DISCLAIMER: I do not own any of it, JK Rowling and associates own all rights, no infringement intended, no money is being made, unfortunately.
WARNING; Pre-slash if you do not like do not read remember you have freedom of choice. Reviews appreciated but no flames those will be ignored.
STORY; as we get older and some of us actually mature you find that what you firmly believed was the truth can suddenly shift into something completely opposite and how you handle that shows what kind of adult you can become. Harry must deal with what he considers to be the weirdest summer of his life. Enemies become allies, friends become enemies, and sometimes there is a very thin line between love and hate, attraction and fighting. Poor Harry, poor Draco
PAIRINGS: HP/DM, SS/RL, GW/OC, RW/HrG, NL/LL
Chapter 2 Dudley has a Brain?
Harry opened the door to his usual room ignoring the extra locks and the cat flap cut into the bottom of the door. There was a layer of dust over the broken toys and old furniture in the room and it smelt musty as if no one entered the room in the entire year he was gone. Surprise, surprise there was no sign of cleaning since he left. At least this time he could use a cleaning spell instead of doing it all by hand. All students fifth year and above could use small household magic's in the home. The Dursley were going to freak the next time he had chores to do. The thought brought a Snape like smirk to his lips. They set the trunk on the floor near the foot of the small bed. Harry placed Hedwigs' cage on the desk near the window and let her loose to stretch her wings. Turning he stared suspiciously at his cousin for a few minutes wondering if this was a set-up for more Harry hunting.
"So what did you want to talk about?" he asked sitting down in the broken back chair at his desk. "By the way thanks for helping with the trunk."
Dudley eyed him for a moment then sat down on the edge of the bed, which creaked and groaned like a dying thing under his weight. Dudley began speaking "I have been doing a lot of thinking this year…" Harry blinked but held back the sarcastic comments that rose to his lips at that and let Dudley continue "…since we were attacked by those Deme things"
"Dementors" Harry corrected with a tired look on his face as he remembered the attack..
"Whatever their called, there is something I've always wondered about. You hated me and my parents so why did you save my life. You could have gotten away with no problem when they went after me. You would not have gotten in trouble with the people at your school. I would have run away and left you if I could have you know that right."
Harry just laughed sadly, "It's what I do. I save the world regardless of the personal cost. I have been doing this since I found the wizarding world or it found me; most especially since I became the damn Boy Who Lived instead of just Harry. Not that it matters because even though I hated you I wouldn't have left you to them. They suck out your soul leaving your body alive and no one deserves that fate."
Well he thought to himself except maybe Malfoy. Harry looked away for a minute his eyes bright with unshed tears. "The other reason was that they were to attack me, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I was not going to let another innocent bystander die for me. So yeah, I thought about leaving. I wanted to run, you have no idea how much I wanted to run, but I found myself attacking like the good little Gryffindor hero."
Dudley gave a shiver as he remembered the terror and over whelming depression that struck him that night. Dudley said nothing for a minute then coming back to himself he spoke quietly, "I hated you for a while after I recovered but by the time I went back to school it finally sunk in how close I came to dying. I realised that I really had nothing to show for my life, here I was 15 and had no real friends, no girlfriends, no accomplishments nothing. I was just this fat freak with a gang of bullies that either was scared of me or wanted something from me, usually money. I moped around for a while and nothing I did seemed to make me happy. I sunk deeper and deeper into a grey fog. I actually stopped eating for a while if you can believe that. That is what made the counsellors at the school get involved but they could not help. What could I tell them without asking for a one-way trip to a mental hospital? That there was magic in the world I had a wizard for a cousin and over the summer was attacked by some weird magical demon thing. That would have gone over real well. Piers and the others could not understand why I did not want to be with them, they just didn't understand that I had grown up while they were still stuck at the childish bully stage. Piers continued to act like an arse about everything mainly because he missed the money and finally he and the gang just left me alone."
"I'm sorry. I never thought that it would affect you like that," said Harry while inside he felt a surge of guilt. "I've had brushes with the Dementors before and while it left me depressed, afterwards I had friends to talk to that understood what I was going through. I never once considered what might happen to you. What did you do?" 'I can't believe I'm concerned about Dudley' Harry thought.
"It's kind of stupid but it was a Family day near the holidays and there were a lot of people roaming around the school. I was sitting in the garden as I had taken to doing, pretty much ignoring everybody and feeling sorry for myself when I overheard two people talking on the other side of the hedge. The word magic caught my attention and I heard one ask the other about her sister and how did she like her new magic school. The other girl replied that Rose was happy and that she was glad she was in Hufflepuff house but kind of wished she were in the same house as Harry Potter. She babbles on about how cool Headmaster Dumbledore was and about the sorting ceremony. You can imagine my reaction to hearing your name. I blanked out for a minute then I heard the other girl sigh and say how she wished they had been the ones born with the gift but at least Rose was sweet about helping them and how much fun it would be once Rose was a fully trained witch. I got up quickly and went around the hedges to get a better look and see whom they were. One was Jonathon Zeller's sister I had seen him with his family earlier. I did not recognize the other girl. They were walking back to the school so I followed them at a discrete distance. They met up with Morgan Zeller and Brian Finch-Fletchley two guys from a lower level that I really did not know all that well. They did not hang around with my gang and were pretty quiet. Honour students and all that; the type I usually ignored except to harass." Dudley said the last sentence with a grimace.
