September 13
Dudley smiled as he pulled out the soft purple little sweatsuit. It was a bit pricey, but it was also adorable and Annabelle would be able to wear it all winter.
"Nappies are bloody expensive, aren't they?" A girl scoffed in the aisle over from Dudley. "God, how do you even afford a baby, Theo?"
Dudley bobbed his head in absent agreement. Babies were expensive. Not that he'd ever trade Annabelle for anything, but Dudley's salary and the tips Mary made at the pub were just barely keeping them afloat.
All the money from his parent's estate had went to buying his home. Keeping the lights on was a struggle some days, but at least Dudley knew his family always had a place to live.
It gave him a mild appreciation for what a spoiled kid he'd been, anyway. If nothing else, at least he hadn't known what the cost of living was until he'd struck out on his own a few months ago.
"Perks of dead parents," a new voice drawled while Dudley went ahead and put the outfit in his buggy.
"You're welcome then," a third voice, rough and raspy, added.
Dudley frowned. That made it sound like the third voice had something to do with the death of the second parents.
No.
Dudley shook his head at himself.
It wasn't his business and he wasn't working.
"And since I got you out of the house, you can pay for your god daughter's nappies."
"Deal," the rough voice said immediately.
Dudley mused that their house must be pretty bad if they'd rather pay for nappies than sit at home.
"If I have to hear one more 'what's black all over?' joke, then I'm going to stop his heart," the girl said.
"You fuckin won't, I barely got it going the first time."
Dudley paused when all three voices paused to laugh.
What an odd conversation.
Dudley was intrigued despite himself when he pushed his buggy toward the aisle. He needed nappies as well, he always needed nappies.
For such a tiny person, Annabelle sure had a lot of dirty nappies.
Dudley did his best to mind his business when the three teenagers with the sweet little baby loitered in the aisle. The redhead girl was checking a list while a boy with thick brown hair bounced the bundle of pink blankets in his arms.
"Bloody hell, go to Harry then," he said suddenly. He thrust the baby at the third teen, a shorter bloke with ruffled black hair and Dudley's breath caught in his throat as it always did at the name.
It wasn't your fault, Dudley reminded himself, sounding a lot like his counselor. You were a child.A mean little spoiled child.
Well, Dudley grinned self-deprecatingly as he reached around the boy now holding the baby, maybe he hadn't been little.
"Oh, sorry, mate." Dudley groaned when he accidentally knocked a couple bottles of bottom powder on the shoes of the bloke holding the baby. "Here let me—"
The bloke turned and Dudley finally saw his face.
"Harry?" Dudley stared in familiar green eyes that filled his nightmares. The black hair, green eyes, same name… what were the odds? "Harry is that you?" Dudley whispered.
The redhead girl and brunette boy shared bemused looks but Harry (it had to be Harry) frowned and stared hard at Dudley with narrowed eyes no longer hidden behind too-large glasses.
"Do I know you?" he asked. He was the one with the rough voice, raspy like he didn't use it much or maybe he was a heavy smoker.
Dudley looked away from Harry's eyes to look the rest of him over. He was so much older than he was in Dudley's nightmares. A bit short, scrawny too, but he looked good. Actually, he looked like he could use about a weeks worth of sleep, but he was in real posh clothes and he was snuggling the baby to his chest in a peaceful way. And- no way!
Dudley spotted a rich looking ring on Harry's left hand.
His little cousin had gotten married! Probably to the red head girl who had a hand on Harry's lower back and was glaring distrustful daggers at Dudley.
"It's…" Dudley had to clear his clogged throat. "It's Dudley. Dudley Dursley?"
Any doubt that Dudley had about if that was his cousin or not disappeared when Harry blinked and recognition filled his eyes.
Harry wasn't dead!! He was shopping for nappies with his wife and goddaughter!
He wasn't dead!
"Take Rosie," Harry muttered only to have the baby taken from his arms immediately by the brunette boy. Harry's eyes didn't leave Dudley's and they were slowly narrowing into a well-deserved look of dislike.
But he was alive!
As soon as the baby was out of Harry's arms, Dudley pulled him in a hug while the water worms burst.
