Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.
When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, “There's another one! ‘Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive — ‘”
With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.
“Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom,” he wheezed at Harry. “Dudley — go — just go.”
Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.
第二天吃早餐的時(shí)候,沒有一個(gè)人開口說話。達(dá)德里太吃驚了。不管他怎樣尖叫,怎樣用他的棍子使勁地打他的爸爸,故意裝病也好,踢他的媽媽也好,甚至把他的寶貝烏龜從溫室頂上丟下去,他都沒法要回自己的房間。哈利則在想著昨天的這個(gè)時(shí)候,要是自己在樓下的時(shí)候就把信拆了就好了。帕尤妮亞姨媽和維能姨丈則面色陰沉地看著對(duì)方。
郵件又來的時(shí)候,維能姨丈為了從表面上對(duì)哈利好一點(diǎn),叫達(dá)德里下去拿信。
他們聽到達(dá)德里一邊下樓一邊用他的棍子敲打著經(jīng)過的東西。緊接著只聽一聲大喊:"又來一封信了!四號(hào)普里懷特街住在最小間臥室的哈利·波特先生收!"差點(diǎn)要叫出聲的維能姨丈唰地一下從椅子上跳起來跑下樓,哈利緊跟在后面。
維能姨丈幾乎把達(dá)德里摔在地上才從他手上搶回那封信,因?yàn)楣麖乃竺婵ㄗ×怂牟弊?。在這場(chǎng)混戰(zhàn)中夾雜了許多棍棒,最后是維能姨丈先站了起來,上氣不接下氣,手中緊緊抓著哈利的信。
"回到你的柜子——我是說,你的臥室去,"他氣喘吁吁地對(duì)哈利說。"達(dá)德里,你也走。"哈利在他新房間里踱來踱去。有人知道他已經(jīng)搬出了柜子住而目他們好像還知道他沒有收到他的第一封信。這意味著他們?cè)僭嚵艘淮危@一次他確定不能再讓他們失望了。他有了一個(gè)計(jì)劃。