I own nothing. J.K.R Owns everything :(
Chapter 26: The Apologies
7th, August, Saturday, 1998...
At the Burrow was sitting eating breakfast when Harry stood up.
"Everyone. Ginny and myself had a little talk the other day and we decided something..." he trailed off.
Ginny stood up from her seat beside him, taking his hand as she rose, she said, "We've decided that if anyone wants to be a Lycan all they have to do is ask." she said confidently.
Harry nodded. "But you have to be 100% sure or we won't do it."
Most nodded as they sat down again.
Ron and Hermione exchanged looks.
"We were going to ask about that actually." Hermione admitted quietly. "We've talked as well and we were going to ask you if you would. The skills and reflexes would come in handy if we ever got in trouble and there's more advantages than disadvantages." she explained.
Ron nodded, "I think it would be good and we've both decided that if you are willing to change us we'd like to be changed. We've always done everything together so why not this too." he added shrugging.
Harry and Ginny nodded, "I thought you would. How about after breakfast then?" Harry asked, they nodded. "Anyone else only has to ask. Do us a favour and just ask streight out instead of hinting at it, it just makes everything easier if you ask." he added.
"If you want more information you can ask as well, I certainly don't mind." Ginny put in.
"And I don't either." Harry shrugged.
Just then an owl flew in through the window and landed on the table with a letter, addressed to Harry, clamped in its beak. The owl was white and had bits of grey fluff on it, it looked as if it wasn't fully grown yet. It was clearly going to be a snowy owl when it had lost all its fluff.
"Odd. I wasn't expecting mail and I don't recognise the writing, or the owl. Though it has to be safe, or it wouldn't have passed the screening..." he frowned taking the letter from the owl and offering it a bit of his bacon which it took gratefully. He opened the letter and read it, it said:
Dear Harry,
I would like to apologise for being such a git and a bully to you when we were growing up and would also like to add that I need your help and so does Mum. Last month we were attacked by a Werewolf Dad was killed but me and Mum only got bitten... There was two other people there but they were fine and I'd like to tell you who they are in person.
I asked Mrs Figg for information on how to contact you and she told me your owl had died so I gave her money and asked her if she could buy an owl for me to give to you she agreed and brought back this owl he's a young Snowy Owl he is already fully trained and I'd like you to keep him as a token of apology.
If you can when you're not busy can you come to Privet Drive to help us? We would be grateful if you could help.
Your cousin, Big D.
When Harry had finished reading he looked up to see everyone looking at him curiously.
"It's from Dudley." he said sighing. "I'm going to have to go see him."
"What's happened?" Lily asked.
"My Uncle Vernon was killed last month..." Harry started. "By a Werewolf." Remus growled. "And Dudley and my Aunt Petunia were bitten there was two other people involved but Dudley didn't say who. The way Dudley wrote it he sounds scared."
"I don't blame him." Remus said darkly, "The full moon is on the 10th."
Harry nodded. "I know I checked the calendar this morning... I'm going to go see him."
"What about the owl Harry?" Ron asked.
"Apparently my old neighbor Mrs Figg told Dudley about Hedwig dying so he gave her money to buy one to give to me as a token of apology for being a git." Harry explained smiling slightly, "So he's mine now."
The owl chirruped happily and hopped on to Harry's shoulder.
"Well I think he likes you." Luna commented, "It's difficult to tell with some owls though. What breed is he?"
"He's a Snowy Owl, like Hedwig." Harry replied stroking the owls feathers, "The letter says he's young but fully trained apparently." the owl hooted as if in agreement.
"Hey Harry?" Ginny asked frowning.
"Yeah Gin?"
"You said two other people were involved? Why would Dudley not tell you who they were? Because they sound important or he wouldn't have mentioned them."
"I honestly don't know." he frowned. "I'll find out sooner or later." he got up and the owl flew to the window. "You can go hunting if you want." as soon as he said it the owl flew outside. "I'm going to go see Dudley I'll be back in a bit."
"I'm coming with you." Ginny said, "Just incase it's a trap, there are still some Death Eater's lose." Harry nodded and they both said goodbye, after promising to be careful, then went outside.
"Hold on tight Gin. I'll side-along you since I know where we're going." Harry explained offering her his arm which she took. They spun on the spot and went into a crushing darkness which disappeared when they landed in an alley close to Privet Drive.
"I hate side-along apparition." Ginny muttered.
