Long Overdue

Harry Potter never considered himself a coward. He never allowed his fear to prevent him from acting, even when death stared him in the face. A faced all manner of dark creatures and murderous lunatics and none of them had ever frozen him in his tracks. Mountain trolls, a basilisk, werewolves, dragons, death eaters, dementors and the dark lord. No matter his foe, he had always found something within to push himself to move forward. Merlin, he walked into Voldemort's camp fully intending to die, so there was no way he was a coward.

Unfortunately, he felt like one standing on the sidewalk, too nervous to enter the coffee shop in front of him.

There wasn't much that scared him anymore, but this terrified him in a way he wasn't prepared for. Apparently, he was much calmer when facing certain death than he was dealing with his estranged family.

It had all started three days ago. Being who he was, the Boy-Who-Lived, the Chosen One, the Man-Who-Conquered, he didn't receive mail the normal wizarding way. There were only a handful of owls that were keyed into his wards, the rest were forced to drop mail at a separate location so that house elves, well treated and sometimes paid, could sort through it for him (Harry wasn't sure how they did it but the elves could tell what the contents of his mail was without opening anything). Fan mail received a polite reply, one of five different notes that Hermione drafted so that each person got a reply that felt personalized but so that Harry didn't have to spend hours a day penning letters. Legal mail was forwarded to his lawyers, thank Merlin for them. Personal mail from new or strange owls were popped to Grimmauld for him to read directly. He didn't get many personal letters this way.

Seeing the letter, with a stamp in the right corner, made him pause while walking through the kitchen after work that day. Wizards didn't do stamps and when they did, they typically used them like the Weasleys, way too many so that they covered nearly every square inch of the envelope. This was obviously from a muggle, but he really wasn't in contact with any so he had no idea who it could possibly be from. It couldn't be legal, that would have gone to the lawyers. Muggles would not send him fan mail so that was out of the question too. So, who had sent this to him?

The answer…Dudley Dursley.

Harry honestly hadn't seen his cousin since just before his seventeenth birthday. He knew, from Order members, that his aunt, uncle, and cousin had survived the war and returned to Privet Drive, but that was all he knew. None of them had reached out to him and he had seen no reason to subject himself to Vernon by reaching out to them to check in.

It had been eight years since Dudley had told him that he didn't think he was a waste of space. Eight years since he insisted that Harry had saved his life. Eight years and Dudley Dursley had asked to meet up for coffee.

Coffee.

With Dudley.

Harry sighed, really needed to grow a pair, and just go in there but he just didn't know what was going to happen so on the sidewalk he remained.

"You can't seem to work up the courage to go in there either, can you?" a man asked from a few feet away.

Harry blinked and looked at the man, who was grinning at him sheepishly. It took him longer than it should have to realize it was his cousin. "Dudley?" the shock in his voice was obvious. This was not the same Dudley from his childhood.

"Do I look that different?" he asked before laughing. "I should hope so, I did lose a great deal of weight."

While Dudley was not a slim man, he was also not rotund like his father had always been. This Dudley looked healthy and strong, more muscle than fat. "It works for you, Big D," Harry smiled slightly.

"I could say the same, you're not nearly as scrawny as you used to be," Dudley frowned slightly, "though I don't suppose you had a choice with the way we treated you."

Going on instinct, Harry placed a hand on Dudley's shoulder, "It was your parents. You are only about a month older than me; you weren't responsible for making sure I was clothed and fed." Harry was relieved to see the tentative smile return to his cousin's face, "How about we go inside and talk?"

And talk they did. Harry let Dudley lead as he had asked for this meeting after all. They started with the basics.

How are you doing? Good for both.

What are you doing with your life? Dudley was a secondary school physical education teacher and boxing coach, imagine that. Harry was an Auror but was considering getting some additional training to potentially go into teaching Defense at his old school.

How are Vernon and Petunia? Basically, the same as they always had been. Vernon hates anyone that wasn't his version of 'normal,' and Petunia was still a horrid gossip.

Are you seeing anyone?

"I am actually engaged," Harry grinned. "Finally talked her into it about six months ago. She kept saying we should wait until our careers were settled. Daphne is very driven and wanted to have her position at the hospital secure before she even thought about more than dating."

"Your marrying a doctor then? How did you meet?"

Harry nodded, "Yeah, we went to school together but didn't interact much. It was after everything…" Harry waved his hand, hoping Dudley would get that he meant the war, "when things started to settle that we connected. She was working in the hospital wing at the school when everything happened, and I walked in the next morning and literally caught her as she collapsed from exhaustion. Turns out she had been working all night to stabilize the injured so they could be transferred to the hospital."

"Romantic," Dudley wiggled his eyebrows.

With a barked laugh, Harry shook his head. "Hardly, she slapped me and told me to keep my hands to myself. Daphne has always been very private, and she hates looking vulnerable. Took me over two years to get her to agree to go on a date with me and even then, it was slow going. She thought I was a tactless moron for quite a while. In all honesty, she agreed to go on our first date after a long day of training. The wife of a suspect was injured when he tried to run, cursed his own wife, so I brought her and their two-year-old to the hospital. I got stuck with the kid while they worked on the mum because of a huge bout of the flu going through hospital staff. Daphne came to get the kid and caught me playing with the little girl; apparently it was adorable and made me seem like I wasn't all that bad." Harry smiled goofily, staring off into space. With a shake of his head, he turned his attention back to his cousin. "What about you? Seeing anyone?"

