Chapter 17 …Educating Marge…

Aunt Marge looked at St. John on the perch in the corner of the room, that I had conjured for him earlier today and her face dropped in shock, "Dudley, please tell me that is not a phoenix…"

"Err… how do you recognise a phoenix…? How do you even know what a phoenix looks like or even what one is?"

"I read Dudley, l love these fantasy novels and Colonel Fubster had a lot of strange books at his place that I read on occasion when I visited him, one in particular I remember called 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' by some fellow Newt something or other. All about phoenixes, unicorns, centaurs, and several other things I can't remember. I thought it was the most fascinating piece of fiction I had ever read, such detail and put in such a way to make it read like a text book. Now I'm not so sure. Are you really saying that is a phoenix, what about the other creatures in it?"

"I remember you talking about this friend of yours, what else unusual do you remember about him?"

"Well, I know that Colonel wasn't a Colonel in the army; Colonel was his given name, he used to keep this stick up his arm, it appeared in his hand a few times when there was a loud noise outside or some such."

"What sort of stick? One like this?" I flicked my wrist and my wand appeared from the holster on my arm.

"Well, his looked a bit different, as if it was made of a different wood, but similar to that I suppose."

"Did you ever see him do anything strange, or unusual?"

"I'm not exactly sure what you mean by unusual, but I don't recall anything, no!"

"Perhaps like this; Lumos." A flash came from my wand and the room got brighter, or this "Expecto Patronum Vocali." A silver short eared owl appeared, in the room, I whispered some instructions to it and it flew through the wall.

"That was amazing, Dudley, I never knew you were a magician. You never showed any interest in magic when you were younger." Just then, the fire place lit up with green flames and Harry came through with James in his arms and a heavily pregnant Ginny followed him. "That's amazing, Dudley, even better than that chap on the telly; I know a magician never reveals his secrets, but how did you do it? Is it a passageway between the two houses or perhaps done with mirrors?"

Harry and Ginny took seats and Harry gave me a puzzled glance as if to ask just what was I doing. I took a deep breath, "No, Aunt Marge, it's done with magic, real magic. The school that Harry attended was not called St. Brutus', the real name of the school was Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, both he and I are wizards, Ginny is a witch. We can do real magic." I called out loud, "Elrond, can you pop down to the lounge please?"

There was a faint pop in front of us and Elrond was there, "what can I do to help you Dudley, I was reading up on a book the goblins gave me on Elvish magic." I nodded behind him and he turned and saw Aunt Marge, looking gobsmacked. He held out a hand, "Hello, you must be his Aunt Marge, pleased to meet you, I didn't realise you already knew about magic. If I had known the travel arrangements to get you here would have been a lot simpler."

"Dudley, who is this young man, and what is he talking about Goblins and elves, surely they're not real are they?"

"Madam, I assure you, elves and goblins, are quite real, I myself am an elf, Eledhel, in our own language. You are making a mistake in thinking I am a human, because I happen to appear much the same as a short teenaged boy!" he brushed the hair that was covering his ears away, revealing the pointed tips to them.

Aunt Marge gave a gasp, reaching forward as if to check if the pointed tips were real, then quickly drew her hands back as if this was not something done. Elrond took her hand and placed it on his ear, "they are quite real, I assure you, they won't come off in your hand or anything." Aunt Marge must have pressed a little too hard… "Ow! They feel pain as well."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, this really is fascinating a whole new world hidden in plain sight around me, a world I've longed to see, and always thought it was fantasy, not real. Dudley, Elrond, you must tell me everything."

Little Henri started to fuss, and Gabrielle apologised, "excuse me, I believe he wants to be fed, I will go upstairs with him, he really is easier to feed, if I use the nursing chair in his room. Please try to make yourself at home here during your stay miss Dursley, I will be back down shortly when he has settled down," she left the room taking Henri with her.

