Dudley's Enthusiasm

Recently, Harry has been feeling something strange.

Logically, Ron or Draco should have sent a letter by now, but nothing has come.

Even his devoted fan Anthony and Neville's promised letters never arrived.

Most surprisingly, his godfather's gift also did not arrive.

Yes, a gift.

Sirius was not a parent who didn't know how to talk to his child and just kept writing letters.

As a result, Harry received a gift almost every few days, which nearly caused Dudley revert to his old ways.

"Harry, you actually managed to refrain from killing me on my birthday before," Dudley exclaimed when he saw Harry's gift.

But now even Sirius's gift is gone.

This made Harry suspiciously rummage through the bag Draco's father had given him to cast the Undetectable Extension Charm, and count Sirius's gifts inside. There were only four gifts: the latest Nimbus 2001, a Golden Snitch model, the complete Doraemon collection, and an authentic Take-copter from Skywalker Alchemy Workshop.

This doesn't make sense. Sirius said he would make up for all the birthdays he missed for Harry. Sirius did attend Harry's first birthday party, not counting the one at the end of the month, which was on July 31st. There should have been at least 10 presents.

All of this made Harry feel that Doraemon wasn't so appealing anymore. Plus, this was a Muggle community, and Take-copter couldn't be used outdoors. If it weren't for the fact that he could still practice magic, he probably would have gone crazy from boredom long ago.

Even so, Harry couldn't help feeling lonely, as he didn't have much in common with his cousin, who was also a wizard.

He missed Hogwarts so much that it made his insides ache.

He missed the castle, the secret passages and ghosts, his classes, the letters brought by owls, the banquets in the Great Hall, his four-poster bed in his dormitory, the cabin by the Forbidden Forest, and Hagrid, the gamekeeper.

As for why Sirius and his friends weren't listed, it's because Harry felt he had guessed the truth: this was likely a prank by them.

Remember the first time he met Sirius after the Quidditch final? Professor McGonagall jokingly asked him to check his father's and Sirius's violation records.

To be honest, when he actually checked later, he was absolutely stunned.

Harry never imagined that his father and Sirius were so active, with points being deducted almost every day. Along with them on the record were a guy named Lupin, that traitor Peter Pettigrew, and now Professor Snape from the original Slytherin books.

Lupin was probably their friend, but as for Professor Snape, their relationship was definitely not good; they were probably penalized for fighting.

It is said that if the heads of Slytherin and Gryffindor hadn't deliberately given extra points, their scores at the end of the year might have been negative.

That was also Ravenclaw's golden age, because Ravenclaw emerged victorious from the fierce battle between Slytherin and Gryffindor, becoming the winners of the House Cup.

Is this why Professor Flitwick was relatively friendly to Snape?

In short, his godfather was an enhanced version of Fred (Fred's pranks were more brutal, while George usually played a mediating role).

Harry now has reason to suspect that his godfather has contacted his friends and is preparing a big surprise for him on his birthday at the end of the month.

Everything now is just a smokescreen, making Harry believe that he has been abandoned by the Wizarding World and cut off from all contact.

This wasn't just Harry's wild idea; in his view, there were several pieces of evidence to prove it.

First, the Daily Prophet, which was not received.

Ever since he learned that Sirius was the new owner of the Daily Prophet, he spent another 1 Knut deposit to order from the Owl by mail.

After all, it's not expensive, and the newspaper uses various Switching Spell, so if the news changes, the newspaper's content will also change throughout the day.

If you encounter this situation, it's equivalent to paying for one but ordering two.

But now, even the Daily Prophet is gone; only Sirius could do that.

Secondly, his understanding of Ron.

Even if Ron really forgot about himself because he was having so much fun during the holidays, he still had a Nimbus 2000 that he had been keeping idle. In his previous letter, he had used this as a substitute for Ron's Christmas presents for the next three years.

Ron could never forget the Nimbus 2000; it was still in his hands.

Thirdly, there are the automatically replied emails.

He sent out many letters using Hedwig, some of which received automatic replies—such as the after-sales service from Skywalker Workshop.

Since he hasn't received any letters, there's only one possibility— Hedwig's letter was never sent.

Hedwig herself was not injured, this must have been an inside job.

Then there's only one answer: the birthday party at the end of the month will be amazing, and it might not just be Ron, Draco, Sirius; other classmates might be there too.

Harry now even suspects that the number 21 mentioned in the previous letter was fake, and that they might delay picking him up until the end of the month to make it more convincing.

So, amidst a mix of pain and anticipation, July 18th arrived quickly, three days before the original date.

This was probably the hottest day of the summer so far, and the square houses Privet Drive were shrouded in a drowsy silence.

The cars that are usually shiny and bright are now all gray and drab parked in the driveway, and the once lush and green grass has turned yellow and withered—the use of watering hoses has been banned due to the drought.

The residents of Privet Drive used to spend their time washing cars and mowing lawns, but now that they can't do either of those things, they have to hide in their shady houses, leaving the windows wide open, hoping to get a non-existent breeze in.

Harry was lying flat in the flowerbed outside 4 Privet Drive, hiding from the hot sun behind a large clump of hydrangeas.

Harry wasn't hiding here because he was being ostracized or had gotten into any trouble.

He simply wanted to escape the strange enthusiasm emanating from his cousin Dudley.

Because of Sirius and his friends' pranks, Dudley thought that nobody cared about Harry anymore.

So Dudley, with a smile that made Harry uncomfortable, showered him with concern and care.

"Would you like some more cured meat? You're so thin."

"Harry, I have some good stuff in my room, want some—"

"Harry, do you want me to drag Piers (Dudley's former friend, whom he hasn't been in contact with since going to Hogwarts) over and beat him up so you can vent your anger?"

What's most troubling is that Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, who were expected to side with Harry (i. e., oppose Dudley and Harry getting too close), have tacitly accepted this.

Harry could barely understand Aunt Petunia's behavior. After all, judging from Aunt Petunia previous self-disclosure, she wasn't without feelings for him; she was just jealous of him and his mother's magical abilities.

Uncle Vernon's attitude puzzled Harry. Although Uncle Vernon was henpecked, he could be quite assertive on crucial points. Could it be that he knew Sirius was very wealthy and owned the largest newspaper in Britain?