At Number Four, Privet Drive, Harry carried two plates of dinner into his room—there was a reason for all this, and the main reason was Dudley.
Dudley had not woken up until the following morning. On the whole, there seemed to be nothing seriously wrong with him; he appeared to have simply had a fright.
Only then had Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon breathed a sigh of relief. But when Dudley came downstairs for breakfast, the moment he saw Harry, he sprang up as though electrocuted and retreated to the farthest corner, cowering behind the door with only half his face showing.
Harry had been holding a glass of orange juice at the time, and he could tell that Dudley was terrified of him.
After that, the atmosphere in the Dursley household became very strange.
Whenever Harry appeared in the living room, Dudley sprang off the sofa and charged upstairs; whenever Harry went downstairs for water, Dudley burst out of the kitchen, nearly knocking the doorframe crooked; when Harry was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, Dudley passed through the hallway, glimpsed that bespectacled face through the gap in the door, let out a squawk like a chicken being strangled, and scrambled away.
Dudley now absolutely refused to share a room with Harry. Wherever Harry was, Dudley was not.
As a result, Harry and the Dursley family kept out of each other's way.
He ate in his little bedroom, with Aunt Petunia leaving his food outside the door; he only went to wash up after the Dursleys had gone upstairs.
Mundungus Fletcher, however, was still staying in his room, sleeping on the floor. He snored loudly enough to shake the heavens, and sometimes ground his teeth as well.
Harry had been woken several times on the first night. On the