Chapter 782 Attack
Harry didn't know how long he had been sitting on the swing, until a sound interrupted his meditation.
He raised his head and looked around. Streetlights on the surrounding roads cast a hazy glow, illuminating the silhouettes of a group of people walking through the park.
One of them was singing a nasty song loudly and the others were laughing. Their expensive racing car made a soft sound as it slid along.
Harry knew who those people were. The man in front was undoubtedly his cousin, Dudley Dursley, who was returning home in the company of his loyal gang.
Dudley was as fat as ever, but a year of hard dieting and a new approach had made a huge difference in his physique. As Uncle Vernon happily told anyone who would listen, Dudley had recently become the heavyweight champion of the Southeast Regional Intercollegiate Boxing Tournament. Uncle Vernon called it a noble sport, which made Dudley look even scarier to Harry than when he'd used him as a boxing lob at his old school.
It wasn't that Harry was afraid of Dudley, he just felt that Dudley worked very hard to learn boxing and it wasn't out of celebration or praise.
The children around him were more afraid of Dudley than they were of "Potter," a boy they had been sternly warned of being sent to Santa Bruce's secure center for young offenders.
Harry watched the dark figures walking across the lawn and wondered who they were teaching tonight?
"Look around," Harry thought himself thinking, "Come on, look around, I'm sitting here, come and try to hit me..."
But they didn't turn around, they didn't see him, they were almost at the railing. Harry resisted the idea of calling them. It wouldn't be a wise idea to fight him. He couldn't use magic and he would be in danger of being expelled again.
The sound of Dudley's gang disappeared, and they walked towards Mulan Street and disappeared from sight.
You're satisfied, Sirius, Harry thought dully, he didn't act rashly, he stayed obediently, exactly the opposite of what Sirius had done before.
Harry stood up and stretched.
Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon felt that it was okay for Dudley to come home any time, and that it would be too late after he got home. Uncle Vernon had threatened to lock Harry in the shed if he came home later than Dudley, so, yawning dully and still feeling sullen, Harry made his way to the park entrance.
Magnolia Road, like Privet Drive, is full of large, square houses with neatly manicured lawns, all owned by a tall, long, square man who drives a car like Such a clean car that Uncle Vernon drives.
Harry preferred the evenings in Little Waking Road, when the curtained windows glowed like jewels in the dark, and when he passed the residents, there were no dissatisfied murmurs from people who thought he was breaking the law. .
He walked very fast, so he saw Dudley and his gang again halfway on Mulan Road. They said goodbye to each other at the entrance of Mulan Crescent Street.
Harry walked to the shadow of a lilac tree and waited.
"—He squeals like a pig, doesn't he?" said Malcolm, making the others laugh.
"What a great hook," said Peel.
"How about this time tomorrow night?" said Dudley.
"Come to my house, my parents are out." Gordon said.
"See you then!" said Dudley.
"Bye. Dudley!"
"Goodbye, boss!"
Harry waited until everyone else had left before coming out. When their voices faded again, he walked towards the corner, walked quickly, and soon came very close to Dudley... Dudley was humming an tuneless song leisurely and contentedly. It was really interesting. It's ugly enough. Doesn't he know that he is tone-deaf?
"Hey, boss!"
Dudley turned around.
"Oh, it's you!" Dudley purred.
"How long have you been the eldest?" Harry asked.
"Shut up!" Dudley growled, walking away.
"What a cool name!" said Harry, smiling as he walked behind his cousin. "To me, you will always be 'Dudley.'"
"I told you, shut up!" Dudley said, his ham-like hands clenched into fists. "Do those people know what your mother called you?"
"shameless!"
"You wouldn't say she's shameless, right? Then I can call you 'darling Dudley' or 'little Dudley'?"
Dudley said nothing, and it seemed that it would take all his strength to keep from punching Harry.
"Who are you fighting tonight?" Harry asked, his smile disappearing. "Is that another kid who's that old? You beat up Mark Irvine two days ago."
"He deserves it!" growled Dudley.
"Yeah?"
"He insulted me!"
"Really? Did he say that you are like a pig that was taught to walk on its hind legs? That's not an insult, Dudley, that's the truth!" Harry said helplessly. This was all what Fan Lin learned during a certain summer vacation. his.