"Right, I think tea would help this discussion along," said Ginny, waving her wand a teapot and cups appeared on the table and the pot proceeded to pour tea into the cups.

Harry stood and put his hand out to towards Aunt Marge, "I feel that if we are to get all truths out in the open, that some more formal introductions are in order, so a lot of other things can be more readily dealt with. I am Sir Harry Potter, Lord Potter, your nephew, wizarding lord of the Court of Charlemagne, beside you is Dudley, Lord Dursley, also a lord of the wizarding Court of Charlemagne, Elrond is likewise a lord of the wizarding court, raised to his station by her majesty earlier this month."

"Harry, you're a knight, and a lord, how long has this been true? And Petunia why didn't you tell me?"

"In truth, Aunt Marge, she didn't know, she only knew that I was her sister's child, placed on her doorstep after my parents were killed by a magical terrorist who called himself Lord Voldemort. I myself only found out I was a lord, a couple of years ago, when I was doing some research into my family history. My father should have explained all this to me as I was growing up; well due to unforeseen circumstances he couldn't. I understand part of the reasoning behind her attitude to me in the past and for my part have forgiven her. It is only through a twist of fate that Dudley is able to do magic, and the facts and circumstances of that are not fully understood. It is believed that his first major exposure to magic was on my eleventh birthday when the gentleman who came to introduce me to Hogwarts and the wizarding world gave him pig's tail, as punishment for filling his face with the birthday cake he had brought with him for me. This pig's tail was removed surgically, but because it was instigated through magic, Dudley was infected with magic so to speak. A few years later, we were attacked by some creatures from the magical world and I used magic to repel them, this may have given the magic in him a slight boost."

I coughed, "anyway, I should tell this part I think, during my last year of schooling, the whole family was moved because the magical protection that had been placed on Harry during his childhood ended when he reached seventeen, and it was felt that as we had given him a home during this time, we would be targeted. We were relocated to the town of Tinworth in Cornwall, and I was further exposed to magic. We were given a special card that allowed access to a wizarding bank account that had been set up for us, and also to a certain limited extent allowed us to interact with the wizarding aspects of the town. This card also allowed me access to a wizarding section of the library, where I read some fascinating books, including the one you've mentioned. I met another wizard there, Justin, and we became friends, it was with his help that I learnt the truth about Harry's past, and came to believe I should try and apologise to him for my actions of the past."

"After Harry defeated this Voldemort, the family was allowed to return to Privet Drive, and these cards were returned, cutting us off from the magical world again. I wrote to the Minister for Magic to appeal for this access to be restored and cited several ways in which this type of access could also be granted to non-magical parents of magical children. The short version of this, is that I was successful and both mum and I got new cards to allow us to interact with magic again. After my studies at university to become a social worker I received an offer to work for the Ministry of Magic as a social worker, essentially the first they had ever had; they were eager to promote equality between pure-blood wizards and those of non-magical parentage. I like to think I was successful in making a start at least."

"This is fascinating, Dudley, I remember you mentioning being an ambassador of sorts at some point, or I read it on your ID card, how did that come about?"

"Essentially at the same time, wizards use their own currency; the Galleon is a cold coin worth about £5 in exchange value, I pointed out that if this coin was exchanged at a jewellers it was worth about £400. This fact was made available to the bankers for the wizarding world, goblins. They would be allowed to use the discrepancy between the two values in coinage to interact with the non-magical world and this would offset some costs that they believed wizard-kind had incurred in the past. As a result of this service to the goblins, they opened a bank account for me in their bank in London, called Gringotts."

Aunt Marge gave a gasp at this, "Gringotts is an English bank, I remember seeing a statement at Colonel Fubster's from Gringotts, I thought it was an overseas bank account because it was talking about Galleons; I tried to search the internet later to find out which country used Galleons as its unit of currency, but got nothing, are you saying this Bank is in England somewhere?"

