Warning, this chapter contains violence, blood and is going to be very existential. Enjoy XD

He knows!

Fred and George invited Dudley and Harry to sit with them and the other third years at breakfast. It was a blessing, as Dudley didn't want to have to listen to Ron and the others pestering him all morning because they hadn't a clue about Professor McGonagall's homework assignment.

"You three look wrecked." Lee Jordan leaned in. "Is it true?" Several people turned to listen, while everyone else pretended not to be.

Fred and George sat up a little straighter, as they gloated loftily about how they "just went for a drink at the Hog's Head. No big deal." The twins then starting telling a tall tale of the night-out, like 'how they drunk this one guy under table'.

Dudley snorted, and ignored the looks from the people who were trying, and failing, to hide their points and stares. He thought he spotted Percy approaching the Professors, when he entered the Hall. McGonagall didn't look happy, and Dumbledore just smiled his knowing smile. Dudley suspected that the old man's brother had informed the headmaster.

"D-Dudley?" asked a discreet shy voice. Dudley turned, expect to be facing a female first year, but instead he had to look up. It was a male fifth year Ravenclaw, and he looked as shy as he sounded.

"Professor Flitwick asked me to give you this. It's for choir." The tall student sounded unsure, as he handed Dudley a letter tied in a blue ribbon. The boy's hand was shaking as he did so, and then he disappeared back to his table the second Dudley grasped the letter.

Dudley raised an eyebrow, first at the boy and then at the letter before he neatly ripped it open. He barely read the first line before he let out an enormous groan.

"What is it?" Ron asked.

"Flitwick wants me to sing a song about my first month at Hogwarts as part of some sort of hazing ritual for the choir." Again something not ever mentioned in the books, and it was really starting to annoy him how things weren't the way they were supposed to be, as new things seemed to pop up all the time. Then again, it could just be the hangover talking. He groaned.

"That's why no one joins it," Fred said, over-hearing. "Do you remember Patrick's last year?"

"Oh yeah. I do." a third year said, grimacing. "Poor bloke."

"That's not so…bad. More than you deserve." said Harry, as he made a face. "You make up loads of songs all the time." That was true, as he did sing a lot of songs, but he didn't make them up, as some just simply didn't exist in this world. Perhaps Harry was right. All he'd have to do was chose one.

Hermione popped her head around Dudley's shoulder and read the letter. "Hmm…oh, it's during the Halloween feast, so it's in front of the whole school then."

"What?" Dudley pulled the letter closer to his face and re-read the whole thing. "Damn it!" He dropped his head on the table with a thump. "Ow. I am way too hungover to deal…"

"Weasleys! Dursley!"

"Annnnd…" he signed heavily, but regretted doing so as it forced him to smell his own breath. "Here comes McGonagall. Great."

8

It had not been a good couple of days. Someone had told McGonagall about the three boys' trip to the Hog's Head. Not that anyone needed to say anything to McGonagall, as the whole story was broadcasted around the school in five minutes of the twins telling their little tale. Seven months detention, and that was as bad as it got without being sent home.

They had detention with Snape tonight.

Dudley should have been serving his time with Flitwick, as he had been for every other day this week, but Severus had convinced the charms professor that Dudley wasn't getting a serve enough punishment. This, technically, was true. Detention with Flitwick meant long hours of deep discussion and private tutoring, so it was rather beneficial actually.

Dudley pointed his wand at the pile of half rusted cauldrons.

"Snape said not to use magic, wee man," Fred and George warned. They were sitting on the floor next to each other, melodically scouring two cauldrons. The way they worked their cauldrons with the cloth, and periodically shared the slop bucket, hinted strongly that this wasn't their first detention with Snape.

"Snape is just being…Snape." He aimed his wand. "And I don't pay to come here so as not to use magic. Cscour!" The tip of his wand lit up and began to bubble off a purple and yellow mist. It filled the room with a smell vaguely hinting of lavender and something like citrus.

The mist swirled into a smoke-like cylinder, the end of which began to swallow each cauldron. "Only four seconds each for a deep clean, so it's working quite well, isn't it?" He moved the smoke cylinder to the next cauldron.

