Written for Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges & Assignments)
Assignment #3 - Healer Studies (Magical Illnesses)
Task #3 - Vanishing Sickness: Write about something/someone vanishing from a character's life.
Further prompts are at the end.
Word Count: 1,265
It had been five years since Dudley had last seen his cousin.
To be honest, he wasn't quite sure why Harry had come, after… well, everything. He knew that Harry held no love for his parents, nor Dudley himself, and he didn't really blame him, after how they'd treated him.
(Visiting Number Four Privet Drive last year, seeing the cupboard that had once been Harry's, asking his parents why. They hadn't had an answer for that. But Mom had said, quietly, that he'd lived there too. He hadn't had an answer for that.)
And for a moment, when he'd seen the messy black hair and bright green eyes half-hidden by round glasses, Dudley had wondered if Harry had come to gloat.
If it weren't for the fact that his parents were dead, Dudley might have seen the irony, that Petunia and Vernon Dursley had been killed the very way they'd claimed Lily and James Potter to have been, the first ten years of Dudley's life. If it wasn't for the fact that he loved them - had loved them - Dudley might have thought it was a poetic sort of justice. Because his parents hadn't been good people. As much as Dudley had tried to deny it, growing up, he knew it to be true. They hadn't been good. They hadn't even been normal, as they loved to pretend.
(The last time he'd seen his parents, a shouting match, because he'd told them that he was gay, because that wasn't normal. He'd said that he wished they weren't his parents, and now they were dead, and he'd never get to say that he was sorry, that he did love them. But they were gone.)
If Harry had come to gloat, deep down, Dudley wouldn't have blamed him. He would have punched him, of course, but deep down, he would've known that his parents deserved it.
(But they were - they'd been - his parents!)
As did he.
(Breaking up with Oliver, after he'd told him about how he'd been bullied because of his sexuality, because Dudley had been the bully, because he wasn't worthy of someone like Oliver.)
He hadn't known better, of course, at first, but that excuse could have only extended to about Year One. Don't bully. Be kind. Treat others how you'd want to be treated. Even if those others were 'freaks', even if they 'deserved' it. But he...
It wasn't until he was fifteen, when Harry saved him from those invisible monsters, when he was forced to see exactly the sort of person he was, when he realized how much he had to change.
"I do not want to die who I am," he'd whispered. And Harry had, using his frea- his magic, saved him.
"Dudley," Harry said, as he approached him. His cousin looked... good, Dudley realized. He'd filled out, since those summers at Number Four Privet Drive, and he stood with a kind of self-assurance Dudley knew he hadn't possessed, before. Though his alertness, the way his eyes darted about, scanning his surroundings, Dudley knew he'd had before.
Because of him.
(Harry-hunting. How was it that he'd been so cruel? Why was it that his parents had encouraged him?)
"Harry," Dudley returned, meeting his cousin's gaze for a moment, before looking away. "You... You came." He wasn't able to stop the tremble in his voice, though part of him didn't really want to. He'd seen Harry at his weakest. Perhaps it was only fair for Harry to see him like that, too.
"I'm sorry for your loss," his cousin said softly. "I- I know you loved them."
And he was right, because Dudley had, and he didn't know how he was supposed to go on without them, without Mom bringing him treats when he was stressed, without Dad telling him that, no matter what he did, he was proud of him, without their unconditional love.
(They were gone-gone-gone. He would never see them again. Why-why-why?)
Love they'd never shared with their nephew. "I'm sorry for how they - I - treated you," Dudley said. Harry glanced at him, his expression one of surprise, which made Dudley feel all the worse. He'd never apologized before, he realized. His parents never would. And yet, here Harry was, paying his respects at their funeral.
His cousin, Dudley realized then, was good.
He didn't deserve that goodness.
"Thank you," Harry said, his voice earnest and comforting. There was nothing else he could say either, Dudley knew, because they had wronged him, and what they'd done wasn't alright or forgivable.
"How- How do you...?" He couldn't finish. But Harry, too, had lost his parents.
