Chapter 3 Dudley
Chapter 3 Dudley
Dudley noticed as they followed Diggle outside that he was shorter, much shorter, he barely seemed to reach Dudley’s shoulders. They walked further along the pavement, the road was dead quiet, there were only three small cottages in the cul de sac. It occurred to Dudley how strange this would look if anyone were to look out of their window right now.
Hestia! Dudley thought, maybe she would come to their aid, she lived in one of these houses after all. Dudley considered shouting but the sound died on his lips. Coward.
‘We just need to get out of the way of anti apparition charm’ Diggle explained
Dudley had no shoes on and the wet ground was seeping into his socks. The moon was a perfect crescent and the air crisp and chilly, it smelled clean and Dudley tried to take a large deep breath.
He was holding his mothers hand, she was hobbling slowly next to him. She herself had no shoes or socks on and was tripping on small stones.
Diggle stopped abruptly and turned around.
‘Oh’ Dudley startled, he hadn’t noticed during the walk but Diggle was gone. The face that looked back at him now was a woman. Perfectly curled mousy brown hair cut into a curly bob. Thin lips, round face and a plump squat body not unlike a toad. Completely swamped by the black suit that was now several inches too long for her in every direction, hanging off her like she was a toddler trying on her Dad’s clothes.
‘Who are you?’ Dudley asked
‘Apologies, one of the inconveniences of polyjuice I’m afraid’ she gestured to the clothes that were hanging off her.
‘vestis mutatio’ and her clothes were immediately replaced. She now wore a bubblegum pink tweed skirt suit. Dark pink kitten heels finished with a large floral broach on her lapel. She looked like she had been drawn by a child.
‘I’m Dolores, Dolores Umbridge, head of
The undesirables detection department at the Ministry of Magic’
She glanced around, they were now at the entrance of the cul de sac.
‘This should be far enough’ she smoothed imaginary creases out of her suit jacket
‘It’s apparition I’m afraid, it’s the fastest way. It will feel horrible so please try not to vomit again in front of the dark lord’
Dudley swallowed, the mere mention of this dark wizard set his heart beating like a drum. He was about to meet him. Fuck.
‘Hands’ Dolores opened and offered both her palms, one in the direction of Petunia and the other at Dudley. Dudley looked around again, searching for any hope of rescue but there was nothing, just the dark.
‘I don’t want to’ he whispered to the ground
‘Come now, it will be so much worse if I have to inform the dark lord of your disobedience’ she warned. Dudley did not like the sound of that.
He looked at his mother who was merely staring at Dolores’s upturned hand.
‘It’ll be okay mum’ he said as he took Petunia’s hand and placed it on top of Dolores's. He then took one last breath of cold air before he reluctantly gripped Dolores’s hand and the ground was ripped from underneath him.
Dudley was being crushed from all angles, he was being stretched as far as his bones would allow. His limbs felt like they were about to tear away from him like wet tissue paper. He was being clawed at from every direction, squashed and pulled. Inside his head there was a pressure unlike anything, he could see only white but could feel bodies, shapes and places pressing into him. The only constant was Delores’s hand which kept a tight grip on his own. Just as he thought he was going to pass out
he slammed down onto a tile floor so hard it felt like he’d been dropped from the sky. His knees hit with such force he was sure his kneecaps would be broken. He was winded and gasping for breath. Dudley hunched over on all fours coughing and spluttering, saliva dripping from his mouth in long strings as he gagged and retched.
When he had recovered enough Dudley looked up. He found his mother to his left. She was… not moving. Dudley wobbled ungracefully across the tiles to reach her. He felt her neck for a pulse and found one, slow but steady, he heaved a sigh. She was just unconscious.
He looked up to find Delores stood over them both. Completely unruffled as though she had returned from an afternoon stroll, smile on her face, not a hair out of place. Dudley was filled with a violent swell of hatred for magic, how was she okay while Dudley felt like he might die.
Dudley took a moment to absorb his surroundings. It seemed to be the foyer of some sort of stately home, the floor was tiled black and viridian green, like a large chessboard. The space was enormous, sound echoed the emptiness. The pale stone walls throwing your sounds back at you. There was an elaborate pillared archway leading to two sets of stone steps both sides meeting on the second floor landing. An glittering chandelier hung in the centre of the ceiling dripping in green gemstones. The whole place reeked of magic. Worse than Diggle’s house, it was humming with it, dripping in it. Dudley was drowning.
‘Ahhhh Master Dursley and Mrs Dursley’ the voice cut through Dudley turning his bones ice cold. He turned to see something walking towards him. So white he was almost translucent, bony and sharp. Two slits where his nose should have been and death in his yellow eyes. Dudley had no doubt who it was.
He remained next to his mother who was beginning to come round.
‘I have been most looking forward to making your acquaintance, thank you Dolores.’ He aimed the compliment at Umbridge who looked like she might explode with pride
‘Tell me Master Dursley do you know the current whereabouts of Harry Potter?’
‘No’ Dudley bit out
‘And you? Mrs Dursley?’
He turned to Petunia who was now sat up and awake, but clearly still somewhere else, she didn’t answer.
‘SPEAK!’ He bellowed
Petunia let out a sob but still didn’t say anything.
