But Uncle Vernon didn't believe him. No one ever did.

 

The problem was, strange things often happened around Harry and it was just no

good telling the Dursleys he didn't make them happen.

 

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as

though he hadn't been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his

hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide

that horrible scar." Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a

sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at

for his baggy clothes and taped glasses.

 

Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been

before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off He had been given a week in his cupboard

for this, even though he had tried to explain that he couldn't explain how it

had grown back so quickly.

 

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force him into a revolting old

sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls) -- The harder she tried to

pull it over his head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might

have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Harry. Aunt Petunia had

decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to his great relief, Harry wasn't

punished.