Dudley's Discovery

Dudley’s Discovery Chapter One

    Dudley Dursley woke with a start, not immediately knowing where he was. He looked around and remembered. It was Christmas holiday and he was home, in Privet Drive. The morning sun shone through his window but the house below him was silent. His father was at work, but where was his mother? Dudley pulled on some pants and a shirt and ran down the stairs.

    “Mum!” he called out, running to the kitchen. He saw the note on the table telling him she was at the market, which meant she would be gone for hours and would bring him back a treat. “Ahh,” he said aloud, walking from the kitchen back to the stairs. “I have a few hours and the house to myself. What sort of trouble can I get into?” His eyes fell on the door to what used to be his second bedroom. It was now the summer home for his cousin, Harry Potter, who spent the rest of the year away at a special boarding school. Dudley never actually caught the name of the place because his dad was always stopping Harry saying it. Dudley had not been in the room since his parents gave it to Harry. He had never really wanted to, until today. The curiosity was overwhelming and Dudley could never resist something when he wanted it.

    Dudley knew Harry was an unusual boy, one with unusual abilities. Harry was a wizard, something Dudley could not easily understand, as he had grown up thinking there was no such thing as magic. He took the stairs two at a time, a bit difficult for someone as large as he, and stopped in front of Harry’s room. He felt nervous, almost like he expected something to jump out at him if he touched the knob. He had been attacked by something over the summer while in Harry’s company. Something horrible and dark that Harry had called a dementoid, or something like that. It was not an experience he wanted to have again. He had told his parents Harry attacked him, but that was a lie. He had seen it. It was huge and dark, wearing a tattered cloak and it had no face. It glided across the ground in a legless dance and leaned in for a goodnight kiss. Dudley shuddered at the memory of the things he heard and saw in his head when the thing was on him. He heard shouts, screams of the children he had tortured. Small children with bruises and cuts on their faces were running from him in terror and he saw himself for the first time, an ugly, piggy bully that no one really liked. It terrified him and devastated him at the same time. He shook off the memory and the thought. It was just trickery, nothing more. Harry conjured the thing and then drove it away to show him how powerful he was. That was all.

    The feeling he was having while standing in front of Harry’s room was different. What was he afraid of? He was boxing champion at his school, after all. There was nothing in an empty room that could hurt him. He reached out and grasped the knob. It was locked. In a fit of temper, he banged the door with his hands, kicked it with his feet, and shouted at it. He grasped the knob harder and wiggled. The door swung open quickly, surprising Dudley and causing him to stumble into the room.

    An eerie green glow fell across the room from no visible light source and a hollow laugh came from somewhere in the depths of shadows in the corners of the room. The curtains were drawn and the lights were off, so where was that light coming from? Dudley stepped back into the hall and switched the light off. He turned back to Harry’s room and stared. The glow was still there, only brighter and more eerie than before. He gathered his courage and stepped into the room. The moment his foot passed the threshold, the light faded and the room was dark. He heard the hollow laughter again, coming from all sides of him. Hands shaking, Dudley switched the light on in Harry’s room. At least with the light on, nothing could take him by surprise. He looked around the room.

    It was bare and boring and Dudley saw nothing for him to be afraid of. The bed was rumpled and there were socks and papers on the floor, as if Harry had left in a hurry last time, but nothing interesting was out in plain sight. Dudley reckoned there must be something fun to look at in the wardrobe or under the bed, so he looked. Jackpot! He found some odd-looking devices, one that looked like a spinning top, but lit up and wouldn’t stop spinning after he placed it on the desk. He also found some schoolbooks, but they were unlike any books he had ever seen. One, entitled “Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1” was under the bed, under rolls of parchment and a couple of quills. Dudley shook his head.

    “Parchment and quills, spellbooks and strange devices that don’t work properly. Dad was right about wizards being strange.” He didn’t really want to keep looking, but he did. He opened the book and started reading.

    One of the most basic and most useful spells is ‘Accio,’ the spell to bring objects to you. It can be done with a simple motion of the wand and a recitation of the word, ‘Accio’. As with all other spells, ‘Accio’ requires great concentration.

