A Diary, A Journal, and An Old Yellow Legal Pad
Epilogue
Dudley Dursley sat on his front porch with his feet up on the rails and his hands folded over an envelope resting in his lap. He was staring out at the waves crashing onto the rocks but mostly he was letting his mind flow back nineteen years to a neatly kept house at Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whining and the horrors that occurred there the day his family had been forced to move away from that house. As always that thought brought a fine line of perspiration to his upper lip and down his spine. He had been a lump of a boy then, mean and nasty to the bone. Even now he turned a bit red thinking of the bad things he had so enjoyed doing. And his favorite patsy had been his cousin Harry. But that night when his family went into hiding from what horrors he wasn't even sure of, had changed him forever. He thought maybe he grew up that night or maybe he was just "scared straight" as the teenagers today would say. Whatever had happened he was glad it had. And now it seemed the past was here again. For the envelope in his lap bore the return address of Hogwarts School of Magic and Wizardry and was addressed to his only child Avian Elizabeth.
It had arrived two months ago delivered by a large brown owl while the Dursley's were singing "Happy Birthday" to their daughter. She had turned eleven and had asked for a skateboard and a handful of DVDs as gifts. These were mostly forgotten now as she tried on her Hogwarts' robes again and again and fingered the wand that had "chosen her" or looked through the stack of odd schoolbooks they had bought in that very strange place the shaggy giant had taken them. Avian had been thrilled beyond words and had to press her nose against each and every store window as they passed. He smiled remembering her laughter as they walked through that giant fun house of a store and her delight as he paid for her rather fuzzy white owl. Snickers, she named him at once.
Dudley wasn't overly surprised to find his daughter was a witch. After all, her aunt had been a famous one and her cousin an even more famous wizard. But Dudley was afraid deep down inside. Even as he put on a show of being a proud father of a budding witch, even as he shook dozens of hands of other proud fathers, even as Avian climbed into his lap and smiled that lovely lopsided smile of hers and made his heart almost burst with love for her. He was afraid because he DID remember that night long ago. That was the reason he had moved to this sleepy little fishing village on the coast of Scotland where he had settled and married and began his thriving fishing business. For that night Dudley had seen a Deatheater as his family had fled and how could he be sure they were all locked up somewhere safe and tight where escape was impossible. How could he be sure some evil would not once again visit Hogwarts School? How could anyone be sure? But send his only child off to that faraway place he would do because that was what she most desired. Her destiny she had called it, as if an eleven year old knew of such things. Perhaps he would drop Harry a note asking, no, begging him to keep an eye on Avian. He had been told Muggles (what a silly word that was and now Avian called him Poppamuggle and laughed as he made a face) could not even see the school.
Just then Rosie, his wife, and Avian called for him to get a move on or they would miss their flight to London. The next morning they would take his daughter to the train station to begin her education. He hoped both of them survived