"I thought they killed you!" Dudley cried as he held his much too skinny cousin close to his chest. He was making a scene, right in the middle of the store, but for once he didn't care. "I- I always thought they killed you!"
For years, years, Dudley thought Harry was dead. When Harry disappeared, everything in Dudley's life changed. He'd been so scared that he'd be next and nobody understood why Dudley was always so frightened to be around his parents, but if they could kill a little eight year-old boy, then why wouldn't Dudley be next?
It had been selfish when Dudley was a child, then became a more consistent fear as he got older. His father's displeasure at a bad grade became an icicle in Dudley's chest when he tried to sleep - would that be the final point before he decided Dudley was too much of a burden, like Harry had been?
It wasn't until Dudley was older and had lost so much weight, lost so much focus, that his school had assigned a counselor to him that labeled him with an anxiety disorder.
It had been a terrible fight with his parents, but Dudley had been lucky that his counselor considered it ahead of time and sent a social worker with Dudley. If they hadn't, Dudley had been sure he'd be buried in the yard beside Harry's corpse.
Instead, Dudley got medication, a counselor to help him, a social worker who not only guided him through the rest of his childhood, but also set Dudley's sights on university and joining him in helping other kids one day.
And Harry, the same kid that Dudley had cried over and still had nightmares about, he had done all that.
And he was alive!!
"What the fuck?" Harry whispered when Dudley clung to him and sobbed all over his shoulders.
Dudley chuckled at Harry's swear which only made his sobs increase in volume until the other patrons of the store were openly gawking at him.
"You thought your parents killed Harry and you did nothing?" Harry's red-head wife demanded after Dudley pulled himself together a bit and sheepishly let go of his very bewildered cousin.
"Well…" Dudley ran a hand through his blonde hair and frowned sadly. "Yeah, I suppose so." He looked at Harry and felt a few more tears leak out. "I'm so sorry, Harry. I didn't know what to do. You just disappeared and they wouldn't talk about you and I thought they killed you. I'm so sorry."
Nobody had believed Dudley - not his counselor or his social worker, but Piers did, and Piers was the one who let Dudley stay at his house when he was too scared to step foot in his own home.
Ever since Harry disappeared, Dudley began to see his parents as the monsters that they had acted like. All the ways they'd mistreated Harry haunted Dudley when he saw them.
It was no wonder that Dudley tried to see them as infrequently as he could before their murder.
Harry's wife and his friend both looked at Harry, but Harry merely shrugged.
"Odd," he said lightly. "Well this has been a fuckin nightmare, hasn't it? Afraid we need to get going…"
"Wait!" Dudley reached out and grabbed Harry's wrist to stop him from walking away. He didn't expect it when Harry wrenched his wrist from his grasp and shoved Dudley against the shelves, causing all manners of items to fall off the shelf and crash on the floor.
Harry had his arm across Dudley's throat and his eyes were dark and glittered with something dangerous when he hissed in Dudley's face.
"Don't ever touch me again," he said in a soft and menacing tone. "I'm not fuckin seven anymore and you don't ever get to touch me again. Is that understood?"
Dudley nodded and then massaged his throat when Harry immediately stepped away from him and stood in front of the woman in a protective stance. Dudley's eyes teared up again as he held eye contact with the kid he used to bully for fun.
"I'm sorry," Dudley rasped out. He cleared his sore throat and tried again. "That's what I wanted to say, Harry. I was- well I was a jerk to you, and I'm so bloody sorry."
The redhead narrowed her eyes and cracked her knuckles threateningly. "What did you do to Harry?" she growled.
Dudley stumbled backwards. Harry's wife was bloody terrifying and his friend wasn't much less threatening, though the cute baby in his arms dampened his glower by quite a bit.
"Forget it," Harry spat. He turned toward the boy and the boy leaned forward and whispered something quickly in Harry's ear. Harry's wife looked curious, but said nothing as the two boys began whispering rapid fire to one another.
The boy sent a furtive look toward Dudley and Dudley watched them interact with blatant curiosity. After a minute or so, the boy suddenly turned to Harry's wife and handed her his baby.
"Here, Sue, take Rose home so Harry and I can go catch up with his cousin."
