News of Admission, an Owl Messenger!

"According to the books sent to me by your fanatical admirer, that not-too-bright wizard named Diggle, children born in Britain and Ireland with magical talent all attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry when they turn eleven.

"And the headmaster of that school, Albus Dumbledore, was the one who brought you here and left a letter of explanation about ten years ago."

Dudley explained it to his cousin with sound reasoning, then did not forget to reassure him. "Don't worry, Harry!

"Even if no one notified you to go to the wizarding world and learn magic, I wouldn't let you attend a chaotic, low-quality school like Stonewall High."

"Cousin, I understand. Thank you!"

Harry's heart warmed, and all his worries and gloom about the future vanished completely.

Cousin Dudley had been clever and studious since childhood, strong yet refined and easygoing. Having grown up with him, Harry knew Dudley treated him even better than a real brother.

Even when his magic had surged out of control and accidentally caused incidents unimaginable to ordinary people, making everyone around him see him as a monster, Cousin Dudley had never looked at him differently. Instead, Dudley had cared for him even more and actively guided him in becoming familiar with that wondrous power.

If he ignored the slight distance and disgust Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had always felt toward him, then his childhood might, perhaps, probably, supposedly have counted as perfect!

Harry shook his head and, following the method his cousin had once taught him, tossed away all the thoughts that made him unhappy.

Then he happily caught up with his cousin, firing off question after question with curiosity, asking details he had asked before and some he had not, never tiring of it:

"Cousin! Is that Mr. Diggle you mentioned the strange man who took off his hat and bowed to me in the shop?"

"Yes, him! After he saluted you that day, I followed him and asked why. He told me that you were the Savior, the Boy Who Lived, the star of the wizarding world, and that he admired you immensely.

"Later, I made a deal with him. I traded several exercise books with your signature for quite a few basic books about wizards and magic. He was very willing and very happy about it, and he even gave me some extra magical gold coins called Galleons."

Dudley Dursley ate beef jerky as he patiently answered Harry's questions.

The steady, composed air in his every gesture had nothing to do with an eleven-year-old child. He seemed more like an elder who had seen through the ways of the world yet still retained his passion.

But his cousin Harry Potter and his parents, the Dursleys, had never noticed this.

Because, in their eyes, Dudley had always been like this—so exceptionally gifted, so far beyond the ordinary.

"Cousin, Cousin! Does Headmaster Dumbledore ride a motorcycle? A flying motorcycle! I always dream that I'm riding a flying motorcycle and flying for a very, very long time!"

"Oh, Harry! I don't think you should associate a man over a hundred years old with an extreme sport like that. Even if the books say he's the greatest wizard of the twentieth century, the twentieth century only has nine years left. He's old too, isn't he?"

"So the flying motorcycle was just a dream?"

"No. Perhaps someone else rode a flying motorcycle to bring you here back then. Dumbledore is a headmaster, so he must have some subordinates, right? Just like me and my Dudley gang, maybe he has something like Dumbledore's Army too."

"Then can Dumbledore box too? Like you do, Cousin..."

The journey had not been far to begin with, and as Dudley and Harry talked, they quickly reached their destination.

It was the home they had shared for nearly ten years: a spacious two-story house at Number Four, Privet Drive.

It was around eight or nine in the morning, still early.

A grayish-brown owl flew in from the horizon with a yellowed letter clutched in its talons, accurately dropping it into the mailbox outside their home.

"Harry, I think your admission letter has arrived!"

Dudley watched the Scottish round-faced fat chicken, excitement flashing in his eyes before it swiftly disappeared and was replaced by a warm, affectionate look.

"Psst, psst, psst..."

Dudley made calling noises with his mouth, drawing the attention of the messenger owl nearby as it prepared to fly away.

The owl had not wanted to bother with a Muggle. It had hoped to return to Hogwarts' owl post early and eat a couple of field mice!

But its sharp eyes caught sight of the delicious beef jerky Dudley held high in his hand, and Dudley still had more than half a bag of it tucked under his arm.

"Hoo, hoo..."

Unable to resist the temptation of food, the owl changed course, circling around and flying straight toward the beef jerky in Dudley's hand.

Dudley's eyes crinkled with a smile. He held up the Smeting Wand with one hand to give the owl somewhere to perch, while generously using the other to take out strips of beef jerky from the bag tucked under his arm and feed it.

The owl was being treated so comfortably that its wariness gradually faded. Its pointed beak kept swallowing strips of beef jerky into its belly.

It did not even resist when Dudley reached out to stroke its wings and back feathers.

"Sqeee—"

As the saying went, a careful sailor sailed for ten thousand years; a careless one capsized.

But the messenger owls of Britain's magical world had clearly never heard this principle from the mysterious Eastern land. It fell into Dudley's hands with absurd ease, capsizing in a gutter.

At that moment, Dudley tossed aside the Smeting Wand and the bag of beef jerky, using both hands to firmly seize the owl.

The poor messenger panicked in fear and struggled desperately in Dudley's grasp.

"Harry!" Dudley called softly.

"Yes, Cousin!"

Harry, standing beside him, instantly understood what his cousin meant. He immediately held out both hands toward the owl's wildly thrashing body and began concentrating with all his might, consciously drawing upon the wondrous magic within him.

"Calm down... Be quiet... Relax... We mean you no harm..."

As Harry muttered under his breath, an invisible magic spread from his hands and enveloped the frenzied messenger owl.

The poor owl actually began to calm down, no longer struggling or flailing, allowing Dudley to hold it in his grip.

"Good! Good bird!"

Dudley smiled.

Still smiling, he said to Harry, "Go get your letter and read it! Don't go inside. Stay here—we'll go in after we've finished reading it."

Harry froze for a moment, then understood his cousin's intentions.

This was to keep Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, who hated magic, from stopping him from reading the letter.

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon had always doted on Cousin Dudley and indulged his every wish, except when it involved wizards and magic.

Harry hurried to the mailbox and found, among several letters and bills, the parchment letter the messenger owl had just delivered.

Breaking the wax seal stamped with lions, badgers, eagles, snakes, letters, and decorative patterns, Harry Potter smoothly read the first admission letter Hogwarts had sent him.

"Cousin! It really is a letter from Hogwarts! They want me to enroll on September first, and I need to buy a wand, school supplies, a pet, and first-year textbooks... I have to reply before July thirty-first!

"How do I write back to the wizards at Hogwarts? Oh, right! You've already caught the messenger!"

Harry lowered his voice and excitedly told Dudley what he had read in the letter, his joy impossible to conceal.

But after his excitement faded, Harry suddenly thought of something, and his spirits could not help sinking again.

"Cousin... if I go to Hogwarts, I won't be able to go to school with you anymore."