Vernon Dursley closed the front door behind him and awkwardly shrugged his way out of his suit jacket which he handed to his wife alongside his briefcase. Petunia took the items silently and Vernon strode through to the lounge and nodded briefly to his son who was curled up on the sofa quietly. Vernon collapsed heavily onto the sofa and closed his eyes wearily before his mind eventually registered that something wasn’t right.

Why was Dudley just sat there without the TV blaring out as usual? Where was Harry and what had he done this time?

Opening his eyes again he massaged his temples with pudgy hands before letting out a sigh.

‘Well? What is it this time?’

In the hall way Petunia froze midway through her task of unpacking Vernon’s briefcase. On his sofa Dudley also tensed.

‘Stay calm, dear.’ Petunia told him fussily. ‘You mustn’t allow yourself worked up...’

‘Yeah Dad,’ Dudley injected. ‘You know the doctor said you need to watch your blood pressure...’

Clamouring to his feet, Vernon scowled. ‘Why don’t you just tell me where the boy is and leave me to decide how I’m going to react?’

Petunia nodded her hand slightly towards the cupboard under the stairs.

Of course the cupboard. It would have to be the cupboard. Harry’s room was upstairs, but he knew the cupboard was where he belonged when he acted like a freak. Vernon, headed towards the cupboard, his footsteps heavy on the creaky hall floorboards.

At the very back of the cupboard curled in a ball, Harry had been listening to the brief conversation and now heard the ominous footsteps heading towards him. His breath caught in his lungs the way it always did when he was in trouble.

‘Dad?’

Vernon’s hand was on the cupboard handle when his son called out to him.

‘It really isn’t his fault this time.’

‘Huh.’ Vernon snorted disbelievingly. ‘Are you trying to tell me he hasn’t been doing something freaky again?’

‘He’s right,’ Petunia laid her hand on the large man’s arm. ‘It is to do with ...what he’s like. But it’s not his fault this time, not really. It’s what we’ve been expecting. What we’ve been waiting for all these years.’

Oh.

Vernon flung the door open.

‘Harry, get out here boy!’

Cringing into the corner of the cupboard in shame Harry gulped.

‘NOW boy.’ Vernon’s voice was almost but not quite a bellow.

Slowly, Harry emerged in a stooped posture from the cupboard. His hair was messy and dishevelled and his eyes were red where he had obviously been crying. He hung his head in front of his uncle, not daring to meet his eyes.

‘Well then?’ Vernon demanded. ‘Give it here. I want to see this letter that those freaks sent you.’

‘I...I ... tore it up,’ Harry admitted in a low voice.

‘Another one came, Harry,’ Dudley said thrusting it towards his father, ‘just after you went into the cupboard.’

Vernon snatched the opened letter from his son and read it furiously, while Harry stared at the ground. He read the letter all the way through before glancing at the trembling boy in front of him.

Clumsily his hand shot out and gave the cringing boy a rough pat on the shoulder.

‘This is good, you understand me, boy?’ He jabbed a fat finger at the letter in his right hand. ‘This is what we have been waiting for all these years. You’ll go to that place and learn from them how to control your freaky powers. So you can stop using them, once and for all.’

No! In complete anguish Harry shook his head furiously.

‘Please, no!’ His voice was a cracked whisper from dry lips. ‘Please don’t make me go there. I hardly do those things at all anymore. I’ll be good. I promise. Please don’t send me away.’

‘Harry.’ His aunt told him sternly but not unkindly. ‘Don’t make your uncle angry. You know we wouldn’t send you there if it wasn’t the absolutely last resort but after what you did last Christmas we don’t have any choice in the matter do we?’

With a sob, Harry delved back into his cupboard. His uncle shook his head and took the letter with him into the kitchen. Petunia hurried after him, keen to begin discussing how they would organise her nephew's trip away.

Alone in the hall way Dudley knocked lightly on the cupboard door.

‘Harry?’

He heard a sound of a sniff and a muffled sob before Harry responded. ‘Go away!’

‘Harry.’ Dudley glanced at the cupboard door handle in front of him but didn’t dare to use it. Harry didn’t always react well if he was disturbed when he was upset and he didn’t want to get him into any more trouble. Instead he lowered his face so it was next to the door.

‘It’ll be all right, you know, Harry,’ he said in a low voice. ‘You won’t even have to be gone that long. A week or two, a term at most, and they’ll show you what to do to stop it. Then you can come home.’

There was more sniffing and muffled crying before he heard an eventual response. When it came it was very quiet, barely above a whisper which was just as well considering what would have happened if his parents had overheard.

‘I won’t go, not to that place full of those freaks! I won’t go, they can’t make me.’

‘Harry hush, Dad’s only in the kitchen! Listen. Don’t you see this is actually a good thing? They’ll show you how to stop doing magic,’ Dudley said the forbidden word in a whisper, they’d both be in trouble if that was overheard. ‘You’ll be normal! You won’t be a freak anymore and I’ll be able to play with you outside the house and everything! Don’t you want to stop looking strange, blowing things up and making Dad angry?’

A sniff was followed by a tentative, ‘Yes.’

‘And to stop being dangerous to everyone else?’

‘I can’t help that! It just happens when I’m hurt and I can’t stop it.’ Harry protested in a louder voice.

Dudley glanced towards the kitchen, but his parents were concentrating on their own conversation. They were ok.

‘Yes, yes I know,’ he said soothingly. ‘But you want to be able to not do those things don’t you?’

‘Of course.’

‘So you’re going to have to go, Harry.’

Harry heard the note of finality in his cousins voice as he walked away, leaving him to stay in his cupboard. Shifting back to lean against the wall he decided he’d probably sleep here tonight. He didn’t have the heart to go out for dinner, even though his aunt and uncle would probably let him eat as if he hadn't been sent to the cupboard this time.

Alone in the dark Harry gradually felt himself begin to calm down and register the sense in Dudley’s argument. He had to sort himself out once and for all. It would be terrible, simply awful to have to go to that place... Hogwarts and be surrounded by people who would proudly use what he knew were the very worse traits in his character. But he would be strong. He wouldn’t allow himself to be influenced by their freakery or magic. He would learn how to turn it off and then he'd leave straight away. Hopefully he wouldn’t have to stay more than a day or two.

***