23 June 2020

10:34 a.m.

Nicole was busy on a conference call of her own when Petunia phoned Dudley to wish him a Happy Birthday. She'd already messaged him on every form of social media he had and sent several packages to their house.

"It's a pity we can't see each other in person," she said. "I feel dreadful at missing your fortieth."

"I miss you too, Mum." He hoped she hadn't heard from one of his friends about the plans to go out for drinks later that night. She followed several of the old Little Whinging crowd, and he didn't need another lecture on safety.

"Your father would be so proud."

Dudley picked up one of the framed photos of his family from the mantel. Vernon had got quite a sunburn at their wedding in Jamaica. Dudley grinned, "Yeah, though I'm not sure how he'd be dealing with … all this. Can't exactly picture him banging on a pot for the NHS."

Petunia gave one of her famous sniffs and changed the subject. "How are those grandchildren of mine?"

"Good – we're taking them down to the beach in a bit. Here, let me get them on the phone for you."

The conversation turned to other matters, but Dudley kept picturing Vernon and all he might have experienced that year, had he lived to see it. Vernon, yelling at the television. Vernon, pinning charts and figures up as the virus spread. Vernon, getting to the supermarket early, to buy out as many supplies as possible. And earlier in his life, Vernon packing the family up and driving like mad, all day and into the night to flee a magical world whose power he didn't understand. Vernon had always tried to find a way through, ludicrous or violent as his actions may have been. Dudley knew much of what he'd done had been wrong, but he couldn't help but admire his persistence.

16 September 1997

The next several days brought similar squabbles, and Dudley tried his best to avoid everyone. The happiest person (or Beast) in the house was probably Frankie, who no longer had to share the attic with the owls. He didn't seem to mind Dudley or the other Dursleys skulking in the attic to use the spy post. After considerable debate, the Lupins set up their room in the downstairs gym. Hestia took the third bedroom on the second floor. The gym equipment was moved into Dudley's room, and a bunk set up for Dedalus, who moved in with him. Unfortunately, nobody in the house knew how to add a second bathroom – plumbing apparently required metal-work, placing it outside the skillset taught at Hogwarts. Petunia devised a showering/loo schedule and was surprised that everyone agreed to use it. Dudley, who felt angry and embarrassed, hid in the attic as much as possible, and managed to learn a good deal about the war.

When Petunia hinted at being able to attend the Lady Di's funeral, she was met with an "absolutely not." However, her obsession with the funeral convinced the Order members in the cottage to persuade Shacklebolt to request I.C.W. assistance with security at the event. He was able to use the threat of the dangerous renegade, Hestia Jones, as an excuse for bringing in international guards. Tonks correctly predicted the Death Eaters would attack elsewhere, while all eyes were on the funeral. When giants attacked Hogsmeade, the Order was ready to fight them off. They won easily – there were only three giants – but Snatchers showed up and started attacking them as they secured the village. Unfortunately, the extensive property damage was blamed on Order members, and a curfew was instituted in Hogsmeade. Abe – who turned out to be the brother of Harry's dead Headmaster – quit the Order, saying he no longer saw the point. The goat Patronus he sent to the Cottage simply said, "I'm out!" Dedalus got a more complete story by visiting the Hog's Head over the course of a couple of weeks; Abe saw the leaderless Order as directionless, and his pub had become a hotbed of Death Eater activity. He slipped Hestia's group and the Weasleys information as he could, but no longer felt free to participate in any missions.

Vernon, Dudley, and Hestia had spent one day, early after the Lupins arrival, constructing a wooden tower for the owls. Dudley didn't mind helping with this project, as he was wanted to clear the main house of owls, for Frankie and Petunia's sake. The boards from the furniture Dudley and Frankie had smashed up hadn't been enough, so Hestia magically cut down and hewed an oak into boards. She made the boards in all of three minutes, in a nearly soundless process that produced no sawdust. Vernon's eyes nearly bulged out of his head, and he told Dudley later that the weirdos would be billionaires if only they had two brain cells to rub together. Vernon fussed over the plans and schematics, and Hestia sank beams into the earth and built a spiral staircase inside the tower and scaffolding round it. Then Vernon and Dudley nailed the old shelving to the outside of the tower. Once they'd done that, Hestia joined up all the gaps. The tower transformed from a ramshackle heap of crooked boards to a smooth, weathered structure that seemed to have been built for the landscape. Dudley wondered if Hestia had truly needed their help, but he was glad to have had something to do. The owls seemed happy to move out of the attic into the tower, which was lined with niches for them to roost in, inside and out. It had several openings that permitted the owls to come and go as they pleased. After the owls moved, Frankie started showing himself again, but only to the Dursleys.

