CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

"Oi, I want a word!"

Piers stopped dead, sighing in frustration. An explosion was waiting to go off and he wasn't confident in walking away from the situation injury-free. Hopefully he wouldn't have to go and see the nurse afterwards, but Dudley could be unpredictable, particularly when his short fuse of a temper was preparing to detonate. Hoping to provide his best friend with answers, Piers turned round to confront the younger boy, taking in Dudley's flushed face, his dark blue eyes scrunched up in suspicion, broad chest heaving in rage. He presented an intimidating sight, but the smell that bombarded Piers' nostrils overwhelmed the growing sense of dread he felt.

"Jesus, Dudley! You smell like shit!"

On reflection, that had been the worst possible response to say to a six-foot-one heavyweight boxing champion who could knock him flat out with one swing of a fist. Piers saw the blood rise from Dudley's neck to the very tip of his ears and wished for a sinkhole to open up and swallow him whole.

"I smell like shit, do I?!" Piers winced at the loud boom. When Dudley got angry, it was very difficult to calm him down to a normal temperament. He was truly his father's son in terms of patience. Piers had seen Mr Dursley lose his shit plenty of times. It was usually over something minor, but Piers always looked round for means of escape in case the rage ever came to be directed onto him. The Dursleys were polite and upstanding civilians, they would rather die than showcase their… less respectful traits to one of the neighbours.

"You fucking arsehole!" Piers resisted the urge to step backwards. If he ran away, he'd be a pussy and he couldn't have anything marring his reputation. "I ain't had a chance to have a shower yet! Cause I've spent half the night trying to figure out where the hell I am!" Dudley ran his tongue around his gums, spitting out a harsh bark of laughter. "If you want to throw out insults, I'm more than happy to give some back! First off, you're a rat-looking mother-"

"Alright!" Piers flung his hands up, managing to cut Dudley off mid-insult. "Sorry, alright? I'm been panicking cause I've had no idea where you've been for the last few hours and yeah, I went to Kerrington and grassed you up, but we didn't know where you were!"

Noticing that Dudley's breathing was calming down, his skin fading to a slight pinkish colour, Piers swallowed and expressed his feelings through a whisper:

"I was worried, ok? I woke up at two this morning and your bed was empty. Didn't know if you'd ended up kidnapped or something."

"Aren't you cute?" Dudley shot back sarcastically. "Mate, even if I was kidnapped, I'd be able to handle myself! Have better luck than you anyways."

"So I'm your 'mate' now then?" Piers couldn't help the bitterness that crept into his voice. "After you told me and the lads to fuck off? Make your mind up, Dud, are we friends or not?"

His question sparked a surprising reaction in the boy he had known for years. Dudley seemed stumped for words and let his mouth hang open like a trapdoor. Piers cocked an eyebrow at him and dared to be in charge of the situation for once.

"Well? I'm waiting."

"Shut up." Dudley regained control of his shock and closed his mouth, opting to shrug his shoulders instead. Truthfully, he didn't know how to answer Piers' question. Did he still consider him a friend? Deep down, Dudley knew that Piers continued to be his best friend and probably would be for a long time to come. But could he trust him? That was the true question.

"You're alright, I guess. But you did nothing when the boys started in on me, just stood there and stared like I was a fucking freakshow! I know I ain't been… I dunno, I'm stressing, k?"

"About what? School?"

"Yeah." Dudley latched onto the most plausible excuse, forcing his head to nod up and down. "So I went out to get some fresh air last night and I don't know what happened. I ain't been sleeping well, so I must have laid down on a bench somewhere and dozed off. And woken up in the middle of the night. That smell is mud, I woke up in a field, on my back. So I must have moved off of the bench and laid down on the grass. But I'm back now and in a lot of shit… thanks to you."

"Dud, what was I supposed to do?! Would you rather me have stayed in bed and gone back to sleep?! You could have been dead in a ditch somewhere!"

"Or gone out for a smoke round the back?" Dudley's eyebrows sprung halfway up his forehead. "You grassed on me to Kerrington. Imagine if he'd found me smoking, he'd have chopped my balls off! You shouldn't have gone running to him like a little pansy! You don't need to worry about me!"

