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Authors Note: I hope you like the premise so far, here's the second chapter!

Dudley Demented

The next week was definitely an experience for Holly; it was so strange to be able to see everything without the weight of her glasses on her nose. When Aunt Petunia had seen her on the first day she had stared, looking at her as if she'd seen a ghost, before snapping out of it and ordering her to prune the roses in the front garden.

She had received a note from Sirius to "stay out of trouble" and she had tried to do that, even going so far as trying all the hair and skin products Ron had sent in order to waste time, and keep her mind off the seething anger she felt due to her entrapment. She'd not spent this much time on her hair and skin since she went to the Yule Ball with Dean Thomas, well, Hermione had made her.

Going inside after pruning the roses, she had stared at herself in the bathroom mirror, she wasn't vein in the least but looking at the smoothness that products had brought to her curls, and the spot free complexion the potion had given her, she couldn't help feeling slightly better about herself. If she was a mess on the inside, it didn't have to show on the outside.

What she hadn't bargained on was the attention it would attract from Dudley's gang of hoodlums, and it wasn't the normal kind. They had taken to prowling the streets to beat up the smaller children, and whenever Holly had crossed their path it had led to some sexually charged heckling that Dudley had not been all that happy about. Holly may be a freak, but deep down Dudley still knew that they were cousins and his friends flirting with his cousin was not okay. So in his own way he was trying to divert the attention, by insulting Holly in front of his friends in every way possible. It had made Holly both touched and angry at the same time, but she had promised herself she would keep a low profile, if only for Sirius's sake.

After a week of these changes, it was Dudley's turn to host his gang for dinner, which consisted of them eating and talking obnoxiously before going out again to terrorise the neighbourhood. So Holly took this as her opportunity to go out for a walk unmolested. She did her usual route, up Wisteria walk towards the children's park that at 9pm was deserted, and settled herself on the swings.

She'd never really gotten the opportunity to enjoy the park as a child, whenever Aunt Petunia took Dudley she often got left at Old Mrs Figg's, and although Holly liked cats to this day she cringed slightly when she heard Mrs Figg call them in at night. Holly sat pushing herself slowly on the swing, feeling the wind moving her waist length curls around, and watching the sun starting to descend over the horizon of uniform houses and gardens.

Holly spent her time trying to think of nothing, not her relatives, or her experience in the graveyard, she tried to empty herself of everything, of herself, because if she was empty then she wouldn't have to remember. After what seemed like minutes she heard footsteps approaching on the gravel path, opening her eyes she was surprised to see the sun had set, and all that lit the playground were the occasional streetlight and the waning moon. To her surprise it was Dudley, looking rather chagrined, who stomped up to her and blurted:

"Mum said to come get you as no moral girl should be out at this hour on her own and you could be up to God knows what. She doesn't want the neighbours talking about you, it looks bad."

Holly rolled her eyes, she didn't care what the neighbours thought, but it was better to avoid an argument, especially when she had promised Sirius not to cause a stir. She slid off the swing and zipped up her red and yellow hoodie, a tribute to Gryffindor. She and Dudley slowly began making their way back, and did so silently before Dudley started taunting her.

"So why are you out so late, you afraid to go to bed?"

Holly stopped and stared at him, they had reached the corner of Wisteria, only one street away from Privet Drive.

"What are you on about?" she questioned.

Dudley looked smug, and went in for the kill "I hear you, at night, crying, "Mum, Dad, he's going to kill me Mum! He's killed Cedric!" Who's Cedric, your boyfriend?"

Cold ran down Holly's spine, "Shut up! You don't know anything!"

Dudley kept going: "If you weren't already a freak, now you're crazy, that Cedric probably killed himself to get away from you"

Holly had had enough, and drew her want from her hoodie pocket pointing it directly at Dudley.

At that moment, the streetlights began to flicker, and the air around them became frigidly cold.

"Stop it, Mum said you can't, Stop!" screamed Dudley

"Shut up! I'm not doing this!" She yelled back.

Then Holly saw the dark shapes coming towards them, and her breath turned to icicles, she was back in the graveyard, she was alone, and she was screaming, wait...she wasn't alone, it wasn't her screaming, it was Dudley!

Holly snapped out of her trance to see Dudley being descended upon by a ghoulish dementor, screaming and shaking as it opened its mouth.

Holly pointed her wand and desperately tried to think of something happy, but all her joy had been sapped away. Ron and Hermione had gone off in their own clique, Dumbledore had forgotten her, and Sirius...SIRIUS! With thoughts of her Godfather in her mind she summoned up all her strength and cast the spell:

"EXPECTO PATRONUM!"

The familiar doe came forth from her wand; the one Professor Lupin had said was the perfect female counterpart to her father's animagus form, and charged down both Dementors. Dudley collapsed to the ground.

Holly ran to Dudley and knelt by him, lowering her wand in the process.

"Don't lower your wand girl there may be more of them!"

Harry pointed her want reflexively at the figure of Mrs Figg, her old baby-sitter, who hobbled forward with a shopping bag full of cat food.

"Mrs Figg?"

"Yes dear, quick, get him up, you can't stay here, get up you big oaf! Oh I'm going to kill Mundungus Fletcher!"

Authors Note: Please read and review!