4 War

Bette moved to his room after telling her parents during dinner. They didn't object, only asked her if she was sure about it. The Dursley parents acted as if they heard nothing and saw nothing. Dudley didn't know how to interpret their behavior.

Ann accompanied them to Dudley's room, now shared with Bette. She insisted on a shag for goodnight. "I'm sure you two will go at it several times during the night. I only ask for one shag, so I can sleep better." Bette smirked and waved them to the bed, already enlarged to be fit for a couple. Dudley thought that being shared by these two sisters was quite fun. He only hoped he could perform well enough.

A few weeks passed the same way. Bette and Dudley were acting like a couple, living in the same room, sharing bed, reading together at the library, sharing showers and baths. Dudley was learning to appreciate reading, as both Ann and Bette were avid readers. Bette had told him something about being sorted to Ravenclaw, but it didn't correlate with anything. They found some books with interesting stories for him, and Bette was good at explaining the stories where Magic was involved. He enjoyed hearing her explanations even more than the stories themselves.

Dudley wasn't quite aware of the passage of time, but the sisters were. "I think we're not going to be left along for long," Bette said one afternoon.

"Why do you think so?" he asked.

"Have you noticed the date? School will start in a few days. I think more Muggle-Borns will have to flee, as the Death Eaters will arrest them on first occasion, and coming to school seems the ideal one."

"Why should they be arrested?" he wondered. Why would one even want to arrest school children?

She sighed. "They claim that muggleborns are stealing magic from the purebloods. That's complete nonsense, as everybody in his right mind can see, but they've already started arresting muggleborns and sending them to concentration camps. Does that ring a bell?"

"Nazi Germany!" he gasped. That was bad. He hadn't studied that era much, but he had several computer games that used that time as a background, if only to justify extreme violence in them. That was really, really bad.

Bette continued, "So, I expect this house and any other safe house to be filled within a few days. I'm glad I'm no longer using my original room, so others can use it. If it gets too crowded, should we ask Ann to join us?" There was clear mischief in the last sentence.

"I like sleeping with you, but even that has some drawbacks. Sharing with another person may be too much, though."

She smirked. "I thought you liked shagging her."

"Sure, once or twice a day. More than that may turn too tiring, and I won't be able to give you what you've become accustomed to." He really thought that way.

Bette turned serious. "You know, we may get some additional girls our age, and not necessarily enough boys. Would you be ready to give similar services to more girls?"

Dudley gulped. Two months earlier, even having sex once was just a dream. Now he was enjoying a very active sex life with these two sisters. Was he able to cope with more? He wasn't sure. "I'll do what I can, but I'd rather spend the time with you."

She smiled, kissed his cheek and went back to her reading.

\/\/\/

Bette's predictions were spot on. During the last week of August, the house got gradually filled. Not all the people came with families, though. Several young men and women arrived with only their clothes on their bodies, clearly rescued at the last moment. Another group consisted of Hogwarts students. All, except the ones who were going to start Hogwarts, already knew each other to some extent and most had their wands with them, as well as some clothing. Hestia and Dedalus were busy with the newcomers, trying each day to juggle the limited resources to give lodging to everyone. Bette's room was soon reallocated for a young expecting couple. Ann offered to share with other girls her age. Despite the house being quite big. Some of the younger children had to do with sharing dorm rooms, like at school. They were set up to six in a room. Magic was used to create beds and other furniture.

"They may also need to use some space expansion charms," Bette told him.

"What are these?"

"They make a room, or whatever enclosure you choose, larger inside than it is outside." She saw his bewildered expression. "Don't try to understand it. That's something that doesn't seem possible, I know, but trust me it is."

Back in their room, she showed him her school trunk. She opened the lid and let him peek in. He saw an opening, barely large enough for him to squeeze through, and a ladder leading down, as if leading to the floor below. "What is it?"

"This is my five-levels trunk. It has five different trunks in it, and I can put different things in each. The last level is practically a small apartment, equipped to keep me safe for a year, at least, with all provisions stored there. If things get worse than expected, we can go in there and lock ourselves in."

"Can't they just burn the trunk?" Dudley asked.

"It's protected well enough against all normal ways of destruction. Besides, I added another charm, making it invisible when necessary, and also another to make it float in the air. With both active, it's possible to steer it somewhere safer."

"What about the rest of your family?"

Bette looked uncomfortable. "I can't do much for them. The trunk will only accept me and my mate. I thought of creating portkeys for them, sending them someplace safe, but I'm not sure I know enough to do that. Besides, where is it really safe? Can you say?"

He shook his head sadly. "Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I know Harry has some important role in trying to defeat that dark lord of yours. I have confidence in him."

Bette nodded in agreement. They could do nothing but hope and have confidence in whoever was trying to fight. None of them could do much besides that.