    “A wand,” Dudley repeated after reading the passage. “I wish I had one of those, so I could show Harry who’s boss next summer when he comes home. But I wouldn’t want to be a freak like him. Dad would never allow that.”

    He closed the book and shoved it back under the bed, dismissing the whole thing from his mind. He had suddenly thought of a better thing to do. His mum and dad had bought an X-Box for him as an early Christmas present and he wanted to play a boxing game on it. He turned from Harry’s room, but before he closed the door, he had a prickly feeling on the back of his neck, like someone was behind him, breathing slowly but heavily. He turned back around, but saw nothing, not even the eerie glow that was there before. He closed the door and lumbered back to his own room, which was bright and inviting, and where he was surrounded by all his own things.

    He sat on his bed and looked around his room. On a desk by the door was his school bag. There was homework to be done, but he wouldn’t be doing it. He could bully someone to do it for him tonight when he and his friends prowled the playground, looking for human punching bags. Beyond the desk was an entertainment cupboard with a television, stereo, DVD player, video player, and his new X-Box, complete with the 43 games he had demanded. His bed was across the room from the entertainment cupboard, which also held all the remote controls. Dudley wished he could get the television remote without getting up. His mind flashed back to the spellbook in Harry’s room. What was that word again?

    “Acto? No, that’s not right. Accoid? No. What am I doing? It’s not like that stuff actually works anyway,” he said aloud, heaving his large body from the bed, preparing to cross the room for the remote.

    “Accio,” a voice hissed into his ear. He turned quickly around and saw nothing.

    “Who’s there?” Dudley asked, alarmed. The voice came from directly in front of him this time, but still there was nobody there.

    “Accio remote, idiot! Say the words!” The high, cruel voice hissed into his ear more intensely this time and caused his head to ache. He fell to the floor from the pain.

    “All right!” Dudley shouted. “Accio remote!” To his great surprise, the pain immediately disappeared. The remote quickly soared to his open hand and stopped neatly when it touched his palm. He stared at it, bug-eyed, for several minutes, not speaking. The voice spoke again in a language Dudley could not understand.

    “Veneficus novus,” the high, cruel voice said. “A new wizard is made!” The lights to the room suddenly faded and something swept past Dudley, who was now bathed in a green glow, raised off of the floor a few inches. Dudley screamed, realizing he was floating in the air! He felt an intense heat run through him and then he crumbled onto the floor, panting for breath. His arms and hands felt like they were on fire. The glow faded, the lights came back on, and his room was his room again. He slowly sat up and looked at his hands and arms in wonder. There was a small tattoo on his forearm, a picture of a skull with a snake coming out its mouth. He had never had a tattoo before and couldn’t figure how he had gotten this one. He knew something had happened to him, something strange and wonderful. He felt power like he never had before and a hunger to find out what he could do.

    “Accio pencil,” he said, holding out his hand. The pencil from his desk flew through the air into his hand. “Accio sneakers,” and his sneakers came up from the floor into his arms. He ran back to Harry’s room to get the spellbook and spent the rest of the day learning and testing new spells. They all required a wand, but Dudley didn’t seem to need one. He quickly discovered if he made the wand motions with his finger, he was able to do any of the spells from the book. He laughed with glee, realizing what kind of damage he could do to the kids on the playground, back at school, and then to Harry, when he came home for the summer.

    The door below squeaked as Dudley’s mum came into the house. Dudley stuffed the books from Harry’s room under his own bed as his mum called up the stairs.

    “Duddykins! Come down and see what mummy bought for you!” Dudley stood up with a wicked smile. Mum could never give him a gift more wonderful than what was given to him by the one with the high, cold voice. He examined himself in the mirror to make sure the tattoo was covered and his face looked okay. His eyes flashed red for just a moment, but they returned to normal. Trying to act as if nothing had happened to him, Dudley bounded down the stairs to see what gift his mum had bought. Only a few more hours until he could go to the playground and test his newfound powers on the neighborhood children. He allowed himself another wicked smile at that thought and his eyes flashed red once more. He could actually feel his power growing with each destructive desire he had. It was intoxicating.

To be continued!