On the morning of Dudley's birthday, he received numerous gifts as usual.
Perhaps because Dudley had been away from home for most of the year, Vernon and Petunia bought him an abundance of presents to compensate, double the amount from the previous year.
"Happy birthday, Dudley," Harry said warmly, presenting his own carefully chosen gift.
Harry had specially prepared something for Dudley: a complete set of magical world books detailing many fascinating and mysterious events throughout wizarding history.
"Thank you, Harry!" Dudley accepted the books and expressed his gratitude sincerely.
"I wasn't sure what to get you. It seemed like you didn't lack anything important. Then I realized you've really grown to love reading lately, so I chose this collection. I asked Hermione for recommendations," Harry said, embarrassedly rubbing the back of his neck.
"It's a wonderful gift. I genuinely appreciate it," Dudley assured him.
"I remember last year on your birthday, you had that brass book that you seemed to treasure deeply, but unfortunately, I couldn't find anything similar," Harry mentioned thoughtfully.
He recalled that incident with perfect clarity because at the time, his relationship with Dudley had been quite strained. When Dudley asked him to help unwrap presents, Harry had assumed Dudley was deliberately trying to torment him.
Moreover, Dudley had promised to give him a gift in return. Harry had thought Dudley disliked reading, so he'd selected that brass book as a joke. The result was that Dudley nearly exploded with anger and snatched the book away immediately.
This reaction had convinced Harry at the time that Dudley was simply messing with him out of spite, but subsequent events proved that Dudley genuinely treasured that book. He hadn't been causing trouble just for harassment.
After that incident, Harry had rarely seen the brass book again, except for one occasion when he accidentally noticed Dudley keeping it close to his body in his pocket, carrying it everywhere.
This observation showed that Dudley truly valued that book tremendously.
"Uh... no need, this is perfect," Dudley replied, his mouth twitching slightly.
It would be far better if a second such brass book never appeared in this world.
After the family finished breakfast, Vernon drove them directly to the London amusement park.
During the journey, Harry appeared even more excited than Dudley himself. This marked his first visit to an amusement park. He'd heard they were incredibly entertaining, and he had never dared hope for such an opportunity previously. Now it was actually happening while staying with Dudley's family. How remarkable everything had become.
Harry clutched the amusement park map, enthusiastically discussing with Dudley which attractions they should experience first.
After determining their route through the park, Harry suddenly seemed to remember something and quietly asked Dudley a question.
"Did you receive gifts from Hermione and Ron?" Harry inquired.
"No," Dudley shook his head.
He didn't particularly care about birthday presents and had only casually examined what he'd received, but he indeed hadn't found anything from Hermione and Ron.
"That's strange. They didn't send you birthday gifts? Did they both forget?" Harry frowned with concern.
Before the holidays began, Hermione and Ron had specifically asked about Dudley and Harry's birthdays, promising to send celebratory gifts. Yet when Dudley's birthday arrived, he hadn't received anything from either friend.
What made Harry feel even more uncomfortable was that he also hadn't received any letters from Hermione and Ron since leaving school. Everything about Hogwarts seemed completely severed from their lives.
"Maybe they're just having too much fun since vacation barely started and forgot. It's really not important," Dudley said reassuringly.
"The letters I sent them haven't been answered either," Harry said with obvious sadness.
Dudley frowned slightly. Reasonably speaking, Hermione and Ron wouldn't completely disappear from contact. They had promised to write every week without fail.
"Perhaps we'll receive their letters tomorrow or the day after? Remember that Ron mentioned their family owl is constantly getting lost," Dudley suggested.
"You're right. Let's wait a bit longer then," Harry agreed.
Dudley nodded thoughtfully. If they still didn't receive correspondence from Ron and Hermione soon, there might be other problems involved. He would need to investigate the situation personally.
At ten in the morning, Dudley and his family finally arrived outside the amusement park entrance.
A considerable line of people was already waiting to enter the park.
"Vernon, you go purchase tickets and hold our place in line. I'll take Dudley to that shop where we bought the tarot cards before to inquire about the missing pieces," Petunia instructed her husband.
"Alright, go quickly and return soon," Vernon agreed.
Petunia led Dudley and Harry toward a shop located not far from the amusement park entrance.
From the outside, this appeared to be a general gift shop selling various merchandise.
Inside, there was a dedicated section specializing in items related to mystical themes. Of course, the mysterious objects here weren't genuinely supernatural. They were items like decorative magic wands, crystal balls for fortune telling, tarot cards, and other props common in the Muggle world.
Petunia quickly located a plump, middle-aged woman who worked as a shop clerk and explained their purpose for visiting.
"You're saying the tarot deck you purchased here was missing two cards?" the plump woman asked with obvious surprise.
"Yes, this represents a defective product. I want to file a formal complaint against your establishment!" Petunia declared with determination.
That tarot deck had been one of the Christmas gifts for Dudley that she had carefully selected, but discovering missing cards from the set had made her quite angry.
"This... it's been such a long time since then, we have no way to investigate the matter anymore," the clerk said with a troubled expression.
"Moreover, the employee who was responsible for selling tarot cards during that time period has already left our employment, so we can't verify anything with him either."
Hearing this response, Petunia's face immediately darkened. "What exactly do you mean by that? Do you think I'm making false accusations? Or are you trying to avoid responsibility?"
"I'm telling you plainly: my son said two cards were missing, so two cards were definitely missing. You must provide me with a satisfactory explanation."
Petunia's loud questioning attracted considerable attention from other customers.
Soon her complaints drew the store manager, and Petunia repeated the entire situation for his benefit.
Meanwhile, Dudley activated his spiritual vision and carefully examined the shop's interior but found nothing particularly unusual.
"Am I overthinking this situation?" Dudley wondered to himself.
He was primarily concerned because the two missing tarot cards were specifically the Emperor and Judgment. Otherwise, he wouldn't bother with such trivial matters.
"Excuse me, did your shop later discover two extra tarot cards that didn't belong to any set?" Dudley interrupted the argument between Petunia and the store manager.
His presence emanated an almost imperceptible sense of authority, making the originally somewhat arrogant store manager suddenly respectful when addressing Dudley. He quickly replied, "We did find extra tarot cards afterward, but only one card."