"Yes! It's in London, on a small plot of land that is mainly hidden from the majority of the population. Its accessed by going through a pub on the Charing Cross Road, called the Leaky Cauldron; don't try looking for it on your own as you'll never find it, its charmed so most people don't see it."

"Some sort of filter on what you perceive then, a perception filter, I remember something like that being mentioned on a recent episode of Dr. Who, set in Cardiff, I think, you only notice it out of the corner of your eye and don't particularly take any notice of this. This really is fascinating stuff Dudley. If this is all some elaborate trick you are playing on me I shall be most disappointed in you!"

"It's no joke, I'll even take you into Diagon Alley tomorrow, that's the area of land I was talking about, there's lots of wizarding shops amongst other things, I can show you Gringotts Bank as well.

"that sounds fascinating Dudley," she gave a loud yawn, "oh dear, I really am quite worn out from such a busy day, where will I be sleeping Dudley, as I told you earlier, I won't be able to climb the stairs to an upstairs room?"

"no problem, Aunt Marge, this is going to be so much easier seeing as to how you've taken to the idea of magic. I was going to charm a chair to look like a stair lift and then cast a confundus charm on you, in order to convince you it had been there when you arrived. I think I'll be a little more open about it now." I took one of the dining room chairs and placed it at the bottom of the stairs. Waving my wand several times around the chair and binding it with quite a few charms, I invited Aunt Marge to take a seat. "Just sit, and tell it up!"

She looked at me as if to say 'are you really sure about this?', but she took a seat and firmly said, "UP!" the chair ascended the stairs at a dignified walking pace and came to a stop on the small landing at the top. I quickly followed her to the landing.

I opened a door on the landing, "this is your room, Aunt Marge, the en-suite is connected to mum's room as well; there is a lock on both doors. If you are using the room, mum's is locked and vice-versa. It's controlled by magic, so there's no chance of you locking the door and forgetting to unlock it as you leave.

She gave another yawn, "you seem to have thought of everything, and provided a hell of a lot for me to think about. I'm sure I won't get any sleep tonight, just going over it all in my head. I'll see you in the morning," and she closed the door behind her.

The next morning, we were all seated at the table having breakfast, when Aunt Marge, brought up the subject of our conversation last night… "Dudley, I seem to have had the weirdest dreams last night, in which you told me you were a wizard, and knew goblins, and had a pet phoenix, please tell me that it wasn't just a dream and really happened."

Mum just looked at me in shock, probably wondering how or why I'd managed to tell Marge and there was no explosion like there would have been if the conversation had been with dad. "It's true, Aunt Marge, I really am a wizard and I do have a phoenix as a familiar, not a pet, but yes it was all true!"

"And, you Petunia, you knew about this all along?"

"Not exactly everything Marge, I knew Harry was a wizard, and that he had been put with our family to protect him from the evil wizard that had killed his parents. I resented the fact that my sister had been lost to me and this little brat had been dumped on our doorstep without so much as a by your leave. Something to do with blood magic protecting him from this maniac. I should have brought myself to bring him up as a brother to Dudley, but I couldn't so we treated him like an outcast in our home. I'm glad to say that Harry has forgiven me, I haven't really forgiven myself, and I don't think I ever will; I'm sure Lily will have words with me on the other side about how treated her son."

"Dudley, what about the stuff you told me in the hospital after Vernon had his heart attack, about Harry attending some school, I know partially it was a lie to protect me from finding out about magic. I remember Colonel Fubster mentioning something the one day in passing, something about a Statute of Secrecy. I always assumed it had something to do with the Official Secrets Act, but now I'm not so sure!"

I took a deep breath. "Ok! All the time that Harry was living with us, we told the neighbours that he attended St. Brutus' and you were told the same story. I just tweaked the story slightly when we saw you at the hospital, but the school Harry attended was called 'Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry', it was the school that his parents attended and is supposedly, according to them the best magical school in the world. From what I've learned since then, it's probably only the best magical school in Britain and only then because it's the only magical school in Britain. There are a lot of other schools abroad that teach magic and some of them are quite impressive."

