Confronting Demons
Saturday, 3 October 1998
Harry had faced down giant snakes and evil Dark Lords, he’d walked to his own death and hunted down vile magic. But he wasn’t sure he’d ever been more nervous than he was this morning getting ready to see Dudley.
Harry had lost so much of his family between the two wars. He’d built one himself over the years, but there was still a part of him that wanted the Dursleys to claim him as one of their own. He’d spent his entire childhood either begging the universe to send someone to save him or doing everything he possibly could to get positive attention from the family he’d been left with.
Letting Dudley into his life was a risk, letting Dudley into Teddy’s life was a greater risk. He was immensely grateful that Theo and Neville would be along and could leave with Teddy at a moment’s notice.
“Can you pick out my clothes?” Harry asked after standing in front of his wardrobe for a full ten minutes wearing only his boxers, “I’m going to go get Teddy dressed and pack a bag for him.”
“Of course, love,” Theo said, coming up behind Harry and wrapping his arms around his waist, “jeans or slacks?”
“Jeans,” Harry said after a moment’s thought, briefly leaning back against Theo’s chest, “thank you.”
“Anything for you, love, you know that.”
After pressing a quick kiss to the side of Theo’s head, Harry walked through the bathroom and into Teddy’s room to get him ready. The little boy in question was sitting up in his crib waiting for Harry … wait, “Theo! Come in here!” Harry called out, “Teddy’s sitting up all on his own!”
“Really?” Theo called.
“Really!”
Harry heard the sound of clothes hitting the floor followed closely by the sound of Theo’s hurried footsteps across the bathroom tile, “look at you, Teddy!”
Grinning, Harry reached out his hand and silently summoned the camera from their room and snapped a picture of the milestone.
“I think this is a good sign,” Theo said, turning over his shoulder to smile at Harry from where he was standing by the edge of Teddy’s crib.
“You think?”
“I do,” Theo said with a nod, “now what’s our little guy going to wear?”
Smiling at Theo’s use of “our” but choosing not to call him out on it quite yet, Harry turned to open Teddy’s dresser and pick out an outfit.
“Do you think it’ll be cold?”
“Probably,” Theo responded, “it’s autumn in Scotland and they don’t have the protection of a massive magical forest and wards so strong they tend to block harsh weather.”
“Good point,” Harry said, before grabbing a pair of little green corduroys and a cream jumper.
“That might be the cutest outfit I’ve ever seen,” Theo said when Harry laid out the clothes, “but you need to bring a backup sweater in case we’re somewhere you can’t use a cleaning charm.”
“Have I ever told you you’re a genius?”
“Nowhere near often enough, now get the little cub dressed and I’ll go finish picking out your clothes.”
“You’re going to coordinate me to Teddy now, aren’t you?”
“Obviously!” Theo yelled as he started digging through Harry’s wardrobe again.
Shaking his head, Harry lifted Teddy out of his crib and set him on the changing table, “your … you know what I don’t know what to call him, we’ll figure that out later, your Theo is a funny one, cub.”
Once Teddy was dressed and the diaper bag was packed, Harry walked back into his room to find Theo dressed in brown corduroy pants and a cream jumper and a pair of light jeans and a dark green sweater laying on the bed for Harry.
Smiling at the fact that Theo had obviously coordinated his own outfit as well, Harry passed Teddy over and started to get dressed, “do you think we need coats?”
“Let’s put them in the bag just in case,” Theo decided before setting Teddy down against the pillows on their bed and turning back to the wardrobe to find coats for himself and Harry and then ducking into Teddy’s room to find a coat for him as well.
“Alright,” Harry said as he laced up his boots (Timberlands that Hermione had told him he needed and he now really needed to tell her she was right), “I think we’re ready.”
“Let’s go get Neville and get out of here.”
Neville opened the door wearing the exact same outfit as Harry.
“No,” Harry said, decidedly ignoring Theo who was literally about to fall over with how hard he was laughing, “we’re not doing this, one of us is changing.”
“Go change your trousers,” Neville said, “you wear those jeans all the time, you can wear something different.”
“Fine,” Harry sighed, before passing Teddy over to the person not currently on the floor laughing, “I’ll change.”
