Chapter 51 Dudley
Chapter 51 Dudley
The thick liquid landed on Dudley’s tongue and slid down his throat, it felt slippery and congealed and it tasted like mud. Draco stepped backwards and Voldemort released Dudley from whatever spell he had been under. He could move his head again, though his limbs were still tied punishingly to the chair. Draco gave him a sorrowful look and apparated back to the other side of the bars. Voldemort came close, his dirty fingers slithering round the metal bars that separated them, he didn’t apparate he just walked through the metal like he was made of smoke. Dudley felt his heart rate increase as Voldemort closed in on him. Voldemort stood directly in front of him, tall and proud. He smelled fetid and rotten, it was a sweet smell like decaying fruit under a hot sun.
‘Where is Harry Potter?’ He asked, poorly concealed desperation in his voice.
Dudley felt like he wanted to say something, his mouth tried to form words but nothing came. Dudley was relieved to find that there was no pain, just a light prickly feeling in his throat. Voldemort’s long fingers tightened into fists.
‘I don’t know.’ Dudley said firmly
‘What are you hiding?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Is it a weapon?’
I don’t know.’
‘TELL ME!’ Voldemort exploded, he slapped Dudley harshly around the face. He was breathing raggedly now, his pent up frustration bubbling over. A fine spray of spit coated Dudley’s face.
Still nothing. The prickly sensation was in his throat but Dudley gave no answer. It was the same as the last time they had attempted veritaserum. Completely useless. Dudley smiled, he glanced to Draco who was sagging with relief. Dudley couldn’t help himself, the ubsurdity of his life came crashing down on him like a bucket of cold water, only a few months ago his biggest problem had been his poor grades and now he was here, tied up in a dungeon and irrevocably in love with a wizard. It was so ridiculous he started to laugh.
Voldemort gritted his teeth as Dudley’s giggle echoed around the room. He was incandescant with rage, somehow even paler than usual.
‘CRUCIO.’
Voldemort shot the spell at him and Dudley felt the familiar sting. The laughter cut off and was replaced with an elongated strangled howl. Pain. Brain shattering, life altering. Fire and ice at the same time, in every vein, every artery, every pore. It pulsed through every atom of him. Pulsating and stretching, tearing and ripping, throbbing and crushing. Barbed wire forcing its self slowly through his body. Filling him until he was overflowing with it. He lost consciousness not long after.
When Dudley woke he was still tied to the chair, blood and mud on his tongue, a tight cramp thrummed through his body, the familiar residue of the cruciatus curse lingering within him. The body remembers pain like that long after it is over.
Dudley opened his eyes to find Lucius reclined in a green velvet armchair facing him. Blonde hair cascading down both his shoulders and a slight furrow in his brow. Everyone else was gone though Ilya’s blood remained in a congealing puddle to his right.
‘Welcome back.’ Lucius drawled.
‘Thankyou’ Dudley said marinated in sarcasm.
‘Voldemort has decided you’ll be moved to Azkaban soon, he is bored of you. You’ll rot there until you die.’
‘Fabulous.’
Lucius smiled and gave a humourless chuckle ‘where do you get your resolve?’ He seemed to be genuinely curious.
Dudley said nothing. The answer was of course ‘Draco Malfoy gives me all the strength I need.’ But he didn’t say that, he let the question hang there.
Being alone with Lucius meant one thing and Dudley was waiting for it, he wouldn’t indulge Lucius by giving him anything more than what he was already going to take.
‘It might be good for you to have a friend while you’re in Azkaban you know, someone powerful, who knows the right strings to pull to get you a nice cell… a bed even…’
‘That’s going to be you is it?’ Dudley scoffed.
‘It could be. For a price.’
‘Your price is too high.’
‘How would you know? You haven’t negotiated any terms.’
‘I’m not for sale, I won’t be your plaything.’
‘Hmmm you say that now. I think a few weeks in Azkaban and you’ll have changed your mind. Nights get cold there. You might enjoy a warm body next to you. Give me what I want, willingly, and I can help you.’
‘What do you want?’
‘You. Your body. At my disposal.’ Lucius licked his lip and glanced at Dudley’s crotch.
‘And what will you give me in return?’ Dudley played along with him. Lucius sat up straighter.
‘Food, warmth, nights free from dementors, books, you seem to like to read.’ He nodded to a small pile of books in the corner.
Dudley made a play at mulling over Lucius’s proposal. And Lucius looked genuinely hopeful. It gave Dudley an immense sense of satisfaction to burst this balloon for him.
‘The problem is. I would rather spend my nights with dementors, I would die before I’d willingly let you fuck me. You are more abhorrent than a thousand dementors and I would sleep in shit before I’d sleep next to you. You. repel. me.’ Dudley spat at Lucius’s feet, immensely satisfied when it landed on Lucius’s polished dress shoes with a wet splat.
‘Disappointing.’ Lucius bent down and ran a long finger through the saliva on his shoe, he brought it up to his mouth and examined it for a moment before popping the finger in his mouth and sucking. Dudley’s stomach turned at the sight.
‘You know that I will still be able to take what I want. You understand that it will happen anyway?’
‘Oh I know.’
‘You’d rather live in constant fear, reliving your worst memories relentlessly in disgusting, cold, fetid squalor than give me what I desire?’
Dudley nodded.
‘I’m that repulsive to you?’
Dudley nodded.
‘You will change your mind.’
‘I will not.’
Lucius stood up, cane in hand. He didn’t get close to Dudley, he had seen the damage Dudley could inflict. Instead he reached his cane out between them, he forced the end roughly into Dudley’s mouth, then disapparated with a loud crack. Dudley sagged in his chair.
