THC
House: Gryffindor
Class: Astronomy
Prompt(s) chosen: Knockturn Alley, Dudley, A Howler
Length: Drabble - Bonus Challenge
Word Count: 995 - (not including A/Ns)
Warning: Vague description of Cruciatus Curse used on a person.
Dudley tried to throw up when the squeezing stopped, but he wasn't given the chance.
"Move!" Someone shouted as he was shoved down the cobblestones. Dudley gasped for breath through the thick hood over his head. He couldn't see a thing.
Being blinded seemed to amplify his other senses, and it felt as though the world was burning. Sharp smells of smoke and dust filled the hood making it impossible to breathe. People were screaming, horrible, curdling screams filled with fear and terror. Even the buildings were groaning, creaking, crashing to the ground making the stones beneath his feet tremble with the weight of them.
A part of him was glad he couldn't see it.
"Get in." Dudley was shoved through a door and onto a chair.
He felt something brush over his arms causing his hair to stand on end. Panicking, he tried to yank his wrists from the seat but they were stuck fast. He felt no rope, no cuffs, yet he could not move. He heard himself whimper.
"Scared, Muggle?" The voice mocked him, low, deep and full of malice. The hood was pulled from his head, and Dudley was barely surprised to see a silver glinting skull staring back at him.
Death was surely waiting somewhere close.
"...Please…" Dudley panted, "I don't know anything."
"You know where Potter is." It wasn't a question.
"No! He left! I don't-" But Dudley couldn't finish the sentence. His body had suddenly caught fire, every bone was breaking, every cell igniting. It was more than pain, too blinding and everlasting to be given a name. Just agony without words.
And then it was gone. The screaming that had been ringing in his ears stopped and his voice felt raw. He could feel his heart pounding as his body slumped in the seat, sweat dripping into his eyes. Somewhere, far away a voice was yelling at him.
"...-where Potter is!"
"I don't- I don't-" Dudley tried to talk between sobs but the words caught in his throat.
Part of him wasn't surprised when the fire in his bones ignited again. It was like it never left. Forever burning and breaking and splintering and twisting. He was dimly aware of his body writhing in the chair and wondered how he was able to move with such agony in his muscles.
When the pain stopped, he expected the screaming to stop too. But it didn't. The screech was ear-piercing. Dudley raised his pounding head. The silver skull was no longer staring at him but pointing a wand at a red scrap of paper. It caught fire in a flash of smoke and the noise ceased.
Another streak of red whizzed through the window. The man in the mask spun around with his wand outstretched as the envelope opened and began howling again. Another streak, and another, red envelopes cascaded through the window in a wave, each screeching and howling like banshees.
Dudley tried to duck and shield his ears. The envelopes kept coming and coming, colliding into his head, tearing at his skin.
Until something much larger barreled into him, toppling him over.
"Finite! Muffliato!"
Dudley tried to squirm away, his hands shot up to cover his ears but the noise was quieter now. And he could move his arms.
"...Harry?"
"We have to move!" Dudley barely nodded and allowed Harry to drag him to his feet.
"Ron! Come on!"
Dudley felt his other arm being thrown over the shoulders of a tall ginger man. The two boys dragged him out of the door as the man in the mask flailed under the swarm of red letters.
"Those howlers won't distract him for long, Harry…" the ginger one muttered.
"They'll do. What the hell are you doing here, Dudley?"
Dudley could only shake his head. "Man… grabbed me… squeezing… ended up here."
"Apparition?"
"Sounds like it," Harry muttered to the other boy. "They shouldn't have got him. I put wards on the house before I left."
They lead Dudley to a dusty shop in a shadowed corner of the street. The shelves were stacked high with grotesque jars, twisted heads, dark objects that felt too cruel to look at. Harry sat him down beside a large open fireplace.
"I never thought we'd find shelter in bloody Borgin and Burkes…" muttered the ginger one.
"Find the Floo Powder, Ron. We've got to get him out of here." Ron nodded and wandered further into the shop.
Harry turned to him. "Did they hurt you?"
Dudley had never seen Harry look so grim. It had only been a year since they last saw each other, yet Harry seemed to have aged a decade. There were scars on his hands, deep lines etched into his forehead. His eyes were still that startling green, but they were more piercing than Dudley had ever known them, as hard and cold as emeralds.
"Did they hurt you?" The question tumbled from Dudley's lips before he had a chance to stop it. Harry laughed quietly.
"I can't see any lasting damage. You'll be fine. I promise."
"What were the envelopes?" Dudley asked.
Harry smirked. "Howlers. Screaming letters. Make for a good distraction. Got the idea from my first Hogwarts letters. Remember that?"
Dudley could barely forget the letters flooding the living room. At the time he had been jealous of Harry, but now, looking around at the carnage that the letter had brought his cousin, he couldn't help but feel relieved that none had ever borne his name.
Ron returned carrying a large urn. He nodded at Harry, who stood, dragging Dudley up with him.
"I'll fix the wards. You'll be safe, I promise, they won't find you again."
"Wait, what? What's hap-" Dudley started.
A fire roared to life behind him, burning green. "You'll be safe, I promise. I won't let this war get you too."
Before Dudley could protest, Harry shoved him into the flames. And he was spinning.
And the war was gone.
A/N: Thank you for reading =).
