Chapter 1
Later, Dudley Dursley would look back to the day after his tenth birthday as the moment things went horribly wrong. That was when his parents sat him down on the sofa, and told him that in addition to his thirty-eight birthday presents, they had an extra special surprise for him. He was going to be a big brother, some time around Christmas! That was not Dudley's idea of a special surprise; he would much rather have had a dog he could set on people if they annoyed him. And his annoyance knew no bounds when his parents made him relinquish his toy room to his future sibling, for their nursery. They wanted him to throw out the broken toys he kept there, too, but eventually he made such a fuss they agreed that the toys he wasn't using at the moment would go into boxes and be put in the attic; after all, that was where they stored his old baby clothes and the toys he was too grown-up for now, and his old changing table, which would be brought down to the new nursery. The Freak was made to repaint the whole room, and do all kinds of extra chores, and Dudley had a lot of fun tripping him and laughing.
He still didn't like the prospect of sharing his parents with his new sibling. It was bad enough having the Freak around, but the Freak didn't matter. Whatever Dudley said, went; his parents were eager to please him, whereas the Freak was nothing but a nuisance. It was clear that the new baby was important the way Dudley was important; would be cooed over the way Dudley was cooed over; and nothing Dudley said or did could change this. He didn't like not getting his way.
As Dudley's mother started to show, she did less and less housework, and more and more directing Harry to do things, and supervising him closely enough that Dudley couldn't sabotage him for fun - and was told off when he tried. Most of November seemed to be taken up with Christmas planning, because Dudley's Mum wouldn't be able to do anything herself by then, but she wanted her Dudders to have a proper Christmas. An extra chest freezer appeared in the garage, and the Freak spent a lot of time cooking and preparing meals which then went in the freezer, including some Christmas things. Dudley thought about shutting the Freak in the freezer, but he never had a chance. Then there came the news that it would be twin girls. Harry had to repaint the nursery in pink, and assemble the second cot that had been purchased, and tidy away all the extra baby clothes. Dudley sulked some more, however much his parents told him he would always be their precious little man, and what a fine big lad he was becoming, and what an excellent big brother he would be, and how lucky their princesses would be to have such a wonderful strapping young man to depend on.
Finally, Dudley's mum went into labour on the 21st of December, and that was Christmas ruined. The Freak did all the cooking and laundry, but without Mum to tell him when to do things, the food wasn't always ready like clockwork, or perfectly cooked, and the laundry built up a bit. Dad smacked Harry around a bit, but it didn't seem to do much; and besides, Dad was in a bit of a state generally, and kept dragging Dudley off to the hospital to visit, leaving Harry alone with the housework. Of course, they still had Christmas dinner with the two of them, and Harry in the cupboard, but it wasn't the same. Dudley had his presents, and he got to see Mum, but not at the same time. Then the babies came home, and it turned out they cried a lot. During the day, Dudley could sit in his room with headphones on, or go out with Piers and the rest of the gang, but at night they kept waking him up. When he complained, his Mum and Dad actually snapped at him.
Of course he wasn't going to get up in the middle of the night to soothe the babies when they cried! That was girl stuff, Mum's business. And he supposed it was OK for freaks, too. Harry did a lot of housework, he could do that, too. But not Dudley. Dudley was a proper boy, and proper boys didn't do girly jobs. Even if they were his sisters, not Harry's. (And they had no business liking Harry better. He would teach them what's what, later.)
(Later still, he would look back and decide that in some ways, his baby sisters had been the making of him. He didn't like to think how horribly spoiled he might have become, how ignorant he might have remained, without their presence in his life.)