A/N: As promised, I did try to post the next chapter sooner than usual, and this time it was a success! The next chapter will be up on Wednesday/Thursday as usual.

Enjoy! Reviews are always welcome!

Chapter 10: Destructive Decisions

Twenty-five.

Two days later it was still raining. Dudley was keeping himself busy today by doing push-ups. He took a deep breath and pushed on. Sweat slid down his neck as the rain pelted harder against the window.

Twenty-six.

He wondered if the gnomes had been flooded out of their home yet. He imagined them scrambling over each other, trying to climb a tree to save themselves.

Twenty-seven.

He could hear his father yelling about something. He debated whether it was worth checking out. He cringed at Hestia's returning screeches. Probably not a good idea...His arms were starting to become sore.

Twenty-eight.

Dudley hadn't seen Eve since the other day. He bet she was down in the cellar again, if she had ever bothered to leave since the other day. He debated going down there to make sure she had remembered to sleep, or eat, or bathe. She was the type of person that tended to forget certain basic human needs when she was busy working on a project.

Twenty-nine.

He heard another clap of thunder, his bedroom lit up from the lightning. When is this rain ever going to let up?!

Thirty.

Dudley collapsed to the floor; he hated doing push-ups. Tired, he rolled over onto his back and sprawled himself across the floor. He could kill for a hamburger and fries. At that thought he closed his eyes and imagined such wonderfully tasty foods.

Outside, something was hitting his window hard enough to create a loud clicking noise. He groaned. Is it hailing now too?!

Dudley tilted his head towards the window and slowly opened one of his eyes. He jumped up in surprise at the sight of a small dark creature tapping on his window. Another flash of lighting gave him enough light to see that it was an owl. It looked at him with agitation and continued pecking at the window.

Cautiously, he approached the window. He could faintly hear the owl let out an angry hoot as it demanded to be let inside. At first, Dudley had no idea why there was a crazy owl at his window, it took a moment for him to remember that magical post was delivered by the nocturnal birds. It must have a letter.

Curious and a bit excited, Dudley unlatched the window and pulled the wooden frame open. The bird bolted through the opening and flopped onto his rug. He quickly closed it again.

"Hey! Quit that!" He scolded as the owl ruffled it's tawny feathers, sending splashes of water everywhere. His response was a creepy, hissing noise. Dudley held his hands up defensively.

"Alright, alright. Sorry, I should have let you in sooner," The owl gave him a disapproving hoot, and begrudgingly held out its leg. A small piece of paper was attached to it. It stared up at him with beady little eyes. It shook its extended leg impatiently.

"Errrr..." Dudley said, kneeling down next to it. He hesitated to untie it, fearful of the creatures small talons sinking into his flesh. The owl, however, continued to glare at him as though to say it was going to scratch him if he didn't hurry up and take the letter.

Nervously, he fumbled with the twine, fearful of actually touching the bird. Finally, it fell to the floor. Dudley picked it up, surprised that it seemed untouched by the rain. Anxiously, he unrolled the paper. On the scroll in chicken-scratch was a short note.

Porkchop,

(Sorry, but using your real name could be hazardous if this were intercepted).

If you haven't already asked H. or D. yet, the attached article should answer your question. As for his connection to Rogue...well, you don't have to be a genius to figure that out.

Also, don't respond to this letter, we shouldn't risk your your location more than we already have.

-River

P.S: Nigel will start to peck you until he receives food. Sorry.

Dudley looked over at Nigel, who had already begun to inch closer to him, was looking at him expectantly. Thinking quickly, he pulled out a package from his dresser drawer. He wondered if owls like Goldfish crackers. He took out a small handful and dropped it next to the bird. Nigel pecked at one, swallowing it whole. He must have liked it enough, because he soon reached for another. Dudley returned his attention to the folded up newspaper clipping. He unfolded it, his eyes hungry to read it.

The paper was dated back in early June and sported a moving picture of an old man with a long beard and half-moon glasses. The picture smiled faintly up at him.

"The Wizarding world suffered a great loss today with the death of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore. The Order of Merlin First Class, Supreme Mugwump, and Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, was killed in cold blood last night by the use of the unforgivable killing curse. The castor of this wretched spell was non other than a member of Dumbledore's own staff. Severus Snape, the Potions Master at Hogwarts for the past fifteen years, fired the curse that ended the beloved man's life, sending him off the the side of the north tower of Hogwarts. Snape is a known Death Eater…"

Dudley continued to read on. The shock of the situation was overpowering. The fact that Snape was a follower of Voldemort was bad enough, considering he had made a living off of teaching young students. The knowledge that Dumbledore had trusted him and gave him a second chance, only to be killed by him, was much worse. What a horrible traitor, no wonder nobody at Marigold Cabin wanted to mention his name.

His mind suddenly jumped to Eve. How could she not tell him this? She had explained Albus Dumbledore's death like it had been done by a random Death Eater, she never once even mentioned the name Severus Snape. Especially since…

Suddenly fueled with a hurt, angry rage, Dudley stomped over to the door and yanked it open. Nigel hooted loudly at his feet. Too preoccupied at the moment, he figured the bird would be fine on his own and was just thankful to be out of the storm.

He slammed the door behind him and made his way down the hall. He opened and closed the cellar door with equal force and tromped down the stairs. Eve was sitting at her workstation, slicing up some sort of purple root. She didn't even bother to look up at him as he approached her.