He was left tied to the chair for hours, the ropes really were far too tight. He began to wonder if he might lose his hands and feet through lack of circulation, he could no longer feel them. The whole night replayed it itself in his head. The euphoria of seeing killer, the horror of hearing Voldemort’s voice, the fear of the veritaserum, the taste of Ilya’s blood, the familiar pain of the cruciatus. It all felt strangely like it had happened to someone else. He needed Draco now, he’d been so strong, he’d tried so hard and he was in so much pain. He needed help. He needed Draco’s help.
As if he had summoned him himself Draco appeared in the cell. He looked frantic, eves wide and pupils dilated. There was an electricity to him.
‘Relashio’ Dudley felt the ropes release his limbs. Before he could even inspect the damage they had done Draco was on him.
He heaved Dudley into a wild embrace burying himself in Dudley’s chest.
‘Are you okay?’ Draco asked
‘I’m okay my love. I’m okay now you’re here.’ He gently kissed Draco’s hair.
Draco settled in his lap.
‘I couldn’t come. I had to wait. They made me escort Ilya back to knockturn alley.’
‘It’s okay.’ Dudley whispered.
‘I’m so sorry.’
‘Don’t be, none of it was you. None of it has ever been you.’
‘I’m still sorry.’ He sobbed.
They sat together on the chair for a few moments, Dudley raking his fingers through Draco’s hair.
Draco carefully kissed the red marks the rope had left on Dudley’s wrists.
They sat quietly in the chair for a while, allowing their heart rates to slow and the adrenaline to leave their bodies. Dudley broke their silence.
‘Could you apparate me outside the cell?’
‘I think so, I couldn’t apparate us earlier, they would have known I wasn’t loyal, and I wasn’t sure I could get us far away enough.’
‘No. I know. But I’d love to sleep in your bed tonight. I know It’s risky, but I don’t care.’
Dudley knew that eventually he would have to ask Draco to apparate him somewhere else, he really didn’t want a future as Lucius’s plaything in Azkaban. But he wouldn’t ask him yet, he would wait until the horcrux was gone and they could leave together. He would not leave Draco, not unless there was no other option.
If he mentioned Azkaban now, Draco would insist he left immediately and Dudley couldn’t leave Draco here alone, they would stick together for as long as they could. He could still taste the metal from the bottom of Lucius’s cane in his mouth, it made him shudder, he would not let Lucius win.
‘We’re so stupid’ Draco whispered as they crept through Malfoy manor for the second time that night. Though it must be early morning by now. Dudley knew it was stupid but he didn’t care, he just wanted Draco in a warm bed. He couldn’t believe that after all of the events of the evening they were both still here, relatively unharmed. His head was still throbbing with the remnants of the cruciatus curse and his wrists and ankles were sore but he had recovered from much worse, perhaps his body was developing a tolerance. What he wanted, needed more than anything was to be in bed with Draco. Touching his skin, breathing him in. He didn’t know how much longer they would be able to just exist next to each other, it felt like the walls were closing in.
Draco eased open his bedroom door and Dudley walked in, shutting it behind him with a click. They were alone. Dudley was overcome with urgency, he needed Draco now. He grabbed him and thrust his mouth to Draco’s, they crashed together. Draco made a small sound of surprise before returning the kiss. Messy and frantic. Draco latched to Dudley’s energy immediately and began to grab back with the same ferocity. Teeth and tongues. Dudley raked his hands through Draco’s hair and down to the small of his back where he squeezed, pressing their bodies together even harder. Draco began to pull at Dudley’s shirt, yanking it clumsily off his head. Dudley was shirtless and Draco’s hands were on him. Draco’s robes were off and his shirt was quickly dispensed with. Dudley gave up on the buttons and ripped it from Draco’s torso revealing his chest. He was the most perfect thing Dudley had ever seen. They continued to kiss, heavy and desperate, it was like they were trying to climb into each others skin, to fuse themselves together into one being.
They removed each others trousers, kicking them to the floor with reckless abandon. Dudley picked Draco up without breaking their kiss. Draco wrapped his legs around Dudley’s waist grabbing him tightly. Dudley walked them to the bed, gently placing him down and climbing on top of him, straddling him, pressing him into the mattress.
‘I need you’ Dudley whimpered
‘You have me. Always’ Draco kissed his forehead.
‘No I need you Draco. I don’t want to die without-
‘-You’re not going to-‘
‘-don’t.’ Dudley interrupted.
‘Don’t say that. We don’t know what’s going to happen. I just don’t want to die without giving you all of me and having all of you.’
‘Have me.’ Draco said very seriously.
‘Really?’ Dudley asked
‘Yes. I want it. I want it so much.’
‘I love you. So much.’ Dudley said before sinking lower. He prepared Draco slowly, with gentle hands and careful kisses, pulling tortured sounds from him.
Only when Draco was practically begging for it did he finally slip himself gently inside. Draco sighed, and Dudley gave a shallow experimental thrust. Draco gasped but nodded, urging him to do it again. Dudley did, deeper and deeper each time until they were one. Dudley thought he might have a heart attack. It was like his body was made for this, he was humming with the ecstasy of it .
Draco was an oil painting. Pale and perfect, his face was a portrait of exquisite agonising pleasure. Dudley removed a stray lock of hair from Draco’s face and carefully tucked it behind his ear. They continued to kiss, moving together until eventually they both tipped over the edge and unleashed a fresh torrent of earth shattering pleasure. Dudley couldn’t fathom a coherent thought as he fell down on top of Draco, completely spent and utterly enraptured by the perfectness of what they had just shared. Dudley slid off Dracos body and settled next to him. They were naked and on their sides, looking into each others souls.
‘If we do die. I won’t care. What we’ve had is enough for me.’
Dudley whispered the words trying to aim them at Draco’s heart.