Dudley was surprised, and pleased, when Harry turned back to him with a friendly enough smile.
"What d'ya say, wanna grab a drink?" Harry offered.
Dudley felt his eyes fill up with tears once more and nodded eagerly.
"Yeah," he said, his voice quivering at the offer. "Let me- let me just pay for this stuff…"
Harry finally took note of Dudley's buggy and reared back in shock.
"You've got a baby?" he asked with wide eyes. The boy stepped forward and slowly put his hand on Harry's shoulder while Harry's wife rearranged the baby on her hip.
Dudley smiled proudly and whipped his wallet out, brandishing a recent picture of Annabelle to show them.
"Annabelle Marie Dursley," he said, showing Harry her photo. It had been taken a couple months ago, when she was first born. "She looks just like her Mum."
Thank goodness. Mary was a beauty and Dudley had a beak for a nose, he'd been relieved when Annabelle came out with a tiny little nose just like her Mum.
Harry took the photo and stared at it for a long time before he handed it to the boy. The boy looked dismissively at it and then gave it back to Dudley, carefully ensuring their fingers didn't so much as brush each other.
"Er…" Harry turned to look at the boy, but the boy just shook his head subtly and Dudley saw Harry roll his shoulders before turning back to him, his smile strained now.
"Brill," Harry said, not sounding like it meant anything good. "Congrats."
"Thanks." Dudley smiled at the photo of his little girl, his little accidental angel, which Mary said he wasn't allowed to call their daughter, and then tucked the photo back in his wallet. "I'll just go pay and meet you guys by the door?"
"I'll walk with you," the boy said, collecting his own packages from his buggy.
It was… uncomfortable… standing in queue with the other lad. He didn't talk much besides a quick response when Dudley politely asked for his name. Dudley kept turning his head, making sure Harry didn't leave with 'Sue' and 'Rose' and was relieved when his items had been bagged and Harry still lingered by the door with a bored look on his face.
"Do you live nearby?" Dudley asked as Harry took the lead down the street outside. It was chilly out, but not a terrible day for a jaunt either.
"No," Harry said shortly. His lips twitched as he glanced toward Dudley. "Shanklin, actually."
Dudley's jaw dropped for an instant before he remembered himself and clamped it closed.
"Shanklin?" he repeated. "That's a bit of a trip just for nappies…"
"Not for wizards," Theo said with a light laugh.
Dudley felt a thrill go through him at the word. All the odd things Harry had done before he'd disappeared, all the things that Dudley and his counselor had chalked up to an active imagination and burgeoning psychiatric problems even so young…
Magic.
The most forbidden word in Dudley's house there had been.
Dudley's head reeled, and he walked on autopilot, as he let himself think of all the odd things that Harry had done as a child. He used to be able to disappear - one minute Dudley would be ganging up on him with his mates (a reminder that made his face burn with shame) and the next… poof, Harry was gone. Another time, Dudley would see his dad go to strike Harry in the face, then yank his hand back with a red blister on it to match the redness of his furious face.
Magic wizards.
"Wicked," Dudley finally breathed, paying no mind to how long he'd been quiet nor to where Harry led him.
"What's wicked?" Harry asked.
"Huh?" Dudley looked around and saw they'd made it down by the bridge and Harry was headed toward a little hole in the wall cafe. "Oh, m- magic," Dudley whispered. He sounded like a kid again, whispering the forbidden word, and there was an eager sparkle in his eyes when he looked at his cousin in a whole new light. "It's real then?"
Harry twisted his lips in a smirk and nodded.
"Wicked," Dudley said again, quite happily.
Theo rolled his eyes when he held the door open for them, but Dudley was practically on cloud nine. His cousin hadn't been murdered by his parents, he hadn't been suffering from delusions as a child, and here he was having a cuppa with Harry!
It was like the day Annabelle was born, or Dudley'd been accepted to uni, all over again!
When they all had drinks and settled in a booth, Dudley was still beaming.
"I wrote a paper about you," Dudley blurted. Harry had been silently staring at him and he raised a brow at Dudley's declaration. "For my Sociology class," Dudley explained. "We had to write about a wrong we did to someone and say what we'd do differently if we could."