"That's a useful little spell, where'd you learn it?" George pushed his cauldron towards Dudley's smoke stream.

"Madam Mother's: How To Please Your Husband. It's well sexist, but has some very useful tips on how to clean things." And several other things that Dudley wasn't about to bring up with the thirteen-year-olds.

"Why would you need to know how to clean things?"

"In case I have to get a summer job to pay off my Gringotts loan. School doesn't pay off itself." It was also because Dudley hadn't forgotten about how dirty Sirius's house was, and he wasn't going to do it by hand if he didn't need to. Dudley had already had one lifetime having to do everything by hand, so he wasn't about to have another.

"Yeah, it does." George frowned. "Don't you get the fund thingy?"

Dudley stiffened. "What 'fund thingy'?"

"Err, Hogwarts has a fund for people who can't afford to go. You didn't know?"

Dudley felt himself slowly glowing red. The spell dissipated, as he dropped his wand. "Bloody EFFING Goblins!" He didn't say effing though.

In his anger, Dudley swiped his wand on the stone floor and grazed his knuckles. He pointed his wand back at the cauldrons. "Csour…Hagrid!" he interrupted himself, disrupting the spell again. "He didn't say anything either. Merlin! You know what else…" He kicked one of the cauldrons, shooting it through the air and hitting the wall with a clang. "Harry actually wants me to pay him back for us going out!" He poked himself hard in the chest.

"Can you believe it? He's already got all the Potter fortune at his fingertips, and if that's not enough he gonna get the Bla…" He caught himself. "Bloody goblins." He sneered instead. "Where does he think I'm gonna get them the money to pay them back? He wouldn't even be here if wasn't for me." That was a big lie if he ever told one.

"Err…"the twins looked at him with astonishment. "Well, after you've finished with your little mood-swing," Fred and George shared a look, "you could always consider making some coin by helping us…"

"For the last time, I am not letting you test your 'products' on me." Dudley snorted. The twins had been pressuring him to test their 'singing sucker' apparently as a way of 'thanking him' for taking them to the pub. Yeah, right.

"You know McLaggen's got a camera?" Fred smiled at George, and then turned to Dudley. "He's gonna bring it to the feast tomorrow for your big day butt." George and Dudley stared blankly at Fred for a few seconds.

"Day butte? It's début!" George said, shaking his head. "You are so thick sometimes. I can't believe we're related."

Fred threw the content of his slop bucket at his bother. George dived out the way, leaving Dudley completely exposed. Dudley cast the first spell off the top of his head, and he didn't even know what one it was. The oncoming water exploded and drenched the whole classroom…including the three boys.

"Oh well done, Fred." Dudley clapped his hands apathetically, spitting the dripping water out of his mouth. "Well done."

George laughed, and Fred pounced on him. Dudley turned his back and focused on his cauldrons, as an awful idea had begun to brew. Harry didn't need Sirius's money, but Dudley...

Suddenly, Snape burst through the door.

"What is going on in here?" The Professor looked around the room. Fred and George untangled themselves, and quickly stood up to face the Professor.

"Uh-oh," Fred and George said slowly.

"Yep." Dudley agreed.

8

Four hours later, the most part being checked out by Madam Pomfrey in the Hospital Wing for side effects of the slop bucket, Dudley stood over a large fury desk in the Room Of Requirement. Unusually, there was only one book on it, Gringotts Guide To Banking: Volume 345 by Erwin Strident.

The plan, or rather the idea, was to have a little look at how the systems of passing assets in the wizarding world worked. Before Dudley knew it, he had those two contracts burning in his hands. One would allow the exchange of all Black Family assets to be transferred to Harry. The other would move all Black Family assets to Dudley via Harry, without interfering with the Potter Fortune. Provided all contracts were signed.

He held the two very official looking documents in his right hand that he'd just ripped out the book. As he was thinking about the two papers, he watched as the pages in the book rejuvenated. He made a mental note to find out how the book was doing it.

"I can't do this." Every pragmatic cell in his body was telling him he could. "I really can't do this, this was stupid." He shoved them into his pocket, and snuck back into the Gryffindor tower. In his notebook he wrote about the Gringotts Guide book, as he took off his clothes and got into bed.

