Dudley had his first muggle studies lesson that Friday. He and Hermione were the only Gryffindors there. They shared the class with two Hufflepuff girls, Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott, Ernie Macmillan who Dudley disliked and two Ravenclaws, Padma Patil and Anthony Goldstein, who didn't know very well.
Dudley sat with Hermione.
The Muggle Studies Professor was a cheerful, middle-aged witch with long blonde hair called Professor Burbage. "Welcome, Dudley, I am glad you decided to join us," she greeted.
"Now, today we are going to continue our work on muggle transportation …"
The class was a piece of cake. Since Dudley was muggleborn, he knew most of what Professor Burbage taught them.
"I wish I took this from the start," he said to Hermione afterwards. "It's a guaranteed OWL."
Hermione looked reproachful. "Dudley, you're meant to take classes that you'll enjoy—not because they're easy."
"You enjoy that? But you know it all!"
"I find it fascinating to study muggles from a wizarding viewpoint. It's not my favorite class, but I find it interesting to see how muggle life compares to wizards and how some muggle items make their way into the wizarding world."
The Easter holidays were not exactly relaxing. The third years had never had so much homework. Neville Longbottom seemed close to a nervous collapse, and he wasn't the only one.
"Call this a holiday!" Seamus Finnigan roared at the common room one afternoon. "The exams are ages away, what're they playing at?" Dudley didn't like Seamus much, but he agreed with him here.
But nobody had as much to do as Hermione. Even without Divination, she was taking more subjects than anybody else. She was usually last to leave the common room at night, first to arrive at the library the next morning; she had shadows like Lupin's under her eyes, and seemed constantly close to tears.
Dudley decided to do his tactic from his first year of picking studies to not bother revising.
"History of Magic is a lost cause," he said to Ron. "Muggle Studies I'll ace without revising. What else?"
"Astronomy?" Neville said, without looking up from his own revision.
"Seems pretty pointless," Dudley said. "I'll maybe study a bit of that, if I have time."
"What are you gonna focus on then?" Ron asked. He was reading a potions book and making notes.
"Care of Magical Creatures and Defence Against the Dark Arts are my best subjects," Dudley said. "Then Charms—I'm ok at herbology too."
"You can study that with me," Neville said, without looking up.
"Transfiguration you do ok with," Dean commented.
"Yeah, but I need Hermione's help with that one. I'll study that with her. What else is there?"
"Potions," Ron said darkly.
'A guaranteed fail," Dudley sighed.
"Still, that's pretty important, Dud," Dean said. "I think you should try with that one."
In the end, Dudley decided to pass off History of Magic and Astronomy as lost causes and not to revise Muggle Studies because he knew most of it already.
Dudley glanced over at Fred and George, who were experimenting with different spells on a fanged Frisbee. They had their OWLs coming up, yet didn't seem to be too fussed about studying.
They noticed Dudley watching and grinned.
"Trying to get it to multiply whenever it hits something," George said. "We want to bewitch it to follow Perce around."
On the other side of the room, Ginny and Luna were studying too. They had their second year exams coming up and looked hard at work. They were studying with Demelza Bobbins. Luna noticed Dudley watching and smiled at him.
Dudley blushed, suddenly, and strangely feeling embarrassed and turned back to his own studying. He decided to start with Care of Magical Creatures and reached for his copy of The Monster Book of Monsters.
That had still continued to be Dudley's favorite lesson. Just this week, they had a memorable lesson when Hagrid brought to class a set of Streelers, which were snails with shells that change color. They left behind a trail of poisonous slime. Dudley, Ron, Dean and Neville had laughed when Malfoy forgot to wear his protective gloves and got some on his hands—causing his fingers to blister painfully. Hagrid had had to send him to the Hospital Wing with Goyle.
Although he found muggle studies boring, Dudley was good at it. He had however found a way to make the class more interesting. Susan Bones, one of the Hufflepuff girls, had taken to greeting Dudley cheerfully before every lesson. It hadn't taken Dudley long to notice that this really annoyed Ernie Macmillan, so before and after class, Dudley made sure to talk to Susan for a bit to annoy him.
He recognized the name Bones and asked her about it during their fourth Muggle Studies lesson.
"There was someone called Bones at Malfoy's trial," Dudley said. "Is that your mum?"
"My auntie," Susan said with a smile. "She's Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement."
"Cool," Dudley said, shooting a look over at Ernie who, he was pleased to see, was looking annoyed that Dudley was talking to Susan. "She seemed strict."
"She is," Susan agreed. "She lets her hair down at home though—has a lot of great stories to tell about the Ministry. There's been talk that she's going to be the next Minister for Magic, once Fudge steps down."
"That might not be long," Dudley said, thinking of all of Fudge's mistakes. Dudley wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he could tell that Fudge was an idiot—arresting the wrong person for opening the Chamber, letting Black escape, letting Malfoy escape and not even coming close to recapturing them. Lockhart had embarrassed him further by capturing Abaddon Nott together with the Dark Force Defence League. Lockhart had sent Dudley another letter a few weeks ago, partially to check up on Dudley but mostly to brag about how Fudge had begged him to give a talk to the Auror department about tracking dark wizards.
Dudley had noticed that he wasn't the only member of his group suddenly getting some interest from a female. Ginny had delighted in telling Dudley and Dean that two Hufflepuffs in her class had a crush on Ron. "I'm wondering when to tell Fred and George," she said, wickedly. "Just waiting for the right moment."