‘LEGILIMENS’
Petunia went stiff before beginning to writhe in agony. Tears still escaping her wet eyes. She groaned and started clawing at her face. Her perfectly manicured nails ripping deep gouges down both cheeks and up her forearms.
‘Mum!’ Dudley cradled her head resting it on his knees.
‘STOP! Please please p-please just stop’ Dudley bawled. After a small eternity his mother finally went limp.
‘Nothing.’ Voldemort was furious. He was holding his wand so tightly it looked like he might snap it. Dudley’s mother was lifted from his lap, he wasn’t sure who was doing it until he saw Voldemort directing her with a hand into the air. Tears and blood were streaked down her face. Red marks bleeding into the crisp white of her dressing gown. Her face held no expression, like a doll before the smile was painted on. She was levitating just out of Dudley’s reach, but oh did he try to reach her with everything he had, grasping and grabbing at her bare feet. And then
‘AVADA KEDAVRA’ another green flash and she dropped to the floor with a dull thud. Limbs crumbling underneath her, jutting out at the wrong angle. A marionette with the strings cut, dead. Dudley knew it. The same spell that claimed his father. Both dead. Mum and dad gone forever. Dudley felt the enormity of it at once. It hit him square in the chest, like the world had stopped spinning, a stillness. He dropped back down onto his knees looking at his mothers mangled body wishing he could join her. There was silence for a few long moments.
‘My lord, you can still try the boy’ Umbridge choked out from behind him. Dudley didn’t care. He would welcome it. Voldemort looked at him with those empty eyes and raised his wand.
‘legilimens’
Dudley’s mind was flung open, an invasion he had not been prepared for. Voldemort was inside him, in every part of him, there was not an inch of his body that didn’t ache in protest at the violent intrusion. Voldemort was walking though Dudley’s consciousness, opening doors, opening drawers replaying memories Dudley himself could barely remember. Dudley heard himself groaning, but he was barely aware of it. He felt his own fingers dragging through his hair pulling with all the force he could manage but the pain of it didn’t register next to the force of the thing inside him. Voldemort aimed for memories Dudley had done everything to try to forget. All the things he was most ashamed of. The pain of it all was too much. Death. Please. Dudley wished. But then there was a wall. Voldemort could go no further, a blockage. He felt Voldemort pushing desperately attempting to push it out of the way, knock it down, climb over it, dig underneath it. But no. The wall was firm, completely unyielding, like it had been there since the dawn of time, the world had simply grown around it. It could not be moved. Dudley knew this. Understood it with the very deepest parts of himself, that knowledge was in his bones. This blockage would not be removed by anyone. It was a relief. Dudley felt himself sag slightly under the knowledge. And the invasion was over. Voldemort was out of his head but he was now holding Dudley with his spindly fingers, so tight it was a vice on his chin.
‘What is that?’ He demanded eyes burning and desperate.
‘I-I d-d-don’t know’
‘TELL ME!’
‘I DONT KNOW!’ Dudley shouted back.
‘Get Draco’ Voldemort shot at Umbridge before looking back at Dudley with confusion in his brow. Dudley swayed slightly on his knees as Umbridge trotted off up the stairs.
Moments later three more people accompanied Umbridge as she returned to the foyer. A woman, dressed in black, lips pursed. Blonde hair with a streak of black tucked into a neat bun. A man, also in black but with a deep green cloak elegantly draped over one shoulder. Long blonde hair cascaded down his back, his forehead creased with concern. And behind them walked a younger man, Dudley’s age, he wore a white shirt, top button undone, the smallest hint of chest hair visible. He had an angular face, sharp cheekbones. His eyes a silvery grey. Pale, like the rest of him. He was lean, Dudley always carried some extra weight. There was not a scrap of anything extra on this man. Lithe and muscular. He looked like he was carved from marble, cold and hard.
‘Draco!’ Voldemort addressed the boy
‘I need your assistance, your knack for legilimancy may be of use to me, this here is Harry Potter’s muggle cousin’ he gestured to Dudley.
‘He’s hiding something from me, I can’t get past this…blockage he seems to have in his mind. Get past it, tell me what he’s concealing’ Voldemort demanded.
The two other people, undoubtedly the boys parents, looked at one another, mouths held tightly closed.
The boy, Draco just looked tired, he reached for his wand. Dudley tried to prepare himself for the new invasion but failed. It was worse the second time. Stronger. Draco ripped him open, trashing as he went, steamrollering his entire being into submission. Pulling, clawing, tearing him apart. Dudley felt his fingernails digging deep into the skin of his scalp as he was unravelled from within.. until… nothing again. Draco had found the wall. Dudley could feel him touch it, feel the edges of it, scoping it out, mapping the size and shape of it. Dudley felt him push with such force it filled up his whole body but made no dent in the blockage. Not even the trace of one. He felt Draco retreat from his mind.
Draco turned to Voldemort looking sheepish now
‘I’m sorry sir, I can’t get past it, it’s too strong for me, it’s like nothing I’ve ever felt before.’
All five of them looked down at Dudley who was now sat hugging his knees. Wondering what was wrong with him, what would they do to him now, and wishing he could be dead like his parents.