Hey everyone! I'm sorry for such a long time between updates, but I've been kind of sick lately, and I've got a huge paper due, and I need to study for midterms, which are coming up soon for my school.

Also, I kind of wanted to write a longer chapter this time so, that's why it took so long.

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The next week was Dustin's birthday. He was having his party later that afternoon, and they were all having a fun time getting ready. After Dustin's sixth birthday, Dudley and Kate had gotten together and decided that they would only have a big party every other year, and a small family affair every other time. This year was the year for a big party. Dudley was hanging streamers, Sarah arranging Dustin's presents (which thankfully were never as numerous as the ones Dudley had gotten himself) Dustin was putting away anything fragile in case the party got out of control. Kate had barricaded herself in the kitchen for the past week, getting her masterpiece ready for the party. She had literally only emerged late at night to sleep, and awoken early to get cooking again. Dudley had bought take-out for himself and the children, since Kate would not even let them in, not wanting to ruin the surprise.

Dudley had just poked himself in the thumb with a tack, and was sucking on it when he heard a knock at the door. He descended from his stool and opened it. There was Harry, smiling, with a sleek, compact, black car behind him. It looked expensive. Dudley raised his eyebrows in surprise. "Harry?" he asked, then remembering, "Oh I'm sorry, Harry, I forgot I told you to come!"

"It's alright," assured Harry "Look what I bought! I don't know if it's much good, but it was about time I got a car anyway, you know, with Teddy going to school and all…" He stared at it wistfully. Dudley assumed Teddy was Harry's son. "Andromeda could drive if she wanted to, but she's getting on in years, so I thought I'd save her the hassle." Dudley was now thoroughly confused, wondering what this Andromeda person had to do with this Teddy person, and how either of them were related to Harry.

"It's a very nice car," promised Dudley "but it still seems like a lot to buy a car just for trips to King's Cross once a year, and visits to here every once in a while. How much did that cost?" he inquired. He wished Vernon could see and admire the car. It would certainly be interesting his change of attitude towards the car and its owner when he realized it was Harry's.

Harry blushed slightly, and murmured something that sounded like; "Oh, it wasn't that much," Harry seemed slightly embarrassed by his wealth. "What's all this for?" asked Harry, trying to change the subject. "I hope you didn't set all of this up for me?" he grinned.

Dudley realized Harry was still on the doorstep, and showed him in. "No," he stated. "It's Dustin's birthday today. The party starts at noon."

"Happy Birthday!" congratulated Harry. "Is there anything I can do to help?" When Dudley assured him there wasn't, Harry told him, "Then I don't want to intrude, unless…Maybe, can I come by with Teddy and James later? They aren't exactly his age, but they could still be nice to have around?"

"That's a great idea!" exclaimed Dudley. "I'd really like to meet them anyway, and this is a good opportunity." Harry thanked Dudley, stepped out into the driveway, confirmed the time of the party, stepped into his car, and drove away.

It was a few hours later, and everyone was just beginning to arrive. Dustin had invited every boy in his grade, and a few from other grades. They were playing football in the backyard in preparation. Dustin was the goalie, and he was doing pretty well.

"He looks like he might be a good keeper," said Harry, suddenly standing next to him. Dudley jumped. "Sorry," apologized Harry, "You left the door open."

Dudley laughed at his surprise. "Oh, by the way," continued Harry, "This is Teddy." Once again Dudley almost jumped as he noticed the purple-haired teenager.

The boy held out his hand, smiling. "Hello," he said "Nice to meet you. Sorry about my hair. I'd change it, but I'm not very good at it yet."

"Oh, um… it's okay!" said Dudley, confused once again. How could he not control the color of his hair? Either he chose to dye it or not.

"I tried to change it brown, but this purple seems to be a particularly stubborn shade. See?" he bent over, showing Dudley a small tan patch on top of his head. "Now I look stupider than if I hadn't tried at all. It's okay though, everyone here is too short to notice it," he laughed.

"Teddy," chided Harry.

"It's true!"

Harry shook his head, smiling. "And this is…James?" Whoever Harry expected to be there wasn't. "Oh no," he muttered. "JAMES?! Come on, Dudley, you don't want to leave James alone for too long." Dudley quickly ran upstairs, and Harry down. Teddy stayed on the ground floor. He wasn't hard to find. A minute later Dudley heard Teddy yell "I found him!"

Dudley ran down the stairs to find a boy about a year older than Sarah ripping down the streamers he had just put up, and laughing uproariously. Sarah was pouting in the corner, knowing Dudley had spent the morning hanging them up. "I swear," said Harry, picking James up out of the wreckage, "Sometimes you're almost as bad as Uncle George!" Little James cheered, apparently proud to be compared to the Weasley trickster. The tips of Dudley's ears turned red as he remembered the disastrous consequences of the last time he saw 'Uncle' George. Come to think of it, he really hadn't had very many good encounters with wizards. Teddy had apparently lost interest, and was staring out the window, confused, at the little boys playing football. Harry pulled his wand out of his pocket. "You don't mind do you?" he asked, pointing at the ripped up streamers.

"Not at all. It'll be less work than putting them up by hand again," laughed Dudley. Harry waved his wand, and the ripped up streamers reformed, and hung themselves on the wall. Sarah clapped, delighted.

Harry set James down and kneeled to his eye level. "Now James," he began, "you already know that destroying what other people worked for is wrong, so I'm going to ask you to apologize to Uncle Dudley."

James sighed and grumbled, "Not another uncle," before staring down at his feet for a few seconds, then speaking, quite loudly, "I'm sorry, Uncle Dudley."

