Meetings and New Beginnings.

She couldn't stop smiling. It didn't even matter that Dudley was drifting off beside her and that she wasn't sure he'd actually heard the last ten minutes of conversation because there was a brand new ring on her finger and she felt so happy there was a good chance she would just float on through the next week. Maybe the next month. His soft snoring made her giggle and she wanted to roll her eyes at her behaviour but dammit, this was the best thing that had happened to her since she met Dudley Dursley and she was not going to hide that from anyone.

Was two in the morning too late to call her mother? Could she really wait until Friday when her sister got back from her business trip? She needed to tell someone and she didn't think yelling it from Dudley's bedroom window down onto the street was really an acceptable thing to do. Well...no, no she could wait. It was only another three hours before her mother would be up and getting ready to open the bakery her family owned. She could wait three hours, if she hadn't waited that three hours she'd never have gotten to know Dudley, she would never have met the man she was soon to marry.

The meeting...

Natalie seen a lot of things working nights in A&E but that didn't mean she couldn't still be surprised. When she'd pulled back the curtain to get a look at the next patient on her list she had to take a moment to absorb all that she was seeing. It wasn't just that he was a nice looking guy in his mid twenties who, under any other circumstances she might have tried to wrangle a date out of, it was that he was embedded with what looked to be the entire contents of a cutlery drawer.

'Yikes,' she let slip before she had a chance to censor herself.

'Looks kind of bad, yeah?' another man, this one sitting beside the bed, laughed.

'Feels worse,' grumped the man on the bed. 'That's the last time we check out Old Aggy's place before she's had her night cap.'

Unsure what to make of that or of the good-natured joking the two seemed to be doing in spite of the embedded cutlery, she started filling out the paperwork and making notes for the doctor when he eventually got to them. She hadn't exactly been thrilled about having to pull an extra three hours on top of her shift but she had to admit that at least Cutlery Man made it interesting.

'What's you name?' It would be some trick keeping up a conversation while counting the cutlery; so far she'd counted five knives, three forks and two teaspoons. She didn't even want to know the force that had been used to push them into his skin.

'Dudley Dursley,' he responded with a tight smile. 'Weirdest thing you've seen tonight?'

'By far,' she assured him with her own smile, this one a little more genuine and less scrunched up agony. Maybe she would try and flirt a little with him, couldn't hurt to give it a shot and he certainly seemed to be in good spirits. Although, perhaps she'd find out how he'd gotten the cutlery before she decided whether or not he was worth the time.

He rolled his eyes and his partner cracked up laughing when he explained, 'We were responding to an emergency call from an address that falls under our watch. Old Aggy, didn't take too kindly to us making sure she was alright and not murdering the neighbours.'

She wasn't sure she understood him right. 'An elderly woman did this?' Her count was up to eight forks, seven knives and six teaspoons, every time she marked a new one on her chart of Dudley's body she marvelled a little bit more. Though now it had more to do with the apparent old woman's creativity and strength than it did his calm demeanour.

'You gotta watch Old Aggy,' his friend laughed, 'She's got a vicious streak when she hasn't had her whiskey.'

'You're with the police, then?' Natalie clarified, if that were the case she would definitely have to put a bit more effort into her part of the conversation. 'You his partner, then?' she asked of the man in the chair. He was good looking in his own right but the gold band on his figure kept her well away.

He nodded in confirmation and introduced himself as Jackson Brookes but before the conversation could go any further, the doctor came round the curtain and blinked in surprise. 'Blimey, Dursley, what have you been up to this time?'

Natalie was surprised Doctor Bowman didn't need an introduction and that she seemed quite familiar with Dudley and his injuries. Dudley grinned at her, a lazy smirk that had Natalie's hopes of a possible date dwindling. She wasn't sure her round curves and dark hair could compete with Isla Bowman's athletic figure and blonde waves. There were many of the hospital staff that'd lost a potential date to Doctor Bowman.

As she stood around, passing the tools and just generally performing all of the menial tasks that made her job seem insignificant (it wasn't) Isla and Dudley caught up. The conversation flowing between the three with a familiarity that surprised Natalie because she'd never seen Dudley before and she'd been working A&E for nearly three years. Names were tossed about as Dudley asked about people in Isla's life and she asked about their work, Jackson's wife (who was pregnant from the sound of things – baby number 3) and Dudley's own family.