It was meant to show them how small acts can have big effects and to humble them as no one was perfect.
It had given Dudley an anxiety attack.
"Oh yeah?" Theo asked him. "And what would you do?"
"Everything," Dudley told Harry genuinely. "We- we could have been best mates, and instead I was a right berk to you."
"You were," Harry agreed coolly. "Your parents were worse, of course."
"Yeah…" Dudley's shoulders slumped and be smoothed down his hair again. "Did you hear they were killed?" Dudley asked Harry hesitantly. He didn't expect sympathy, honestly Dudley had been too shell shocked by their deaths to really ever feel too terrible. His life has gotten flipped after they died last Halloween, murdered in a burglary.
Piers' mom was a nice lady though, she let Dudley stay with them all the way up until he came of age and got a place for him and Mary. They needed it badly, with Annabelle making her appearance a month later.
"Sounds terrible," Harry said drily. His hand twitched on the table and when Dudley looked toward it Harry smoothly slid it off the table and on to his lap.
"Yeah," Dudley agreed. He waved off the bad memories and tried to focus on the good. "But let's hear about you! You're married now?"
"Yes," Harry said. He smiled briefly and if Dudley thought Harry was a bit young to be married, who cared? As long as he was happy.
"When did you and Sue meet?" Dudley asked.
Harry cocked his head at Dudley in a curious way, kind of like a cat, really.
"Sue? My friend?"
"Oh." Dudley blushed and shrugged good-naturedly. "Sorry, I just assumed…"
"My husband is Fred."
"Oh," Dudley repeated. He blinked, caught off guard by that. It didn't really matter, not to Dudley, but it was a little surprising. "Well, congratulations," Dudley told him with an encouraging smile.
Nobody said anything for what felt like a very long couple of minutes before Dudley felt like he was going to burst with a nearly decade old mystery nagging at him.
"Where'd you go?" Dudley asked abruptly. He stared hard in Harry's eyes and saw the shadows in them that told him it wasn't anywhere good. But how did one little kid just disappear?
Harry laughed and it was a bitter and cold laugh that sent a cold chill down Dudley's spine. Theo scowled at him, his handsome face twisting in anger.
"Where haven't I been?" Harry said after draining his drink. He looked at Theo and the two of them seemed to be carrying on an entire conversation made up of micro-communications.
Harry lifted a brow.
Theo smirked.
Harry wrinkled his nose.
Theo nodded shortly.
Harry sighed.
Then Harry cocked his head to the side and stared at Dudley for a long silent moment before his mouth slowly stretched in to a smile. "D'you wanna go get a real drink with us?"
God did he.
Dudley would love nothing more than to go grab a brew with his cousin, solve the mystery that plagued him his whole life, but… Dudley shook his head regretfully.
"I can't, can we exchange numbers, maybe? I've got to be on call for the overnight tonight."
"Call off," Theo drawled with a lazy half-smile that didn't do anything at all to soften his hard eyes. "Who knows when you'll get the chance to go drink with us again?"
Harry shrugged. "I'm not going to be in the country long, I'm planning an extended holiday soon. It was good seeing you, Dudley. Later."
Dudley hesitated when Harry got to his feet, looking for all the world like he was going to walk right out of the cafe and never see Dudley again. Theo followed Harry to the door and Dudley called out when the bell dinged as Harry opened the door.
"Wait!" Dudley snagged his shopping bags from the booth and hustled to catch up to his cousin. He gave him a hopeful smile when Harry stopped for him.
"I can call off tonight," Dudley said. He had only ever called in once, when Annabelle had been so sick she'd needed seen by a doctor, surely it wouldn't be that big of a deal to do it again. "Let's grab that drink."
Harry smiled brightly and Dudley felt drawn in and hopeful.
Maybe today would be the day that Dudley could reclaim a bit of his family. He could get to know Harry, get to know his husband.
Harry could meet Mary and Annabelle. He'd probably adore Annabelle, everyone always did.
They could have holidays together, celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. They could be a family again.
Dudley had only planned on shopping for nappies, but it seemed like the sweatsuit wasn't the only pleasant surprise he found in that shop.