"So," Dudley asked, after fidgeting nervously in place had failed to alleviate some of the awkwardness and tension enacted upon him by his current situation, "how exactly did you get here?"

Harry let out an irritable sigh. "Really?" he asked incredulously without even turning around to look at his cousin. "We haven't seen each other in years, and the first thing you ask is what type of transportation I used to get here?"

Dudley shrugged his shoulders pathetically as he shoved his hands into his jacket pockets. "Well, I am a bit curious," he quietly admitted. "Doubt you learned anything in that special school of yours that could earn you enough money to buy yourself a car. And let's be honest, it's not like you're exactly throwing out any conversation starters either, so at least give me a little bit of credit."

Harry winced uncomfortably the moment Dudley had mentioned the latter reason. As much as he resented Dudley for all of the things he had done to him throughout the years, he had to give Dudley credit, at least Big D was trying to ease the tension between them. In fact, if he had to be honest, judging by his cousin's tone of voice, mannerisms, and what had happened the last time they had seen each other, it almost seemed as if Dudley was actually trying to make amends. It was now Harry's turn to start awkwardly fidgeting. "Apparating," he muttered.

Dudley cocked an eyebrow in surprise. "What?"

Harry sighed. "Apparating. It's like...," Harry took a moment to think of the closest Muggle equivalent to describe exactly what it was, "teleportation. I... I teleported here."

Dudley nodded his head slowly as he attempted to process the revelation that his cousin could apparently teleport. "O-Oh," he replied. He then simply shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head. "Yeah, sure, that's cool, I guess."

Another awkward silence came between the two reunited men. "So," Harry asked, "what about you? How'd you get here?" Dudley sheepishly nodded towards a fancy, black car parked just outside of the bakery. Harry's eyes widened upon laying eyes on it for the very first time. "That's yours?" he asked incredulously.

Dudley nodded. "Yeah. Mum and dad bought it for me as a gift after I managed to graduate college." He looked away before quickly adding, "I'm working hard to pay it back though."

"O-Oh," Harry replied, somewhat relieved to find out that Dudley wasn't as better off as he had feared, but also somewhat guilty over the fact that he had inadvertently forced Dudley into revealing such a potentially embarrassing secret. "G-Good for you."

Dudley nodded. "Yeah, thanks."

The two of them stood there in silence for a moment before an employee behind the counter cried, "Number thirty-six!" He looked around for a second. "Number thirty-six!"

"Here!" the person holding the honor of being the thirty-sixth order cried as she made her way through the mess of people to receive her order.

The employee tipped his hat to her in gratitude. "Thank you for your services, miss. And please, come again!" He then turned to leave and go back to work while the woman turned to leave.

Dudley looked down at his piece of paper before turning to Harry and asking, "So, what number did you get?"

Harry checked his order number and let out an exasperated sigh. "Forty-two," he grumbled. "At this rate, I'm going to be standing here for another half hour or so." He then glanced back at Dudley and nodded towards the paper holding his order number. "And you?"

"Thirty-nine," Dudley answered.

"Good for you," Harry remarked.

Dudley gently placed his order number into his pocket. "Thanks." Another awkward silence came between the two before Dudley asked, "So, not that you have to tell me or anything, but why are you here exactly? Don't your lot drink potions and eat bug and animal parts?"

"No!" Harry said in disgust. "Of course not! Stop speaking so much rubbish! We eat the same things you all eat. You should know!" Harry turned to Dudley. "I've eaten with your family for years!"

Dudley lamely shrugged. "Well, it doesn't exactly mean you still eat like that, you know?"

Harry sighed. "My son, James' birthday is coming up."

Dudley's eyes widened in surprise. "Since when did you have a son?"

Harry nonchalantly shrugged. "Since after I got married."

"Since when did you get married?"

"A few years back."

"How come I didn't know about this?"

"I... I never invited you."

Dudley's face became downcast. "O-Oh."

After another unfortunate silence came between the two, Harry sheepishly scratched the back of his head before explaining, "Ginny (that's my wife's name) has become a bit tired with wizard cakes, so she suggested that we try doing something different for James' birthday and try getting him a Muggle cake this year; so she sent me to get the cake, thinking that I've got a bit more experience with this sort of thing than she does, which I haven't, but I was feeling a bit adventurous today, so... you know... why not?"