"So next time you go missing, I won't worry. Even if you're dying somewhere, I'll turn back over, shut my eyes and not worry about you any longer. I had to tell Kerrington!"

"No, you didn't!... You know what? I don't need to hear this." Dudley stormed forwards, making sure to barge his shoulder into Piers' bony one. Piers staggered to the side, off-balance from the sudden movement but it didn't stop him from turning round and burning his glare into the back of Dudley's skull.

"Where you going?!"

"Bed!" The shout echoed down the corridor as seconds later, Dudley turned the corner and was out of sight. Piers shook his head in exasperation, knowing that there was no point chasing after Dudley, so their conversation would have to pick up in the morning when everyone was awake and functioning normally. He waited for thirty seconds before following the other boy in the direction of the dormitory, where he found Dudley changing into his pyjamas, disposing of his muddied clothes underneath his bed.

Dudley ignored Piers, pulling back the covers and tumbling into bed. He yanked his curtains around his bed shut, not caring if it disturbed anyone else in the dorm and wrapped the covers around himself. Tomorrow… no, today was going to be shit, one of those days he'd want to forget as soon as possible. He closed his eyes, preparing himself for another nightmare. The saving grace for him though was because it was already the early hours of the morning, the nightmare would be mercifully short.

Dudley managed to get a peaceful sleep and would have felt well-rested, if it not for the bundle of nerves that plagued him when he stirred at half seven that morning. The meeting with Mr Kerrington would end up in a punishment, he was sure of it. On top of the fact that Kerrington hated his guts, his school records were abysmal and no matter how much his parents could sugar coat it, Dudley himself, along with all the other teachers in the school, understood how close he was to expulsion. Whilst getting ready for his meeting, Dudley hoped that he could pour on enough charm to wriggle his way out of trouble.

'Although if it doesn't work, I could always drop in the suggestion that Dad will give more money to the school in favour of letting this… matter slide. Yeah, Kerrington needs a good old bribe to get him on side. God, I hope he ain't gonna get the cane out.'

Dudley had never been caned before, a strict policy in place meaning that the use of the cane for discipline purposes was steadily being driven out of schools, but he'd been whacked on the palm of the hand with a ruler plenty of times. Fingers absently brushing the palm of his hand, Dudley finished getting ready and ambled out of the dormitory, in no rush to meet with the Headmaster. He briefly regretted the decision to not ask Kerrington to have a witness, because the name at the top of Dudley's list would have been one who could have saved his hide. Literally. Coach Graves was the only teacher to believe in him throughout the entire school and it helped that he was the boxing coach. Dudley spent a lot of time with the Coach, the only downside to their closeness was that Dudley could be, at times, on the receiving end of gay jokes made by his pack of mates. He'd always try to wallop them one, but they would move onto another topic, not wanting to actually be hit by the heavyweight champion.

He moved head and shoulders past the large cluster of first years struggling to find their way around the corridors and slid to a halt outside the Headmaster's office. Smoothing his large hands down his maroon tailcoat, Dudley held his Smeltings stick tightly as he gathered his pride and knocked heavily on the door. The sharp command to enter made Dudley open the door and step into the office with no hesitation, gently shutting the door behind him. Mr Kerrington sat behind his desk, hands linked together on the surface of the table, face a picture of pure stoicism. Dudley stepped up to the desk, gaze drifting over the furnishings of the office. He had been a regular visitor to the Headmaster's office since he'd started Smeltings, so knew the lay-out of the office pretty damn well. Yet as his eyes took in the room, he noticed a slight difference to the ornaments on the man's desk. The framed photograph of his family – Kerrington, his wife and teenage daughter – was gone, replaced by a more recent photo of his daughter. Dudley wondered what had happened to Kerrington's wife. Had they divorced? Had she died?

His hands clasped behind his back, stick lightly tapping against the back of his calf, Dudley looked at Mr Kerrington and waited for him to speak.

"You may sit, Mr Dursley."

He sat down heavily onto the chair, grateful there was no creak. Two years ago, the chair would have almost collapsed in two from his weight alone. Now, not even a creak was made, and Dudley allowed a smug little smile to come to his face over this personal moment of joy.

