A/N: I just realized that I don't need Halloween to post horror stories.

AU: no magic… again

Rating: T

Words: 2582

Summary: Dudley messes with Harry one too many times

(**)

Pain was the first thing he felt as he slowly came back into consciousness. He felt as though he had been hit by several cars and now he was laying in something confining and hard. The heavyset boy shifted and groaned, his eyes fluttering open to see darkness. He let out a whimper and put his hand out, shocked when he hit the sides of what felt to be a box. His heart began to pound in his chest and sweat poured from his face and neck as fear slammed into his thick frame. He pressed his arms up and felt a lid then he heard a noise. It sounded as if something was raining down on him.

"H-help!? Help me!" he called out, pounding on the top of the coffin—yes, Dudley knew that he was in a coffin but he couldn't remember how he had gotten there. How had…?

"I thought you insisted that the boy was dead, Harry?" a silky voice stated somewhere high above. That voice gave him hope and he began to pound on the coffin—the voice was that of an adult man but had he said Harry…? Oh God, Dudley knew how he had gotten in this predicament.

(**)

Harry ran as fast as he could manage, his breath scraping along his poor lungs. Fear caused his heart to beat painfully hard in his chest but he managed to keep just out of reach at the boys that were chasing him. He was so tired but he couldn't stop running unless he wanted to return home with a plethora of bruises and cuts. The last thing he needed was the do his chores with open wounds. Harry ducked into an alley and quickly hid in a small cranny that hid him from view. It was his favorite hiding spot and he could still fit inside even though he was fourteen.

"Where that freak go?!" the boys shouted as they made their way into the dark alley. Harry sighed mentally and relaxed in his cranny, knowing that they'd never find him in the secluded spot. He listened to their feet pounding away and waited another half an hour before he dragged himself from his hideout and into the open. Harry carefully made his way home, his ears practically roving around his head in their obsession to catch any noise to signal damage to his skinny body. Somehow, he made it home with nary a scratch although he knew that he wasn't too safe at home either seeing as his cousin Dudley was usually leading the hunt on Harry.

The green eyed teenager felt his anger rise at his own flesh and blood. Dudley always tormented him for little more reason than he was small. Harry had not done anything to the fatter boy except be skinny and not fail at school. Dudley got whatever he wanted and yet it was Harry that he hated with a vicious passion. The green eyed teenager shook his head in disgust and entered his home.

"Hey Freak, nice day at school?" Dudley greeted him as soon as he entered the house. Harry stopped in front of the boy and looked at him. If someone could look like a pig but still human then it was definitely Dudley. He was basically fat piled onto more fat with small, piggy like brown eyes that were usually glaze over because he couldn't understand the simplest of things. He had a small, pink mouth that parted to ease his breaths in and out of his body. A pig in a wig what with the long length that his hair seemed to carry these days. Today he was wrapped up in a blanket and surrounded by dirty dishes suggesting that Aunt Petunia had bought into his 'sickness' and pleaded his way into staying home and being catered to. Harry shook his head and started towards the stairs.

"Don't ignore me FREAK!" Dudley shouted and Harry had to practically throw himself to the ground to not be hit by a flying dish. He stood up and stared at his cousins, eyes wide and nearly falling from his skull in shock.

"What is going on here!?" Petunia's harpy like voice echoed in the medium sized house as she came running from the kitchen. Harry remained silent, already knowing that nothing he said would be heard.

"The freak won't answer my question so I threw something at him and he dodged it. It's his fault that it's broken," Dudley whimpered in a pathetic matter, sniffling and forcing his eyes to go round like some obese, sick puppy. Harry curled his lip but continued his vow of silence, staring down at the ground as his aunt coddled the lump of lard and turned on Harry. She wouldn't dare hit him lest she be charged with child abuse but Dudley usually took care of the physical beatings so there was nothing to worry about from her.