Dudley assured him it was okay, and sent him and Sarah off to play downstairs. "He can be quite a handful sometimes," Harry sighed. "I think he spends too much time with little Fred. Albus is so much more cooperative. I'd have brought him along, but he's got a bit of the flu."

There was a silence for a moment, interrupted when Teddy asked, "What are they doing?" Dudley looked out the window for a minute before he realized that Teddy was pointing at the boys playing football.

"It's a muggle sport, Teddy," Harry told him. They have to kick the ball into the goal.

"Where are the brooms?" asked Teddy, "Or at least some explosions? A game is no fun without any of those!" Dudley laughed, perplexed at this interesting view of sports in general.

"Why don't you go outside and watch them?" suggested Harry. "You may find that simple games can be fun too." Teddy looked doubtful, but exited the room anyway.

"So how old is he?" asked Dudley, trying to get some information on this whole confusing relation between him and Harry.

"Thirteen," replied Harry. "His third year at Hogwarts is starting soon." He sighed. Dudley did some quick math in his head. If Teddy was Harry's son, then Harry must have… Dudley was surprised. He had gotten the impression Harry was going off on some epic quest. He wouldn't have thought Harry had time for such…frivolities just a few months after he went away.

"So…er…what's the deal with him?" asked Dudley, hoping that there was some other explanation.

"His mother was a metamorphamagus," replied Harry, misinterpreting the question. "It means that she could change her appearance at will, and Teddy inherited that. He doesn't have much control over it yet though," Harry chuckled softly. "You should have seen him during the infamous 'Pig-snout-first-day-of-school' incident." The smile faded slightly from Harry's face. "His father was a great friend of my father and a great friend of mine as well. Both of his parents were killed in the Battle of Hogwarts."

"Oh…" said Dudley in understanding. "I'm sorry,"

"Not your fault at all," continued Harry, "but he lives with his grandmother, Andromeda, and I'm his godfather. He usually comes to visit on weekends."

Dudley nodded. Everything made much more sense now. Dudley heard a shower turn on upstairs. Kate must have finished her cake, and was now washing herself from her days of constant cooking. Maybe Dudley could sneak one small peek… He shushed Harry, then slunk out of the room. His hand hovered over the kitchen doorknob. He slowly brought his hand down to turn it…

"Don't you dare!" came an angry voice from upstairs. Dudley grinned, shrugged at Harry, and went outside to get the party started for real. Ten chaotic games, all of them ending with Harry, Dudley, Teddy, or Mrs. Bard (Mark Bard, Dustin's best friend's mother) being tackled.

The adults shepherded the children in, in preparation for the opening of gifts, and eating of cake. Dudley was rounding up the few stragglers, who were trying to start another game of football, when he heard a knock at the door. He was slightly confused as he went to answer it. Everyone who was expected was there. Dudley got quite a shock when he opened the door to find his parents. Vernon stood unusually straight and upright, a look of grim formality on his face. Petunia clutched her husbands arm.

"Ahem," Vernon coughed, in preparation for what sounded like a prepared speech. "We have decided to support our grandchildren because they are our grandchildren. We will not have anything to do with their…nonsense." Dudley made as if to speak, but Vernon raised a finger to cut him off. "We will still attend events, birthdays, and the like, but don't expect us to go to…" he snorted, "Platform 9 ¾ or whatever it is."

"I'm glad you came around," said Dudley, smiling. He showed them in. Vernon's jaw clenched as he saw Harry, but fortunately, Dudley managed to find a hat and stuff in on Teddy's head before Vernon saw the 'unnatural' color. Sarah and James emerged from the downstairs. James looked like he had fun, but Sarah looked quite exasperated. Dustin looked at the large pile of gifts in front of him, and started to rip them open voraciously.

It was standard ten-year old fare. Squirt guns, footballs, remote control airplanes and cars, games made for some portable device or other. The air was filled with "Oh, Thanks!" and "No problem!" and a few "That looks cool!" Harry had bought him a box filled with different kinds of sweets, none of which Dudley recognized. As Dustin moved on to a few of his other presents, Dudley could have sworn he saw James put what looked like a large cluster of cockroaches into the box of candy. Dudley laughed it off. Vernon and Petunia were doing remarkably well at pretending nothing had changed. It made Dudley feel a bit guilty about the choice of cake.

But it was too late. Dustin had opened his last present, (Some kind of board game) and someone flicked out the lights. There was a dim light coming from the kitchen, as Kate emerged, singing 'Happy Birthday' and holding the most spectacular cake Dudley had ever seen.

It was a massive, three layer cake in a stunning rendition of a castle. Every stone had separate dabs of grey frosting on it, with white 'mortar' connecting them all. There were even towers made of cupcakes, with little roofs made of different kinds of hard candy. There were windows, huge doors, and right across the front of the cake, words reading "Have a magical year!" There were even two little figures, a boy and a girl, standing on the platter, looking straight at the doors. No one but Kate was singing anymore, they were too astounded. It was truly her crowning achievement.

Vernon was shaking in anger, and excused himself to the bathroom. Even Harry was looking very impressed. Kate set it down on the table, and there was silence for a minute, then Dustin took a deep breath and blew out the candles on the top. Every one of them went out. There was another short silence, when Petunia began to clap. A few others joined in, and soon, the room was filled with applause. Even Vernon came in, slightly calmed down, to join in.

With a smile on her face, Kate took a knife and sliced into the cake she had been working on the past week, and heaped a generous slice onto Dustin's plate. "Well, who's next?" she asked. She did not run short on volunteers.

Just to let you know, Dudley was not trying to be a jerk to Vernon, or trying to rub it in his face. He just didn't expect either of them to show up.

So what'd you think?