"You get used to it soon enough." Harry assured her. "Though it's always unpleasant. Right it's this way." he took her hand and they started walking down the street at the end of the ally.
After they had walked for a few minutes Harry spoke.
"It's just around this corner. Gin? Please try not to hex them, try to be nice." he said seriously.
"I promise I won't hex them Harry but I'll only be nice if they are." she replied honestly as they got to the path that lead to number 4 Privet Drive.
"I suppose that's fair enough." he nodded.
They walked up the path hand in hand and Harry knocked on the door. They waited in silence, after a few seconds they heard footsteps on the stairs and Ginny squeezed Harry's hand reassuringly.
The door opened and standing there was a tired looking Dudley whose face was covered in scars, but he smiled as soon as he saw Harry. Harry noticed he looked a good deal thinner than the last time he had seen him.
"Harry. It's good to see you." he said awkwardly.
"Hello Dudley. This is my girlfriend Ginny." Harry replied.
"Hello." Ginny said.
"Hello it's nice to meet you. Please come in, my Mum's in the kitchen she'll be glad to see you again Harry, just go through to the living room and have a seat I'll go get her."
Harry and Ginny went into the living room and sat down next to each other.
"So this is where you grew up?" Ginny asked looking around the room.
"Yeah." Harry replied as Dudley walked back in with Petunia right behind him. Petunia had what was clearly a bite mark on her wrist but it was half hidden by a long-sleeved t-shirt. "Hello Aunt Petunia."
"Hello Harry." she smiled slightly, "How are you?"
"I'm good thank you. This is my girlfriend Ginny by the way."
"It's a pleasure to meet you, have I seen you before?" Petunia asked curiously as she and Dudley sat down across from them.
"It's possible." Ginny replied. "My older brother, Ron, is one of Harry's best friends."
"And the identical twins that were here, Fred and George, are her big brothers too I'm sure you remember them?" Harry added.
"I remember those two." Dudley said nodding. Petunia nodded as well.
"How have you two been holding up then?" Harry asked.
"Good considering the circumstances." Petunia replied. "With Vernon gone and getting bitten..." she trailed off. "Harry can I just say, I know it's not much, but I'm really, really sorry for the way I treated you growing up. I should have been nicer to you it's just - it's difficult to explain..."
"Aunt Petunia what do you mean 'explain'?"
"Well only half the blame lies on Vernon, he caught me being nice to you when we first took you in." she winced, "He never let me forget that one." Harry frowned and cocked his head to the side in confusion. "He beat me up Harry, he had abused me for years, since we first got married, I didn't know how to escape form him." she sniffed and Dudley put his arm around her.
"He abused you?" Ginny asked shocked.
Petunia nodded tearfully. "He did."
"I knew he was mean but I didn't think he was that violent." Harry growled, the protective part of his Lycan side telling him that his family member had been threatened by another. "If he weren't already dead I'd kill him."
Petunia smiled sadly, "Naturally after that I never let him catch me being nice to you again, but it went wrong - somewhere along the line around the time you were 3 - I realised you wouldn't understand why I was nice some of the time and nasty the rest." she explained, "I still didn't know how to get away from Vernon. So I decided that I'd be horrible to you all the time."
"That make's sense but you could have told me when I was old enough to understand." Harry frowned.
"I know I should have but I never, so that blame lies with me." Petunia said sadly. "I regret my actions everyday."
"Thank you for explaining that Aunt Petunia... I can't forgive you completely yet but now that I know the truth I can start forgiving you." Harry said softly.
"I'd like that Harry." she smiled gratefully.
"And I'm sorry too Harry." Dudley said, "I was nothing but a bully to you when we were growing up. My only excuse is that's how I was raised, a spoiled brat, but I knew better when we were 9, I knew that what I was doing was wrong." he admitted looking ashamed, "Then when we were 11 we found out you were a wizard and that magic was real, I was terrified of your powers but I still picked on you."
"I goaded you most of the time though and some habits are hard to break." Harry told him.
"I still shouldn't have done it, we grew up together, we should have been like brothers. And then despite how I'd treated you, you saved my life from those Dementor's when we were 15, that made me think about my actions a bit more I realised I was a bully and that I had to change. So I changed myself when we were in hiding, I lost some weight and started being nicer." Dudley finished, "I'm sorry."
"Well Big D, I can see your point so how about this. I'll work on forgiving you and I'll tell you something that can get rid of your being a Werewolf same offer goes to you Aunt Petunia."
