Dudley's Diary
July 3So I went to the gym and when I came back I entered through the back door so I could put my gym clothes in the laundry. I heard shouting from the living room-Harry shouting. I snuck up and saw myself. With a wand pointed at Harry. I acted on instinct, rushed him and and koshed him in the head. Then my mom- fake mom-started shooting at me with a wand but I dodged. Harry got a wand and then the wizards became themselves, not my family. I cracked the fat one over the head with a lamp. Then Harry did some wand shooting and they were out. He grabbed all their wands which I thought was a great idea.
"Your parents." Harry said and rushed up the stairs. I followed, filled with dread because Harry's face was so white.
They were stretched out on the bed, eyes open. Dead. Harry unbuttoned my dad's shirt and showed a red wound. "Killing curse," Harry said, his voice shaky. "Killing curse!"
He whipped around and pounded down the stairs.
He's going to kill them! Somehow I knew he'd regret that.
"Harry, stop. Don't kill them. You are a wizard! There must be something you can do to ...stop them without killing." I can hardly believe I said that, with my parents dead upstairs.
"They've all got out of Azkaban before. Wizarding prison." He thought for a minute. "But I know..." He went up to the woman with the crazy hair. "Obliviate." He held the wand on her for awhile, then did the other two.
"I took all their memories back to their childhood. Toddlers, actually, and made it so they won't get them back. See how good of soldiers they'll be now!"
We stood there breathing too fast.
"Dudley, I'm sorry about your parents, but we need to leave. Go pack your things. I'll send Hedwig to the Weasleys."
I was in a daze as I packed all my clean clothes into my suitcase. I put my laptop into my backpack. I went back to look at my parents, tears running down my face. Then I went to Harry's room. He was floating things into his trunk, closed it and shrunk it, put it in his pocket. "We'll need to take the car.
"Where will we go?"
"Not sure."
"Harry. I should tell you, you have a lot of mail. I tried to make mom give it to you but dad wouldn't let her.
"Okay, get that. Any money, too." He took Dad's wallet off the dresser."You can drive, right?"
I nodded.
"I'll read it in the car." Then he went to the kitchen and grabbed bread and stuff from the fridge and cupboards.
I gathered the mail from Dad's desk. "We could go to Aunt Marge's place. Dad has the keys. She had a stroke and is in a care home."
"Yeah, let's go there."
So we left, my parent's dead bodies in the bedroom, the bad wizards on the floor. "What are they called again? The evil wizards?
"Death Eaters. Here, have an apple. You were at the gym, right?"
I nodded. I was feeling...not strong. Shaky. I bit into the apple, surprised anything would taste good. Harry handed me a peeled hard cooked egg that I ate in two bites, then handed me another.
"That's good. I'll be all right." I was lying, and tears dripped down my face. "I mean, I know they weren't great parents, especially to you...but still."
"They didn't deserve to die. I'm going to check the wands, see who threw the killing curses. Also, rather handy having the other wands, they can't be traced to me. My wand has a trace until I'm seventeen."
He did something with the wands while I drove. Traffic was heavier now, and would be for awhile.
"Bellatrix," he said. "She was evil and completely insane."
I nodded. She looked crazy.
"She killed Sirius. He was my godfather. But now when they wake her, her memories will be of a two year old. I did an extra charm, they can't be restored. Hermione was studying memory charms all last semester, I'm glad I listened. They won't be much good to Voldy now."
"Who were the other two?"
"Blondie is Lucius Malfoy, a wealthy jerk, head Death Eater. The fat one you knocked out was Peter Pettigrew. He was once a friend of my parents and betrayed them so Voldy could kill them."
"Wow."
"I kind of like his wand, though. When you can find a private place, pull over. I'm going to change the look of the car."
"All right."
I found a farmer's road with no traffic and no one around. Harry changed the car from dark grey to cream. He changed numbers on the license plate, too. "There."
"You all right to keep driving?"
It somewhat shocked me Harry would care about me at all. "Yeah. I'm okay. We should be there in two hours. I have the keys and papers. We should stop at an atm and withdraw money. I took the household cash, but I don't know what they'll do about the bank account."
