This house, he thinks firmly, is not a home.
If it was a home, no bad memories would be here. There would be nothing to hide, nothing to try and forget.
Yet, here he stands at the age of twenty five ready to watch the demolishment crew that he has hired tear the house to the ground.
In the back of his mind he can still hear the screams, the cursing, the laughter, the hateful words; everything that hurt him.
As a child, there was only one rule in the house; something solid that overruled everything else.
No Magic Allowed.
At first he had believed every word that his mother would shower upon him, hoping that he would turn out just like her.
He is a freak Dudley; you just stay away from him. Don't let him touch you or your things. You're better than that my darling.
For the first sixteen years of his life he believed every word like it was the bible.
However, after the event with the…what was it that his cousin had called them…Ah, the dementors, he had the revelation that while horrifying, magic wasn't that bad.
Despite having saved him though, Harry had taken such a verbal and physical thrashing from his mother that the boy had to be taken to the hospital.
Snorting he frowns, falling down the stairs his ass.
To this day, he never had forgiven her for that, whether he let it show or not.
In the end, his mother had put her foot down and had packed their things; leaving England was for the best she had said.
Moments before they left, to his mother's greatest disappointment, he apologized to the boy; when would he have the chance if he didn't do it then? There might not be another chance.
So he apologized and thanked him, the only reason for his still being alive.
Even though he didn't smile, he knew that Harry accepted and without regret, he left with his mother.
Oh the scolding that he had received for having the gall to hug the freak, as she had screamed.
He had watched with sad eyes as they left the boy in the front yard of the house, to stand up to whatever he had to do on his own.
It had been the day that he had finally stepped out of his mother's shadow; breaking out of the mold she had created.
Magic or no Magic; Wizard or Muggle, there was nothing wrong with being who you are.
You can't control who your parents are or what you are born as, so why judge on something so trivial?
Smiling softly, he turned and looked across the driveway at the man that once was his younger cousin.
With that same nest of unruly hair, starting to turn gray, those emerald eyes staring at the house with distaste, if not more powerful than his own, standing with his arms crossed.
This was something for the both of them; closing the book that is their shared, horrid past.
As the man, not boy, walked over and stood close beside him; he gave the signal to the man operating the wrecking ball.
A loud click rang through the air and then the ton of metal crashed into the side of the house, destroying the living room wall.
Pity, he thought with a smirk; that was his mother's favorite room.
Within minutes and nearly twenty more swings of the ball, the house was nothing more than a pile of rubble.
In that very moment is seemed as if a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders and for the first time in years, he laughed in genuine happiness.
Whatever the goal had been, his mother had failed. She had lost the fight to raise another prejudice person in the world that already had too many.
He broke free and now he could continue through his life without regret.
Petunia Dursley no longer had a hold on him.
{Shadows}
A/N: This is for the Mother and Child Competition :) I had Dudley and Petunia Dursley. This is how I view their relationship.
I know that it's short, but I honestly don't feel like it needed anything more. That it'd be unnecessary if I tried to lengthen it.
I hope that you enjoyed this story!
Please review! :)