CHAPTER SIX

Halloween took everyone by surprise, because they'd all been so busy with homework - and, in Harry's case, Quidditch practice - that none of them had realized they'd been at Hogwarts for two whole months. So when Dudley woke to the smell of baking pumpkin wafting down from the kitchens, he laid in bed a few extra minutes, enjoying the quiet as he sorted through his thoughts. It'd been about a week since he'd talked to Malfoy, and since then, he hadn't seen much of him except at meals. Harry hadn't, either, and Dudley was beginning to hope that Malfoy was thinking about what he'd said.

In any case, he had other things to worry about. He hauled himself out of bed and made for the showers, torn between being happy that his first class of the day was with Gryffindor, and despairing that it was Defense Against the Dark Arts. He was well tired of the reeking classroom and Quirrel's constant stammering, and the others didn't seem to be faring much better. Harry had headaches almost every class, Neville half-suspected he was developing asthma from the stench alone, and the lessons weren't moving fast enough for Hermione. Ron and Hannah seemed to be the only ones who actually enjoyed it, and they were over the moon about learning the Knockback Jinx.

As Dudley passed the bathroom mirror, he glanced in, only to stop dead with his mouth hanging open in shock, because the mirror was reflecting an older Dudley. After he recovered from the surprise, he discovered that the bathroom had changed too, and it was, of course, one of the bathrooms at Smeltings. The boy in the mirror was sixteen and the thinnest he'd ever been as a child. The dark circles under his eyes served as proof that he'd had the same dreams about the dementors that plagued him now. Dudley gazed sympathetically at this false reflection and couldn't help reaching out to give the glass a gentle pat.

"It's for the best," he whispered, then watched in astonishment as the memory did something none of the others had.

It changed.

The reflection's eyes shifted to stare directly back at him, and it mouthed, "Not this brave at night, are you?"

Dudley reared back, every alarm bell in his head going off at once. His reflection only stared, dead-eyed, and as he pressed himself against the far wall, the memory vanished with a faint crackling sensation. He let his head hit the wall with a quiet thump and rubbed a shaking hand over his face. A moment later he nearly had a heart attack when Ernie banged a fist on the door. "Dursley, hurry it up! You're not the only one who needs a shower!"

"Okay!" Dudley called back, and pointedly did not look at the mirror again.

When they entered the Defense class that morning, it was to find that all the desks had been pushed to the back of the room, and a large number of garish pillows littered the floor. Apparently, this lesson would be a practical one. Sighing, Dudley resigned himself to the Gryffindors finally seeing how crap he was at magic. So far it hadn't really been an issue, because as first years, most of what they learned was theory, and everyone started off about the same. However, everyone else had also improved over the year. Dudley really, really hadn't - though his wand form was fast approaching perfection.

Once the students were all standing awkwardly in front of the cushions and Harry was rubbing absently at his scar, Quirrel turned from writing the spell on the board and smiled nervously. "N-n-now," he began, "th-the Knockback J-jinx is not complex. The p-purpose of the spell is t-to, as the n-name suggestst, push someone o-or something backwards." His blue eyes scanned the group of students, and he gestured to Hannah. "P-please stand there," he said, indicating a clear spot on the floor, then arranged the cushions behind her, sticking some to the wall with a quick, muttered charm. "W-watch closely," Quirrel instructed the rest of them, almost tripping on a cushion as he moved to stand in front of Hannah. He cleared his throat and raised his wand with surprising grace before uttering the incantation and giving his wand a firm wave. Hannah was flung backwards into the cushions, and she landed with a surprised yelp. She blinked, then uttered a whoop of delight and staggered to her feet.

Afterwards, Quirrel gave them instructions on wand movements and pronunciation, then unstuck the cushions from the wall and had them pair up to practice on those. At first, no one was able to make their cushion do much more than twitch, but then Seamus Finnegan accidentally set fire to the cushion he and Harry were sharing, and after that everyone paid a little more attention to what they were doing. Soon, a handful of cushions were scooting cautiously across the floor.

