Arthur Weasley nervously fidgeted with the item he was carrying in his pocket, while praying that his ruse would work. If it didn't, there was a good chance that he and his wife would be in prison before the week was out. Since that unfortunate incident involving Bathulda the Cannibal in the Black Forest centuries before, there had been laws with severe penalties attached made against the kidnapping of muggle children. Ironically, killing said children resulted in a far less severe punishment. Doing his best to appear the harried father pressed for time rather than a guilty man waiting to be caught, Arthur led the frightened Dudley to the mediwitch at the front counter.

"My boys pulled some ancient family heirloom out of the attic and gave it to a local boy to play with. Considering the type of person the ancestor who owned the object was, and that I don't know exactly what it does, I was wondering if you can do a whole medical evaluation to make sure the boy is well. I'm on good terms with my neighbors, and I'd like to keep it that way." Arthur said, brandishing the ancient bedwarmer he had held in his pocket.

Noticing how nervous Arthur appeared, and that the reception area wasn't as swamped as it usually was. The mediwitch smiled warmly, and said "I'm pretty sure that I can help you, follow me." As she led Dudley to the nearest exam room.

Once inside, she scanned the object that Arthur had shown her, and shook her head. With the air of someone whose time was being wasted, she raised her wand and did a basic diagnostic charm on the immense boy seated on the exam table in front of her. She seemed stunned by the results. She then did a more complex and comprehensive scan. The results seemed to infuriate her.

"That kid didn't play with that old bedwarmer, did he?" the mediwitch said, turning to Arthur with an odd look on her face.

"No." Arthur admitted, his shoulders sagging. He had been caught, and would soon receive his punishment. It was the least he could do for his boys, and he knew that Molly would do the same, better them than the children who didn't know the severity of their actions.

"Can I speak with you in private?" the mediwitch said as she led Arthur to the corner of the room and put up a privacy charm.

"I don't know whose kid that is, nor do I care at the moment. For the records I'm going to put him down as a squib from a visiting American family." the mediwitch began, having accurately assessed Arthur's fears "Other than the extreme obesity which is adversely affecting his health in several ways, there was one other serious problem. Someone has been poisoning this boy with arsenic off and on for several years. Fortunately for the boy, his body has mostly adapted and he is mostly immune to its effects at this time. However, his liver has been badly damaged and is barely functional. If he hadn't been brought in, he probably would've died sometime over the next few months. I hope you catch the bastard who did this, and when you do, I want the pictures. No child deserves to be treated like this, Muggle or otherwise. My guess is that it is the mother who did this. There have been several cases of women making their children sick to garner attention. They have often used poison as a means to do so."

Arthur nodded grimly.

"There is a children's charity that can pay for the boy's treatment. If we start right away, he could be ready to leave in a week." The mediwitch said as she lowered the privacy charm. "The reason the treatment is going to take so long, is that we need to safely bring the boy's weight down without putting his body into shock, which can be potentially fatal. The internal organs can be either repaired or replaced in two days."

As Arthur followed Dudley and the mediwitch to a treatment room where he was briefly questioned and summarily dismissed by a Healer, he came to a decision. The child clearly needed a place to stay since there was no way in hell that he would return the boy to his home. If he moved Ron in with Percy, there would be enough room for both Dudley and Harry. It was time for him to call in his one big favor from Dumbledore.

&!&!&!&

Dumbledore sat at his desk fuming, angry both with himself and with the Dursleys. He should've noticed something was wrong, but with all of the things piled on his plate he hadn't had time to verify Arabella Figg's scant reports, much less properly read into her oft repeated "Things are as good as can be expected from the Dursleys.". Believing that Harry would be safe, though not particularly happy considering the fact that relatives never quite treated orphaned relatives like their own children, in the "home where his blood dwelled" he had gotten on with his busy life, trusting Harry's entire childhood to Fate who had spared him once. Fate, the bitch that she was, had naturally kicked the poor child in the teeth.

He would no longer trust Fate to take care of the boy. He would have to delegate even more tasks onto his already far too busy Deputy in order to clear time in his busy schedule to tend to the things that needed to be done in the near future. First, was the setting up of new blood wards at the Weasleys. It was quite fortunate that they had decided to take both Harry and his cousin in as well as the stranger they had with them. The Weasleys were a warm and open-hearted family who would destroy anyone who dared to attack anyone they considered one of their own. Second on the list, would be to give the Dursley boy a new identity before the law came sniffing around and charged the Weasleys with kidnapping. Third, was naturally taking care of the Dursleys. He would hit them where they lived. He was almost tempted to tell Severus that they had harmed Lily's child and turn him loose, but Severus would be executed for what he would do to them, and he didn't want Severus' death on his conscience.

&!&!&!&

Over the week that Dudley Dursley was in St. Mungo's being treated, there was a great ado over at Privet Drive that made national headlines and gained some international coverage. The story started with the Dursleys reporting that their delinquent nephew and a gang of his friends had kidnapped their son Dudley at knifepoint. A nationwide search for the fugitive Harry Potter was started.

Three days later, working on an anonymous tip and the testimony of one Arabella Figg, Police searched the Dursley residence and discovered a pair of decomposing corpses (compliments of a kindly donation of a pair of dead goats from one Alberforth Dumbledore who was doing it as a favor to the poor boys and not his brother and expertly transfigured by one Albus Dumbledore) which were subsequently identified as one Dudley Alexander Dursley and one Harry James Potter (this nearly started a panic in the wizarding world until the Daily Prophet ran an article explaining that the second corpse had been misidentified and that Harry was alive and well the article was accompanied by a picture of Harry playing quiddich with the Weasleys). The discoveries of Harry's room and the arsenic laced snacks put the final nail in the coffin for Vernon and Petunia Dursley.

As a much thinner and healthier Dudley Dursley was being released from St. Mungo's and a rather full and content Harry Potter listened to Boba's lecture on the Resol'Nare, the residents of Little Whinging were crying over a pair of caskets and begging Harry and Dudley to forgive them for not having seen what had been right in front of them the entire time. A neighborhood abuse watch, formed shortly after the funeral caught two more sets of abusive parents by the end of Summer that may have been ignored had the neighborhood been less vigilant, and still convinced that such things only happened "Elsewhere".

Edited 2-21-12