Summary/Author's Notes:

Although the first two chapters are from Dudley's perspective, this isn't a story about Dudley. It's a retribution fic that may continue into something else depending on how people like this. The writing style is different than my usual, but I'm not sure yet why it's coming out that way. We'll see what happens as it continues. Most of my stories are episodic and therefore seem to go on forever. Unless asked to write more, this one will probably have a clearly defined end. Also, for people that have read Harry Potter and the Unexpected Story, you'll notice that the chapters are freakishly short. So here goes and please, please, PLEASE, review.

Chapter 1 – A New Man

July, after the Battle of Hogwarts

Dudley Dursely sat at a table looking around the wedding tent a little nervously. He'd received the invitation to Harry's wedding almost a year after saying goodbye at Number 4 Privet Drive. The intervening year had been interesting to say the least, but if there was one good thing about being "in hiding" with his parents when he'd rather have been at Smeltings, it was that he got a chance to do some real thinking. It was, after all, an activity which Dudley had never spent much time on, and once he got to doing it, he found that it suited him. It was just too bad that he'd spent so many years bullying Harry, because Dudley thought his cousin would have been good to bounce some of his more complicated and confusing thoughts off of. Still, they parted on relatively good terms as far as Dudley was concerned, and he was pleased to get an invitation to Harry's wedding, because it seemed like maybe Harry felt the same way.

His mum and dad had also been sent an invitation, but neither of them had any intention of going to a "freak" wedding. They even went so far as to claim they didn't know the sender. Dudley thought it was excessively rude considering the fact that Harry had flat out saved Dudley's life a few years earlier. The problem with Dudley realizing how horrible he and his parents had been, though, meant that he had rather lost the ability to bully his own parents around.

So, feeling adventurous, Dudley RSVPed for Harry's wedding and followed the strange instructions on how to get to the ceremony's location. It was called The Burrow, and Dudley thought it was a fairly good name for the place. He took satisfaction from the fact that his parents would have hated everything about it. Dudley, though he didn't think it was really his idea of a dream home, did think that it was an interesting place and was fascinated at how many people seemed to fit inside it. What Dudley liked best about The Burrow, though, was that it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. There were sights and sounds that Dudley had never really experienced before and he couldn't help but wonder if he would have spent less time in front of the telly if he'd had someplace as interesting to explore.

"Dudley!" Harry exclaimed as he walked over, a gigantic smile plastered on his face. It still struck Dudley as strange to see his cousin wearing clothes that fit, let alone wizard's robes, but they suited Harry far better than any of Dudley's old clothes had.

Dudley stood up and they shook hands. "Congratulations, Harry."

"Thanks! I'm so glad you could come. I hope no one's given you a hard time or anything," Harry said looking around the tent in an appraising manner.

Dudley shook his head. "If I weren't so huge, I'd think I was invisible," Dudley replied with a small smile. "Well except for your new wife's father. He's talked to me a few times."

Harry grinned. "Yeah. . .He's fascinated with anything non-magical, and you're a great source of information, I'll bet." He paused and looked Dudley up and down. It made him feel extremely self conscious, but after 16 years of torture, Dudley thought it was only fair to stand there and take it. "And I don't think you look huge. In fact, I'd say that you've lost weight."

Dudley was used to people saying things like that to be polite, but when Harry said it, Dudley heard sincerity and it meant the world to him. "Thanks," he replied. "I've been exercising a lot." He grimaced. "I'd rather do that then go back to the grapefruit diet."

Harry laughed. "I agree. I hope you'll let yourself have a piece of wedding cake, though. Ginny's mum made it and I can not think of anyone who cooks or bakes as well as she does."

"I will," Dudley promised. He didn't doubt that Mrs. Weasley was probably a very good cook. She sort of had that Domestic Goddess look to her that Dudley's own mother did not. In fact, as soon as Dudley stopped shoveling food into his mouth just because there was nothing else to do, he realized that his mother wasn't all that good of a cook at all. Her domestic expertise lay in her ability to clean obsessively and gossip over a fence, skills that Dudley had come to realize were not things to brag about.