"A muscle in Dudley's jaw twitched, which pleased Harry - he knew it made Dudley angry. He felt as if the frustration it was sending through his body was being transmitted to his cousin through a straw Go - this is his only way to vent.
They turned right onto the narrow road where Harry first met Sirius, a shortcut intersection between Magnolia Street and Wisteria Lane.
It was empty and darker than the road he connected to because there were no street lights.
Their footsteps sounded dull, surrounded by the garage on one side and the fence on the other.
"Think you're a strong man and you can hide everything, don't you?" Dudley paused for a few seconds.
"What's up?"
"That thing you wanted to hide."
Harry laughed again.
"You're not as stupid as you look, are you, Dudley? But I guess you can't walk and talk at the same time?" He pulled out his wand and saw Dudley looking sideways.
"You're not allowed!" Dudley said immediately, "I know the rules. If you do that, you'll be expelled from that weird school!"
"How do you know they haven't changed the regulations? Boss?"
"They didn't!" Dudley said, although he didn't sound sure. Harry smiled softly.
"You can't beat me without that thing, can you?" Dudley growled. "So you need four guys behind you, so you can beat a kid of several years old? You know your boxing title is What? How old is your opponent? 7 years old? 8 years old?"
"I knocked him unconscious for ten minutes before he woke up. He weighs as much as two of you! Just wait while I ask dad to take that thing out——"
"Going to daddy again? Is his beloved boxing champion afraid of Harry's dirty little wand?"
"Not so brave tonight, are you?" Dudley sneered.
"This is night, dear Dudley, this is what we call night."
"I mean while you were sleeping!" Dudley growled. He stopped, and so did Harry, looking at his cousin.
He saw a strange expression of victory on Dudley's blurred face.
"What do you mean? Am I not brave enough when I sleep?" said Harry.
"What do you think I'm afraid of? A pillow or something?"
"I heard it last night," Dudley said breathlessly, "You were talking in your sleep and moaning again."
"What do you mean?" Harry said again, but a cold feeling jumped into his stomach. He dreamed about the cemetery again last night.
Dudley let out a harsh laugh and then pretended to be a high-pitched whimper, "Don't kill Cedric! Don't take him! Who is Cedric? Your boyfriend?"
"I - you lied!" Harry said mechanically, but his mouth went dry. He knew that Dudley didn't lie. Did he hear anything else about Cedric?
"Dad, save me! Dad! He's going to kill me! Woo~~woo~~" "Shut up!" Harry said calmly, "Shut up! Dudley! I'm warning you!"
"Come and save me! Dad! Come and save me! Mum! That man took Cedric away! Dad! Save me! He - aren't you talking about me?" Dudley leaned against the wall of the alley superior.
Harry pointed his wand straight at Dudley's heart. Harry could feel fifteen years of hatred for Dudley pounding into every inch of his body - why didn't he give Dudley a blow now? Let Dudley crawl home like a bug? Make him unable to speak and grow insect tentacles?
"Don't talk about that again!" Harry yelled, "Do you understand?"
"Point that thing at something else!"
"I said, do you understand?"
"Point to something else!"
"Do you understand it?"
"Get that thing away from me -" Dudley gasped in a peculiar trembling voice, as if he had been submerged in ice water. Something seemed to have happened to the night sky. The stars that filled the indigo sky were suddenly painted black and lost their light - the stars, the moon, the dim street lights on both sides at the end of the alley disappeared, the rumble of cars and the whisper of trees disappeared. .
The mild night suddenly turned into a stinging cold. They were completely surrounded by an impenetrable, silent darkness, as if a huge hand had completely covered the entire alley with a thick cloak.
For a moment, Harry thought he had accidentally performed some magic again, despite his efforts to restrain himself. Then he realized that he was wrong, that he did not have the ability to extinguish the stars. He turned his head to this side of the road, and then to the other side, trying to see something, but the darkness seemed to cast a thin veil over his eyes.
Dudley's fearful voice reached Harry's ears, "What - what are you doing? Stop - stop!"
"I didn't do anything! Shut up! Don't move!"
