1. Ever since he was little Dudley had hated Harry; for being different, for diverting his parents attention away from him and for being there. He had liked being an only child and resented Harry for every scrap of time he took up.

2. Dudley had never been more jealous of anyone than he was of Harry when Harry got his Hogwart's letter.

Later he covered it up; Harry was a freak and going to a special school for freaks -

His mother's words sounded hollow when he saw the flying car. Or the owl Harry got to keep. Or even the letters from his friends - proper friends, who weren't just there because he was tough.

3. When the dementors tried to kiss him he saw himself in Harry's shoes; saw himself trying to fight an unspeakable foe and failing. He saw his parents, dead, because of him. He saw Harry, dead and a faceless shadow laughing in the dark. He saw magic ruling the world and himself, powerless to defend the ones he loved.

Later he told his father that he had seen a mad axeman. It satisfied him and for the first time Dudley realized what a fool Vernon Dursley was.

4. When he saw Harry about to leave, when his mother rushed to embrace him, when his father's face contorted in worry for the pair of them -

He could have punched them both.

(You have two children)

5. He missed Harry when he moved out. He had never been fond of him but he had always been there.

6. He was never very bright at school and saw nothing wrong with working for his father; after all no one else would take him.

He never did understand why the other employees hated him, or why he was always promoted first, why he got the most pay rises…

(he did, of course he did but there was nowhere else for him)

7. He met Laura through friends; she was a nice woman, pretty in a slightly chubby way with lovely blue eyes. He proposed within a year of meeting her and they married on a sunny June day.

He didn't invite Harry; he thought that he wouldn't want to come.

8. Harry wrote to him when his first child was born, asking how he was and that he forgave him for the past. He wanted to get back into contact. Dudley wept when he read that letter; cried properly for the first time in ten years.

He still tore the letter up and burnt it.

It was the right thing to do of course; he had a pregnant wife and didn't want his family messing with that lot.

9. His daughter was born at one o'clock in the morning, on a cold winter's day. He sent Harry a letter, invited him to the christening. He came, though Dudley didn't expect him to. It was an awkward moment, with Harry's red-headed wife glaring at him and his father refusing to acknowledge Harry's presence.

But then the priest announced the child's name; Susan Lily Dursley.

Harry looked shell-shocked and Vernon started going on in a loud voice about how the child was supposed to have been named after Marge -

Dudley told his father to shut up; it was his child and he was honouring a hero. Or heroine as the case may have been.

Harry shook Dudley's hand and for the first time Dudley realized that Harry was the closest thing he had to a brother.

10. When Suzie was six years old she turned a horrible brown cardigan of her mother's into a rather fetching blue hat.

Dudley didn't know whether to laugh, cry or be sick.

In the end he settled for almost fainting, drinking too much whisky and then phoning Harry at two in the morning to tell him the good news.