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Chapter 433: Plans for Marriage!

“Mrs. Mason hoped that the two of us could stay at your house until the end of the summer vacation.” Hermione whispered, her face red.

Evan didn’t know what his mother just said to her, but he did notice that Hermione seemed to blush exceptionally easily today.

Looking at Hermione’s unusual shyness, Evan quickly guessed some of the content of her conversations with his mother. It seemed like the latter was very, very satisfied with Hermione, and did not consider the age of the two.

It’s true that in most parts of Britain, you can get married at the age of sixteen with the consent of your parents.

In that case, Evan and Hermione had less than three years to go, and they really needed to be prepared in advance.

Thinking of getting married with Hermione, Evan felt nervous.

If he could, he certainly hoped to marry Hermione; there was no doubt about that.

But now was no time to think of such things.

Last Christmas in Diagon Alley, the atmosphere was so good that Evan actually wanted to ask her to be his girlfriend, but in the end, the lack of experience and extreme shyness of both of them came in the way of that.

The atmosphere in the room was delicate, and Hedwig gave a low cry, staring at the two who had become strange.

Pig, on the other hand, kept hooting, and wanted something to eat as a reward for successfully delivering the letter.

“Well, we’d better prepare something for both of them!” Evan said, thinking carefully about his choice of words, “Rest assured, Hermione! I’ll convince my mother. I can see that she likes you very much. If you are willing to come to my house, you can come at any time.”

He was afraid that Hermione knew what he had just thought about, and that marriage was too far of a topic for her.

“We’d better go to the Burrow for the last two weeks of the summer vacation.” Evan continued, “In addition to the Quidditch World Cup, we have to go to St Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries to see Sirius. All in all, it wouldn’t be too convenient for us to stay at home.”

He turned around and wrote on his letter that the Weasleys had invited them to the Burrow.

“By the way, we’d better ask Ron when they’re going to pick up Harry!” Evan said as he wrote, “We can both go to the Dusrleys to gather there; otherwise it would be too inconvenient.”

……………..

After Harry had washed up, he went back to his room and asked Hedwig, who had just returned, to deliver the letter to Evan.

Then he went downstairs to the kitchen full of hope.

By this time, the three Dursleys were already seated around the table.

None of them looked up at Harry as he entered or sat down.

Uncle Vernon’s large red face was hidden behind the morning’s Daily Mail, and Aunt Petunia was cutting a grapefruit into quarters, her lips pursed over her horse-like teeth.

Dudley looked furious and sulky, and somehow seemed to be taking up even more space than usual.

This was saying something, as he always took up an entire side of the square table by himself.

Aunt Petunia put a quarter of the unsweetened grapefruit onto Dudley’s plate with a tremulous “There you are, Diddy darling.”

Dudley glowered at her. His life had taken a most unpleasant turn since he had come for the summer with his end-of-year report.

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia had managed to find excuses for his bad marks as usual. Aunt Petunia always insisted that Dudley was a very gifted boy, but his teachers did not understand him; while Uncle Vernon maintained that he did not want some swotty little nancy boy for a son anyway.

They also skated over the accusations of bullying in the report.

“He is a boisterous little boy, but he wouldn’t hurt a fly!”

Harry had his doubts about this, but at the bottom of the report, there were a few well-chosen comments from the school nurse that not even Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia could explain away.

No matter how much Aunt Petunia wailed that Dudley was big-boned, and that his poundage was really puppy fat, and that he was a growing boy who needed plenty of food, the fact remained that the school outfitters didn’t stock knickerbockers big enough for him anymore.

The school nurse had seen what Aunt Petunia’s eyes, so sharp when it came to spotting fingerprints on her gleaming walls, and in observing the comings and goings of the neighbors, simply refused to see: that far from needing extra nourishment, Dudley had reached roughly the size and weight of a young killer whale.

Therefore, after many tantrums, after arguments that shook Harry’s bedroom floor, and many tears from Aunt Petunia, the new regime had begun.

The diet sheet that had been sent by the Smeltings school nurse had been taped to the fridge, which had been emptied of all Dudley’s favorite things such as fizzy drinks and cakes, chocolate bars and burgers…

There were only fruit and vegetables on the recipes and the sorts of things that Uncle Vernon called “junk food”.

To make Dudley feel better about it all, Aunt Petunia had insisted that the whole family follow the diet too.

She now passed a grapefruit quarter to Harry.

Harry noticed that it wasn’t really a quarter; being a lot smaller than Dudley’s.

Aunt Petunia seemed to feel that the best way to keep up Dudley’s morale was to make sure that he did, at least, get more to eat than Harry.

But Aunt Petunia did not know what was hidden under the loose floorboard upstairs.

She had no idea that Harry was not following the diet at all.

The moment he had got wind of the fact that he was expected to survive the summer on carrot sticks, Harry sent Hedwig to his friends.

They immediately responded positively to his pleas for help.

Evan and Sirius were not in Britain because of the adventure and could not help Harry.

Hermione asked Hedwig to bring Harry back a large box stuffed with sugar-free snacks.

Hagrid had enthusiastically obliged with a sack full of his own homemade rock cakes, which Harry did not even touch. These rock cakes were harder than bricks, and he didn’t want to break his teeth!

Mrs. Weasley sent the family owl, Errol, with an enormous fruitcake and assorted meat pies.

Poor Errol, who was elderly and feeble, needed a full five days to recover from the journey, after the delivery of the goods.

And then on Harry’s birthday, he had received a total of six super big cakes.

They were given to him by Evan, Ron, Hermione, Hagrid and Sirius. Evan and Sirius ordered French-style cakes for Harry.

They had been guests at Beauxbatons Academy of Magic, and these cakes actually came from France.

Throughout the summer vacation, Harry was wondering what Beauxbatons looked like.

He only saw in his textbooks a description of the school, which was juxtaposed with Hogwarts as one of Europe’s three largest wizarding schools.

He had to admit that these cakes were very delicious. So far, Harry had three big pieces left.

Looking forward to a real breakfast when he got back upstairs, he ate his grapefruit without complaint.