A/N: Hi all! I'm back!

All I can say in my defense is don't get a PhD (unless you are absolutely sure you really want it). It is hell. But I finally came out the other side and officially have my doctorate. So now that my dissertation is finally done and defended, I actually had so time to get back to my stories.

And now I'm going to get working on the next chapter! Enjoy this one in the meantime!

Chapter 24

Dudley Dursley

x-X-x

"Oh, come on mate," Ron teased as they sat on the Hogwarts Express a week later, heading back to the Burrow for the Easter holidays. "Trouble is your middle name. I don't know what we would do without a little danger every now and then. Life would get boring!"

Harry smiled at his friend's attempt to cheer him up but nonetheless remained unconvinced. The foursome had the compartment to themselves and were using their time to talk about Harry's newly discovered ability. Harry had told the others as soon as he saw them after talking with Dumbledore but they hadn't had much time to talk over the past six days.

Harry was concerned about Ginny's reaction to the news. Hermione, as expected, had spent all her free time over the past week in the library, researching praesagiums while Ron, to Harry's relief, had taken the news well and seemed to view this newest ability as a positive. Ginny, however, had been oddly quiet about the news and Harry was worried.

"It's not about attracting trouble, Ron," Hermione said, trying to help them all understand Harry's ability. "He attracts the trouble just by being Harry," she added, throwing Harry a small grin which he couldn't help but agree with. "This just lets him anticipate the trouble.

"I mean, it is like when you were able to speak parseltongue," she said, switching into lecture mode. "You have a little control over your praesagium abilities but not a lot. A metamorphagus has a lot more control. In essence, you should be able to block a premonition or make a more detailed one come if you are already sensing danger. But you cannot make the feelings come at will. And, from what I read, it will be really hard to learn to block them. Although, the information I could find was sparse. There wasn't much information out there. Praesagiums are apparently really rare."

"Great. Yet another reason I'm a freak. As if being The Boy Who Lived, The Chosen One, and The Savior weren't enough. Oh, and let's not forget I was a horcrux for sixteen years. I really needed another thing people can fixate on."

"Well, it's not like people would know it just by looking at you," Ron pointed out. "So I bet you could keep it quiet. Us four and Dumbledore are the only ones who know. And you know we won't tell anybody."

"Perhaps, although the past doesn't really support that theory. Just look how my parseltongue ability came out."

"But we aren't naïve twelve-year olds anymore," Ron said. "So you know, if you get pressured into a duel with a childhood enemy, don't go up there and shout 'I'm a praesagium.'"

"I'll be sure to note that," Harry said with a smile. "But as long as I'm stuck with this, it'd be nice to actually gain something from it but I'm sensing that something is wrong but have no idea how to make the feelings or visions or whatever the hell they are more detailed."

"I don't know either," Hermione said, obviously frustrated by her lack of information. "I wish I could have found some kind of instructional manual or anything along those lines but everything I found was just brief mentions of praesagiums and their abilities. What you really need is another praesagium to learn from but for all we know, you are the only one currently alive."

"That's a really helpful thought, Hermione," Harry said. Looking over at Ginny who seemed to be avoiding the conversation, Harry added, "I'm sick of this. Let's talk about something else."

"Why don't we go over the study schedules I have drawn up for us," Hermione suggested, pulling a sheaf of paper out of her bag.

Putting his head in his hands, Ron groaned. "Blimey, Hermione, can't we at least have Easter break?"

"Ron," Hermione chastised. "Our N.E.W.T.s are only a couple of months away. I would think you would be more worried. These tests determine the rest of our lives."

"Ergh," Ron grunted, knowing resistance was futile.

The rest of the trip was spent with Hermione lecturing their group on all the study tools she was going to set up for them leading up to their exams in June. Harry, Ron, and Ginny just smiled and nodded along, giving in to the inevitable force that was their bushy haired friend.

That night, Harry and Ginny found themselves alone in the Burrow living room after the rest of the family had gone upstairs to bed.

The silence was thick and both seemed to be caught up in their own thoughts.

Finally, after what felt like hours but was likely only minutes, Harry spoke up.

