Hello everyone :)

To answer one reader's question, Dudley was able to hide his secret because he is really smarter than he was acting in front of Harry, and he turned out to be quite brave after all. But more shall be revealed throughout the story.

Hopefully this chapter clears up some confusion.


Petunia and Vernon looked at each other in terror. They definitely did not expect their perfect son to be one of 'that lot'. But what had been done was done, and they couldn't change anything.

"When does this Gonnaball person turn up?" Vernon asked his son.

"She's coming in one hour whether I'm coming or not"

"I, I don't know Dudley. I..."

"I guess if that's what makes you happy" Vernon continued, "then you can go to that wizard school"

"Thank you!" Dudley breathed a sigh of relief as he went to hug his startled parents. "You don't know how much this means to me"

"And me" Harry added, standing up with his empty plate, which used to hold only one piece of broccoli and some rice. He put it on the bench and walked over to Dudley. "But Dudley, are you sure you know what you've signed up for? Hogwarts is no longer safe, I heard the death eaters have taken over-"

"I'll be fine" Dudley insisted. "I want to help, it's what I've always wanted" Harry grinned and held out his hand. Dudley shook it and smiled.

"I knew there was something going on when you gave up the cake" Harry joked.

The next hour went by too quickly for Vernon and Petunia. They didn't want to say goodbye to their only son. They didn't want to send him to a school run by death-crazy maniacs, but they could tell that Dudley would not step down until he got what he wanted. He never did. Vernon smiled as he remembered all of Dudley's finest tantrums. But the happiness didn't last long, as the realisation came flooding back in that his little Dudley would be leaving for a magic school and may not even come back... Vernon pushed those thoughts aside and focused on the positives. His Dudley had grown up to be a fine young man.

Petunia seemed to be thinking the same thing, except she showed it a lot more than her husband. Her eyes were streaming with tears as she kissed her Dudley goodbye. But their moment was interrupted by a gigantic 'WHOOSH!' coming from the living room. Dudley looked to his parents and nodded. It was time.

They all walked into the living room with Dudley's bags to find an old woman in long, black robes standing in front of their fireplace. Vernon looked at the woman in approval, as she had managed not to cause a fuss flying out of their fireplace. He grimaced as he though back to last time's disaster with the Weaselbys or whatever they were called.

"Hello" the old women said with a smile. "I am Professor McGonagall and I am here to collect your son on special request"

"Oh, hello there, Professor McGonagall" Vernon replied. Dudley was quite surprised that his father had managed to maintain a vaguely friendly face considering a complete stranger who was also a wizard had come flying out of their fireplace in wizarding robes. This normally would have sent Vernon through the roof.

Petunia wiped her eyes and hugged her son, Vernon doing the same straight after she had pulled away. "I just don't see why he has to leave us" Petunia said through sobs.

"Well, there is another way..." Professor McGonagall replied, her voice trailing off.

"What do you mean?" Petunia replied.

"Well, you could always come with your son-"

"Vernon, we're going to Hogwarts"

"However" McGonagall continued her interrupted sentence. "Due to the death eaters seizing control, you must be part staff in order to legally stay in the castle. But I warn you, the leaders are very harsh in the way that they treat the members of the staff"

"How so?" Vernon questioned.

"Well, I for example was ordered to guard the boundaries of Hogwarts overnight, but that was nothing compared to the others-"

"What do you have to do in order to receive these punishments?" Vernon continued.

"Disobey any orders or rebel against the Dark Lord, his death eaters who are his followers, or any authority that is on the Dark Lord's side"

There was an uncomfortable silence in the room as Vernon and Petunia thought about their new offer.

"Or" Professor McGonagall began. "You could just stay in Hogsmeade, which is a little village just off Hogwarts. I'm sure that Aberforth would gladly take you in"

"Is the village safe?" Petunia asked.

"Well, there is tight security-"

"Well, that's great then!" Vernon boomed out.

"The guards however are Death Eaters" Professor McGonagall finished.

Vernon and Petunia thought hard about that. Harry stepped out from behind his big uncle.

"Hello, professor" he said.