Dudley missed the days when they'd only had Dedalus or Hestia underfoot. Petunia, on the other hand, seemed happier than she had since moving out of Little Whinging. She seemed to enjoy listening in on the Lupins' daily marital disputes. As the weather turned chillier, the Dursleys took a walk together to discuss whatever they'd managed to learn. The plan, delayed through the battles of early September, was still at the front of Vernon and Petunia's minds. With the Order of the Phoenix disintegrating by the day, though, they had decided to lie low for the time being and learn more about the Lupins.

"He's a werewolf. My sister thought he might be, and Snape was sure of it. That's what his "condition" is that he's been fretting over," said Petunia. "I was hoping they'd been wrong, but with what I'm overhearing… I'm sure of it."

"When's the next full moon?" Vernon said. He glanced up at the sky, which was overcast. It had been cloudy all week.

"Got to be tonight," said Petunia, "based on how he's acting. Sleeping nearly all day! At least, with their continual napping, the two of them are out of the way. And they've been talking a lot about where he should go deal with his condition."

They'd decided to take a closer look at the river to the north of the cottage. The grasses on the riverbank were wet, as was everything else, so they stood shivering in the damp wind, watching the dead leaves float past them.

"I was thinking," Petunia said, "that tomorrow would be a good time to have a little chat with the others. While he's too tired to interfere. Get moving on the plan."

Remus had an annoying habit of disagreeing with the Dursleys. All of the wizards and witches disagreed with them, of course, but his disagreements were things like, "You are not related to the Spencers," and "Scurvy is caused by a lack of vitamin C, not a lack of television," and carried a good deal of weight with Hestia and Dedalus.

It made sense to Dudley that Remus was a werewolf, the most boring and pointless of monsters. Vampires – cool, can fly, great castles. Frankenstein – funny, strong, big. Werewolf – hairy, rip their clothes. Wow, amazing. Remus slept so much he was probably more like a were-hound than a wolf, Dudley thought.

"Tonks is trying to brew him a potion," Dudley said. "She brought a lot of the cauldrons downstairs, and he's been drinking it the last few days. But he isn't sure it's going to work."

"So that's what they were rowing about last night," said Petunia. "She felt put out that he'd trust Snape more than her, and look how he turned out, and he said Snape had brewed it for him all year, and she said that was when Dumbledore was alive to keep him in check, and he said she oughtn't to be sneaking out to the apothecary because it would be obvious what the ingredients were for, and she'd be caught, and she said that no it wasn't obvious, and those ingredients were used in any number of Potions, as he'd know if he'd bothered to learn them in the first place." She paused for breath. "Not that I care about their nasty concoctions. But apparently the ingredients also cost a good deal of money."

"And not a job amongst the lot of 'em," Vernon said, grimly. "They'll be hitting us up for money, wait and see."

When Dursleys returned to the Cottage, they found that Remus was gone. "Out shopping, is he?" Vernon asked, feigning ignorance about the full moon.

"Hmm? No, no – Order business, top secret," Dedalus said. He couldn't quite meet Vernon's eyes when he spoke, and quickly changed the subject.

Tonks was snappish and on edge the rest of the day, and as the sky darkened, she paced and fretted.

"Do eat something, Tonks, dear," said Petunia. "Have a roll, at least. Or a pretzel."

The whole house smelled of bread. If Petunia wasn't in the attic eavesdropping, she was messing about with jars of flour and water, or kneading dough, or twisting it into elaborate loaves.

Tonks waved her aside without answering.

17 September 1997

Vernon was coming to the end of a very long speech. Tonks was ill again, and Remus hadn't returned, so he and Petunia had thought it the perfect time to address the two weirdos they'd grown to tolerate.

"…You should kill them on the beaches! You should kill them… in the streets! You should kill them in the … forest, and the … well, anywhere you can find them. We will never give up. We will never surrender! And… and… if they should, which I do not for one moment believe…if they should…" Vernon stalled, stuck in a tangled web of words. "Well…If they do something bad to us," he finished, "then we'll do something even worse to them."

