Chapter 11: Dudley's Lament
July 6 - 9:00pm - Grimmauld Place
Dudley Dursley sat in his room lost in thought. Yesterday, he'd arrived home from his best friend's only to be met by the freak with the crazy spinning eye and a partially collapsed home. He'd used all his considerable bulk to push past the older man into the house in search of his parents. He'd spotted his mother first. Her neck was bent at an unnatural angle and he couldn't get to her through the debris that had nearly closed off the small hallway leading to what remained of the kitchen and dining room. Her eyes were open, unseeing, and he'd known in that instant that she was dead. A hand settled on his shoulder and he shrugged it off quickly.
"Where's my father?" Dudley turned to face the man his fists clenched tightly.
"He was in the dining room with your mother when it happened. He didn't make it," Moody answered eyeing the young man warily. Normally he'd seemed rather scared of magical folk, though Moody had seen him use those fists on other children during his patrol watches of Harry. He tended to leave his cousin alone, his fear of magic keeping his bullying in check.
"Why can't you freaks just leave my family alone?" Dudley questioned. If he focused on being angry he wouldn't cry. Sissies cried, not him. Moody eyed him for a moment.
"First of all, we're wizards. Secondly, I came here to protect your family. Unfortunately, I arrived too late to save your parents, but your cousin is alive," Moody explained.
"So, he's probably that reason those freaks killed them. It should have been him," Dudley screamed. "It should have been him." He tried to push by the older man again.
He was done with these freaks. He'd go to Pier's house. Then he'd figure out what to do next. Mrs. Polkiss would make him something to eat and he'd think about all of this later. Maybe, he'd fallen asleep and this was all just a nightmare. But this time Moody was prepared and stood his ground. Despite Dudley's much larger size, he couldn't budge the older man.
"Now listen here boy. I know your upset and you have every right to be, but surely you don't wish your cousin were dead as well."
"It's his fault they're dead. If he wasn't some kind of freak they'd have left my family alone. Now get out of my way, old man," Dudley ordered.
"I'm not sure you deserve this kid, but I can't let you leave. It's not safe. The same people, who did this to your parents, will likely come after you as well. You're going to have to come with me until we can figure out what to do with you."
"I'm not going anywhere with you," Dudley shouted.
"You will if you want to survive. Now get some stuff together if you can, don't bother with anything electrical it won't work where we're going," Moody ordered his voice very low and threatening.
Fear flashed in Dudley's eyes and he caved. He stomped off towards his room to fetch some clothes and such. Whoever heard of a place where electronics didn't work? He'd put his portable combination CD and DVD player in his bag anyway. The old guy was a kook, surely he was joking about the electricity thing.
Five minutes later, the old guy had burst into his room and said it was time to go. He'd protested as he'd hardly had time to decide what to take, but the man had roughly grabbed his half-packed bag before touching his hand with an empty soda can. He'd felt an instant tug behind his navel and seconds later found himself in a kitchen with his cousin and even more freaks.
Dudley thought back over his arrival. Harry hadn't said anything to him and he hadn't said anything to Harry. He'd gotten some soup, which turned out to be pretty good. The butter beer stuff was ok, but it didn't taste anything at all like regular beer.
As if his trip to this house wasn't weird enough, after the last person had finished eating the dishes had gone to the sink seemingly of their own accord and proceeded to wash themselves. Dudley had nearly fallen out of his chair.
His freaky cousin had left the room early with some girl with bushy brown hair, though Dudley had to admit, she wasn't bad looking. He'd wondered briefly if his cousin had a girlfriend. He'd have to check on that. At least then he could tease his cousin unmercifully about that. He'd snapped at everyone who had tried to talk to him, ordering them to sod off or leave him alone. The old guy had shown him what was to be his room and he'd nearly howled again, until a look from him made him pause.
He hadn't thought things could get any worse. Of course, the old freak was right, and his CD/DVD player would not work no matter how hard he tried to make it work. Disgusted he'd thrown it across the room getting some satisfaction from the resounding crash it made as it struck the wall then fell to the floor.
He'd wandered into the front parlor earlier today wondering what his freaky cousin and his friends did all day, only to find three of them reading books, including his cousin, and the other two playing chess. What kind of teenagers sat around reading and playing chess?
