"Merlin's beard, what were you thinking, Dud?" Ron demanded. "I told you. I told you they are very dark magic!"
"I wasn't thinking!" Dudley shot back. "Do you think I wanted to hurt him?"
Rumors swirled about Draco's condition for a few hours after the match, until McGonagall had appeared to confirm that his heart had stopped and it was only thanks to some timely magic from Snape that he had survived. He was now in the hospital wing recovering.
"I don't know," Ron said. "You hate Malfoy."
"Not enough to kill him!"
Ron snorted.
"What?" Dudley snapped.
"Look, come on, let's not …" Dean began.
"No, let Ron finish. He has something to say."
Ron seemed to be considering his words. "This isn't the first time, Dud—remember the snake at Dueling Club which almost killed Finch-Fletchley? Now this …"
"I was trying to help him!"
Ron looked skeptical.
"What next? Are you going to say I'm the heir of Slytherin too?"
"No," Ron said firmly. "But people who make you angry have the habit of getting hurt."
"I. Didn't. Mean. It!" Dudley said through gritted teeth. He was close to hitting Ron.
Ron seemed to sense this and took a step back.
"I don't think Dudley meant to," Dean said. "But using it at all was completely stupid."
"It's gone. I threw the blasted thing on the fire." This was true—it was the first thing that Dudley had done upon returning to the common room.
Ron looked like he was going to speak, but Dudley didn't give him the chance.
He stormed out, slamming the door behind him. Outside was Seamus, waiting to be let back in.
"Get out of my way!" Dudley snarled. He kicked Seamus as hard as could in the stomach, doubling him over in pain. He pushed roughly past him, into the common room and out of the portrait hole, intending to spend some time alone.
He collided with a very small someone just outside, knocking her back a little. It was Luna.
"What's wrong?" she asked, quite unperturbed at almost being knocked over.
"Nothing,"
"Something's upset you, I can tell. Have you had a row with your friends?"
Dudley narrowed his eyes slightly. He didn't know whether to shout, hit something, hit Luna or tell her what had happened.
"Yeah," he said, finally. "Me and Ron had a falling out."
Luna nodded. "I had an argument with Ginny a few weeks ago. It was horrible not having somebody to talk too. At least you have other friends."
Dudley was about to nod, then hesitated. In truth he had one other friend—Dean.
"I didn't have any friends until I got to know Ginny, then we fell out, I had nobody to talk too," Luna said. "It helps, you know, talking to people. Friends help you get through the toughest of times. And I know it must be tough for you, having the Hufflepuffs think you've been attacking people."
Dudley nodded without meaning too. Even though he put on a brave front, it did make him angry.
"People talk about me—some call me Loony behind my back. Some to my face."
Dudley stared at her for a few seconds. When she wasn't talking nonsense about nargles and Snape being a vampire and her other ludicrous theories, Luna actually made quite a lot of sense.
"Do you want to talk about it?"
Dudley hesitated a few seconds. He had never really shared his feelings with anyone. He tended to keep things bottled up inside. He had always felt embarrassed if he felt angry or sad about something, and afraid that the others would laugh. He had an image after all—he was Big D, the toughest person in his neighborhood and the toughest person in his year. He couldn't have feelings.
He motioned for Luna to follow him and, as they walked he told her everything. He told her about how he was struggling with his classes. He told her about Hermione falling out with him. He told her about the Hufflepuffs making him out to be the heir of Slytherin. He told her about Malfoy calling him a mudblood. He told her about falling out with Ron. He left out his bullying of Creevey and using the voodoo doll, however.
"And I'm sick of it," he finished.
Luna looked thoughtful. "You know, you should apologise."
"To who? I've done nothing wrong," Dudley said angrily
Luna didn't look put out at all. "You must have done something," she replied. "I don't know Hermione well, but I can tell she is lonely. She wouldn't break off a friendship for nothing."
"We weren't exactly friends," Dudley corrected. "We just studied together."
"Even so, it was company, people need company."
Dudley thought on Luna's words.
"I've never said sorry in my life," Dudley admitted.
