1213-2

Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!' she cried, flinging her arms around him.

...rang – ‘Oh, Good Lord, they're here!' said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at...

...things often happened around Harry and it was just no good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen. Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe,...

‘Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the boy.' The Dursleys often spoke about Harry like this, as though he wasn't there – or rather, as though he was something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug. ‘What about what's-her-name, your friend – Yvonne?'

Just then, the doorbell rang – ‘Oh, Good Lord, they're here!' said Aunt Petunia frantically – and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually...

Next morning, however, he had got up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.

Every year on Dudley's birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema.

‘And come back and find the house in ruins?' she snarled. ‘I won't blow up the house,' said Harry, but they weren't listening.

...barber's looking as though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his fringe, which she left ‘to hide that horrible scar'.

‘I suppose we could take him to the zoo,' said Aunt Petunia slowly, ‘… and leave him in the car …' ‘That car's new, he's not sitting in it alone …' Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying, it had been years since he'd really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted. ‘D

Dinky Duddydums, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!' she cried, flinging her arms around him.