He and his friends spent their time smoking, drinking, bullying smaller children, and playing video games, when they weren't watching girls and trying to impress them. He'd gone back to his room to sulk.
Finally, at lunch he'd had some fun dumping food on the two youngest girls whose constant stream of chatter drove him nuts. He'd told them to shut up, but they hadn't listened. The looks on their faces as food slid down them from their hair was priceless and he'd smiled for the first time since his arrival at this boring prison. But then the other freak with the graying brown hair had ordered him to apologize. Dudley refused of course, he wasn't sorry at all. Well, maybe sorry that he didn't have a camera to take a picture. He'd finally stomped off to his room.
No one else had bothered him. He'd even avoided going down to dinner not wanting to deal with them. Instead he'd eaten his way through the candy he'd brought with him from his stash in his room.
He'd just settled in to look through the latest magazine that Piers had filched from his Dad's stash when he'd been so rudely interrupted by the really old freak and his cousin. After that things had gone down hill even more drastically. The old freak had told him that he was a wizard. Then he went on to weave some sappy story about promising his mother to bind his magical powers in exchange for taking in Harry. He'd said his mother was worried that he might be hurt or killed by dark wizards like the one that killed her sister. He'd wondered why his parents had let his freaky cousin stay with them all those years instead of sending him to the orphanage like Aunt Marge suggested. Personally, Dudley had always thought this was a capital idea, although it was nice to rub it in Harry's face how much nicer his parents treated him. The old freaks story made some sense based on that, but Dudley really didn't think he was a freak.
At least his cousin had seemed surprised by the story as well. He'd looked stunned and seemed upset that no one had told him of this either. But then his face had gone blank and Dudley wondered how he'd learned to do that. The two had left soon after that. First his cousin, then the old freak had handed him a letter like the one Harry received years ago. He'd invited him to come to Hogwarts and offered to help him learn about magic this summer so he wouldn't be as behind. He'd also given him some sappy saying about being there if he needed to talk. Dudley had been happy when he'd finally just left.
Dudley lay back against his pillows and tried not to think about what the old freak had said. He was probably crazy as a loon. Who wore purple robes with moons and stars on it? Jeez, didn't the guy have any sense? He probably just wanted to keep him nearby and keep an eye on him. He'd pointed out to the man that he couldn't do magic like his cousin and he didn't want to know how. The old man had said that the binding promise had kept his powers from manifesting and that now that his mum was gone, they would begin to develop. Dudley thought he was nuts.
Dudley thought about what he had seen of the magical world. Those dark things last summer that had attacked him in Little Whinging were the worst and enough to make him think twice about the idea of wanting to live in a world where creatures like that roamed free. He'd also seen the way his cousin always seemed to have homework or reading to do for school even in the summer. Who would choose to attend a school like that? And Dudley didn't want to think about what horrible things must have happened to the crazy eyed freak who along with his missing eye had a peg leg and a face with various parts missing.
There had to be another option. Surely he could go stay with friends or get a place of his own. There had to be some other option, something other than choosing to stay in this dump with all these freaks. Magic had done nothing for him but force his family to deal with his cousin, taken his parents away, gotten him that horrible pigs tail just because he'd been hungry, blown apart his parent's living room, left him with a humongous tongue that nearly choked him, and nearly resulted in his death both last summer and now this summer.
The more he thought about everything that had happened the more his anger grew. He really wished for some snot-nosed kid upon which to vent his frustration. Perhaps he'd have a go at his cousin. He still wasn't allowed to use magic out of school. He could taunt him into a fight. It was his fault he was here. His fault his parent's were dead. He probably preferred this dump and was happy that those freaks had destroyed Dudley's home. Dudley sat up stiffly. He had no idea how long he'd lain there thinking back over the events of the past couple of days, but now, with his anger burning inside him, he knew what he wanted to do.
He left his room quietly. He knew his cousin's room was just down the hall from his. Apparently, the freak with the crazy eye thought that would comfort him a bit, if he knew his cousin wasn't far away. It must be late because it sounded like most of the occupants had settled in for the night. Dudley opened the door quietly trying his best not to make any noise. The room was very dark though he could make out the shapes of two beds. He went to the closest bed first.