The conversation wound down as they got stuck into pulling the cutlery out of Dudley's torso. They were quiet for a few minutes, Dudley wincing with pain while Natalie cleaned the shallow wounds and bandaged them. The Teaspoons and been bad enough to need stitches but the rest would be alright. It was while Isla was stitching up one of the bigger crescent moon cuts that Dudley drew her into a conversation that he said was to distract himself from the pain.

It started out simple enough, with him asking her what the weirdest thing she'd encountered working in A&E was (man with a metal cake tester in his groin – she hadn't asked) and somehow ended up with her telling him all about the early mornings she used to work in her parents bakery while she was putting herself through school. She'd almost forgotten there were other people there but when she absentmindedly handed Isla the wrong thing and caught the smirk Jackson was exchanging with Isla, she blushed profusely.

That didn't mean that when she was leaving to tend to another patient she didn't shoot Dudley one last smile. Or that she didn't hunt down Isla two days later when they were once again working the same shift to ask more about him. Or the silly grin she wore when Isla rolled her eyes and told her not to worry, Dudley had already called asking for her number.

Meeting the parent…

In the two months they'd been dating Dudley had never once talked about his father. He'd mentioned him in passing a few times when the idea of a male parent had come up but Natalie got the distinct impression that Vernon Dursley was not around anymore and that, though it suited Dudley just fine, it hadn't exactly been an amicable split. From the little things he'd let slip she understood that his father had only left six or seven years ago and that his mother had been the one to end things. She'd also come to understand through one overheard phone call that it had something to do with his mother's family.

He spoke of his mother all the time, talked to her on the phone at least once a week and had beers one night a week with his cousin who, he had told her, had become much more like a brother in the last ten years. She'd never met his cousin Harry or spoken to him on the phone but she'd had a number of long conversations with his mother who worked for her local newspaper and was always full of silly stories about the people in her town.

It was easy to talk on the phone, when things got awkward or they started wading into uncomfortable territory – which didn't actually happen all that often – Natalie could just pass the phone off to Dudley or pretend that someone was at the door. Now though, Petunia Dursley was coming into the city to meet her over dinner and she was honestly terribly nervous. She'd offered to cook but Dudley had said that she could cook any night and they were going to treat her mother to a night out.

'She doesn't really go out much at home,' he'd explained, 'She lost touch with a lot of her friends when we had to move and it took her a while to reach out to the people in the new town.'

It wasn't the first time Dudley had mentioned that the move hadn't exactly been a choice but she'd never gotten a straight answer out of him as to why. She assumed it was due to his father's work but every now and then he made it sound like something much more serious had been behind it. She hadn't known him long enough to pry that deeply into his past. That was more four month prying.

She dressed to impress even though Dudley assured her she didn't have to go to any special effort. She'd just looked at him like he was stupid and dressed up anyway. She may have only known Dudley for two months but they'd been two amazing months, she hadn't said anything to him yet but she could see herself marrying him one day, though she might want to actually tell him she loved him first.

Though Natalie had offered to pick his mother up from the train station, Dudley had mentioned that his cousin had already arranged to pick her up and that they were going to have lunch while he showed her around. He'd mumbled something to himself after he'd said it that she wasn't supposed to hear, something about it being a side of London she'd never before seen. Natalie had shrugged it off, hopeful that she'd actually get to meet his cousin finally.

They arrived at the restaurant first, a simple little Italian restaurant that was always half empty so you could talk despite the fact that the food on the menu was to die for. It was tucked around a corner in a little used side street so it only ever saw the locals and the occasional lost tourist. A waiter showed them to their table and offered them a drink while they waited. Natalie was too distracted watching the door to pay much attention to what she was ordering but Dudley knew what she liked and she trusted him not to get her too drunk while meeting his mother.

Naturally she was the first to spot Petunia (she'd insisted she call her by her first name after the third phone conversation). A flash of red caught her eye outside the window and then Dudley's mother came into view, brushing her clothes down and straightening her dress. Just like you would do if you had just been squashed in a car or on the tube. When she came in they both stood to greet her, Dudley with a warm hug and a kiss and Natalie with a suddenly shy handshake that Petunia dismissed, instead pulling her in for a hug. She smelled faintly of perfume and something Natalie once associated with camping and roasted marshmallows. It was a strange combination but when she pulled back from the hug she noticed that there seemed to be a small burn on Petunia's arm. Nothing too serious, it didn't even look like it would blister, but it was still curious.

Dinner went so well Natalie wasn't sure it had actually happened. The conversation flowed and Petunia had seemed genuinely interested in her. She'd asked questions about her job, her family, the bakery her parents still owned and ran and, for one embarrassing conversation while Dudley was taking a phone call for work, whether or not she was planning to marry Dudley one day. She'd answered honestly and she was pretty sure his mother had been pleased with her answer.