"Don't you provoke my Dudders!" his aunt shrieked at him, her bony fingers wagging warningly. Harry sighed at the predictable reaction and started his journey up the stairs. It was time for him to feed the stray cat he found and, perhaps, get some sleep. Hopefully his Aunt Petunia won't slip something rotting under his door as food. The last thing he desired was Hedwig getting sick. Harry ran a hand through his wild hair and prayed that his anger always remained low key. He didn't want to hurt anyone else ever again.

(**)

Dudley was bored. It was Saturday, all of his friends were grounded because of some prank they pulled that resulted in property damage and his mum had gone off on a lunch date with a group of her friends. His father was sleeping and had basically warned him against waking him up lest he walk away with a few aching body parts. Dudley sighed, his fat cheeks puffing up dramatically before letting go of his breath, sitting back on the couch. There was nothing on the telly and he hadn't seen the freak all day.

Dudley grinned at the thought of Harry hiding from him then it turned to a frown. No, Harry was not scared of him anymore. For some reason the freak just stopped being scared. He simply ran when he gave chase only because he didn't like bruises but when he and his friends caught him, he no longer begged and he simply took his beating silently as he did most things these days. If Dudley could spare a moment to rationally think things through then he might have made some sort of connection, figured out that something significant happened to his cousin and possibly have simply left the skinnier boy alone but, of course Dudley could not rationally think and he went hunting for Harry.

It wasn't hard to find the freak. Harry was sitting at the swings in a local park, idly kicking his legs so that he swung slowly. He didn't even look as Dudley strode over to him with a nasty smirk on his lips. He was going to teach that freak about being a freak.

"What are you doing here Potter? Waiting for your mum to come get you… oh wait, she's not here anymore!" Dudley gasped dramatically. This actually got a reaction from Potter, causing his head to snap over to Dudley and his green eyes narrowed behind his glasses. Dudley grinned nastily because now he knew that there was something that would get a reaction from Potter.

"I bet you she died just to get away from you," Dudley continued. Suddenly the green eyes darkened to an acid green that literally felt as though it were burning Dudley's skin but he couldn't allow himself to show the freak that he was even the tiniest bit scared of him. No, he wasn't scared of the scrawny boy he beat up for fun on a boring Saturday's afternoon.

"Don't you talk about my mum," Harry hissed, his teeth gritting together and his fingers tightening on the swing's chain until his knuckles turned white and shook subtly.

"What are you gonna do if I keep on, huh? You gonna hit me?" Dudley laughed at the thought that Harry would dare to hit him. He would eat any hit that Harry dealt out with his tiny fists. Harry suddenly relaxed in his swing and a small, wistful smile came to his pink lips.

"I would never hit you Dudders but I would kill you. I've done it before," Harry said softly. Dudley scoffed nervously and shifted on his feet. He didn't believe Harry, why would he? He was Harry for God's sake!

"You couldn't hurt a fly, you poof!" Dudley retorted weakly although he tried to keep his confidence. He didn't like the way his cousin's eyes were so unfocused and yet slightly glazed in their insanity. If he were any normal teenage boy, Dudley would have laughed at Harry once more and simply walked away but he was a bored, not too bright teenager that never listened to his instincts and he often found himself with too big of an ego. So Dudley did the thing that any dim, bored teenager with a big ego would do: he egged Harry on.

"You're not gonna do nothing because if you do my dad will kick you right out!" Dudley tried to smirk but his lips could not quite make the expression quite effectively, "And if he kicks you out, you'll die in like five minutes on your own."

"I have friends that will help me kill you," Harry warned. Dudley scoffed and began to laugh because the thought of Harry having friends much less killing him was much more comical than anything that Dudley could have found on the telly. The last time Harry had a friend, he was some creepy guy with dirty hair and they were four.

"You haven't hurt a single thing in your life. You're too weak," Dudley sneered. Harry finally stood up from the swing and pretended to dust himself off, taking his sweet time while Dudley actually felt alarm bells rang off in the back of his head. He knew that now would be a good time to simply laugh one more time and walk away but he could let Harry think that he was even the slightest bit scared of him!

