Chapter 3: Confessions.

"DUDLEY!" Harry yelled, bending down so quickly that he cracked his neck. "Dudley, wake up! What's wrong? DUDLEY!" It was useless, Dudley was out cold.
"Oh my goodness," Hermione said, her voice stifled by her hand over her mouth. "Harry what's wrong with him! He's so pale!" She looked frightened; she went and sat back on the bed next to Ron who was trying to comfort her. "Harry I think you should call your Aunt and Uncle or they'll think we did something to him!"
"But we didn't!" said Ron, looking at Harry for support.
"She's right you know. They'll think we did do something to him, I better call them. UNCLE VERNON, AUNT PETUNIA!"
"WHAT THE BLOODY HELL ARE YOU SCREAMING FOR, BOY" was the first thing uncle Vernon said as he arrived. "My...my-my boy, my son. Dudley? DUDLEY! What have you done to him!"
"I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING! IF YOU WERE A GOOD ENOUGH PARENT, YOU'D KNOW THAT HE'S BEEN ACTING THIS WAY ALL VACATION!"
"Ahh, my son! MY little boy! MY BABY!" Aunt petunia had just arrived and started weeping hysterically. She got on her knees and began, without any success, trying to shake Dudley awake.
"What do you mean he's been acting this way all vacation? How has he been acting? Has he fainted before? Tell me, boy! NOW!"
"You don't have to yell you know!" Shouted Harry, eyeing his uncle. "Well, he's been crying all holiday. On my birthday, I found him sitting in his room crying, and he said 'Harry, I'm sorry' and I asked for what and he said 'I'm sorry dad was yelling at you' but I knew he was lying and he wouldn't tell me the real reason he was crying." Harry said all of this so fast, he had to stop to catch his breath, "And then before, when I came to tell you Ron and Hermione were coming, I saw he was really pale, and now he came knocked on the door and fell saying 'Harry you got to help me' and I have no idea what's wrong with him"
"I don't believe you! Why would Dudley here cry! YOU THREE FREAKS DID SOMETHING TO HIM!"
"We didn't!" Hermione said, her eyes watering.
"Listen here you fat bastard, WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING! Harry was telling the truth, and if you can't get it through that thick head of yours, then it's not worth wasting our time on you!" Ron said angrily, his ears turning red; not out of embarrassment, but out of fury.

"How dare you!" uncle Vernon uttered, advancing on Ron, but Ron was too quick for him. Pulling out his wand he said:
"Come one step closer and I'll blow that stupid head of yours right off that huge body. We've already told you WE DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!" At this, Aunt Petunia, who was still kneeling alongside Dudley, but her full attention was with Ron and Vernon, jumped up in alarm and hid behind her husband.

Harry stared at Ron, his jaw on the floor, how he stood up to uncle Dursley. He shut him up right! Harry was amazed, and glancing at Hermione's shocked face, he knew she was thinking the same.
"I think you should call the ambulance Mr. Dursley, we won't help Dudley just by staying here arguing about who did what." Hermione said, before anyone else could retort to Ron's outburst, her voice slowly coming back as she was talking.
"No, no... I'm fine, I am." Everyone was so busy with the argument between Uncle Vernon and Ron that they didn't even notice Dudley had woken up and was now leaning against the wall for support. "I was just feeling a bit dizzy. I'm fine mum, really," he continued as Aunt Petunia fussed over him once more.
"Are you sure son? Are you sure it wasn't these freaks that did something to you?" Spat uncle Vernon, a sour expression on his face.
"No, no they didn't do anything to me. Really, I'm fine." He seemed to have his parents convinced, so they nodded and left the room in silence. Dudley walked over to the door and closed it behind them. Then crossed the room and sat down on Harry's bed making the side he was sitting on go down and the side where Hermione was sitting go up.
"Harry, you have to help me." He said to Harry's shoes.
"What's wrong Dudley? You have to tell me if you want me to help you." Harry had never felt this way towards his cousin. The only thing he ever felt towards his cousin was hatred, but now he felt—was it compassion?