"This is all so confusing and so exciting at the same time," you mentioned yesterday as well about Gringotts, the goblin bank and that you would take me there. Please tell me that was true as well…"

I looked at my watch, "hmm, Gringotts opens in about half an hour, we could take the floo, or I could apparate with you to the Leaky Cauldron and proceed through Diagon Alley to let you get the whole sense of the place."

"I really think I would like to see this Diagon Alley, and get some idea of what the magical world is really like, I've dreamt about this my while life and now to find its completely real, I want to learn everything I can about it. What is this apparition you talk of?"

"Well strictly speaking, what I'm talking about isn't apparition, that's a bit like teleportation, except you feel like you're being sucked through a straw whilst it happens, I really hate the procedure. What I was thinking about was, is slightly different; I learnt how to do it in the States on our honeymoon. If you've read any science fiction, you may have heard of something similar to it, I open a gateway in the air and we will step through and out into Diagon Alley, the yanks gate it gating, but that really doesn't sound right."

"Sounds brilliant, I've read something in some books I've read, but usually it's talking about travelling to another world by this gating, but it all the same, I want to try it." She turned to Gabrielle, "I really meant to ask you last night when this subject came up, how do you feel about all this magic stuff, I mean you're married to a wizard, aren't you worried about your son having magic, that you won't be able to control him?"

"Not really, Madame, I'm a witch too, and a veela to boot, I grew up all my life knowing about magic and when I decided I wanted to marry Dudley, I didn't know he had any magic of his own, I was quite prepared to have a loving but childless marriage to him, it came as a pleasant surprise to find out he had magic of his own and that we could have a family, although Henri was a bit of a surprise I was expecting a girl."

"What's wrong with a son, I mean there's nothing wrong with a daughter, but you make it sound like a son never even entered your mind, there's a 50/50 chance of it being a boy you know?"

"Not really, as I said I'm a veela, that means that the magic inherent in my being insures that children are usually girls, if a veela has a third child, there's a small possibility of it being a boy, a boy firstborn is completely unheard of, or it was until Henri was born."

"Fascinating, I'm sure, I think there's more here than I'm being told, but going back to the original topic, I really would like to see this Diagon Alley and Gringotts if you could take me Dudley, and I would like to experience this magical travel you spoke of. How much walking will there be on the other end, just thinking about my health?"

"Not that much, about as much as walking through a shopping mall, and there are places we can take a rest if you need to."

"I think that can be arranged, there's something that just occurred to me first, and something that will help you interact with the magical world a little better." I raised my arm and called "St. John." With a flash of fire, my phoenix appeared on my arm. Aunt Marge gave a gasp as I quickly wrote a note and handed it to St. John. "Could you take this to Kingsley Shacklebolt please, he may give you something to come back with or may want here you with you." He gave a trill and vanished in a flash of fire again.

A few moments later, St. John reappeared with Kingsley Shacklebolt, "what is this request for a new muggle ID card, and whose is the phoenix, if the person you wish to get the card for has a phoenix, they really don't need an ID card, they must have magic of their own?"

"Aunt Marge, allow me to introduce you to Kingsley Shacklebolt, Minister for Magic and my boss. Kingsley, this is my father's sister, Marjorie Dursley, I want an id card for her so we can properly visit Diagon Alley and allow her to see it completely. I've recently told her the whole truth about myself and Harry and she seems to know a little about the magical world, having had some previous contact with a Colonel Fubster in the past."

"Blimey, I knew old Fubster years ago, he was a friend of my fathers in the Congo, I thought he'd died years ago, he left to come back to England when I was about ten, and you're saying your aunt knew him?" I glanced at Aunt Marge and nodded to her.

