Author's Notes: Once again, for Sasha (HarmonicFriction). New movie-verse Dudley has made writing him even more fun! Notice, this is the longest chapter to date!

Warning: Drug use, language, self-inflicted pain, sexuality.

Chapter 4

Promise

It's amazing really, girl world that is. It's absolutely amazing how a girl goes about her life. Hiding things behind a smile of perfect white teeth. Behind a cover of make-up. You can never truly know what a girl is thinking about and what she's planning.

Especially if you're Dudley Dursley, and understanding Clarice Ryan is your goal.

Time had passed rapidly after the night of the accident. It rushed to carry Clarice away from the pain, like a swift-moving river carrying a log out to sea. Summer holidays were upon the teens of Privet Drive, and all of them were glad for it.

Except Clarice.

The coming of summer meant the coming of her mother's funeral. The funeral that seemed to come upon her so fast that she barely had time to catch her breath. Clarice brushed her hair, distantly looking at her own pale reflection. Her face blotchy from hot salty tears.

The weather for the day was supposed to be sunny. A contradiction to the funeral. But so like a movie, a cliché, it rained. It was pouring as Clarice walked along the grass to her mother's gravesite, but she chose not to put up her umbrella. Opting instead to let her black dress to be soaked through. When would she ever wear it again anyways? Tears came heavily down her face, disguised by the hundreds of raindrops hitting her cheeks.

Then suddenly, everyone was there. Every relative, every friend, every neighbor, every person that came to offer condolences and then move straight on into the rest of their day. Something her mother could never do again.

The eulogy was spoken clearly and quickly. Clarice stood silent for what seemed like mere seconds before walking hand in hand with Cam to seek refuge from the dreary sight of their mother's gravestone shining with rain.

Dudley stared absently from behind his parents, not listening to one word of the eulogy. He was watching her. Waiting for some sign. Anything that would allow him to step forward and take her hand, to hold and comfort her. But none came.

She walked right past him, not even glancing at him from the corner of her eye. She didn't even notice that all the boys from the neighborhood were watching her, not just one.

Dudley did notice however and thought on how to deal with it, but he was in no mood to hit anyone at that moment and instead he turned to Piers.

"Promise me…" he began, thinking he sounded ridiculous and protective.

"Yeah Big D?" replied Piers mechanically.

"Promise me you'll never date Clarice…" He sighed heavily. He didn't like being clean, it did weird things to him.

"Huh?" He was still gazing at the girl of Dudley's dreams.

"Just promise me, alright?"

"Oh yeah, sure."

-

After the sorrowful events of that day, time seemed to slow once again for Clarice. Happy times were headed for her it seemed, even with her mother gone.

Dudley didn't fair so well.

Piers sat up from his bed abruptly after hearing a loud banging on his door. "Oi! Who is it?" He called before answering it. He was home alone, and now would not be a good time for his parents to be coming through the door unexpected.

"It's me," slurred the voice belonging to the one other person Piers had hoped it wouldn't be.

"Dudley?" Piers unlocked the door and peered through it, only opening it an inch.

"Yeah, o' course it's me you nutter. Now let me in, I need a place to smoke and your parent's aren't here." He took a deep breath and exhaled into Piers open mouth.

Piers gagged as alcohol burned his throat. He would never admit to it, but every time the gang got together to drink, Piers wouldn't take a sip. Even if forced, he'd tilt the can back and fake a gulp and a drunken smile. "I, ergh, you can't. I'm… ergh… not dressed."

Dudley stared at him in confusion. "What d'ya mean you're not dressed, I can see your collar, right there!" He pointed at it, having trouble focusing on it. "Unless that's some sorta… skin condition you didn' tell me abou'… Besides, it doesn' matter, it's just like the locker." He made to push through the door.

"No!"

"Oi! What's got into you? Let me in!" He pushed hard on the door, which proceeded to hit Piers across the lip.

"Shit Dudley! If my parent's come home and find blood on the carpet I'll be dead!"

"Hush-up you ninny." He wiped his nose groggily and grabbed his stash from his pocket.

Piers rolled his eyes and ran to the kitchen to grab a towel when he heard the sound he most certainly did not want to hear.

"Piers?" came her voice from the stairs, sweet and innocent. "Who was tha-."

Oh God.

"PIERS! WHAT THE HELL IS SHE DOING HERE?" yelled Dudley from the other room.

Piers flinched, contemplating jumping out his window. "Uh, er, who?"

"GET IN HERE GOD DAMMIT!" yelled the boy, who by the smell had obviously started smoking his joint.

