"Do you mind if I use the machines?"
The speaker was a rather tall girl, solidly built. Dudley took a break from the punching bag and welcomed her in, as graciously as he could with his gloved hands.
"Not at all", he said. "there's room enough for two. I'm Dudley Dursley, by the way."
"I know", she said. "Potter's cousin."
Dudley nodded and went back to his combinations. He snuck a look while she expertly set up the leg machine and got in. She set the weights to a decent amount, a little less than he would, but not by much.
"So what did you do, to get exiled here?"
She looked at him blankly.
"Me, I'm my cousin's cousin. Jane and Robbie have the wrong type of parents. Dedalus and Hestia have been sentenced to babysitting and Rolf is here until he recovers from whatever they did to him. So: You?"
He waited while she was silent for a while. Just before he started to say something she spoke.
"I threw a classmate from the astronomy tower."
Dudley stared.
"He was having entirely too much fun practicing the torture and mind control curses on a second year girl. So I paralyzed him, carried him up to the tower and threw him over the railing. I did end the petrificus on the way down."
The girl continued her exercise. "Unfortunately someone saw me, so the Headmaster got me a few supplies, apparition coordinates and a head start. And here I am."
"Wait," said Dudley, "the Headmaster? I thought he was on the other side?"
"Well, he's not", said the girl. She grimaced. "I didn't know that either, before."
"Ah." said Dudley, not knowing anything else to say.
They fell silent again and continued their work-out.
Dudley finished first and as he left for the shower, the girl said: "I'm Millicent Bulstrode. Just so you know."
Dudley smiled. "Nice to meet you. See you again tomorrow, same time?"
"Sure," she said, "Why not. Don't have that much else to do."
The third time they met in the exercise room, they got to talk. Millie – she reserved Millicent for people she didn't know or like – told him bits of her past, of growing up on a farm, being pureblood and being too big and not rich enough to be one of the princesses.
Dudley – just Dudley, he had cast off his old nicknames as he didn't like the guy he was then and the less said about the names his mum bestowed on him the better – told her about Smeltings and boxing. He never mentioned his cousin or the current war and neither did she.
Over the next two weeks they got closer. Neither felt much kinship with the other exiles. Dudley still felt out of place as a "muggle" and Millicent was wary of resentment as a pureblood.
They did talk about school in general. About his unexpected aptitude in maths and his sudden enjoyment of learning things. She told him about the wonderful library at Hogwarts and the treasures to be found there. He told stories of his math professor and how he seduced him into the beauty of algebra and calculus. They skirted around the things they had agreed without words to not talk about. He told her of his nightmares after the dementor attack. She mentioned the tentative friendship with Hermione Granger over old books.
Dudley started to teach her how to work the punching bag, how to hit right and protect her fists. They shared a laugh about Millie's "duel" with Hermione in second year.
Millie showed him the basic dance gymnastics she had learned when her body had started to grow faster than her ability to move it gracefully.
And if there were accidental touches while they were assisting each other, neither made a mention of it.
They graduated to inexpert kisses and groping quite easily and almost accidentally. Neither talked about it, it just seemed the natural thing to do.
Their first time was sweaty, fumbling and rather short. But as they lay side by side they both agreed that it had been a) literally fucking brilliant, b) they had much to learn about this, c) more practice would help immensely and finally d) that they didn't have any pressing matters right now, so the additional practice should start right now.