"Gin? Anything wrong?"

"Why?"

"You've been quiet all week. Did I do something? Is it about me being a praesagium?"

Ginny looked up at Harry for a moment before saying, "A little." She paused before continuing on. "Nothing is really wrong. I guess I was just hoping that you were being paranoid or something. I was hoping the world would return to normal after the war but I guess I am just now realizing that there is no such thing as normal. And now, with you being a praesagium – well, I mean, you've always been one but now with us knowing you are one – we will always know when danger is coming. It's a double edged sword, really. We'll know, so we can be ready. But sometimes, I just wish we could live in ignorance, peaceful ignorance."

Ginny smiled wryly up at Harry.

Harry squeezed her shoulders. "I know what you mean. It seems like my whole life has been one long adventure after another. I sort of hoped defeating Riddle would finally give me a break. But it seems my life is destined to be full of intrigue. On the plus side, you have to admit, it's never boring.

Harry returned Ginny's wry smile as she laughed at his dry humor.

Once again, they lapsed into a contemplative silence. And once again, it was Harry who broke it.

"Gin?"

"Yeah, Harry?"

"Well, I, uh… I made a decision."

"About what?"

"About the letter my cousin sent me a few months ago."

At this, Ginny sat up and turned around to face Harry.

"I had forgotten about that. He wanted to catch up, right?"

"Yeah." Harry fidgeted a little, clearly still doubting his decision.

Sensing his uncertainty, Ginny proceeded slowly.

"I see. He also apologized, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, then, what did you decide to do?"

Harry hesitated a minute, then pulled out a letter from his pocket and handed it to Ginny. She opened it and quickly skimmed it. At the end of the short letter, she looked back up at Harry's face, which at the moment was schooled into a blank expression.

"So, you decided to meet him, then?" she asked, cautiously. The letter was a response from Dudley, suggesting that they meet up at a coffee shop in London.

"Yeah," Harry said quietly. "I sent him a letter a couple weeks back, agreeing to meet. Then he suggested this coffee place. I wrote back, telling him I would be there later this week."

"That's great, Harry. But are you sure about this? From what you told me, he was the world's biggest prat."

"Yeah. But he seemed to change those last few years, although I was never there long enough for anything to happen. So, to answer your question, no, I'm not sure. But I thought I would at least give him a chance, see if what I thought I saw before was true."

"I'm proud of you Harry, you know that?" Ginny whispered, leaning up to kiss him. This time, when they both lapsed into silence, it was a comfortable silence.

A few days later, Harry and Ginny were standing outside the coffee shop in Muggle London.

"You know, you can't do anything if you don't open the door, right?" Ginny asked, smiling up at Harry, who had been rooted to the spot for the last minute or so.

Harry seemed to come out of his trance and glanced down at Ginny, a grimace on his face.

"Right. Door," he said, as if to himself. He stepped forward and opened the coffee shop door. They were still a little early, so Dudley hadn't arrived yet. Harry was glad. He had wanted to beat his cousin and have a few minutes to calm down before they met. He was incredibly nervous to meet the reportedly reformed bully.

Fifteen minutes later, Harry stood when he saw Dudley walk through the door.

His cousin had slimmed down a lot since Harry had last seen him, nearly two years ago. As far as Harry could tell, Dudley was just as nervous as Harry was.

"Dudley," Harry called, alerting to his cousin to his table. Dudley turned and headed over.

"Hey, Harry," Dudley said as he sat down.

For a minute, everyone sat in an uncomfortable silence. Finally, Ginny elbowed Harry, causing him to jump a little.

"Er-Right," he said. "Dudley, this is my fiancée, Ginny. Ginny, my cousin Dudley."

"Nice to meet you Dudley," Ginny said.

"Ah, you too," Dudley said hesitantly. He looked back at Harry. "Fiancée? What'd you do, Harry? Knock her up?"

Ginny blushed while Harry looked away, the guilt written on his face.

"Oh, man, Harry. Look, I'm sorry. I didn't mean anything by it." Dudley rubbed the back of his neck. "Blimey, this is not how I wanted this to go."