"I've gotten myself in some big trouble, with a...with a—a—a wizard." He said the last word so quietly that Harry had to lean in closer to hear him.
"A wizard? Don't you call us freaks too, like your stupid git of a father?" Ron snapped back at him, he looked really mad and seemed to have it in for the Dursleys today.
"My father isn't a git! And I—I don't want to call you freaks, would you just listen--?"
"Who's this wizard you have gotten in big trouble with, Dudley?" Hermione interrupted staring at him intently.
"He said he would help me as soon as I told him I was Harry's cousin." Was Dudley's answer.
"But who was he?" Hermione asked again impatiently this time.
"Lucius Malfoy"
"WHAT!" they said in unison.
"What? Do you know him?" Asked Dudley. He wasn't a very good actor. Harry could tell that Dudley already knew that the three of them were familiar with Lucius. "How did you meet him? How do you know we know him? HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID!" Harry was infuriated. "How did he help you? Did it have anything to do with Voldemort?"
Dudley shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Well you see I didn't know exactly—"
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'exactly'"
"Just let him finish Ron! Go on Dudley; tell us everything from the beginning. I'm sure Harry and Ron will stop interrupting you, wont you!" Hermione shot both of them angry looks.
"Yeah...whatever" Ron mumbled.
"Sure, sorry Dud..."
"Good! Go on Dudley, tell us everything."
"Well, remember last year when those Dementors attacked us and were going to perform the kiss on us, Harry?" Dudley began explaining.
"How do you remember their name and the Dementor's kiss?" Harry asked suspiciously.
"He will tell us if you would just stop interrupting!" Hermione was obviously very curious to know what happened.
"FINE! Go on Dudley, dear." Harry said sarcastically.
"Right, well since that night, I found out that magic is a really powerful thing." Harry didn't even recognize his cousin anymore. He wasn't guffawing stupidly, or being rude and offensive. He was talking seriously, like a normal person, not like Dudley. "I wanted to learn more about it. I guess I was...jealous. I wanted to learn magic; I wanted to have powers too, so I thought I'd find a wizard that can help me. That big man that came and got you from us six years ago said you were really famous, so I thought it'll be easy to find a wizard if I just asked them 'Do you know Harry Potter?' and I was right. I went out and asked anyone—weird looking—you know, different, they—you wear wizarding robes, not Muggle clothes." Muggle? Dudley used the word Muggle? This was way too weird to Harry.
"When I asked Mr. Malfoy, he said that he did know who you were, so I asked if he was a wizard and he said yes. I was very excited, so I told him I was your cousin and he was very interested. I told him I wanted to learn magic, and he said I couldn't learn like wizards could, but I could learn like a squib." Like a squib, Dudley knew what a squib was? "So he started teaching me over the summer, last summer when you were gone. No one knew about this but us, he didn't want to be seen with a Muggle and I didn't want to be seen with a wizard." He looked at them all, nervously scratching his arm. As Dudley pulled up his sleeve Harry saw what looked like a tattoo on Dudley's forearm. Dudley caught his eye and pulled his sleeve down rapidly.
"Dudley is that—is that what I think it is." Harry's eyes widened, how can Dudley be so stupid!
"What?" Dudley answered innocently. Harry walked over to Dudley pulled his sleeve up to reveal a Dark Mark. Harry gasped, Hermione uttered a little shriek, and Ron stood there his mouth wide open, staring at the mark.
"Are you—how can you—but—but you're a Muggle! Are you a Death Eater!" Ron was the first one to regain awareness, and asked the question.
"I—I—yes. I'm the only Muggle Death Eater ever."
"HOW CAN YOU BE SO STUPID?" Harry yelled pulling out his wand and pointing it at Dudley.
"Harry NO!" Hermione jumped on him pulled the wand from his hands... "Can't you see that he's harmless, V-Voldemort only used him to spy on you but now he has a problem with him, am I right?" She looked firmly at Dudley.

