Then, like raindrops, fists came raining down on him!
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!
The blows sounded like drumsticks striking a flour sack, or someone pounding a slab of quivering fat. Amid the unrelenting blur of fists, Dudley's head began transforming into a pig's at an astonishing rate.
"You're nothing but a stupid pig!" The boy, giving it everything he had as he straddled Dudley, cursed him with unconcealed delight.
"Dudley, my dear cousin, do you know how long I've waited for this day? Ever since the first day you bullied me, I've been waiting for this chance to beat you so badly that even Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia won't recognize you!"
"Damn you! Harry, you little—"
Thump!!
A solid punch slammed into Dudley's face, forcing the curse he was about to spit out right back down his throat.
"Ugh... Harry, just you wait! I'm definitely telling Piers about this! We'll beat you up every day from now on! I... I'll tell Mum and Dad, too. You're finished, just you wait... Ah!!"
Dudley thrashed about wildly and threatened Harry like a madman, but Harry's fists fell like an endless spring rain, never letting up for a moment!
Only when Dudley's ugly curses had turned into pitiful pleas and whimpers did Harry finally stop, still wanting more. He gave his aching arms a shake.
"Good grief, beating someone up is hard work~"
His body was so weak that even beating someone left him gasping for breath.
If he could actually take Dudley down head-on, why would he need to resort to underhanded tricks like throwing sand or tripping him?
Why would he have had to wait until now to fight back?!
As a transmigrator, Harry knew exactly how to train himself to become stronger, but he had never done anything of the sort.
Exercise made you hungry, and Harry had never had enough to eat.
Vernon Dursley and Petunia Dursley, Harry's uncle and aunt, had treated him well or not; the difference between Harry and Dudley's physiques said it all.
And being denied enough food was far from the only unfair treatment Harry had suffered at the Dursleys' over the years.
Insults, beatings, being locked up, and having his own benefits withheld!
Under the current law, every child born in Britain was entitled to receive £20 a week from the government from birth until the age of sixteen.
If the family had a second child, they could receive another £13.40.
This money was allocated to the child. Even if the child's parents had passed away, not a penny would be withheld; it would be paid directly to whoever was currently responsible for them.
So by taking Harry in, the Dursleys actually earned an extra ten-odd pounds a week... yet they spent less than half that amount on him!
Sometimes, Harry really wanted to ask his uncle Vernon whether he felt even the slightest bit ashamed when he went to collect the money every week.
But whether Vernon felt any shame didn't matter anymore.
Harry looked down at his handiwork. Dudley had completely run out of strength to struggle and was sprawled on the ground, twitching.
"Go ahead and tell whoever you want about what happened today. Let's see if anyone believes you~" Harry sneered. "Dudley Dursley got beaten senseless by Harry Potter? I guarantee that's the perfect joke to ring in the New Year!!"
"And besides... after the way your family has 'looked after' me all these years, your parents have problems of their own to worry about!!"
Thump!!
Harry clasped his hands together and brought them down for one last hard blow to Dudley's head. Then he left his cousin groaning on the ground and walked out of the deserted alley.
Beating Dudley up had just been a side benefit. His real purpose today was to submit a report to the Social Services Department in Little Whinging.
He would use the law to repay the Dursley family for everything they had done to him over the years!
"Dursleys... are you ready to face the consequences of the law?!"
The Social Services Department in Little Whinging: when Harry noticed the young, pretty social worker looking at him with sympathy, he immediately put on the air of a helpless, lonely child.
"I wrote down everything they've done here... I really don't know why they treat me this way. They're my uncle and aunt, my family! I, I wanted to pretend none of it had ever happened... but I really can't take it anymore..."
With his tearful performance polished by his own experiences, Harry reckoned he deserved a nine out of ten.
After all, he wasn't a vain person.
What the Dursley family had done to him would bring tears to anyone who heard about it in this country. Besides, British social workers regularly dealt with vulnerable groups like the elderly and children; they were government employees, and compassion was the one thing they had plenty of.
Harry was even certain that once the social worker heard what he had been through, she would feel for him!
"Oh, you poor child. If that's really what happened, then you've been terribly unlucky!"
Sure enough, after reading the report, the social worker took Harry's hand sympathetically, her eyes reddening as she cursed the awful couple named in it.
"It seems they really have treated you terribly. Your hands are even red and swollen!"
"Uh... yes~"
Harry glanced down at his slightly reddened knuckles, and an awkward look crossed his face.
His hands really were hot and itchy, but it wasn't because he'd been abused. He'd gotten too carried away while beating Dudley and had accidentally swollen them...
"Poor child. I've already reported this to my supervisor. Don't worry, the police will investigate right away!" The social worker comforted Harry gently. "Please believe me, we won't let child abusers get away with it! The law and God are both on your side!"
"Thank you. I've always believed the law would give me justice, especially here in Britain today!"
After leaving the Social Services Department, Harry was so delighted he could've taken off into the sky.
The dark, cramped cupboard under the stairs, the cousin who bullied him, the sharp-tongued aunt, the uncle so fat he had no neck... Harry could finally say goodbye to the whole Dursley family!
He was looking forward to the social worker helping him leave that dreadful place at Number 4 Privet Drive. Otherwise, he wouldn't have kept putting up with it until he was nine, waiting all the way to the end of 1989!
This year, Britain had passed the latest Children Act, and the United Nations had recently adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child. As one of the five permanent members of the Security Council and the country with the most comprehensive child welfare system in the world, Britain's concern for children was only to be expected.
Before transmigrating, Harry had worked in a legal field, so although he hadn't experienced these things firsthand, he knew them well enough.