"No, Dud, don't worry about it. But, yeah, the thing is, Ginny is pregnant," Harry said, reaching over for Ginny's hand. "Due next month actually."

"Bloody hell, Harry. Really?" Dudley's eyes were wide with surprise.

"Yeah. I guess we got a little careless in the months after the war ended," Harry said with a glance at Ginny, who only smiled. "We were in a bad place. Sometimes we still are. But at least we are there together."

Dudley sat there twisting his hands for a minute.

"Hestia told me some of the stuff you went through. At least, the stuff before the war. Why didn't you ever tell me who Cedric was? I teased you mercilessly about him. And you watched him die. I was horrible. I have been beating myself up about it ever since I learned what happened."

"Well, I didn't exactly want to talk about it. Especially with you or your parents. Not back then."

"Right. I get it. Listen, Harry, about that. I wanted to apologize. I know my parents were cruel to you but I didn't have to be. I mean, you were always better than us. Even after everything we did to you, you still saved me, saved us. And by the sounds of it, not just me. You saved everyone." Dudley looked down and spoke quietly. "I'm proud to be your cousin, even if I don't deserve to be."

Harry was speechless. He had seen signs of this over those last few summers at Privet Drive but had ignored them, sure his cousin would never be more than a bully. But it seemed that things had indeed changed.

"Dudley, I don't know what to say."

"That was really nice, Dudley," Ginny said after Harry had lapsed into silence. Looking over at Harry, she said quietly, "Harry, we have lost enough people over the last few years. You especially have lost the most. Why don't you guys try starting over. Dudley is family, no matter what happened before."

Dudley's head jerked towards Ginny. "What do you mean, Harry has lost the most?" he questioned. "Hestia and Dedalus told us about what had happened but they only mentioned Cedric's death."

While he had been asking Ginny, it was Harry who answered.

"Cedric was just the first death that we faced in the second war. My parents were the last deaths of the first war. So then there was Cedric, who died in front of me the night Voldemort came back, basically starting the second war. Then there was Sirius." Harry paused, thinking about the night he lost his godfather. Looking at Dudley, he asked, "Do you remember when Dumbledore came by the house? He tried to give you a drink and the glasses kept hitting you over the head." Harry smiled at the memory.

"Yeah, I remember," Dudley said, grinning too.

"Wait, what exactly did Dumbledore do?" Ginny asked, missing the joke.

"I'll tell you later," Harry assured her. Turning back to Dudley, Harry continued, "Anyway, the will Dumbledore was talking about that night, the will was Sirius's. He was my godfather. He was the one on the tele a few years earlier, when I blew up Aunt Marge." Dudley laughed at this. "Yes. Well, after Sirius died, Dumbledore started helping me more. But then, a year later, he too died."

"The bearded guy died? He seemed invincible."

"He seemed that way to all of us but he went out on his own terms. Then we lost Mad-Eye. He seemed even more invincible than Dumbledore. By then, it had kind of sunk in that no one was invincible."

"You guys knew someone named Mad-Eye?"

"Oh, yeah," Ginny answered. "He had this eye that spun around and could see out of the back of his head and through wood and all kinds of crazy stuff."

Dudley looked confused for a minute. "Is he the guy that was at the train station that one time?"

Harry laughed. "Yeah, that was him. He died the night we separated. He died protected me when they moved me to a new location after you and your parents had gone with Dedalus and Hestia."

"Oh, Harry, I'm sorry."

Harry shrugged it off, still not quite over the guilt he felt over everyone's death.

"Then, there was the final battle. At Hogwarts – our school. We lost a lot of people that day. There was this boy who followed me around all the time – Colin. He died that night. And our friend Lavender. She was my best mate's first girlfriend. And then we lost Ginny's brother, Fred. He was one of the twins."

"Was he one of the one's who gave me that candy? The one that made my tongue grow?"

"Yeah. That was him and George. And we also lost Remus, who was friends with my dad and Sirius and like another father to me. And his wife Tonks – we all loved her. She died at Remus's side. Their son is my godson." Then, as if an afterthought, he added, "And Snape. We lost Snape too."