"I had a neighbour, who died about four years ago, his name was Colonel Fubster, he used to keep a stick somewhat similar to Dudley's up his sleeve which used to appear from time to time whenever he received a shock or something similar. He had a lot of rather interesting books which I would look through on occasion when I visited him, one of them was how I recognised Dudley's phoenix, a book by Newt somebody."

"Yes, sounds like Fantastic Beasts and where to find them by Newt Scamander, a standard text book in the wizarding world. But did I understand you, correctly… Dudley's phoenix?"

"Yes, Kinglsey, you did understand her correctly, my phoenix, St. John. I received a gift from the goblins, it was a phoenix egg, and he hatched yesterday. I was really surprised at how fast he's grown."

"Hmm. From what I understand of phoenixes, it's the bond of love and magic that enables them to recover from a burning day, so it's most likely true of hatching as well, your feelings helped him to grow so quickly. I really must congratulate you on getting your own phoenix, not many people are that lucky, and such unusual colouring too." He took a breath. "Very well, Dudley, I'll return to the office and have an ID card ready for you within the hour and have it sent over by owl." He glanced at mum and Aunt Marge, and gave a slight nod of the head, "my condolences over your loss." He then turned on the spot and with a muffled pop vanished from the kitchen.

"What's this ID card, he was speaking about Dudley; not sure I like the idea of having to carry a card to let someone know who I am?"

Mum reached into her handbag and pulled her own card from her purse. "It's one of these Marge, it allows you to see through certain illusions and pass into certain magical areas without having to have a wizard escort." She showed her own card which read, 'Mrs. Petunia Dursley, Muggle Relative.

Aunt Marge reached for it, but quickly pulled her hand back when she must have received a shock from it, as I had done the day they had both arrived. "Damn thing gave me a static shock! What's the meaning behind that, Dudley?"

"Its identity protection, you can't use mum's card, just as she won't be able to use yours, it means that the card can only be used by the named user!"

"Wish my credit card had the same protections on it, when it was stolen last year, some junkie took over £2000 from my account, of course I got it all back, but it's just the damn principal of the thing."

Aunt Marge made her way upstairs to get herself properly dressed for an outing and we just sat there finishing up our cups of tea, whilst we waited when an owl started tapping at the window, I stood up to let the owl in and it landed on the back of one of the kitchen chairs. I glanced at the package attached to its leg. It read Miss Marjorie Dursley, The Kitchen, 11 Grimmauld Place, London. I decided to leave her to retrieve it.

After a couple of minutes, aunt Marge made her way back into the kitchen and stared at the owl sitting on the back of her seat. "What's an owl doing in your kitchen, Dudley?"

"Look at the package tied to its leg!" she came forward and took the package after reading the address, the owl gave a hoot and took off back through the window.

Opening her delivery, she looked hard at her card, "and this will enable me to see through magical illusions and to interact with your world?"

"That's right!"

"I can't wait, what are we waiting for?"

We stepped out of the air into the main room of the Leaky Cauldron, only for me to be greeted by a familiar voice, "hello Dudley, long time no see, can I help you today?"

"not at the moment, thanks Hannah, in taking my aunt to see Diagon Alley, and Gringotts, she's had only limited interaction with the magical world so far, so this is her first step into a whole new world. Is Tom still visiting relatives, or is this a bit more permanent now?"

"Oh no! Tom retired and went to live with his son in Australia, Neville and I run the pub now on our own, and this time we've got a room together!"

"How did you manage that, I though his grandmother was a bit of a stick in the mud about that," I said remembering a conversation from some time back in this same room of the pub.

"She can't really object as in now Hannah Longbottom."

"Congratulations, when did you get married? If I'd known, I would have sent a gift or something."

"Just over a year ago, and I've never seen his grandmother happier when than when he danced with me for the first time as my husband at our wedding."

"Brilliant, I'll catch up with you both at lunchtime, I must show my aunt round first." Aunt Marge followed me to the small alleyway the back of the pub and watched as I tapped the correct blocks on the wall to make the entrance to the alley appear in front of us and we made our way to Diagon Alley.

