He was sprawled on the couch in their small flat, the TV volume turned down so it was a low, meaningless hum in the back of Dudley's mind. He hadn't been able to sleep much the night before, so even though he had to go to work soon, here he lay, wrapped in a blanket, staring at the ceiling.

"There's bacon," Penny called from the kitchen. Dudley grunted his acknowledgment and squeezed his eyes shut. A moment later, he felt the chill of the fan overhead as the blanket was pulled from his grasp. "Come on, now," Penny said, her voice considerably closer, "it's like this every morning." Dudley felt blindly for her hand, grabbed it, and pressed it to his face. She snatched away and grabbed his wrist, trying futilely to pull him up. "Up," she said sternly, though he thought she sounded as though she was smiling. He opened his eyes and pushed himself into a sitting position, groaning.

She smiled and bent down to give him a quick kiss. She was, of course, already completely ready to face the day. She wore a crisp white blouse and a dark blue skirt, her long dark hair in perfectly arranged curls, her face a flawless work of art with the make up he knew she applied first thing in the morning.

"I've laid your uniform out on the bed," she said. "Your badge is on the nightstand."

For the first time that morning, Dudley squirmed guiltily. "You didn't need to do that," he said, standing. She smiled and gave him another quick kiss.

"I don't mind." But Dudley did; it was very much the sort of thing his mother would have done—or, more specifically, the sort of thing she would have done for him, but not for Harry.

"There's bacon," Penny said again.

"I'm going to go get dressed," he answered, already turning away from her.

"Hurry! It'll get cold!" she called after him.

Dudley pulled on his uniform as quickly as he could. Though he was not any smaller than he had been as a teenager, he could now proudly say that he was, in fact, more muscle than fat. He carefully pinned his badge to his chest, checking briefly in the mirror to make sure it was straight, before hurriedly pulling on socks and shoving his feet into shoes.

He could remember his parents' faces when he'd announced his new job to them. Proudly, because he'd done it all on his own. It was his, and he wasn't going to be twenty-two years old and still living with his parents anymore, he wasn't going to be spending their money or eating their food. He was going to have his own money and his own flat, however small. His dad had been proud.

"Always knew you'd do good things," he'd boomed. "That's m'boy! Protecting and serving—putting those boxing lessons to good use!"

His mum had burst into tears. "My Diddykins is all grown up!" she'd sobbed, her arms around his neck. "He's risking his life to protect the people! So sweet, so generous!"

He hadn't had the heart to remind them that he was only becoming a security guard because he couldn't get a job as a police officer. He knew it wouldn't have mattered anyway; they only would have told him he was too good for the police, or some other such nonsense. That was just the way they were; only recently had his eyes been opened to it.

"Dudley!" Penny called. Remembering he was supposed to be hurrying, he rushed to tie his shoes.

"Dudley," he heard again, and he could hear her laughing. "Dudley, come look at this!"

"What is it?" he called as he strode into the kitchen. She laughed again, and he followed her line of sight to their fourth story window.

He froze. He could hear his heart pounding in his ears as he stared out the window. She laughed again, not having seen him come in.

"It's an owl," she said unnecessarily. "It has...it looks like it's got a letter."

A few things: first, this is much shorter than the other chapters will probably be. Second, I'm American, and I've tried to use British slang and British spellings, but if you see anything in here that is just super American, feel free to let me know and I'll make changes in future chapters. Thirdly, I know where I intend to take this story, but I couldn't say if it will be five chapters or twenty. On a similar note, I have no idea when my next update will be. I may upload three chapters in one day, and then go two weeks with nothing. But I hope you stick with it, and let me know how you liked it! Ciao :)