"I don't understand why you are smiling, young man. You're in a lot of trouble."

Kerrington brought him back to reality with a crash, by unlinking his hands and turning slightly in his chair to pull open one of the drawers that held his pupils' files. He pulled out the bulkiest folder, placing it down onto the surface of his desk with a quiet bang. Mr Kerrington shut the drawer and turned back round to face his student, who was eyeing the folder with amusement.

"Do you believe this to be funny, Mr Dursley? What I see here is years of misdemeanours and bad behaviour all bundled together into one folder. Notices upon notices of bullying, vandalism, backchat to the teachers, continuously being late to lessons and not completing homework. It has to end now." He slapped a hand down onto the folder. "I've given you too many chances, Mr Dursley. But this, wandering off in the night without telling anyone. What were you thinking?! You could have ended up in serious danger!"

'He sounds like Piers…' Dudley clutched his stick for support, so Kerrington couldn't see his hands shaking. "I w-went out after dinner. To get some fresh air, you know?"

"What time was this?" Out came the notepad and pen. Interrogation time.

"Dunno. About… half six-ish? I wasn't really hungry so I didn't have much dinner. I just wanted to get out and get some air, s'all."

"Last confirmed sighting of you was six thirty-three pm yesterday evening where you were seen by several teachers leaving the dining hall and heading outside. Can you explain what your intentions were after going outside?"

"I said. To get fresh air." Dudley was slowly becoming irritated. The true reason, smoking, would never be revealed and he wasn't prepared to start spouting off about the voice in his head. "I went to get fresh air and went off for a walk. A short one. I must have fainted or something cause next thing I know, I'm waking up in a muddy field. So I don't know if I lost track of where I was and went to sleep or I sleepwalked for a bit. I don't know."

Mr Kerrington jotted all this information down, before narrowing his eyes at his pupil.

"And who were you dropped off by? Was it a stranger?"

"Yes, but," Dudley interjected quickly, knowing that Kerrington would bring up the assembly he did about stranger danger. "I panicked a bit and they basically nearly ran me over. Even though you didn't ask, I'm fine. They offered me a ride back cause they knew the way and I got back, safe and sound. Look, sorry, alright? I won't do it again."

Mr Kerrington's glare softened slightly as he cleared his throat. "Well, we are all glad you're safe, Mr Dursley. When Mr Polkiss informed me of your unknown whereabouts, we were very concerned. The driver of that car is a good person to have brought you back here. Did you happen to catch the registration number?"

"No." Dudley furrowed his brow. "Can't even remember what make of car it was… What are you going to do?"

"Well," Mr Kerrington snapped his notebook shut. "I cannot thank the person you brought you back here, but what I am going to do is call your parents to inform them about this-"

Dudley groaned. "No, don't do that! You know what my Mum's like, she'll just panic!"

"I have a duty of care, Mr Dursley."

"But I'm fifteen! I ain't a child!"

"You are under our protection and yes, you legally are a child. We need to inform them."

Shaking his head, Dudley whined: "They're gonna kick up a fuss… Can't we just keep this quiet and I'll tell Dad to give a bigger cheque towards the school funding this year in return?"

"Mr Dursley, I would stop now if I were you with what you are suggesting. I do not want to get the wrong idea from what you were implying. Now, I will call your parents. Are you worried that you will be in trouble with them?"

"No… it's just that… they'll think something's off." 'If they hear that I might be going loopy, they'll definitely send me fast-track to the looney bin!'

"You can talk with them on the phone if you wish too? After I have informed them."

"Okay. Fine." He slumped back in his chair, adjusting his straw boater and waiting whilst Mr Kerrington dug out his home telephone number and dialled it on his corded phone. Dudley heard his father's gruff voice on the other end of the phone after a few rings and wondered why he wasn't at work. His Dad loved his job.

"Good morning, Mr Dursley. Sorry for disturbing you. I have Dudley with me here now as an incident occurred last night…"

He tuned out the telephone conversation, digging his fingernails into the palms of his hands to subside the shaking. He wasn't nervous about talking to his Dad or the prospect of getting into trouble. Him getting into trouble with his parents would never happen. It was more if he ended up far away, lost, once again. Then the school would have to take further action and he'd have both Mum and Dad charging straight up from Surrey to Smeltings, demanding more support from the staff and asking why their precious little darling wasn't the teachers' number one priority.