"I can't see anything! I'm blind! I-"
"I said shut up!" Harry stood silently, turning his blind eyes to the left and then to the right. The cold was so intense that his whole body was shivering, goosebumps appeared on his arms, and the hair on the back of his neck stood up. He opened his eyes to the maximum and looked around blankly, but saw nothing. This couldn't be - they couldn't be here - couldn't be on Xiaoweijin Road, he listened nervously, he could hear them before he saw them...
"I-I need to tell dad-" Dudley whimpered, "Where are you? What are you doing-"
"Can't you just shut up?" Harry hissed. "I'm trying to listen -"
But he was suddenly silent, and he heard what he feared most. There was something in the alley that didn't belong there, something was breathing long, hoarse, rattling breaths, and Harry felt himself shake with fear, as if he were standing in the freezing air. As if shaking inside.
"S-Stop! Stop!! I'll hit you! I swear I will!"
"Dudley, shut up..."
Pong!
A fist struck Harry on the head, knocking him off his feet. There were stars in his eyes.
For the first time in an hour, Harry felt his head being split in two. The next second, he felt himself falling to the ground and his wand falling out of his hands.
"You idiot! Dudley!" cried Harry, his eyes filling with tears from the pain, and he crawled on his hands and knees. He heard Dudley run away awkwardly, knocking over the alley fence and falling.
"Dudley! Come back! You were running to that thing!" With a scream of fear, Harry's footsteps stopped. At the same time, Harry felt the cold creep up his back, which could only prove one thing, in more ways than one.
"Dudley! Shut your mouth! No matter what you do! Shut your mouth! Wand!" Harry grunted crazily, his hands flying across the ground like a spider, "Where is it? Come on - fluorescent flash!"
He spoke the incantation mechanically, desperately illuminating what he was looking for - and to his surprise, the wand glowed a few inches away from his right hand - the head of the wand lit up.
Harry grabbed it, staggered to his feet and looked around.
His stomach twisted. A tall, hooded thing was sliding towards him, hovering on the ground, no face or feet visible under the robe, sucking hungrily into the night as it came. Stumbling back, Harry raised his wand.
"Call the gods to protect you!"
A small stream of silver gas shot out from the end of the wand. The Dementor slowed, but the spell didn't fully work.
Stumbling, he backed away as the dementors closed in on him, fear filling his brain - focus! - A pair of gray, slimy, pimpled hands stretched out from under the Dementor's robes, trying to reach him. A rapid sound filled Harry's ears.
"Call the Guardian!" His voice sounded faint and distant, and another small wisp of silver smoke - fainter than before - drifted from the wand - he couldn't do it, he couldn't make the spell work. A laugh filled his head, a bitter, cold laugh, and he could smell the dementors' rotten, deathly cold breath filling his lungs, threatening to drown him - just think- Happy things - but there was no happiness in his mind. The Dementor's cold fingers were already tightening around his throat, the shrill sneer was getting louder and louder, and a voice in his head said: "To Death" Take a bow, Harry - maybe there will be no pain at all... - I don't know... - I've never died..."
He can no longer see his friends! Their faces suddenly appeared in his mind, and he struggled to breathe, "Calling the gods for protection!!"
A huge silver stag erupted from the port of his wand, its antlers thrusting towards the Dementor's heart. The Dementor was knocked backwards, floating away like darkness, as the stag struck again. , the Dementor was repulsed, fell down, and fled like a bat.
"This way!" Harry called to the stag. He ran down the alley and raised the lit wand. "Dudley? Dudley?" He ran for almost ten steps and found them: Dudley was bent and fell. On the ground, his hands covered his face. The second Dementor stooped down, grabbed Dudley's wrists with his sticky hands, pulled them apart lovingly, and lowered his hooded face towards Dudley as if for a kiss. Same as him.
"Get it!" shouted Harry, and with a rapid roar the silver stag he had summoned hurtled past him, its antlers pressing in just an inch from the Dementor's eyeless face. With it, the monster was lifted into the air, and then, like his companions, he flew away and disappeared from the night sky; the stag ran slowly to the end of the path, and then disappeared in silver smoke. (To be continued)