That was why, from the very first day the Dursleys mistreated him, he'd secretly gathered evidence of the couple's abuse of an orphan, patiently waiting for the Children Act to pass!
With the evidence he had, together with the involvement of social services and the police, he could absolutely get the Dursleys sent to prison, barring any complications!
Meow~
A lazy mewl drifted over from the street corner. Harry turned his head and spotted a cat out for a stroll.
Its unhurried steps and carefree air made Harry long for the same freedom.
Maybe he would still have to deal with the awful Dursleys when he got home today.
But his freedom was surely just around the corner!
"Harry! Damn it, get over here!"
Just as expected, the moment Harry got home after enjoying himself all the way there, his uncle's roar sounded on cue. Vernon roughly dragged him into the living room.
There, his bruised and swollen cousin was curled up in Aunt Petunia's arms, sobbing.
"Oh, there he is! He beat me up! That bastard Harry did it!!" The moment he saw Harry, Dudley's sobs rose several notches in volume.
"Harry... what on earth happened?!" Vernon shoved his purplish face close to Harry's and demanded in a menacing voice. "Tell me, what did you do to my precious Dudley?"
"I didn't do anything. Maybe he brought it on himself." Harry's gaze turned cold. This family always knew how to ruin everyone else's good mood in an instant.
The Dursleys might not really believe Dudley's accusation, but to calm the little prince down, Vernon had still chosen to take his anger out on Harry!
"You didn't do anything? You went out with Dudley. If it wasn't you, then who was it?!" Vernon clutched the front of Harry's shirt and roared at him relentlessly.
Sure enough, he didn't care about the truth. He just wanted to pin the blame on Harry!
And that finally ignited the anger Harry had been holding back for so long!
"I told you... he brought this on himself!!!"
An invisible shockwave spread rapidly through the living room, shattering every cup and ornament in its path. Even the heavyset Vernon was knocked off balance and fell onto the floor, staring in disbelief!
For a moment, the entire Dursley home fell silent. Even Dudley was too frightened to keep crying.
The third chapter: Magic had been repressed all along
The living room was in shambles. Vernon lay sprawled on the floor, Petunia stood frozen with her neck stretched out, and Dudley trembled all over. All three stared in terror at the culprit behind the mess—Harry.
But before they could react, Harry took off, slipping away from the "crime scene" and darting into the tiny cupboard under the stairs where he lived.
"Bastard! Harry, you little bastard, get out here right now!!"
Once he'd recovered, Vernon pounded furiously on the cupboard door, roaring and cursing on the other side. But Harry curled up on his little bed and ignored him completely.
"Ugh... it's getting harder and harder to control. This damned magic!" His body shook violently, and the muscles in his face kept twitching as though he were suffering unbearable pain.
It took quite a while before his expression finally began to relax.
His clothes were almost soaked through with sweat, but Harry was so exhausted he couldn't even move a finger. He lay on the bed, panting.
Magical outbursts were already an everyday occurrence for Harry.
When he'd realized he'd transmigrated into the protagonist of a famous franchise, his first reaction hadn't been joy, but deep resignation.
Unlike those transmigrators who started out ridiculously overpowered and invincible, he hadn't been given a cheat or anything of the sort.
All Harry could rely on was what he'd learned in his previous life and the excellent memory he'd been born with.
But what was even more frustrating was that his memory was practically useless, because he didn't know the plot.
The only part of the Harry Potter series he'd ever seen was the Sorcerer's Stone movie, and he'd watched it dubbed in Chinese.
So apart from the names of a few main characters and the fact that one of the villains was called Voldemort, Harry knew next to nothing about the magical world.
Starting out with nothing made it easy to mess up. Harry knew there was no such thing as a protagonist's halo protecting him, so he'd never planned to take on the villain.
Come on, wasn't it better to lie low in the real world?
With the knowledge from his previous life, Harry could make a good living as a detective or a doctor. Why go out of his way to provoke someone as terrifying as Voldemort?
So Harry had always firmly believed that if he could leave the Dursleys, then keep his identity secret and even change his appearance while hiding in the real world, trouble would never find him!
With that in mind, he'd been doing his best to suppress his newly emerging magic and live like a... well, at least look like an ordinary person.
A small digression: if Harry had watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them before transmigrating, he might have regretted his choice.
But he hadn't even finished the original series. That meant he was bound to make some naive assumptions when dealing with his magical outbursts.
What made Harry feel even more miserable was that despite how much he'd endured over the years, and how many times he'd shown his gratitude and kindness, the Dursleys still treated him terribly.
As he got older, Harry's magic became harder and harder to control. His emotions grew increasingly unstable, and from time to time, he caused a scene like the one earlier.
Harry could tell that the Dursleys were terrified of his magical outbursts, but every time one happened, they treated him even worse afterward!
So Harry often thought that he must have spent too long suppressing himself in that environment. His mental state had become unbalanced, making it impossible to fully control his magic!
If his so-called relatives in the Dursley family had been kind to him from the start, or at least left him in peace, Harry wouldn't have needed to resort to reporting them!
At any rate, the truth would soon come out.
Perhaps by the time the sun rose tomorrow, he would finally be free of the Dursley family's prison!
Holding on to that hope, Harry fell into a deep sleep in the dim cupboard under the stairs.
The next day...
Bang, bang, bang! Bang, bang, bang, bang!!
Early in the morning, Harry was woken by pounding on the door, as if someone wanted to tear the house apart.
"Get up! You damn bastard, you still have the nerve to sleep in there? Get your ass into the living room, now!!"
Hearing Vernon roar as if he were about to eat him alive, the half-asleep Harry jolted awake. Moments later, his uncle burst in, dragged him out, and hauled him into the living room.
Before you continue