Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back. Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.
第二天吃早餐的時候,沒有一個人開口說話。達力大發雷霆。不管他怎樣尖叫,怎樣用他的棍子使勁地打他的爸爸,故意裝病也好,踢他的媽媽也好,甚至把他的寶貝烏龜從溫室頂上丟下去,他都沒法要回自己的房間。哈利則在想著昨天的這個時候,要是自己在樓下的時候就把信拆了就好了。佩妮姨媽和弗農姨父則面色陰沉地看著對方
When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harry, made Dudley go and get it.
They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, “There's another one! ‘Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive — ' ”With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry right behind him.
Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.
“Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom,” he wheezed at Harry. “Dudley — go — just go.”
Harry walked round and round his new room. Someone knew he had moved out of his cupboard and they seemed to know he hadn't received his first letter. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time he'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.