EACH IN THEIR OWN PLACE
The Dursleys stepped out of the restaurant, having enjoyed an evening together. Petunia carried little Dudley, fast asleep after eating his share of food.
"It's so nice to do things like this, isn't it?" Petunia said, as they walked slowly down the road to the car park. Vernon nodded, his face momentarily illuminated in the yellow glow of a street lamp. "The wine was the best I've had in a long time." she added.
"I think you might have had too much of that wine." Vernon said, chuckling.
"Wasn't Dudley sweet? The waiters adored him when he picked out his milkshake, all on his own!" Petunia bent her head to kiss Dudley on the forehead.
They had reached the car park, and the big silver car stood alone in a corner. Petunia carefully strapped the sleeping Dudley into his travelling seat in the back, then sat down in the passenger seat in the front. Vernon put the radio on in the middle of an old Beatles track.
"God, I loved the Beatles." Petunia murmured as the car sped away into the night. "I was this obsessive fan, I had every single album and my friends and I were in this little club - The Beatles Appreciation Society."
"That's sweet."
"I suppose. Did you like them?"
"They were OK. I wasn't a huge fan, or anything though -"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a big white van, speeding along the dark road, coming right at the big silver car. Vernon yelped, swerving around. The car avoided the van by a fraction, but the motion had unsteadied the car, and it moved off the road in a graceful arc, down the embankment, which was dotted with little trees. Petunia screamed as the car turned on its side, the Beatles song on the radio being abruptly cut off as the aerial snapped, being replaced by a harsh buzzing. The sound of his mother screaming and the motion of the car had woken Dudley up, and he started screaming too. The car neared the end of the embankment, where there was a little railing, a drop, and a collection of rubbish bins.
Petunia, in the split second just as the car was tipping over the edge, sneaked a glance at her husband, and her heart nearly stopped. Vernon's face was covered in blood; the window next to him had shattered, sending broken glass all over his face.
His head was lolling and his eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead. Even as Petunia realised he was dead, the front of the car smashed into the rubbish bins, sending them scattering.
The harsh buzzing of the radio stopped as the front of the car shattered. Petunia's neck was instantly broken. For a few seconds the car creaked, then all was silent, save for Dudley's relentless screaming. Petunia had always had a fear of car crashes and had bought the best car seat money could buy, and always strapped him in with care and attention. Still, Dudley had to have been born under an exceedingly lucky star to escape so unscathed. The only injury he had sustained was when one of the shards of glass had hit him in the forehead, leaving a cut in a vague lightning bolt shape, dripping with blood.
And so he screamed until he was worn out with screaming, and he fell asleep again for the rest of the night.
***
Ten years later
***
Dudley Dursley was woken up by the excited shrieks of his aunt Lily downstairs. Yawning, he clambered out of bed to look out of the window.
It was ten years since the car crash that had killed his parents. Ten years of living with the Potters, constantly being made to feel like an outcast. He lived in the magical community, and as far as he knew, he was a complete muggle.
He had few possessions, mostly because most things magical didn't work for him. He had once gone for a look in muggle London, just to see what it was like. It was amazing. Everything made sense, everything was logical. He had four pounds and eighty seven pence; Aunt Lily had given him a Galleon on his last birthday, in a rare act of kindness, and he had managed to get it changed at Gringotts. He had wandered around the muggle shops, keeping one hand in his pocket all the time to make sure the money was still there, but everything he would have wanted was far too much, and everything he could have got didn't seem worth spending his only money on, so he ended up buying a cup of tea and a cream cake in a cafe, and then spent the rest in an arcade.
Now he had fifty seven pence left, and the coins were some of his most treasured possessions. The others were a Neverending Notepad and Keep It Pointy Pencil, a muggle studies book that used to be James's, and most precious of all, a photograph of his parents on their wedding day. The photo didn't move, but somehow this made it even better. It was stuck up on the wall behind his bed, and too many times Dudley had sat up in bed at night, looking at it.
Out of the window, the sun gleamed out on the big garden of Godric's Hollow. Another perfect day, as usual. The entire house was underground, accessible only by a muddy hollow in the middle of a wood. There had been a lot of jiggery pokery to make a huge house and an even huger garden fit inside a small embankment, but then wizards were good at jiggery pokery. They'd even made daylight appear underground, along with occasional rain, snow and once even a thunderstorm, all in a small muddy embankment.
"Dudley!" Lily's voice suddenly rang out through the house. "If you don't come down now, I will come up there and drag you down. We're going to the MMC to celebrate Harry's birthday and the coming of his letter.
Oh, god. Harry's letter. Lily had talked of nothing else for the last month, fretting that it wouldn't arrive. Being worried that Harry was a Squib, even though just a few weeks ago Harry had managed to set thirty three quills simultaneously writing "I am not a Squib."