They'd ended things on a high, dropping her off at her hotel. Dudley had offered for her to stay with him but she'd admitted that Harry had paid for her to stay in a hotel where she was being given the full star treatment. Her morning was filled with massages, manicures and good food. Natalie could understand turning down a night in Dudley's apartment for that sort of treatment.

'Will you join me for breakfast?' Petunia requested, as they were turning to leave.

'I'd love to,' Natalie accepted.

The cousin (and family)…

Meeting Harry happened quite by accident. She'd only been living with Dudley for a few weeks, they'd been dating for a year, and she was home one night just watching telly while Dudley was at work. It wasn't all that late, the clock having just flicked over to nine but she was already settled in with a cup of tea, a book and her pyjamas. Her plan was to finish her tea and a chapter of her book before heading off to bed.

She hadn't counted on the break in.

She'd just turned the telly off and was heading off to bed when there was a strange scratching noise from the front door. Thinking Dudley might be home early, she stuck her head back around the corner of the bedroom door ready to say hello and greet him with a smile. She was just lucky for the hall mirror. She caught sight of the stranger in black in the mirror and hurriedly slipped back into the bedroom and closed the door softly. For a moment she just stood behind the door, not knowing what to do.

Fighting off terror, she snatched the phone off the nightstand and turned the bedroom light off. She couldn't believe this was happening but she didn't know whether her being home would spook the stranger into leaving or drive him to hurt her. Not wanting to risk it, she took the phone into the closet, pulling the door closed behind her, and called Dudley at work. She had never really understood what it was exactly Dudley did with the police, it seemed like half the time he was an ordinary detective but other times he worked as a liaison to a branch of the government she had never heard of. Either way, he always had his phone on him and he would know what she should do.

By now she could hear two people walking around the apartment talking in hushed whispers and rifling through cabinets and drawers. She wanted to cry when Dudley picked up.

'Hey, Nat,' he greeted and she could hear his smile. 'I'm going -'

She cut him off with a whispered 'There're people breaking into the flat.'

She could almost see the smile fall off his face. 'There's what?'

'Two men have broken into the flat,' she said again, 'I'm hiding in the bloody closet!' And she was a little impressed that she'd sounded angrier than scared about that.

Dudley swore. 'I'm sending someone right over. Don't move.' She heard him yelling for a pen and paper and for Brookes, his partner, to get him that ruddy owl. She didn't know what that was about but a moment later Dudley was talking to her, telling her that he was sending someone to help and that she should stay on the line with him but not to talk because he didn't want her alerting the thieves that she was there.

His voice was calming, telling her stupid things about the dinner he was making her for their anniversary next week and how he had special ordered her a gift that he hoped she would love. Sudden shouting from the hall had her letting out a cry that she stifled into her knees. Thumping, a yelp, a cry of pain and then silence. Then there were footsteps coming toward the bedroom and she shrank further back into the closet, letting loose another whimper.

'Natalie?' A voice called, a voice that didn't belong to either of the men that had broken into her flat. It couldn't. The voice was young and female, that of a child not of a man. 'Natalie?' She heard the bedroom door open and soft footsteps crossing the room to the closet. A light flicked on and she flinched when the door was pulled gently open.

The little girl couldn't have been more than four. Her blonde hair was pulled back into a ponytail secured by a red ribbon and she was wearing cotton pyjama pants with strange little golden balls with wings on them and a t-shirt with three purple Ws on it in glittering letters. Her feet were stuffed into a pair of slippers and she had an orange birthmark on her left wrist that looked like a ball of flames reaching up her arm.

'Hello!' she greeted brightly, then, 'Daddy, I found her!'

Daddy turned out to be a tall man with untidy black hair, startling green eyes and a scar on his forehead in the shape of a lightning bolt. It was the lightning bolt that set her at ease and actually had her taking the hand he offered to help her up and out of the closet.

'This isn't exactly how I imagined us meeting,' Natalie told him sheepishly, assuring Dudley she was alright before hanging up the phone, though not until he told her he would be home as soon as possible but that the police would be around to come and collect the two men who had broken in to the flat. 'You must be Harry.'

'I am,' he assured her, shaking the hand he was still holding after pulling her up. She couldn't help noticing that like his daughter – and the eyes definitely said daughter – Harry had an identical ball of flames on the inside of both his wrists. His looked more like tattoos, though, and she wondered if he'd done it for his daughter. 'And this is my daughter Lily.'