"I won't." He closed his eyes. Not so deep down he knew he would. Eventually, all he really needed was for Sirius to sign the document. Getting Harry to would be no problem.

A sharp pain suddenly began to throb in Dudley's hands, along his scars. He frowned and rubbed his palm on his bed covers, and then his hands started to really tingle.

"Dud? That you?" It was Seamus, sitting upright in his bed. "What yer doing?" he whispered.

"My hands," Dudley replied, though he immediately wished he'd just said nothing. "There must be a storm coming, or something. They usually start tingling then." Seamus climbed out of his bed and looked out the window.

"It's all clear. Do they really tingle before a storm? I've never heard of that happing before."

"Yeah, well, not many wizards get hit by lightning." Or have my physiology, Dudley thought to himself, as he'd never considered the tingling unusual, a quirk perhaps, but nothing more. However, considering what Mr Crow said about him being different… another thing to add to the research list.

"One of the Weasleys got hit by lightning once, I think. Ron said." Seamus sat at the end of Dudley's bed.

"To be honest…" Dudley looked at the boy, and smiled. "I'm not at all that surprised." He laughed to himself, then thought of the silence that followed. It was one that usually happened when someone wanted to ask you something, but they didn't want to outright say it.

Seamus huffed. "Dudley…?"

"Yes, Seamus?" He was now shaking and blowing on his hands, and they actually felt hot, and it almost felt like they were…buzzing?

"You know how you're really good at charms and stuff...Harry and Ron says you help them sometimes and…"

"Yeah, I do." Not completely true, as Dudley was far too busy to really help Harry and Ron out except on the odd occasion when he'd helped them with some of their wand work. "Go on."

"Err, well, can you sorta help me? I'm really not gettin' it."

"Yeah. What? Oh yeah, sure, when I get the chance." The pain finally went, and Dudley rested his arms on the covers. "Actually I could probably start charging them two, see how Harry likes it."

Seamus laughed polity and walked other to his bed. "Thanks, Dud. Oh." Seamus looked out the window again. "There are some clouds now, so maybe yer right. Err, get off, Scabbers!"

"I'm always right." Dudley whispered back. Seamus laughed from his bed, a real one this time.

"Would you two shut up? And go to sleep!" it was Harry; there were groans of agreement in the darkness.

Dudley smiled to himself.

8

Dudley's hands throbbed intermittently the next day, as the clouds rolled over Hogwarts, threatening to open and rain hell any moment. However, the pain didn't bother Dudley too much.

It was the big day…or one of them. Dudley had marked out any 'key foreseeable events' on a calendar in one of his notebooks, not that he remembered many anymore. This one, however, he remembered well.

It was Halloween, Quirrel would free the troll, Ron would insult Hermione, and everyone would be friends. Or at least that was what was supposed to happen. But right now it was charms, and Dudley had been paired with Seamus.

"Winggardium levosa." Seamus wand sparked for the third time, but nothing happened.

"Are you taking the piss?" Dudley stared at Seamus. "Or are you just retarded?"

"Don't be a git, Dud. It's a hard spell." Seamus whined.

"Is it?" Dudley said sarcastically. "Is it really, though?"

"Just cos you can do it, don't make it easy!" Seamus snapped back. Dudley looked over to Harry and Neville, both who were quickly trying to turn back to their feathers, smiling to each other.

"Alright. Fair enough, Seamus." He sighed. "The words are 'wingardium leviosa'. You have to actually move your wand when you say them, okay? Remember, 'swish and flick'." Dudley demonstrated with his own wand.

"Wingar…"

"No," Dudley interrupted. "You started your swish way too early. Try again." Seamus groaned. "Alright, let me help. Give me yer hand."

"What? Why?" Seamus looked at him funny.

"I'll do the movement, you say the words. Okay?"

"But it'll look like we're holding hands." Seamus looked around the classroom uneasily.

"Like it matters, mate. Here." Dudley took hold of Seamus's hand. "On the count of 3. 1 – 2 – 3, swish and flick."

"Wingardium Leviosa." The feather began to rise and hover over the desk, albeit shakily.

