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Chapter Seven

Dudleys Wedding

I had to admit, I looked good in a muggle suit. It was my first time wearing one as the only other occasion I had needed to dress up for were all in the wizarding world and required robes. This event however was very muggle. As promised I was attending Dudley's wedding. I wasn't going alone, of course, my beautiful wife would be by my side, as well as James and my ever trustworthy sidekick and anxiety attack preventer, Tucker-the-wonder-dog. We even bought him a little black bow tie to wear.

"Looking quite dashing there Mr. Potter, I might have some competition for your attention this evening."

I snorted in response to Ginny's teasing. "Nah, Thanks to my Aunt and Uncle I'm pretty sure most people there will still think of me as some sort of low-life criminal or at the very least a drunk living off government funds."

Gin just shook her head, draped her arms over my shoulders, looked me dead in the eye, and said, "When you drive up in you Bently wearing an Armani suit, they won't."

She had a point. Still, I wouldn't put it past my Aunt to try and turn it around on me one way or another. She had a gift at making me feel like a worthless piece of shit.

She looked quite enchanting herself, her dress looked amazing on her, she had her hair up in, a french twist, and was wearing a beautiful, flowing lavender dress.

"Dad! I can't do this!" James whined, huffing to our room fumbling with his tie.

"There is a much easier way to heal with that, son." I then pulled out my wand and magically tied it.

James grinned as he looked at his reflection in the mirror. "Thanks, dad!"

"Happy to help!"

"Now, Jamie," My wife began as she bent down to look our son in the eye, "Remember the same rules apply for when you are at muggle school, no talk of magic."

"I know mum, don't worry, I know the rules."

"Great, now, we best get going, don't want to be late." Gin took James' hand and they headed out of the room, I took one last look in the mirror, grabbed my suit coat off the bed, and followed them out.

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They had chosen the church that Dudley's fiance's family attends for the ceremony. It was small, quaint, and very unlike anything I would have suspected my Aunt would have personally picked. So naturally I loved it. As a kid, the Dursleys would go to church a few times a year, Christmas, Easter, etc, but they were far from religious. As we walked into the lobby of the small church we certainly were getting looks, followed by a stream of whispers.

"Who are they?"

"Did you see the car they pulled up in?"

"I don't recognize them, they must be from Dudley's side of the family. He didn't mention any wealthy relatives."

"Why did they bring their dog… of its service dog, none of them look disabled."

Doing our best to ignore the nosy muggles we made our way to the main door that leads to the sanctuary. A man dressed in a grey suit, with salt and pepper hair and a kind smile greeted them. "Hello, I don't recognize your handsome family are you Dudley's friends." He asked.

"He's my cousin actually," I replied

"Oh...yes, Sarah mentioned he had a cousin. Well welcome, the groom's side is on the left."

"Thank you." As we entered it was easy to see that the bride's side vastly outnumbered the grooms, and most of the people that were on the left I didn't recognize, so I assumed they were co-workers or friends I'd never met.

"Harry, we should probably sit at the end of an aisle, in case you need to get out for a few."

She made a good point, while I had taken a calming potion before I left, as well as having Tucker, knowing who was going to be here and what they might possibly do or say, there was a likelihood it could trigger an anxiety or panic attack. Nodding, we sat toward the far right of a middle aisle, at least three rows back from where the nearest person was sitting. Tucker immediately lay down at my feet. Jamie took out a comic he had stuffed in his pocket and started reading through it. Until the ceremony was underway I didn't see any harm in it.

"This is the first time I've been in a church," Ginny admitted.

"Me too. I feel surprisingly comfortable. I didn't expect to in a place that..well condemns magic."

"Hum yes, that's true. Do you remember Heather Thorpe, one of my roommates at Hogwarts?" She asked.

"I think so. Short, light brown hair, always wore headbands." I questioned. I remembered her but I hadn't thought about her in years. I heard she and her family got out of England a couple of months after Dumbledore died, just before the shit really hit the fan, something about having family in Spain they went to stay with."

"That's her. She is muggle-born, though she thinks her gran might have been a witch and kept it a secret. Anyway, her father was a pastor, needless to say, they were a bit taken about when they found out their daughter was a witch."

"I can imagine."

"Yes, yet they still let her attend Hogwarts. Why, because they looked at it as a gift from their God. She was given this special ability and who were they to keep her from it and so they let her go."

"That was rather open-minded of them."

"Yes, but I think the problem that our world has is that they don't get growth. People grow, communities grow, but so do faiths and beliefs. Magic can be used for dark purposes, but as we know, and I think Heather's parents do too, it can be used for good and amazing things as well. Maybe the reason we feel so comfortable in this church is that the people who are here think more like Heather's family than the religious leader of the 16th century who tried to condemn us. They have grown in their beliefs, their understanding of things, and as a culture in general."

It was a very wise and completely unexpected response coming from a pureblood witch who knew pretty much nothing about the muggle world for a big part of her life. Well, except the ass-backward stories Arthur would tell her.