\/\/\/

Bette's predictions were also spot on in other aspects. While the younger children were about the same number of boys and girls, the older ones, those who could be of interest to Dudley, were mostly girls. There were about three to four times as many girls as boys, and most of those were not magical, while about half the girls were witches. Bette had no logical explanation for this, but the situation was very close to what she had suspected it would be. When staying in the library, about ten girls would seat themselves nearby, trying to attract Dudley's attention. A few were even quite bold, unbuttoning their blouses enough to let him see more than a glimpse of their breasts, or sit in a way that would make him notice the fact that they were wearing nothing under their skirts. As much as he enjoyed the views, he didn't think he could feel comfortable with any of these girls.

He felt better with the subtler attention of other girls, and Bette was actually encouraging him to get closer with them. "The way they act, you can probably shag them all each day and none would complain," she told him.

"Why are you so eager for me to shag other girls? I thought you'd like me to be only yours, at least for a while."

She shrugged. "If we get out of this alive, we may feel like we had enough of each other while hiding. I want you to enjoy other girls as well so you won't feel like you had to give up something, if and when we decide to formalize our relationship."

Dudley felt quite overwhelmed by this declaration. How could she think of any formal relations with him? She was a witch, and quite a talented one, if he could judge that, besides being a nice young woman who could also be extremely sexy, if she chose to, while he… He felt like he was a nobody, the son of a bigoted bully and a gossip. He knew he wasn't the brightest star at school and aside from his muscles and his size there was not much he could offer. Why should such a nice witch want to formalize… That really meant marriage, didn't it? Why should she want to marry him?

Dudley had become acutely aware of all his shortcomings since that encounter with a Dementor. It was not that he didn't like the idea of having Bette for a wife, although he wasn't sure what being married to such a girl could mean. He liked her very much and enjoyed seeing her reading, solving some problems or just sleeping at his side, her face tranquil, her chest moving slightly as she breathed.

His parents would never agree to him marrying a witch, of that he felt sure. But Bette was not just a witch. She was a kind person who cared for her sister and her parents, who also paid attention to the younger children that arrived and tried to comfort them, especially those who arrived alone, with no family. He had seen her holding a sobbing boy, caressing his head and his back and whispering soothingly at him. Dudley could easily imagine her as a young mother, comforting her own child, his child. He wondered why he was thinking that way of her.

Eventually, he did as she suggested. He didn't take any other girl to his bed. It was his and Bette's only. After the first time, even Anne didn't come to that bed, and he wanted to keep it this way. Instead, Bette partitioned a small segment from the library, making its interior large enough to accommodate a double canopy bed, two night stands and a fireplace. It was enough for any of the girls who wanted a shag and it felt alright for him.

Dudley didn't accept just any girl, though. He rejected the sluttier ones, feeling uncomfortable with them. He also rejected ones younger than sixteen, considering them too young. The others were enough to keep him busy every morning and most of the afternoons.

\/\/\/

With so many people kept away from everything, news became a sought after commodity. Likky was instructed to bring two copies of the Daily Prophet each day, along with anything else of interest. A wireless receiver was also brought, but was kept in a separate room, reserved for the adults only. Dudley wasn't sure if that was a good idea. Both the newspaper and the wireless were controlled by the current Ministry and whatever was published seemed more of a propaganda than real news. Well, except for the unofficial news they could occasionally get from Potter Watch – a clandestine transmission that seemed to broadcast the real news, as unpleasant as it was turning to be. Each time they would mention the names of those killed in Death-Eaters raids and those who had just "disappeared". Whatever he didn't truly understand, Bette was more than willing to explain. "They are still listing Harry at the top of the undesirable list. This means that they hadn't yet found him, which is good news."

They didn't talk about names removed from the list. Everybody knew what that meant. Dudley found his anxiety was rising constantly. At first, shagging all those girls was a way of relaxing, at least mentally, but as time passed, it proved less and less relaxing. The girls could not relax either. He was just closing the door behind one of the older ones, almost eighteen years old, when she burst crying, clinging to him as if he was her savior. It took him some time to hug her comfortingly and caress her hair and her back before she calmed down enough to talk.

"I've heard the news yesterday. She used to be my dorm mate for six years. We weren't real friends, but living with someone for so long does something to you. I thought she left the country. At least I hoped so. Then they found her body mutilated. She was evidently raped multiple times before the werewolves tore her to pieces. She used to be such a nice girl..."

He shagged nobody that morning, spending it all on trying to comfort the distraught girl. Eventually, Bette found some calming potion and gave it to the girl, and then accompanied her to her bed, where another potion let her sleep. Dudley wasn't sure if that was the best treatment for such a situation, but it was the best they could do there. He then spent several hours just hugging Bette, trying to remove the memory of those atrocities from his own mind.

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