Aunt marge was like a kid in a sweet shop for the first time, looking everywhere and thoroughly enjoying herself, from what I could see. She looked in nearly every shop we came to. I don't know about her health but I needed a rest before we made our way to Gringotts.

Once inside the bank, after she had spent quite a few minutes reading the notice on the front doors of the bank, we made our way to an available teller, "good Afternoon, noble goblin, I would like access to my vault and wish to take my Aunt Marge Dursley with me!"

"Of course, Lord Dursley, Did I hear you correctly, your aunt, Marge Dursley?" he turned to Aunt Marge, "excuse me for asking ma'am, but I must enquire, are you by perchance a Miss Marjorie Dursley of World's End Farm, in Dorset?"

"I am, or rather I was, I moved out of the farm about 5 years ago, why?"

"In that case, miss Dursley, we must offer you our apologies for not getting into contact with you earlier, you were mentioned in the will of the late Colonel Fubster and he left you a few small trinkets, we had no idea how to contact you as there was no forwarding address known to the Colonel or any of his relatives."

"The colonel left me something in his will, I had no idea, he died a few days before I moved out, I had no reason to give any forwarding address to his relatives."

"Of course, ma'am, if you would just wait a few moments and one of my colleagues from the inheritance department will be with you."

Aunt Marge and I sat in the small office we were shown to, waiting for somebody from the inheritance department to join us. After a few minutes a goblin came into to join us and went to the desk in the office with a small stack of parchment, which he began to search through, "my apologies for this Miss Dursley, I must say that the bank is sorry that you were not contacted earlier about all this, we never made the connection with Lord Dursley, we are not overly familiar with the muggle world and had no idea he had any other relatives other than his parents and the Potters." He obviously found the piece of parchment he was searching for! "Here it is… to Miss Marjorie Dursley of Worlds End Farm, Dorset, my neighbour and friend of many years, I leave my collection of 'fantasy' books that I know she was so fond of reading whenever she came to see me. My only hope is that somehow she can be made aware that these books are actual text books and not works of fiction, but without violating the Statute of Secrecy, I don't know how this is possible. I want to thank you Marge for being a friend to me when I retired to the Muggle world, and providing some company for a retired crup breeder, and allowing me to reminisce about my days and enjoy the company of her and her dogs."

Aunt Marge sat quietly for a few moments, obviously deep in thought about this. Turning to the goblin seated at the desk, she gave a nod of her head, "I thank you for this, Colonel Fubster was a good friend of mine and anything I have to remember him by will be of great comfort and pleasure to me!" She turned to me, Dudley, "what is a crup, and what is a muggle?"

I took a breath, "a crup is a wizarding breed of dog that resembles a jack Russell but has a forked tail, and essentially speaking you are a muggle, it means anyone without magic, although the term was originally used in an insulting manner, in the past few years it has become seen as a name, easier than saying non-magical humans."

"thank you Dudley, I never realised when Colonel Fubster was talking about his dogs that they were magical dogs, I never saw evidence of a forked tail, but I suppose they cropped the tail, as is done with some other breeds, fascinating the things you learn during an innocent visit to the bank

The rest of the visit to the bank was a little of an anti-climax after that, although Marge was impressed with the vaults, the ride in the carriages disagreed with her and she had to sit down to recover from severe motion sickness once we were back on the main floor of the bank. Her fascination with the magical world was something that had come as a bit of a shock to me in the light of dad's prejudices, but she seemed to be taking all this rather calmly. My family could still surprise me, I wonder what surprises we had in store for each other in the future?

A/N. The Doctor Who episode, Boom Town, starring Christopher Eccleston was broadcast on BBC1 on 4th June 2005. The perception filter is mentioned in this. Who knew it? Aunt Marge a fan of Dr Who?