"J. K. Rowling - 6 - Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince(1)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rowling J. K)

“I never told you about the Kinsafe Charm put on this house, did I?”
“Um… no?”
“I guess not then,” sighed Harry. “Well, when I was brought here, Dumbledore put the charm on the house so that as long as I was around family, Voldemort could not touch me. Now, if you came to Hogwarts with me, I’d still have that protection at school, which is something Voldemort definitely did not want.”
“Oh, okay. I see,” said Dudley, wide-eyed and not looking like he did ‘see’ at all. “But still, how can I be magical? I’ve never done any magic and my parents certainly aren’t!”
“Well, I’m not sure how to say this, but your mom is a witch, Dudley.”
Dudley didn’t say anything, he just merely continued to stare at Harry, with a drop of drool slowly falling down from his mouth. Harry decided to keep on talking.
“You know that your mom and mine are twins, but what you don’t know, is that their father is Voldemort.” Harry stopped there for a second. The thought just occurred to him: Voldemort was his grandfather. He shuddered at the thought. “It’s just by chance that he chose to help my mom out at a young age and give her a magic book to read before she even started school, giving her a huge advantage. When the time came for new students to be chosen, Lily so overshadowed Petunia, that they just forgot about her, and she never came to school. So, just because she never went to Hogwarts doesn’t mean she lost her powers.”
“But why doesn’t she use magic now?” asked Dudley, quietly and slowly.
“After a while, I guess Hogwarts discovered their mistake and they wiped her memory, making her forget she was ever a witch. But, yet again, that didn’t take away her powers, and when she gave birth to you, you gained some of them.”
“So I’m… a wizard?” gasped Dudley.
“That’s what I said.”
“Wow,” said Dudley, slowly getting up and sitting in a chair. “So… am I going to be coming to Hogwarts then?”
“Err…” stuttered Harry, he hadn’t really thought about that. He had been meaning to owl Dumbledore. “I think so.”
“Oh man… I don’t know what to say,” said Dudley, starting to look a little better, and possibly excited. “So, I’ll be able to make fire, and summon brooms, and even control the weather?”
“Um… sure,” said Harry, not wanting to get Dudley’s hopes too high. There was always the chance that he wouldn’t be coming. But, it couldn’t hurt to get him started a little. “In fact, let’s practice some right now!”
“That sounds like a great idea,” said Dudley, jumping up from off his chair, and dropping the video on the floor, ready to start exploring his new life.
“That’s it! Now you’re getting the hang of it!” said Harry to Dudley, after his seventieth attempt at trying to perform a simple Lumos Spell resulted in some light. Even though he was using Harry’s wand, and was therefore not as powerful as if he had used one that was his own, Harry hadn’t expected it to make that much of a difference.
“Hey! I made some light!” squealed Dudley with excitement.
“Good job,” said Harry, giving a small yawn. They had been practicing basic spells all day long inside the living room, and it was now extremely late. “But, I think it’s time to call it a night. We’ll practice some more tomorrow.”
“Alright, Harry,” he squeaked, giving him his wand back. Harry felt much stronger and more confident when he had his wand; it felt great to have it back.
“Good night, Harry,” yawned Dudley, walking up the stairs to his room.
“See you later,” said Harry, for one of the first times in his life, actually looking forward to the rest of his summer vacation.
Each day, for the next several weeks, Harry and Dudley practiced magic. Of course, they only did it while not in the presence of Dudley’s parents: Harry’s Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon. Hearing them walk through the door, returning from whatever they were doing all day (work or mindless gossiping), was the low of the two boys’ day.
Finally, when Dudley was able to perform most spells that an average First Year would be able to do, Harry decided it was time to send Dumbledore a letter, to see if Dudley would be able to come to Hogwarts next year. So, when Uncle Vernon walked through the door and their lesson was over, Harry decided it would be a good time to write it.
“I’ve got some things to do,” said Harry, trying to find an excuse. “I’ll see you later Dudley. Keep working on memorizing those spells names!”
