Dudley Dursley was at a wedding. And he did not want to be there.

It was the wedding of Vernon Dursley's second cousin once removed, Norma Arling. Norma was thirteen years older than Dudley, and had visited the Dursleys Number 4 Privet Drive a grand total of four and half times during the course of Dudley's life. And she wasn't Dudley's favorite person.

The first time she had visited, Vernon and Petunia had made sure that Harry was upstairs under strict instructions not to come downstairs or make a sound, and never bothered to mention to Norma that they were currently raising their nephew.

The second time she had visited, Harry had come downstairs by accident, forcing the Dursley's to explain the presence of their nephew in the household. From that moment on, Norma had doted on Harry. She fussed over his lack of weight and snuck him bags of candy. She practically ignored Dudley in favor of his cousin throughout his entire childhood. This was very difficult for the young spoiled to Dursley to comprehend. When Norma would sent Harry holiday cards (which Petunia always threw out before Harry saw), she wouldn't include one for Dudley. When she would send bags of peppermints in the mail, they were always addressed to Harry and not Dudley.

And even though Dudley had since made peace with his cousin, this was still a sore spot with him.

So naturally, when Norma had visited the Dursley home a fifth time in nineteen years bringing news of her upcoming marriage, Dudley was a little miffed when she brought two invitations.

"Congratulations, Norma! That's brilliant. Who's the bloke?" he had asked her warmly.

"Oh, his name's Roger; we met in a bar. Is Harry around?" she asked, looking around the pristine Dursley living room as if she might find him. "Or has he moved out? I'm surprised you haven't moved out yourself, Dudley, but you know, some do take longer than others to leave the nest…"

Dudley gestured to the cardboard boxes that were piled up by the door. "Actually, I'm in the process of moving out right now. I found this great place right outside London…" He trailed off as he realized that she wasn't actually listening. "Erm-Harry moved out a couple years ago."

"Oh. Well, in that case, d'you mind sending his invitation to him? I don't have his new address."

"Er-of course."

"Thank you, you're too sweet. Make sure he RSVPs by this date right here and let him know he can bring a date."

So Dudley had no choice but to track down the emergency contact information that Harry had given him the last time they had seen each other-about a month after the Dursley's returned from hiding. Harry had left them with an address and phone number. Dudley didn't know that wizards had phones.

So Dudley put Harry's invitation in an envelope and sent it off to the address that Harry had written down. However, not a week had past before the letter was returned to Number 4 Privet Drive, with the mailman complaining that 12 Grimmauld Place did not exist.

Feeling slightly offended that his cousin had given him a fake address, Dudley decided to give the phone number a go. He had to call twice before someone picked up.

"Hellloooooo?" An abnormally loud voice greeted.

"Er, yes, hello. I'm calling for Har-"

"What?! You're a person!" The voice, which was still shouting loudly into the phone, sounded over-excited. "George! George, get in here! My telly phone works!"

"Um-you see, I was wondering if Harry was available-" Dudley stammered.

"What is it this time, Dad?" Dudley heard another voice, quieter than the first.

"The telly phone works, George! There's someone on the other side!"

"Well of course it works. Hermione set it up herself." The voice suddenly became very loud. "HELLO?"

"Hello. Erm-my name is Dudley Dursley, and I was calling for Ha-"

"DURSLEY? YOU AREN'T THAT GIT COUSIN OF HARRY'S ARE YOU?"

"Now, George, be polite-"

"Actually, yes." Dudley said, embarrassed. "I'm Harry's cousin."

"HMM, WHY IS HARRY'S GIT COUSIN CALLING?" The already extremely loud voice suddenly rose in volume. "OI, HARRY! YOUR GIT COUSIN IS CALLING!"

Dudley heard another voice that sounded far away.

"Oi, George, shut up! Harry isn't here!"

"WELL WHERE IS HE, RON? HIS GIT COUSIN IS ON THE TELLY PHONE-"

"Telephone," Dudley said under his breath.

"-AND HE WANTS TO TALK TO HARRY."

There was a long pause.

Finally the other voice said, "How am I supposed to know where he is? He doesn't tell me every little thing he does-"

"HE'S YOUR BEST MATE, YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW WHERE-"

"I don't know, he's never around anymore! Ask Ginny! Leave me alone, you stupid prat-"

"OI, GINNY!"

"What?" The female voice sounded much closer.

"WHERE'S HARRY? HIS GIT COUSIN IS-"

"He's down at the Ministry, he wanted to talk to Kings-did you say something about his cousin?"

"YEAH, HE'S ON THE TELLY PHONE RIGHT HERE, LISTEN."

Now the female voice was much louder. "Hello?"

"Hullo."

"You're Dudley, Harry's cousin?" she said.

"Sure am. I take it Harry isn't there?" Dudley said this as a question.

