Chapter 2 Dudley
Chapter 2 Dudley
Dudley’s heart fell out of his chest and landed with a thump on the carpet. That was not Diggle’s knock, he didn’t know how he knew but he did. Why would Diggle be knocking anyway, this was his own house. Dudley pelted across the hall and into his parents bedroom, three more knocks hammered on the front door. His parents were bleary eyed and sat up on their elbows.
‘The door’ is all Dudley managed to squeak out over the bile rising in his throat.
‘I’ll get it’ said his father with a sigh
‘No dad!’ Dudley whisper shouted shaking his head. Three more knocks, louder than before.
‘I’ll take the bat, I’ll just see who it is’
Vernon bent over to retrieve a cricket bat that had been shoved down the side of the bed.
‘Are you sure?’ Petunia whispered as Vernon pulled on his dressing gown.
‘I have the bat, I won’t even open the door, I’ll just see who it is’ Vernon grumbled in reply.
Dudley knew, he knew this was going to end badly. His insides were writhing like he’d just swallowed several large worms. His mother grabbed him and pulled him down onto the bed with her.
‘I love you mum’ he whispered into the dark.
‘Shhhh sweetheart’ she replied.
Vernon was midway down the stairs when there was three more hard knocks on the door. They came loud and booming, much harder than before, rattling the wooden doorframe.
‘Okay okay!’ Vernon shouted from the stairs. Dudley cursed his fathers stupidity. He crept forwards onto the landing ignoring his mothers grasping hands pulling him back towards the bed.
Vernon approached the door cricket bat in hand, he peered through the peephole. Dudley saw his fathers shoulders relax.
‘Don’t worry!’ He called up the stairs
Dudley’s body went weak with relief.
‘It’s only Diggle’ Vernon continued, opening the door.
Dudley watched desperately from the landing.
‘AVADA KEDAVRA’
As the door inched open a piercing shot of bright green light struck his father square in the chest. Someone from outside had shouted something in a language Dudley didn’t understand, but it was definitely not Diggle’s voice. The world went still and completely silent. It felt like an eternity in which nothing happened. Dudley’s eyes were trained on his father. Vernon hadn’t moved, he was just stood there in the doorway, then he staggered backwards a few steps and dropped like a stone onto his back. The crack of his fathers skull hitting the flagstones ripped through Dudley’s body like a gunshot. Blood quickly began to pool dark and thick around Vernon’s head. Dudley tried to move but he found he couldn’t, a whimper escaped him. He should be at his fathers side, checking his breathing seeing if he was okay fighting whoever hurt him but he couldn’t move, why did he have to be such a fucking coward!
A footstep. Dudley watched them move forwards… it was … Diggle.
He sauntered into the hallway with his wand out. He was wearing a crisp black suit now. Diggle’s face was blank, completely expressionless, his mouth a hard thin line.
‘Muggle scum’ he spat at Vernon who lay, eyes open but unseeing on the flagstone floor.
Diggle placed a polished dress shoe on Vernon’s face and roughly crushed Vernon’s nose beneath it, like he was stamping out a cigarette. Another involuntary gasp left Dudley. Something inside him snuffed out, he knew he would never be the same person again. He was changed forever.
Diggle’s eyes shot up and landed directly on him where he was huddled on the staircase. Diggle’s eyes were dead, more so than even vernon’s there was no other word for it, empty nothingness but his mouth curved into a disgusting smirk. That smile alone almost made Dudley vomit, it held the promise of something cruel.
‘Dudley!’ He said with mock excitement
‘We’ve been searching for you my friend’
A spell that Dudley had been under suddenly broke when he heard Diggle speak properly, it was not Diggle’s voice.
Instead it was a syrupy sweet female sound. Dudley gagged, the reality and the wrongness of what was happening made him bring up some of his dinner into his mouth again, the sting of bile sour on his tongue.
He scrambled up off the floor and hurtled back into his parents bedroom where he found his mother, still in bed staring at the wall in-front of her.
‘Mum! They’ve come for us… I-I-I don’t know what… Dad…h-he’s dead… I think he’s dead mum. W-what do we do mum! Tell me what to do, mum- please!’
Dudley was sobbing now, warm tears streaking down his face making it hard to see his mothers face clearly… she wasn’t moving, why wasn’t she moving? Why wasn’t she telling him what to do? Why wasn’t she saving him?
‘MUM!’ Dudley tried again shaking her bony shoulders but she continued to look at the wall in front of her.
‘This is her fault you know’ she whispered turning to face Dudley.
‘What? Who?’ Dudley implored. He could hear slow footsteps coming up the stairs. It was like the bottom of his world had fallen out, he almost couldn’t believe it was happening but his imagination could never have dreamt up the sharp sound of his fathers head hitting stone.
