When they got back to the car, Dudley's first introduction to the changes that happened in Petunia's life over the last 6 months.
Once Dudley was seated in the back seat of the car, Petunia turned around to face him "Dudley, this is Ceeley, she is a house-elf"
As her race was mentioned she dropped her glamour.
Dudley was silent for a long moment before he finally spoke
"Mum?"
"Yes dear?"
There was another long pause before he said anything again.
"Mum?"
"Yes dear?"
"What is that?"
"She is Ceeley, she's a house-elf we adopted."
"Is she some sort of Dwarf?"
"No honey, she'd a magical house-elf."
"You said the M word."
"I did."
"But isn't the M word a bad word?"
"No it isn't, you daddy thought it was because of a bad experience with my sisters husband."
"But you said it was bad too."
"You've been bullied at school haven't you?"
"Yes" he sulked
"Did you do anything for your bullies to get them to stop for a while?"
"Yes" he said in a small voice.
"I know it's hard to admit to that, but your father bullied me too. So I did things that I'm not proud of, and I've hurt both of you in different ways."
"So is magic still bad?"
"No Dudders, magic isn't bad. Given that I have magic it would be... bad of me to say it's bad."
Dudley's mind retreated into unconsciousness as the revelation that his mother was magical was one thing too far after the agonising wait to see if anyone would come to collect him, followed by the last conversation.
"Well that went well."
They're almost at the M25 when Dudley wakes up feeling refreshed after his faint turned into sleep. Ceeley turned around to check on him while Petunia was driving.
"Mum! There's a Gremlin looking at me"
"Ceeley is a house-elf and she's a member of our family."
"It's not a gremlin."
"Ceeley not know what a gremlin is, but Ceeley knows she is a house-elf."
The journey to the next service station passed quietly, that changed once Dudley saw that they were pulling into somewhere he could eat.
"Mum, Mum! Can we go to little chef?" He called excitedly
"No Dudley, we can't afford it."
"But I really want Fish fingers."
"I know you do Dudders, but we can't afford them. I can make you fish fingers for dinner."
"But I want Fish Fingers Now!"
"How about we get you something nice in the food court?"
"No! I want to go to little chef!" tears started to appear in his eyes
Petunia saw all the signs of an epic melt down starting and was about to capitulate when suddenly all the noise cut off from the backseat.
"Ceeley is sorry, but Ceeley was taught how to deal with tantrums in case her family had small children. So Ceeley is protecting your ears while tantrum passes."
"Oh god, thank you Ceeley, I was about to take him to Little Chef, I'm a terrible mother."
"Mistress can't be a terrible mother, Ceeley has seen how you deal with Harry."
They waited in the carpark until Dudley's tantrum eventually petered out after a long half an hour. Petunia reflected that it was infinitely easier to deal with when he couldn't hurt himself and she didn't have to listen to his tantrum. She did allow him to buy a copy of the Lion the Witch, and the Wardrobe though, as well as a small bag of Jelly Babies for when he got home. He then enjoyed a gammon egg and chips while she had a sandwich and a cup of tea for half the price Little Chef would have cost. She chatted to him about how he'd got on at school, he hated it; what he thought of the subjects, they were too hard; and if he had any friends, they'd all deserted him during November.
When they got home she opened the door and immediately thought that things were about to get worse when the chorus of "Good afternoon Mistress Magic" came from the sofa with so many elflings sitting on it watching children's TV, but Dudley surprised her by just plopping down on the floor against the sofa.
Just as she sat down with a cup of tea, she heard the Floo going.
"Mummy, what's that noise?"
"It's a Floo call darling, I've just got to grab it. Matriarch-elf, would you mind trying to explain to my son what the Floo is please?"
While Dudley started to deal with the fact that there were a lot of house-elves sat on the sofa behind him and he hadn't noticed, as well as the fact that one of them was trying to talk to him; Petunia went through to the Floo Room and answered the Floo.
"Good Afternoon Petunia, I hope this isn't an inconvenient time." The head of Arthur Weasley appeared in the flames.
She sighed, "No, it's fine I just got Dudley home from school. How can I help you?"
"I'm really sorry to ask this, especially at such late notice, but Molly and I are going to visit Charlie in Romania for Christmas. Ginny was going to visit her Aunt Muriel for the week, but I've found out that she's come down with a mild case of Spattergroit, and she looks terrible. However, there's no way I can let Ginny anywhere near her as it's especially bad for children who haven't built up enough magic to help fight it off. I've tried our purely magical friends and they're unable to look after her, so would you please be able to do so?"
Petunia sighed, after implying that he had nowhere else to turn what else could she do, "Sure, when do you need me to take her?"
"Now if possible, our portkey leaves at 5:30 and if we miss it it's gone."
