Chapter 47 Dudley
Chapter 47 Dudley
Dudley crashed violently to the floor next to Draco. Draco managed to stay upright, landing gracefully on his feet. The cold dungeon underneath Malfoy Manor surrounded them both once again. Dudley felt a suffocating weight on his chest as he took in his surroundings once again, his corner, Draco’s wall, the thick metal bars, the hard stone beneath his feet. Draco bent down to help Dudley up, clearly he was still new to apparating and hadn’t quite finessed the art yet, with the added stress of his weakened body the apparition had left his head swimming.
‘You okay?’ Draco asked, his good hand rested on the small of Dudley’s back.
‘I’m good.’ Dudley replied, but his dry-heaving betrayed him.
‘Sorry, long distances are always worse.’ Draco said rubbing small circles on Dudley’s back.
Dudley stopped reaching, the pain in his head was sending ripples of pain through the rest of his body like a stone dropped into a lake. Dudley tried to ignore the pain.
‘Killer!’ Dudley remembered suddenly through the fog in his head. Dudley scrambled over to killer’s box, he opened it with fumbling hands. He had missed her so much and couldn’t wait to see her again, the thought of seeing her made the tricky return journey worth it. He wanted to run his fingers down her spiky back, feel her nuzzle into his side as he woke up in the morning. The box opened with a clatter but it revealed nothing. Killer wasn’t there. His gut squirmed, had they found her? Was she dead? The thought of it wriggled inside him and he was overwhelmed with a rising sense of panic. Dudley wasn’t sure he could bear to lose something else.
‘She’s not here.’ He could hear the heartbreak in his own voice.
‘It’s okay Dudley, don’t panic. I’m sure she’s fine, Vinny was looking after her, he wouldn’t have let anything happen I’m sure of it.’ Draco said the words but the slightly wide stare he was giving the empty box told Dudley otherwise. If Voldemort had found her, that would be a hard thing for Draco to explain away.
Dudley pushed down the rising anxiety.
‘You need to get out of here. They’ll know someone has apparated into the manor. They’ll find us soon.’
Draco looked like he wanted to argue but he couldn’t. He knelt next to Dudley, pulled him close to him and kissed him on the head.
‘I love you.’
Dudley nodded, he was finding it hard to speak, the loss of killer had stolen his voice. Draco apparated himself outside the cell and into the corridor. It was a matter of a few feet but it felt much farther.
Dudley was reminded of the weeks they had been separated by the bars when Draco had returned from Riddle Manor the first time. They had been unable to touch each other properly and Dudley had stuck his feet through the bars and Draco had nestled between them on the other side. Draco had been so skinny then, so weak, a part of Dudley had worried Draco might just waste away to nothing. Draco’s recovery had been incredible, he was incredible.
As predicted Dudley could hear voices making their way down the stairs, the crisp sound of dress shoes on stone. He could make out the icy tones of Lucius’s voice and a fresh wave of panic washed over him, almost forcing him to start heaving again. They appeared one by one at the far end of the corridor, Voldemort, Lucius, Bellatrix and Snape.
‘Draco?’ Voldemort sounded genuinely surprised to see him. Draco quickly altered his posture putting on his mask, he stood tall and wiped all expression from his face. He became Draco Malfoy, heir to the Malfoy fortune, proud pure-blood wizarding aristocracy.
‘My lord.’ Draco replied with a low bow.
‘We feared you dead.’ Lucius added, also looking genuinely dumbfounded. The sound of his voice forced a whimper from Dudley as he fought to contain his breakfast from reappearing, he couldn’t look straight at Lucius, the hair, the nails, he looked so much like Draco but also nothing like him. Dudley hated to admit it to himself but Lucius frightened him, he was simply terrified of that man.
‘You?’ Voldemort asked suddenly noticing Dudley’s presence in the cell.
‘Apologies my lord. The night Harry escaped, so did this one.’ Draco inclined his head at Dudley. ‘A house elf attempted to apparate him out, I managed to side-along but was outnumbered at the other end, a camp in a forest somewhere full of muggleborns and half-bloods. I escaped, I lost them for a while but found them again and followed them. Eventually I caught him on his own and was able to bring him back. I’m sorry it took so long. I know he is an important prisoner.’ Draco emphasised those last words as if he could make them true just by saying them.
‘I see…’ Voldemort hissed.
‘Thankyou Draco.’ Voldemort continued, he was talking to Draco but looking at Dudley like he was something delicious to eat.
‘Enjoy your little holiday did you?’ Voldemort asked, daggers in his tone.
Dudley said nothing, his stomach was hurting, he looked down to see that his wound was bleeding, it had healed so nicely but apparating must have been too much. His shirt was wet and turning bright red. Draco’s eyes almost fell out of his head. Please don’t do anything stupid Dudley tried to communicate silently to Draco with a look.
‘What’s this?’ Bellatrix sounded genuinely thrilled to see Dudley bleeding.
With a flick of her wand Dudley’s shirt disappeared and he was left bare-chested in-front of them, the large slice that had been ripped across his abdomen was dripping with fresh blood.
