The Start of Something New
Rating: K+ I think, slight bad language by Dudley.
Disclaimer: I have no rights to these characters, they being the sole property of JK Rowling and am making no money from said story.
After the Incident with the Dementors Dudley has made peace of a sort with Harry. This is hopefully the furtherance of their friendship / family relationship after they leave school and move on to adult life.
The Start of Something New
Chapter 7 Cafes and Pubs.
I was home for Easter and most likely for good. I just had revision for my final exams in a couple of months and then it was out into the wild world of work. My tutor was confident I'd get a good grade. I was already getting ready to apply for positions for when I got my results. I was hopefully going to work somewhere where I didn't have to live with Mum and Dad. I enjoyed the time I spent with them, but I enjoyed my independence just as much.
I had already spoken to Mum about going with her to the gym on Sunday, I needed to keep myself fit after all. She was pleased with the prospect of not having to spend nearly an hour on the bus, and saw no duplicity in my going with her.
I hadn't had chance to speak to her about the wedding yet or the fact that I'd got their invitation in my bag. That would have to wait until Dad was not around. Harry might think, he could invite him, but I thought there was no chance he'd go.
Sunday morning came and I drove Mum to the gym, she went off to get changed and I waited a few minutes for Harry to arrive. There was a loud CRACK from outside and Harry walked in through the main doors of the gym, carrying what looked like a perfectly normal gym bag. "I see; going undercover as a normal muggle are we?"
He looked at me, with my bag, exactly the same make as the one he was carrying. "Sorry, but I can take no credit for it. Ginny got the bag for me. Said if I was going to get fit I was going to do it properly. So it looks like you might have a gym partner, for more than just today."
"What have I let myself in for," I grinned, "come on, I'll show you where to go!"
Later after our workout's Harry and I were waiting in the cafe for Mum. I was sitting facing the door and Harry had his back to the door so Mum wouldn't be aware of who it was at first. One thing, that might give her some clue, was the jumper he was wearing, then again, maybe not, it was fairly ordinary looking from the back, just a normal grey jumper. I looked through the observation window of the cafe and just saw Mum starting up the stairs to join us, or me as she thought. "Dudley, are you going to introduce me to your friend?"
"I shouldn't need any introduction! You should know who I am." For a moment, Mum looked confused at this person sat with his back to her addressing her in this way. He stood up and turned around, "hello Aunt Petunia." The look on her face was one of complete shock. If we were not careful here, she was going to faint on us.
"Harry! Oh! You look well!" she looked down at her feet, "I hear you're getting married. To a nice girl I hope?" she looked up at Harry again. "Have you set a date, yet?"
"Err Mum!" she looked at me. "I've got your invitation at home. I'll give it to you when we get back." She looked at me again and nodded, swallowing hard.
"I'm sorry, Harry, I..."
"AUNT PETUNIA!" she shut up and looked at Harry, "I've forgiven you in my way, and we don't need to go through that again. I understand why you felt how you did and I understand something of how you got round it." Mum sniffed and looked at Harry through her tears. "I knew nothing about my Mum and Dad either; I was in Godric's Hollow on Christmas Eve, that year you were in hiding. I didn't have any real memories of them; I'd heard things about them from school friends, but knew nothing for myself, I saw the house where they'd died, where I was orphaned" he sniffed and wiped tears from his own eyes. "I saw the memorial, the same as you did, and it helped put some substance to the few things I knew."
Harry stopped and again wiped the tears from his eyes. Mum gave a cry and grabbed Harry in her arms, patting him on the back as he cried at the memories they both shared. Eventually the pair of them had cried themselves out in each other's arms and were sitting next to each other at one of the tables in the cafe. I got up and bought three cups of coffee from the machine and we all sat there looking uncomfortable.
"Aunt Petunia, I've given Dudley your invitation to the wedding, but there's something else you should know about the ceremony." Mum looked at him with a concerned look in her eyes, what did he mean? "I've asked Dudley to be my best man at the wedding, it means he'll have to wear dress robes, but I think he'll be able to cope."
Mum looked at me and at Harry, "where will he have to go to get these robes, I know Lily went somewhere to get her school stuff, but I can't remember where it was. Would I have to wear robes?" she sniffed again and wiped at her eyes, but this time she was smiling.
"You won't have to wear dress robes if you don't want to. You can wear what you like. Dudley will be wearing normal clothes under his robes." Mum looked almost disappointed at this piece of news.
"I think I should, I don't want to look out of place."
"You won't, there will be others not in robes."
"Who? I'm sorry with the way I treated you, the families round here, all think you were some kind of criminal. I wouldn't think you knew that many normal people."
Harry looked at her, obviously concerned, "what do you mean normal?"
"Well obviously non magical people, what do you call us?"
"Err! Muggles, remember Hagrid called you muggles the night he picked me up, all those years ago from that ridiculous hut. And I know some people from Little Whinging who didn't believe your story about me! There's Mrs. Figg for one!"
"She's a witch; I always thought she was just an eccentric old lady, though she was the only person who'd look after you when you were younger. We would dump you on her whenever we treated Dudley."
"She helped me get Dudley home the night we were attacked by those dementors. I found out that night she was a squib, born to magical parents, but no magical talent of her own. She's a bit more connected to our world now; our world is starting to look at people like her in a different light."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Have you never wondered where my Mum got her magic from? You could have been related to our world in you past, you could possibly have a squib in your ancestry. We don't know for certain how Muggleborn witches like my Mum happen. It could be ancestry or just random, but now we're looking into it."
