Prologue – The first encounter
I will embrace thy heart and thy mind,
Even if one hurts, one damns mine.
The first time he saw her, she was dirty, wild and scared. She looked with desperate eyes pleading for help and yet strong and defiant like a cornered beast.
And he had never seen anything more beautiful.
He could never, till the end of his days, understand how and why she did it, but she remained thereafter by his side making him a better person, or rather making the good side prevail against the bad side of his heart. He who had never thought or acted on the interest of no one but himself found that, as she grabbed on to him, he could not find it in his selfish, cowardly heart to prise away the fingers that held his tightly.
Chapter 1 – The first touch of danger
Dudley was sweating like a pig in the same t-shirt ,pale blue with the logo of a band that he had never heard of but looked cool all the same, that he had been wearing for the last 3 days. That was because of many circumstances but most importantly because they were forbidden from going out unaccompanied by either the droopy eyed woman or the twitchy, always smiling man, and they flat out refused to leave the sanctuary of the house except when strictly necessary. And something as mundane as laundry was evidently not strictly necessary. His mother on the other hand flat out refused to let them handle her family's clothes the same way they did theirs. This meant doing some weird flicking of the wooden sticks over them and proclaim them as good as new. Dudley wondered faintly if it actually worked.
Of course, the fact that they had been forced to abandon more than half of what they had packed when they had left back in June, 2 months ago now, had hardly helped with this situation.
'We can't possibly carry all this and 3 people to boot when disapparating and it would be dangerous to come back for them later', the man had tried to plead with Vernon Dursley.
His parents were adamant but the woman whispered, 'we have no time for this', and somehow she had grasped them by the wrists and disappeared.
Dudley remembered looking dumbfounded at the place where his parents had been standing but a moment ago. So shocked was he, that when the man grabbed his wrist with one hand and the handles of two large suitcases with the other, he didn't have time to react. Next thing he knew, he was experiencing a terrifying feeling. It was as if he was being pressed from all sides to occupy less space than his mass possibly could. Something was pressing against his chest so hard that he was about to suffocate. Then he was on his knees, retching on a patch of grass that had miraculously replaced the hard cement of the country road they were previously standing on.
'No worries, no worries, young man' wheezed the man still holding on to his wrist to prevent him from sprawling on the grass. 'Apparating for the first time is always a pickle'.
And then he was set on his feet and the puddle of sick was nowhere to be seen. His father was staggering and his mother was as white as paper but before any of them had time to get over the shock, they were ushered across the street and right at a brick wall. He had been sure that they would collide but in a blink of an eye the wall was behind them and it was not as solid as it had been a moment previously. An open gate stood behind them now.
The man proceeded to explain the means with which the house was protected but all Dudley could understand was that inside the brick wall was safe. Outside was not.
During the next two months he had only ventured outside for two quick visits to the local mini market for a fresh pack of cigarettes and the nervous Dedalus Diggle almost made him run to-and-fro. He was going to need another one soon he thought, frowning at the two cigarettes remaining inside the pack.
He was breaking the rules but only slightly. He was leaning against the pink bricks beside the gate that he could not see but knew was there. He needed this 5-minute break every evening from the small crowded house where they were all stuck with one another. At first, he had been perfectly fine with staying indoors, playing with his console all day long but soon he was bored out of his wits and craved the freedom he was used to. He, also, could no longer stand the constant tension and arguments between his parents and the other two residents of their sanctuary and voluntary, well mostly, prison.
Dudley finished his cigarette, sighed and was ready to return inside when he felt the smoldering heat of the early September evening reside and a damp, threatening chill taking its place…
To be continued...
