Harry Potter Cousins

Episode 1

- MOM! PAP! PA-AP!!! - a hysterically thin

boy's voice. Dudley Dursle tried to pull himself out of his brother's grasp, firmly

that held him tightly. Tight? No. Harry Potter didn't have the strength in his hands

...to hold his cousin down. Dudley just didn't have the strength

...to tear himself up looking at the burning house at number four on Privet Drive in Little

Winging. The house caught fire suddenly and both Petunia and Vernon Dursle were in the very

center of the fire. Harry, not remembering himself, then grabbed his cousin by the arm and dragged

...and dragged him outside. The neighbors called the firemen, but they arrived late: the house was

the house was burning down by the time they arrived.

Harry James Potter watched them put out the fire, almost effortlessly

holding his cousin by the shoulders and preventing him from tearing into the burning house. He

He looked at the ashes and had no false hopes. He knew that his uncle and aunt

were dead, and it was his fault for their deaths.

***

- Poor kids! "To lose their parents so soon..." sighed the orphanage manager.

the manager of the orphanage, shaking her head. She never understood why

the gray-haired old man with the long beard was interested in those trashy

Potter and Dursle boys. During the week they had been in her

custody, they had set fire to the orphanage twice and nearly scared the

the whole orphanage, and even some of the caretakers! The manager,

was talking to the old man and mentally drafting a petition to transfer these

to a closed boarding school for troubled children. - I hope they get the psychological help they need and come to their senses.

and come to their senses. Maybe they'll make some friends..." the old man spoke heartily,

with his blue eyes twinkling from behind his half-glasses. From the sleeve of his cloak

of his cloak, the tip of a wooden stick stick sticking out of the sleeve of his cloak, shimmering with

colors. Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was upset

...because it interfered with his plans. Yes, it was a shame to lose the blood

Lily Potter's protection. But the headmaster of Britain's only magical school had no

doubted that the asylum's national hero, the Boy Who Survived, would not

...would be found. He just had to make sure that the boy wasn't going anywhere

anywhere, that he would not be adopted or transferred elsewhere, and that his life would

not too sweet. And for that, he could have broken the statute of

of secrecy...

***

- Harry, I'm hungry..." he complained quietly to his once hated cousin, now his closest

"Harry, I'm hungry," complained Dudley quietly to his once hated cousin, now the man closest to him.

Dudley. - Me too, Brother. Me too... We shouldn't have tried to run through the cellar without knowing

...without knowing the way. Now we've been deprived of food, too," Harry grinned grimly. - "At least now you

now you know what it was like for me to sit hungry 24 hours a day in the closet under the

staircase. - Tears came to Dudley's eyes. But the impulse of weakness was

his brother quickly silenced him from crying. - We have to get out of here.

We can't survive here.

- We tried...

- Yes, but now we know the layout of the building and the grounds. - Finding ourselves in a...

in this predicament, plus the psychological trauma of

...Harry found himself a leader and a mind of his own.

Dudley was incapable of taking care of himself, and his cousin felt

responsibility for him. All the more so because he himself was to blame for the situation.

Although the fact that they could not stay in the orphanage, they both understood...