He Still Has to Thank Me

Uncle Vernon was as good as his word. Perhaps he was also afraid that breaking his promise would lead to the neighbors discovering there was a freak in the family, so the five hundred Pounds Sterling was delivered to Harry's room that very evening.

"Boy, I hope you keep your promise!" Uncle Vernon said, looking thoroughly displeased.

"Don't worry." Harry returned a sincere smile.

For the sake of five hundred Pounds Sterling, Harry was willing to keep his promise.

Lying in bed, Harry still felt as though none of this was real.

Just yesterday, he had been at Hogwarts, discussing his sister's illness with Sebastian.

He remembered Verathea saying that they had already found a few clues.

I wonder how Anne is doing, Harry thought. When I get the chance, I should visit the Sallow family.

Wizards were long-lived, and only a little over a century had passed. Unless something unexpected had happened, the Saru siblings should both still be alive.

As for Sebastian, one of his closest friends, Harry trusted him deeply.

After all, Sebastian was the man who had trusted him without reservation and taught him the three Unforgivable Curses.

Of course, not for the time being. Before School Opening, it was best to keep a low profile.

Just as Harry was lost in thought, the bedroom door suddenly opened.

Without even looking up, he could tell that Dudley had entered.

Since he knew it was Dudley, he did not open his eyes. Instead, he continued resting with his eyes shut, waiting to see what Dudley intended to do.

Unexpectedly, Dudley merely walked over to his side and plopped down on the floor.

After a while, Harry heard quiet sobbing.

Harry picked up his wand. A glow lit at its tip, illuminating Dudley's broad, fat face.

"What's wrong?" Harry's heart softened, and he asked gently.

The only response was louder sobbing, though Dudley was still trying his best to suppress it—Harry knew that if Dudley truly let loose, his crying would be as ear-splitting as a Mandrake.

"Stop crying. If you bring Uncle Vernon over here, he'll suspect me of using magic to bully you again," Harry said helplessly.

"Th-this is obviously my room..." Dudley was still crying.

"Didn't Uncle Vernon buy it for two hundred and fifty Pounds Sterling?" Harry asked in return.

At those words, Dudley visibly choked up.

Harry shook his head helplessly, then suddenly had an idea.

He rummaged through the cabinet, pulled out a box of Chocolate Frogs, and handed it to Dudley.

"Here. This is a snack from the Magical World—you've definitely never had one before."

"What is this?" At the mention of food, Dudley immediately became interested. He no longer thought about crying, nor did he think about his room.

"Chocolate Frogs. There are cards inside, something young wizards like to collect," Harry explained. "The cards depict famous wizards."

"Wizards?" Dudley opened the Chocolate Frog and saw its body, which looked no different from a real frog. He stared in astonishment. "Th-this isn't a real frog, is it?"

"How could it be? It's made of chocolate, and there's magic on it." Harry smiled, but he did not tell Dudley that the Chocolate Frog would jump once.

Yet what Harry did not expect was that the instant the Chocolate Frog leapt up, Dudley seized it by the leg at a speed too fast for the eye to follow and flung it into his mouth.

When it came to food, Dudley always possessed agility beyond that of ordinary people.

"Mmm, delicious!" Dudley beamed as he savored it, reaching in to take out the card from the Chocolate Frog.

It depicted a white-bearded old man with a kindly smile.

The name beneath the picture was Paracelsus.

"There's an introduction on the back," Harry reminded him at the right moment.

Dudley flipped it over as instructed and indeed saw a description on the back.

"Paracelsus (1493–1541), a wizard contemporary with Copernicus and Leonardo da Vinci, a medical genius whose bold theories challenged medieval thought, discovered Parseltongue... Whoa."

After reading the introduction, he flipped the card back over.

"He's gone!" Dudley cried out.

"You can't expect him to stay there all day. He'll come back in a while," Harry explained. "Portraits in the Magical World are a little different from the ones here. Want something else? I still have plenty of snacks."

"Of course!"

Dudley nodded his fat head rapidly, the flesh on his face wobbling along with it.

He had no intention of getting to the bottom of the card matter. In fact, he did not care. Compared to that, he wanted to eat a few more Chocolate Frogs.

"Here's the deal. I can give you snacks, but you have to do something for me."

Harry picked up a stack of Chocolate Frogs, and Dudley's gaze stuck to them as well.

"Just tell me what you want." Dudley continued staring fixedly at the Chocolate Frogs.

Then, belatedly, he pulled two hundred and fifty Pounds Sterling from his pocket and placed it on Harry's desk.

After thinking for a moment, he pulled back two one-hundred-Pound Sterling notes.

"Here, this should be enough to buy all these snacks. You'll need some pocket money for school too, right? It's all yours."

Even fifty pounds was no small sum.

Harry had looked into it before. Gringotts exchanged pounds for Galleons at a rate of five to one. These pounds were enough to trade for ten Galleons—let alone buy these snacks, he could buy the same amount again without any problem.

Though Britain was no longer on the gold standard like in the Victorian era, the pound still had considerable purchasing power in those days.

"These are snacks from the Magical World, Dudley." Harry raised an eyebrow. "You don't think fifty pounds is enough to buy all of them, do you?"

Dudley actually nodded in agreement, clearly convinced by Harry's words.

A moving Chocolate Frog! That was a rare thing.

His remote-controlled car that could move had cost a full 49.99 pounds, after all. And this was an edible Chocolate Frog!

Even if he took 49.99 pounds and searched department stores all across Britain, he might not be able to find a single moving Chocolate Frog.

So Dudley readily handed the two hundred pounds to Harry and said, "Then take all of this too. If it's not enough—"

"It's fine. Take them all," Harry said casually, slipping the two hundred and fifty pounds into his pocket.

Dudley cheered, then remembered to thank Harry. "Thanks, Harry. You're such a good person."

Harry spread his hands.

See? He still had to thank me.

"I thought you'd hold a grudge over how I used to bully you and get revenge on me—" Dudley said as he stuffed Chocolate Frogs into his arms.

"Oh, right. I forgot about that." Harry reached out and grabbed a pillow.

Dudley noticed Harry picking up the pillow and instinctively swallowed.

"What are you doing?!"

Harry answered with a pillow attack straight to the face.