"Do you remember our old English Professor?" Harry asked lightly. Dudley rolled his little brown eyes.

"Of course I do. He was that bouncing fairy that made up stories and always went on about himself," Dudley waved a fat hand.

"Yeah and you know that he died five days ago, right?" Harry continued as if speaking to a small child, not that Dudley caught on to that.

"Of course! Idiot drove off the side of the road and died," Dudley filled in. Harry came closer until they were nose to nose and Dudley could see that tiny spark in Harry's eyes. It was a spark that told him that Harry was not well, that Harry meant business and that Harry would hurt him. Dudley took a step back but Harry was not letting him go, stepping until they were toe to toe once more.

"No, I killed him," Harry whispered.

"Liar," Dudley stuttered.

"You want me to prove it but if I do I'll have to kill you too," Harry offered. Dudley folded his arms and stepped away from the skinny boy with one large step. He folded his arms but Dudley knew that he would now be listening to his instincts. He would be getting away from Harry and probably never taking him on one on one. He gave out a shaky chuckle and started to leave the park.

"Bye Dudders…" Harry whispered so low that it surely wasn't meant to be heard but the wind carried it. Dudley turned around to see Harry walking back to his swing to sit back down and go back to whatever freaky thing he was daydreaming about when he first came into the park. He was making fun of Dudley, mocking him for being a right coward. Dudley felt his face turn an angry purple as he imagined Harry laughing at him for believing his lies.

"You're gonna prove it you freak!" Dudley finally shouted. Harry's head shot up and his green eyes blinked owlishly from behind his round glasses frame. Dudley growled and stomped over to his cousin, grabbing a skinny arm as hard as he possibly could and pulling him from the swing. Harry was light under his hold, weak—much too weak to have killed anyone!

(**)

Swollen cheeks tinted red puffed out and died down with each gasping breath the owner took. Dudley's eyes were squinted against the sweat that dripped down his forehead and into said eyes. He grunted and brought a fat hand up to brush away the liquid. He then glared over at his cousin. The skinny freak wasn't even sweating or panting, looking as though he walked this huge hill every day of every hour. Dudley sneered, he probably did.

"When are we getting there?" Dudley panted once more. Green eyes narrowed behind rounded glasses before the freak turned his head all the way towards him. Just as he opened his mouth to say something nasty, Harry stopped walking and threw out his skinny arms.

"We're here, Dudley," Harry grinned. Dudley looked around and noticed that this was almost the exact location that Lockhart's car was found. They stood almost at the top of a large hill where drivers got into the most accidents due to the fact that there was no railing and they were coming off a very curvy road. Most people avoided this road for the sole fact that it was dangerous but it was a great shortcut into anywhere in the city. However, as Dudley looked around, he noticed nothing that would have indicated that Harry was the cause of the accident. In fact, all looked fine.

"I knew you were a liar—where are you doing?" Dudley called as his cousin began down the side of the hill. He went after the skinny boy, curiosity quipped once more. As he rounded behind a large rock, Dudley prepared to follow only for a sharp pain to crash into the side of his head. He whirled around sluggishly and saw Harry standing there, a large rock in his hand.

"Wha… what…?" he slurred. Harry smirked at him and came closer even as Dudley back away. He found himself falling down and rolling, his body crashing into rocks, sharp branches, and various other things until he finally stopped. He groaned in pain, tears prickling down the side of his temples and going into his hair, soaking it.

"I told you I'd have to kill you Dudley," Harry smiled as he suddenly appeared above him. The skinny boy lifted his foot and brought it down sharply, descending Dudley down into darkness.

"Well, it might give him some time to think about what he's done, you know?" he heard Harry's voice. The man let out a silky laugh and the sound of something raining down on him came—dirt. He was going to be buried alive—killed like Harry had killed Lockhart. The fat boy began to bang useless at his coffin, tears running down his face once more. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to DIE!

(**)

The End

Eh, wasn't scary but, whatever.