry opened to door to Number 4 Privet Drive, where the Dursleys were all sitting around the television. Harry had to hold back his laughter at how uncomfortable Dudley looked sitting with a tail. When he closed the door, all attention was turned toward him. Dudley ran upstairs with his hand on his bottom while the adults glared at Harry - half-angry and half-terrified. Harry spoke.

"Uncle, I would like to make you a deal."

Vernon's face began turning red as he stood up and approached. "Deal, boy? What makes you think you can just waltz in here and make a deal after...after that?!"

When he was younger, Harry would've run to his cupboard when his uncle was this mad, but not today. "Because I can remove Dudley's tail."

"If you can remove that blasted thing, then do it NOW!" He towered threateningly over his hated nephew, causing Hedwig to fly out of Vernon's reach as she squawked. "And what's that bloody bird doing here?"

"Hedwig was a gift from Hagrid, and he'd be very upset if you hurt her," said Harry, causing his uncle to pale. "No, I'm not removing Dudley's tail right now," Harry replied calmly to his uncle's request. "I have conditions that you must meet."

At this point, Vernon's face was turning puce. "Conditions? You'll do it now if you want any food!"

"That's part of the deal," said Harry calmly, which he could tell only served to infuriate his uncle more. He noticed that Petunia was watching the exchange silently from the sofa, and was certain that Dudley was listening, though he was nowhere in sight. "I won't need your food or even your bathroom. I can take care of that magically." His uncle's face was dark purple now, but he didn't speak. "All I need is my room. I'll spend most of my time there. If I leave the room, it'll be to leave the house. If you simply leave me alone for the rest of the summer - that means no chores, not being bothered by any of you - then on the 31st of August, I will remove Dudley's tail. On the 1st of September, I'll leave for school. You won't need to give me a ride anywhere. I'll try to make other arrangements, but if I do return next summer, you won't have to pick me up, even if you get a letter that says you should."

Vernon was breathing heavily, but trying not to lose his temper. Harry knew that his uncle didn't want to endure the humiliation of having a doctor remove the tail. "How do we know that you can remove that tail or that you will, boy?"

"I promise that I will, but even if I didn't, then you wouldn't have actually lost anything. Besides, I'm your only chance without involving...outsiders."

"Fine," snarled Vernon, "but if I find that you've stolen one crumb of moldy cheese..."

Ignoring the rest of his uncle's rant, Harry said, "Come on, Hedwig," and walked up to his room with her flying behind him.

As he passed Dudley's room, he heard his cousin's scared voice come out of it, but couldn't see 'Big D.' anywhere. "Y-you can remove it?"

"Yes," Harry answered, "but I won't if you or your parents bug me this summer."

"B-but."

"None of you has ever given me a reason to be nice to you, so that's why I'm waiting until the end of the summer. Anyway, now I need to read up on more interesting hexes than that one. Bye."

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Harry walked into his room and closed the door. He wanted to charm the door not to open, but knew that magic would be detected in the house. He took off his watch and resized it.

The first thing he did is remove a lock he'd bought for his bedroom door, and some tools to install it. It was not an easy job for an eleven-year-old, but he was used to working hard all the time, and had no problems with it. Now, he could lock his room from the inside. When his aunt noticed what he was doing, he told her that, "None of you is to mess with this lock."