There was no such thing as normal on Godric's Hollow. Sure, the village looked it. The boy knew that from picture books and newspapers. There was the lit square and pub, which he was far too young to get anything good from. Though, he did enjoy asking every time. The spry young man who'd taken over the family pub last year thought it funny. Quaint cottages lined the narrow path the blond boy made his way quickly down.
He was huffing by the time he reached St. Jerome's Church, blue eyes lighting up at the sight of the stain glass windows. Possibly his favorite place in the village. No one really came here his age, so it was a good spot.
The blond dug out the box he'd hidden the second pew from the back, dragging it out and dumping all the broken pieces of his aunt's thrown out vase. A friend of his uncle had done so by accident, but she hadn't complained. It'd been a showy gift from a hated family. The boy didn't reveal to his aunt it wasn't truly an accident. She believed everyone deserved a certain amount of kindness.
"But you like it, don't you Aunt Lily," he asked after his uncle's jokes died down about the hated family.
Both him and his cousin blinked. "You do?"
Dudley eyed the five sparkling pieces in front of him. The light shining from the church's windows made for interesting colors. He held up a mostly yellow piece of vase up into red tinged light, grinning at the new color change on the floor. Then he drooped. Probably the closest he could ever get to doing something.
While there was no such thing as normal on Godric's Hollow, some residents believed it was due to the very thing that made it decidedly not. Magic.
Dudley had seen it in action. More than he could count or had the attention span to keep track of. There was even a spell for short term memory loss used if any of the normal people, like him, noticed it. Except, Dudley was a special case.
His mum's sister happened to be born with magic. And her husband, his uncle James, was born to a family full of magic and thus born with it as well. With both parents being magic, his cousin was born with magic too.
And Dudley lived with them.
It made the spell for short term memory loss seem silly when he lived with a couple wizards and a witch. But he half wished it didn't. Because although his Aunt Lily somehow had magic with her parents being normal, Dudley's mum did not. Neither did Dudley's dad. And it didn't seem Dudley was going to be like Aunt Lily before his eleventh birthday. And the 23rd of this month was fast approaching.
Being the only normal resident on Godric's Hollow that knew the truth meant Dudley felt weird around anyone. He knew, but couldn't do. Those that could do, made sure no one else knew.
He'd heard his Aunt Lily sympathizing late this morning to James. They'd thought he'd left the cottage after breakfast like his cousin had done. Dudley lingered at the corner, wanting to burst out and tell his aunt her feelings didn't change anything. Then he heard her smack her husband. Apparently there were a few people out there born to those with magic, but didn't have it. The opposite of Aunt Lily. People who knew and couldn't do like Dudley, awesome.
So if the half of Dudley that wished to discover magic in himself didn't fall through by his eleventh birthday, he knew exactly what kind of birthday gift he wanted. Or whom really. Someone like Ted Tonks was great, but not really close to Dudley's age. Granted, the older man was in the same boat with being normal and knowing, but he knew what he was getting himself into when he married a witch.
But someone born to magic and couldn't do it idea sounded much more appealing to Dudley. They could be his age. Every other kid around Godric's Hollow were all no-special-case-muggle, except for his cousin.
The blond quickly glanced around St. Jerome's, then focused intently on the broken vase. He snapped his wrist out. "Repario!"
Nothing. He pursed his lips and glared. "Repario!"
Still nothing. "Repario!"
Dudley puffed his cheeks and tried to keep the image of the unbroken vase in his mind. "Repario! Repario! Come on, repario go!"
Upset already, he bellowed at it. "I'll smash you more if you don't! I've only got a week left!"
"Um, Dudley?"
Dudley squeaked, spinning around to see his cousin had caught him trying to magic the vase back together.
"I don't think it works that way. Being threatened."
"No one asked you Harry," Dudley spat out and hurriedly put the pieces back into his box. "What are you doing? Stalking me like the bat?"
His cousin scowled. "I was not! And Mum hates that."
"Everyone hates that," Dudley was quick to correct.
Which was true. Uncle James was the only one who thought it was funny to transfigure something into a bat to follow Aunt Lily around at various times. The transfigured bat always got in the way of Dudley and Harry since it stayed out of Aunt Lily's physical striking distance. As did Uncle James, dancing around tables and couches and beds to avoid his wife getting a hold of him. It became even worse if any of Uncle James's friends were there.
Speaking of those friends, his cousin piped back, "What about Sirius?"
Dudley stared deadpan. "He's far more excited when the bat finally gets blown up."
"Yeah," Harry gave him. Then leaned to look into the box Dudley was slowly pushing back under the pew as they spoke. "Isn't that the colored vase the Malfoys gave out at the Ministry last Halloween? Peter will just bust it again."