"Jeez Dudley, I thought an elephant was jumping down the steps with the noise you were making," she said with a smile. However, when she finally did look up at him, it vanished quickly. "What's wrong?"

"This!" he spat, holding the newspaper clipping literally an inch from her face. Eve went cross eyed for a moment before snatching the paper from him. He watched as her face went pale as her eyes scanned the article.

"Where did you get this?" She asked venomously, darkness filling in her features.

"That hardly matters. What does matter is the fact that you blatantly lied to me."

"I didn-"

"How could you not tell me?!"

Eve gazed down at her lap, apparently at a loss for words. Dudley took a deep breath and spoke as calmly as he could.

"Is he your father?"

There was a long pause, Eve looked back up, now wearing the same expressionless mask she often donned when Severus Snape was mentioned.

"Yes," her voice was monotone, almost robotic.

"Why didn't you tell me?" He asked. He couldn't help but feel hurt, he thought that they had been friends. Eve shrunk away from and stumbled over to one of the back counters, gripping onto the edge with her hands. She didn't even seem to have the courage to face him.

"Are you really that stupid?! Do you think I want to go around telling everyone 'Hey, what's up? My father killed the greatest wizard of our time. So, what Quidditch team do you support?'" She clutched the counter tighter, shaking slightly as she spoke.

Dudley glared at her. He hated the fact that she lied, but loathed the fact that she didn't seem to have a very supportive reason for not telling him the truth. Dudley didn't think any of this would have been an issue if she had just been honest with him the first time. He was so angry for being left in the dark, first by his mother and now his only real friend in this secluded cabin. His mind searched for something hurtful.

"Lee was right," Dudley scoffed at her. "You are a coward."

Dudley realized right away that he had not learned from his conflict with his mother, nor had he completely dropped his old bullying habits. He was quickly learning that it was his greatest downfall.

He had succeeded in hitting a nerve, but his glory was very short lived. Just as the last of the words escaped his mouth, Eve whirled around in a furious rage. A glass jar shattered behind him, mere inches to his right. He flinched as he felt a shard of glass scrape across his arm. She had not used her wand, but there was no way she couldn't have caused that to happen. Dudley briefly remembered the time Harry blew up their aunt Marge. He hadn't had his wand either.

Dudley stood there, unable to move as blood began to trickle down his arm. The look on Eve's face matched the terror that he felt.

"Oh Merlin," she gasped "Dudley, I'm so sorry!" She rushed over to him. "I am so, soooo sorry!"

"Stay away from me you psychopath!" Dudley roared, pushing her away. She had used magic to attack him! He fled up the stairs. His mother was right, Eve was dangerous.

"Dudley! Wait!" He heard her footsteps follow him up the stairs as he rushed into his room. He slammed it shut and quickly locked the door, and backed away just as Eve got to his room. He curled his fists, ready to fight in case she blew down the door or something.

Instead, she began to bang loudly on it with her fists.

"Dudley, Please listen! I'm so sorry!"

"Go away!" He shouted back.

"It was accidental! I would never want to-"

"Leave my son alone, you freak!" Dudley heard his father yell from down the hall. This was soon joined by more shouting. Soon, there were several loud voices weaseling into the fight. Tired, angry, and a bit scared, Dudley chose to tune them out. He turned on his wireless radio to drown out their voices.

He glanced over to his desk where Nigel now resided. The owl made a disgruntled clicking noise with his beak. It didn't seem to approve of the noises. It circled to the window and back to the desk, requesting to be let out.

"Fine, you blasted bird...Get out of here!" He growled, re-opening the latch to the window. Nigel screeched bitterly and flew out the gap, into the stormy night.

Dudley let the Weird Sisters play for a while he used an old shirt to stop the blood trickling out of his arm. By that time, the hallway had returned to its normal silence. Dudley breathed a sigh of relief and flopped onto his bed, burying his head into the pillows. About an hour later there was a knock on his door.

"I said go away," Dudley groaned from his bed, ready to chuck his radio at the door.

"It's me sweetheart," he heard his mother say from the other side. "Did that awful girl hurt you? I told you she was toxic."

A part of Dudley wanted to say yes, in hopes that she would get into terrible trouble, but the last person he wanted to confide in was his mother. Dudley didn't want to deal with either of them right now. He looked down at his right arm. Though it had been cut, the bleeding had stopped and now it just stung. The glass hadn't hit him hard enough to cause any more than superficial damage.

"No mum, she didn't," He lied loudly, in case there was more than one person listening outside the door."Now please, just leave me alone."

"Alright sweetie," his mother sniffed, as though she was on the verge of tears. Dudley placed a pillow back over his head, wishing he could just leave this stupid place.

Eve said it had been an accident. He had learned that there was such thing as accidental magic, things that couldn't always be controlled. However, he couldn't help but hear his mother's warning about the girl echo inside his head. What if his mother was right?

At any rate, he felt fortunate that she hadn't turned him into a human balloon like his aunt.

Still, the thought of her hurting him bothered him a lot; not to mention the entire reason their fight had even started.

Maybe you shouldn't have acted so angry. That quiet little voice in the back of his head said. She probably has her reasons for not telling you everything.

It wouldn't have happened if she hadn't lied. He told the voice, covering up its pitiful excuses.

Dudley turned to his side in attempts to get to sleep. He would deal with this issue later, right now he needed to rest. He would try to sort it out in his mind tomorrow. I didn't help that he had the rage of his father and the strong ability to hold a grudge like his mother.