A/n: So this is where it finally gets interesting. I'll be zooming over to Harry's point of view after this chapter. Also, this is a month or two into the future, so sorry if you get confused. This chapter is kind of long. Sorry for the science stuff in the middle.

Chapter 4

September was ending and it was getting cold. A lot had happened in the past two months. Well, not with the Dursleys, they had been bored out of their minds. No, it was the outside magical world that was in turmoil. Dedalus had reported news of Muggle torturing and killings; of kidnapping young eleven year old Hogwarts hopefuls. Dedalus said they would probably never see their families again. Dudley didn't understand what the wizards had against their own kind.

Dedalus told him that most wizards didn't, it just so happened that the wizard in power wanted to exterminate all the wizards with Muggle backgrounds. He said the Muggle torturing were just for fun. Fun. A shiver passed through Dudley's spine every time they heard new news of these horrible events.

He still didn't understand why they were hurting wizards. They were all sort of the same… thing, so why would they hunt themselves?

Hestia told him that You-Know-Who was telling them that the witches and wizards who had no magical background (who were known as Muggle Borns) had "stolen the magical power from other witches or wizards". You-Know-Who said he just wanted them for questioning, but everyone knew that he would kill them all at the first chance.

Many were fleeing the country; the Dursleys were wondering why they were still in Britain if they were in such danger, but Dedalus tried to assure them that the danger to them wasn't that great at the moment. They were safe and protected. Hestia was very nervous about the whole affair; she was a Muggle Born witch.

"Is it possible?" Dudley asked. "To steal magic?"

"Of course not!" Hestia snapped rather tartly. Embarrassed she amended, "At least I've never actually heard of it being possible."

"So…" Dudley didn't know how to phrase his next question without sounding like a git. "So, can Muggles, like me, do…?"

"Do magic?" Hestia prodded. Dudley nodded bashfully. He had been longing to try for a while now. "Well, Dudley I don't really know, I've never seen a Muggle do magic." They sat in silence.

Lately, the family had taken to going to the main land if only for an hour; it was something to do at least. They always had to have either Dedalus or Hestia with them, because it was very risky, but every day they usually made one trip over. They didn't do much, they bought food or clothes or a game or two. They onetime went to a show. None of them like being cooped up like this, they all wanted out. At the moment, Dedalus and his parents were at the mainland searching for a new movie to watch. Hestia and Dudley were all alone in the house and very bored.

Dudley had deliberately not gone to the mainland today so he could try this. "Do, you think, maybe I could… try?"

"I don't see why not. " Hestia shrugged. Under the cool exterior, she was actually very curious as to whether this Muggle, the cousin of the Chosen One, could perhaps do magic. She slowly handed him her wand. Dudley took it tenderly. He sat there, feeling quite stupid. "What do I do with it?"

"Oh, of course!" Hestia exclaimed. "Hmm, let's start out with something simple. What's a spell I learned in first year? Oh yes! Try saying Wingardium Leviosa. Stress the 'gar' and the 'o' when you say it."

Dudley was very nervous but excited. What would this magic do? "Wigedum Levosa!" He tried. Nothing. Hestia smiled kindly when Dudley looked expectantly at her.

"Sorry. I'm not the best teacher." She smiled apologetically. "Well dear, you didn't pronounce it right, but that just takes practice. And I forgot to tell you the wand movement that goes along with it. You're supposed to move your wrist like this." She demonstrated a kind of swish and flick movement. Dudley nodded, concentrating very hard. He repeated the move without the incantation. Hestia nodded approvingly.

"Now point it at this tea cup and say Wingardium Leviosa." Dudley tried again. Nothing. He was getting more vexed by the second. But this only made him more determined.

He tried again. He said it exactly as Hestia had instructed him to. He did the move identically to what she had shown him. He pointed the piece of wood and with all of his concentration focused only on that cup. This time he felt and odd warmth in his fingers. He could've sworn he saw the cup wobble a tiny bit.

Hestia jumped up and cheered. She even hugged Dudley, and he didn't even mind. Her broad smile was enough to tell him that he indeed had just done magic. Him, a Muggle, do magic! Sure, it hadn't been very good or powerful, but he had just made a cup move without touching it! This was awesome! "What was that supposed to do?" he asked her expectantly.

"Well, the object was supposed to fly. But that was a very good first attempt. A Muggle! Great Merlin above! Who would've ever thought this was possible!"

"Wingardium Leviosa. Wingardium Leviosa! Wingardium Leviosa! Hestia I think it moved again!" Dudley was trembling he was so happy. But Hestia's face had fallen. Dudley noticed. "What?"

"I don't think Dedalus or your parents will like this very much."