"Dudley?" came a pretty voice from behind Harry. When Harry stepped aside, Dudley saw his new bride standing there with a beautiful white gown and a smile to rival Harry's.

"Congratulations," Dudley said with a polite nod and a nervous smile.

"Thank you. I wanted to introduce you to a friend of mine," she explained as she pulled a beautiful girl closer to them. "This is Amanda Cossgrove. She's muggle-born. She spent her whole first eleven years not knowing a thing about magic."

Amanda smiled and gave a little wave.

Dudley could feel himself blushing as he returned the smile. He was sure that no girl as beautiful as Amanda Cossgrove had ever acknowledged his existence before.

Harry beamed at Ginny. "Why don't we leave them to chat," he suggested. "The list of people we absolutely must greet isn't getting any shorter." With that, the bride and groom disappeared into the throng of people and Dudley couldn't help but be both happy for them and a little jealous at the same time.

"So Ginny tells me you're Harry's cousin?" Amanda said.

Dudley nodded and pulled out a chair for her. He'd never done that for a girl before, but then, he'd never thought one was so deserving of it until that moment. "His mum and mine were sisters, but my mum isn't a witch," he explained.

"Are your parents here?" she asked, looking around as if there would be someone nearby that screamed Dursley.

Dudley reddened in embarrassment. "My parents. . ." he started slowly. "Let's just say they aren't very supportive of Harry."

Amanda frowned. "That's a shame." There was a short awkward pause. "So," she started brightly, "Tell me about yourself. Where are you from?"

Dudley felt himself go red again. "Well. . .I grew up in Little Winging, Surrey. I went to a Muggle school called Smeltings, except for this last year when I went to a public school near our safehouse. Um. . .just graduated this June and I'm hoping to go to culinary school soon. I'm not very complicated or interesting," he confessed.

Amanda smiled and Dudley's heart stopped beating. It wasn't a terribly large smile, but it was bright. Something about how white her teeth were, really highlighted the beautiful pink of her lips and white peach color of her skin. Dudley also noticed that he skin looked awfully soft.

"Have you always known you wanted to be a chef?" she asked, clearly ignoring his last comment.

Dudley shook his head as he sipped at what everyone had been calling butterbeer. "I uh. . . I haven't always been so slim," he answered knowing that in no way would anyone describe him as thin in his current state, but he hoped that she understood what he meant. "Now that I've been working at getting healthy, I've started to see really good food as. . . well sort of like art," he admitted thinking that he sounded very stupid. It was honest, though, and one thing Dudley had promised himself as they drove away from the house on Privet Drive was that he was at least going to be the most honest person imaginable. "What about you? What do you er. . . do?"

Amanda smiled. "I have one more year at Hogwarts and then I'm hoping to get a job at the Ministry. Don't get me wrong. I have no delusions of grandeur, but ministry jobs are generally pretty secure." She moved a stray strand of dark blonde hair from her shoulder and brushed her bangs out of her face.

Dudley couldn't help but imagine what her hair might feel like. He'd never been brave enough to ask a girl out, but he thought that he might be able to talk himself into it for Amanda Cossgrove. He didn't know the rules for dating between the magical world and his own, though, and seeing as how he and Harry were actually getting along, Dudley didn't want to do anything that would mess that up.

"Do you play any sports, Dudley?" she asked curiously. Her voice was so pleasant and warm. The subjects they were talking about weren't terribly important, but Dudley could sense that she actually cared about his answers. He could sit there, talking with Amanda forever.

"Oh just brutish fighting stuff; nothing like quidditch. Harry was telling me about it. It sounds amazing," he answered.

Amanda laughed, and Dudley thought it sounded like a jingle bell. It was certainly a beautiful sound, and he immediately started to try and think of a joke so that he might be able to hear it again. "When I first saw quidditch, I was amazed they let children play it. It's so dangerous!"

Dudley just gazed at her smiling.

"Looks like people are starting to mill out," she noticed. She looked over at him and gave him a shy smile that he understood, even if he didn't have a whole lot of experience with women.

"Would you like to go get a coffee or. . . a drink or something?" he asked.

Amanda smiled and nodded. "I'd love to."