At this moment Harry only felt that his overly fat uncle was incomparably handsome, and in his heart there was an extra trace of warmth.
At the same time, an unavoidable thought rose within him: was it that place called Hogwarts that killed his parents? Did they die in a car accident at Hogwarts?
"You do not understand, Dursley, you do not understand at all!" Vernon's words made Hagrid extremely angry. He paced back and forth in the room like an enraged black bear. "Protect? With what are you protecting him? That little iron stick?"
"Dursley! You listen to me well. This child is not like you! He is destined to belong to that world!"
"Destined to belong to that world?" Vernon became even more agitated at those words. At this moment he had completely thrown caution aside, loudly questioning, "You still dare say he belongs to that world?!"
"Since you say again and again he belongs to that world, then why did you and your people not simply let him remain in that world? Why did you not care for him? Leaving him on our doorstep in silence for eleven years with only a letter?!"
"We now treat him as family, he has become a part of our household, and yet you still claim he belongs to that world?! You attempt to take him from us!"
Releasing all the resentment in his heart, Vernon pointed at Hagrid, trembling with agitation, his voice choking. "Do you… do you not think this is cruel?"
"I will repeat once more, Petunia and I are Harry's guardians, legal guardians protected by the laws of England. We will absolutely not allow Harry to go to that wretched place."
For the first time Vernon did not call Harry a freak, but used his name.
At this moment Petunia also tightly held Harry as if afraid someone would take him away. Harry, stiff all over, was held by Petunia like this for the first time. He heard her softly repeating, "I will not let them take you from me."
At this moment Harry's heart felt warm, his nose sore.
Being embraced, Harry greedily inhaled Petunia's scent, as if to brand it in the depths of his heart.
This was a mother's feeling, a mother's scent.
Harry had never experienced motherly love since childhood, but he felt that in this moment he possessed it.
It was indeed as Dudley had said—his uncle and aunt did love him. At the same time, it strengthened his conviction within.
"Legal protection? What use is the law of Muggles?!" Hagrid spoke with disdain, entirely disregarding the law of the empire on which the sun never sets. "Just like now, I will take him away. Can you stop me? I will bring him to Hogwarts. This is the mission entrusted to me by Professor Dumbledore."
"I will never let you take him! I will never allow that mumbling old madman to raise another little madman, only for him to die for no reason!"
Hearing Vernon's words, Hagrid instantly entered a state of fury. Grabbing Vernon's collar, he lifted him up like a chick. His great mouth opened and closed as if to devour Vernon whole. "Never! Insult! Albus! Dumbledore! In my presence!"
To Hagrid, Dumbledore was his benefactor, the man he respected most.
Vernon's feet left the ground, his face turning crimson, a sign of suffocation. He could not breathe. He struggled desperately, but his strength was nothing before Hagrid.
Just as Hagrid intended to give Vernon a lifelong lesson, his body suddenly paused. A strong arm gripped his wrist.
"Big guy, what do you think you are doing?"
Dudley had acted.
With a forceful press, he pushed down Hagrid's hand holding Vernon's collar, lowering it enough for Vernon's feet to touch the ground.
That suffocating feeling finally eased.
"Big oaf, you are far more interesting than you look." Feeling the strength coming from Dudley's arm, Hagrid exclaimed in admiration. Then he released Vernon and, with great interest, turned toward Dudley. "So what do you want to do, big oaf?"
Though he kept calling Dudley a big oaf, before Hagrid, even at one hundred eighty centimeters tall, Dudley was like a child.
"Breaking into a private residence (entering the house without permission), malicious destruction of property (damaging the door), personal threats (threatening the Dursleys more than once), and even assault (attacking Vernon)."
"Do you know? If my father had pulled the trigger from the start, the one lying on the ground would be you."
Hagrid burst into loud laughter as if he had heard something incredibly funny. "Stop joking, you big oaf. A Muggle's iron stick could never harm me in the slightest."
'That's already the fifth time he's called Dudley that.'
In his heart, Harry gave Hagrid a thumbs-up for his extremely bold behavior. So far, everyone he had seen who dared to verbally offend Dudley usually ended up in the hospital.
Just as Dudley often taught him:
'Reading is so you can calmly speak with idiots, and fitness is so that idiots will calmly speak with you.'
Those who refused to speak calmly had all ended up on the ground.
Dudley shook his head.
Wizards were simply too arrogant. Even someone like Hagrid, a half-blood wizard expelled from school, carried a natural sense of superiority toward Muggles.
Though Dudley longed for magic, he despised this arrogance.
As spellcasters, should they not show reverence toward anything whose principles they did not understand?
Moreover, firearms were far from weak.
At this moment Dudley poured all his accumulated remaining energy points—nine hundred ninety-six in total—into skill upgrades.
Firearms LV2.
'Even if you have a spell that can instantly heal all injuries, as long as I land a sniper shot to blow your head apart, I refuse to believe it could be restored.'
Take the world of Fate, for example—magus killers are not a rare profession, and the number of magi killed each year is incalculable.
After all, as our great Master Xun once said: "When a man is killed, he dies."
"If a noble guest comes to visit, we naturally treat you as an honored guest. But if a vile guest forces his way in, a heavy club awaits him!"
Hagrid was bewildered. "What are you talking about?"
Dudley's words carried a hint of Chinese phrasing. It was normal that an uneducated Hagrid could not understand.
"Mission: Defeat the half-blood giant. Reward: Random magic skill."
At that moment, the system's notification sound rang in his ears.
Too lazy to explain further to Hagrid, Dudley picked up the rifle that had been tossed into the corner. He weighed it in his hands. "Do you want to try?"
As he spoke, a trace of golden electricity flickered across his palm—the power of Ripple Qigong. The rifle, which had been twisted into a dead knot, miraculously straightened.
It returned to its original form.
For the first time, he revealed in front of his parents a supernatural power beyond ordinary people. But now, he could not care about that.
The dark muzzle of the rifle was pointed directly at Hagrid.
'Eat Shit!'
(End of this chapter)
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