"It's easy, just say 'I'm sorry'," Luna said.
Dudley thought some more. Ron was one of his best mates. He didn't want to be arguing with him. As for Hermione, there was no doubt that he was failing his classes without her help with his studies, and, she wasn't bad company. He remembered she had loosened up once they started studying together last year, and though she was a little bit too book obsessive, they had had some good times together.
"Ok," he nodded, somewhat reluctantly. 'I'll do it."
"Knew you had it in you," Luna smiled.
Dudley looked at her, for the first time noticing the bags under her eyes. "Are you getting enough sleep?"
"Oh, yes. I'm fine. I just have a lot of work to do. Come on. I still need to meet Ginny."
When they returned, Dudley said bye to Luna and headed upstairs. Dean and Ron were in the dorm talking. Both looked up when Dudley entered. Ron was staring at Dudley and Dean was looking awkward.
"I'm sorry," Dudley said, finally, the words feeling strange. "Look, I promise, I didn't mean to hex Malfoy. It was stupid of me. But it was an accident."
Ron looked at him for a few seconds. "I know mate. I'm sorry for accusing you, and about the snake …"
"You saw me, I tried to save Finch-Fletchley."
"I know. I was just angry. What happened to Malfoy and all that."
"Yeah, I know I did a stupid thing. I'll be more careful."
The two grinned awkwardly and Dean looked relieved.
The next day, Dudley suggested they go and visit Hermione.
"Why?" said Ron in amazement.
Dudley, remembering what Luna had said, shrugged. "Because we need her help."
"Fair point," said Dean.
"And, with Neville paralyzed, she doesn't have any friends."
"She doesn't like you, Dud," said Ron.
Dudley shrugged again. "I'll apologize. We owe her that much. We wouldn't have stopped Quirrell without her."
"Fair enough," said Ron.
So, before their first class, the three of them head to the hospital wing.
"Well …" Madame Pomfrey said, a little uncertain. "She hasn't been in the best of shapes. But she hasn't had any visitors …. 10 minutes only," she relented.
They walked into the hospital wing. Hermione was in one bed and at the other end of the room was Malfoy looking very pale. He was sat up eating soup and narrowed his eyes as they entered. There was also an area with curtains pulled around it where, Dudley assumed, Neville, Finch-Fletchley and Nearly-Headless Nick were.
They ignored Malfoy and walked over to the bed where Hermione was. She looked up at their approach, first looking surprised, then annoyed. Her face was almost back to normal, though her ears were still pointed and hairy and she had thick black fur on her cheeks.
"What do you want? Come to laugh?" she demanded.
"No, I've come to apologize,' Dudley said.
"You've come to what?"
"Say sorry," Dudley said, sitting down on one of the chairs which creaked alarmingly under his bulk.
"For what I did."
"You mean for constantly being a bulling toerag to poor Colin Creevey,"
"Yeah."
"Well, I suppose it's good of you to realize that's wrong," Hermione sniffed.
"I also got you these," he pulled a rather battered box of chocolate frogs out of his cloak. "I may have sat on them, but they'll taste alright."
"Thanks," Hermione said, taking them. A little stiffly, but not sounding as cold as she did.
"And I bought your schoolbooks," Ron said.
Dudley sighed, what would Hermione want with her school books while she was meant to be resting.
Hermione, however, was thrilled. "Oh Ron!" she exclaimed. "I've been so worried about falling behind. Nobody came to bring me them, and Madam Pomfrey insisted I just rest.
The atmosphere warmed now they had a chat—speaking somewhat politely and carefully—about the goings on in school and at class.
"Any news on Neville?" Dean asked, finally.
Hermione shook her head. "No, but …" she trailed off and lowered her voice. "Me and Neville were working on something …"
"Us too!" Dudley said, excitedly.
"But I'll tell you about it later." She looked pointedly at Malfoy, who glared back.
"You've had 20 minutes—10 minutes longer than I gave you," Madam Pomfrey said, bustling back into the room.
The three left without argument and hurried to the first class of the day.
