Chapter 1.) Unusual Happenings

According to his father, Donald Dursley was a perfect boy and son. The short, overweight blond child looked a lot like his father had at his age although he hadn't developed the same bullying streak his father had possessed. Donald lived with his father Dudley, his mother Glenda and his younger sister Madeline.

Mr Dursley was an extremely overweight man who had already had three heart attacks in his relatively short life, but despite the recommendations of the doctors he had refused to change his diet. Mrs Dursley was a tall gangly looking woman with black hair. She wore thick glasses and rarely left the house. Eight year old Madeline had her mothers long black hair and had bright green eyes, devils eyes, Donald's Grandma called them but Donald had never been able to find out why.

It was the beginning of the summer holidays and Donald's parents were taking him to London to get his uniform for the next year. Donald, like his father, would be attending Smeltings, an exclusive all boys' boarding school. Pulling on a new shirt and pants (for everything the Dursley children was new and expensive because his father insisted that nothing that the 'best' was good enough for a dursley,) he raced downstairs and sat down on the back seat of his fathers expensive car.

Dudley Dursley owned a drill company called Grunnings. His father, who had died when Donald had been one year old from a stroke when a pulsing vein in his forehead had burst, had left the company to his son. Dudley had told Donald that when he was old enough Grunnings would be his but Dudley, though he wouldn't dare mention it to his father, didn't fancy this idea. Donald always received good grades at school and suspected he had inherited his brains from his mother rather than his father, another thing he never mentioned.

Being the school holidays the traffic was bad and by the time they arrived at Smeltings Donald had a headache from all his fathers cursing. Donald, who had been told on multiple occasions how wonderful the school was, found the school to look extremely unimpressive. The dark halls and brick walls reminded him of a gaol and the school colours of maroon and yellow, that covered almost everything, made his feel slightly sick. A short, squat, unpleasant looking woman greeted the Dursleys and once a few more families had arrived took them on a tour of the school.

"And each child receives there own dormitory," the woman droned on as Mrs Dursley poked Donald in the side and whispered "pay attention".

"In the dormitory each student will have a bed as well as a desk, lamp and bookshelf. Any other items must be provided by the student. No pets are allowed."

Donald let out an audible sigh at this ignoring his mothers glare. He had always wanted a pet but his parents had refused as his grandmother had, after her husband had passed away, taken to visiting her son's family at least twice a week and she HATED animals. He had caught her once shooing an owl out of a tree one night mumbling something about freakish creatures, though as far as he could tell the owl had done nothing wrong.

The tour finally concluded and the women led her charges to the uniform shop. If Donald had felt sick after being forced to look at the maroon and yellow school, he felt even worse looking at the school uniform which a dummy at the front of the room. The maroon knickerbockers clashed horribly with the bright yellow dress shirt and socks. A maroon tie hung around the dummy's neck and a maroon jacket covered the shirt. A large yellow wide brimmed hat with a maroon band was perched on it's head.

Imagining a whole school of students dressed like that Donald snorted, unable to hide his amusement. Soon enough he was being forced to try on a uniform by his parents.

Once dressed in the hideous garments Mrs Dursley commented with a tear in her eye, "My little boy looks so grown up."

By this stage Donald was beginning to get annoyed. His parents and the school staff kept telling him how wonderful he looked when he himself knew very well that he looked utterly ridiculous.

"Now for the best part," His father said with a huge grin on his face handing Donald a knobbly, maroon stick with a heavy piece of metal on the end, "the smelting stick. Useful for real life training you know, allows you to hit the other students when the teachers aren't looking."

Donald felt his anger build up, "And why would I want to hit another student," he began ignoring his fathers frown and his mothers gasp, "It's just mean and downright horrible." Donald pointed his stick at his father and a flash of light shot out scorching his fathers eyebrows. He dropped the stick and quickly pretended nothing had happened. He knew his parents would do the same, they always had in the past.

The truth was unusual things always happened around Donald and Madeline. Once Donald had somehow fixed a vase that he had broken when he'd knocked it off his mother's shelf and another time he'd caused a boy who had been teasing him about his weight to gain about 20 pounds, though this had been explained away as the boy having 'glandular' problems. Madeline had a fierce temper when she was upset and often things around her would explode when she had a tantrum.

After paying for the horrid uniform Donald was led out of the school and was forced to listen to his father's long lectures on his days at Smeltings on the way home.