Chapter 6 – Dudley Dursley

Dudley's birthday might as well be a national holiday in the Dursley House. He received more gifts on his birthday than on Christmas and always got to go somewhere special with a friend.

Petunia unlocked the cupboard door and pounded on it to wake Lizzie up the morning of his birthday. Lizzie was groggy and didn't know how long she had been asleep, the last thing she remembered was Vernon handing her two white pills to take. When she moved, her muscles cramped up at the awkward position she had to sleep in, she sat up but had to duck slightly to keep her head from hitting the decline in the ceiling of the cupboard. Lizzie noticed the pain first when she stood up in the hallway. It always made her wince, like her groin and insides had been rubbed down with sandpaper and beaten with a heavy metal pipe. Maybe he had done that, but she didn't know, she might as well be dead with a double dose of sedatives on an empty stomach.

Lizzie grabbed a flannel shirt from a hook on the inside of the door and pulled it over a simple, heather grey, cotton, short sleeved dress she was already wearing. She pulled her hair back in a pony tail and cautiously headed into the kitchen to help with breakfast.

Petunia looked at her reproachfully when she walked in and snatched her wrist to head over to the sink. Lizzie had showered a couple days ago and didn't think she was particularly dirty or anything, but her hair must have been oily. Lizzie glanced over at Vernon warily, but he was intently reading a newspaper at the dining room table.

Petunia harshly pulled off her flannel and pushed her head over the sink to rinse it and rub her hair down with dish soap. She dried it off with a towel until damp and combed through the wavy red locks aggressively enough to make Lizzie wince. She felt Petunia's fingers tightly entwine her hair into a French braid that fell just at the top of her shoulder blades.

Lizzie grabbed her flannel and pulled it back on. Petunia pushed up her face by her chin and looked her over with a frown.

"Cook the breakfast, don't even think about burning anything," she hissed. When Dudley walked in her demeanor shifted immediately and she scooped him up in a big loving hug that Lizzie had never received once from her.

"Azalea, coffee," Vernon snapped without looking up. Lizzie poured out a cup of coffee and quickly downed it before pouring a second for him before he noticed. She needed the stuff to wake up from the sedative induced comas and didn't always successfully convince Petunia to let her have a cup.

"Piers is coming over to go on the zoo trip," Petunia said happily. Dudley examined his gift pile and made his grievances known that there weren't enough. They called her ungrateful and she always thought that took a lot of nerve. Her Christmas or birthday presents, if any, generally included a dish rag and maybe a thrift store dress or skirt if the one she had didn't fit anymore. They never even bothered to wrap any of it, and typically her birthday was ignored entirely.

"Mrs. Figg broke her leg and can't watch Lizzie," Petunia said nervously. Vernon looked up at Lizzie with a calculating expression.

"I can check to see if Claire..." Petunia offered. Claire used to watch her often, she was teenager when Lizzie was really little and Lizzie did enjoy being around her. Great taste in music. She missed the music.

"Absolutely not, Petunia. She'll come with us this time," he grumbled and gave her a murderous glare. Claire had tried to report him on a handful of occasions for suspected mistreatment. There was an incident that resulted in a hospitalization that he nearly strangled the poor girl over and Lizzie hadn't been back since. It had been about seven or eight months since then and Lizzie really missed her.

Lizzie didn't have friends... amending that assessment to say that Lizzie no longer had friends, friend to be more concise.

Melody and Lizzie got along uncommonly well. She was the only person Lizzie had ever talked to about how her family actually treated her. She loved Melody.

But Lizzie also watched her drop and hang from a banister over the Cathedral entryway after a choir ensemble just a couple months ago. Since then, Lizzie hadn't been able to get the image out her head. The worst part about recent events was knowing she would never see her again. It made seeing Dudley with his friends sting all the more.

Lizzie truthfully didn't care about going to the zoo. Dudley's complaints about her going were just vocalized echoes of her own. In her mind it only made her more susceptible to messing up and getting strapped or worse. Vernon hadn't hit her in a while and she wanted to try and keep it that way for as long as possible. Then again, maybe being out of the house would give her the opportunity to run for it. It wasn't rational, God knows where she'd go, but she could dream.

Piers arrived and they packed up to leave for the zoo. Vernon stopped Lizzie short on the way to the car and stared at her coldly. "Any issues, any at all, you won't eat for a week, and that's the best-case scenario," he said with a poisonous tone before she got in the car.

Lizzie stared out the car window longingly on the way to the zoo. She lagged behind the boys and watched them enjoy their candies and sodas with bitter and petty resentment. Lizzie glanced up at the cages and exhibits but didn't stay anywhere long. She stopped at a boa constrictor exhibit and lingered a little longer than she intended. Dudley came up next to her and gazed at the large snake while he ate a stick of cotton candy.

"This is boring," he groaned and walked away dramatically.

"Sorry about him," Lizzie said quietly. "He doesn't understand what it's like just lying there day after day... can't imagine you like people pressing their ugly bloody faces in on you," she groaned. The snake perked up its head and looked at her intently.

"Can you hear me?" She whispered. The snake nodded.

"Um... o...kay... I've never talked to a snake before," she admitted stupidly.

"How did you end up here?" She asked, and it pointed with its head to a sign that read "bred in captivity."

"Captivity. We're one in the same, I'm afraid," she said both bitter and apologetically.

"Mummy! Dad! Come look at this snake!" Dudley yelled and shoved Lizzie hard to the floor. Piers laughed at the fall and the glass Dudley had his nose pressed against disappeared. He fell into the exhibit with a loud splash and hit his head on a large fabricated rock formation.

The snake slithered over him and out into the walkway. It came close to Lizzie and she swore she heard it thank her in English. The zoo patrons all ran from the snake in fear and Dudley stood up drenched in water to step out of the exhibit, but the glass had reappeared.

Dudley pounded frantically and Petunia ran up horrified and shrieked in disbelief. Vernon headed over aggressively with eyes narrowed in confusion. Lizzie desperately tried to conceal the grin on her face, but something about the Dudley reminded her of a crying baboon and Petunia a feral baboon mother, so a giggle escaped.

Vernon looked down at Lizzie immediately and her body went rigid and cold. He crouched down next to her and pulled her ear hard to get up. "Go to the car, now," he growled. Vernon followed her out with a fist full of her shirt while Petunia saw to getting Dudley.

He shoved Lizzie toward the car and pushed her in. He got into the driver's seat and she sat in the back alone.

"Explain," he said coldly.

"I - don't know how..." she said meekly.

"I warned you, Azalea, did I not?" He asked.

"I didn't-" she said.

"Don't try to lie. You'll explain to me what happened when we get back to the house," he hissed.

Vernon dropped Piers off at his house as Dudley shivered dramatically in the car. They pulled up to the driveway and Petunia rushed him in to get dry and changed. Vernon shoved Lizzie in harshly and snatched her hair. "Upstairs," he growled as he followed. His footsteps behind her felt damning and he pushed her into his bedroom and shut the door harshly behind him.

He snatched her face in one hand. "What happened?" He asked harshly.

"I don't know, I swear. One moment the glass was there and then it was gone, I didn't do anything," she said quietly with a timid tremble. He slapped her hard across the face.

"Try again," he spat.

"I don't know! Please, I honestly don't know," Lizzie said desperately. He spun her around abruptly so she faced away from him. She shook as he yanked down her knickers and she heard him remove his belt. Lizzie spent a week hungry, unable to sit, and stuffed in the cupboard unless there were tasks to be done. She overheard Vernon tell Petunia he would drive her up the correctional school on September 1st. Six weeks, she thought, but wasn't sure if it would better there or here.