Authors Note and Disclaimer: I own nothing other than this storyline. All intelligence properties belonging to the Harry Potter franchise are owned by J.K. Rowlings. I thank her for creating a world where I can play a bit in the sandbox.

***NUMBER 4 PRIVET LANE, DUDLEY'S SPARE BEDROOM. TWO WEEKS AFTER THE DEATH OF SIRIUS ORION BLACK. 1300 HOURS***

Harry Potter sat on the closest thing to his bed in the closest thing to his room at 4 Privet Lane. Once again, the minute he had arrived inside the house, Uncle Vernon started right back where he had left off when Harry departed for school. The first thing Uncle Vernon did was lock his school trunk and wand in his former room and hand Harry a list of chores.

"Now listen here Freak. We aren't going to have any of that… unnaturalness . I KNOW you can't do that freak stuff without getting into trouble. You will get your unnatural … whatever is in there back when I decide to take you back to that God awful place and not a second before. Now get out of my sight. You have your chores. I expect you to do them and without any unnaturalness! Everyone has to pull their own weight in the world, and it is high time you did as well! I shan't have you lollygagging about on my hard earned money!"

"But Uncle Vernon, I have summer Homework to do. I need to get at my books!"

Harry didn't know what he had been expecting, but it wasn't the right cross that caught him in the face. The blow landed particularly hard as Vernon Dursley had taken to wearing his Smelting's Class Ring again. Harry was pretty sure that there was SMELTINGS imbedded across his nose, or there would be once the swelling went down. That would remain to be seen, assuming he could fix his now twisted glasses. With a dismissive 'Mind yourself to not get blood on the carpet Freak', Harry was sent off on his first spontaneous chore… clean the freak blood out of Dudley's spare clothes.

That was two hours ago. Since then, Uncle Vernon had him clean the back gutters and weed the back garden and only just let him rest since Dudley came back. Walking back into the house, Harry saw the odd look that his cousin gave him as Harry tried to cover his nose and ignore the fuss Aunt Petunia was making over Dudley's summer boxing programme. All Harry could think about was how much his nose hurt.

The sound of the Dursley's car starting up pulled Harry out of his reverie. Walking over to the window, he watched as the car pulled out of the driveway and headed off somewhere. He didn't really care to know either. As long as they were away from him, he'd be ok. Walking back to his bed, Harry once again tried to straighten out his glasses. He almost had them right when there was a knock at his bedroom door. Opening the door led to one of the greatest shocks of Harry's young life.

Standing at the door was Dudley, holding a couple of apples and a bag of ice.

"Can… I come in?"

"It's your …never mind. Of course you can."

"Here. I saw what… did Dad do that …to you?"

"Yeah."

"Put the Ice on it. It will help the swelling go down. Is it broken?"

"I.. don't think so."

"Good! I had that happen to me last year. Actually a couple of times last year at school. Boxing you know."

"I heard. Aunt Petunia said you did very well."
Dudley shook his head, "Nah. Got the bloody daylights beat out of me for the first term. Had lotsa power, but no technique. Gave me a right hard time, they did."

"I'm sorry to hear that."
"Don't! I needed it. I needed to get my arse kicked a couple of times to understand."

"What did you need to understand?"

"What those Demon-Tear things showed me last year. I… was a right bastard to you growing up Harry. I realize it now. You are my cousin, and I basically beat the daylights out of you. That isn't right."

Holding the icepack to his nose, Harry could only just nod sagely.

"I made a friend Harry," Dudley continued, "Well you might say I have a girlfriend now. She's a pretty little thing. Her name is Kate and she is the most amazing girl ever. She is smart and pretty and tiny and she has a laugh that is all musical and stuff and this really great dark hair. I mean, when I met her it was all the way down to her bum! Thing is, she is a scholarship kid. Her folks don't have a lot of money so she got lucky to get the scholarship to Smelting. As is, she wears kinda out of style clothes and the other girls pick on her a lot. Well, we got close. I asked Mum and Dad if they wouldn't mind giving me a bit of extra pocket money to, well, get her something nice. "

"Wait, you have a girlfriend Dudders?"
With that, he blushed and just nodded. "I guess we are kind of official now. Anyways, I got her this brilliant dress. I even got help picking it out. Anyways we had a kind of date, ya know? She wanted to show me how great the new dress was. So I am sitting there waiting, and she shows up late and not wearing the dress. Now, I am deuces mad, cause I spent like 40 quid on the bloody thing. She just shows up wearing this beaten up old hoodie and jeans and trainers with holes in them. Keeps her head down and all that. I ask her about the dress and she says it got damaged in the wash. I ask her to look up at me and she just shakes her head. Finally, I guess I kind of snapped. I know… I haven't had the best temper and I scared her bloody good when I grabbed her face. She just shrinks back and then I see it. Bright as day, she's got a shiner worse than I have ever gotten in the ring! All of a sudden, it's like a slap in the face you know? How could someone do that to her? So I ask her. I guess she was still scared of me so she tells me that the girls play a game. They call it Kate Krushing. They took it to her right good, they did. They pushed her down into the mud, ya know? Sprayed her with squash and then started kicking her. They do it all the time, she says. I ask her about talking to her mum, and she says that it happens at home as well. Her mum does it too! She starts talking and crying and it goes on for about an hour or so. Not really sure. Makes me bloody furious. How could someone do that to family? Then it hits me. Somewhere in that time, when Katie was talking about Kate Krushing… I was hearin Harry Hunting. I was the kind of person who would do that to family. Bloody Hell Harry! I know you won't ever say it, but I will. I was a right bastard to you. You even saved my life! I aint got any excuse Harry, and I know that you have all the reason in the world to hate me. Hell, I hate me. I… I just want to clear the air right now. You are my family Harry. I may not have treated you like it but I want to at least try and make it right. You got no reason to believe me, but I'd like… maybe … to at least try and be mates. I can't undo what I did, but I can try to be a better person like my Katie is showing me how to be. Could ya… I mean do you think you would be willing to…"

Harry sat down on his bed in shock. Did Dudley just try and apologize to him? Blinking a couple of times, Harry just sat there and tried to process everything. After a couple of minutes (which felt like an eternity to Dudley), Harry looked up at his cousin.

"Yeah mate. I think we can start over. How's that sound? I'm Harry Potter," He said with his hand stuck out.

The relief that washed over Dudley's face was immense. "I'm Dudley Dursley. It's a pleasure to meet you Harry."

"Same here Big D. Same here."

To say that the rest of the morning was surreal would be an understatement. Harry and Dudley actually managed to have a decent conversation while sharing the apples until Vernon and Petunia showed up. Dudley even managed to sneak Harry up a piece of the cake that Vernon had gone out to get his boy for making the Smelting Boxing club. This day was even topping Neville's boggart for weirdness.

And then Fawkes showed up.