"Are you holding hands?" Lavender, and Dean, looked over from beside them.

"No!" Seamus pulled his hand free, his cheeks going red. The feather dropped.

"Yes. Obviously," Dudley said, rolling his eyes. "I'm helping him with the wand movement. Cos he's abysmal!"

"Oh, okay." Dean turned back to the Ravenclaw he'd been paired with, and Lavender slowly turned back to her partner and giggled.

Dudley turned to Seamus and raised an eyebrow. "See. You want to try again?" He held out his hand.

Seamus looked around again, and sighed. "Go on then."

Dudley took hold of Seamus's hand again. "On the count of 3. 1 – 2 – 3, swish and flick."

"Wingardium Leviosa." This time the feather began to rise into the air. Dudley noticed Hermione's feather had also begun to drift upwards.

"Well done, well done, both of you!" Professor Flitwick was doing his fast clapping again.

Dudley could hear Ron huffing behind him, and he smiled. He slowly let go of Seamus's hand, so the boy could do it on his own. Then…WHOOSH…for a second the room flashed bright white. Seamus yanked his hand away from Dudley's, as if he'd been stung.

Everyone in the class went quiet, as thunder roared overhead and rumbled the windows.

"Well…" Flitwick looked a little shaken, as he turned back to the class. "It looks like the storm has started. Let's get back to work, shall we? Yes, yes."

"That sounded really near." Dudley heard Hermione whisper.

8

By the time lesson ended, 'really near' had turned into 'hit the castle' and everyone piled out, excitedly gossiping. Except Dudley, as he didn't want to accidentally interfere when Ron made his comment, just in case it screwed things up with Hermione and the troll. Dudley made light conversation with Flitwick until it was all clear.

"I don't see why learning the orchestra charm is so important, Dudley. Besides, my boy, you've already got it down, and it's a third year spell!" the little man said, excited as always.

"I just don't want to make a fool of myself." Dudley also hadn't forgotten it was the day he was supposed to be singing, not that Flitwick ever asked how his rehearsals were going or offered to help. The twins helped him a lot, particularly with casting the orchestra charm. It was even they that had suggested it.

"Yes, well, wish me luck."

"For what?" the Professor asked, pushing a pile of books taller than he was into an open cupboard.

Dudley rolled his eyes. "I'll see you later, sir."

As he strolled out the door, he almost collided with Seamus who was waiting behind it, rubbing his hands together. "Hey, Dud."

"Hey?" He looked Seamus up and down, wondering how long he had been standing there? "What's up?"

"I was kinda hoping we could start, you know…charms."

"Mmm, oh! Right, yeah, completely forgot. Well, let's get some dinner first, shall we?" He had totally forgotten about Seamus' request. They started to make their way to the hall.

"Dud? Does Flitwick call you Dudley?" Seamus asked, as they turned the corner.

"Um, yes."

"Why?"

"He respects me, I suppose."

"Oh." There was another pause and silence. "Do you like Ron?"

Dudley stopped. What an odd question? He looked at the Irish boy. "What?"

"Oh no, I don't mean…I meant, you know, as a mate. You two don't seem to get along, and I just thought that maybe you didn't like him. Or maybe you just don't like people."

"Don't like people? What are you on about?"

"Well, it's just, me-me and Dean were saying…Well, everyone was, that you don't really have any friends other than Harry, and he's kinda your cousin so it doesn't really count and…"

"I'm friends with the twins."

"Yeah, but they don't really count either, do they, cos their friends with everyone."

Dudley started at the short Irish boy. "Seamus, I'm a bit confused as to what you're trying to ask me. So could we talk about it later, because I have a song to sing, apparently."

"Err…" Seamus seemed to shudder, and his shoulders sank. "Mmm…Dudley, about the singing…"

Dudley tensed, as he knew that tone. It was the same one that Harry used when he'd had to fess up to something. He drew himself up to his full height. "What about it, Seamus?"

"Itsprankbythetwins!" Seamus blurted out all at once, without making eye contact. "It was Harry and Ron's idea. Me and Dean thought it was pretty mean, and, well, we…I thought that if I told you…"

"I would help you with your work?" He felt cold all over. A prank? A trick? Harry's idea? Why? "How many people were in on it? And if Dean thinks the way you do, then where is he?"