“No! Wait!” Theo called out between fits of laughter, “I need a picture first.”
“Fine,” Harry huffed, rolling his eyes, though he was doing a rather poor job of suppressing his smile.
Once Theo had his picture, Harry ducked back into his room to change, deciding they’d all look like an autumn brochure for a local bed and breakfast no matter what he put on, he picked out corduroys that were a lighter tan than Theo’s and headed back into the hall.
When he got there, Luna had made her way upstairs to see what the general ruckus was about, “oh look at you lot!” she said with a grin before grabbing the camera from Theo’s hand, “family picture!”
Once Luna was satisfied that she’d gotten a good photo, Neville, Theo, and Harry (holding Teddy) spun on their heels and appeared in an alley Cho had send them the coordinates for near the University.
“Ready for this?” Neville asked.
“As I’ll ever be,” Harry said with a nod before he passed Teddy over to Neville and stepped out onto the sidewalk and followed Cho’s directions to where she and Dudley would be waiting.
They heard her before they saw her, “Harry!!” was just about the only warning he got before he had an armful of Cho.
Harry picked her up and spun her around once before setting her down and grinning, “hi, Cho! How are you?”
“I’m great,” she said, returning his grin, “how have you been? How’s Hogwarts? How’s the Wizengamot, my dad said you lot made a rather impressive show?” She then paused her questioning when she noticed Harry’s companions, “Neville,” she greeted with a smile, before turning to Theo, “and I’m not sure I know you, you look familiar though.”
“Theo Nott,” he said, extending his hand.
Looking at Harry with a raised eyebrow, Cho reached out and shook Theo’s hand, “Cho Chang.”
“And this is Teddy,” Neville said before Cho could start an interrogation in the middle of the sidewalk.
“Oh my goodness,” she all but squealed, “he’s adorable, can I hold him, Harry?”
“Course,” Harry agreed, nodding to Neville who handed Teddy over.
In the chaos that is Cho Chang, Harry hadn’t noticed Dudley walk up behind her until he heard a deep voice saying, “Harry, hi.”
Looking up, Harry noticed how nervous his cousin looked and decided that this was likely just as, if not more, difficult for Dudley as it was him. “Hi, Dudley,” he greeted with an easy smile, “it’s good to see you, where do you two want to go?”
“We thought we’d go get breakfast and then walk around campus,” Cho said, “how does that sound?”
“Sounds great,” Neville responded.
Harry noticed that Teddy, in true Teddy fashion, was split between torturing Cho by keeping a handful of her hair in a death grip and disarming her entirely with his sweet little smile.
“Here,” Harry said with a laugh, prying Teddy’s fist open before reaching out to take him from Cho, “I’ll take the little monster, and you lead the way.”
After only half a block, they came upon a small café that Cho claimed made a great breakfast and headed inside.
The conversation was easy, if stilted, so far and Harry was feeling rather optimistic.
After they’d gone to the counter to order, they’d all sat down, and Theo and Harry had fought Teddy into submission and belted him into a highchair, Dudley spoke again, “sorry, I forgot to introduce myself back there, I’m Dudley Evans, Harry’s cousin.”
Neville reached out to shake his hand, “Neville Longbottom, Harry’s brother in all but blood.”
“What would happen if we blood adopted each other,” Harry mused.
“Can we save discussions on untested blood magic for later?” Theo said, rolling his eyes before smiling at Dudley and reaching out to shake his hand, “Theo Nott, Harry’s boyfriend.”
Dudley did a rather good job of hiding his shock at that, “nice to meet you,” he then sat quietly with a questioning look on his face.
Thinking he had a rather good idea of what Dudley was stopping himself from asking, Harry said, “you can ask.”
“Is this your first boyfriend or did you have one before,” Dudley asked, trailing off slightly before he steeled himself and finished his question, “like before that summer with those monsters?”
“No, he’s not my first boyfriend,” Harry answered, “I dated a boy named Cedric who was killed at the end of my 4th year of school, that summer before the dementors showed up in Little Whinging.”
“Well,” Dudley said clearing his throat, “I am beyond sorry for teasing you about that, then.”