Harry interrupted "I know a Justin Finch-Fletchley and I'm pretty sure there was a Rose Zeller sorted into Hufflepuff this year. I knew Justin was Muggle born but not about Rose. Justin never mentioned a brother but I really don't know him that well."
"Yeah, well I figured I had nothing to lose by talking to them, at least they wouldn't think I was cracked when I talked about wizards and would know what I was talking about" said Dudley. "It's not like I could talk to mom or dad at least not without freaking them out. I went up to them at the library later that week and asked if I could talk privately to them. They were a little unsure mostly because of my reputation…"
"In other words because you and your gang were a bunch of bullies" Harry spat out jumping up and pacing across the room bitterly remembering all the cases of Harry hunting and vicious pranks pulled on him over the years. With a visible effort, he forced himself to return to his seat and face Dudley once more his emerald eyes flashing with pain and anger.
"This isn't easy for me alright" Dudley met his angry eyes steadily "just let me finish my story." Dudley quietly said with no signs of anger. "Anyway I decided the easiest way was to mention your name. I asked them did they know who Harry Potter was and about Hogwarts."
Dudley gave a small laugh "You should have seen their faces; it looked like someone came up and smacked them in the back of the head with a smelting stick. They exchanged quick glances then Finch-Fletchley looked at me and asked what I was talking about, I told them I was your cousin. Now they really looked like idiots but recovered quickly; Zeller asked me what I wanted and I told them I needed to talk to someone who did not think I was nuts when I mentioned the word magic. Finch-Fletchley looked at me for a few minutes and then stated that his brother had said something about Potters family treating him like shite all the time and not liking magic. Why did I suddenly want to talk to them and how did I know they knew anything about it. It took a lot of convincing and several talks before we could decide to trust each other enough to talk honestly. I told them about our encounter with those Deme things and you scaring them off. They explained about what those monsters did and that the way I felt was perfectly normal after an encounter. They also filled me in about what had happened to you from your first year on including the tournament and everything in-between that they knew of. We actually became good friends during the year. When Piers started harassing them, I made him and the rest of the gang back down. Morgan and Brian got me interested in self-defence as a way to exercise and keep my weight down so I started to take some classes. I also enrolled in one here in town. Becoming friends with them opened up my life. I met more people as I slowly changed. It wasn't overnight and I still have a lot of bad habits but I can truly say now that I have friends that like me for who I am not what I can do for them."
Dudley sat there for a few minutes looking out the window while Harry thought over everything he had said. Turning back to Harry with an unusually serious look on his face, he continued speaking. "There are a lot of things that I wish that I could do over. I cannot say that I like you or that we will ever become friends but I do know some of what has been going on in your world, what you will have to face in the future. There is so much more going on then I ever knew or wanted to know. Therefore, what I am getting at with all this is that I would like to declare a truce. You probably can't forgive all the shite I have done and the pain I've caused you and I can't really blame you for that. However, I have done a lot of growing up in the past year and the most important thing I realised is that the world does not revolve around me as much as I wish it would." Dudley thought about it then said with a smile "Guess you have to almost die to make you realize something like that. Something I now know you are painfully familiar with. How you have managed to keep you sanity with everything happening is beyond me."
Harry snorted, "To be honest most people in the wizarding world are not sure about my sanity. Their opinion changes from year to year depending on what is going on."
"Anyway," Dudley said, "you do not need me getting in your face all the time, and if you want, I will keep the parents off your back as much as I can. Can't guarantee I am going to be perfect but I will try, if nothing else I will stay out of your way. So what do you say, Truce?" Dudley stood up and held out his hand.
Harry stared at him for several long moments thinking about a similar situation with Malfoy and the consequences of that refusal then proceeded to shake his hand. Hell, if he could learn to deal with Snape as a fellow member of the Phoenix Order then he could certainly put aside his anger with Dudley. Besides, he was tired of fighting useless battles and had already resolved to save his anger for the real enemy, Voldemort. They stared at each other for a moment then Harry asked if Dudley could get him into that self-defence class.
Letting his breath out in a relieved sigh Dudley replied, "If you want to but if you're going to be a wizard why learn how to fight hand to hand?"
"Because, there have been times I didn't have my wand and only got away by sheer luck or through someone else rescuing me. If I could learn some defence moves maybe next time I come up against some Deatheaters I can surprise them."
"Okay first class is next Wednesday and we need to leave here about 2:00 okay?"
Just then, Harry heard Aunt Petunia call "Duddikins mummy needs you dear." Dudley grimaced and Harry snorted at the look on his face. "You might want to break your mom of that habit, sounds kind of silly now that you're going to be 16."
"Tell me about it. She did that at school when they came up for Awards day. The guys were howling later. I never thought how stupid it sounded until then."
"You know your parents are not going to be happy that we are not fighting anymore." Harry warned quietly. "In their eyes, I am still a freak and regardless of the warnings they got from the Order members they are not going to give up treating me like crap, for that matter neither is your old gang."
"I know but I can handle mom and dad as for the gang they won't bother you once they realize that we are not enemies anymore. Moreover, if they do try something they know I can knock them on their arse in a minute. I was placed on the schools boxing team thanks to the weight I lost."
Harry grinned "Well all I can say is that it is going to be an interesting summer." Dudley just laughed and left the room. Harry turned to Hedwig and said, "Can you believe that. I never knew Dudley had a brain much less that he would ever grow up." Hedwig just hooted happily. "Well at least that solves one problem and the self defence class should be interesting. Wouldn't it surprise Malfoy if I could knock the shite out of him without ever touching my wand?"
tbc