Disclaimer: So, as you well know, i do not own J. K.'s characters, all that is mine is the plot of these chapters and the two girls, nothing more and nothing less.

Author's note: Thank you everyone for reading my story, and thank you for the reviews and follows. This was a cannon story last time i checked so if you find any timeline mistakes (or any other type of mistake) plz inform me to crosscheck it. Enjoy the next chapter of: A Very Dudley Story!

Chapter 9 – Getting in shape

'What did she tell you?' Sara insisted calmly. 'She must have said something peculiar for you to have such a reaction. Didn't she?'

Dudley felt half annoyed and half embarrassed by how much impact a child's simple words had had on him. He could not pinpoint exactly what it was, in her looks or tone of voice, that suggested such certainty and urgency which didn't fit with a half hazard comment or light conversation. Now though that the eerie sensation that had enveloped him making his hair stand on end while looking in Emily's eyes was fading, he was starting to feel like an idiot. And he didn't like the feeling having experienced it often enough because of magical people. He remained silent looking at everything but the girl beside him, feigning nonchalance, not wanting to let her see how bothered he was.

'Whatever she said, you should not ignore it.' Sara murmured a few seconds later apparently realizing that he wouldn't talk about it. 'Bad things happen to those that ignore Emily's words when she takes that tone.' Sara continued, now looking far away beyond the end of the road ahead, evidently lost in remembrance. 'Not that many do. The feeling of dread that she emanates when someone deliberately tries to ignore her warnings is terrible.'

Dudley was very disturbed by these words but with fake bravado he tried to make Sara see how stupid her sister must be, making such a suggestion. 'So you also believe that I should fight a wizard with my bare fists, do you?' That certainly seemed to startle Sara for her farseeing eyes focused on him once more, looking confused. 'She told me to practice for I would need to fight and when I told her I am no wizard she amended saying that she didn't know how but that I would fight and that I did know how. Well this is how I know to fight and a load of good it would do me against a wizard.' Dudley realized he had raised his voice quite a bit when he saw Sara looking around them worriedly for signs of someone having overheard him. He remembered in what danger she had been in and felt the need to protect her squash his anger at her sister. 'Let's go inside.' And without waiting for a response he caught her hand and dragged her inside much in the same way as the day before.

Inside the wall they found Hestia leaning against the front door, seemingly there by chance but undoubtedly on guard, Dudley knew, waiting for them to get inside in case they needed her.

'I happened to overhear you I'm afraid,' she joked when they neared her. 'Sara, am I to understand that your sister is some sort of seer?' Dudley knew the word from those weird people that someone could see on the corner of some obscure alleys, claiming to read peoples' futures in tea leaves or on the palm of their hands. When they passed such people on the roads his father would have a few things to say about them. Creeps, Frauds, Swindlers and other such names he spat, 'stealing honest peoples' money!' and so on and so forth. And surely many of them where simply imposters but if every other kind of magic was possible, why not fortune telling? After all, he had promised himself not to take everything at face value anymore. After that terrible occurrence two years before, he had decided to start thinking for himself instead of simply relying on his father's opinions for everything.

Sara had been considering Hestia for a few moments before speaking, presumably deciding to trust the older woman. 'Not a strong one yet but yes, she is. She is more accurate with people she hasn't known for long because her perception of the people she knows well, often clouds her soothsaying. Also she often chooses to overlook what she feels except when she perceives something very serious or fatal. After all,' she added thoughtfully, 'the future, Emily says, is erratic and fickle.'

'How many people at Hogwarts knew about her soothsaying do you know?' Hestia asked rather forcefully in Dudley's opinion. Sara shrugged 'no one but her most intimate friends believed her mostly because of that incompetent divination teacher that nobody took seriously.' At her words Hestia seemed to take a huge breath. 'That is good news indeed. If it was more widely known it could have reached dangerous ears and you would be in unfathomable danger. Still we had better be ready to leave in a moment's notice just in case.'

Dudley waited for Hestia to precede them inside to whisper to Sara, 'so how accurate is your sister,' his mind at Emily's insistence that he should practice boxing. Sara contemplated him before answering. 'If she shared her thoughts, pretty accurate I would say. She rarely conveys vague predictions unless she deems the consequences catastrophic.'

He was perplexed. He really couldn't see how he would be able to make any difference in a wizard fight with his fists.

The atmosphere in the house was at least stormy that night and the next few days. The fact that two witches, albeit young, had been added to the residents of the house had done nothing to improve the nervous anger of the adult Dursleys and Dudley's mother especially was as pettish as a wasp, snapping at everyone and everything in her vicinity. Hestia was also less calm and more apt to snap back at her when she was being too unreasonable while Dedalus was jittery and tended to drop anything he was holding at the smallest noise from the road. The girls, having nothing better to do, acquired the habit of spending hours at a time practicing their spell-work with and without Hestia's supervision while doing their best not to interfere with any other adult in the house.

Dudley, after spending one more evening at the company of the dueling witches, decided that quicker reflexes would, at least, help him dodge a few spells. So he spent the nights, when everyone else was sleeping, doing as many of the exercises that the school coach had drilled into him when he was competing, as he could and the mornings asleep. He would then wonder in the kitchen in search of a good lunch where he would find his mother grumbling and mumbling while attacking fancied stains.

He also tried to spend some time with his father in the living room. Dudley felt that he had never before talked with his father and he found it a sad thing that, for it to happen, their lives had to be so disturbed. The trick to make him talk from the heart was to talk little and not ask questions. Vernon Dursley was a man that talked when nobody else is and from his few words Dudley was finally able to make out his father's character. He was a simple man that had come from a family a bit on the weird side. Having a father who died an unacknowledged writer and a pro wrestler mother that everyone made fun of, he became by choice the opposite and craved normalcy only to learn, after his marriage to the woman he loved, that she had the weirdest relatives there could be. Having to raise their son must have been the last straw for him, not that anything could justify his treatment of Harry but Dudley could understand his father not wanting anything to do with unfortunate relations. He had, after all, a very grotesque aunt.

During dinner, which was the only meal that everyone in the house gathered together for, the awkwardness was palpable. Nobody talked much and Dedalus was more jumpy than ever, dropping his fork and knife whenever anyone addressed him. Somehow, Sara always took a seat beside him and Emily beside her leaving no place for his mother to sit in her usual place, something that did not go unnoticed by the two women. Hestia seemed amused by these arrangements while his mother was becoming sourer with every meal shooting angry glances at the girls and muttering to herself.

Everything changed for the unlikely lodgers the evening of the third of September when Sara came running down the staircase to find Dudley sitting with his father in front of the television, grabbed him by the hand ignoring his questions and his father's grunt and dragged him with her upstairs where Hestia, Dedalus and Emily where gathered around a weird device from where a crystal clear voice was emanating, as if the speaker was in the room with them. Sara positively screamed in his ear. 'They are talking about Harry Potter and I thought you would want to know...'

To be continued...