Ginny squeezed Harry's hand at the mention of Snape's name.

Dudley, not knowing the significance of the last name, instead focused on the information before. "You have a godson?"

Harry smiled.

"Yeah. I do. Teddy. He turns a year old this week. His birthday party is this Friday."

Harry thought for a minute and then added, "You should come. You could meet everyone. If we are going to start over, you should meet my family."

Hesitantly, Dudley answered, "Okay. Sure. And I want you to know, I've gotten better with the whole magic thing since living with Hestia and Dedalus. Especially Dedalus. He loved to joke around with it. But I'm still a little twitchy. Not everyone has been given a pig tail by a wizard when they were 11. Kind of leaves an impression."

"A pig tail?" Ginny asked, a grin on her face. "Now this I have to hear."

"It was Hagrid," Harry began. He told her the story of how he learned he was a wizard, Dudley interrupting every now and again with his own take on things. Then, he and Dudley started telling Ginny some of the other crazy moments they had been through, choosing to ignore the bad times and just focus on the funny ones."

After a few hours, most of which was spent laughing, they parted ways, Harry telling Dudley he would meet him before the party on Friday to pick him up.

After leaving Dudley, Harry and Ginny headed back to the Leaky Cauldron. They were going to spend the rest of the afternoon looking for a birthday gift for Teddy.

Harry and Ginny headed back towards Fred and George shop, pushing through the large Easter crowds that filled the alley.

"Wow, I don't remember the last time I saw this place so crowded," Ginny exclaimed as they walked.

"Yeah. And every single eye is on us," Harry growled back, frustrated by the attention they were drawing. The whispers had been following them ever since they entered the alley.

"You are going to have to get used to it," Ginny said, leaning into Harry as they walked slowly down the street. "Frankly, you should already be used to it."

"Doesn't mean I have to like it."

Ginny laughed at his response.

When they got to the Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, George was behind the counter, checking out a long line of customers. However, when he spotted them, he called for one of his magenta-clothed employees to come take over.

"Harry. Ginny," he said, giving them both hugs, although hugging Ginny around her girth seemed to be getting harder by the hour.

"Wow, George, you look a lot better than you did a month ago. Freddie sleeping any better?" Ginny asked.

George laughed. "Nope. But I sure do have a lot of coffee in my system," he said, clearly bordering on jittery from all the caffeine. "Plus, Freddie gave us the cutest gummy little grin yesterday. First one! I think Angelina and I could stay up year round if he gave us that grin each day."

"Oh, that's so sweet, George. Is he upstairs? I want to see my little godson."

"No, sorry. Angelina is having a little difficulty leaving him so she took him with her while she ran some errands. Anyway," he said, giving Ginny a once over, "you'll have one of your own soon enough."

"True," Ginny admitted. "Still, I want to see my little nephew."

"You will. On Friday," George informed them. "Is Friday what brings you guys to Diagon Alley?"

"Yeah," Harry answered. "We need a gift for Teddy. Not every day your godson turns one. I just wish the Alley wasn't so busy. I thought it being a weekday would help with the crowds."

"No, it's actually been like this for awhile. Like people were waiting to do all their shopping until after the war ended and now that it has, they are going nuts. The crowds have been so crazy, I've even decided to expand. Just bought Zonko's old shop in Hogsmeade."

"George, that's great." Ginny hugged her brother at the news. It had taken months before he was even able to open the shop again after Fred's death and the expansion was a real positive sign.

"Yeah, really great George," Harry said, patting George on the back. "But if Freddie's not here, we should probably get going. Leave you to manage this craziness. And we should go out to brave the rest of the crowds. After all, I still have to get Teddy his gift."

"Have fun!" George yelled at their backs as Harry and Ginny headed out to the street again. Around the corner, they found Tot's Wizard Toys and ventured inside. Nearly an hour later, they finally left the store, their arms loaded with bags of toys a one year old would love.

As they headed back down the alley towards George's shop so that Ginny could try one more time to see Freddie, the hairs on the back of Harry's neck tingled and his body filled with dread.

Something was terribly wrong.