"That would be nice, but I thought there wasn't a cure?" Petunia asked blushing at the incredulous look Harry gave her, "I had a look in your school books you left here when we got bitten." Harry nodded in understanding.
"There wasn't a cure until the start of the month." Ginny explained, "It's not public knowledge yet but myself and Harry are Lycan's..." Ginny went on to explain everything they knew about Lycan's and about the deal with Death and the returnees with Harry commenting now and then, when they had finished there was a short silence.
"Lily's alive?" Petunia finally asked.
"Yes and so is my Dad." Harry replied.
"You know I never really hated her. I was scared of her magic, I was too embarrassed to admit it..."
"Kind of like me and Harry then?" Dudley asked. "Only you two got along before you knew?"
Petunia nodded, "Kind of like that. But when I was ready to talk to her I was engaged to Vernon and he told me he didn't want anything to do with her kind and that he'd kill me if he ever found out I'd been nice to her." she explained miserably. "I know it hurt her deeply and if she will listen I would like to apologise."
"I think she would listen. I may not know her that well yet but from what I do know, she will understand." Ginny consoled her.
"So you would be willing to change us?" Dudley asked after a moment. They both nodded.
"Your family." Harry said simply.
"But we cant do it here we need another person..." Ginny frowned.
"We can ask Moony and Padfoot for help. That's my Godfather and Remus Lupin." Harry added to Petunia and Dudley who nodded in understanding.
"Wait a minute. Harry I thought your Godfather was an escaped convict from that prison, Azka-thingy?" Dudley said, just a tad confused.
"Azkaban Dud. He was framed he always was innocent I just never told you." Harry admitted sheepishly.
"I thought that he seemed too nice the first time I met him." Petunia smiled. "Dudley? What time is Amber getting back at?" she added to her son, frowning.
"Um..." Dudley checked the clock that was on the fireplace. "In about 10 minutes." he told her. "Harry there's something I've got to tell you."
"What is it Dudley?"
"Well... when we went into hiding there was someone else we met, she was in hiding too, and well, I fell in love with her and we got married." Dudley replied.
"Really?" Harry replied shocked.
Dudley nodded showing Harry the wedding band on his left ring finger, Harry was surprised he'd missed seeing it. "We got married under her name as well." he said, "Her name is Amber Moon, so I'm now Dudley Moon." Harry nodded still looking shocked. "The other thing is... We kind of had a child, a little girl."
"You have a daughter?" Harry asked still shocked as Dudley nodded again.
"She's called Cecelia and she's almost three months old." Petunia put in, smiling at the thought of her Granddaughter. "Amber knows about magic because she was there when we were attacked by that Werewolf, she was the one who stopped it killing us too... Cecelia's also magical, she had a tantrum a while ago and blew the lights in the house. I ended up explaining to her that you were the same way when you were young." she explained blushing.
"We know about your statue of secrecy but she knew about magic already, we don't know how." Dudley added.
"Oh." Harry said raising an eyebrow at Ginny.
"So she know's about Harry's being a wizard?" she asked getting nods. "And Harry has a magical cousin?" Petunia and Dudley nodded again.
"Okay can I check something here?" Harry asked taking his wand out of his pocket as the two Muggles nodded again. "Aunt Petunia can you take my wand and give it a wave for me?" Petunia took the wand hesitantly and did as she was asked and was shocked when pale pink and bright orange sparks came out of it. "Dudley you try it." Harry took the wand from his Aunt and passed it to Dudley who waved it around causing electric blue and lemon yellow sparks to come out of it. Harry took his wand back.
Ginny frowned, "How is that possible?" she asked.
"I was reading something the other day about late witches and wizards." Harry said. "Sometimes, according to the book, a person's magical core can lie dormant in their bodies, the book said that half the time if a Muggle has a magical sibling they have magic that is dormant but can be unlocked if that person has a big enough scare... I think a werewolf attack would be a big enough scare to unlock it." he explained.
Ginny nodded thinking that it made no sense but she understood that the attack would be a big enough scare for anyone.
"We can read into it more later." she decided, "In the mean time congratulations you two are now an active part of the magical population."
They were both shocked, understandably of course, but after a moment Petunia asked.
"So what are we going to do?"
"Well the first step would be to talk to people at Hogwarts and see if we can get you two some classes." Harry said. "Then it's a trip to Diagon Alley to get some supplies and to get you two wands." they nodded just as a red Volvo stopped outside the house.