"Ok, send her through."
With that she activated the rune to allow people through without a password. Ginny and Arthur stepped through and Arthur gave her a quick hug before turning to go with a quick apology for stopping by so quickly.
"Hi Ginny, I'm Petunia, do you like fishfingers and chips?"
"I don't know, I've never had them."
"Then we'll find out tonight, until then why don't I take you through to the TV and you can watch that with Dudley while Ceeley and I sort stuff out."
"What's TV? I know dad talks about it, but I still don't know what it is."
"Why don't you come through and find out."
She lead Ginny through to the living room with the children's TV on, and as she got there she realised just why it was on so early. It's Christmas, so they extend the time it's on for.
"Dudley, this is Ginny, she's going to be staying with us over Christmas as the person she was going to stay with is ill. Be nice, otherwise I'll send you to your room. And here's the Jelly Babies that we bought earlier, why don't you share."
Petunia settled down to drink her tea, as Round the Twist came on, and Ginny asked Dudley how they got the people in the box. Which then started a heated discussion on things that the other should already know. At least she was bringing him out of his slump. Oh, hell, they're going into muggle london tomorrow for dinner.
"Ceeley."
"Yes Mistress."
"How many times do I have to tell you that we're family, so I'm not your Mistress." Petunia ignored the shocked gasps coming from the elves on the sofa.
"At least once more Mistress."
Petunia sighed, "Would you be able to buy a couple of sets of girls clothes for Ginny so that we're not stuck here over the next week, and include at least one pair of jeans."
"Yes Mistress."
"Get out of here." Petunia mock lashed out, as Ceeley disappeared with a cheeky grin on her face.
She sipped her tea grateful for warming charms, and just tried to relax for a few minutes. There was so much to think about. She glanced at the clock, Karen will be home in a couple of hours. Once round the twist finished, she lent forwards.
"Dudley, Ginny. There's some things that we need to have a quick chat about. Ginny, if I give a couple of Galleons to Ceeley tomorrow, can you show Dudley around Diagon Alley, staying out of the Cauldron and Knockturn?"
"Yes, I'm a big girl. I can show him around."
"Ok, Dudley, we're going to be going out for dinner in London afterwards once we've picked up Harry and Hermione."
"The freaks coming home for Christmas?"
"Dudley! You are not to use that word again, or do you thing that Ginny and I are freaks too?"
"You're not a freak you're my mum!".
"What about me?" Ginny says softly, on the verge of tears or an explosion.
"You're not a freak either." Ginny smiles at Dudley.
"But what about all the stuff he used to do?" Dudley continues.
"That's called accidental magic, I do it, I bet Ginny can tell you stories when she or her brothers did it, and Harry does it."
"Yeah, I remember when mum wanted to put me into a hideous pink dress with frills, and I turned it bright green."
"Ok, I'll try not to call anyone a freak."
"Thank you. Finally, I've got a familiar that lives off of magic, she's also invisible to most people, so she might eat some spells that you've got on you. These spells will be hiding bad memories that wizards suppressed when Harry had accidental magic due to the stress she was under."
"I'm don't know what you mean."
"Don't worry about it, if you remember anything bad, just come and see Karen or myself, and we'll talk you through it. Is there anything I'm forgetting?"
"Mrs Dursley, where am I going to be sleeping?"
"Tonight, I was going to put you in Harry's room. Once she's home tomorrow we'll see how you and she get along and sort stuff out. Oh, and I'm running a B&B to make money now, and we've got some goblins as guests. If you see them, be polite and there won't be any problems. Their culture is rather more physical than ours, so unless you want a fight don't insult them."
"I thought The Fr… Harry was a boy, but you keep saying her." He catches what he was going to say when he saw the look on his mothers face.
"You know how we described accidental magic earlier?"
"Yes?"
"Well something happened on Harry's first day, and her magic changed her into a girl so that she could visit Hermione. Since then she's spent more time as a girl than as a boy. We're not sure why yet."
"Wait, who is Harry?" Ginny asked confused.
"She is my nephew, niece, Harry Potter."
Ginny broke down crying, "I'm never going to get my wedding now." Coming out between the sobs.
"Dudley, your sitting right next to her, give her a hug like you wished I could at school."
Awkwardly he gives her a hug.
"When she's calmed down a bit, why don't you show her your room and put your console together."
Once the elves started popping out Petunia thanked the Matriarch, "Thank you for explaining that to Dudley."
"It's no problem Missy Magic, you's allowing elflings to watch young humans."
"It's not a problem, is it helping?"
"Yes and no. They's picking up numbers, but also bad habits."
"Well I'm glad it's helping."
With that she settles down to relax, while she listened to the faint noise of the children playing upstairs.