Dudley fingered his scar, without meaning to. He often did this; it seemed to be the only real link between him and his parents, apart from the photo.
Downstairs, the three of them were huddled around a mug with an ongoing Quidditch game on it. If Dudley was going anywhere, he had to use a Portkey, because it was the only magical transport that he could use. Floo powder just didn't work, and he had got some nasty burns after trying.
"Right, we're late as it is." Uncle James said irritably. "Come on."
"What about breakfast?" asked Dudley, surprised.
"If you wanted some, you should have come down earlier. You'll just have to get a sandwich at the MMC."
Dudley nodded, reaching forwards to the Portkey. "One, two, three." said Lily, and on three they all reached forwards to touch the Portkey.
A second later they were in the MMC, which stood for Menagerie of Magical Creatures. It was quite unfair to drag Dudley along, because most of the exhibits he couldn't even see. He watched the Potters getting all excited over what the sign said was a Welsh Green dragon, then wandered off to look at the owls.
***
When Dudley was five, he had met Sirius for the first time. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather and James's best friend. Sirius, who could turn into a dog. He and James changed into their animal forms and took it in turns to give Harry rides around the garden. While Harry was riding on James, the stag, Sirius thought it would be funny to chase Dudley. Dudley had screamed as the huge black dog came streaking towards him, teeth snapping, and had leapt up the nearest tree, quaking, but Sirius had followed him up, claws digging into the tree trunk and going as far up as he could before the branches would have snapped. Dudley was clinging onto the tree a few feet above, still terrified. The Potters had thought it enormously funny, and every single time Sirius came to visit after that, he had chased Dudley.
***
Having got bored with the owls, Dudley sat on a patch of grass, waiting for the Potters to come back from ogling the dragon. They finally came back, and dragged him off so they could look at some salamanders. Sweating from the heat, Dudley went to sit alone again, bored out of his mind. He was bored for the next three hours as the Potters wandered around the MMC, ooh- ing and ah-ing at the various invisible creatures. For once, Dudley couldn't wait to get back to Godric's Hollow.
He wondered if he'd ever escape out of this world, back into the real world. The only thing that kept him going was that in six years, he would be seventeen and free. Or was it sixteen, the muggle age? Whatever it was, it was there, and if he could manage to drag himself through the years without going mad, or committing suicide, he could escape.
The Dursleys stepped out of the restaurant, having enjoyed an evening together. Petunia carried little Dudley, fast asleep after eating his share of food.
"It's so nice to do things like this, isn't it?" Petunia said, as they walked slowly down the road to the car park. Vernon nodded, his face momentarily illuminated in the yellow glow of a street lamp. "The wine was the best I've had in a long time." she added.
"I think you might have had too much of that wine." Vernon said, chuckling.
"Wasn't Dudley sweet? The waiters adored him when he picked out his milkshake, all on his own!" Petunia bent her head to kiss Dudley on the forehead.
They had reached the car park, and the big silver car stood alone in a corner. Petunia carefully strapped the sleeping Dudley into his travelling seat in the back, then sat down in the passenger seat in the front. Vernon put the radio on in the middle of an old Beatles track.
"God, I loved the Beatles." Petunia murmured as the car sped away into the night. "I was this obsessive fan, I had every single album and my friends and I were in this little club - The Beatles Appreciation Society."
"That's sweet."
"I suppose. Did you like them?"
"They were OK. I wasn't a huge fan, or anything though -"
Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a big white van, speeding along the dark road, coming right at the big silver car. Vernon yelped, swerving around. The car avoided the van by a fraction, but the motion had unsteadied the car, and it moved off the road in a graceful arc, down the embankment, which was dotted with little trees. Petunia screamed as the car turned on its side, the Beatles song on the radio being abruptly cut off as the aerial snapped, being replaced by a harsh buzzing. The sound of his mother screaming and the motion of the car had woken Dudley up, and he started screaming too. The car neared the end of the embankment, where there was a little railing, a drop, and a collection of rubbish bins.
Petunia, in the split second just as the car was tipping over the edge, sneaked a glance at her husband, and her heart nearly stopped. Vernon's face was covered in blood; the window next to him had shattered, sending broken glass all over his face.
His head was lolling and his eyes were wide open, staring straight ahead. Even as Petunia realised he was dead, the front of the car smashed into the rubbish bins, sending them scattering.
The harsh buzzing of the radio stopped as the front of the car shattered. Petunia's neck was instantly broken. For a few seconds the car creaked, then all was silent, save for Dudley's relentless screaming. Petunia had always had a fear of car crashes and had bought the best car seat money could buy, and always strapped him in with care and attention. Still, Dudley had to have been born under an exceedingly lucky star to escape so unscathed. The only injury he had sustained was when one of the shards of glass had hit him in the forehead, leaving a cut in a vague lightning bolt shape, dripping with blood.
