Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.
Title: Green Eyes, Nine Lives
Rating: T
Pairing(s): None at the moment. Check again later.
Green Eyes
Chapter 1: Dudley Dursley I
Dudley Dursley lived at the fourth house on Privet Drive in Little Whinging, Surrey. His mum was the nicest woman and best mum in the whole world (in Dudley's opinion). His dad worked at Grunnings – they made drills. But he also was the smartest man that Dudley had ever known.
Dudley's cousin Heather also lived with them.
Heather had been around for as long as he could remember. She had blonde hair (like his mum's, but a different shade), high cheekbones, and vivid green eyes. Dudley remembered overhearing his mum saying that Heather looked a lot like his aunt Lily. Dudley never met his aunt Lily, but he figured she was really pretty, like his mum – but not as pretty as his mum, no one could ever be prettier than her.
Dudley's mum and dad didn't like Heather.
They yelled at her for being too loud and made her do all the chores (Dudley hated chores). She slept in the cupboard under the stairs (the cupboard was dark and full of spiders and dust – Dudley hated it). When they were five, Heather began helping his mum cook. She would stand on the tips of her toes while on a stool to reach the counter. When she messed up, his mum would swing a frying pan at her head. Heather was very good at dodging.
Dudley was young and learning from the examples his parents set. And his parents taught him that he shouldn't like blonde-haired, green-eyed, Heather Potter, who looked a lot like her mother.
So, he didn't.
When they began primary school, Dudley and Heather were put in the same class.
Their teacher, stern and grey-haired Mrs. Cunningham, did rollcall. When Heather's name was called that first day, his cousin, straight-backed with head held high, raised her hand and told the woman she was present. Dudley stared at his normally silent and submissive cousin all of first period. She spoke with the other girls at her table, smiling and laughing.
He made friends with the boys at his table: Piers Polkiss, Dennis Warrington, Gordon Schmidt, and Malcolm Harris. At recess, Dudley and his friends confronted Heather.
"Oi Potter!"
"Yes Dudley?"
"I have an idea for a new game I want to play."
She smiled. "Really? Let's hear it then."
"It's called Heather Hunting. You run, and we chase you."
"That's it? How dull."
Dudley flushed. Beside him, Piers stood up straight.
"You're dull!"
She rolled her eyes. "Real mature, Polkiss. Did your mother teach you that one?"
Dudley's hands clenched. "If you don't play, we'll beat you up!"
"You can certainly try."
Dudley threw the first punch. Heather dodged – he remembered that she was very good at dodging. He didn't realize how good she was at hitting though.
Five minutes later, Dudley found himself on his back. His friends groaned on the ground around him. Heather's blurry form came into focus. She kicked him in the side.
"Watch yourself, Dursley."
In the distance, Dudley heard Mrs. Cunningham yelling. He cried.
Heather was yelled at and grounded when they got home.
His mum fussed over him the entire night ("My poor Diddikins, she didn't hurt you too badly, did she?") and Dudley milked it for what it was worth. He ate dinner in the living room and watched T.V. while Heather was locked in her cupboard for the rest of the evening. When he finally went to bed, he smiled, convinced that his cousin had finally gotten her comeuppance.
The next day, his dad gave Heather a stern talking to before he left for work. Heather was as submissive and compliant as she had been before.
She missed first and second recess. Dudley and his friends spread the word to the rest of their year about Heather Potter beating them up. During third recess, she played by herself on the monkey bars. Dudley and his friends confronted her again.
"No one wants to be friends with you, Potter. Might as well play with us."
She laughed. The sound carried throughout the schoolyard. All eyes were on her.
"What's so funny?" Dudley sneered.
"Are you asking for another go?" Her eyes flashed. She smiled mockingly. Her feet kicked back and forth as she sat on the monkey bars. "Surely you can't be that stupid?"
Everyone gasped. Dudley's mouth dropped open. He didn't know what stupid meant, but it sounded offensive.
"Get down here, Potter, and face me like a man!"
"I'm a girl, Dursley, get your facts right."
"What is going on here?!" Mrs. Cunningham strode over, brown eyes narrowed. "Causing trouble again, Potter? Come down from there, right this instance!"
"Yes, Mrs. Cunningham!" Heather stood on the bars and took a step off. Once her feet touched the ground, she cartwheeled forwards once and skipped over to their teacher with a sweet smile. Dudley knew that that should have been impossible – his mum had never enrolled her in gymnastics.
When he told his mum this, she yelled at Heather for a good half hour. As she settled down, Heather's head tilted to the side.
"Are you done?"
Dudley's jaw dropped open. Heather leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. Her green eyes flashed. A cold breeze swept through the kitchen, making Dudley shiver. None of the windows were open, all of the doors, locked.
"You stop that… that freakishness, this instant!" his mum shrieked.
Heather raised an eyebrow. The wind picked up. The pictures on the wall started rattling. The glass in the cabinets started shaking. The kitchen chairs began to slide across the floor. The clock chimed four times.
"In all my years," Heather whispered, "I have never been treated with such disrespect. I rarely forget things, Petunia Dursley. If you do not treat me with the kindness you would expect from others, I will make your life a living hell."
Her eyes glowed an eerie green and Dudley saw in them wisdom beyond his years. They were eyes that had seen men born, grow, and die from sickness and war. They were eyes that stared into the abyss and went mad from the revelation. They were eyes that had seen things no man should ever have to see. Dudley saw his mother on the floor, not breathing, a cloaked man standing over her with a white, skeletal stick. He found himself unable to cry out, unable to scream as the man approached. He saw green light.
Dudley pissed himself, the liquid seeping through his pants and into his mum's floral sofa. The light vanished. The wind stopped. Everything in their home became still.
Heather Potter gave his mum a sweet, sickening, mad smile. "Do we have an agreement?"
Dudley watched his mum nod, her face pale and hands shaking.
Heather stood and skipped from the room, humming a tune neither knew. She climbed the stairs to the second floor, opened a door, and then closed it with a definitive bang. Dudley began to cry. His mum comforted him, ushering him upstairs to the bathroom to wash up. All the while, she babbled her desire for him to forget what just happened, like young children normally do.
But Dudley could not forget.
Dudley would not forget.
