"What are you on about?" the typical snore of Vernon Dursley caught Harry by surprise. He really didn't expect to hear it again – let alone so soon. Though it has been almost an entire year since their last encounter, that moustached man showed no sign of change in appearance.
"Nothing", Harry responded kindly. Undoubtfully Uncle Vernon referred to the fact that Harry was staring at his cousin Dudley for the last fifteen minutes.
The battle of Hogwarts was nearly a week ago and Harry had found it hard to speak to any of the Weasleys ever since. He needed some time for his own. Time to figure out what to do next. Maybe this was something that stuck with him from his last year: What to do next? Ultimately his very last goal was to defeat Voldemort. And now that he was dead – truely dead - what was to come next?
What was next, was that he had to tell the Dursleys that they could return home. Home. Whatever that meant. His one and only home had been marked as a place of death. "Yes, Harry! But Hogwarts also is the place that Voldemort found his end!" Hermione kept reminding him.
"What do you mean, Nothing?!" Uncle Vernon asked loudly "We had to hide away because of your lot! You come here into our place – again unasked! – and won't even bother telling us why?!"
"Yepp. Not you anyway. I want to talk to Dudley" Harry demanded. A tone of ignorance towards his Uncle's anger was in his voice. However, this did not go unnoticed.
"Don't you ignore me, Harry Potter!" even more anger in his voice this time. "I won't let you anywhere near my son! You've done enough as it is! I never thought he'd let you influence him that much!"
"Yeah, right. Dudley, I'll go out front. If you want to talk to me, you're free to follow" Harry took a glance at his Uncle. "What happened to your eye anyway, Uncle Vernon?" He seemed to have a massive black-eye around his right eye. Harry wondered whether some of his former wizarding protectors couldn't take it anymore and hit him.
"Don't you Uncle Vernon me, Mr. Potter! I am no relative of yours! From this day forth I am Mr. Dursley to you!"
"Oh… I hoped I was mistaken" Aunt Petunia said as she entered the small living room. She had a shape of disgust in her face. But Harry couldn't care less. He had just beaten the worst Dark wizard in the world. How much worse could it possibly be to endure their presence a couple of more seconds.
Dudley – just now realizing that Harry had adressed him earlier – blinked confused. He got up to his feet und rushed by Harry out of the front door. That was odd, Harry thought.
"Erm. Right. See you, Mr. And Mrs. Dursley" Harry said as he turned his back on them and followed Dudley. On his way out he could swear he could hear his Aunt mutter something like "He must have bewitched him or something!"
Dudley stood there still blinking slightly confused at Harry. "So" he said looking at the ground "I take it you heard"
"Heard? Heard what?" Harry stopped in his move. Was Dudley about to tell him what Uncle Vernon had said to get a black eye from a wizard? He must have really pissed him off, because Muggle violence is normally not the way a wizard would let off his steam unless he totally lost control.
"You didn't? Oh… well… I sort of overheard Dad talking to Mum. He was going on and on about how bad your kind treats us. He kind of expected a five-star hotel, you know? And this is more like living as cave-men to him"
Harry looked at the wooden house. He could see why his Uncle would not really see this as a five-star hotel. It had been abandoned for nearly thirty-five years and had only four rooms. Kitchen already included. Still, Harry thought, it could've been worse for them. Like living in a tent in constant fear of being killed.
"My Mum was on his side and honestly, so was I. We didn't really sign up for this" Dudley continued.
"Neither did I, actually. You could've had it much worse!" Harry felt he overestimated Dudley the summer before. That boy in front of him couldn't understand why they simply had to live like this. No one would think that the Dursleys would even come near this building.
"I know"
He knew?
"Anyway… That guy from your Phoenician Order…"
"Order of the Phoenix" Harry corrected him blankly.
"Exactly. A week ago he was shocked that apparently you broke into a bank or something…"
"I did"
"You…" Dudley's eyes grew wide in shock. "I… You… Dad was right then…" his face instantly turned into remorse.
"I broke in to get a cup. We needed it to defeat Voldemort for good"
"Oh, alright then" The remorse was replaced by a slight smile. Harry didn't know what Dudley was all about right now. "Dad stormed through the house as he heard it. He totally lost it, Harry. He was shouting at that Order guy that he – Dad – was right about you all along. That you are a criminal robbing a bank to berich yourself. Your guy tried to calm him down, even said something like ‚silensko' to make Dad shut up"
"So that's how he got that black eye, right?" That explained it. No one in the order would have tolerated a shouting Dursley. Especially insulting Harry.
"Well, yeah. Not exactly. That was me" Dudley muttered.
Harry could not believe what he had just heard. Dudley? Giving his father a black eye? Harry looked around half expecting someone to jump out of this bushes yelling "got ya!" It didn't happen. As he also realized he was awake he took a good look at Dudley. He was still looking like his old self. No snake trying to kill Harry. But something looked different now that Harry came to think of it. "That was you?"
"Must've been. Last thing I remember was my fist in his face after he thought of this whole plan of yours"
"Plan? What plan?"
"You remember how he thought you wanted to take over our house?"
"Yeah, that was a good one, though. Even for him." Harry remembered all the complex schemes Uncle Vernon put around Harry. How he, the eight year old Harry, tried to put a stop to all the good grades Dudley never really had. Or how he, the ten year old Harry, freed a snake to attack Dudley. Okay, the first part about freeing it was real though. But he found Uncle Vernon's idea of Harry trying to take over Number Four Privet Drive while Voldemort tried to kill him very hilarious.
"Erm… Yeah. This time he thought you broke into that bank to steal money to buy our house, you know. He figured the good old britain bureaucracy was too good for someone like you to overcome so easily so you tried to get by buying it."
"Hey, why didn't I think of that?" Harry laughed.
"I knew it!" bellowed Uncle Vernon from the inside. He must've listened to them the whole time. "I knew it all along! See Dudley! Your dear father was righ…" Suddenly Uncle Vernon fell silent. Harry had taken out his wand and put a silence charm upon 'Mr. Dursley' who now had anger written all over him.
"Don't worry, Mr. Dursley. You can go back to your good old house. Turns out I still don't need it."
"He wished the Dementors would get you, Harry. That's when I hit him." Dudley said with a slight smile towards Harry. "But.. erm… We can go home? So… you've won then, haven't you?"
"Yeah, we have" Harry said with a sad voice. Suddenly all the dead faces shot through his mind.
"Why then didn't that Remus character return to get us?!", demanded Aunt Petunia in a shrieking voice. She, too, must have stood behind the door listening to all of them. "Didn't think it important enough to get us, eh? Didn't think…" Aunt Petunia fell silent, too. Instead of her skinny appearance there was a toad now.
"Hey! What'd you do that for?!" demanded Dudley.
Harry really lost the mood for talking to Dudley any longer. Remus was dead. Tonks was dead and their son, Teddy, lost his parents… just like he had. Fred. Hedwig. Mad-Eye. Collin. And god knows how many others. Only god knows how many good people died because of Voldemort.
"Remus is dead. So is his wife and their son has no parents. But you wouldn't understand" Harry said coldly and slightly filled with anger. He disapparated and left behind a gasping Dudley, a silent yet angry Uncle Vernon who held in his hands a small toad.