Dudley was paired up with Hannah, and gladly let her go first. As she struggled with the cushion, he turned his attention to the other students, and almost immediately spotted a problem - Hermione and Ron had been put together. The redhead was flailing ineffectually at their cushion, and Hermione wore a long-suffering look. "It's fli-PEN-do, not FLEE-pen- doo," she finally snapped, "and you're holding your wand too stiffly."

Ron lowered his hand and scowled at her. "You do it then, if you're so clever," he snarled.

With a delicate sniff, Hermione rolled up the sleeves of her robes, then waved her wand and uttered the incantation without hesitation. The cushion shot away, nearly hitting Justin Finch-Fletchley in the face. The other students stopped what they were doing in surprise, and Dudley hastened to stifle a laugh. "W-well done, Miss Granger!" Quirrel said, looking just as surprised as anyone else. "V-very well d-done." Hermione beamed at him, then turned to Ron and raised her eyebrows. He glared, then stomped off to retrieve the cushion.

By the end of class, during which Ron accidentally-on-purpose managed to hit Hermione in the face with the slightly ragged cushion, they were no longer speaking to each other, and when they set off for the next class, Harry cast a helpless look back at the Hufflepuffs, who could only give him sympathetic looks in return.

The teacher for Magical Theory was a squat, calm Asian witch who was always very kind to everyone. Her grey hair was done up differently every day - this time, it was all curls, and there were little ribbons woven through that shown like sunlight. It made her look as if she had a cloud on her head, and some of the girls cooed in delight. She smiled at the Hufflepuffs as they took their seats, then resumed writing on the board. Dudley pulled out his textbook, parchment, and quill, then watched as the Slytherins filtered in. There was no sign of Malfoy.

Dudley wondered at it, staring at Malfoy's empty seat until Professor Saowaluk gently tapped his desk with her wand to catch his attention. "While your concern for your absent peers is admirable," she said quietly, smiling, "you are in class, Mr. Dursley. Please pay attention." She waited patiently for him to open his book and directed him to the page they were currently reading before resuming her lecture.

It wasn't until he was walking to the Halloween Feast that night that Dudley thought about Malfoy again, and he couldn't help asking his friends if they'd seen him. Neville and Hannah were just as clueless, but Hermione, who was walking with them to avoid Ron, said, "Just now I heard Pansy Parkinson saying that he was going to the second floor, but she didn't say why. Is something going on with you two? We haven't seen much of him all week."

"Not really," Dudley said, shrugging. "It's just, I said something to him last time I saw him, about - before this summer."

Hermione's face softened as she realized what he was saying. "Oh. You're trying to help him, then?"

"If I can." Before they could say more, however, they stepped into the Great Hall, and the Halloween decorations swept everything else from their minds. Thousands of black bats fluttered from the walls and swooped over the tables in swarms, making the candles - which were inside floating Jack O' Lanterns - stutter. Covering the walls were great thick tapestries with orange-and-black borders, depicting scenes of ghosts and werewolves and zombies. One of the more gruesome figures waved cheerily at Neville, who went a bit pale before hesitantly waving back.

Hermione followed them to the Hufflepuff table, pausing only to narrow her eyes and turn up her nose at Ron, who made a face back at her. Harry stared longingly after the group, only to be distracted by Professor Dumbledore's brief Halloween speech, which was followed immediately by the appearance of food on the tables. There was an almost alarming number of sweets, but there were also meats and vegetables, which is where it got a little weird. There was a bowl of brussels sprouts charmed to look like eyeballs, and cauliflower done up like brains, and elaborate kebab skeletons.

Dudley was just helping himself to a bit of roast when Professor Quirrel came sprinting into the hall, his turban askew and a look of pure terror on his face. Everyone stared as he reached Dumbledore's chair, slumped against the table, and gasped, "Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."