"No, I'm sorry, he's not. Why are you calling?" The girl sounded suspicious.

"I actually wanted to invite him to our relative Norma's wedding; she gave me this invitation to give to him…"

There was a pause. "That's very generous of you, Dudley. What are the details of the wedding? I can let Harry know."

Dudley told her the information that was on the invitation. "And Norma said he can bring a plus one."

"Thank you for calling Dudley. You know, you're not half as bad as Harry used to describe you."

"Erm-thank you…?" Dudley wondered what Harry had told his friends about him. It probably hadn't been good.

Right before they both hung up, Dudley heard the loud voice again.

"GIN, WHAT DID HE SA-"

Dudley let out a breath of relief. Thank god that phone call was over.

Now, three months later, Dudley was Norma's wedding and was positively unhappy.

Firstly, Harry hadn't arrived yet and Dudley was both excited and nervous for his arrival. The only other person Dudley knew at the wedding was Norma, and he couldn't exactly spend the whole night hanging out with her, could he? And he was excited to see Harry again for the first time in two years. Despite their rocky past, Dudley, at least, considered Harry a friend, and they had some catching up to do.

Secondly, about an hour ago Dudley had spied an absolutely beautiful girl with long red hair and warm brown eyes in a lovely dark purple dress, sitting by herself at a table. Since Dudley had recently replaced all his fat with muscle, he was actually quite popular with women at his university. So he had approached her and asked her quite kindly if she would like to dance. The redhead had politely declined, which left Dudley feeling disappointed and more than a little confused.

After a thoroughly uneventful hour (the most interesting event that took place was a bridesmaid tipping the punch bowl over her boyfriend's head when she discovered him kissing another woman in a dark corner), Dudley began to worry that his cousin was never going to arrive. He had been keeping an eye on the beautiful redhead, who had been approached and asked to dance by several other men (a few of whom, Dudley noticed, were far more attractive than himself, which only further added to his confusion), and each time she gently rejected them. Normally Dudley would have thought that she was taken and had a boyfriend, yet she continued to sit at a table all by herself.

Finally, when curiosity about the girl was about to drive him insane, Dudley decided to go talk to her. He walked over and dropped into the seat next to her.

She looked over. "Look," she said, now soundly slightly annoyed. "I don't really feel much like dancing."

"I know, I'm not here to ask you again," He reassured her. "You're just sitting all alone and you...look a little sad."

Her gaze softened. "I'm appreciate you checking up on me, but I'm fine."

"Uh-huh."

She suddenly got this fiery look in her eye. "What was that noise supposed to mean?"

"I'm just saying, I recognize that look. You're missing somebody."

"And what makes you so sure of that?"

"Because that was me just a few weeks ago."

In fact, Dudley had recently broken up with his girlfriend of almost two years, Margaret. Well, she had broken up with him.

"Did you break up with a boyfriend or something?" He asked tentatively, not wanting to pry but wanting to comfort this beautiful girl.

There was a long pause, and the girl sighed. "No, it's just…well, he's late to everything, and he has a really dangerous job, and so of course that'll make me worry, and he's always super busy and I hardly see him around the house anymore and-" she stopped abruptly.

"What is it?" Dudley asked.

"I can't believe I just told you all that. I am so not one of those girlfriends who's always pining over their boyfriends. God." She wiped her eye, and took a deep breath, then turned a withering eye on Dudley. "Now thank you for listening, but please, kindly remove yourself from my table before I hex you."

Dudley was very confused about the "hexing" and the redhead's sudden change in demeanor but he decided it would be best for everyone if he left the girl's table.

Two more guys tried to ask out the redhead but she rejected them both, each reply snappier and ruder than the last.

And finally, just as Dudley was giving up all hope on seeing his cousin Harry at the wedding, he spotted a familiar figure approaching the outdoor wedding venue from the nearby forest. As the figure got closer, he realized it was his cousin. But yet it wasn't his cousin. This Harry was much taller and more filled out than the scrawny boy that had lived under the stairs for eleven years. This Harry walked with much more confidence than the tiny cousin that Dudley used to torment.

Harry was wearing a clean white button-down shirt, rolled up at the elbows, and black slacks. His hair was messier than ever and he still wore his familiar glasses.

As he was walking toward the venue, Harry seemed to recognize his cousin and started towards Dudley. He came up and slapped Dudley on the back, shaking his hand.

"It's good to see you, Big D!" He said, grinning.

"You too, Harry...blimey, it's been too long! I take it you got my message, then? I didn't know if you were coming or not…"

"Sorry about that," his cousin apologized. "Got a bit carried away at work. The Auror's office is keeping me busy. But anyway, how've you been doing? You still seeing that girl...Margaret, was her name?"

Dudley shook his head regretfully.