"What? No of course they will. Why wouldn't they?" Dudley protested, but he knew she was right. Of course his parents would be appalled at the idea of his actually doing magic. They hated the very word. He remembered them locking Harry up and abusing him because he could do magic. Would they do that to him? No, but they wouldn't tolerate him doing magic either.

"Dedalus will be furious with me if he finds out! As if we weren't in enough danger without me teaching you to do magic! This in itself has to be illegal. Dudley, how old are you?"

"Um, seventeen last May."

"Okay, so at least you're not underage. I can't believe I was so foolish, what if you'd been sixteen! We could've had You-Know-Who himself barging down the door. Just, forget everything I just taught you."

"I can't forget this! Wingardium Leviosa!" Dudley was so worked up that he actually sent the cup zooming towards a wall. It crashed and broke, but Dudley could hardly care. "Did you see that? We can't stop now! Teach me more! Please. This could help in the future, you know, if I ever have to defend myself or something."

"That's true…" Hestia really did want to keep teaching him, she knew it was wrong and there were a thousand reasons not to, but the fact that a Muggle could pick up a wand and do this opened up so many possibilities to her. She could teach her family enough magic to protect them. They could get out of this shack more often and go more places. There were so many possibilities! "Dudley, we really shouldn't…"

"Please. I've been jealous of Harry for so long, and now I know that I don't have to be. I can do what you can. Let me!"

--

A week later they'd made little progress. They still couldn't tell Vernon, Petunia, or Dedalus because Hestia was sure they would get in trouble. When they went out on the mainland they told the others they were going to look at videogames, something that didn't interest Dudley's parents or Dedalus. Hestia did actually want to look at videogames, but Dudley reminded her that they had work to do.

He had mastered the flying spell. Now they were working a little on self-defense. When Dudley had broken the teacup, Hestia had taught him Reparo, which had been surprisingly simple to master. Now he was trying very hard to master Expelliarmus. It was rather difficult since they only had one wand to work with. Hestia wasn't discouraged that it was taking so long; she knew it was a hard spell. He was working very hard, and his parents still had no idea.

They had no idea of the storm of change that was going on inside of him. He was kind of a wizard! Hestia thought that perhaps he could do magic because he was related to wizards. She wasn't certain, but that's all she had to go on. She told him that he would probably never be a very powerful wizard, or else he would've shown magical capability before now. She also doubted he would be able to do anything beyond a first year's training, but they would do as much as they could.

"Expelliarmus!" Dudley tried again. He felt the familiar warmth of the wand. Hestia wished they could go buy one for him, but Ollivander had disappeared months ago.

"I felt the stick twitch!" she exclaimed. Dudley had the wand, so she improvised by finding a normal twig to substitute.

"Really?"

"Yes, I'm positive! You're doing great, Dudley! If things were different, we could've enrolled you into Hogwarts!"

"Thanks." Dudley smiled. How great would that have been? Sure, he would've been seven years behind his peers, but still.

Hestia had been researching Muggle Borns. Most people thought it had to do with genes. There were a fair number of Squibs in the Muggle community, and if they had children, they probably passed the gene onto them. Whether or not the gene would appear wasn't certain. Most Squibs denied their heritage because they were embarrassed; they would rather their child be known as a Muggle Born than the child of a Squib. So no matter how little magical blood they had, the gene could possibly turn up in their child. If the gene did turn up, Hestia suspected that it became stronger and stronger as it was passed; so once there was a Muggle Born, their children would be wizards. This was all theory, of course.

So Harry and Dudley had no visible magical heritage. Squibs weren't recorded in magical history; there was no record of them. Hestia suspected that somewhere in the Evan's ancestry there had been a Squib who had started the gene trend; which means that somewhere farther back in the line there was probably a witch or wizard.

A Muggle Born was still a miracle, but put scientifically, it made sense. So the gene hadn't shown up in Petunia as it had Lily, but it still seemed to show up in Dudley, but not nearly as strong as most wizards.

This confused Dudley a lot, but he just smiled and nodded his head.

That night Dedalus informed them all that he had seen Lupin while out in the city that day. They'd been trading stories, and Dedalus had learned some very interesting news.

"You can't be serious!" Hestia exclaimed. "You must be joking. There is no way they'd be that bloody stupid."

"What? What?" Dudley had always hated being excluded from conversation, especially interesting gossip. So was the life of the spoiled only child.

"Harry, Ron and Hermione broke into the ministry a few weeks ago!" Hestia was shocked. "The bloody idiots! Why would they do something like that right now? What could've possibly been the purpose?"

"I don't know," Dedalus said excitedly. "Some people think he was going into the Department of Mysteries again, but we know there's nothing left in there for him. I don't know what they were doing, but I think they got it done."

"Well how do you know that?" Hestia asked impatiently. "Will you please fill me in a bit here?"

