Millicent had skipped two workout sessions and Dudley was worried. At first he thought she was finally tired of him, but when he didn't see her at mealtimes either, he grew concerned.
He found her in the small library of the safe house. She was sitting on a sofa and stared into space.
"Millie?" he said.
"Millie? What's wrong?"
She turned to look at him with a pensive expression.
"I think I've found out what your cousin is doing. And it's bad. And if that weren't enough, I found out that the Headmaster is a terribly ruthless bastard. Worse, a completely justified ruthless bastard. Also he seems to think that just because my initials are Emm Bee, I'm Modesty Blaise. Unfortunately I'm still Millicent Bulstrode. No international thievery in my background. My family's perhaps, but–"
"Hunh. This is going to be difficult. I'm decent at boxing, but I'm pants at throwing knives. And how do you know so much about a muggle comic strip?"
"Oh, Dad cuts them out for me," she said with a wave, "He reads the Evening Standard to keep up with the muggle world for business. And for the record: I'm glad you're not Willie. Because Willie never had something with Modesty."
Dudley hesitated. It was the first time one of them had spoken out in that regard. "We have something then? I mean, we never talked–"
"I–" said Millie. "I think so. I want to, anyway. But if you–"
"No," he interrupted, "No, that's, that's perfect. I'll just have to be your Not-Willie then."
Millie giggled. "Are you really, really sure, you want to be not willie?"
"I didn't mean it–" He blushed brightly and then started to laugh, too.
"Not-Garvin, then." he said catching his breath.
"Not-Garvin it is." she said, still giggling.
"What's the exact problem then?" he asked.
She finally calmed herself and then she laid out everything she had read in the small notebook she had finally found the courage to open two days ago.
Dudley listened as she explained it all for him. How his cousin had a prophecy on his head, how the dark lord guy had split his soul, how Harry was looking for the parts and even worse, how Harry himself was one such part and probably would have to die before it all would be over.
It took them the best part of the next week to completely collate all the information. Finally after the evening training he had insisted on continuing, he asked the question that was on his mind after the first load of information. "What exactly does your headmaster think you can do? He gave you the notebook for a reason, so what does he expect?"
"I don't know. Maybe he just wanted one person to know, in case it all went to pot. Maybe he expects me to actually kill your cousin, if the dark lord can't finish the job."
Millie got off the machine and went towards the shower. "I really don't know. It's not as if I can do a whole lot here in hiding."
"My dad's an asshole, but he gave me one good piece of advice: If you don't know what to do, make a list break it down into steps and then break those down into the smallest possible actions. That way you get a grip. Helped me a lot with planning for my exams. It all gets less overwhelming that way."