“It’s forgiven, Dudley,” Harry said with more ease than he thought he’d be able to, “you didn’t know.”
“Cedric was my best friend,” Cho said, “that’s how Harry and I became friends.”
“Didn’t you two date?” Theo wondered aloud.
“What?” Cho and Harry asked in unison.
“Where did that come from?” Neville asked.
“In 5th year,” Theo explained, looking rather confused, “everyone was saying you two dated and that it ended in total disaster on Valentine’s Day.”
“Oh,” Cho said, starting to giggle, “that.”
Rolling his eyes, Harry realized he was going to have to explain, “no, we didn’t date. We kissed once which, might I say, was incredibly weird, but there was mistletoe involved.”
“And crying,” Cho chirped, “there was also crying involved.”
“Yes,” Harry said shooting a rather ineffectual glare at Cho, “there was crying. Then we went to Hogsmeade together because we hadn’t really spent any time together without Cedric, but we were both a little too stuck in our grief at that point to have a friendship separate from him, so we didn’t talk much the rest of the year.”
“But we worked it out,” Cho said, “all’s well now.”
“Well, I for one am happy about that,” Dudley said, “it was so crazy to find someone who’d known you in school, Harry.”
“I can’t imagine,” Harry said with a laugh, “if I were you I’d probably have had a hard time even believing my school was real.”
“I honestly wasn’t sure it was for a couple of years,” Dudley said, laughing a little as well, “a giant showed up and used an umbrella to give me a tail and then you disappeared, I thought there might’ve been a gas leak or something. It was like a giant hallucination.”
“Imagine my perspective!” Harry said, properly laughing now, “a giant shows up and then takes me to a magical alley where I get gold coins from honest-to-God goblins and then tells me I need a wand and a cauldron and a pointy hat before telling me to get on a magical train in a month and dropping me back off at home. I thought I’d gone mad.”
“Every time you talk about your introduction to Hogwarts I get more and more concerned for Dumbledore’s mental state,” Neville said, tone edging between humor and genuine concern.
“Questioning Albus Dumbledore’s sanity is a waste of time,” Harry said, waving Neville off, “trust me.”
They paused their conversation when their food arrived. Once the waiter had turned away, Neville took the chance to pull out his wand and quickly cast a series of muffling and notice-me-not charms, assuming that Dudley wanted to ask questions that would likely get them into some shit with Kingsley if a bunch of muggles overheard.
“So, what can you tell me about school?” Dudley asked, “I was always rather curious bit didn’t think I was allowed to ask.”
“Well, the Statute of Secrecy lets us tell immediate family, spouses, and people we live with about the existence of Magic,” Harry explained, “so I could’ve told you anything growing up and now that you know about it, we’re family, and we grew up together, I can answer any of your questions without getting into trouble.”
“Also, we basically control the government,” Neville informed Dudley, as if that wasn’t an insane statement, “so he’s rather unlikely to get in trouble for anything.”
“I rather think the ICW would get involved if I started a war or something like that.”
“So don’t start a war,” Neville said.
“Great advice, Nev, I don’t know what I’d do without you.” Harry said rolling his eyes, “what do you want to know, Dudley.”
“Wait,” Theo said, “one thing, remember your question the other day?”
Thinking for a moment, Harry looked toward Theo before finally realizing what he was referencing, “about whether Dudley might be a squib?”
“Yes,” Theo said, cutting off Dudley who was more than likely starting to ask what exactly a squib is, “a squib is someone born of a magical bloodline who doesn’t have magic, we found out over the summer that Lily was from a squib branch of a rather powerful pureblood line so we think that your grandparents were squibs and logic dictates that your mother is as well.”
“That makes sense,” Cho chimed in, “that might even explain where so-called muggle-born wizards come from.”
“I think it might,” Harry said, “we’re trying to figure out how to look into it before we bring it up with the Wizengamot but if you want to mention it to your father, feel free.”
“Alright,” Cho said, “but how do we test if Dudley is a squib?”
“One easy way,” Theo said holding his hand out toward Harry.
“I don’t know what you’re asking for,” Harry said, looking at Theo’s hand, “do you want me to hold your hand or hand you something?”
