Written for Unicorn20089's Song Fic Boot Camp with prompt #41 "Lips of an Angel" - Hinder

A Different Kind of Magic

Dudley hated magic. The very thought of it repulsed him. As a child, he remembered wondering how Harry had done all those funny things, such as growing his hair back overnight, or managing to lock the cupboard from the inside.

It had terrified him and once he had found out that what Harry could do was magic, it didn't make him feel any better. His small, thin, underfed cousin was tougher than he was. Harry could have him flat on his back in a second if he wanted to and that thought had terrified him half to death.

He wasn't used to being beaten.

Even after Harry had saved Dudley's life that night – saved his life from creatures that apparently only Harry could see – he didn't trust him and he certainly didn't trust magic. There was so much darkness in that world – visible and invisible – and he wanted no part of it.

His parents had a right to fear it.

Part of him had been sad to leave the only home he had known that day, but another part of him had been pleased. He had experienced the magical world and he didn't like it. If where they were going would get him away from that, then he would go.

He had no idea what had compelled him to talk to Harry in that moment (they had barely spoken in their sixteen years of knowing each other) but he had to do it. The night they had been attacked had been playing on his mind ever since it happened.

He had to say something.

He wasn't sure if Harry had appreciated it and frankly, he didn't care. His conscience was clean and that was all that mattered. He could then live his new life peacefully; away from the world he had accidentally been brought into.

And he did for quite some time. He finished school, he found a job and he was relatively happy. He had no idea what had happened to Harry, nor did he really care. Harry had been embarking on a mission that would potentially leave him dead. For all Dudley knew, that had happened.

He had never bothered to find out and he probably never would.

Although towards the end of his teenage years, his opinion on magic had changed, his fear of it had never wavered. He was happy living a magic free life in a magic free job.

When he turned twenty, he met Leah. She was a girl of the same age, kind, yet unafraid to speak her mind. She changed Dudley for the better. He felt that because of Leah, he was a better person. She made him happy and two years later the two were engaged.

That was when it all seemed to fall apart for Dudley. He had been finishing off his shift in the music shop when a pretty young woman had walked in. She looked surprised to be there and slightly lost.

Dudley had felt compelled to help her.

"Are you looking for something?" he asked kindly. "Anything in particular?"

The woman seemed to notice him for the first time, jumping slightly at his voice. "Oh... oh I think I'm in the wrong place," she said quietly. Her cheeks turned slightly pink. "I was looking for a place to fix my... er... car."

How anybody could mistake a music shop for a mechanics, Dudley had no idea, but he merely smiled at the pretty woman. "It is just down the road," he told her. "Turn left and it will be right in front of you."

The woman turned a deeper shade of pink. "Thank you," she said shyly. "I don't know my way around Mug – this part of town all that well."

Mug? Dudley swallowed. The woman had stopped abruptly and he knew only one word that started with that. He had heard many times in his life. Muggle. The pretty young woman before him was a witch.

"Muggle," he whispered.

She seemed surprised. "You... you're one of us?" she whispered.

Dudley shook his head. "My cousin was, or is. I'm not sure. His name was Harry Potter. Do you know him?" He wasn't sure why he was speaking of Harry so freely, after many years of trying to forget him. Something about her made him do it.

The woman seemed shocked, her mouth moving up and down, but no words coming out.

Dudley waited, until she seemed to come to herself, nodding her head. "I know him," she said quietly, her voice barely audible. "Everyone knows him."

"Is he alive?" Dudley had asked the question before he realised.

She nodded again. "Yes. He's engaged to Ginny Weasley, who plays Quidditch for the Holyhead Harpies."

The names Ginny Weasley or Quidditch meant nothing to Dudley. He didn't care. Harry was alive and strangely, he felt relieved. He realised in that moment, he really had cared.

"I'm Cho," the woman eventually said.

"Dudley."

That night, Dudley had gone home confused. Leah greeted him with a kiss, but it didn't feel the same. And every kiss after that wasn't the same either. When she held his hand, he imagined it was Cho holding his hand. When Leah said she loved him, he wished he was hearing those words from Cho's lips.

Every day he would go back to work, hoping that he would see her again. But he never did. She had taken her car to get fixed and that had been that. She had probably never thought of him again.

And then he had gotten a phone call.

"O'Conner's Music Store," he said. "This is Dudley speaking. How can I help you?"

"Dudley?"

Dudley froze. He knew that voice; he had never forgotten it.

"Cho?" he said.

"Oh, thank goodness I got the right place. I've never used one of these telephone things before. I wasn't really sure what was going to happen."

Dudley didn't reply. He was too caught up in the sweetness of her voice and the way his heart did funny things in his chest when he heard it.

"How can I help you?" he eventually managed to say.

"Oh... I... I was just wondering if you would like to... um... meet up after you finish work?"

"M-meet up?" Dudley stuttered, his heart leaping into his mouth.

"For coffee or something."

Dudley knew he should have said no. He was with Leah and he loved her.

"I'd love to!" he said. He glanced up at the clock on the wall. "I finish at four. Meet me out the front of my shop."

"Oh...kay," came the reply, followed by the beeping noise to say Cho had hung up.

Dudley called Leah. "Hey," he said, trying to sound as normal as possible. "I'm just letting you know, I'll probably be home a little late today. Er, boss wants me to stay back."

