Chapter 1

Looking Forward

Dudley Dursley sat on a bench outside Grunnings Drills. His father worked there, and so did he...sadly. Dudley had pink skin, a rather upturned nose, blue eyes, and curly blonde hair. When he was younger, his cousin often called him and pig in a wig. But long gone where the rolls of fat, the curl to his hair, and the greedy moist eyes. Now stood a man, mostly of muscle, his hair cut short, and his eyes full of boredom and a lost sense of purpose. You see Dudley, the former bully, was in deep thought. He was in his early twenties and working for a company he didn't even care about, and he was still living at home. To Dudley, living with his parents still, though normal, was excruciating. He loved his parents, but he didn't see eye to eye with them. He ate healthy, they didn't. He liked a little chaos in his life here and there, they were rather boring...He looked for magic, they tried to avoid it. He knew he had a wizard cousin, they wished Harry had never been born. He missed his cousin and magic, they had thrown a party.

"Dudley, hurry up. Don't be late." came his fathers voice cheerfully, "Dreaming about a girl I hope."

"Uh, what... Oh. Sorry dad. Nothing," Dudley stood and stretched.

"Well then, get back to work." said Vernon, with a smile.

"Oh, I got off a half hour ago, I was just thinking." said Dudley, he turned to face the parking lot, "I'm going to go look at a house today."

"Oh well, get a good one son," said Vernon and he entered the building, waving his son off.

As Dudley drove off in his car, he began to think as he hit traffic. He realized just then how much he wanted to find magic. He didn't know if it was actually a fascination or just a longing for something different then the mundane his life had become. He had mistaken many things lately for magic actually, a person wearing a cloak. The said person was going to a costume party last Halloween. A young girl playing with a stick, had turned out to be just that. He saw something create a beam of light in a car near him, he found it to be a laser pointer from a group of children. He tapped his steering wheel in annoyance and saw something in the sky, he thought he'd seen an owl in the daylight, but it turned out to be a rather large bird.

He drove down a rather crappy looking street, he almost turned around, but then he saw the house. It was a rather nice house, a small yard in the back, attached, two stories, and a wire fence. It wasn't bad, but his parents wouldn't approve... this interested him. He parked his car outside the place and got out of his car. He looked down the street. The mailbox brackets held two each, but he realized that the one for house number 13, had only one. Then he realized, there was no 12 mailbox, or house.

"Hello, you must be Mr. Dursley," said a man standing outside number 13, "I'm Mr. Peaman."

"Yeah, nice to meet you," said Dudley, looking at the street, and shaking his hand.

There was only one other car on the street, a nice blue jag was parked behind his car. He shrugged and entered the apartment. It was nice, clean, water worked, heat worked, and it came fully furnished. There was nothing wrong with it, he couldn't figure out why it was so cheap. Even if the outside street wasn't the most appealing, it was nothing for the price he'd be paying.

"Nice house," said Dudley, honestly, "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing," said Mr. Peaman.

"Seriously now," said Dudley, "I'm already sold, just what's wrong with it."

"Nothing, people just tend to move out... they say weird things happen. I don't know what, they always seem to just not want to talk about it, " said the man with a smile, "I don't think it's haunted if that makes you feel better."

"Yeah, well I'll take it. Nothing's too weird for me," said Dudley, thinking back on the pig tail, the candies, and the evil dark lord guy who took over his cousins world.

Dudley pulled into his parents driveway in a happy mood that evening, anxious to tell them of his new house. It was then that he looked up in the air, and he knew he saw something fly through some clouds. There were two figures flying up over the houses below where he stood. As suddenly as they had appeared, they had gone. There had been two people riding brooms, and he felt an even bigger smile spread across his face. He couldn't fully say he didn't fear magic, but for some reason, it seemed reassuring in this moment. This most likely came from being watched over by a wizard and a witch for a whole year during the war that was going on. It could also be his cousin's books that he kept hidden under his bed.

"Dudykins your home, so how was you day," came his mothers voice as he entered the house.

"Well, I have a house." said Dudley, quickly.

"W-what..." His mother's face fell.

"I got a house, its in London," said Dudley, he might as well tell his mother now, rather then waiting.

"Vernon!" yelled his mother to his father in the kitchen.

"Yes, Petunia," said Vernon coming in quickly.

"Our-ours sons... leaving. Our DidyDums in moving. Did you know about this?" asked Petunia with a mix of worry and anger.

"Yes, he told me this morning... So-so you got the house," stated Vernon.

"Yeah. I'm moving in next week, I already put the notice in at work for it off, " said Dudley.

"I don't like you leaving," said Petunia, she looked worried, "Why do you have to leave? Plenty of Boys your age are still at home."

"Mom, I just need my own space," said Dudley, he must have chosen the wrong thing to say, as she looked flustered as she nodded and headed to the kitchen, "Mum..."

"Dinner will be ready soon," she said from the kitchen, he looked at Vernon.

"It'll take her a bit to adjust, it is a bit sudden. I'll talk to her, she'll be fine," smiled Vernon, patting his son on his back.

Dudley walked up the stairs, feeling a bit taken aback. He knew his Mom wouldn't be thrilled, but he didn't know she'd take it that badly. He imagined the house would be spotless come morning, she often threw herself into cleaning or cooking when she was upset. He should probably hide his cousin's old books in case she decided to come into his room and clean while he was at work tomorrow. Even though he asked her not too, he was certain she still would. He reached under his bed and took out three books with moving pictures on it; Quidditch Through the Ages, A History of Magic, and a barely opened, History of Hogwarts. He headed to his cousin's old room, not an office, moved the rug in the middle, and opened the floor board. He's found it a year ago when they'd been going through his cousin's things to place in the attic or in the fireplace for certain things. When he'd found it, there had been a stash of newspapers, a few letters, and a bag full of sweets. Dudley had decided to risk it on a Nosebleed Nugget... and once again.. Swore of wizarding candies forever this time. He closed the floor board and tossed the rug back down, making a mental note to pack those first.

Dudley looked around the room, it was hard to believe that this was once his cousin's room and his junk room as well. Sometimes Dudley looked at the cupboard under the stairs and would just get lost in thought. It came to him mind every once in a while, not all the time, but less then it probably should. Just how dark this house must have seen to Harry, perhaps that's why he hadn't heard from his cousin sense he was seventeen. He still remembered his cousin's face when he'd told him he hadn't thought he was a waste of space, as if they notion was astounding. It had taken Dudley three weeks after that to realize that while his parents had always praised him, even when they shouldn't have... that the simply sentence he'd said, had been his cousin's only form of affected he'd ever gotten from any of them. He shook his head, and stopped beating himself up over the past. As he heard his Mom call him down for dinner, he closed the office door and couldn't help but wonder if wherever his cousin was, he was happy... and also... 'Prat could have written a note saying 'Not Dead' or something, that'd be nice, git.'

TO BE CONTINUED