"That will be Amber. I'll be back in a minute." Dudley said getting up to go help her with his daughter.
"Hey Harry? You don't think she could be related to Remus do you?" Ginny asked.
"It's possible. Remus was born a Moon." he replied frowning. "We'll just have to wait and see."
Just then Dudley came in, carrying a car seat with a sleeping baby girl in it, followed by a woman who had tawny brown hair, fair skin, blue eyes and a strong build.
"Harry, Ginny, this is my wife Amber and our daughter Cecelia." Dudley introduced while taking Cecelia out of the car seat. "Amber this is my cousin Harry and his girlfriend Ginny."
"Nice to meet you. Hold on, your Harry Potter." Amber said shocked looking at the scar on his forehead. "Dudley you never told me his second name."
"Do you know him?" Dudley asked curiously.
"Not personally no but Dudley... can I tell you something?" she asked hesitantly. He nodded. "Well you know how I knew about the war and everything the wizarding world was going through and how I wasn't that shocked that Cecelia has magic or when we were attacked by that stupid Werewolf?" he nodded again. "Well I've been keeping secrets." she admitted.
"You're a witch aren't you?" Ginny asked.
"Gin you don't even need to ask I can smell the magic on her and so can you." Harry snorted. Ginny stuck her tongue out at him.
Amber nodded. "I was going to tell you today Dudley, before I left but... I just didn't know how to put it." she admitted.
Dudley was in shock, "You never told me. I never realised." he laughed suddenly, "I married a witch." he started laughing hysterically.
"I thought you were hiding something." Petunia said smugly, "It was the same way with my sister when she found out before she got her Hogwarts letter." she explained.
"Your not mad?" Amber asked.
Dudley shook his head. "I understand you weren't sure how I would take it. There's something we found out just before you arrived actually..." he explained what Harry said about late magic.
Amber laughed when he finished, "Ironic that we all have magic now that I've come clean about being a witch."
Harry spoke up, "I think your all welcome to come join us at the Burrow, Ginny's family home."
Ginny nodded, "For a few nights until you adjust to your forms and having magic, we don't need any accidents." she smiled.
"Aunt Petunia we can change you and Dudley there and you can see my parents." Harry said, Petunia nodded.
"Wait you said 'change'?" Amber asked.
Harry quickly explained about being Lycan's and about the returnees.
"What about the memories Harry?" Ginny asked.
"They can join us. We're going over my years at Hogwarts." he explained, "It would be an excellent chance for you to get to know me better."
His Aunt and cousin nodded as did Amber.
"That would be nice. I have wondered why you'd always come home with an injury of some sort." Petunia mused.
"Well we finished my 1st year last night. We will be starting my 2nd year at noon-ish." Harry explained.
"Okay so grab what you need and we can side-along Apparate you, I trust you know what that is?" Ginny asked. They all nodded and Petunia left to go upstairs. "Brilliant!" she exclaimed, "Harry should I send a patronus to Mum warning her about the extra guests?" Harry nodded so she took out her wand, "Expecto Patronum-meso." she said clearly, a doe sprang from her wand. "Go to Mum and tell her we have four more guests, three adults and an infant." the doe nodded and left.
"Gin, yours was a horse." Harry said confused.
"It changed." she said simply shrugging. He nodded.
"What was that?" Dudley asked.
"A patronus it's what I used to save us from the Dementors, Dud." Harry replied. "Only mines is a stag." he added. "Though most of the other's don't know that yet, so please try not to let it slip."
"Well we've got everything so shall we go?" Petunia asked coming back into the room with a bag full of clothes, Amber already had Cecelia's baby bag.
"Yes." Harry replied and they all stood up, "This will feel a little uncomfortable. Dudley, Aunt Petunia if you two would grab one of my arms each and I'll come back for you three." he added to Ginny and Amber, who took Cecelia from Dudley.
He disappeared with a 'CRACK'.
"My I'd forgotten how loud it is when someone Apparates." Ginny said, rubbing her ears. Amber nodded sympathetically, looking down amazed that Cecelia didn't wake up.
"Sleep's like a rock this one." she chuckled.
"Oh Harry's Godson is like that too." Ginny giggled. "He slept through a lot of shouting while we were covering Harry's first year." there was a low 'Pop' and Harry appeared again.
"It's louder when I've got people with me." he commented. "Right ladies hold on tight." they did and they vanished into the crushing darkness that was Apparation.