"Harry!" Professor McGonagall looked surprised to see him there. "I thought you had left"

"I should be leaving in five minutes" Harry replied casually. He then turned to Dudley. "You don't have to do this, Dudley"

"I want to" Dudley replied sternly. "I have a plan, and I'm sticking with it no matter what"

"May I ask what your plan is, exactly?" Professor McGonagall questioned.

"To get a proper magical education, then if Harry and his friends aren't back by the last month of the school year, I'll go looking for them"

McGonagall look Dudley up and down. "You know, you aren't at all how Harry described you last year"

"I've changed" Dudley shrugged. Vernon suddenly cleared his throat rather loudly and began to speak;

"We have decided that we will stay with this Aberforth bloke while Dudley is at Hogwarts"

"Excellent" McGonagall replied. "I will let you get your luggage quickly while I send a patronus to Aberforth. But we must be leaving soon; we don't want to interfere with Harry's plans."

And with that Vernon and Petunia rushed into the other room and grabbed their bags. When they got back they found Dudley standing at the fireplace with his bags around one arm.

"All ready then?" Professor McGonagall asked. Everyone nodded. Dudley shook hands with Harry once more and stood in their fireplace. "Now" McGonagall said. She proceeded to explain floo powder and how it worked. When she was done, Dudley cautiously took a handful and spoke;

"Aberforth Dumbledore's house in Hogsmeade" he yelled before green flames erupted out of the fireplace. When the smoke cleared, Dudley was gone. Petunia and Vernon went next, nodding to Harry as they passed him, walking slowly towards the fireplace.

Meanwhile, Dudley felt like he had been compressed inside a spinning pipe that was moving at the speed of sound. He felt like he had been turned inside out, and hen squished up against a wall. Then, all of a sudden he came to an abrupt stop, finding himself flat on his stomach with his bags scattered across an old, wooden floor.

"Ah, so you must be Dudley." Dudley sat up and looked around to find an old man with an unusually long beard. He had grey hair and plenty of wrinkles. Probably as many as the amount of stars in the sky. "You had better move out of the way, I expect your parents will be arriving soon." Dudley did as he was told and shuffled out of the way, grabbing his bags as he crawled across the floor. He stood up just as a huge 'BANG!' sounded throughout the room. His mother had also flown out the fireplace face-first. Before his mother could get up, there was another 'BANG!' Dudley saw that his father had also come flying through, landing on top of his poor, fragile mother.

"Argh!" Petunia yelled out. "Get off me, Vernon!" Vernon quickly rolled off his wife and dusted himself off as he stood up. Once they were all standing and holding their bags, Aberforth directed Dudley's parents to their room upstairs. Dudley remained downstairs in the small room, wondering how he was going to get to Hogwarts from where he was right now.

Just then, a big 'WHOOSH!' came out of the fireplace. Professor McGonagall stood in front of the fireplace unscathed. She turned around and noticed Dudley standing there looking dumbfounded. How could she stand that feeling and gracefully appear out the other side?

"It takes practise" McGonagall explained, appearing to be reading Dudley's expression. Dudley just nodded.

"So what do I do now?" Dudley asked just as his parents and Aberforth returned to the main room. His parents gave him a huge hug and stood back, letting Aberforth take Dudley's shoulder and lead him to a portrait of a small girl. She seemed to smile at them, and to Dudley's surprise, she turned and walked away.

"Your paintings move?!" Vernon asked in shock.

"Yes" Aberforth simply replied, still not taking his eyes off the painting. After a short while the girl came back and the portrait gently swung open. Dudley looked into the tunnel that had just been revealed behind the painting and saw a boy about his age. He was covered in cuts and bruises and had particularly messy black hair.

"Hi, you must be Dudley" the boy said. "I'm Neville, Neville Longbottom. I'm in my seventh year too." Neville motioned for Dudley to follow him. "You can come back through here anytime and see your parents, so only take your clothes with you. Trust me, there isn't much room where we're staying."

Dudley took his clothes bag and waved to his parents. He stepped through the portrait hole and followed Neville down the long, dark and narrow tunnel.


Please review if you wish to :)

Thanks for reading everyone!

The next chapter may not be up until next week as I have a huge amount of schoolwork to do. But hopefully I can find time to write another chapter :)