A/N: If the chapters are numbered wrong, I apologize, I keep having problems with the story as I u/l it to the sites.
Thanks for all the great reviews, for those who have reviewed. I know I've u/l'd this story before on some sites, but it got all messed up, the net spiders were messing up the web. This one will probably be as short as the last one and I apologize in advance because it isn't intentional.
Chapter 10
Dudley Dursley stood at the top of the stairs on the third floor of Number 12 Grimmauld Place three and a half weeks after he and Harry had brought Draco Malfoy there to hide him and get him healed up. The food was awesome. Dudley was a little freaked out about the magic that was used so flagrantly, but he had realized rather early on that, for the most part, the people his father called freaks and weirdoes were rather normal and some were rather nice. That Ginny girl, for example, she didn't treat him like a leper just because he couldn't do magic nor did she expect him to understand half of what was said around him. She explained things in a way he could understand, and didn't make him feel so bloody stupid about it, either. He liked her. Now, Hermione was a bit of a know-it-all, but a pretty one. She kept giving him dirty looks, though Dudley didn't know why. Dudley was waiting for Hermione at that moment, for her to bring up another tray of food. She and Ginny were trying to find ways to sneak enough food for three boys without arousing Molly's suspicions. Despite the food being so good, and him eating so much and so often, Dudley was losing weight. (He didn't know that Ginny and Hermione had come up with a potion that would allow him to lose weight and still eat normally. They were going to make sure he always had some, at least until he was at a healthy weight. They knew he was going to have to go to school, and that getting it to him was going to be hard to do, but they were determined.)
Severus Snape had also been around a lot, and Dudley always tried to sink into the wall whenever that slimey git was around. Harry had told him that this professor was the single most hated professor in all the school, and Dudley could believe it. The man had the blackest eyes. They were dead eyes, too. He didn't like for that professor to look at him too closely or too often. Snape was in the room now and that was why Dudley was in the hall. Dudley watched a shadow on the wall, waiting to move back in the room if it was anyone other than Harry, Hermione or Ginny at this time. He breathed a sigh of relief when it came out to be Hermione. He took a step down to take the tray for her, he wasn't sure why he was doing it other than Harry always did it and the girls seemed to smile more at him when he did nice things like that. His mum never expected help from anyone but Harry and his dad never did a thing around the house so Dudley didn't know that it was the right thing to do. Hermione smiled up at him in surprise when he took the tray and said thanks quietly. She hurried him into Draco's room and waited a few moments before speaking.
"Molly's getting suspicious," she said. That was all she said before hurrying out of the room to go back downstairs. Severus and Dudley looked at one another, both wondering what came next.