June 7, 2013

Dudley wasn't sure what to make of it. Bea as a witch? It was, as Tori's favorite fictional character would say, inconceivable. He had never expected more than hugs, kisses and silly pranks from his kids. He wasn't sure if he was scared shitless or happy for Bea.

Draco and Annie were exchanging hugs as Draco prepared to leave. He had managed to postpone his meeting for a bit, but now that the ruckus was over, it was time for him to go. As the Dursleys walked him to the door, he told Annie, "Tori and I will be over with Scorp tonight, alright? We'll have a nice long talk about the vagaries of raising a wizard kid."

Annie nodded nervously. "Okay." She opened the door for their friend and stopped suddenly. A dark-haired man in a sharp grey suit was on the other side of the door, hand raised to knock. He barely managed to avoid smacking her in the face and pulled it back quickly. Next to him was a much older woman wearing glasses that must have been the style about fifty years before and a wildly flowered orange print dress.

"So sorry," he said. "This is the Dursley residence, correct?" He had a gentle smile on his face as he asked.

"It is," Annie replied. "May I help you?"

The woman spoke up, "Sylvia Gladstone, Accidental Magic Reversal Squad. An hour ago, there were two different spells cast in this house. I'm here to reverse them. Step aside." She started to barge her way into the house, but was brought up short by the dark-haired man subtly stepping in front of her.

"Let me introduce myself," he started, trying hard to keep the pleasant smile on his face at his partner's peremptory manner. He stopped talking in shock as he got a glimpse of the man behind Dudley. "Malfoy?"

Draco smirked a bit. "Goldstein." Draco nodded to the rude woman. "I already took care of the issue, Mrs. Gladstone. Bea accidentally flew her sister onto the ceiling. The second spell was simply Finite to get her down."

The older woman huffed, "So, Mr. Malfoy, you used magic in front of Muggles and decided to just ignore and violate the Statutes of Secrecy."

Draco crossed his arms and smirked even more. "Sorry, Mrs. Gladstone, but the Statutes just don't apply in this situation."

Mrs. Gladstone narrowed her eyes until they were merely slits and reached into her bright fuchsia purse. "Oh, really? How is that so? A Muggle household? Just because you say so, you little…"

She was interrupted by Goldstein. "Really, Sylvia. I don't think that's necessary. Sorry, Malfoy," he apologized for his partner and tried to smile at Draco and the Dursleys while Mrs. Gladstone sputtered, sounding much like a boiling teapot. "Um, maybe we can come inside and resolve everything?"

Annie and Dudley looked at each other. "Actually, I don't think so," Annie replied. "You can rest assured that Draco has taken care of everything. Have a nice day." She stepped around Draco and shut the door in the stunned faces of the two agents from the Reversal Squad.

Draco started chuckling grimly. "Well, that must have put a kink in the old bat's tail."

"What the bloody hell was that all about, Draco?" Dudley asked, the fury evident in his voice.

Draco sighed, "The old bat? Goldstein? Or the fact that they were here at all?"

"All of the above," Annie replied in an arch tone.

"Alright. Fair enough." Draco ran his hands over his face. "Those two are members of the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad I mentioned earlier. They go where unexpected magic has happened, especially where Muggles might see it, and make sure it can be reversed and any Muggles' memories changed to explain it away, if necessary. I'm still surprised they didn't show up when your stove caught fire. They must have missed it somehow."

"Anyway, Mrs. Gladstone is one of the oldest members on the squad. She got called out to my house every once in a while when I was a kid, but Father never let her in. So she's never liked my family, but apparently her grandson was killed by my uncle during the war. Now she hates the Malfoys with a passion. Nothing I ever do will make up for what the Lestranges did to her." Draco sat on the chest the Dursleys kept in the hall and shook his head. "She's just one of the more vocal witches or wizards about how evil my family is and how we should all be incarcerated in Azkaban for life, yadda, yadda."

"And that Goldstein chap?" Dudley asked.

Draco nodded a bit. "He's actually a good man. I sort of feel sorry for him that he got stuck with the old bat, but according to Tori, no one else will partner with her. He was at Hogwarts when I was. He was in Dumbledore's Army and fought during the final battle." He narrowed his eyes. "Good duelist. I really don't know why he didn't become an Auror."

A knock on the door sounded. The three looked at it. "You should probably let them in. Make sure you tell them you're Potter's cousin. That's why the Statutes don't apply." Draco nodded toward the back. "I really do need to get to that meeting with Chowdhury. I'll leave from here and avoid the old bat."

Dudley held out his hand. "Draco, thank you for helping. Truly, I don't know what we would have done if you hadn't been able to get here."

"No problem, mate. Just make sure they call Potter before they do anything here, okay? We'll still drop by this evening. Just to make sure everything's alright." Draco gave Annie a quick kiss on the cheek and moved back far enough that he could Disapparate. The pop made Annie jump just a bit.

"I'll never get used to that, Dudley."

"Same here. Let's see what these jackasses want now, shall we?" Dudley opened the door to find only Anthony Goldstein on the step, his hand raised again to knock, only this time he pulled it back faster.

Goldstein smiled wanly. "I'm really very sorry about Mrs. Gladstone. She's gone back to the Ministry. I wonder if I might speak with you before she returns."

"Will you slag off our friend or try to change our memories?" Dudley asked.

Goldstein grinned. "No. To either. Unless Malfoy was somehow wrong and you aren't exempt from the Statutes."

Annie and Dudley looked at each other and shook their heads. There didn't seem to be a way to avoid this. Annie answered this time. "You can come in, but if you do one thing to tick us off, that wand of yours won't mean diddly once Dudley's done pummeling you. And that old bat is not welcome in this house, by the way, ever."

