Emotion Prompt: Greedy
Characters: Dudley Dursley
Summary: Dudley has just seen something that catches his fancy.
Little Dudley Dursley was hungry. He sat on the floor, his plump limbs planted on the ground, his mouth wide open and slobbering. He had been fed only ten minutes ago (with the uttering of a new word — 'won't') but he wanted something to eat again. The baby food that he had been fed was not at all to his tastes; he wanted something better, like all those nice things that Dad got to eat. Dudley made the usual baby noises, which didn't attract anyone's attention (Petunia was in the kitchen, and out of range for anything other than loud noises, uttering which wasn't an uncommon feat for her little son). Bored and disgruntled, Dudley began to suck his thumb. Better than baby food, but still not much good.
He was just wondering whether he should start bawling to get Mum to fuss over him, when his beady eyes found something much more attractive. There, near the base of the table, was a big chunk of a yellow thing kept on a wooden board with some metal wires, which, from Mum and Dad's usual interactions, Dudley knew was called 'cheese'. And he also knew that it was good to eat. Mum and Dad had a lot of that on the plate, especially Dad. A big grin spreading on his face and with beads of saliva dripping on to the floor, Dudley began tumbling towards his prize.
The way seemed so long, but at long last, Dudley reached the cheese. He fell over twice and bumped against a chair leg once, the desire shining in his eyes the only thing that kept him from bursting into tears like always. Having reached the wonderful yellow food, Dudley let out a gleeful laugh, caused a few more mouthfuls of drool to fall on the floor, and reached out his plump little hand to grab the treasure.
Moments later, Petunia Dursley came running from the kitchen, completely disregarding the roast in the oven which would surely get burnt if kept even a minute or so. All her attention was focused on the loud bawling noise that was floating from, or shaking, the living room.
"My, my, little darling Diddykins, don't cry! Mummy will be there in a moment."
She found her darling son squatting by the table, his face completely red and growing redder by the second, big fat tears running down his cheeks and his mouth with open, uttering scream after scream which kept on getting louder with every passing moment. And his fingers had been caught between the jaw mechanism of a mousetrap.
"Now, Dudley, don't cry!" She prized off his precious fingers from the mousetrap. "Everything is alright. Shh, now."
Over time and Mrs Dursley's fussing, Dudley eventually quietened down. Petunia smiled.
"Now that's a good boy. Who'd like some chocolate?"
As he snuffled on his mother's shoulder, Dudley promised himself that he'd never be greedy again. The throbbing in his fingers was so very painful; they'd be a lesson for life.
But promises were meant to be broken, right?
And did Mum just mention chocolate?