"Harry, Harry Potter, is that you?"

My eyes darted away from my brilliantly perceptive wife to the figure who was now standing just to my left. It knew who it was almost instantly, she had large, thick, and very distinctive glasses that gave her away. She was certainly a bit older than the last time I saw her, but it was certainly her.

"Hello, Ms. Figg, how are you?"

To be honest I was surprised she was even here. My Aunt never liked her much for the simple fact that she cared about me. She was the only one who ever did on the street.

"I'm good, doing quite well. Have my niece leaving with me now. Well, look at you and your beautiful family. I've seen you in the papers of course, but it's certainly nice to see you in person again."

"It's nice to see you too."

"Who's this handsome fellow." She said scratching Tucker between the ears.

"Tucker, my service dog. The war gave me some pretty bad PTSD."

"Oh, you poor dear, yes, you've been through so much. Well, I'm glad you have him to help you out."

"Thank you. Please let me introduce my family. My wife Ginny and son James."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Fig. Harry has many fond memories of you." Ginny responded.

That was probably a bit of an exaggeration. She always made sure I had a full belly when I was there but most of the time I was bored out of my ever-loving mind. Still, it was worth listening to her go on and on about her cats when I knew I'd have a full stomach that day.

Ginny then gently elbowed our son who put down his comic long enough to look up and say a quick "hello".

"Well, I'll get back to my seat now," Ms. Fig said, "I have some old busybodies to tell that the rich family in the back is indeed Harry's." She then gave a silly sort of giggle before shuffling back to her seat.

A few moments later the ceremony was officially underway. It was much like a wizarding wedding in many ways, the vows, exchanging of rings, it just wasn't magically bonded. As we were headed out to our car, we needed to drive a few miles to where the reception was being held, yet another person from my years at the Dursleys approached me, this time someone I had very unpleasant memories of.

"Aunt Marge," I mumbled under my breath as she approached. Ginny instantly took my hand, Sensing my tension Tucker moved to stand in front of me as if he knew he needed to protect me.

"Potter?!" She said with a glare. Her beady eyes then shifted to my wife and son. "Dudley mentioned you married and had a child."

"Yes… is there something you needed, Marge?"

"I just wanted to see for myself. I heard you managed to straighten your life up… heard you're some sort of referee."

"In part, but I coach as well, as does my wife."

"Hum, I never knew you cared for sports. You used to be such a scrawny thing."

I could feel my blood pressure rising with each ruse word that spat from her thin lips. Why did she seek me out, why couldn't she just leave me alone?

"Yes, well if I had been fed properly and given the opportunity to actually play sports as a kid it probably wouldn't have taken me as long to develop a healthy interest in them." I shot back vehemently.

It felt good to say that. To stand up to the fat, old, hag! I had wanted to talk back to her for decades. The only other time I had was my third year when she insulted my mum and dad and I accidentally blew her up, but she has no memory of that thanks to the Ministry of Magic.

"How dare you. Vernon…

"Treated Harry like a bloody slave!" My wife steamed, cutting off the giant idiots blabbering. "They physically and emotionally abused an orphaned boy for no real reason other than Petunia hated her sister!"

Marge did not take well to someone scolding her. She could dish it out like a chef but couldn't take a dose of her own medicine. Fully turning to Ginny she raised her hand, made a fist, and pushed out her chubby index finger. She opened her large mouth to what was no doubt about to spew more vile but had little change as Tucker darted over in front of Ginny and James and did something I had never seen him do. He growled. It was deep and scary and you would have to be seriously stupid not to be intimidated by it.

The obese bint stumbled back a bit, shocked at the dog's reaction.

"Marge, Marge, what are you doing?" It was my Aunt. "I told you to leave them alone." She said grabbing her arm trying to move the large woman away.

"That-that dog, he-he growled at me." She stuttered.

"Well, maybe you should have gotten in their face. The dog is there to help and protect him and you're over here pointing your finger in his family's face. For christ sake Marge, you have dogs, you know how they are. Use your bloody brain!"

To say that I was shocked those words came out of my Aunt Petunia's mouth would be a grave understatement. I was pretty sure someone else was possessing her body at that moment because that was the first time in my life she actually defended me. Looking over at Ginny, her jaw completely dropped, I was pretty sure she was thinking the same thing.

"You-you taking his side." Marge gaped.

"I'm not taking sides, I'm making sure my son's wedding goes perfectly and I'm not letting anything ruin his big day." She then turned and pulled her down the parking lot, Marge stuttering and huffing and she stumbled away.

"That was awesome!" Jame declared. "Good boy Tucker." He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of string cheese and gave it to him.

"James Cedric...why do you have cheese in your pockets?" She tried to sound like she was upset, but she never could give out that same fear-of-god type of scolding that Molly can.

