"Hi! You must be Dudley!" A smiling face lowered to the level of the small skinny boy.

"Yes, madam." The boy replied and didn't lift his eyes, hidden behind glasses, from the floor.

"Oh, don't madam me! I'm Lucy, but I hate that and Luce is slightly better haha! So call me Luce." The girl lifted her eyes. "And you must be Mrs Dursley. Welcome. Would you like to look around and see where your boy will be helping us?"

Petunia Dursley tried to not breathe in the smell of dogs, cats and other vermin present in the room and stiffly replied that she really must be going and that the boy will surely tell her all about it when he gets home. Without a goodbye she disappeared leaving the small boy standing in the rescue centre reception area.

…

"Hey Luce!" The boy hollered as he bounded through the front door. "Any new comers?"

Lucy aka Luce smiled at the boy warmly as she did every day as he bounded through the doors after he finished school. He grew taller in the past few months, probably from all the extra food her mother packed for her, when she heard they had a young volunteer. Taller and louder.

"Only a pigeon today. But I've not taken Rupert and Tom out yet so wanna start with that?" The boy whooped (as Luce knew he would and did every day when she told him the exact same thing) and bounded to fetch the two big dogs who were currently the biggest source of income for the rescue centre. Luce plunged back into the stacks of papers on her desk. The rescue centre was near bankruptcy last year, with no solid income other than the few coins the town council spared to get rid of all the strays and hurt animals in the area. Charles, the vet coming in three days a week used his own money to pay for the extra medication he took out of his vet practice and she was just a poor student. But with Dudley things changed. He had a way with animals and their owners and he managed to talk an elderly couple with two German shepherds to leave the dogs at the rescue shelter instead of a dog hotel. They paid 60% of what they would pay at the hotel and the dogs got extra attention as they were the only animal residents that needed walking and which Dudley was eager to do every day as it meant a run around the park for him as well.

…

"Hey Luce!" The boy barged in the doors. "Guess what, guess…" He stopped as he saw the two men talking with Lucy. "Erm, excuse me. I apologise for barging in like this.." He trailed off as he saw Luce smiling at him from behind her desk.

"Dudley! Come join us. You know Charles of course and this is Mr McConnor", she gestured to the well dressed man in a suit. The boy shook the man's hand and looked up into a bearded smiling face and immediately smiled as was a good person.

"Mr McConnor has agreed to fund the transfer so we can become an official part of Charles's vet practice! You probably don't remember him, but shortly after you came here, we managed to save his snake, Kassandra after she escaped and you found her."

"Oh I rememebr Kassandra. She was really kind and.." The boy trailed of as he sometimes did. "Uhm, that's very nice of you Mr McConnor." He smiled. A real opportunity to see a vet work, maybe even help! Oh, what an opportunity! He started smiling more and more. "This is seriously great." He just stated and sat down in the free chair that Mr McConnor's hand outstretched to.

"Yes it is!" Luce beamed at him. "And what were your news you wanted to share with me?" She looked at the boy, taller and healthier looking than those two long years back.

"Oh. Ehm, It's actually nothing compared to this." The boy trailed off, but Lucy knew him better and nodded at him. "Well, I met Mrs Rodergast earlier and she said Rhodes was doing much better and she wanted me to walk him regularly and so I can finally start saving up the money to go to vet school." The boy flushed red under the smiling faces of the adults.

"But surely your parents will help you with that Dudley?" Chalres asked even though Luce was shaking her head in the background.

"Err, sure. But I don't want to be aburden to them." The boy replied and darted into the back.

"I don't know much about his home situation, but.. His mother, Petunia Dursley, didn't show up once to pick him up, and the boy never speaks about them. He cam here underfed, malnourished, but me and my mother managed to fatten him up a bit. You've seen his clothes.."

"Maybe child services..?"

"No! No." Luce stopped Mr McConnor. "I asked Dudley whether everything was alright at home once I gained a suspicion but he vehemently refused it and told me not to do anything, otherwise he might have to stop coming here and he begged me not to take this away from him. He doesn't come beaten up, he seems to have opened up, at least to me, emotionally over the past two years and he's fed here. He's a healthy nice clever boy and you will not do anything against him. Ok gentlemen?"

…

Another year passed and then one day just after the July 24th 1991 Petunia Dursley arrived instead of Dudley. It was the summer holidays and Dudley spent most of the afternoons with Luce studying for her already-once-failed university exam for her last year of vet uni at the front reception of Charles's vet practice.

"Dudley will no longer be coming here." Petunia sniffed at the chaos on the table and the odor of animals from the other room.

"Oh!" Luce was taken aback. "Ehm, why ever not? He loves being here." She stood behind the little table and narrowed her eyes at hearing the quiet "precisely".

"He got accepted into Smeltings, a prestigious high school and he will no longer have time to .. Visit here."

"Uhm, ok. But why will Dudley not come and tell me himself?"

"Busy with preparations. I also need an official document stating how long he volunteered here and a recommendation letter."

Luce blinked at the audacity of this woman. Fuming inside at this approach, but not wanting to make things harder at home for Dudley, she reached into the lowest drawer in her desk and took out an envelope. Her and Charles had expected Dudley to ask for these, but this was very strange.

Petunia snatched the envelope, said thank you and nearly run from the foul unclean animal smell. She made sure Harry showered every day for the past three years after returning from this place. But as long as it got Dudley extra credit (and a lowered attendance fee for Smeltings for Vernon to pay) for being such a nice boy and volunteering, she could stand it.

…

On August 1st, Luce dropped her coffee when a white owl swooped into her mother's kitchen while she was having breakfast. The owl screeched and screeched and held out it's foot with a bit of paper attached to it. Luce blinked and then carefully approached the snowy owl and took the folded paper away from the bird.

After retreating, she opened the folded paper and saw Dudley's spiky handwriting.

Dear Luce,

I am sorry for not coming to say goodbye, but I got accepted into a private boarding school far from here and maybe it's best for me to leave my family far behind. You are family I don't want to leave behind though. I will not be reachable by mail but I will send Hedwig occasionally (Hedwig is the owl)

"Hedwig?" The owl hooted at her which made Luce jump.

(Hedwig is the owl) and you can always reply by her. It is strange and my world is turned upside down but believe I am happy. Also this may come as a shock to you, and I beg please please please don't share this with anyone, I trust you. I am not Dudley Dursley. That's my cousin and I volunteered so he would have higher hopes of getting accepted into high school and that my uncle will pay less for his fees. My name is Harry. Again please don't tell anyone, I got into a far better school than he did, and I can go on and study and help animals in a similar if not much better way than what we talked about. I will owl you soon with more news.

Love

Harry.

PS Reply on the other side of this paper and Hedwig will take it back to me.