'James,' the girl corrected rolling her eyes at her father. 'Nobody calls me Lily anymore.'

'And this is my daughter Lily who insists on going by James,' he corrected himself with a fond grin. 'It is her middle name,' he added as though that explained anything.

'Its nice to meet you but what happened to the two men?'

'Daddy knocked them out,' Lily – er, James – said proudly. 'And tied them up so they can't hurt you.'

'How 'bout a cuppa?' Harry offered, leading the way out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. He stepped right over the unconscious men e had tight up in the hallway as though he was completely unconcerned by the whole experience. She'd never actually asked what it was Harry did for a living but she was guessing it was something in law enforcement. Or he was a criminal. Natalie didn't think Dudley would put up with that though.

'Thank you, really, thank you.'

He just grinned and put the kettle on.

Magic…

Dudley was acting strangely, had been all day. She didn't think it was nerves about the engagement dinner. He knew how well she got on with his family and how well they got on with her. She didn't think it had anything to do with Harry's wife, though she was the only one Natalie hadn't met yet. He was fidgeting, kept rearranging things on the dinner table and was constantly checking on the food like something might have changed in the minute since he last checked on it.

The table was set for nine and given that their flat wasn't all that big it was taking up most of the living/dining room. She'd been cooking and baking all day and she knew that the food would be perfect, the company would be great and that it was really an excellent way to celebrate their engagement. So she didn't understand what had him so on edge. If it wasn't his family and she doubted it was Jackson's wife whom she would be meeting for the first time also, now that she thought about it, then what about tonight had him so on edge? It wasn't like he was proposing or something, he'd done that already and with far less nerves.

The knock at the door made him jump and she let out a soft laugh over his nerves. He seemed to sigh with relief when she opened the door to his mother. Petunia greeted them both with a warm smile and a big hug, whispering congratulations in Natalie's ear. The hug with Dudley lasted a bit longer, and the whispered words far more encouraging than congratulatory. What on earth is going on? she wondered.

Jackson arrived next and his wife was nothing like Natalie had ever imagined. When she'd pictured Hesta Brookes, she'd pictured a housewife, the kind you saw on American telly that stayed at home looking after two kids while the other went off to school. She'd imagined the woman to be well put-together, with simple neat clothes and ordinary hair. She had not expected a purple knee length dress with a tight leather bodice that made Natalie feel on the flat side and black tights. She hadn't pictured the black leather boots or the wild purple hair and steel grey eyes. She hadn't pictured the dark eye make-up or black nail polish. The woman didn't look old enough to have three kids; she didn't look old enough to have one. Although Natalie had missed out attending the woman's thirtieth because she'd had too work.

Some of her surprise must have shown on her face because, Jackson roared with laughter slipping passed his wife to enter the flat and greet Dudley and Petunia. His wife slapped him lightly as he passed, scolding him for his laughter. Her smile was exactly the one Natalie had pictured, warm and caring with a hint of laughter.

'Dudley didn't warn you did he?' she laughed gently, offering her hand. 'It's lovely to meet you finally. I was beginning to think the boys were conspiring to keep us apart.'

'We were!' Jackson joked from the living room.

The two talked for a bit longer before Hesta was drawn into a conversation with Petunia – who didn't even raise an eyebrow at Hesta's appearance – and Natalie ducked into the kitchen to pull the bread from the oven. There was a knock at the door but Natalie had her hands in the oven so she couldn't be the one to answer it.

'I'll get it, Hesta assured her, having come in to offer a hand.

Natalie put the bread in the basket she was planning to serve it in and listened as Hesta opened the door. 'Harry bloody Potter,' Hesta was saying, her tone seemed to carry a hint of something Natalie didn't understand. It almost sounded like awe.

'Yes, yes, Harry bloody Potter,' another woman's voice responded. 'Hesta you're blocking the bloody door and inflating his ego.'

'Oi,' Harry's voice sounded offended even if Natalie knew him well enough to spot the humour. 'She's right, though, you're blocking the door.'

She'd never heard an eye roll sound so loud as Hesta's did. Natalie put the last of the rolls in the basket and exited the kitchen to greet her guests just in time for Harry's oldest daughter Molly to force her way through her parents to admire Hesta's dress. Like her sister, Molly had her father's eyes but in every other way she was the spitting image of her mother. James forced her way into the flat, casting approving eyes over Hesta's dress before walking right up to Natalie and throwing her arms around her middle.

