"Harry, this is a statue built to honor my aunt, uncle, and you," Dudley said gently, his hand resting on Harry's shoulder as the boy stared transfixed at the memorial. "These two are your parents."
Before heading to the Potter ancestral home, Dudley had brought his companions to the cemetery beside the village's ancient stone church. Here, beneath weathered headstones and moss-covered monuments, lay all who had died in Godric's Hollow—wizards and Muggles alike. No matter how different their stations in life, death had rendered them equal: nothing but dust returning to dust.
The three approached one particular gravestone, its marble surface bearing a thought-provoking epitaph carved in elegant script: "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death."
This was where James and Lily Potter rested together for eternity.
A bouquet of flowers had already been placed before the headstone—someone had come to pay their respects ahead of their arrival. The arrangement consisted of carnations, hyacinths, and asters, their symbolic meanings universally representing apology and repentance.
Yet something about the placement struck Dudley as peculiar. The flowers weren't centered but positioned deliberately to one side. More telling still, that same side of the gravestone had been meticulously cleaned until it gleamed, while the opposite side remained coated in dust and neglect—as if the mysterious visitor had come to honor only one half of the couple.
The identity of this mourner was painfully obvious.
Dudley understood all too well. Without ceremony, he placed his own white flowers in the center of the memorial, restoring balance to the tribute.
"Aunt Lily was truly extraordinary," he said, his voice carrying quiet reverence.
Lily had sacrificed everything to protect her child, and in doing so, had achieved the impossible—Voldemort's destruction. By any measure, she embodied the very essence of maternal love and heroism.
Without Aunt Lily's ultimate sacrifice, the Dark Lord would have continued his reign of terror. And while other regions might have eventually found ways to resist, for the Muggles of England, it would have meant nothing short of catastrophe.
Dudley had wanted to make this pilgrimage for some time. He believed Harry needed to pay proper respects to his parents—it was a son's sacred duty, one too long delayed.
"Harry, we should visit regularly from now on," Dudley murmured, giving the boy's shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
Since arriving in Godric's Hollow, Harry had remained in a daze, seemingly oblivious to the telling details surrounding the gravestone. Hermione had noticed the strange flower placement immediately, but wisdom told her this wasn't the moment to voice such observations. Instead, she studied the asymmetrical bouquet with thoughtful silence.
After leaving the cemetery's hallowed grounds, Harry's expression gradually recovered some of its usual animation. He was, after all, still just a boy approaching his twelfth birthday.
"Come on, Harry," Dudley said, steering them toward their next destination. "Let's go see your home. You're the head of the Potter family now."
Even as he spoke these words of encouragement, Dudley's mind churned with more calculating thoughts. Harry was indeed the sole legitimate heir to the Potter legacy—a family that had reportedly built their fortune through hair care products. His uncle James had never needed employment after graduation, living comfortably off generational wealth.
Yet by Harry's time, nothing remained except a vault of Galleons at Gringotts.
So where had the Potter family's other assets gone?
Those coins might satisfy Harry's simple needs, but they certainly couldn't fool someone with Dudley's business acumen. He made a mental note to investigate this mystery when the opportunity arose. Big D hadn't earned his reputation by overlooking such obvious discrepancies.
The trio crossed a stretch of overgrown lawn and approached the village outskirts, where the Potter ancestral home stood like a monument to tragedy. The building was a study in decay—ivy-choked walls, broken windows, and an overall air of dangerous instability.
Indeed, "dangerous" was perhaps too generous a term. While most of the structure remained upright, the upper right section had been completely obliterated. Years of neglect, combined with the disappearance of the Fidelius Charm's protection, had reduced the once-proud residence to little more than a glorified ruin.
It looked indistinguishable from any common haunted house.
Harry surveyed his inheritance with visible disappointment. The building was certainly large, but its condition was beyond merely run-down.
Forget about habitation—it was miraculous the whole thing hadn't collapsed.
Dudley rolled his shoulders and stretched, already mentally cataloging the work ahead. "Looks like we'll be busy from here on out."
Harry caught the implication immediately and spun around, eyes bright with sudden hope. "Big D, you couldn't be thinking of...?"
He had a pretty good idea what Dudley intended, and anticipation began building in his chest.
"That's exactly right."
Without hesitation, Dudley began investing experience points into various life skills—handicrafts, renovation, and construction—upgrading them simultaneously with the efficiency of someone accustomed to such systematic improvement.
"Renovate this house?" Hermione asked eagerly once she grasped the scope of Dudley's ambition. "Could I stay here too?"
Though she was already a practicing witch, she had never actually lived in a proper wizarding home. The prospect filled her with curiosity and excitement.
"Of course," Dudley replied warmly, "but we'll need to clear it with your parents first."
And so began their week-long camping expedition on the open ground near the Potter ruins. Dudley's enchanted bag proved itself a veritable warehouse, producing tents, sleeping bags, cooking equipment, and countless other necessities with seemingly endless capacity.
If not for the bag's dimensional limitations, Hermione suspected he might have packed an entire house inside.
I've decided, she thought with amusement. For Dudley's next birthday, I'm making him a bag with even greater capacity.
The current bag was one of her early attempts at the Undetectable Extension Charm. Her skills had improved dramatically since then.
Renovating the old house wasn't particularly challenging for someone of Dudley's capabilities—it simply required sufficient time and patience. However, the entire process encountered unexpected obstacles.
These hindrances didn't come from other wizards or magical interference but from a persistent population of small magical creatures who had claimed the abandoned property as their own.
Garden gnomes had colonized the overgrown lawn, while doxies had established themselves throughout the interior rooms. The gnomes were merely disgusting—foul-tempered pests who delighted in digging holes and generally making nuisances of themselves.
The doxies proved far more problematic. These creatures, also known as Biting Fairies, were classified as XXX-level magical beings. Despite their humanoid appearance, they were diminutive in size, covered in coarse black fur, and possessed an extra pair of arms and legs that made them unnaturally agile.
Most concerning were their dual rows of razor-sharp, venomous fangs. Their toxin was potent enough to cause serious harm, and their reproductive rate was staggering—up to five hundred eggs at a time, with an incubation period of merely two to three weeks.
These territorial creatures seemed to regard the three humans as unwelcome invaders, launching constant attacks that significantly hindered Dudley's renovation efforts.
Fortunately, neither gnomes nor doxies could penetrate Dudley's defensive capabilities. Hermione deployed liberal amounts of specialized pest spray while Dudley crafted custom containment vessels to capture and relocate the troublesome inhabitants.
Not all the magical residents proved hostile, however. A small population of Pygmy Puffs had also taken up residence in the old house, but these creatures possessed gentle temperaments and endearing appearances. They subsisted happily on scraps and posed no threat, so they were permitted to remain as the property's first official tenants.
After a full week of intensive labor, Dudley had restored significant portions of the structure. While many areas still required attention, the house was now perfectly suitable for normal habitation.
Carrow arrived precisely as scheduled, traveling to Godric's Hollow to finalize their business contract and settle the remaining details of their collaboration.
Approximately two weeks later, their efforts bore spectacular fruit.
A revolutionary game burst onto the wizarding world scene with unprecedented impact. It became an instant sensation, capturing the imagination of witches and wizards across all age groups and social strata.
The phenomenon that would reshape magical entertainment was born.
Its name: Wizard Cards.