Dudley could hear the wizards saying goodbye to his cousin as his mum sobbed into his shoulder. He patted her gently before disentangling himself from her arms. He saw the wariness in Harry's eyes as he moved towards him with his hand out. Sixteen years of animosity stood like a wall between them.

'Blimey, Dudley,' said Harry, over his mum's renewed sobs. 'Did the Dementors blow a different personality into you?'

'Dunno,' muttered Dudley. 'See you, Harry.'

'Yeah, maybe' said Harry, taking Dudley's hand and shaking it. 'Take care, Big D.'

Dudley nearly smiled. He let go of Harry's hand and turned away, walking out of the house they'd shared for almost their whole lives. Throughout the weeks of plans and arguments it had never occurred to him that Harry wouldn't be coming with them and now they were leaving him alone in their empty house wearing Dudley's old jeans and a torn jumper of his father's.

He pulled the car door open and sat down next to the one in the top hat.

'Where's your mother?' his father asked, twisting round to stare at him, his eyes flicking suspiciously to the wizard who was examining the seatbelt with apparent delight.

'She's coming now,' said Dudley and he turned back round. Dudley could see the well worn vein in his forehead.

'You do it like this,' he said to the wizard and clicked his own seatbelt into place. The wizard laughed and repeated Dudley's actions.

'Marvellous. Simply marvellous. The things you Muggles come up with.'

His mum slid into the backseat and pulled the door closed behind her. She was very pale and only nodded when his dad looked back at her.

'Let's go then,' his father said and slid the car into gear. The wizard beside him gave an excited little squeak as the car slid down the driveway. Dudley could see his father grinding his teeth but he remained quiet. Dudley didn't look back at the house but watched the other houses of Privet Drive slip past. Mrs Figg was standing on the corner watching them drive away. The wizard in the back touched his fingers to his hat and she nodded back.

'Where am I driving to?' his father asked, as he turned into Wisteria Walk.

'We need somewhere quiet to disapparate from,' the witch in the front said. 'Somewhere we won't be over seen.'

'I'll need to leave the car somewhere safe,' his father said. 'I'm not having this car wrecked. It's new.'

'We can hide the car when you and your family are safe,' she said. 'We need to time your apparition with the exact moment of your nephew's departure from your house.'

His father muttered something that sounded like 'Rubbish' but he drove on. The sun was dipping down beyond the horizon and the sky around them was a wash of orange. Dudley rested his head against the cool window and closed his eyes.

The wizards in the car scared him. Their power and their strangeness was so unlike the ordered world he knew. He wanted to go back to school, get back into his boxing training. He wanted to spend hours hitting punching bags and sparing with other normal people. He wanted to eat lunch in the dining hall and laugh with his friends and forget to do his homework and walk down to the nearby town through tree lined paths with his mates, laughing and pushing each other as they went. He didn't want to be in a car with his parents and two strange wizards.

But the memory of the Dementors was always with him. And Harry had said there were more of them.

He put his hand to his chest as he remembered the heavy cold, the feeling of despair that had washed over him that night two summers before. The fear and the realisation that he was going to die, that he deserved to die. He was a bad person, a bully. There was something rotten inside him. He knew that as he felt the cold, clamminess on his face. He deserved what was happening.

Then Harry's voice had forced its way through the blackness.

'Dudley, keep your mouth closed!'

A flash of bright white light and he'd been on the floor, Harry standing over him holding his wand.

'Is anyone going to explain what this bloody apparition thing is?' his father snapped from the front.

'It's a method of travel wizards use,' the woman said. 'It allows us to disappear in one location and appear in another.'

Dudley heard his mother stifle a gasp.

'And how the ruddy hell are we supposed to do that?' The vein was really pulsing now. 'I'm not having my family disappear into thin air.'

'You will travel with us. It's perfectly safe. It really is the fastest way to move you. And the safest.'

'Stops that Lord Voldy-whatsit following us.'

She had flinched as he'd started to say the name.

'Yes, it will keep your family safe.'

'It ruddy well better do,' his father growled as he pulled the car down a rutted track between two high hedges. The car slipped on the loose gravel under a bank of heavy handing trees. 'This do?'

'This is ideal,' the wizard next to Dudley said. 'How do I get out of this thing?'

He looked expectantly at Dudley, holding out the strap of his seatbelt. Dudley popped his own and let it slide through his hand, back into place. His mother and father were standing together at the front of the car, her thin frame overshadowed by his bulk. He could hear the sound of the road behind the hedgerows.

'It's nearly time.'

Dudley turned round. He had that watch out again.

'With whom should we start, Dedalus?' the woman asked.

Dedalus, Dudley thought. He didn't want to learn their names. Didn't want to think that he was going to have to get to know them.

'Mrs Dursley?' Dedalus said. 'Shall we begin with you?'

'We can't go together?' his father asked.

'I'm afraid not. One at a time,' Dedalus said. 'Hestia will stay here and guard you before seeing to the luggage and car.'

She had her wand out. Dudley backed away from her, towards the mass that was his parents. His father had his hand on his mother's shoulder. She took Dudley's hand. She was trembling. How had it come to this, Dudley thought. How had it come to them standing under trees in the dark with two wizards, their wands out, and the promise that they were going to disappear form here and appear somewhere else? This isn't my life, he thought.

'If anyone's going first, it'll be me' his father said, stepping forward.

'Vernon..'

'No, Petunia. If we're doing this I'm not having them start with you and Dudders.'

He walked towards Dedalus.

'Let's get this over with.'

Dedalus took firm hold of his arm and twisted. There was a loud crack and suddenly they weren't there anymore. His mother screamed.

'It's quite alright,' Hestia said. 'Always a shock the first time.'

There was another pop and Dedalus was back. His hat was slightly askew as if his father had taken a swing at him.

'Goodness, your father's a fiery man,' he said to Dudley with a slight laugh as he straightened his hat. 'Mrs Dursley, if you would -'

He held his hand out to her but she cowered closer to Dudley.

'Please, Mrs Durlsey, your husband is...anxious for me to bring you.'

Dudley could imagine his father, swinging his arms and demanding his wife.

'It's okay, mum. It'll be fine.' He pushed her gently towards Dedalus' proffered arm.

She touched it lightly but Dedalus gripped her forearm hard before twisting them both. Her scream was swallowed by darkness.

Hestia was scanning the trees around them, her wand still out. He glanced round into the darkness but the woods seemed empty.

Another pop and Dedalus was back.

'Young master Dursley,' he said, arm out.

'Dudley. It's Dudley.'

Dedalus smiled broadly.

'Very well then, Dudley. Shall we?'

Dudley gripped his arm and Dedalus nodded.

'I'll see you at the house, Hestia,' he said and Hestia nodded. 'Good luck.'

Dudley looked at his father's company car, reassuring in its normality, and then Dedalus twisted and he was suffocating in darkness. There was a band across his chest, restricting his movement, and he tightened his grip on Dedalus' arm. He would surely die. He closed his eyes tightly.

And then just as suddenly as it started it stopped and he was breathing sweet, cool air. The sound of the cars was gone. He could hear a stream in the distance.

'So, you're the muggle boy.'

He opened his eyes. He was in a lane surrounded by fields. There was a house in the distance, lights shining in the windows. A girl was sitting on a fence grinning it at him. She swung her legs and landed neatly on the path, kicking up a cloud of dust.

'This is going to be fun.'