“Sometimes I forget you can’t actually read minds,” Theo mused, “I’m obviously spending too much time around the two of you.”
“What does that mean?” Cho asked.
“Magical twins,” Neville and Harry responded in unison.
“Don’t ask more,” Theo said, cutting Cho off, “unless you want an hour-long lecture entirely in twin speak and the resulting migraine.”
Cho simply nodded, deciding she’d ask Harry to explain in writing.
“Can I please see your holly wand?” Theo asked.
“Sure,” Harry said, grabbing the wand from the disillusioned holster on his right thigh, “why this wand though?”
“It’s your original wand and it has a twin core with the wand of another Gaunt, it’s the most likely to respond to Dudley in any way, also your other wand won’t respond to anyone else except maybe, maybe Draco and I don’t know if we want to test that.”
“It won’t respond to Draco,” Harry said with authority, “the only person it’d respond to other than me is maybe Neville and I think it’d have to be an emergency situation.”
“You didn’t tell me that,” Neville said, tuning back into the conversation.
“I didn’t know until right now,” Harry responded, “when Theo mentioned it responding to Draco I immediately knew that was wrong and then something told me that it might respond to you under very specific circumstances.”
“Ignoring whatever that discussion was,” Cho cut in, “what would Harry’s wand tell us?”
“We know that Dudley didn’t get a Hogwarts letter so we know he’s not fully magical,” Theo started before he was cut off by Neville, “do we know that, though?”
“What do you mean?” Theo asked, turning to look at Neville and Harry who appeared to be (and likely actually were) having a silent conversation.
“We know I had an infant binding on my core,” Harry said, “but there was still the remanent of a binding when I went into the bank that wasn’t the same magical signature as the infant one and the binding on my metamorph power.”
“You think it was Dumbledore,” Theo realized.
“Yes,” Neville said, “Dumbledore who left Harry at the Dursleys, knowing for a fact that they hated magic. What if he placed the same binding on Dudley and it was enough to suppress any magic he had, even if it was just the latent magic a squib possesses.”
“That’s actually not the most insane theory I’ve ever heard,” Theo mused.
“You’re joking, right?” Cho cut in, “how is that not the most insane theory you’ve heard.”
“You’ve met Harry, right?”
“Good point, proceed.”
After sticking his tongue out at Cho, because he was an incredibly mature adult, Harry continued, “we taught ourselves the diagnostic to see if there’s any bindings after they found a minor one on Neville as well.”
“And you two are insanely paranoid,” Theo added.
“And that,” Harry agreed, “I could perform it on Dudley, and we could see.”
“Wait couldn’t you just perform that identification spell Kingsley showed us that aurors use? Doesn’t that show the person’s core category along with the identifying information?”
“You’re right, Nev,” Harry said, “I’d forgotten about that, are you alright with me doing that, Dudley? It just feels like a breeze rushing over you.”
“Sure,” Dudley said, “I really don’t know what’s going on right now but whatever you’re saying sounds serious, so yeah.”
After double checking that Neville’s notice-me-nots and muffling charms were still up, Harry waved his wand at Dudley and muttered a quick spell before tapping his wand to a piece of parchment Neville had pulled out of his pocket.
Dudley Vernon Dursley
23 June 1980
Vernon Dursley and Petunia Evans
Core: Squib
“Huh,” Harry said, “you’re a squib.”
“See if he’s bound,” Neville said.
After another spell, Dudley glowed white for a brief second.
Harry and Neville both breathed out a sigh of relief.
“No binding then?” Theo asked.
“No,” they responded.
“If we’d found out that he was bound to the point of being a squib, meaning he’d been stopped from attending Hogwarts, I’d have raised Dumbledore from the dead just to yell at him and then kill him again.”
“First, you didn’t kill him the first time,” Neville said, shoving Harry’s head, “second, don’t joke about things you could actually do.”
At Cho’s shocked look, Harry waved his hand, “another time.”
Cho just shrugged, a day in the life of being Harry’s friend.
“What does being a squib really mean though?” Dudley asked.
As they finished their meals, Harry, Theo, Cho, and Neville explained the different classifications of magical power and talked about the things they knew squibs were able to do.