And so he screamed until he was worn out with screaming, and he fell asleep again for the rest of the night.
***
Ten years later
***
Dudley Dursley was woken up by the excited shrieks of his aunt Lily downstairs. Yawning, he clambered out of bed to look out of the window.
It was ten years since the car crash that had killed his parents. Ten years of living with the Potters, constantly being made to feel like an outcast. He lived in the magical community, and as far as he knew, he was a complete muggle.
He had few possessions, mostly because most things magical didn't work for him. He had once gone for a look in muggle London, just to see what it was like. It was amazing. Everything made sense, everything was logical. He had four pounds and eighty seven pence; Aunt Lily had given him a Galleon on his last birthday, in a rare act of kindness, and he had managed to get it changed at Gringotts. He had wandered around the muggle shops, keeping one hand in his pocket all the time to make sure the money was still there, but everything he would have wanted was far too much, and everything he could have got didn't seem worth spending his only money on, so he ended up buying a cup of tea and a cream cake in a cafe, and then spent the rest in an arcade.
Now he had fifty seven pence left, and the coins were some of his most treasured possessions. The others were a Neverending Notepad and Keep It Pointy Pencil, a muggle studies book that used to be James's, and most precious of all, a photograph of his parents on their wedding day. The photo didn't move, but somehow this made it even better. It was stuck up on the wall behind his bed, and too many times Dudley had sat up in bed at night, looking at it.
Out of the window, the sun gleamed out on the big garden of Godric's Hollow. Another perfect day, as usual. The entire house was underground, accessible only by a muddy hollow in the middle of a wood. There had been a lot of jiggery pokery to make a huge house and an even huger garden fit inside a small embankment, but then wizards were good at jiggery pokery. They'd even made daylight appear underground, along with occasional rain, snow and once even a thunderstorm, all in a small muddy embankment.
"Dudley!" Lily's voice suddenly rang out through the house. "If you don't come down now, I will come up there and drag you down. We're going to the MMC to celebrate Harry's birthday and the coming of his letter.
Oh, god. Harry's letter. Lily had talked of nothing else for the last month, fretting that it wouldn't arrive. Being worried that Harry was a Squib, even though just a few weeks ago Harry had managed to set thirty three quills simultaneously writing "I am not a Squib."
Dudley fingered his scar, without meaning to. He often did this; it seemed to be the only real link between him and his parents, apart from the photo.
Downstairs, the three of them were huddled around a mug with an ongoing Quidditch game on it. If Dudley was going anywhere, he had to use a Portkey, because it was the only magical transport that he could use. Floo powder just didn't work, and he had got some nasty burns after trying.
"Right, we're late as it is." Uncle James said irritably. "Come on."
"What about breakfast?" asked Dudley, surprised.
"If you wanted some, you should have come down earlier. You'll just have to get a sandwich at the MMC."
Dudley nodded, reaching forwards to the Portkey. "One, two, three." said Lily, and on three they all reached forwards to touch the Portkey.
A second later they were in the MMC, which stood for Menagerie of Magical Creatures. It was quite unfair to drag Dudley along, because most of the exhibits he couldn't even see. He watched the Potters getting all excited over what the sign said was a Welsh Green dragon, then wandered off to look at the owls.
***
When Dudley was five, he had met Sirius for the first time. Sirius Black, Harry's godfather and James's best friend. Sirius, who could turn into a dog. He and James changed into their animal forms and took it in turns to give Harry rides around the garden. While Harry was riding on James, the stag, Sirius thought it would be funny to chase Dudley. Dudley had screamed as the huge black dog came streaking towards him, teeth snapping, and had leapt up the nearest tree, quaking, but Sirius had followed him up, claws digging into the tree trunk and going as far up as he could before the branches would have snapped. Dudley was clinging onto the tree a few feet above, still terrified. The Potters had thought it enormously funny, and every single time Sirius came to visit after that, he had chased Dudley.
***
Having got bored with the owls, Dudley sat on a patch of grass, waiting for the Potters to come back from ogling the dragon. They finally came back, and dragged him off so they could look at some salamanders. Sweating from the heat, Dudley went to sit alone again, bored out of his mind. He was bored for the next three hours as the Potters wandered around the MMC, ooh- ing and ah-ing at the various invisible creatures. For once, Dudley couldn't wait to get back to Godric's Hollow.
He wondered if he'd ever escape out of this world, back into the real world. The only thing that kept him going was that in six years, he would be seventeen and free. Or was it sixteen, the muggle age? Whatever it was, it was there, and if he could manage to drag himself through the years without going mad, or committing suicide, he could escape.