"Umm, everyone knows about it." Seamus looked down at his feet. "Dean's waiting for us, in an empty classroom."

"I see." Dudley frowned. "Well then, there's no point in giving them lot the satisfaction of my presence, is there." Dudley bit down on his lower lip, as he turned around.

"Err…okay, I'll show you where to go." Seamus grabbed Dudley's arm and started down the hallway. Dudley followed, but allowed the smaller boy to lead him.

Why the hell would Harry and the twins pull something like this? What was the point? He'd spent hours trying to master the orchestra charm, the twins even… Oh, the bastards! They'd been trying to get him to buy their stuff as well. That was it! It was one thing to pull a prank, but a con! Screw that! He didn't care if they were only thirteen, they were gonna get it the next time he…

"Err." He slowed down. Seamus turned around and looked at Dudley suspiciously, and smiled at him. "What's that smell?" Dudley looked around and sniffed. He hadn't even paid attention to where Seamus was taking him, and now they were in the bloodily dungeon!

Dudley's heart dropped. "Seamus, we need to get out of here now!" He took hold of Seamus's arm. They had to get out of here now before…Seamus wasn't moving.

"Seamus, we have to…" Dudley turned around, but it wasn't Seamus he was holding onto, it was…nothing. There was no one there.

Before Dudley could even comprehend what had just happened, the sound of two heavy feet coming down the corridor grabbed his focus.

He turned to run, but at the end of the corridor a massive wall of ice sealed off the exit. He looked around for rooms, doors, anything, but there were only stonewalls. He was trapped. At the end, the other end of the corridor, a massive shadow appeared, and a grey tree-trunk sized leg came into view.

Dudley pulled out his wand. At least that was still real. Where the hell had Seamus gone? NO! His mind yelled. Troll now, Seamus later! Dudley griped his wand with all his might, as he tore through his mind for spells. Damn it! Think! The Troll turned the corner.

Dudley wasn't sure what hit him first, the smell or the fear. The Troll stared right at him, and it was excruciating, as he could almost see the cogs in its head turning. A blue tongue slipped out between the grey giant's lips, and licked them. It smiled at him.

Dudley pointed his wand straight at its throat. He needed his other hand to steady his arm, as he stared back at the creature. "P-piss off!" Oh great, famous last words, he thought, trembling. The Troll started to come forward, and there wasn't much distance between them, so it would be on him soon.

"Sectumsempra!" The spell shot out of the end of Dudley's wand and hit the Troll in the chest. The Troll didn't even notice.

Dudley stood petrified. That was the strongest spell he knew! He tried to think, madly trying to find some way of escape. He ran towards the wall of ice, both in blind panic and rage, but even as he ran toward it, he knew the ice was too thick. This isn't Fair!

The Troll chased him, making a deep rumbling noise with its throat, laughing. Before Dudley had even managed to reach the ice, he found himself being pulled into the air and squeezed by the free hand of the Troll, and suddenly thrown forward towards the ice.

There was one moment, a second just before Dudley made contact with the wall, that he realised that he was going to be crushed to death by a Troll on a wall of ice in the dungeons of Hogwarts, and no one was coming…and there was nothing in his power to stop it.

His life didn't flash before his eyes, and the world and time didn't slow down, like all the myths said they would. Instead, he watched with a horrified emptiness with all the helplessness of a new born; his own terrified reflection, as he came hurtling into it.

He felt the cold touch of the ice, and then his mind was torn away from Dudley Dursley's body, and he just kept going. Not forwards, up or out. In every angle, Nicholas's mind, Nicklaus Larkin's mind, stretched out. But it was also like it didn't have to, as it seemed to stretch out forever and everywhere all at once. He couldn't feel anything, not even the ill feeling he wanted to feel.

8

Nicholas/Dudley was not a spirit. It was like he was pure magic, pure consciousness, and he had been like this before, after he was Nicholas, but before he was Dudley. He was this, for a moment in time, he was this; a different form of himself, a greater being. He was ~He~.