"Good idea."
"Your mail is in the bag."
Harry read his mail while I drove.
"Oh my god."
"What?"
"This big pack is from Gringotts. Wizard's Bank. On my seventeenth birthday I inherited several estates. Two are unplottable. Unplottable means hidden by magic. So in less than three weeks we'll have a place to go where it is impossible for Voldy to find us."
"That's not his real name."
"No his real name is plain Tom Riddle. He titled himself to make himself sound fearful, but now has a charm on his title so you don't want to say the whole thing, he could locate you. Maybe we'll just call him Tom."
We stopped at a grocery store before driving on to Marge's place. I bought healthy food and Harry bought coffee. He turned his hair red before we went in, and snickered at himself. "I look like a Weasley now."
Aunt Marge has a country cottage in the Cotswolds, with a field. Nice place, actually. Two bedrooms upstairs, so Harry and I both took one. I went straight to bed, but Harry did some cooking so I came down later for baked fish and vegetables. Very nice of Harry to follow my diet.
"I'll do the dishes."
"All right."
July 6thPretty quiet here. Harry and I went jogging this morning, then I showed him how to use my free weights. I wish we had a punching bag.
"Why don't we get one?"
"Doubt the village has one for sale."
"So let's drive to the next city with a sport's store.
So we did. I got all the equipment I needed. We ate at a restaurant and read papers. Nothing about my parents in the news. The magic people must have hushed it up. We drove home.
July 10The punching bag is good for me. Sometimes I just feel so angry. I didn't even get to go to their funerals. And sometimes I punch with tears rolling down my face. Weird to think I am alone in the world now. No one loves me at all. Aunt Marge doesn't recognize me. Harry doesn't love me, though he does treat me nice. Which makes me feel bad for being such a jerk, and mad at my parents for not being good parents...the punching bag gets a lot of work.
Harry's magic owl found us. Her perch is in the living room and Harry has another in his bedroom. She brought Harry a letter. Her name is Hedwig and she let me feed her some egg white and pet her too.
"I think she likes you, Dud." He opened the letter.
"The ministry buried your parents in the Potter family plot in Godric's Hollow. That is where my parents are buried. I don't think we should go visit though, because they might be expecting me there. Someday I'll take Weasleys want me to contact the Order of the Phoenix— those are the good guys— and hide. But in just a couple weeks we'll be able to get to one of my properties. I wonder if one of the bank goblins can visit me here? I'd rather not go to Diagon Alley."
"So you are not going to contact the Order of Phoenix people?"
He sighed. "They are good people, don't get me wrong. But they will try to stop me from doing things I must do."
"To stop Terrible Tom."
"Yes."
July 12I went out to the garage (really, an old carriage house) and worked out. Harry came in and watched. He was carrying a letter.
"This is really exciting, Dudley." He paused as I hit the bag.
"You know, I'd kind of like to try that."
"We could get you some gloves." Harry has been running, skipping rope, and doing free weights with me. The guy is slim, but has a lot more muscle than you'd expect.
"Listen, we need to get a tent. The evening before I turn seventeen at midnight, we are going to stay in a tent at a location near one of my estates. A goblin will come and place a drop of blood on some paper, and we'll be able to get into the place."
"Cool." I knew Harry was worried Death Eaters would find us. It is good to have a super safe place to look forward to. "What are goblins like?
"Small, pointy noses, grouchy. But they know about money."
July 22Harry paid me a compliment today. I've been training him in boxing. "You are a really good teacher, Dudley. You explain things so well and don't make me feel like an idiot when I do something wrong."
"Thanks, Harry." I shrugged. "I am doing well in school this past year, but I had to pay tutors to help me since I didn't pay attention much when I was younger. I think I learned more from them than some of the teachers, because they were so patient with me. And," I felt my cheeks turn red, "I think I'm actually kind of smart. Always thought I was stupid."
"Huh. Now that I think about it, so many conversations since we've been here alone, I do think you are smart. Never thought that before."