"Leave him out of this Dudley, why is such a problem if I'm here?" asked Clarice angrily cocking an eyebrow.

This time Dudley didn't go weak in the knees. No, this time he went red in the face. "PIERS!" He once again yelled to the other room. "You promised me! You fucking promised me!"

"Promised what?" It wasn't Clarice who had asked that, it was Piers.

"You promised you wouldn't date her!" He pointed at Clarice angrily.

"What? When?" Piers came hurrying in to the living room where Dudley and Clarice were glaring at each other angrily.

"At…" he dropped his voice, "at her mom's funeral."

"You were talking about my relationship status at my mom's funeral?!" yelled Clarice, looking frantically back and forth between the two boys.

Piers put his hands up defensively. "Don't look at me, I don't know what the hell he's talking about!"

"Shaddup Piers," muttered Dudley.

Clarice glared at Dudley and crossed to the skinnier of the two boys and wrapped her arms around him. "Perhaps it would be better for me and Dudley to talk about this alone babe." She put her hand on his cheek and kissed him as fiercely as she could. Going so far as to push him to the wall and wrap one of her legs around his, causing her skirt to rise a little farther than she even intended.

All the while she peeked at the fat boy through one of her eyes, making sure he was watching.

Once satisfied with her performance she pulled back from Piers smiling. "I'll meet you upstairs, alright? I'll get rid of him and we can finish that movie."

Piers nodded dumbly. She'd never kissed him like that before. It was quite possibly the most wonderful sensation he'd ever felt and he practically floated up the stairs.

As soon as Piers was safely out of ear-shot Clarice turned on Dudley, who was gaping at her, his mouth wide in shock.

She opened her mouth to speak, but found no words that would be fitting for the situation.

Suddenly Dudley shot bolt upright and flung himself at her and pressed her against the wall, much like she had just done to Piers, but Clarice wasn't going to be the willing participant that Piers had been. She shoved him off as forcefully as she could.

"What the hell do you think you're doing Dursley?" She stared out a window into the dark abyss that had slowly crept over Privet Drive, it was well into the late hours of the night. A tear fell silently down her face.

"What do you think you're doing Clarice? What are you doing with Piers?" He seemed to have calmed the lustful monster inside and the alcohol seemed to be passing out of his system. His joint lay forgotten on the coffee table.

"I'm moving on with my life Dudley, that's what I'm doing. I'm not the girl I was back then. Back on that night that… that I was with you."

Dudley took a step closer to the crying girl. He was tempted to wipe those tears away. But she took a step away from him. "Wha- what d'ya mean?"

Clarice rested her hand on a nearby cabinet and lightly traced the intricate carvings that made up the expensive piece of furniture. "Can you believe it Dudley… that night I wanted to k-kill myself. Can you imagine feeling so much pain inside that you just want to end it all? It was scary. When I came home after we… well, when I came home I stood on my window sill for over and hour, contemplating leaping. Wondering if death would be any better than life…"

Silence met her monologue and she continued to trace the contours of the wood until finally Dudley spoke.

"I'm sorry about that…" he paused, recalling the night that had seemed so remarkably perfect. "Well, not about that"

"Oh great, thanks. That really means a lot to me," sneered Clarice.

"You were great by the way…"

Clarice dropped her mouth wide open, hardly able to believe the words coming out of his mouth. "What?"

"Probably the best I've had…" he grinned wide remembering her smooth skin against his.

"Ok, that's enough, just leave will you?" she pushed his shoulder a little.

Dudley looked back at her, reminding her of a wounded animal, his lower lip quivering slightly.

She rolled her eyes and shoved him again.

"Just one more thing?" he looked at her questioningly.

She sighed, a bit annoyed that she couldn't return to Piers as soon as she had wanted to. "Ugh, sure, what is it?"

He grinned mischievously and moved as fast as his large form would allow him and he once again pressed her hard against the wall. "I want what you just gave to little Polkiss up there," he whispered in her ear.

And not knowing why or to what end, she complied… quite possibly giving Dudley a little more than he had asked for.

She heard the creak of Pier's door and tried to push Dudley off of her. He grunted, but smiled a wide grin as he pulled away.

Clarice look frantically to the stairs and sighed with relief, her boyfriend wasn't to the landing yet. "Promise you won't tell him?" she hissed.

Dudley whistled a bit as he opened the door. "Uh-huh." He closed the door part-way, but opened it again quickly, looking to the stairs to make sure Piers wasn't there. "You might want to pull your skirt over your arse though… I doubt Piers has gone tha' far yet."

Clarice flushed red with embarrassment and did indeed pull her skirt over her arse just as Piers came into view and Dudley closed the door.