"Dudley, I'm sure it's nothing," Harry tried to reassure his cousin over the phone.
"But it's been over a week, and I still haven't heard from her," Dudley said on the other line. "How far away is this school anyways?"
"Pretty far," Harry told him. "At least a two day trip for an owl, plus the weather has been lousy around here lately, so probably even longer."
"But still, that's plenty of time for a letter or something to get here by now."
"Maybe she got distracted, or maybe her owl got blown off course, that can sometimes happen."
"Yah, maybe."
"Look, I've got to go, Albus and James have started another one of their arguments again, and it looks like it can turn nasty."
"Good luck," Dudley wished him. "I'll call you if I hear any news."
"Right, bye."
"Bye."
Dudley hung up phone with a sigh. Despite Harry's reassurance, he was terribly worried about his daughter, who he had not heard from since she had rode off on the Hogwarts Express.
It was funny, now that he thought about it. Fifteen or so years ago, he would've never imagined himself as the sort of person who would stay up half the night preoccupied over his child. But that is exactly what he did every night for the past week. He couldn't help it; she was all that he had. He hadn't spoken to his parents since his father had kicked him out of the house, and as for his ex-wife….
Dudley felt a pang inside of him at the very thought of her.
He had loved Mildred like he had never loved anyone before. They met at a local pub. Dudley was sitting at the bar, enjoying a glass of mead, when Mildred appeared next to him and asked if he had change to use the pay phone outside. Dudley's first thought of her was that she was obviously some sort of hallucination, brought on by his drink, for he had never believed any woman could be so beautiful; he fell for her at once. He bought her a few drinks, and by the end of the night, Dudley felt that he had found his true love. He proposed to her a month later, and she accepted. Mildred insisted that she didn't want to wait to marry Dudley, so the couple eloped at a nearby chapel, much to the dismay of his mother, who was looking forward to planning a large wedding. A year later, Alexandra was born, and within weeks after that, Mildred received the first of many promotions at her job, and her and Dudley's relationship began to go downhill.
Dudley knew something was going wrong with their marriage. She was never home, even though she had Alexandra to care for. And then there were the nights she insisted that she had tons of work to catch up on at the office, but she never brought her briefcase with her. He had let this problem sit for awhile, telling himself over and over again that things would get better, that they were just in a rut. But then, when Alexandra had just turned three, she told Dudley she had had enough. She simply wasn't in love with him any more, and she wanted to focus on her career. The divorce was finalized the next month, and he never heard from her again.
The months following that, Dudley slipped into a hard stage of depression. He nearly got fired from his job, and most of the time just slouched around in his bedroom, trying to convince himself that it was all a bad dream. If it hadn't been for Alexandra, Dudley probably would've committed suicide.
He had to admire Alexandra's strength. He knew it had to be hard for her to grow up without a mother, yet she never let that fact get to her, or at least she never let it show…
Dudley sighed, and slid onto his couch with his laptop, and began to work on a presentation he had coming up. No more than ten minutes had passed when a light pecking noise coming from the window interrupted him. Glancing in the direction of the sound, Dudley saw an owl staring back at him; a letter tied around his ankle. He jumped up so quickly that his laptop nearly tumbled to the floor. Crossing the room eagerly, Dudley yanked open the window to allow the bird to enter. After untying the letter, Dudley unfolded it, and read Alexandra's letter. Relief spread through him as he read her words, smiling as he reached the end.
Feeling rather foolish for worrying about nothing, Dudley scribbled back his reply:
Dear Alexandra,
I'm glad you're enjoying your new school, and that you've made a new friend. Things are fine here. I miss you as well, and I can't wait to see you during the Christmas Holiday. If you need anything, just ask. I love you,
Dad
After he sent the owl off with his letter, Dudley picked up the phone again and re-dialed Harry's number.
"Hello?"
"Hey, the owl just came."
"Did it? She's okay then?"
"Yah, she's fine, turns out she just god sidetracked."
"See, you had nothing to- James! Leave your sister alone! Sorry Dudley, I've got to go."
"Right, I'll see you around I guess."
"Bye."
"Bye."
He hung up the phone, and turned back to his computer, and began to work once more, feeling much better than he had before.
"Excellent!" Fred said, looking at the bulletin board in the Gryffindor common room. "Flying lessons next Friday!"
"That's nice," Alanna said absentmindedly, waving her wand at the quill she was supposed to be practicing levitating.
"This is my chance to show everybody how good I am on a broom," he continued, ignoring Alanna's less than enthusiastic response. "Just think, if Billy O'Mally hears word of my skills, he's captain of the Gryffindor team, by the way, he may let me try-out!"