Dudley blinked as the phone was offered to him, cradling the receiver to his ear.

"Hi, Dad."

"Dudders! Are you okay? Kerrington told us what happened. I can't believe they let a pupil wander off like that! Where is the security on that place?!"

"I'm fine, Dad. Honestly. I didn't feel too well, so I went to get fresh air and ended up too far and must have lain down somewhere or fainted. Nothing happened to me, I got a lift back to school… Why aren't you at work?"

"Got the flu." His Dad paused momentarily, only to let a gigantic sneeze fly. Dudley could picture his father now, red in the face and moustache bristling from trying to keep in the sneeze. "Your mother's taking good care of me. In fact, hold on, she wants to say hello."

"She was listening in?" It didn't surprise Dudley. His Mum was so nosy. He was shocked she hadn't made any noise in the background as a reaction to eavesdropping on the call. Anything 'bad' that happened to him sent her into a state of shock.

"D-Duddy, are you okay, sweetheart?"

Mum was crying. He could imagine her dabbing her eyes with a soft handkerchief, heart breaking for her poor son. Dudley cleared his throat.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Don't worry about me."

"Honey, don't you worry." Mum's tone of voice was now firm. "We're going to come straight to Smeltings and get this all sorted-"

"Mum, nah!" Dudley yanked his straw boater off and ran his free hand through the clumps of gelled hair, dismissing Mr Kerrington's raised eyebrow. "No need for you to come. If there's a problem, I'll let you know. They're going to keep a record of it and I want to move on from it, okay? Don't want it to keep coming up." He softened his voice and murmured: "Mum, you wouldn't do that to me, would you?"

She was butter in his hands. Petunia wailed on the other end of the line, crying:

"No, no, Duddy dear! Of course not! As long as those teachers keep you safe, we won't lodge a complaint! Y-You didn't get hurt, did you? The person who dropped you off… they didn't t-touch you, did they?"

'If they did, I would have fucking knocked their head off.' "No, Mum. Nothing happened. I'm right as rain. I'll see you soon, yeah? I'll call."

"Okay, baby. I love you so much, my Duddy-Wuddy."

'Clean up in Kerrington's office. There's puke everywhere!'

"Yeah. Love you too. Bye."

He tossed the receiver onto the desk and sat down, mortified that Kerrington would have heard his mother's soppy words of affection. His Headmaster put the receiver back onto the hook and linked his hands once again.

"Well, I will write a letter summarising this incident and be sending it to your parents. I do not want a repeat of this action, Mr Dursley. If you feel that you may be sleepwalking or having any troubles, please speak to either one of the teachers here, myself or Nurse Hayes. Speaking of Nurse Hayes… please go and see her straight away after you have left here. You need to be checked over."

"But I'm fine!" Dudley shoved his hat back onto his head, kicking his stick to the floor. "Sir, I don't need to see the nurse."

"Mr Dursley, I recommend you do. You have seen Nurse Hayes plenty of times before, go and get checked out, then we can move on with helping you study for your GCSE's."

'Yeah, me and her are close. She was the one who nagged Mum to get me started on that diet. Fucking watermelons and grapefruit. Rank.

"I'll go to the Nurse then." Dudley gave in for once, realising that Kerrington would keep at him if he didn't listen to the man's instructions.

"Good. You can go now."

"Yes, Sir." Dudley reached down and picked up his Smeltings stick, before rising to his feet and walking round the chair. He was nearly at the door when Mr Kerrington spoke up:

"Mr Dursley, you have detention this evening after your last class for your truancy yesterday evening. Do not be late. You are to report here at half three sharp."

Dudley rolled his eyes at the door, but accepted his punishment like a man and nodded his head. "Yes, Sir. See you at half three."

Shutting the door with more force than was needed gave him a bit of self-satisfaction and he went off to see the Nurse, feeling superior in the moment. He hoped Kerrington had jumped out of his skin when he'd left the office.

He thought it was so unfair, the old bugger was always on his case.