Secrets Unravelled - Part 11

"Now, wait a moment, Mrs. Dursley…" Hermione tried again, shocked.

Neither Harry nor his aunt paused to look at her.

Harry rolled his eyes. "That's just what I've always wanted – to be more like Diddydinkums. You're trusting it to me, because you really don't have any choice, do you? Of course, if you'd rather we just leave now…"

Aunt Petunia glared at him for several moments before her shoulders sagged in defeat. "Get upstairs and keep quiet until I can talk to your uncle. Under no circumstances are you to upset Dudley."

Before the words were even completely out of Aunt Petunia's mouth, the front door swung open, revealing the startled face of Vernon Dursley. He stopped in his tracks and looked with confusion at the faces staring back at him.

Slowly, his color turned a deeper and deeper shade of red before he started spluttering. "You! What the devil are you doing here? What is the meaning of this?" His eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What have you done to my family this time, boy?"

"Hello, Uncle Vernon," Harry said dryly.

"Don't you take that tone with me. You are no longer welcome here – not that you ever were. Get out and take your damn friends with you," Vernon snarled.

Harry smirked. "I think Aunt Petunia might disagree with you."

Aunt Petunia glared at him viciously.

Uncle Vernon turned an enraged expression from Harry towards Aunt Petunia, but seemed to whither a bit under her scrutiny. "Petunia?" he whined.

"They need to stay, Vernon. They won't be here long, and when they leave, we'll be rid of him for good," she said, waving her hand in Harry's general direction.

"But...but…but," Vernon said, spluttering.

"I'm not any happier about it than you are, Vernon, but this is how it's going to be," she said firmly.

Uncle Vernon's shoulders slumped momentarily before he turned back on Harry. "I won't stand for any of your funny business, boy, and I want to talk to you about this inheritance you so neatly forgot to mention last summer. What was it? Your dead convict of a godfather leaving you a house. Thought you'd hoard that information all to yourself, did you?"

Harry's face remained impassive.

"It won't do us any good, Vernon. It's a…a…unnatural house. We wouldn't even be able to see it, and it's full of freakish things," Aunt Petunia said with a shudder. She turned on Harry. "Go upstairs and settle in for the night. You'll have to provide for yourselves, as we're going out to eat."

Harry turned towards his friends, who were staring at him in stunned silence. "Up the stairs, first door on the right," he said, jerking his head toward the stairs.

Ron and Hermione hurried up without another word.

Inside the Harry's room, late at night.....

As Harry lay in his bed that night, feeling much older than his sixteen years, he wished his mind were as tired as his body. He had filled Ron and Hermione in about everything that had happened with Dudley and Aunt Petunia's explanations for it. He had to admit, he'd enjoyed listening to Ron and Hermione's outraged indignation to the way Harry's relatives spoke to him.

Ron kept coming up with more and more names of the twins' inventions to use on them, and even Hermione had suggested a curse or two. It warmed Harry's heart to hear them, even if he would never allow them to get into trouble for doing something to the Dursleys. He enjoyed plotting it, nonetheless.