"Well, sort of. See, Mr. Malfoy took me to The Dark Lord the last day of summer last year, he said if anyone could help me learn magic it would be the most powerful wizard in the world." He took a deep breath and stared directly into Hermione's eyes, and she stared back. "He told me that if I became a Death Eater, I'd learn very powerful dark magic that even Harry can't do. All I'd have to do was follow his orders and I'll be able to do magic. So I said yes..."
"How can you! That's the worst thing you could ever do! Do you not know what you've got yourself into!" Hermione looked angrier than Harry had ever seen her. "I suppose he asked you to spy on Harry didn't he?"
"Yes"
"How are you in trouble with Lucius Malfoy?" Ron said, trying very hard to be calm.
"Well, as you probably already know, Mr. Malfoy is in Azkaban, he wouldn't have been if I had followed his orders. He wasn't supposed to come to the Department of Mysteries on—" He was interrupted yet again by a knock on Harry's bedroom door.
"OPEN THIS DOOR THIS INSTANT, BOY! What are you locking your door for!" Uncle Vernon came in purple faced. "Dudley, what are you doing here? Come with me don't stay here with these—these freaks" Judging by the look he just gave Ron, he was obviously still very mad at him. Dudley, who was shaking from head to toe, and who's pale face seemed even paler then Harry had ever seen it before, dazedly arose form Harry's bed and walked out of the room, following his father. Dudley looked back with a pleading look and closed the door behind him.
As soon as Harry heard them walk down the stairs and into the living room, he turned to look at Ron and Hermione and asked. "Was it just me or did you notice something weird about him?"
"Weird! Are you crazy, Harry? He's a Death Eater! What are we waiting for! We've got to inform Dumbledore immediately! Or someone from the Order! Dudley must know where V-Voldemort and his followers are!" Hermione gasped.
"I say he's lying about something. I wouldn't trust him if I were you, mate, I mean what proves his story?" said, ignoring Hermione's bawl.
Harry didn't answer, he was too busy thinking. Dudley... a Death Eater? He's been a spy for Voldemort all this time; Harry should have known, he should have been more careful. "We've got to tell Dumbledore."
"Didn't I JUST say that?" Hermione said incredulously.
"But how? We can't send an owl, it might get intercepted!" Ron looked panicky all of a sudden. "What if V-V-You-Know-who comes here? What will we do!"
"He won't" Harry said quietly to the wall.
"How do you know? We're not safe here! We should leave now, not Monday!"
"No, we're safe here He can't come here."
"How do you know?" Harry still hadn't told them about his talk with Dumbledore at the end of the year last year. It was time, he should tell them now.
"Remember at the end of last year, when we came back from the Ministry of Magic? I had a long talk with Dumbledore..." He told them everything, about the prophecy, about how his mother's blood would keep him safe, how he was the only one who could defeat Voldemort.
"Harry, why didn't you tell us? We-we- we would have helped. We..." Hermione broke down crying.
"Hermione, Hermione it's ok, it's..." He didn't know what happened until he found that Hermione was in his arms sobbing into his chest.
"Harry I'm sorry. We should have been better friends. It must have been horrible all summer here with only these terrible people and I haven't written a single letter because I was with Viktor and—and-and..."
"Viktor? Viktor Krum?" Ron asked, jumping to his feet.
"Oh Ron, don't start..."
"What do you mean 'don't start' I'm not starting anything. I'm just saying that you'd rather be with Vicky boy than m—your best friends!" His ears were turning pink
"Ron you're being so insensible to Harry! This isn't about me or you or Viktor, it's about Harry!"
Realization dawned on Ron "I'm sorry, mate...I didn't mean...I'm sorry" He turned to look away.
"It's ok, really. Hermione you don't have to cry over this, crying won't help make it better." Harry said, talking to Hermione who backed away from him wiping her eyes. "I should know, it's what I've been doing most of the summer..." he tried to look brave but hedidn't pull it off, he was fighting hard not to cry right now.
"So this means that you're the only one that can defeat V-V- You-Know- Who."
"Say his name Ron. VOLDEMORT! See, I said it, nothing happened. It's just a name!"
"Ok, so this means that you are the boy that was born on the 31st of July, and your parents defied V-V-Vol--him three times. Do you know how they escaped him?"
"No, I didn't ask. I wish I had though." How did they escape? How did they run into him? Harry wondered.
"Maybe they were aurors or something!"
"Wow, do you think? My parents, aurors? Maybe I should've asked Siri—" He broke off, thinking of Sirius made him hurt. He didn't want to cry in front of his friends. He tried to think of anything else to say as Ron and Hermione watched him intently, but he was lost for words.

"What are you doing to prepare." Hermione asked Harry breaking the awkward moment of silence, and Harry was thankful for a change of subject.
"I was thinking of that, I thought maybe we could continue with the D.A lessons when we go back to Hogwarts." As soon as he said that Hermione shrieked yet again, but this time it was a happy one.
"Really! You'll continue the D.A! That's great news Harry! I don't think professor Dumbledore will say anything, we can ask him to make an announcement at the start of term feast! Oh this is going to be great Harry, oh thank you!"
"Do you really think we should give it that much publicity as to ask Dumbledore to announce it in front of everyone? What if a Slytherin wants to join?" Ron asked, his grin turning into a frown.

"That would be a good thing Ron! Not all Slytherins are bad you know! And the Hogwarts Houses joining together—it's what our school needs. Don't you remember the sorting hat's song last year? The whole separation of students into different houses is barbaric." Hermione said, crossing her arms.
"Yeah you might be right," Ron nodded in agreement. However, Ron clearly said this just to stop Hermione from going on with her lecture. "Hey Harry, you got anything to eat here, I'm starving."
"I think Aunt Petunia will serve dinner in 10 minutes. Wow we've been here for hours!" He was amazed at how much time elapsed as they were talking. "Erm, where will you two sleep tonight, I don't think there's much room here." Harry said, looking around his bedroom.
"Don't worry about it Harry, Hermione bought a wizard's tent on our way here, we'll set it up in your room, it'll take up the whole room, but inside it'll be larger than the whole house. She said it was 'so that we don't intrude in the Dursleys' life...'"
"Brilliant!" Harry's mood was definitely lighter than it had been all summer. "Hey! I almost forgot, did you two get your O.W.L scores?"
"Yeah, Hermione got ten O.W.L's Outstanding innine of them!" Ron said this looking at Hermione with a jealous look. "I got six O.W.L's which wasn't that bad until Hermione showed up at my house telling my mom how she got Outstandings in nine and Exceeds Expectations in the last one and mum started lecturing me on how I should be more like her and stuff." Hermione was trying not to look proud of herself but her smile was giving it away.
"How about you Harry?"
"I...er got seven O.W.L's. I got an 'A' in potions..."
"That's great, Harry!"
"No it's not, if you don't get an 'O' or higher in potions O.W.L Snape doesn't accept you in his N.E.W.T Potions class. If I don't take potions I can't be an auror!" Anger was flowing through him again.
"Exactly, Snape doesn't accept anything below an 'O' not someone else."
The anger he was feeling was washed away by confusion. "Yeah, but Snape teaches potions not someone else."
"Harry, don't you know about Snape?"
"Know what about Snape?" Harry asked curiously.

Cliffhangers...gotta luv 'em!