"Fair enough." Goldstein followed the two into the house and into the living room. "Let me start by making sure of a few things. You are Annie and Dudley Dursley, correct?"

"Correct."

He nodded. "And you experienced two charms today. One that propelled and stuck someone to a ceiling and one that ended the spell and brought her down, correct?"

"Also correct, Mr. Goldstein," Dudley answered again.

"Oh, please, call me Anthony." He consulted the notepad he'd pulled out of his jacket. "According to public records, you're all Muggles here, so the question is this. How are you exempt from the Statutes?"

Another knock sounded on the door as he was asking this question. Annie stood up. "I'll be right back, but if it's that partner of yours I'm slamming the door in her face again." With that she left two bemused men behind her as she stalked to the front door. They heard her murmuring after she opened the door and then, "But she's not coming into my house," spoken much louder.

"Uh-oh," Dudley chuckled. "Sounds like your partner came back."

Anthony sighed, "She was going for a few Aurors to try to force you to let us in. I figured the polite approach would be better, personally."

"And you would have been right, Anthony." Harry Potter strode into the room, Ron Weasley right behind him and Annie right behind the two of them. "How are you doing, Dudley? There was some weird magic here today supposedly?"

Dudley chuckled, "You could say that. Bea got ticked off at Melissa and put her on the ceiling. Other than that, everything's just peachy."

Harry blinked a few times before his mouth quirked up. "A witch as a daughter, Dudley? Oh, that's just too perfect." He turned to Anthony as he chuckled at the glare Dudley gave him. "What's Gladys going on about Malfoy for?"

Annie spoke up. "He was the one that got Melissa down, Harry. That bitch decided she could insult him just because of his family's past. Is there anyone I can lodge a complaint with? She needs to be written up. Or retired. Something." Annie was getting more and more upset as she spoke. Dudley walked over to her side and put his arm around her shoulders while she spoke. "She was really rude to Draco, Harry. I know he's done some bad things in the past, but if that's the way he gets treated by you wizards, it's no wonder he has so little to do with all of you. I wouldn't want to put up with that bullshit, either."

Dudley found himself nodding his head at his wife's words. Ron hadn't said anything up until now, but he snorted a bit, not realizing the small sound would put him on the wrong side of a kind of wrath he should have been all too familiar with. "And what do you mean by that?" Annie turned on the red-haired man so fast his head went spinning.

Ron, still a fool sometimes, answered truthfully as he saw it, "Malfoy's a git. Always has been, always will be."

Proverbial flames started pouring out of Annie's eyes as all three of the other men winced at Ron's candor. Harry had seen enough of Annie to realize she was as unswervingly loyal as a Weasley female and would defend her loved ones, be they blood or not, until the death. Ron's eyes widened at the look in Annie's eyes and took a small step backward, realizing before she opened her mouth again that he'd put his foot ankle-deep in his. "You listen here, you…"

Annie stopped talking when Dudley put his hand over her mouth and said quickly. "Not now, Annie. This is Harry's partner, Ron, right? I remember you from when we were much younger. Ginny's your sister, right?"

"Erm, yes?" Ron wasn't sure if he should open his mouth but it seemed the wisest thing to do was just go along with whatever Dudley was saying.

Annie glared at her husband over the hand he still held over her mouth. "Look, Harry, is everything settled? Melissa and Bea are fine and no one violated any Statutes or anything because we all already knew about magic and wizards and all that." Dudley asked, trying to get the three men out of the house before the hounds of hell descended upon Ron.

"Yeah, I think everything's good. I'll come over tomorrow with some pamphlets for Muggles raising a witch."

Dudley shook his head, "Just send them over with Tori tonight. She and Draco are going to come over for dinner."

Anthony stood up from the couch, tucking the notebook back into the inner pocket of his coat, "I think I have everything I need for my reports, gentlemen and ma'am. Ron, why don't you help me gather up Mrs. Gladstone while Harry says goodbye to his, um, what are you two to each other, precisely?"

"Cousins." Dudley had released his wife's mouth and was rubbing the finger she'd bitten hard. "They're cousins and Dudley and Harry grew up together, so Dudley already knew all about the magic," Annie replied snippily.

"Ah, that explains it, then. Ron, shall we leave the cousins to their goodbyes?" Anthony grabbed the silent Ron by the arm and started pulling him out of the room. "Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Dursley. Maybe we'll meet again at King's Cross in a few years."

Ron didn't resist as he let Anthony pull him out of the room. The others didn't hear his response to Anthony's furiously whispered, "Seriously, Ron, haven't you learned any tact yet?"

"Sorry about that, Annie, Dudley. There's a bit of bad blood between Ron and Draco. Mostly over Hermione." Harry shook his head. "They've not spoken in years, not since the Wizengamot that released Draco on parole, actually."

Annie put her arms over her chest. "I was absolutely serious about that complaint, Harry. Draco hasn't done a damn thing wrong in the time we've known him. He has been nothing but kind to us. He doesn't deserve that sort of treatment."

Harry walked over to Annie and hugged her. "I agree with you, Annie. I also know that you see a part a Draco most people don't. The memories of the Malfoys and their attitudes about blood purity are long. His father is still an avowed blood purist. Unless Draco single-handedly saves all of mankind, most witches and wizards are only going to remember what he did in the past." Harry held his hands up to stave off the angry responses coming from the Dursleys. "I will recommend Mrs. Gladstone be talked to about her unprofessionalism and make sure your complaint is on record. And I'll talk to Ron and have Hermione, Ginny and Molly smack him upside the head for being an idiot. That's really all I can do."

Harry held out his hand to Dudley and gave Annie a quick kiss on the cheek while she silently fumed.

"I'll send the pamphlets to Astoria's office with a note as to why you need them." He grinned. "A Dursley witch. What're your mum and Dad going to say, Dudley?"