"Well," He said, "I wasn't sure I would like what they had at the reception and I didn't want to be hungry all night. So I have cheese in one pocket and peanuts in the other...sorry."

Ginny just laughed and shook her head. "It's okay, but I'm sure they will have something you'll want to eat."

"Come on, I said, opening the car door, "let's head over. I don't know about you too but I'm starving!"

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At the reception, several more people came up to us. All of whom were so happy to see that I had, "turned my life around." James was extremely confused at their curious and sometimes stupid questions but was more focused on the unlimited trips to the chocolate fountain then worried about what some muggles he didn't know were saying about his dad.

During one of his many trips to the fountain, along with a few other kids his age, one of Dudley's old mates, one that used to go "Harry Hunting" with his cousin, came over. The first thing he did was eye my wife and let me tell you it was not a, 'it's lovely to meet you look' it was more along the lines of, 'what a hot piece of tail' look. Not appreciating the way he was looking at her, Ginny excused herself to go to the loo, most likely to stop herself from hexing him in a room full of muggles.

Piers Polikss sat down in her seat.

"Did you really find it necessary to eye my wife like the kids are eyeing the chocolate fountain?" I questioned.

He just laughed and shrugged. "Your lucky Potter, she's a good looking bird."

"Was there something you wanted or did you just come over here to oggle my wife?"

"No...I wanted to ask you something, actually."

"Okay, what?"

"Recently Dudley mentioned to me that during the summer I think we were around 15-16, that you saved his life. What I don't understand is why. Why even after all the shit we put you through you still helped him?"

Dudley had most likely been referring to when I saved him from the dementors. It was more like I saved his soul, but still…

I can see why Piers would ask that. Why would anyone want to save someone who tortured him their whole lives? I guess it's a Gryffindor thing.

"He said he couldn't mess with you after that and I totally understood that," He went on, "but… why did you save him? Why would you even agree to see him, much less come to his wedding after everything that went on between us when we were kids.?

This was certainly a side of Polkiss I had never seen before. Sometimes, he had been even worse than Dudley as kids. He may not have punched the hardest but he enjoyed it the most...you could tell.

That was honestly a difficult question to answer. Funny enough Ron had asked me the same thing, and then said, "If it was me I would have let the git have his soul sucked", I guess even back then he was showing his true personality.

"Well," I began, "I saved Dudley that day because as much as I hated him I didn't think I could have lived with myself if I did nothing. As for why I've visited him and accepted the invitation to the wedding… when you see people die your perspective changes. Life becomes worth more than it used to be. Rivalries, bullies, they seem inconsequential when you have a real enemy, someone who is legitimately trying to kill you. I can't say that I will ever completely forgive Dudley or you for what you did to me, but life's too short to hold grudges.

"Piers looked down at Tucker who was laying on my feet and then back up at me, his eyes suddenly heavier, "Dudley said you had seen some action...never figured you were the type to become a soldier."

"It was something I needed to do, but that's in my past."

"Yea, I heard you're a coach of some sort now."

"Yep, living the dream and doing what I love."

"So," His thin lips suddenly turned into a slimy smirk and I got a bad feeling about what was about to come out of his mouth. "The Bently outside and your fancy suit, you don't get that kind of money coaching sports...is your wife from money?" He then waggled his bushy eyebrows at me."

I couldn't help it, I snorted then shook my head. I almost said yes. It would have been fun to see his reaction, but then I was pretty sure in no time rumors would be flying all around Privet drive how I seduced a wealthy girl and had a kid with her just for access to her money.

Instead, I made a different fib, well it was more sort of a half-lie."

Nope. When I turned 18 I came into a large trust my parents left me. It was enough to get me a house, a car, and put a bit in savings." Of course, that was a huge understatement, but I wasn't about to tell the git how rich I really was.

Ah, good for you Potter. Well," He said standing, "I better head back to my table, my mother will want to know all of the juicy gossips."

"I bet. See you around Piers."

"Yeah, see ya, Harry."

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We stayed for another couple of hours before we decided to head back. We enjoyed the rosemary chicken and I got in a few dances with my lovely wife but James was about to crash from the sugar rush induced by the chocolate fountain, and my back was starting to ache a bit. Before we left I made sure to head up to the bridal party table to give the bride and groom my congratulations. I also handed Dudley a thick envelope full of muggle cash. "So you don't go into credit card debt on your honeymoon."

"Oh..thanks Harry." He said placing it inside his breast pocket.

"Your welcome and thanks for inviting us, we had a good time."

Despite the Aunt Marge fiasco in the church parking lot, the day went pretty smoothly, much better than I anticipated. My Therapist says it's good to put myself in a situation that can be stressful; in moderation of course, and with precautions but that over time it will get easier. I think this was probably the most I've put myself out there in years and it went pretty well. Not that I'm going to go crazy like inviting Malfoy and Rita Skeeter over for tea, but it's a start.

A/N: Hello all, wrapping it up soon. One more main chapter and then an epilogue.