~He~ was everywhere. ~He~ could see everything. ~He~ was everywhere at once and nowhere at all, and for a nano-second it was as if…

~He~ knew the whole thing, everything that had happened, everything that will happen, and then…

~He~ saw Harry making Ron apologise to Hermione on her way to the girls' bathroom whilst 'Dudley' was talking to Flitwick in the charms classroom. ~He~ saw the Troll swing around Dudley's mangled corpse, like it was some sort of plaything. ~He~ saw Harry, Ron and Hermione in the Great Hall at that very moment, talking merrily as they devoured the Halloween feast with everyone else.

~He~ saw Seamus sitting next to Dean, pouring water on the back of his hand. ~He~ saw a rat turn into a boy and then turn morph into a snivelling man, standing in front of Quirrel just outside the Great Hall.

"It is done, Master. The Dursley boy is dead," the man grovelled.

"Excellent. Potter will be destroyed!" Quirrell clasped his hands together, and an eerily raspy voice whispered, "And Dumbledore will lose his job, or at least be suspended from the castle long enough for me to get the stone. Now is the time, Quirrell. Do not fail me again!"

NO!

~He's~ mind reached out across time, setting into motion a turn of events before retracting like an elastic band, hurling itself into Dudley's corpse.

8

Dudley gasped and sucked at the air. At that moment, pain was all he knew. It built up his world, imprisoned Dudley in an inferno of pain in every vein. But then the pain lessened, and then lessened again. It started to drop like a stone into deep dark well.

Suddenly, Dudley could hear his own bones snapping back into place, and realised that until that moment he couldn't hear, see, smell or taste anything. Dudley could hear screaming, and as the pain dropped again he knew two different things were doing it, him and also something else…the Troll.

An eternity seemed to pass before he was able to move again, and then another before he could roll over and stop screaming. As he rolled on to his side, he came face to face with the Troll, its body contorted in front of Dudley's eyes. Dudley imagined some sort of magic umbilical core attached to it and him, trading health with every break of the Troll's bones, and prolonged tortured scream.

Dudley felt…better.

By the time Dudley was almost at full health and could move again, something seemed…wrong. It was like his mind was moving his body, without him thinking it. Dudley was a passenger in both his own body and mind, as a reminisce of…

~He~ took control.

~He~ claimed Dudley's fallen wand from the cobbles of the corridor, and took hold of the Troll's head, pushing it back and pointing the wand at it's neck. ~He~ didn't even have to call out a spell, as a bright light erupted from the end of his wand. A burst of magic hit Dudley, the passenger.

Perhaps draining what was left of the Trolls magic-life-force…whatever. This is mad! Dudley thought. I'm being possessed by himself for Merlin's sake!

A huge burst of blood splattered across Dudley's already blood-soaked robes. Dudley the passenger watched out his own eyes, as ~He~ grabbed the Troll's head and cradled it under his arm. ~He~ turned to the frozen wall of ice, and with a wave of his hand the ice evaporated, and then ~He~ was running.

With each passing second, Dudley could feel himself regaining control. He could feel ~him~ weakening, and could also feel the blood pouring out his nose. Dudley knew, and he wasn't sure how, but if ~He~ didn't leave his body soon, Dudley would die…again.

~He~ didn't stop running, as the urgency was too great. It didn't take long for Dudley to realise where. ~He~ was taking him to the Great Hall. As they arrived, Quirrell was just running in. ~He~ didn't slow down.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeon!"

~He~ threw the Troll's head with what must have been unnatural strength. It flew true, and hit Quirrell, lifting the man into the air.

"VOLDEMORT!" he cried out.

~He~ threw Dudley's hand out, as light exploded forth, capturing the airborne man. Black smoke exploded out of the lightning cage and thundered towards Dudley. There were gasps of horror, as a pillar of black smoke flew through him. Pain again shook everywhere through him.

Voldemort shot upwards into the enchanted ceiling, the dark mark printing itself out on the clouds.

~He~ threw Dudley's hand up, and the ceiling exploded with waves of lightning. And then ~He~ was gone.

Dudley looked around at all the shocked faces. Oh, so time slows down now, he thought.

"I wanna keep the head," was all Dudley could manage, before he collapsed.