"Jackpot," Dudlley mumbled to himself as he found his cousin and the curly haired girl curled together in the bed. No wonder his freaky cousin like this place. He'd probably wanted to get back to his freaky girlfriend. Dudley's anger exploded and his beefy right hook caught Harry's check and nose waking both he and Hermione as blood began to pour from his nose. Almost before the two could react, Dudley grabbed Hermione's hair and jerked hard. Hermione cried out and both she and Harry reached for their wands.
Before they could point them a voice rang out, "Petrificus Totalus," and Dudley fell across the bed before sliding off onto the floor.
"Thanks, Neville," Hermione stated sliding out from under the covers to stand on the opposite side of the bed from where their attacker had fallen. She'd thought it looked like Harry's cousin, but she wasn't taking any chances.
"Harry!" She cried when she saw him holding his raised shirt against his face.
"I'm ok," he mumbled his voice muffled by the shirt. Neville had moved from his own bed and walked around to look at their attacker.
"It's your cousin, Harry," Neville confirmed Hermione's suspicions. "Should I get Remus?" He looked from Harry to Hermione and then back. Neither had really thought about what they would say to the adults about their sleeping arrangements. At the time, they had focused more on the fact that none of them wanted to be left alone.
"No need," said a voice from the door, "I'll take care of it. What happened?" The three turned to see Tonks in the open doorway. She sounded tired, but entered the room slowly and lit some candles before checking on Dudley who was still lying petrified on the floor.
No one said anything as she walked to Harry and asked to see his face. Blood still flowed from his obviously broken nose, and his cheek looked swollen. Tonks stepped back and focusing on Harry's nose waved her wand carefully. The bleeding stopped and Harry smiled as the pain had disappeared. He touched his nose gingerly. It felt fine.
"Maybe not as good as Madam Pomfrey, but since the nose is cartilage it's not as complicated to repair," Tonks explained.
"Why didn't you say the spell out loud?" Hermione questioned curious.
"It's a complex spell and requires a lot of focus, so I generally say the spell in my head while focusing on what I want to do. In the field, making a sound could cost you your life, so in auror academy we train to do spells without speaking the incantation aloud," the auror explained before raising her earlier questions again. "What happened?"
"Dudley punched me and then grabbed Hermione's hair and nearly pulled her out of the bed," Harry began.
"I heard a noise and sent a spell to petrify whoever was attacking. It hit him and he collapsed onto the bed and then slide onto the floor," Neville finished.
"Any idea why he attacked?"
"No," Harry answered. "Though Dudley has hit me in the past." Tonks nodded and looked down at the rather large boy on the floor by the bed. His face was nearly purple in rage.
"Very good spell, Neville," Tonks commented, then turned her attention to Dudley. "Alright, Mr. Dursley, I am going to remove the spell from you, but I must warn you that if you move to attack anyone else, I will put it back on and leave it for the remainder of the night." She stared down at him for several long moments, and then added, "Enervate." Dudley sat up slowly just barely containing his anger at being attacked by magic.
"Why did you attack your cousin and Hermione?" Dudley simply stared at her at first. She bent down until she was staring straight into his eyes. "Answer the question, please." Dudley looked from her to her wand which was still pointed at him then back before answering.
"He deserved it. He's the reason those freaks attacked and my parents are dead," Dudley answered his voice low and filled with hatred. "He's probably happy they're gone." The others stared at him stunned.
Dudley took advantage of their distraction and got to his feet. "I'm not sorry I hit him. I hate him and I hate this place," Dudley practically screamed before turning and fleeing from the room.
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Author's Note: Thanks to all those who have read, and especially to those who reviewed. I hope you like it! Please let me know. And since I cannot respond to reviews, for some unknown reason, I will add that no one is over the loss of their loved one's, you'll see them continue to grieve. Also, Neville and anyone who is not a threat to Hogwarts should be able to floo into the building. It was always my understanding that the castle guards against intruders who would cause harm, but a student seeking help should not be barred. I think those were the most pressing issues mentioned by reviewers. I will try to do better at posting, but I am also trying to rework pieces of the story before posting them here. If you are incredibly anxious to read the rest check it out under the same title and author's name at HarryPotterFanFiction.com.