“We’re talking some about introducing more jobs and opportunities for squibs in the magical world,” Harry said, “it’s more of an issue with squibs born to magical parents who have magical siblings. They grow up in the magical world and then there are no opportunities for them and they don’t have any ties to the muggle world so they’re sort of left floating, but it’d also help people like you to just have more options for jobs and such.”
“That’s cool,” Dudley said as they stood up to leave, “so Miss. Figg is a squib?”
“Yeah,” Harry said laughing lightly, “do you remember her cats?”
“How could I forget?”
“Most of them were actually kneazles, which is a breed of magical cat,” he explained, “they’re incredibly smart, smarter than normal cats. It was how she stayed connected to the magical world. She couldn’t do magic, per se, but she has a real talent for magical creatures.”
“Like how other squibs have talents for potions or herbology?” Dudley asked.
“Exactly,” Harry responded, “knowing this is also good because even though the Gaunt name died out because the family officially disowned our ancestor Marvin, I still inherited the account. It’s been pretty much drained over the years so it’s not much, but I really don’t need it and with you not talking to Vernon and Petunia, I was thinking you might like to have a little extra money, I can sign it over to you since you have some level of magic. We can get it converted and put into a muggle bank if that’s easier. Also, the Potter family has several holdings in the muggle world so if you ever end up needing somewhere to live, just let me know.”
“Thank you, Harry,” Dudley said with a genuine smile, “I’ve been working to pay for tuition but if I were able to use that money to pay for even a little bit of it, I’d be able to take more classes and maybe get a second degree.”
“Perfect,” Harry said, “how do you feel about a little trip to London this afternoon?”
“That sounds great.”
They spent the next couple of hours looking around St. Andrews. The campus was beautiful with old stone buildings and the trees changing colors. Cho insisted that they needed pictures of Teddy in the fall leaves and Harry was happy that someone other than him and Theo was stopping to take a million pictures of the kid though Neville shot Harry a look that said I know you were about to do the same thing, don’t think I’m going to stop teasing you.
Just for that, Harry shoved Neville into the nearest pile of leaves and snapped a picture of that as well.
Neville recovered quickly, insisting that they needed a picture of Harry, Theo, and Teddy as well.
Once they’d gotten pictures of every possible grouping of people, including the first picture to likely ever exist of Harry and Dudley, they finished up their tour of the campus.
“How should we get to Diagon,” Harry asked as they walked back toward the entrance.
“Knight Bus would probably be easiest,” Neville said.
“In what world is the Knight Bus the easiest way to do anything except get whiplash?” Theo asked.
“It’s the most similar to muggle transport,” Neville explained.
“I think Dudley could use a floo if we found a connection somewhere near here,” Harry said, “and then we could go directly into the bank instead of having to walk through the alley before we get it all figured out.”
“You can floo directly into the bank?” Cho asked in shock.
“Yes,” Harry responded, forgetting why that was strange.
“We’re Friends of the Nation,” Neville explained, “all Founders Heirs are.”
“You might be a Friend,” Harry teased, “I’m a Warrior.”
“YOU’RE A WARRIOR OF THE GOBLIN NATION?” Cho whisper yelled, though her tone still caught the attention of a few passers-by who sent her rather confused looks.
“Yes,” Harry responded, offering no explanation.
“Do you understand how annoying it is when you do that?”
“When I do what?”
“Say something insane and then refuse to explain it.”
“I just like riling you up,” Harry said with a grin, “I got named warrior after they rendered the basilisk corpse.”
“Ah,” Cho said, nodding in understanding.
“I still don’t understand a single bit of that,” Dudley cut in.
As Cho told Harry about all the floo connections she knew of in the area, Theo explained the Goblin Nation and the various titles humans could be awarded to Dudley.
Once Cho and Harry had selected a floo, the group made their way to a nearby bookstore that apparently had a magical section in the back. Cho had, of course, made friends with the owner, “who aren’t you friends with?” Harry teased her.
“You.”
“You wound me, Chang.”
“Good.”
When they got to the store, Cho quickly introduced the group to the owner who was rather excited to meet Harry and Neville and easily allowed them to use his floo.