Dudley simply shrugged in response. "I guess. I mean, it ain't like it's too much trouble for you, right? With your operating and all that."

"Apparating."

"Yeah, that."

Another awkward silence came between the two of them before Harry decided to take the initiative this time around and start a conversation with his cousin himself. "So," Harry began, clearing his throat nervously as he did, "what about you? Why are you here?"

"This is the best bakery in town," Dudley answered simply. "And I just felt like buying a cake for myself, that's all."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "An entire cake all by yourself?!" he quietly exclaimed.

"Of course not," Dudley chastised, giving Harry a disapproving look. "I'm not going to eat it all in one sitting! I'm going to save some of it for later!"

"That's not what I meant!" Harry chided. "Dudley, you're buying yourself an entire cake, and you're just planning on eating all of it? Aren't cakes supposed to be for special occasions? Why don't you just wait until then?"

Dudley hung his head and averted his eyes from Harry's gaze. "Well... it was my birthday a couple of weeks ago."

"And didn't you have cake then?"

Dudley shook his head. "No. Wasn't in the mood."

"You?! Not in the mood to eat cake in your birthday?! Since when?!"

Dudley shifted uncomfortably in place for a moment before answering, "Since my dad died."

Harry's jaw dropped slightly upon hearing this unfortunate revelation. "W-What?" he asked incredulously.

"My dad is dead," Dudley clarified, his voice choking a bit remembering the exact moment he had gotten the news himself. "Mom and I didn't feel like celebrating this year, so that's why I'm getting myself a cake now."

"O-Oh," Harry said, shoving his hands into his pockets as once again faced himself towards the counter, successfully avoiding eye contact with his unfortunate cousin. He had to admit, he had never particularly liked Vernon Dursley, but he could at least sympathize with the fact that Dudley had just lost his father after having known him all his life. In a sick, twisted way, Ton Riddle had spared him from having to ever suffer through such a pain. "I'm sorry, Dudley."

"No you ain't," Dudley said matter-of-fairly without any traces of bitterness or malice in his voice. "You're just saying that."

"Yeah, well, what if I am?" Harry asked. "It's basic decency, isn't it?"

Dudley simply shrugged. "I guess."

Another awkward silence. Harry let out an exasperated sigh before attempting to change the subject. "So, what about your friends?"

Dudley cocked an eyebrow at this. "What about them?"

"Well, you know... why don't you celebrate your birthday and share your cake with your friends?"

Dudley's face fell a bit as he lowered his gaze towards the ground. "I don't got no friends no more."

Harry's eyes widened in surprise. "What do you mean you don't have any friends anymore?"

"It means exactly what it usually means: I don't have any friends anymore," Dudley said. He sheepishly squirmed from where he was standing. "Apparently I'm not very good at keeping my friends, or making new ones, for that matter."

Harry was stunned. "How did that happen?" he quietly asked.

Dudley shrugged. "I don't know. We just sort of drifted apart, and neither one of us ever really looked back since. And it's not like I know how to make friends beyond bullying people and showing how much stronger and better off I am compared to others."

"Yeah, well, no offense, but I can safely say that we can blame your parents for that," Harry muttered, folding his arms as he went back to looking at the counter.

Much to his surprise, Dudley nodded his head slowly and mumbled, "Yeah, I always sort of thought as much."

Harry gawked at him in shock. "You what?!"

"I said that, 'I always sort of thought as much'," Dudley answered simply.

Harry continued to look at him skeptically. "Since when?!"

Dudley shrugged. "Since forever, I guess. Deep down, I guess I always knew I was a bit of an ass. It just took being attacked by one of those cloaked things to make me realize HOW much of a jerk I really was to everyone."

"Okay," Harry said, raising his hand to signal for Dudley to stop talking so that he could, "first of all, they're called dementors; second of all, how could you have possibly not known that you were acting like a complete ass to everyone until one of the dementors nearly stole your soul?!"

Dudley thought about it for a moment before answering, "Probably because of how my mum and dad treated you."

"What?!" Harry nearly cried, letting out an incredulous laugh as he did. "How does them treating me have anything to do with how you treat people?"