"Deal?" Harry finished for him. Dudley nodded, something catching in his throat. Harry smiled comfortingly at him. "Well, I don't really remember my parents, but I lost a- a lot of people, during the war, too. My godfather." That was right, Dudley remembered. Back when they were sixteen. The old man, with the strange clothes and long silver hair, had told them.
(And Dad had said, oh so cruelly, oh so coldly, 'His godfather's dead?')
"One of my teachers. My best friend's brother. Some of my friends."
Dudley... didn't know what to say. So many. "I... I'm so sorry." He couldn't imagine... losing his parents, and his friends, and Aunt Marge, and…
(Harry screaming at night, the summer they'd turned fifteen, nightmares of some Cedric's death. A friend of Harry's? And Dudley had teased him, had taunted him, had mocked him, and then Harry had saved him.)
Harry smiled sadly at him. "It was years ago."
Dudley wondered if time would make things any better.
"You take it one day at a time. You do what they would've wanted you to do - you go on. You remember them. Someone once told me that the ones we love never truly leave us, that you can always find them in here." He put a hand over his heart.
(And he did love them, but sometimes he thought he wasn't supposed to…)
"Still," Harry shrugged. "Half the time I pretend that I'm fine. And it gets easier."
There was a long silence.
But there was something Dudley had to know. "Why?"
Harry tilted his head questioningly. "Why… what?"
"Why did you come? Why are you here, talking to me, comforting me, after… everything?" Everything. He looked down, unable to meet his cousin's gaze, as he continued. "We- we weren't good people. We should've… We were your family."
It took Harry a long moment to answer. "'There is no good or evil, only power and those too weak to seek it.' I don't agree with that, entirely, but I do believe that people aren't just good or evil. We're all human. We make mistakes. We hurt others, on purpose and on accident. But we still all deserve to have someone there for us. Nobody should have to go through something like that alone. Not to mention, you've changed. And you're right, Dudley."
Dudley looked up at him, confused again.
"We are family. And everyone deserves a second chance. So I'm here for you if you need me. I'm not going anywhere."
All his barriers, all his efforts not to break, came crashing down, and before Dudley knew it, he was crying - big, fat drops so unlike the crocodile tears he used to shed spilling from his eyes - and Harry was hugging him, his wiry arms wrapped tight around Dudley's body.
"I-" he choked out. "Harry, I- I'm so sorry, I-"
"Shh," Harry comforted. "Shh. It's alright. And Dudley… I forgive you."
Summer Seasonal Challenges
Days of the Year & Religious Events: 11th July - St. Benedict Day (Catholic): Write about someone helping someone overcome a period of darkness
Flowers: Heather: "Nobody should have to go through something like that."
Locations: The Cupboard Under the Stairs
Crystals & Gemstones: Rose Quartz: (scenario) Forgiving someone
Gryffindor Characters: Harry Potter
Writing Club: August
Record Collection: Back to Black: Back to Black: Write about seeking comfort after something tough happens.
Bingo: But what if they were gay? Write about a character realizing or accepting that they're gay, or coming out to others.
Book Club: Rachel: (emotion) guilt, (dialogue) "I'm here for you if you need me. I'm not going anywhere.", (character) Petunia Dursley
Showtime: Without Love - (trait) selfish
To All the People I've Loved Before: (plot point) coming out
Drayton Manor: Shockwave: Write about being shocked by something.
The Trews: Every Inambition - (dialogue) "Half the time I pretend that I'm fine."
Scamander's Case: (character) Harry Potter
Film Festival: (trope) enemies to friends
Marvel Appreciation: Inhumans: (theme) family
Lyric Alley: There's a good guy in there
EnTitled: The One With the Bullies - Write about a bully, or dealing with bullies
August Auction: "I do not want to die who I am."
Back-to-School Shopping: A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch - "You've changed."
Tell a Joke Day: Knock-Knock Joke - Write about an unexpected visitor
Herbology Club: Plot 3: Words - Retrouvailles (French) - a reunion