"Oh well, sorry to hear about that, mate." Harry patted Dudley's back. "I must say, she sounded like a little bit of a-" Harry suddenly looked off towards the tables, as if he recognized someone. "Now that," he said, "is one beautiful girl. Think I should go say hello?"

Dudley followed his gaze and saw his staring at the redhead (who was still sitting alone) and felt obliged to warn Harry. "Dunno about that one, mate. She's not very friendly to blokes who-"

But Harry was already on his way over to the girl. Feeling he should at least stay close to pat Harry on the back when he got rejected, Dudley followed him.

Harry plopped down into the seat to the left of the girl.

"Hey there, darling, fancy a dance?"

The redhead turned and looked Dudley's cousin up and down, giving him a distasteful look.

"Not a chance, I happen to have a boyfriend." She said, rather rudely.

Harry did not seem to want to take no for an answer. He just grinned and said, "Hm, big bloke, is he? Jealous type?"

The redhead nodded cattily, checking her nails. "Believe me, you do not want him to see you talking to me. You wouldn't last a second."

"Really, and why's that? I'm pretty fast on my feet, you know."

"Trust me, and I'm doing you a favor here, he's not the kind of bloke who takes defeat easily. Go throw your attentions on some boring doll who actually cares about what you have to say."

For a moment, Harry looked slightly offended. "Are you sure there's no way I can get one little dance? What's this bloke of yours got over me, anyway?" He gestured towards himself.

"Well, for one thing," The redhead began, not even bothering to look at Harry. "He doesn't go around hitting on random girls at weddings. But you see, he has these absolutely horrible punctuality issues and leaves his poor girlfriend waiting for him for hours. And don't even get me started on his communication problems."

Harry looked thoughtful. "Well, I don't really know this guy, but I reckon it's pretty fair to assume that something important held him up. At work, I mean. Something really important. I'm sure he meant to call, he was just preoccupied."

"Oh, and now you're sticking up for him?" The redhead seemed to be trying to hide a smile. Dudley had to admire his cousin's persistence. He was actually getting the girl to lighten up. Did they teach him how to pick up women at that magic school of his?

Harry held his hands up. "Now, now, I'm not trying to defend the bloke. He sounds like a colossal git to me. But, if you were asking me...I might speculate that the poor guy was working his arse off today sending the last nine primary Death Eaters off to Azkaban, but you know-shame on him for being late." Harry was smiling.

The redhead suddenly stood up, staring at Harry intensely. "You didn't."

Harry nodded, trying to look solemn and keep a straight face. "We did."

It would be fair to say that Dudley was confused.

"They're all gone?"

"Er-just his inner circle; we still have a lot of work to do with his international partners, but I'd say we made a considerable amount of progress on that fro-"

"But his inner circle, they're all gone?"

Harry stood and smiled, looking into her eyes. "Well, yeah."

The girl suddenly squealed and threw herself into Harry's arms, who caught her and spun her around, laughing. When they broke apart, Dudley could see that there were tears in the redhead's eyes.

Now, Dudley was very confused. Because it was now obvious that Harry did indeed know the redhead, Dudley wondered how they met, and how they became friends. The truth was that Dudley didn't know anything about Harry's life. When he was younger, he didn't care in the slightest about his cousin. But now he was curious. What kind of person was Harry Potter?

"Harry, that's incredible. That's-amazing. How many times do you have to prove yourself as the hero of the Wizarding World? You just can't seem to help yourself, can you?" The girl looked up at his cousin, her eyes shining.

Harry eyes shone too, but with happiness as he looked down at the girl with the flaming red hair and grinned. "Oh c'mon, you know me, Gin, I just love being in the spotlight."

"Well, in that case, I reckon I owe the savior of the Wizarding World a dance, now don't I?"

"And you're absolutely sure that your boyfriend won't mind?" Harry teased.

"Positive," said the girl, as she put her hands around his neck and kissed him, to which Harry responded in kind.

Dudley's head was reeling. His cousin Harry and this beautiful girl were dating? What? At least he now knew for sure why the redhead had turned him down.

Harry led the girl onto the dance floor, where they held each other, swaying to the music. Every now and then one of them would laugh and something the other had said. They seemed so natural together. Eventually, the redhead girl put her head on Harry's chest as they circled around. Watching them together made Dudley miss Margaret.

Harry made eye-contact with Dudley, disentangled himself from the redhead, and walked over.

"At least now I know why she turned me down for a dance," Dudley joked. He was surprised when Harry didn't seem the least bit jealous. He laughed.

"Well, Big D, we really ought to be heading home, but we should catch up sometime. Feel free to ring the Burrow anytime you like."

They shook hands again. "Will do," Dudley promised his cousin.

He watched as Harry and the redhead walked out towards the forest, holding hands. Suddenly, they turned back towards him, and Dudley could've sworn he saw the redhead wink at him before the couple disappeared into thin air.