Evan calmed down and followed his parents into the house.
The first thing he saw was Mr. Vernon Dursley in his suit and bow tie, and Dudley, who was as big as a pig.
“Good evening!”
“Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. Mason.” Dudley put on a foul, simpering smile. “May I take your coats?”
“Thank you, kid!” Evan’s mother pulled her son out from behind her, and introduced him to Dudley. “This is our little Evan. He’s going to enter Smeltings Academy this year, and you’ll have to take care of him in school later on.”
“That’s my pleasure, ma’am!”
Seeing Dudley seemingly trying to give him a hug, Evan quickly backed away from him. He followed his parents into the living room, talking politely and looking around quietly.
The room was obviously carefully tidied up for today’s meeting.
Not being far from the kitchen, there was a strong scent. On top of the fridge stood tonight’s pudding: a huge mound of whipped cream and sugared violets. A loin of roast pork was sizzling in the oven.
But these were not what Evan needed to find. As described in the book, there was nothing in the house related to Harry Potter that could be seen. Obviously, the Dursleys didn’t want outsiders to know about their unusual nephew.
Evan slightly frowned. The poor child should be quietly hiding in the small room upstairs, not making a single sound, pretending that he was not at home, so that nobody would be aware of his existence.
Thinking of it, he felt that he needed to do something.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Dursley.” Evan interrupted the boring joke of a Japanese golfer he was telling. “You know, I don’t visit people very often, I am very curious about everything here. If you don’t mind, I’d like Dudley to show me around before dinner.”
“No problem, let Dudley accompany you to his room to see his new game console.” As if thinking that Evan was too young to understand his jokes, Vernon Dursley promised very cheerfully, “You can go and play, kids. When dinner is ready, I’ll ask Penny to go up and call you out.”
Dudley very reluctantly accompanied Evan and left the living room. According to the plan, he should stay and continue to use those nauseating words to compliment the Mason couple, instead of wandering around the house with a child.
In particular, he had to restrain himself and leave a good impression on the guests. This was already a challenging task for Dudley.
As they walked up to the first floor, Evan listened to Dudley who introduced his newly bought game console, while curiously looking at a small room at the end of the corridor, which door was tightly closed.
“What’s in there?”
“Nothing, that’s my cousin’s room, he’s not at home now.”
Dudley’s expression was somewhat unnatural. “Let’s go to my room. I’ll show you…”
Before he had time to finish his words, they were interrupted by a loud bang from the small room. In the next second, before he had time to stop him, he saw the boy beside him come forward and open the door.
Evan opened the door, and by dim light, he saw a boy like himself standing in front of the closet.
The boy was thin and skinny, with a pair of bright green eyes, dark hair and a a scar shaped like a lightning bolt on his forehead.
Harry Potter was surprised. He had just hid the house- elf Dobby in the closet, and the door was opened. Unexpectedly, it wasn’t uncle Vernon, but a boy he had never seen before.
“Good evening, you must be Dudley’s cousin; I ‘m Evan Mason. Nice to meet you!”
Evan stretched out his right hand, filled with joy that he finally saw Harry Potter.
“He… hello, my name is Harry Potter. Nice to meet you, too.” Harry hesitated for a moment, then reached out and shook hand with Evan.
If he didn’t guess wrong, he should be the rich builder’s kid who came to visit today. Harry was not sure if he should be in touch with him. According to Vernon’s arrangement, he should keep quiet in the room and pretend he was not there.
Harry had been listening for two weeks about the importance of this dinner. If the dinner was screwed up, he couldn’t imagine how hard it would be in his coming days.
Outside the door, Dudley was urging Evan to leave the room. Although it was a very bad feeling, Harry had to admit that this was the only thing he agreed with Dudley this summer. Especially that in the closet beside him, there was a house- elf not suitable to be seen by Muggles.
Evan didn’t seem to listen to Dudley. His attention entirely shifted to the birdcage next to the window, which contained a snow-white owl.
“It’s a pure white owl, it’s so cool!” Evan turned and asked Harry. “What’s her name?”
“Hedwig, it’s my pet.” Harry quietly closed the opened door.
“I also want a pet like this, but my mother is allergic to birds.” Evan turned and continued to look at Hedwig. “Can I feed her?”
“No problem, but I don’t have any food.” Harry sighed. Uncle Vernon refused to let him release Hedwig for food. In fact, since the beginning of this summer vacation, Harry had been saving a part of his dinner to feed his pet.
“What does she eat? In the kitchen downstairs; I saw a lot…”
“Evan, Mom called us down for dinner!” Before Evan’s words were finished, he was interrupted by Dudley, who finally seemed to have the courage to walk into Harry’s room and try to get Evan out.
“Well, I think I can come back after dinner.”
Evan followed Dudley two steps and saw that Harry didn’t move. He said strangely, “Harry, aren’t you coming with us?”
“I, I won’t go, I’ve already had dinner!”
There was growl coming out from Harry’s stomach, but he was sure that Aunt Petunia would not be happy to see him at the table.
“Come on, even if you’ve already eaten you can still have some dessert,” Evan stepped forward and grabbed Harry’s arm and continued, “Then we can get something to feed Hedwig, I think she’s starving!”
“You can’t do that; he can’t go down to dinner with us.” Dudley hurriedly stopped Evan.
“Why, is he not your cousin?”
“Yes, but…” Dudley tried to find the words to explain to Evan, “He’s not like us, he’s a freak.”
“Freak?!” Evan frowned, and he saw that Harry, beside him, was very excited, forgetting to keep closing the closet door that was constantly open.
The next second, a green little creature popped out of the closet. It had two large, bat-like ears and bulging green eyes the size of tennis balls.
‘Dobby, the house-elf!’ Evan immediately guessed who it was, but did not expect the house- elf to be so ugly.
“How dare you insult the great Harry Potter in front of Dobby?” Dobby screamed as he jumped out of the closet.
Before any of them could react, he stretched out his right index finger and pointed hard at Dudley, who was stupefied.
There was suddenly a flash of green light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Evan saw a curly pig’s tail poking through a hole in his trousers.
Poor Dudley, after he had been given a pig’s tail by Hagrid last year, he suffered the same unpleasantness this year.