"Oh right, I see! I'll have to speak to Mrs. Figg, find out a few things about your world. I would like to wear robes at your wedding though!" she grinned. "I never got the chance when I was younger, I so wanted to go to Hogwarts, this will be my chance to connect in some way to Lily at your wedding."
Harry tutted at this, "oh dear, my aunt wants to play dress up at her nephew's wedding." He was grinning from ear to ear as he said this, and then looked deep in thought for a moment. "I have an idea that will show you something of what your sister had and let you into our world for yourself. I'll come and collect you both from yours a week before Dudley's birthday and take you into Diagon Alley. Dudley has already been there, but you haven't, we can show you around and you can get fitted for robes then. How does that sound? You can also meet Ginny and a couple of her brothers."
The look on her face was a picture. I knew that the idea appealed to her. Her last real interaction with the wizard world had been three years ago when she caught the Knight Bus to Godric's Hollow and she was so touched by what she had seen there, it had been an epiphany for her. "I would like that very much, thank you Harry. It would be so nice to meet your fiancé before the wedding, and get to know some of her family beforehand. I wouldn't feel so out of place; just knowing Dudley and you."
"Ok! I'll telephone you nearer the date to confirm it all and make proper plans, but I must be going now or I'll never make it to the ceremony! Mum looked concerned at this statement and Harry grinned. "I'm going to undo all the good I've just done at the gym today and have dinner with Ginny and her family today, Molly will never forgive me if I'm late." He kissed Mum on the cheek, stood up, collected his bag and with a quick glance to see that we were unobserved, he turned on the spot and apparated home with a loud crack.
Mum gave a start and dropped her coffee, splashing me, so it looked like I'd wet my trousers. Luckily the coffee was cold, so it did no damage except to my dignity. "Oops! Sorry Dudley, but I've never seen it before. I remember when we apparated to and from Tinworth, but that's not quite the same." With that we both got up and made our way to my car for the journey home, me carrying my bag in such a way as to hide the embarrassing stain on my trousers.
Back at home, the atmosphere settled back to normal over the next few weeks, Mum was quite excited about the prospect of seeing Diagon Alley to get a fitting for wizard robes, and we talked a lot about the shops she would see and the people she would meet. All this whenever Dad was out of the house though. Mum seemed to be of the opinion that he might be persuaded to go to the wedding. I didn't think so, but who could tell, she might be right. Miracles do happen.
It was on a Friday in the beginning of June when Harrry phoned to make arrangements for our trip to London. I was home for a long weekend, I had had an exam on Thursday and my next wasn't until the following Wednesday, the last of my exams. we made arrangements for harry to come and collect us that Monday morning and take us both to get our robes for the wedding. Dad was a little curious about our sudden trip to London, but accepted Mum's explanation that we were going shopping for my birthday would be just under a week away by the Monday.
We were both seated in Mrs. figg's lounge drinking tea served to us by Mr. tibbles, her house elf when there was a knock at the back door. mum had become quite friendly with Mrs. figg over the last few weeks after learning about her connection to Harry's world and in circumstances similar to mine had learned a lot from her about the recent history of the magical world.
Mrs. figg opened the door for us to see no one there, but she moved aside as if letting someone in and closed the door again. Suddenly Harry was standing in the kitchen with a broomstick under his arm, folding something light and silvery up in his hands. "sorry, it was a bit far to apparate from where I was, and there were no floo connections either." He pulled a small rather tatty looking bag from his pocket and shoved the broomstick into it and placed it back in his pocket. Mum and I just looked in amazement at this feat. Harry noticing our incredulity, muttered "undetectable extension charm," whatever that meant, under his breath and greeted us all warmly.
Refusing the offer of a cup of tea, he reached towards the mantlepiece and checked a small pot there. Reassured there was enough for our needs, "I'll bring you some more back when we return," he said to Mrs. figg. he handed the pot to me and just said The Leaky Cauldron. I tossed the powder into the fire place and was off.
I stumbled out of the fireplace to be handed a clothes brush by the familiar face of Hannah, "good grief, Tom's not on holiday still is he?"
"no, he's out the back but I've got a regular job here now." We chatted together amiably for a few minutes while I waited patientky for Mum to appear.
After what must have been a least five minutes she stumbled out of the fireplace, looking slightly dizzy to be handed the brush by Hannah, Harry followed immediately behind. "sorry, your Mum was a little apprehensive about using the floo, I forgot she'd never seen it before, she was quite convinced I'd burnt you to a crisp for a couple of minutes."
Mum had the decency to look embarrassed at this. She looked at our surroundings. "where are we exactly?"
"the Leaky Cauldron pub, on the Charing Cross Road, it's famous in the wizarding world. Come on, let's go shopping." Harry led us out the back entrance to the small enclosed courtyard that was the entrance to Diagon Alley and got his wand out to create the doorway. I coughed and got my card out, looked at him and Mum. He grinned at me, seeing what I'd got in mind and I counted bricks to find the correct one and tapped it with my card.
Mum had a look of almost girlish glee on her face as the wall slowly open to show the alley behind. I could almost see in her eyes the young girl who had wriiten to Hogwarts begging to be let in as a student all those years ago, nnow she would finally see part of that dream come true...
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