Note from writer: The next chapter! I skipped a week but I will find my groove soon enough I hope. Thank you for your kind reviews Guest and alba! Thank you for the fav!

Disclaimer: Idon't own anything but the plot of this chapter, everything else is of the respective owner J.K.R.

Chapter 2 – The first act of heroism

He felt the smoldering heat of the early September evening reside and a damp, threatening chill taking its place…

A moment later he couldn't see a thing. Everything seemed to have dimed, the street lights that hung from their metal posts every few blocks, the light from the windows of the apartment building that faced their way, the last rays of light from the already vanished sun, the first stars that hung low on the horizon visible between the tall buildings of the insignificant street. Dudley Dursley brought his hand close to his face and confusion swept through him as he couldn't see it even when it touched the tip of his nose. Then fear came and with it other emotions. Buried emotions that had been clinging near his heart unnoticed by his conscious mind. His fear that his cousin and that very scary wizard that had come to take Harry away last summer were right and there was something deeply flawed with him, his fear of being abandoned and alone and the knowledge that his parents were not so truthful nor always right as he had once thought. A knowledge that he did not want to consider but had rooted deep inside him and revealed their flaws to him even when he turned a blind eye.

Everything he had believed in had shattered gradually since his cousin had saved his life from those things that… those things that… oh god no… no surely it was because he had been thinking of that night that he could hear something more in the air than his own breath… Terrified he fumbled until he found the brick wall and was attempting to reach the hole moving as silently as he could (which was not very silently at all) when he heard a wail from a few feet behind him.

'Expecto…'

'No Em, they will know if you do magic, they will find us, they will kill you, just run!'

Dudley stopped moving, not knowing why, he just could not find the will to move his muscles to get himself through the hole that he had located at last.

Another quieter wail, closer to a sob made him look behind him, trying to make something out, to penetrate the darkness.

'I can't…' a heavy breath, almost a gasp interrupted the childlike voice, 'I can't take it anymore. I can't do it Sara, I'm so tired. Let them come, I can't run any further anyway.

A shriek and a wail came from two mouths this time and Dudley found that he was covered in cold sweat, his stomach nauseous and his knees trembling. He knew that whatever had happened to him now was happening to the two girls and there was no Harry here to save them as had been for him. He didn't make consciously the decision, the words had escaped him before he knew it.

'Here' he whispered and then his voice gained volume with every word until he was positively shouting his lungs of. 'Here! I am here, can you hear me? This is a safe house they will not find you here. Can you come to me?

And they did. He heard two sets of voices half sobbing, half gasping for breath very near him, found a hand, grabbed it and pulled it inside the safety of the brick wall.

It felt like someone had flipped a switch. The cold disappeared and the summer heat returned and he could see the stars and the lamps and the light from the windows as well as the front door of his house slightly open. He found he was clutching the hand of a tall, a-bit-on-the-heavy-side girl with bright blue eyes and brown curly hair that was half supporting, half carrying a kid that looked like her (same eyes, same face) but with lighter, reddish hair in perfect locks and much smaller than her. The child had a great gaping gash just above the knee and blood was pouring out in an alarming steady flow.

Dudley didn't know what to think let alone what to do when the child, pale as chalk staggered and collapsed, her sister crouching beside her calling her name. Emily.

Thankfully at that moment the woman, Hestia, run to his side probably alarmed by his shouts. He had often seen her peeking behind the shatters in case something happened to him. Today was the first time he felt thankful for the presence of someone capable of dealing with the magical stuff.

'What happened?' She started to inquire but seing the bleeding child added ' oh god, just get inside' and without another word the woman took the little girl in her arms and walked briskly towards the house.

Dudley and the girl named Sara followed her slowly.

Inside they found the woman bent over the wound having ripped the jeans open while she was being bombarded by questions by Dedalus Digle who was evidently close to a nervous breakdown and a bewildered Vernon Dursley that had been ushered out of the couch by the woman.

Hestia seemed irritated and barked to the two men for silence both of whom thought better of infuriating her further at the moment. Seeing Sara who was furtively hiding behind Dudley she nodded for them to get closer.

'Don't be afraid child, my name is Hestia Jones and I need you to tell me how your sister acquired this wound so that I know what actions are needed in order to heal her.'

'She will be alright, won't she?' begged the girl plainly terrified of the answer but compelled to ask it anyway.

'She will live but the wound is deep and it is also magical. I need to know what caused it in order to safely heal it.'

'We, my sister and I…' the girl gulped 'we are alone…'

'That is easy enough to tell child' the woman said impatiently but not unkindly, 'what worries me is why but we can leave the full account for after your sister is treated and resting.'

The girl appeared to struggle and Dudley was beginning to feel exasperated at the woman. Why was she nagging the girl and didn't take the injured one at the hospital?

Then the kid at the sofa opened her eyes and looked at her sister. 'It's ok Sara they are wizards too you know, you can tell them.'

At those words Dudley saw his father back away from the sofa toward the hallway and shot his son a meaningful look that made Dudley realize that he was standing among four wizards. A shiver run down his spine ( he could not help it) but the times when he would run to hide from everything magical had passed. The fragments of news that trickled into his bedroom from the weird radio that Hestia activated when she thought the Dursley's would not hear, along with her reactions, gasps of pain at the name of a dead loved one and sobs as often as not, was enough to convince him that the war was real and that without the two wizards his family had no chance.

He remained planted beside the now stammering girl…

To be continued…