Luckily for Dudley Madame Pomfrey never asked too many questions, so he didn't have to tell her he got injured dueling Malfoy.
"We'll spread it around that you won," Fred promised.
"Yeah, before rat boy tries to claim he did," said George.
"Cheers," Dudley grinned. He looked down at his leg and grimaced. It didn't hurt anymore, but the skin was taking on a crusted appearance. Madame Pomfrey had given him a potion which she said would be able to heal it.
The next morning, Dudley had a pair of visitors—Ginny and Luna. Ginny had a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor beans and Luna had a bowl of soup.
"I got daddy to send it, it's Plimpy soup," Luna said, brightly. "It will cheer you right up."
Dudley didn't exactly trust Luna or her dad's cooking, but she was gazing at him so expectedly that he took a small sip. Then a bigger one. "It's really good," he admitted. "One question—what's a plimpy?"
He hoped it wasn't going to be something weird or disgusting.
"It's a fish," Luna said.
Dudley let out a small sigh of relief.
"They live in a stream near our house—people are always requesting daddy's recipe for plimpy soup."
"Ron says you used the bat-bogie hex," Ginny said, sittin down on a chair.
Dudley grinned. "Yeah, you should have seen it. Malfoy was surrounded by the flapping green things."
Ginny laughed.
"He really isn't very pleasant," Luna announced. "He always calls me Loony when he passes me."
"Git," said Dudley.
"Well, you used to call me Loony too," Luna said, matter of factly. "Most people do."
"Yeah, well … I don't any more," Dudley said, a little awkwardly.
"No, you're much nicer now. You've even stopped being mean to Colin," Luna said.
Dudley didn't know how to reply to that. He hadn't really noticed, but he had stopped pushing others around this year—he hadn't even been mean to the Hufflepuffs. He had been too caught up in other things and finding amusement in the fact Malfoy had become the school's public enemy number one. He hoped he wasn't growing soft.
"Me and Luna re going to get breakfast," Ginny announced. "You seem better, I expect Pomfrey will release you soon."
"You make it sound like I'm in prison," Dudley grumbled, taking another spoonful of soup. "Thanks for the beans,"
"Daddy says you need to be careful with them," Luna announced as they got up to leave. "Goblin rebel groups sometimes add disgusting ones deliberately—Daddy once had a box which was entirely vomit flavor."
Dudley eyed the box, suspiciously.
Sure enough, an hour later, Madame Pomfrey bustled in to check Dudley's leg. She gave him the all clear to leave. No sooner had Dudley stepped out of the room that he bumped into Ron, Dean, Neville and Hermione.
"Dud, we were just going to see if you were allowed out," Ron said.
"All better then?" Dean asked.
"I'm glad you're ok," Hermione said. "Ron and Dean told me what happened. I told you going to duel Malfoy was idiotic. Look what happened."
"I beat him," Dudley huffed, irritated. "I proved I'm better."
"Yes, but it could have been worse. If they didn't get you to the Hospital Wing on time …"
"Fred and George have spread it around that you beat Malfoy," Ron interrupted. "Now, everybody probably knows that you won the duel."
Sure enough, on their way to the first class of the day (transfiguration) a few students they passed congratulated Dudley. "Nice one, Dud," Roger Davies said.
"Glad you gave Malfoy what he deserved," said Cormac McClaggen.
Dudley puffed his chest out proudly, enjoying the attention. He felt in a good mood—beating Malfoy, getting more attention and respect from his peers, and even better, during Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid had a surprise for them.
"A manticore," he announced, proudly. "Stay back, now. They're very dangerous. I don't want anyone to get any closer, and listen carefully to what I say."
Most of the close looked terrified. Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle were standing as far away from the manticore as possible. Lavender and Paravti looked ready to run. Seamus had scuttled behind Dudley and his friends.
Dudley felt like they had a good reason to be afraid. The manticore was one of the weirdest and scariest things he had seen.
It was big—about the size of a horse—with the body of a lion, the tail of a scorpion and a grotesque head which could vaguely be described as a human face transplanted onto a lion's head.
It lashed its tail threateningly and snarled at them.
"They're very rare. I was lucky ter get this from a friend," Hagrid said. "Now, the sting can kill a person instantly." At this the class, even Dudley, took a few more steps back.
"Very powerful creatures. Their skin can repel all charms …"
It proved to be a very interesting lesson. Dudley found himself entranced by the manticore. Not even in his wildest dreams had he imagined a creature as powerful and as deadly as this. Most of the class seemed nervous and refused to get too close, but Dudley inched closer, as did Hermione.
"I can't believe Hagrid managed to get one," Hermione had whispered. "It's a class 5 beast by the Ministry."
Dudley didn't know what that meant. "I expect Dumbledore managed to get permission for us to see it," he said. "I'm glad he did, it's pretty cool."
"Yeah, dangerous though … most teachers wouldn't show us something like this before NEWT level."
They returned to Gryffindor Tower later that day. Dudley still insisted on talking about the Manticore. "I wonder what other creatures Hagrid can get for us to see?"
"I remember he said he'd like to take us on a trip to see dragons," Dean said. "That'd be cool."
"I dunno if we'd be allowed. Gran says dragons are protected and really dangerous."
"Can't be any more dangerous than a manticore though," Dudley argued. "One sting can kill you …"
"I hope it's nothing too dangerous next time," Hermione said. "Having a one off lesson like that is interesting, but I'd hate to study monsters every class."
"I'd love it," Dudley said. "I hope he brings in a chimera next."
Hermione opened her mouth to reply. Before she could do so, a strangled yell echoed down the boys' staircase. The whole common room fell silent, staring, petrified, at the entrance. Then came hurried footsteps, growing louder and louder - and then Ron came leaping into view, dragging with him a bedsheet.
"LOOK!" he bellowed, striding over to Hermione's table. "LOOK!" he yelled, shaking the sheets in her face.
"Ron, what -?"
"SCABBERS! LOOK! SCABBERS!"
Hermione was leaning away from Ron, looking utterly bewildered. Dudley looked down at the sheet Ron was holding. There was something red on it. Something that looked horribly like -
"BLOOD!" Ron yelled into the stunned silence. "HE'S GONE! AND YOU KNOW WHAT WAS ON THE FLOOR?"
"N - no," said Hermione in a trembling voice.
Ron threw something down onto Hermione's rune translation. Hermione and Dudley leaned forward. Lying on top of the weird, spiky shapes were several long, ginger cat hairs.