Tasting Cake, a Midnight Talk!

Hagrid's imperfect Undetectable Extension Charm had only affected the living room's space. The misaligned, warped ceiling and walls had not actually deformed; they merely looked awkward.

So it did not interfere with Dudley moving in and out of the rooms.

Dudley tossed Hagrid's coat into the washing machine in the family bathroom, turned it on, and made the machine laboriously begin to run.

He was not planning to tamper with Hagrid's coat. He simply wanted to give Hagrid a reason to return to the Dursley household.

That would improve the odds and chances of success for what he planned to do later.

When he returned to the living room, the Dursleys, Harry, and Hagrid were already seated around the dining table.

There were no chairs in the house that could bear Hagrid's weight, so Petunia found him a thick cushion and had him sit directly on the floor.

Even so, Hagrid was taller than everyone in the Dursley household.

They sat around the table, looking at the two cakes—a tall one and a short one, a large one and a small one—and waited for Dudley to return so they could taste them together.

The atmosphere, however, was somewhat awkward and stifling, no longer as warm and cheerful as before.

Hagrid, on the other hand, was delightedly sharing the sausages he had just taken from his pocket.

Vernon and Petunia wore rather stiff expressions. Although Dudley had talked them around, sitting with a wizard still made them deeply uncomfortable.

Harry's expression was conflicted as well. Now that he knew Hagrid had been the one who brought him here, he desperately wanted to ask him about the details of his parents' deaths.

The letter Dumbledore had left for the Dursleys had only said that Lily and James had been killed by a powerful Black Wizard, and that Lily had used love and sacrifice before her death to cast a powerful protective spell on Harry. It had not specifically identified the murderer.

The copy of Modern Wizarding History Dudley had received from Diggle had also been vague on the matter.

As though avoiding some taboo, it referred to that brutal murderer only as "You-Know-Who," focusing instead on Harry Potter's reputation as the Boy Who Lived and the savior of the Wizarding World.

As a transmigrator, Dudley naturally knew the full truth. But in the past, he had been unable to lay everything out for Harry as though pouring beans from a bamboo tube.

First, he did not want Harry's childhood to be consumed by the grief of his parents' murder. Second, Dudley could not explain where his information had come from.

Thus, Harry still knew very little about his parents' deaths and was eager to learn the truth.

But in the current setting and atmosphere, he did not know whether he should speak up, nor did he know how to begin.

"Let's eat the cake first!" Dudley sat down beside Harry. "We can talk about everything else after we've eaten."

Harry and the Dursleys breathed sighs of relief. Their expressions became much more natural as they began cutting the cake.

Without realizing it, Dudley had become, in a sense, the backbone of the family, someone who could bring his family courage and strength.

Under Dudley's tactful guidance, the cake-tasting went smoothly and harmoniously.

Dudley trained in boxing and had a hearty appetite. Vernon was round and ate a lot. And Hagrid went without saying—with Giant blood and a height of three and a half meters, he could really put food away.

The two fairly large cakes were not wasted in the slightest. Everyone wiped them out completely.

They also went through two barrels of juice.

Hagrid ate until he was eighty percent full, and he was delighted. On a whim, he commented with absolutely no tact:

"I used to misunderstand you Dursleys. You're not as hateful and mean as I imagined! You've raised Harry very well. He may not be as sturdy as little Dudley, but he's got a healthy build!"

Vernon and Petunia's faces darkened. Wizards really were an annoying species.

Noticing this, Dudley hurriedly changed the subject and asked the question Harry most wanted answered:

"Hagrid, Harry is family, so it's only right that we treat him well. You should tell us how exactly my Aunt Lily and Uncle James were killed. Harry and all of us want to know."

At those words, curiosity appeared on Harry's face as he looked at Hagrid.

Though Petunia tried hard to hide it, she could not help pricking up her ears. She also wanted to know why her sister had left her.

Hagrid's face sank at this. He looked at Harry with some pity before slowly saying, "There are things I don't know very clearly either. I can only tell you what I know.

"It was all because of a very, very bad Black Wizard, bad to the bone. His name was..."

"What was his name?" Harry asked impatiently.

"His name... everyone avoids saying it and calls him You-Know-Who. All right, his name was... Voldemort!"

After saying the name, Hagrid shuddered and leaned closer to the fireplace before continuing. "Twenty years ago, You-Know-Who gathered a huge number of wizards and formed an organization called the Death Eaters. He ruled the Wizarding World.

"Throughout the entire United Kingdom, apart from Dumbledore's Hogwarts..."

The family listened quietly as Hagrid spoke of the Wizarding World's semi-public secrets, each wearing a different expression.

A while later, Hagrid was more or less finished. He did not know much himself.

Only then did Dudley draw on what Harry already knew and ask the crucial question:

"Voldemort broke into Aunt Lily's home and killed Aunt Lily and Uncle James, but the protective spell Aunt Lily placed on Harry rebounded his attack, leaving him seriously injured and forcing him into hiding. No one knew whether he was alive or dead, and the British Wizarding World regained its peace because of that.

"So here's the question: why did Voldemort insist on killing Aunt Lily's family? What was his motive?"

Hagrid thought for a moment. "I'm not sure. He was mad, a complete and utter villain. During that time, he killed many well-known wizarding couples. Many couples and their children all died, like the McKinnons..."

"Stop! That's it!" Dudley interrupted Hagrid. "When there's no prior grudge, why would a ruler systematically eliminate a group? Setting aside the possibility that he was simply insane, what would the reason be?"

As he spoke, Dudley looked at Harry.

Harry immediately began thinking. A few seconds later, he came up with the answer. "It's because someone, or some people, in that group could threaten his rule—perhaps even his life!"

Dudley nodded approvingly. "That's right! And the person who posed a threat to Voldemort should have been..."

"Me?!" Harry cried, following Dudley's train of thought.

Dudley nodded again, and the room fell silent.

After a while, Harry broke the silence. "How could Voldemort be certain that someone in that group would be his nemesis? Could he tell fortunes?"

Dudley had mentioned the concept of fortune-telling when he used to tell Harry Eastern stories. The fact that Harry now made this rational connection rather than drowning in grief and self-torment was enough to prove that Dudley's intervention and guidance during Harry's childhood had been highly effective.

"Fortune-telling? Harry, do you mean Divination?"

Hagrid took over. "You-Know-Who knew a lot of powerful Dark Magic, but I've never heard he had any exceptional talent for Divination. Speaking of Divination, Professor Trelawney at Hogwarts is extremely skilled at it."

"Then could it be..."

Harry said excitedly, as though he had guessed some truth.

But at that moment, perhaps because his thoughts were too many and too jumbled, a dazzling green light suddenly flashed through Harry's mind, along with a burst of evil, sinister, brutal laughter.

It was a memory from the night his parents had been killed.

"Cousin! I..." Harry abruptly stood up, then felt his head grow dizzy and staggered two steps.