Dudley bit his lip, "That is kind of why I asked to meet with you. I have been seeing this girl for about a year and I think she is the one. I actually asked her to marry me and she said yes."

"That's great, Dud, but why does that mean you needed to see me?"

"It's all because of Aunt Marge, actually." He sighed, "You know how dad is, we still avoid the M word and any mention of you all the time. It's become so much of a habit that I hadn't even thought about mentioning you to Jessica." He paused but then his eyes widened, realizing what he had just said, "That sounded horrible. I am sorry for that. I don't hate you; I respect you and wish we had grown up differently. I really did think about reaching out when we were told that it was safe to go home but that Hestia lady told me to wait a bit because you were so busy. Then I just kept making excuses as to why I should wait. I really am a terrible cousin."

Harry raised a hand to stall the frantic apology, "I get it, Dudley. I forgave you a long time ago and, honestly, the fact that we haven't reconnected is on both of our shoulders. I was avoiding Vernon and you were avoiding Vernon's phobias. Now, how did Marge screw things up?"

"She didn't really screw things up, though dad did turn an interesting shade of puce when she asked about you." He shook his head, "We were having a celebration dinner, mum was floating on air because of the engagement, but dad just had to invite Marge."

"Petunia still hates her?"

"Probably worse than ever."

"Does she still raise those horrible bull dogs?"

"Of course, and she still insists on bringing them and having them in the house, which mum hates even more. Anyway," he continued, "Marge is drunk, as usual, when she asks dad what ever happened to that "criminal" nephew of his. She wanted to know if you were in prison or dead yet. Dad all but growled as his face turned red, 'we don't talk about that FREAK,' he all but bellowed the last bit. Mum gasped because her dinner party was just ruined, and Jessica looks at me because she has no idea what they are talking about. Marge saw this and proceeded to fill Jessica in on all the horrid details." Dudley rubbed his face, "when we got home that night, she made me explain. I did, as best I could without bringing up the M word. Now she hates dad and aunt Marge, not that I blame her; she was never really fond of dad anyway because he is a bigot and she is all about equal rights and freedom of expression and I don't know anyone who actually likes Marge. Now, Jess wants to meet you."

"And this is a problem?" Harry wondered.

Dudley opened his mouth but closed it a moment later. "I thought that… because of the way… I didn't think you would be willing to talk to me, let alone meet my fiancé."

"You told me I wasn't a waste of space," Harry said quietly, "for a Dursley that is huge. It was like when Malfoy told me I was a decent seeker. Like I said, I forgave you long ago. I may not have reached out, but I think I would like it if we could at least catch up from time to time."

"Jess wants to invite you to the wedding."

"Great, then I'll invite you to mine, Daphne will love it and most of her family will hate it."

"Just like that?"

Harry shrugged, "I have discovered that I am actually really bad at holding a grudge. I am friendly with most of my childhood enemies," Harry let out a sighing breath, "the ones that I went to school with, not the ones who tried to take over the world."

"If I didn't know anything about your life, that statement would sound ridiculous."

"Sometimes my life is ridiculous. But seriously, what will your parents say when they see me at your wedding?"

Dudley winced, "Dad will probably start a scene. Mum will be horrified that dad started a scene, and Aunt Marge will start ranting about criminals and lack of actual consequences in prisons these days. It will be a mess to be honest. Jess's parents will be embarrassed and horrified, they already don't really like my family." He snorted, "My friends will probably try to get dad to shut up and then will wonder what they hell is going on. I really hope they wait until the reception for the freak out."

"I could silence them."

"Would that work?"

"Sure, it would look ridiculous, but it would keep things quiet for the ceremony."

Dudley looked at him intently, "Let me think on it. I might just take you up on it. How much chaos would I cause by coming to your wedding?"

"None on the actual day," Harry shook his head. "The Greengrass family is too concerned with appearances to say anything during the festivities; it might cause some tension between me and them, but I frankly don't care. Daphne's sister won't care, and that's all Daphne will care about. Her mum might not care to be honest, so really it will only affect my relationship with her father and he already hates me because I don't kiss the ground he walks on. Apparently, I am inferior because my mother couldn't trace her lineage back hundreds of years."

"So, he's just as much of a bigot as dad, just the other way?"

"Basically," Harry agreed.

"Sucks to be you, mate." Dudley looked down at his watch, "I should go. Jess and I are having dinner with her parents tonight, wedding discussions are in my immediate future."

"I know how that is. Daphne's mother would have us spend time planning every night if she had her way." The pair stood, Harry reaching his hand out to his cousin, "I'm glad you reached out, Dudley. We should do this again."

"Definitely, but you will be getting a dinner invite in the near future or Jess will never speak to me again."

"Then I best accept, we wouldn't want your girl to stop talking to you after she agreed to marry you."

The two made their way out of the coffee shop and stopped on the sidewalk. Dudley reached his hand out with the same tentative smile he had worn all day. "It's good to see you again, Harry. I should have written sooner."

"I agree this really was long overdue. See you soon, Dud." Harry shook his hand and then watched his cousin walk away.

Harry had never through himself a coward. He had always faced his fears and kept moving forward. Seeing Dudley again would be easy. Seeing his aunt and uncle again, even if he wasn't forced to talk to them would test his courage. But, if it meant he could continue to see his cousin, it would be worth it.

Hi all, just a short little one shot that has been swirling around in my brain for a while. I know I need to finish my ongoing stories but this wouldn't leave me alone.

I hope you enjoy