"Okay. Okay." Dedalus held his palms up apologetically. "They were impersonating ministry officials. Lupin said Harry was actually impersonating a Death Eater!" Hestia whistled. "Anyway, they were messing about in Umbridge's office; but they couldn't find anything else missing besides Mad Eye's eye."

They'd already heard about the eye. "Well how did they get caught?" Hestia asked with rapt attention. Even Petunia and Vernon were leaning towards Dedalus to listen.

"Well, you know how they love to play the hero," Dedalus laughed and Hestia nodded worriedly. "Well, apparently they found a lot of Muggle Borns being interrogated. They couldn't help themselves, they just had to help them. They warded off all of the dementors and led them all outside. Because Harry was a Death Eater, no one questioned them until they ran into another Yaxley, another Death Eater."

"Then what?" Dudley asked impatiently.

"Then, get this, Ron's double runs up to them and blows their whole cover!" Dedalus had stood up. "They ran for it and got all of the Muggle Borns out of there safely. They then tried to Apparate…"

"Where?"Hestia interrupted.

"Lupin told me that they'd been hiding in Grimmauld place. He said it had been working pretty well for them, until now," he paused. "Well, you know how neither Harry nor Ron has passed their Apparition tests so Hermione has been taking them around?"

"Yes of course. Please get on with it!" Hestia said anxiously.

"Well, Lupin told me Yaxley grabbed her ankle right before she Apparated. She accidentally showed him Grimmauld Place! They got away pretty quickly after that, but the Death Eaters can all get in there now. It's not good, who knows what that House Elf has told them by now?"

"That bloody rodent that Harry owns?" Vernon asked impertinently. It was rather irksome to always be left out of the conversation. He and Petunia had hardly spoken in the past few months.

"I suppose you could call Kreacher that," Dedalus rubbed his neck tiredly.

"So where did they go?" Hestia asked again.

"Lupin told me that they're watching any place that Harry has ever come in contact with. I suppose it's lucky they haven't found us yet. Anyway, he has no idea where they went. He's heard that they are abroad roaming the forests like nomads. Biding their time, I guess."

"What do you suppose they're doing?" Hestia asked in awe. She couldn't imagine living like that.

"I guess they're trying to find a way to stop You-Know-Who." Dedalus shrugged. "They would have a much easier time if they would let some of the Order help. Lupin said he'd offered but they'd turned him down. Dumbledore said they had always liked to do things on their own."

Hestia whistled. "I still say it was bloody stupid for them to risk their necks out there like." She paused. "I really wonder what they're doing right now."

Bloody brilliant if you ask me, Dudley thought to himself. Harry had broken into the high security building controlled by man that wanted to kill him; which was a lot more action than they'd had lately.

"Well that's just it!" Dedalus exclaimed. "I forgot to tell you the best part! Lupin and a few other Order members have come up with this brilliant radio program. It requires a password so not just anyone can listen in. Here let me show you." He summoned the radio over to him and began fiddling with the dial and muttering random words.

Suddenly the radio came to life and voices floated in. They spoke of everything they had just heard from Dedalus, but with more detail. "That's Lupin!" Hestia exclaimed. "And Kingsley! And Fred and George! This is spectacular!"

"I know. They do this about once a week."

"… And just today I met an old friend of mine who is currently protecting Harry Potter's only living relatives, the Dursleys," the voice of Lupin sounded through the speakers. "They are in hiding but are doing just fine. Also I would like to give a shout out to Royal. Tell them what you did yesterday, Royal."

"Well Romulus, yesterday I had about twenty Death Eaters come to my home and try to kill me." The slow deep voice that Dudley had heard only once before commented. "Just an everyday Tuesday for most Order Members nowadays. Luckily they were all idiots, so I Stupefied every one of them within minutes. Yeah, I'll have a few battle scars myself, but I definitely came out better in that fight."

"And that leads me to point out that parents, you should be teaching your children to Stupefy. It could save their lives," Dudley glanced at Hestia, who nodded slightly.

"And if you want to, you could practice on you little brother or sister for fun. I've knocked out my associate here quite a few times. You know, to protect myself from Death Eaters and all." Dudley recognized the voice of one of the redheaded twins that he despised. They had given him horrible magical sweets. Now, he could almost see why that would be funny. He supposed it was only because he was on the other side of it now-the wizard side. Odd.

"And that concludes our program for tonight. The password for next week will be 'we hope Harry kills You-Know-Who really soon'. See you next week, folks." The radio died.

"That was fantastic!" Hestia exclaimed. Dedalus and even Dudley nodded in agreement, much to Vernon and Petunia's dismay. "I really do hope Harry kills You-Know-Who soon."

"Let's hope so," Dedalus sighed, though they could all feel that the end of this crisis was nowhere in sight. They would be here for quite a while longer.