He sank to the floor in a dead faint.

There was an immediate uproar, and it took several purple firecrackers exploding fro the end of Dumbledore's wand to bring silence. Dudley, through the ringing in his ears, could faintly hear someone sniffling. "Prefects," Dumbledore called, voice clear as a bell, "lead your Houses back to their dormitories immediately!"

Hermione went to join the Gryffindors, and Dudley trailed behind Neville and Hannah as the Hufflepuffs were led out. "How could a troll get in?" Neville wondered, stumbling a little as he was jostled by other students.

"I dunno, they're supposed to be really stupid," Hannah said, reaching out to steady him. "Maybe Peeves let it in as a joke?"

As they passed through the Gryffindors, Dudley realized that if Malfoy really was up on the second floor, then he'd have no idea about the troll. He agonized about it for a minute, then checked to make sure no one was watching before slipping away and tailing the Gryffindors. He walked behind a couple of older students and kept a wary eye out as they climbed the stairs, but everything was so chaotic that no one noticed him at all. The Gryffindors reached the second floor and continued on to the next staircase, but Dudley broke away, ducking into an alcove just to be certain. He took a moment to half-heartedly try to talk himself out of looking for Malfoy, but in the end, found himself leaving the alcove anyway. Not for the first time, he wished his magic was stronger. If it was, maybe he could've learned a tracking spell - it would certainly make life easier.

He made quick work of it, peeking into classrooms and closets and bathrooms, but he soon got so turned around that he found himself in front of the third floor corridor again. He scowled at the door, and wondered if this had been Malfoy's destination after all. He stepped closer, and was just about to try the door when he heard a shrill scream. It sounded like it was coming from the stairwell, so he took off, struggling to remember the way. One false turn later, he found himself staring, mouth open, at the enormous troll in his path. It smelled horrible, had to be at least twelve feet tall, and held a club that he really did not want to get acquainted with. Beyond the troll, pressed against the stone railing with no way to get to the stairs, was Malfoy. His pale eyes were huge and watery with fear, and he was panting as if he'd been running.

"Oi!" Dudley shouted before he could think better of it. Malfoy's eyes snapped to him, but the troll either didn't hear him or was very slow. He picked up the closest thing at hand, which was a small, heavy statue of a satyr.

"What d'you think you're doing?" the statue demanded in a high-pitched voice, then squealed in fear as he chucked it at the troll. It bounced off the thing's head, and Dudley suddenly found himself the center of attention.

"That's right," he called, rolling up his sleeves, "why don't you come get me? Lots more meat on these bones." He had no idea if trolls even ate people, but he shoved it from his mind because there was really no time to worry about it.

The troll grunted and lurched towards him, raising the club, and Dudley shot off, sliding a little and bumping into the railing a few yards from Malfoy, who was staring at him like he was mad. The troll looked around, confused, and Dudley took out his wand. "Over here, you big oaf!" An idea formed in his mind, and while he quietly bemoaned its idiocy, he nevertheless risked a quick glance over the railing before ducking to the side as the troll's club smashed a nearby side table to bits.

He scrambled to get out of range, and got to his feet. "Flipendo!" he shouted, waving his wand, and the troll stumbled a little, though that was possibly due to its own clumsiness. It turned to stare at him, then lifted its club, and Dudley tried the spell again. The troll moved back a few inches, and it looked down at its feet in confusion. Dudley gritted his teeth, then roared the incantation, putting everything he had into it. He waved the wand almost viciously, as if it were a sword, and a blast of silver light shot out and knocked the troll's club out of its hand and over the railing.

