The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harry hislongest-ever punishment. By the time he was allowed out of his cupboardagain, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken hisnew video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first timeout on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed PrivetDrive on her crutches.
Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley’s gang,who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, andGordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest andstupidest of the lot, he was the leader. The rest of them were all quitehappy to join in Dudley’s favorite sport: Harry Hunting.
This was why Harry spent as much time as possible out of the house,wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where hecould see a tiny ray of hope. When September came he would be going offto secondary school and, for the first time in his life, he wouldn’t bewith Dudley. Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon’s old privateschool, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there too. Harry, on theother hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudleythought this was very funny.