“You really are famous,” Dudley said.
“Apparently so,” Harry responded, “I’m rather sick of it.”
Dudley just laughed and shook his head, he was starting to understand Harry more and more as they day went on.
They quickly explained how the floo worked before Neville headed through first followed by Cho, then Theo, then Dudley, then Harry holding Teddy.
“Hello,” Harry greeted the guard in the floo chamber, “could I speak to Steelclaw, please. I have business relating to the Gaunt vault.”
The only indication that the name shocked the goblin was the slight widening of his eyes before he nodded and pressed a rune on the door and something in Ghukliak. A minute later, Steelclaw himself stepped into the chamber, “Hello, Lord Slytherin, Lord Gryffindor, Lord Nott, Heir Potter, Miss Chang, how can I help you? And might your guest have something to do with why you asked about the Gaunt vaults?”
“Good afternoon, Steelclaw, may your gold ever flow,” Harry greeted with a bow of his head, “yes, this is Dudley, my cousin from my mother’s side.”
“Ah,” Steelclaw said, nodding his head in return, “follow me please.”
“You guys are Lords?” Dudley whispered to Neville, sounding rather off-balance.
“Yeah, that’s what we meant by ‘we control the government,’ Harry and I both hold several Lordships, Theo has one, and Cho’s father is a Lord as well.”
“Alright,” Dudley responded, deciding to just roll with it.
After turning a few corners, they arrived at Steelclaw’s office.
“I’d like to sign the contents of the Gaunt vault over to my cousin,” Harry said, getting straight to business as the Goblins preferred, “I performed an identification spell and confirmed he’s a squib. He’s a university student so I’d like to have it converted to Muggle money.”
“That can all be done,” Steelclaw said, reaching into his desk for a folder, “we just need to perform our own identification. His name showed up on your family tree so a simple spell will be sufficient, no blood needed.”
“Great,” Harry said before turning to Dudley, “are you alright with Steelclaw performing the same spell I did earlier?”
“Yes, of course,” Dudley agreed.
With that taken care of, Steelclaw made quick work of gathering Dudley’s account information and having Harry sign the remains of the Gaunt fortune over.
“Anything else I can do today?” Steelclaw asked.
“That should be every-” Harry started before he was cut off by Neville.
“You should get one of the family rings from the Potter vault.”
“Why?” Harry asked.
“No,” Steelclaw said, pressing his finger to a series of runes engraved on his desktop, “Lord Gryffindor is correct, your cousin has obviously encountered wixen and having him wear one of your family rings would show that he’s under your protection and not to be messed with.”
“Good point,” Harry said, “especially with the last name Evans.”
“And anyone who knows you or knew your mother and is introduced to him using that name would make the connection, he has the eyes.”
Harry looked toward Dudley in shock, “woah.”
“Harry you’ve known him his whole life, why are you confused?” Cho said.
“Dudley when did your eyes change color?” he asked instead of responding to Cho.
“The day after I started using Evans as my last name,” Dudley answered, “I sort of just brushed it off because sometimes people’s eyes change colors and mine were already greenish blue. They just got really green.”
“The green eyes are a Slytherin line trait which became a Gaunt line trait, they’re right that you should have one of my family rings but they’re wrong on which family.”
Steelclaw had apparently had the same idea as a green velvet box popped up on his desk, the same material that Harry’s Slytherin Lordship ring had been stored in.
“Don’t take this off, Dudley,” Harry said, opening the box and handing the ring to his cousin. It was very similar to Harry’s ring, just slightly smaller and with no emerald, just a silver signet with an “S” carved into the face, “people will recognize it for what it is and leave you alone, it’s also charmed with several layers of protection. No one will be able to take it off but you, it’ll alert me if you’re in danger, and it’ll deflect most offensive spells as well as tell you if someone is trying to potion or poison you by warming up slightly.”
“Thank you, Harry,” Dudley said, sliding the ring onto his right pinky as Harry indicated, “I really appreciate everything you’re doing for me, especially after everything I did when we were kids.”
“I forgive you,” Harry said, his tone brokering no argument, “we were just kids. You’re family and I’m ready to treat you as such.”
“Family,” Dudley agreed.