Which wasn't what Dudley had been trying to do, and he wasn't sure he had another successful Knockback Jinx in him, but the troll turned and tried to catch its club, leaning far over the railing. Dudley threw himself at the troll, yelling as he did in hopes it would startle the damn thing, and hit just right. The momentum knocked the overbalanced troll over the railing, and Dudley was barely able to keep from going over himself. He watched, panting, as the troll fell three stories, missing a moving staircase by pure chance, before crashing into the floor just as the teachers emerged from a corridor. Someone let out a little scream of surprise, and all eyes turned upward to see what had caused the troll to fall.

"Dursley!"

Dudley jumped, startled, and found Snape swooping towards him, his face contorted with rage. He was limping, and Dudley wondered what he could possibly have been doing. Before he could follow that line of thought, however, he was seized by the front of his robes. "What were you thinking! Why aren't you in your dormitory?"

"I-" Dudley began, then remembered why he'd gone looking in the first place. "Malfoy!" He twisted in Snape's grip to see if the blond was still there, and fortunately, he was, though he still looked a few kinds of terrified. "Are you all right?"

Snape turned his head to stare at the other boy and repeated the question, and Malfoy nodded jerkily. Satisfied for the moment, he released his hold on Dudley, then said, more calmly, "Explain yourself."

Dudley slumped against the railing with a shaky sigh, putting his wand away. "I heard that Malfoy was up here, so I wanted to warn him about the troll," he explained. "Since Professor Quirrel said it was in the dungeons, I figured there'd be plenty of time. When I finally found him, the troll had first, so I distracted it and, well..." He gestured at the railing, assuming Snape had seen the last bit. The man stepped forward to gaze over the side, then looked at him.

"I will leave your punishment to your Head of House," he said, a fresh undercurrent of anger in his words, "but for quick thinking, I'll award five points to Hufflepuff."

Amazed, Dudley watched wordlessly as Snape went to Malfoy, who was red in the face by now. "I didn't need help," the Slytherin said petulantly, but in Snape's presence, there wasn't much strength to it, and he struggled to his feet. As Snape began to herd them towards the stairs, McGonagall and Sprout reached the floor, and the tension went out of them when they saw that everyone was all right.

"Mr. Dursley is the one who fought the troll," Snape said, gesturing at him in angry, twitching movements. "Pomona, I think it's best if you decide what to do with him."

The witch nodded and crooked a finger at Dudley, who followed her obediently. As they went, he heard McGonagall say, "And the corridor?"

"Secure," Snape replied. "Must not've had time. The troll moved fast. Come along, Draco."

In the end, Professor Sprout was more relieved that he was in one piece than anything else, so she set him up for detentions in the greenhouses all next week and gave him a bear hug before shooing him into the Hufflepuff common room and going back to help the rest of the teachers. The feast had been brought to the common rooms, and everyone was standing around chatting happily amongst themselves. Neville and Hannah were on him immediately.

"Where were you?" Hannah cried, setting her plate aside so she could thump him on the head. "We were so worried!"

"Did you go looking for Malfoy?" Neville asked, and Dudley blinked at him in surprise.

"Er, yeah," he admitted, then drew them into a corner and told them the whole story. Around the time he was handed a plate piled high with food and sweets, he realized that most of the common room was listening. He cleared his throat, then resumed his tale, balancing the plate on his knees so he could gesture, concluding with, "and then, splat! The troll hit the ground right in front of all the teachers."

Amidst the excited chatter that followed, Justin said, "And just how much trouble are you in?"

Dudley shrugged, picking up his plate. "Detention with Professor Sprout all of next week. It was worth it, though."

"Why do it in the first place?" Susan Bones asked, frowning. "Malfoy isn't exactly nice to you."

"No," he agreed, "but I don't want him dead." With that, he grabbed a fork and started to eat.

The crowd broke apart, leaving Hannah and Neville at his side. Cedric hovered for a moment, as if unsure whether to scold or congratulate him, and finally settled for patting his shoulder and saying, "Well, glad you made it out all right." That done, he wandered off.

Neville offered him a goblet of pumpkin juice. "So what happened after you won?" he asked, once again seeing straight to the heart of the matter.