Lying was in his past; why was he doing it?

"Okay, I'll see you tonight then," Leah replied cheerfully. "I have a surprise. Love you."

Dudley put the phone down nervously, the guilt eating away at him. He should have said no to Cho's offer. He knew he should have, yet his heart fluttered at the thought of seeing her again.

He wished that time would hurry up.

When four o'clock finally came around, Dudley had never left the shop so quickly. He found her waiting out the front, just like he had asked, dressed in I blue dress which complemented her jet, black her.

A smile graced his lips. "Hello," he said.

"Hello," she replied, just as shy as he remembered her. Her cheeks were coloured pink. "I'm sorry for calling you unexpectedly earlier," she added. "I just..." Whatever she was going to say, Dudley would never know. "Shall we go?"

He nodded. "There is a very nice cafe just around the corner. Should we go there?"

Cho nodded and they both began to walk down the empty road. Neither of them spoke. Dudley couldn't stop thinking about the consequences of this meet-up. He thought about Leah, who was probably at home, planning some surprise for him.

The guilt seeped through every part of him, yet he continued to walk with Cho. He walked all the way to the cafe and through the door. He had only ever been in there once before and that had been with Leah.

"It's very strange being here," Cho commented as they found a table at the very back of the cafe. "You know... I'm in the Muggle world and you know... and you're Harry's cousin, of all people!"

"How well did you know Harry?" Dudley asked, curious. If she had gone to the same school, surely they knew each other fairly well.

Cho blushed. "We-we were together for a while," she admitted.

"To...gether?" Dudley hadn't meant to sound so surprised, but looking at the beautiful woman sitting opposite him, he wondered how his cousin had managed to date her. He was still confused as to why she had called him.

Cho nodded. "It wasn't for very long. We went on a date once, but it kind of ended badly. He met up with this other girl and I thought he was trying to see two of us at once, but it turns out it was for a completely different reason... but we could never work it out. And he's now happily engaged to Ginny Weasley anyway."

Dudley stared blankly at her, unable to say anything. He still couldn't believe Harry had dated her.

"Sounds complicated," he said.

Cho shrugged. "We were kids then." Horror then seemed to strike her. "You're not in a relationship are you?"

"No." Dudley didn't know why he had said it; he was far from single, but she was so sweet, so kind, he didn't want to make her feel guilty.

Relief washed over her. "Thank goodness," she said. "I should have asked... I... I don't want to cause any conflict."

Dudley shook his head. "You're not, don't worry." Leah doesn't actually know.

"That's good." There was silence and it was Cho who spoke again. "So, you like music?"

Dudley shrugged. "It's a job," he said. "It pays."

"I've never quite understood Muggle music," Cho continued. "It's quite different to what I'm used to and I'm not sure I like it all that much. No offence."

"None taken," Dudley replied. "I'm not a fan of Muggle music either, to be honest." It felt odd referring to himself as a Muggle. Whenever Harry had used it, it had been an insult, but he now understood it was just a term somebody like Cho used. She meant nothing by it.

Still, he could only begin to imagine what his mother or father would say if they ever heard it.

They'd disown me if they ever found out I was talking to her, he thought.

"Well, maybe one day I can show you our kind of music." She smiled that smile that had won him over from the moment he had seen her.

"That would be great."

They ordered their coffees, which the waitress brought over to them. It was a pleasant hour, the two of them discussing all kinds of things. Cho filled him in on many details on her world and he slowly began to see a different light.

It had been burnt into him that magic was evil and that everyone who used it was evil. But how could such a person like Cho be evil? She was sweet, kind and polite – three things his parents would love in a person.

She wasn't evil; she was far from it.

He did learn a lot about his long-lost cousin, though. How Harry had saved everyone, how he had killed the evil wizard Lord Voldy-morte and how he was a hero in the wizarding world.

He was intrigued. There was so much he should have found out – bothered to understand about Harry. He regretted it now; he knew it was too late.

It was starting to get dark when they finally left. The sun was setting over the town and it was turning cold.

"Well, I should probably go," Cho said. "I live that way." She pointed in the opposite direction to where Dudley resided.

"I'll walk you home," Dudley said. "I couldn't have you walking by yourself."

She smiled up at him. "I appreciate your concern, but I won't be walking, I'll be Apparating. And even if I was walking, I have a wand."

Dudley shuddered. He remembered the wands. "Er, right. Well, I'll see you around, yeah?"

Cho nodded. "Definitely," she said. "It was lovely spending time with you." She flashed another smile, and then stood on her tip-toes (because Dudley was a good head taller than her) to kiss him.

Just like he should have said no to her coffee offer, he should have pushed her away, but of course, he didn't. He kissed her back and he felt something he had never felt with Leah. It was like a different kind of magic; they were creating it themselves. He didn't want to break away. He didn't even care about breathing. He just wanted to kiss her.

She was the one to break away. "I'll see you another time." And she vanished into the rapidly growing darkness, leaving Dudley standing alone in the middle of the street.

What had just happened? A few weeks ago, he had been blissfully happy with Leah and now... now he was in a situation that he had never wanted to be in.

He had been brought back into the world of magic.

Over all progress of Boot Camps: 2/700. Yay! Due to rules, I didn't write an actual songfic. I used the theme of the song to inspire my story. I hope you liked it. Please leave a review, I appreciate it :D