"But you're a first year, Fred," Alexandra reminded him. "Look, it even says on that try-out notice, 'no first years are permitted to join the team'.
"That's just there to keep students who can't play to save their lives from trying out," Fred said, waving his head dismissively. "Uncle Harry made the team during his first year after all."
"Do we have to go to those lessons?" Alanna questioned, giving up on her spell. "I'd really rather not make a fool of myself in front of a bunch of people."
"Of course you have to go!" Fred exclaimed. "If you don't learn to ride a broom, then you'll-you'll-well I don't know exactly, but you'll have loads of trouble getting places until you have you Apperation license, and that's not until you're seventeen!"
"I'll manage," Alanna replied. "I'm more worried about Charms. It's been a week since we've learned this levitation spell, and I still can't get the hang of it!"
"You managed to make that feather float yesterday," Alexandra pointed out.
"For about two seconds before it began smoking!"
Fred stifled a laugh, and Alanna shot him a dirty look.
"Oh come on," Fred said. "It's not that big of a deal. So you can't do one spell, so what?"
"That one spell could be the difference between a pass and a fail on our exams at the end of the year Fred," Alanna snapped. "And it's not just the one spell; I can barely send out green sparks without causing some sort of disaster!"
Alexandra silently agreed with this, having witnessed one of Alanna's mishaps earlier that day. "I'm sure you'll eventually get the hang your spells," she said reassuringly to Alanna.
"I hope you're right," Alanna said, picking up her wand again. "I suppose I'll have a few more tries before I start on my Potions essay."
"Right," Alexandra nodded. "And I need to go return this book back to the library." She pulled out a book entitled Notable Moments in an Abridged Wizarding History from her bag, which she had checked out a few days ago to help her complete her History of Magic essay.
"Return this for me too," Fred said, tossing Alexandra a copy of Quidditch Through the Ages. "I was reading up on some techniques last night."
Rolling her eyes, Alexandra bid the two goodbye and headed out the portrait door.
Even though she was allowed to be in the corridors for another hour, Alexandra still felt slightly nervous as she roamed the halls. To her relief, she reached the library without encountering any teachers. Looking around for Madam Pince, she spotted two figures sitting at one of the tables nearby. She felt a lurch in her stomach as she recognized one of the boys as Wretermoust, the boy from Herbology. Praying that he wouldn't spot her, Alexandra rushed to the back of the library, where she found Madam Pince haughtily placing books back on their shelves.
Hoping that she could make it out undetected, she began to walk briskly towards the exit. Unfortunately for Alexandra though, luck wasn't on her side. She was halfway towards the exit when she suddenly tripped on the edge of her robes, causing her to stumble into a bookshelf, sending many books flying.
"What have you done?" Cried Madam Pince as she came running over to Alexandra. "You've spoiled these books! You ungrateful little brat!"
"S-Sorry," she stammered, bending down to pick up some of the fallen books. "It was an accident, I-I tripped-"
"Careless!" Madam Pince shouted. "That's what it is! Now get out of here, now!"
Still fuming, Madam Pince headed back to where she had came from.
Silently cursing herself, Alexandra turned around, and not to her surprise, Wretermoust was staring at her, a wide grin on his face.
"Look what the wind blew in," he said coldly, getting up from his seat. "The little mudblood Gryffindor."
Alexandra didn't reply, but tried to act as if she hadn't heard Wretermoust, and continued walking.
"What's the matter?" he asked, now striding along next to her. "Scared without Weasley here to be your bodyguard?" He let out a cruel laugh.
Alexandra had a lot of experience getting picked on; having been a victim of multiple bullies at her old school, but there was something different about Wretermoust. He gave her a vibe much worse than she had ever felt before.
"You don't seem too graceful on your feet," he continued. "Let's hope you're a bit more coordinated on a broomstick, or there might be one less Gryffindor to stink up the place. We wouldn't want that now would we?"
"Just leave me alone," Alexandra demanded. The words surprised even her; they had flown out of her mouth before her brain even had time to process them.
Wretermoust's grin instantly disappeared. "What did you say to me?"
"I-I said to leave me alone," she repeated, feeling rather amazed at her own courage. "I didn't do anything to you, so why don't you just let me be?"
"You Gryffindor's all think you're special," he said in a voice hardly louder than a whisper. "All good and brave and what not. But that can change."
"What are you-?"
But Wretermoust had already started back to his table, leaving her standing dumbfounded.