"Mum! Guess what?"

Petunia pursed her lips to avoid the smile threatening to appear at her eldest's eagerness.

"Good afternoon Dudley, Harry. How have your days been? Perfectly polite and acceptable ways to begin a conversation, you know."

Harry laughed while Dudley mumbled a soft "Sorry, Mum." Petunia gave an appreciative nod and decided to indulge her son's antics.

"Now then, what has you so very excited Dudley?"

Sheepish expression now vanished, Dudley smiled in a way that many, upon seeing it on one built with a bit of girth as Dudley was, might classify as "dopey". "I got full marks on my writing exam! I didn't write even one letter wrong or nothing." The grin now showed absolute pride, and a glance at Harry showed the same.

Needless to say, this thrilled Petunia endlessly. While she may have taught the boys all she could, Dudley had never excelled in writing or reading. Her best subjects were not found in the school curriculum, and thus his excessive knowledge of how to spot a liar or if someone had a secret that was worth discovery went unused. His maths grades were above average, but that didn't stop many of both his teachers and fellow classmates from teasing and bullying him for being a "fat idiot" or "Dud the dud". Thankfully, Harry had no such problems in the mental aspect and helped both in tutoring Dudley and telling off the classmates with quick retorts. For a boy of only eight, he was surprisingly adept at the art of passive-aggressive insults.

Petunia mentally shook herself and responded to Dudley's wonderful news. "Or anything, darling, and how wonderful! We must celebrate somehow. How would you boys each like an ice cream?"

Both of the short forms before her nodded excitedly. Ice cream and other sweets were rare in the Evans household due to lack of funds. Even with Petunia working two jobs, needs were barely covered. Although he had managed to weasel his way out of a maximum sentence, Vernon had had to use all of his money on lawyers to lower his sentence to eight years. This meant the child support offered for Dudley was provided by the government, and minimal enough that it paid for nothing more than the discounted sweaters and trousers at the thrift shop and the needed sewing kit to keep them properly mended. This also led to both boys being bullied quite often due to their hand-me-down, poor fitting clothing, but neither was bothered by the opinions of what their mum called "judgemental pricks" whenever she thought the boys weren't listening.

Petunia, surprised at how easily she had been drifting into thought today, firmly affixed her purse across her shoulder, took each of her sons' hands, and marched off to the ice cream shop. She didn't even notice the relieved look the boys gave each other, ecstatic and shocked in their plan's success.

They were excited at Dudley's test results. Overjoyed really. Their deliverance if the news, however, was a very carefully crafted scheme to divert their mum's attention from the bruises on both Harry's jaw and Dudley's knuckles. While Harry defended Dudley from academic attacks, Dudley was the savior when it came to the physical undertakings.

~~~~Earlier that Day~~~~

"Harry I can't believe it! Full marks!"

"I'm super proud D! All of the practice you did is really paying off."

The boys were sitting and leaning on a tree on the school grounds during recess. Distracted by their excitement, the brothers in all but blood hadn't noticed footsteps growing closed until a shadow fell over the very paper they were examining.

"Oh look at this! Dud the dud and Puny Potter are celebrating. Let's see what this is..." Piers Polkiss, the leader of the school bullying ring, snatched the test out of Dudley's hands. With an evil smirk, he raised his voice and announced, "Looks like the whale managed to be smart enough to cheat his way to a passing grade! How'd you manage that, since you obviously couldn't pay anyone?" With that the gathering crowd laughed and watched as Polkiss crumpled up the paper and threw it in a nearby mud puddle.

Dudley, being rather used to this treatment, simply ignored the real idiot and his behind his "doofus mask". Harry, on the other hand, still hated when anyone was bullied. Especially his brother.

"Perhaps, Polkiss, you would be able to understand that not only was cheating unnecessary for Dudley, who received the grade on his own merit, but also pointless for you, who did cheat yet still failed the test. Rather poorly if the written 'see me after class' at the top of your paper can be used as any sort of indicator."

The group now "ooh"-ing at the verbal slap he had received, Polkiss knew he had to switch to physical violence if he wanted to beat Potter and win back the crowd's affection. He jumped at Harry and managed to land a solitary uppercut before being shoved rather harshly off of his opponent by none other than the whale.

Dudley began punching Polkiss, making sure to only hit the face once in the same spot Harry had been hit. After a few punches, Dudley felt a soft hand on his arm and ceased the attack. Polkiss looked up in fear, poorly hidden as disgust, and scrambled away. The crowd followed.

Both boys gave a sigh of relief. Harry glanced at the now ruined paper, the bright red "A" now mocking the blood on Dudley's knuckles. He reached to pick it up before returning it to its original pristine condition. Petunia didn't know, but Harry (with Dudley's help) had been making use of his special gift since he'd discovered it. Neither boy knew that it was magic, or indeed that magic was real. They just knew Harry could do things that would keep them out of trouble when Polkiss would try to manipulate the teachers, and could mend their sweaters when they tore too soon after their mum had repaired them to ask again. Both boys simply sighed and began to make a plan in order to distract their mum from the already forming bruises.

~~~~Present~~~~

Harry, Dudley, and Petunia sat at a small table covered by an umbrella and enjoyed their cheap lemon ice pops gladly, never once having considered asking for anything more.

So... hi. I know it's been almost two years, but I'm back now! I'm not sure for how often or how long, but I'm going to try to actually update and finish this. I feel like an explanation is deserved, so here goes. Sorry for any typos.Over the past year and a half or so I discovered a lot of things about myself, good and bad. It started with me realizing I have depression, then that i have anxiety, followed by realizing that I am not exactly who my parents were trying to raise me to be. So yeah, I was grappling with a lot at once and writing just seemed inconsequential at that point. I haven't actually written anything except short poems/lyrics and school assignments since I last updated, but I was notified recently that two different people in the past couple of weeks had favorited me and this really made me think about writing again, because I had no idea why they would after a year and a half of no activity. I suppose I just thought about how I hated reading an unfinished story, and voila. I'm back. I probably write a lot differently and worse now, sorry about that. But I'm going to try!Ok, pity party over. Thanks for reading if you did and if you skipped it sorry you had to scroll so far. I hope to update next week sometime, so let's hope I can stay motivated this time! Goodnight/morning/whatever! Reviews and suggestions appreciated!