"Oh, VERNON," said Petunia, overcome with emotion. "That was… beautiful."

Dudley wasn't sure Hestia and Dedalus were as moved by Vernon's speech. Their smiles seemed rather weak.

"Yes, well," Hestia said after a few moments, "killing isn't all it's cracked up to be, I have to say. Not that I don't appreciate the encouragement."

Dedalus said, "Dear Winston, I do miss him. But are you sure Britain's finest hour was the bombing in Dresden? Just, I thought it had something to do with London."

"Not even remotely," Vernon blustered. "You've got it all backward, as usual."

"But, Vernon," Hestia said, "you see – it's hard to even know whom to target. The most infamous Death Eaters – Malfoy, the Lestranges, Snape, Dolohov – are all holed up in fortresses under heavy protection. Some of them have recruited a whole army acting under the Imperius curse. These are people who might be on our side if they weren't forced to do the Dark Lord's bidding. That's one of the reasons the Death Eaters were so successful last time – Imperio enough talented witches and wizards, and you send them out to do damage without much risk to yourself. Not even Voldemort managed to convince everyone to join him. He didn't need to. And few are willing to send fatal curses on possible family members and friends, people who are otherwise innocent and fell victim to an Unforgivable Curse."

Vernon looked put out his speech hadn't had a better effect. "But… surely there is someone who could be targeted? Someone you're sure isn't under this … this… that is to say, someone who you know is a true enemy?"

Hestia gave a short laugh. "We've got the list up in the sitting room. Don't know where most of them are, and those that do are, as I said, heavily protected. Malfoy Manor. Hogwarts. The Ministry. Some of them are pretty bold, and they have regular habits. That could make them targets for assassins, if they were ordinary. Unfortunately, they're far better duelists than any of those of us who remain. Dolohov, for instance – it'd take at least four of us to bring him down, and we'd need to take him by surprise. And of course, the second you attack a Death Eater, all they need do is press their Dark Mark to bring in any number of fighters."

She got up and stretched. "We've got to stick to what's been working for us. Smuggle underage Muggleborns and their families out of Britain. Teach anyone of age who wants to stick it out here how to set up the Fidelius Charm. Quell attacks by Snatchers, Death Eaters, and the giants, where we can. We still haven't even found out how they're tracking us down so easily."

"But just look at it!" Vernon gestured at the list. "A handful of you, and dozens of them! If you don't start picking them off, you won't last another month."

"Joining the Order means you're willing to go against Voldemort and the Ministry. Work outside proper channels," Hestia said. "Not many willing to do that. It's why we stuck mainly to guard duty, light espionage, and defense since Voldemort's return. Too much at stake – look what happened to Sturgis."

The Dursleys waited.

"He was put under the Imperius Curse and got caught trying to steal … something. He was sent to Azkaban for months," Dedalus said. "He's never been back at full fighting capacity, ever since he got out. And he lost his job at the Ministry besides. Not yet forty, and forced into retirement!"

Hestia said, "Well, at least Fred and George have some plans to boost our numbers. But we won't be able to add their names to the board."

Dudley had heard them talking about this. Fred and George's idea was to recruit small groups of friends who trusted each other. Forget trying to amass an army – just get a few people, here and there, acting to disrupt the Ministry's oppressive efforts. They were working on a plan to keep all the small groups informed of important news. In the meantime, the Order and any anti-Voldemort forces relied on the Quibbler for information.

Dudley glanced at his parents. Their plan was getting derailed. Petunia's smile was stiff and forced, and Vernon's color was growing more purple by the second. He had to think of something to say, before another argument broke out.

"H-Harry." Dudley swallowed as the four adults looked at him. Dedalus tilted his head to one side, his white tufts of hair sticking out round his head like feathers. He nodded at Dudley. Dudley continued, "Harry wouldn't want us to give up, I mean. Dad's right. We should – do something. Something big."

That was Petunia's cue. "I – I couldn't help but notice a Severus Snape on the board. Well, I'm sure he doesn't live there anymore, but at one time, he lived in Cokeworth, down by the river. It might be worth investigating, in case he left any of his old things around the place."