'Thank you for marrying Uncle D, no one else will have him.' And then she skipped off to greet Dudley and Petunia with a hug leaving Natalie unsure what to say in response.

'Hi Natalie,' Molly greeted, hugging her just as tightly as her sister had but without the strange words. They'd only ever met for two minutes the night after the break in but she was treating her like they'd known each other for years.

'Welcome to the family,' Harry added, offering his own hug. 'It's a mess but its ours.'

He took off further into the flat taking Hesta with him so as to give her a moment to meet Ally properly. She'd heard a bit about Ally from Dudley over the year they'd been dating but it had only been the night before that he'd explained she was a bit older than Harry and that they'd met and she'd fallen pregnant when Harry was just fifteen. She was impressed the two had stayed together and even more impressed that they sounded just as in love as ever.

'He wasn't lying, this family has its issues but we look out for each other.'

Ally gave her a hug but Natalie couldn't help but feel intimidated by the woman. She remembered a conversation she'd once had with Dudley when he'd jokingly told her that he didn't mind strong women, that it ran in the family, and that Harry's wife could wipe the floor with him in a fight and he kept coming back for more. She couldn't help noticing that, like her husband and daughter, Ally had tattoos on the inside of both her wrists of a ball of flames.

'Come on, dinner'll be ready.'

Dinner was fun and comfortable but she couldn't help noticing an edge to some of the conversation, like they were holding back things and censoring their words. She wondered if this had something to do with Dudley's bout of nerves. She didn't have to wait long, though, over dessert tension seemed to build up around the table until finally, Petunia burst out with and sharp kick to her son's shin which only went noticed because of his startled yelp.

'This dinner isn't just about our engagement,' Dudley said addressing the table even though his eyes were locked with Natalie's. She was beginning to develop some nerves of her own. 'There is something I've been keeping from you,' he told her, this time speaking directly to her. 'My family is a little different to other families.'

'Okay?'

'There's more to this world than you've ever realised, Natalie, and Harry, Harry is a wizard.'

Natalie laughed although she didn't understand the joke. What else was she supposed to do? Dudley had just tried to tell her something so ridiculous right when she thought he was being serious and about to tell her the truth about his family. She knew there was something different about his family but she assumed it was something to do with his dad or maybe Harry's parents.

'I'm serious.'

Natalie looked around at all of the people at her table, the one she'd chosen with Dudley months ago when they were talking about moving in together when her lease was up. Everyone looked serious, there were no twitches as though they were going to crack and laugh at any second. No one looked as though they were kidding about. Had she really just wasted a year of her life, agreed to marry a man, who was telling her that his cousin was a wizard? It was insane, it was ridiculous, it wasn't possible and she couldn't believe they would humiliate her in such a way.

She pushed back from the table, intending to give Dudley a piece of her mind before dramatically storming away when Harry produced a wand – an honest to God wand – from up his sleeve, waved it calmly in the air and created a shower of sparkling stars that fell over the table. Natalie's mouth fell open and she dropped back into her chair. Harry wasn't done, though. With another wave of his wand the empty plates floated into the air and drifted into the kitchen. She could hear them settling gently into the sink and the water coming on to fill the sink.

'I don't,' she began, pausing to swallow the sudden lump in her throat. 'I don't understand.'

And that's when they explained it all to her. That magic was real, that not only was Harry a wizard but his wife and children and Hesta were witches, they could perform spells and make magic happen. Finally she got a better explanation for his job. Knowing about the Wizarding world (as they called it) gave them a unique perspective and so Jackson and Dudley worked together on the police cases that involved magic or happened at the home of a magical person.

They were all so calm about it; Dudley had been living with the knowledge since he was eleven, Petunia all her life almost. Jackson was the only one she could really relate to, as he hadn't known he was dating a witch until the night before he'd proposed. It was just too much to take in. How could she have been so oblivious to this other world? The more they explained the more she had to believe because she just couldn't understand how they'd have come up with such a detailed practical joke.

Ally followed her into the kitchen when she insisted she needed to do the dishes and take a moment to absorb it all. Natalie was about ready to tell her to go when she noticed that the arms Ally was pressing back onto the bench top were showing moving flames where before they had been still tattoos. The flames flickered yellow, orange and red, constantly changing as they flickered over Ally's wrist and part of the way up her forearm.

'What?' she gasped, flabbergasted by this display of, of magic.

'That,' Dudley informed her, coming into the kitchen with his arms full of dishes, 'is another story entirely.'