"Probably." Peter was the clumsiest of Uncle James's mates. Kind of twitchy really. Dudley, Harry, and Aunt Lily all knew he got more nervous after asked to accidently break something for them. It was easier to not blame Peter, but the ones who pushed him about it. Uncle James and Sirius were particularly awful when being mischievous. But since the vase lasted from October to May, seven months, Aunt Lily was giving Peter the benefit of the doubt.
"You could…" Harry trailed off. Dudley looked back up from putting his box back to see the top of his cousin's messy black hair. Green eyes peered back up through round glasses and the hair as he bit at his lip. "I know mum liked the thing, but you could always fix it with a bit of glue. Mum'd still love seeing someone going to the trouble of fixing it."
Dudley scowled and his cousin ducked his head back down. It never took Harry long to bounce back though.
"Hey! I've got an idea. Sirius says magic is in the blood, or at least his family thought so. Which means you've got to have it in your blood too Dudley. An aunt and cousin isn't too far off for being related by blood, maybe…maybe we can help it along. Like when you were little and had that blood infusion thing. The muggle doctors made sure the blood they pulled out of the bank were matching your O blood stuff—oye! I'm sorry!"
Harry was much more nimble than Dudley, even if Dudley was more familiar with the church area than his smaller cousin. Dudley only made it a few rows through the cemetery before Harry dashed in front of his path. The long light of sunset hit his cousin fully, shadows growing all around in an ominous way, causing Dudley to shudder and inch away from the darkness. And then winced painfully. It was as if he and Harry stood in a pair of car headlights. His fists clenched, upset, feeling the ghostly pain of his left leg and the very real one in his chest. Dudley hated it.
"I'm sorry Dud! I didn't bring the car accident up to make you mad."
"What did you think Harry," Dudley snapped and shoved his cousin. Harry stumbled back into a Bagshot gravestone. "I'd be happy to remember the accident that killed my parents when I was five?"
Black hair stuck farther upwards with how fast Harry shook his head. His cousin was on an excited roll, pressing closer as he spoke.
"No, no! It's just, I was going through it the other day thinking about what Sirius said. And I remembered that info and scrapbook Mum put together for you about Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon and the accident, it had that stuff about them giving a stranger's blood to you. Well, matching O blood I guess. But, I mean, come on, we don't need any muggle doctor to tell us our blood ought to match or be close, so we can just do it ourselves! Mum's high shelf books even reference blood is powerful in a bit of magic."
Suspicious and not altogether sure of where his cousin was going, Dudley poked roughly at Harry's shoulder.
"Ow. Oh come on, I meant it about it not being about the accident. Don't you see? If magic is in the blood and yours is close to it, but not letting you do anything, maybe we can help it get close enough to make the magic leap. I'm okay giving you some of mine." Harry grinned under his extremely messy hair. "We're cousins after all."
Blue eyes blinked, confused. Then it clicked and Dudley went wide eyed at his cousin. Harry grinned even wider and nodded his head in confirmation.
By the time they got home, the streetlamps were on and the sun was fully down. Which meant it was far past late on the summer curfew and Aunt Lily was impossible to sneak around with all her years of practice dealing with Uncle James and his friends. Dudley and Harry were swooped upon before they even came up with a plan to get inside without notice. They took her upset and worry and anger at them being out later than she liked easily enough. She wasn't really mad. And what they had been late for was worth whatever punishment she wanted to give them.
But it came real close when Uncle James remarked over Harry's wrapped hand. Then James and Lily noticed Dudley's own wrapped arm kept behind his back. When the story came out, Harry's parents yelled in volumes that far outclassed any your-in-trouble voices that'd come before.
Dudley and Harry shared nervous looks.
"I think it's still worth it," Harry whispered later. He'd snuck over to Dudley's room while Aunt Lily and Uncle James argued loudly downstairs. Neither Dudley or his cousin knew what though, so there must have been a spell up to keep it from them. "Don't you think? I hope my blood works out in helping yours get your magic out."
Dudley nibbled on his lip, but nodded. "Yeah." It'd be nice to not be so alone in the middle of things anymore. It wasn't as if he could ignore magic and his knowledge of it, being completely normal and like other unenlightened muggles was a goal of belonging that appeared truly impossible. But he had magical relatives, it ought to be possible his blood had it too.
The blond no longer half wished one way or the other anymore. Tonight Dudley fully wished with every fiber he had that this nudge along would work. That his blood would not just be closely related, but fully preforming magic.
There was no much thing as normal on Godric's Hollow.
Author's Note: Posting just to see where this goes. I enjoy thinking 'What if' and various scenarios. This one should be obvious. I switched Harry and Dudley's living situations from the beginning. In a note of irony, I placed the Dursleys end in a car crash. Let me know what you think of the idea.