‘Well done Draco! Good to see you didn’t show the muggle filth too much mercy. That’s quite impressive.’ Bellatrix chimed.
‘T-Thankyou.’ Draco said.
‘Well, let’s see what the boy’s been up to in our absence shall we?’ Voldemort announced.
‘What?’ Draco asked panic rising in his voice.
Fuck. Dudley thought, would they see everything? He and Draco would both be exposed if Voldemort entered Dudley’s memories, he would see everything! How had they not seen this coming?
No. Voldemort would not have those memories, they belonged to Draco and Dudley alone. They were perfect and precious and Dudley would defend them. He closed his eyes and in his head he scooped up all of the memories from the last few weeks, every memory that betrayed their relationship, every kiss, every touch, everything that had happened at the cabin, everything that had happened at Riddle Manor and he placed them all behind the enormous barrier in his head. It was surprisingly easy, it was like the memories wanted to go, they wanted to be hidden from these people and so when instructed to hide they calmly obeyed and moved behind the fortress inside Dudley’s head. Dudley relaxed. He knew they were safe.
Draco on the other hand looked so pale Dudley worried he might simply pass out.
‘I’ve already tried my lord! There’s nothing!’ Draco insisted loudly, distress clear in his voice.
Voldemort ignored him.
‘Severus’ Voldemort looked to Snape who had remained silent so far, standing behind Voldemort and calmly absorbing the conversation.
‘Of course my lord’ Snape answered taking a step forwards so he was close to the bars of Dudley’s cell. Dudley was frozen, the warming spell Draco usually kept in the dungeon had worn off in their absence and the icy atmosphere was making him dizzy, it pricked at his bare skin like hundreds of insect bites.
Draco stepped forwards too, as if to stop Snape but Dudley caught his eye. Dudley made the most minuscule movement of his head at Draco and to Dudley’s relief Draco stilled and stepped backwards again.
Snape raised his wand and Dudley tensed waiting for the violent intrusion.
‘Legilimens!’
The sound shot through Dudley like a gunshot and he could feel Snape inside him. It was like being punched in the brain. Snape was flying through his consciousness forcing memories into the light. Pulling them out from the corners of his mind. Once again Dudley was forced to relive the moment his fathers head hit the floor, the crimson liquid pooling around him. He saw his mother’s lifeless eyes open and staring at nothing, Snape continued to ransack his darkest and most painful memories.Then Snape found a memory of Lucius, he was stood tall and leering down at Dudley with a grotesque grin as he forced himself into Dudley’s open mouth. Snape stopped and watched the memory play out, the entirety of his interaction with Lucius that day. Dudley had tried so hard to forget it, he’d pushed it down and pushed it away with all the power he could muster but Snape had brought it all back. Uncontrolled tears started to run down his face, Dudley shut his eyes as though that would make any difference and began to sob, he couldn’t help it, he couldn’t stop the tears from running.
‘Please stop.’ He whispered eventually.
Snape suddenly woke again inside Dudley’s head, mercifully he left the memory swiftly and continued to search further and deeper. He found nothing of the last week, Dudley knew those memories were safely locked away. Snape took the opportunity to have another attempt at removing the fortress inside Dudley’s head, he pressed forcefully on the walls but they were solid and Snape withdrew.
‘Nothing my lord. My apologies, I can find no memories of the last few weeks.’
Dudley watched as Snape looked at Lucius, it was a confused look, half fear half surprise, like he was seeing him as something frightening for the first time. Dudley felt an odd sense of relief that someone else knew, even if they could do nothing about it, someone else knew the truth about Lucius, knew the monster he truly was.
Draco sagged with relief in Dudley’s periphery, luckily Voldemort was looking straight at Dudley and not Draco. Voldemort stared at Dudley for a prolonged moment as if he was making his mind up about something, Dudley met his gaze and felt a tear slide off the bottom of his chin, it hit the stone with a wet slap that rang out in the silence.
Voldemort was eerily calm, he took a step closer to the bars that separated them.
‘The end is coming, it’s almost here. I will win. I know you’re hiding something important. I want you to know that I will take your secrets and then I will kill you… that is a promise.’
Dudley lifted his chin and looked directly into Voldemorts yellow eyes.
‘Good luck.’ He replied as another tear fell off his face and hit the ground between them.
Voldemort smiled.
‘Draco… with me’ Voldemort swept out of the dungeon, the others followed dutifully. Dudley caught Draco’s eye and mouthed ‘I love you.’
Draco nodded and left the dungeon.
Dudley slumped down onto the ground in his old corner. the wound on his stomach was bleeding but it would stop soon, the edges were pulling apart but it hadn’t opened very deep. The dungeon was freezing cold and Dudley had no shirt, he could feel his extremities starting to numb. Dudley wrapped an old blanket around his middle to soak up the blood. He couldn’t believe he was back here, memories of what had happened to him in this room were waiting for him, being back here he couldn’t escape them the same way he could at the cabin. He had deluded himself into thinking he might be over what Lucius had done but he was being buried under a fresh avalanche of pain. In the end he pulled another blanket over himself and started to cry.