A/N: Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry February Event The New Year Zodiac Writing Challenge (Pig, prompt #2: Write about Vernon, Dudley, or Majorie Dursley. Include 'water' in your story.)
WC: 515
Dudley was in his hotel bed when the sound of two small, familiar voices roused him from sleep. Popping open his eye, he said to his wife "I thought you told the children they weren't to wake us up while we were on holiday."
"I did dear" said Mrs. Dursley from where she lay beside him. Her face was covered in a green mask and her hair was up in curlers. Dudley's mother had often slept the same way as a child, and he'd never understood how women were able to sleep like that. Now that he was grown and married, he still didn't.
"Daddy" said Dudley's daughter, tugging on her father's arm "Wake up."
Dudley groaned and tried to ignore his daughter.
"We want to go to the beach" whined Dudley's son. "We want to go in the water."
"Come on" said Dudley's wife to the children. "Leave Daddy to sleep." She got out of bed and unhooked her daughter from her husband's arm.
"But it's so late" moaned Dudley's daughter, who had just learned to tell time. "It's after 9. That means the lifeguards are on duty."
"How is anybody supposed to sleep with all this talking?" mumbled Dudley, resigning himself to the fact that he wasn't going to get to sleep in today. He climbed out of bed and scooped his son up into his arms. "So you guys want to go to the beach?" he said. "Well, first you have to have breakfast."
"But we aren't hungry" said Dudley's son, making a face.
"You'll eat or there won't be any beach" said Dudley's wife, wiping the green mask off of her face. "Now go put your swimsuits on under your clothes."
Half an hour later, after everyone had dressed and Mrs. Dursley had pack a bag full of sunscreen and beach towels, the foursome made their way down to the hotel restaurant. There, Dudley and his wife insisted everyone have breakfast as if it were a perfectly normal morning.
After the children finally ate – Dudley bribed each of them with the promise of ice cream later that evening – the family walked to the beach, which was only a few short blocks away. Mrs. Dursley insisted on smearing both children from head to toe in sunblock before allowing them to go in the water.
"Do go past your knees" called out Dudley from where he sat on his towel. "Otherwise something might eat you."
"Oh, don't go scaring them" said Dudley's wife. Dudley had managed to keep her in the dark about the wizarding world so far, and she didn't have the same fears about fantastical creatures living in the ocean that he did.
"A little fear is a healthy thing" said Dudley. He was thinking about how his experience with the Dementors years before had made him a better cousin to Harry.
"Whatever you say dear" said Mrs. Dursley. She'd began to read a magazine.
Dudley sighed. "I'm going in the water with the children" he said. His wife would never forgive him if something ate their kids while on holiday.