"It's just," Dudley began to explain, "you were just so nice, and yet they still punished and got angry at you for every little thing." He shrugged lamely. "I don't know. I guess a part of me just put two and two together and thought that if I acted the opposite of how you did, then maybe they wouldn't punish or get angry at me as much. And you know what? They didn't! They praised me and spoiled me, no matter how bad I was acting!"

"Yeah, but that was because you were their son!" Harry argued. "Not because of how you were acting!"

Dudley simply shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not, but either way, little me wasn't exactly going to go out of his way to find out, yeah?"

Harry sighed wearily. "Yeah, I guess you've got a point there." It didn't really help that Dudley DID eventually find friends because and despite his behavior, and it wasn't like having Vernon Dursley as a father was going to set Dudley straight. "But still, the way everyone else at school or in the neighborhood treated each other, how much nicer and respectful they were compared to you, didn't that tick you off a bit? Didn't how everyone else reacted to you tick you off that the way you were acting WASN'T the right way to treat other people?"

Dudley averted his eyes to the ground. "Kind of, but it didn't really matter to me, you know? I wanted their love."

"Bullying and undermining everyone around you is a pretty strange way to ask for everybody's love!"

"I wasn't talking about everybody else! Who cares about everybody else? I was talking about my mum and dad." Harry went silent upon hearing this particular response. Dudley shrugged lamely. "As long as I had their love, no one else's love really mattered. Not like you'd understand."

Harry gulped down a big, uncomfortable lump in his throat upon hearing this. Sure, in a way, what Dudley was saying was absolute rubbish. There WERE people in Harry's life that mattered to him more than the others, and their respect, admiration, praise, a lot of things, meant more coming from them than if it had come from someone else; but in a way that Harry hated to admit, Dudley had a point. For all he knew, the need for adoration from one's family members was probably much stronger than the adoration coming from others (as Ron's relationship with his family being the most obvious example in his life). It made Harry somewhat question if he would've been the exact same way as Dudley was now if his parents were alive. Yes, enough people have told him how responsible his parents were, but he knew first-hand how unintentionally exaggerated they could be and how human his parents were despite all of the praise they received from their friends and family. For all he knew, his parents could've spoiled and doted on him worse than Dudley's parents had been, and would've probably turned out worse as a result. It was a chilling thought to say the least.

"Yeah, I guess I don't," Harry finally replied after a long moment of silence. He turned to a surprised Dudley. "I guess there's a lot of things we don't know about each other after all." He then began to rub the back of his head awkwardly. "So, I guess what I'm saying is... do you want to start over?"

Dudley's eyes widened. "Start over?" he repeated incredulously. "What exactly do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it's supposed to mean," Harry answered. "Think about it Big D! We're spent our entire lives thinking we knew the other person like the back our hands, but in reality, we didn't! Maybe we could've been friends, maybe we wouldn't have been, but we were never going to find out the way we were before! So... what do you say?" He held out his hand, offering for Dudley to shake it. "Are you willing to start over?"

Dudley gawked at the hand his cousin was extending to him. Was he dreaming? Was the boy who he had bullied and tormented throughout most of their young lives really extending his hand in the hopes of forming a potential friendship in the future?

"Dudley," Harry warned, "if you don't shake my hand in the next five seconds, I'm going to take it back and assume that my friendship is not good enough for you. Do you want that?"

"Heh," Dudley said, giving his cousin an amused smirk before taking Harry's offer and shaking his hand. "You really know how to put a guy on the spot, you know that?"

Harry returned Dudley's smirk with a smirk of his own. "Living with you and your folks? I've kind of had to."

It was then that Dudley's order number was called. After picking up his order, Dudley gave Harry his address before exiting the bakery, getting into his car, and driving away, feeling the best he had ever felt in weeks, maybe years. True, it wasn't guaranteed that he and Harry would fully make amends for the past and form any type of relationship from that point on, but it was a start, and a part of him couldn't help but want to call his mum on the phone and tell him all about it. He would later find out that she would be proud of him and that she was relieved that they would not be as estranged as she and her sister, Lily, had been. And in a strange way, he would be too.

Author's Note: After another one-shot of mine, Vernon's Vow, someone (Trins xxx) suggested a one-shot between Harry and one of the Dursleys in the future, so this is what I came up with. I hope you all liked it!