"Snape came up behind me," Dudley said, gladly accepting the drink. "Scared the hell out of me, I almost went over the side myself. He scolded me for being an idiot, then gave me five points for saving Malfoy and turned me over to Professor Sprout."

His friends stared at him, gobsmacked. "You sure you didn't hit your head, Dudley?" Hannah asked, eyeing him with concern, and he grinned.

"If I have brain damage, it's because of you," he teased, and she laughed sheepishly.

"Sorry," she said, smiling and ruffling his hair. "We were really worried."

"I wouldn't have reacted much better," Dudly admitted. "If Snape hadn't shown up I probably would've thumped Malfoy."

Hannah snorted, clearly imagining it, and Neville shook his head. "I think most of the school would've liked to see that."

By breakfast the day, though Dudley was at a loss to say how, everyone in school knew the story of how he'd defeated the troll. Fortunately, the majority of them also agreed that it was impossible for a first year to do such a thing alone, so it was mostly ignored. Harry, Hermione, and Ron were another story, however. The rift between Ron and Hermione seemed to be closed for the time being, to everyone's relief, but that didn't mean they were afraid to argue.

"Honestly, you could've been killed," Hermione said sternly after Dudley shared the actual story with them. "What if the jinx hadn't worked?"

"Probably would've thrown himself at the troll sooner," Ron said with a snort. "Good one, mate."

"Don't encourage him, Ronald," Hermione said, frowning at him. Ron opened his mouth, but Dudley didn't hear what he said, because Harry lightly touched his arm to get his attention.

"Are you really okay, though?" he asked quietly, and Dudley was taken aback by the genuine concern on his face. His relationship with Harry had been surprisingly good since the summer, but he didn't think for a second that Harry'd completely forgiven him for anything. Which was fine, Dudley didn't expect to be forgiven any time soon, considering, but it also meant that he didn't expect Harry to treat him as a friend in the meantime, so moments like this still tended to catch him off guard.

Pulling himself together, he smiled. "I'm fine. I have a small bruise on my arm, but that could be from anything, honestly. I'm just glad you guys didn't run into the troll, it was disgusting."

"D'you think Malfoy will be nicer now?" Hannah wondered behind them, and Ron, who was no longer bickering with Hermione, snorted.

"I doubt it," he said, buttering a piece of toast. "If Dudley was pureblood, maybe. Malfoy's been brainwashed from day one."

"I didn't mean just that," Harry interrupted, slowly, carefully, as if worried about his cousin's reaction. "It's just - ever since summer, you've been really different. For the most part it's good, I'm glad of it, believe me. But more and more you just seem to... drift off. You turn into someone else for a bit."

"And then scary things happen," Hannah put in quietly. "Like falling off your broom and getting hurt, or talking to people who aren't there."

Now Ron looked confused, and Hermione and Neville were watching with varying degrees of worry. Dudley gaped at all of them. He knew that some things were a little obvious, but he thought he'd been hiding his episodes better than that. "I'm fine, really. I mean, thank you, for worrying, but." He scratched his head and looked away, feeling sheepish. "I'm not having an easy time adjusting, and, well, the situation with mum and dad... I just have a lot of weird dreams, and they bleed over a bit." It isn't entirely untrue, he thought to himself, just... mostly.

Hermione frowned. "Why don't you ask Madam Pomfrey for a sleeping potion?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Dudley admitted, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"After today's classes, go talk to her about it," she ordered, reminding him forcibly of the woman he used to know. "We're all worried."

Dudley looked at all of their small, frowning faces, and for the first time, really felt the age gap. He smiled warmly at them, then gave Hermione a cheeky salute. "Aye aye, Captain." Her stern demeanor broke, and she giggled despite herself.

He cast a glance up at the high table, where Professor Dumbledore was cheerfully peeling an orange. I have to talk to him as soon as possible, he decided. I can't keep on like this.