“I will,” he said, engaged in reading one of Harry’s schoolbooks, staying in a position that would allow him to quickly hide it if one of his parents entered the room. Harry scooted up the stairs as fast as he could, and when he arrived in his room, he ripped out a piece of parchment from one of his notebooks on which he would write the letter. After just a few seconds of making a mental outline, he wrote:
Dear Professor Dumbledore,
How are you? I am fine here, living with the Muggles. I must say, it has been one of my better vacations, due to my new friendship with my cousin Dudley. Speaking of which, I’m not sure if I forgot to mention this to you or not, but at the end of last year, Voldemort told me that my Aunt Petunia was a witch, and that Dudley is now a wizard. Hearing this, I am wondering if it is possible for Dudley to begin at Hogwarts, since he has the magical power, all he needs is the proper teaching.
Please reply soon.
Sincerely,
Harry Potter
Harry reread it, to make sure it sounded good, and it sufficed. He folded it up, and walked over to his white owl, Hedwig, who was asleep in her cage. Harry opened the small door to the cage, put his hand on her, and shook the owl gently. Her eyes opened, and she gave a quiet hoot.
“I need you to send this to Dumbledore,” ordered Harry, attaching the letter to her leg. Immediately, Hedwig stood up and ruffled her feathers, trying to look important and superior. Harry gave her a small pat, and she nipped his finger. He stepped back and she flew out of the window.
Harry watched her fly away for a few seconds, until she was out of sight. He crossed his arms, smiled to himself, turned around, and gave a yell.
“AAAHHH!”
“Hello Harry Potter!” squeaked an all too familiar creature.
“Dobby!” gasped Harry loudly, clutching his chest and trying to regain himself. “You- you scared me! Don’t sneak up on people like that.”
“I is very sorry sir,” squeaked Dobby. Harry looked at him, and he looked no different from the last time they met, except for the clothes he was wearing. On his arms, he had on some rubber gloves; yellow on the left, and blue on the right. Over his body, he had extremely loose rainbow suspenders, and over those, on his legs, he had very baggy black pants, something you’d expect a punk kid to wear. Harry knew Dobby liked to flaunt his freedom, but he’d never seen him do it to this extent. “But, I is having to sneaks up on you! I is having to tell you something very important!”
“What is it this time, Dobby?” sighed Harry. Last time they had met like this, in Harry’s bedroom, Dobby had threatened Harry not to return to Hogwarts.
“I is very sorry to say this, sir,” he squeaked, “but you cannot returns to Hogwarts this year!” Harry sighed.
“Dobby… we’ve been through this before.”
“No!” yelled Dobby, much more forcefully than Harry had ever heard him speak. “No! This times is completely different! This times, if Harry Potter is returning to Hogwarts, he will certainly die, along with many others!”
“Why, what is it this time?” asked Harry in a bored voice. “Has the Chamber of Secrets been opened again?”
“No no no! I is not able to say!”
“But Dobby, you don’t have a master anymore. You are a free elf now. You can say whatever you want, whenever you want.”
“Not really, Harry Potter, sir. I is still having masters. But, we does not have time to talk now! We is having to leave… now!”
“I’m not leaving, Dobby,” said Harry. “Last time, nothing serious happened to me, and nothing will happen this time either. You can either tell me what the threat is now, or let me find out for myself later. Either way, I’m going back to Hogwarts.”
“If you is not coming because you is wanting to, you is coming because I am forcing you to!” said Dobby quite loudly. He suddenly put both if his arms out, one on top of the other, with some space in between. He closed his eyes, and began to shake a little, and a blue orb appeared between his hands. The elf then yelled some sort of incoherent chant, and the orb grew ten times its size and imploded on itself, creating a small black hole that was sucking in everything in the room.
Harry was immediately drawn toward it, but he lashed out for the end post of his bed, and held on, his legs high in the air, being drawn into the hole. His entire room was spinning, and everything was being sucked to the middle. On top of that, there was a deafening windy noise, like a hundred tornadoes.
“Dobby! Stop this!” yelled Harry as loud as he could, still holding on.