Unfortunately it seemed as if Millie had been right. There just wasn't a lot they could do in their hiding place. Going out was seriously discouraged and the resources inside the safe house were rather slim.

So they made do with renewed vigour when exercising to be at least as bodily fit as possible.

Millie had taken to reading titles from the Hogwarts Library index for amusements.

So far their favourite had been "Fowl or Foul? A Study of Hippogriff Brutality"

Dudley usually listened with half an ear, while he was working the punching bag and snickered or commented when appropriate.

Something caught in his brain suddenly.

"Could you repeat the last three or four, Modesty?"

"Of course. Gargling Gladly. Dental care for the elderly, Paint your police box blue"

"Stop. That one. What's it about?"

"Doesn't have a subtitle. Wait a moment, I'll check the abstract." Millie grabbed her wand, tapped the book and waited until the pages had flipped to the right place.

"Huh?" Millie looked closer. "This could be something. Listen: A fundamental treatise on the nature of time and the possibilities, potential and inherent danger of navigating time counter-directionally and in large increments."

"Time travel? That's possible?" asked Dudley with wide eyes.

"On a small scale sure." said Millie. "Granger had a time turner a few years ago. Only works for a few hours, though. But this book seems to be about larger trips."

"So we could go back and maybe fix things?"

"Let me read the book first. Could be purely theoretical."

The next morning Millie steered him into the library after breakfast.

"According to the book it's possible to travel to any point in time you have already been." she said excited.

"If you've been there, what's the use then?" Dudley wasn't yet firing on all cylinders.

"Think man!" Millie took him by the shoulders and shook him. "Anywhen you've been means you can go back years and years up to the time of your birth."

"Oh." said Dudley. "Oooh! You think we can make that work?"

"I'll have to re-read the book, I only skimmed it yesterday. Then I'll have to see how we can actually make it work. But the ideas are sound. In theory it should work." Millie said.

"I want to move to theory," he muttered, "Everything works there." muttered Dudley.

It took three days of Millie reading and using up a whole stack of parchment for her notes until she finally sat up. "This will work. This has to work"

"If you're sure. Just answer me one question: If this works, why aren't we knee-deep in time-travellers then?"

Millie hesitated for a moment then counted out on her fingers, "Because the theory is rather new, it came from a muggle-born who nobody took seriously, it's hard to get all the materials, because as they say bad things happen to wizards who meddle with time? I don't know. But I do know it should work and we will do it."

"OK. Say it does work? When and where will we go, and what will we do there?"

"We'll go to 1981 and to Willingham in Cambridgeshire. There we buy a house and then we'll steal your cousin from your parents and– " Millie paused. She looked at Dudley for a long moment. "I'm assuming here, with the we. I'll do it alone, if you can't–"

"I can," said Dudley. "For one, I won't let you do that alone, and for the other, when Harry saved my life, I did some thinking, and here I did a lot more. I want to make this right. So, we get Harry, and then?"

"Then we bring him up right, give him a decent childhood. And I get my Modesty working. We'll try and find a few of those soul-pieces and give Harry a head-start."

"Good." said Dudley. And he meant it.