‘Mum?’
‘Lily.’ She spat the name at him.
Footsteps on the landing. Dudley left his mother in the bed and began to desperately drag a large desk across the room. The desk was heavy hardwood but Dudley was strong and with the adrenaline coursing through him he pulled it quickly in front of the door. He then retreated back to his mother, he hugged her tightly. She felt so small and fragile under him, like an insect.
‘I love you’ he managed
‘I love you’ she replied, but she was staring intently at the door. The desk moved. Something unseen slowly pushing it out of the way.
That was it. The end of his life, Dudley suddenly felt the weight of how wasted it had been. What had he done? Achieved? Nothing at all. He had nothing to show for eighteen years of life. He tried to tell himself, at least you never did anything awful but he couldn’t finish the thought before realising that actually he had, all the people he had been unkind to, he’d stolen dinner money from. These acts that had seemed inconsequential at the time, funny even, his friends had always laughed but when Dudley added them up in his head they were huge. They amounted to a life that had put more bad into the world than good. Dudley would leave this world worse. The world would have been a kinder place if he had never been born, and then Dudley did want to die. That was when Dudley finally threw up properly. He emptied his stomach on to the floor of his parents bedroom. That is how Diggle found him when he opened the door. Dudley on his hands and knees covered in the contents of his own stomach and crying desperate hot tears.
‘There you are!’ Proclaimed Diggle from the doorway with a jarring levity, like he had just found a missing sock behind a sofa.
‘Tut tut- what a mess’ with a flick of his wand Diggle got rid of the vomit that now covered the carpet, Dudley regretted eating so much.
‘Now then, you two are going to be coming with me. The dark lord has some questions regarding the whereabouts of your cousin and nephew’
The voice was so feminine it was strange to hear it come out of a male body. It was also… polite? It wasn’t the voice of someone who had just murdered his father in cold blood. When neither of them moved Diggle looked at them with disappointment, Dudley felt small and ashamed, a dog that had just wet the carpet.
‘Will you come or will I have to make you?
Trust me sweethearts it would be much easier for you if you come willingly’
Diggle giggled.
‘Where are you taking us?’ Dudley forced out.
‘To the dark lord’
‘But where?’
‘Doesn’t really matter my darling, you will be coming with me either way’
Dudley balled his fists, nails digging into his palms, how was this fair? People with magic had such an advantage, it was a rigged game, Dudley was a boxer, he was strong, he could pack a good punch but there was no point. Magic trumped anything Dudley was capable of.
‘Will you hurt us?’
‘Again- irrelevant, you will be coming with me regardless’ Diggle smiled.
‘If I come will you leave my mum alone?’
‘Very gallant! Such a big brave boy, but no my lovely, you will both be joining me.’
‘Why?’ Dudley whispered defeated
‘I’ve already told you.’ Diggle shook his head as he spoke.
‘But we don’t know where he is!’
‘Maybe that’s true, maybe it’s not, the dark lord would like to interrogate you himself nonetheless. Now come.’ Diggle put his hand out as if waiting for Dudley to take it.
Dudley ignored it and turned to his mother who was still catatonic.
‘Mum… I think we have to go’
‘What’s that Diddums?’
‘With this… person… I think we have to go mum.’
‘Okay sweet, whatever you think is best.’
She was gone.
Dudley took her arm and pulled her from the bed. He placed her dressing gown over her shoulders and held her hand. She smiled at him with eyes as dead as his fathers.
They followed Diggle down the stairs and into the hallway where Dudley could see his fathers body, dark blood congealing and still oozing from his head. If there had been anything left inside him Dudley was sure he would have been sick again. He let go of his mother and knelt at his fathers side. Vernon wasn’t a particularly good or kind man but he had loved Dudley. He had taught him to ride a bike, bought him his first pair of boxing gloves, taken him to school in the car when Dudley was too lazy to walk. And now he was gone.
‘What will happen to him?’
‘Hmmm not sure really, we’ll toss him in sea probably. Muggles will assume suicide.’
Dudley was okay with that. He didn’t want his fathers family to know the real truth. And there were worse places to end up than the ocean.
‘Okay’ he said ‘just… will you… w-will you be gentle with him. Just please… please don’t hurt him anymore?’
‘I don’t make promises I can’t keep’ came the reply. The wind was knocked out of Dudley, he struggled to breathe properly. He looked into his fathers blue eyes one last time before gently nudging them shut so it looked like he was sleeping.
‘Sorry Dad’ he whispered gently into his fathers ear so no one else could hear.
‘I love you.’ He imagined his fathers gravelly voice said it back. Then he kissed Vernon’s temple, stood, grabbed his mothers hand and followed the stranger out of the door and into the cool darkness of the night.