Phone calls and Packing! ~Is a Sandwich an apology?~
The morning of the 6th promised beautiful weather. Marissa was up early sipping coffee as she waited on the call from her boss. She received a message 10 minutes ago saying he would contact her within the next 30. Both boys were still asleep and probably would be for another hour or so, so she just relaxed in the early morning sun and hoped the rest of the day would be just as pleasant.
Not five minutes later she’s knocked out of her solitude by her phone vibrating on the cushion next to her. A brief look at the caller ID to confirm, “Morning Jack, sorry it's so early.”
“Morning Marissa, no worries you know I’m an early riser. What do you have going on? You never message so late at night so I figured it best not to put off the call.” Jack responded. They'd worked closely together for the last couple years and she and Piers would often go to his and his wife's home for dinners. He knew her better than most and concerned flared when she sent a message asking for a call as soon as he was able.
“Oh goodness, I don't even know where to start. I do, however, know that we're going to need a conference with Amelia Bones, a law firm consultant, and Gringotts on this case. Possibly multiple cases actually.” She could practically hear him sit up straighter and knew she had his attention.
“I can get that set up, do you have any requests for the meeting? This seems mostly magical, do we have jurisdiction to be involved?”
“For the moment I request a class 1 secrecy clause signed by all parties just until we can figure out what's happening. It’s mostly a wizarding issue hence Bones and Gringotts, but parts of it implicate no-mag and the complaint and their cousin were raised without knowing about magic until the cousin got their Hogwarts letter. Our involvement in the case will be important, I have a feeling the ministry will attempt to interfere if we give any leeway, so we need to use what we can to avoid being tossed off.” The sound of typing filtered through the speaker. “I’ll send you an email when we hang up containing all the documents that were given to me along with screen captures of my notes from last night. It might be confusing without all the context but it would probably be good to review it so you know what I’ll present.” She could hear an affirmative hum on the other end of the line.
“I’ll keep an eye open for the email. How big do you think this case will be? Do we need a law firm that has experience with high-profile clients? It truly has been a while since we’ve had a case to really fight the ministry on, I can't say I’m not excited at the possibility.”
“I think it could be bigger than even I can imagine and I know all the details.” Marissa sighed. “Yes to High Profile, but don't contact Knott, Blackwood, and Murk, I have a feeling they wouldn't mesh well with the complainant. The Firm should also have people who can work Criminal, Family, and Non-Magical Law with experience in cases with minors.”
“Oh?” They both knew it was very rare for the wizarding world to have cases revolving around minors. They cherished their youth much more than nonwizarding cultures. “I’ll see if Sallow, Prewitt & Cattermore can send a representative or two. They've been taking on a lot of family cases revolving around Non-mag Magical household mixes over the last couple of years. And I think they recently signed on a young Prewitt from a squib line who's a dab hand at criminal law. Send me what you have so I can review it and create a case file while I wait for responses and I’ll message you when I have the meeting scheduled. If there’s anything else, Marissa, reach out.”
“Thank you, Jack, I’ll talk to you later.” Hanging up and finishing her coffee, Marissa slid her computer into her lap. She spent a couple minutes renaming the files Dudley sent to her before adding them all into a folder with her scanned notes from the night before. Zipping the file, and it was quickly emailed off.
A quick glance at the clock let her know the boys would be up soon enough. Marissa had a plan of taking them both to Diagon Alley and staying in the leaky for a couple nights. The meeting most likely won't happen till tomorrow at the earliest, but it would be good to bring Dudley into the bank beforehand so that he both gets a feel for goblins and can check to see if he has any inheritance. While the chances for inheritance were generally low, the test will also determine if he has a core or not. And if he does, whether it is large enough to use a wand for casting.
With the direction of the case, she can only hope that her suspicions are correct and she can help to get Dudley protected under both No-Mag and Wizarding law. The first clue she had was his ability to see the dementors, it shouldn't be possible unless he has a core. The second was how he reacted when asking about Vows. Something that wouldn't be able to happen if one did not have innate magic. Considering his cousin is one of the most powerful wizards seen in centuries, it wouldn't be far-fetched that Dudley would have some type of power even if he was just a squib.
So, she needs to get the boy to the goblins. Help from the Nation will most likely be the linchpin in ensuring that the case is successful. She sent a text to her boss detailing where she’ll be for the next couple of days before heading to the kitchen to start on breakfast. Not 20 minutes later, she had two bleary-eyed teenagers stumbling into the dining room and collapsing into the open chairs.
“Why are we up sooearly?” Piers groaned with his head laying on the table. Dudley grunted his agreement and was side-eyeing the coffee pot like it might be his only hope.
“How much later did you stay up last night?” Marissa asked, bringing in the plates before leaving and returning with the coffee mugs. The sheer look of relief on her son's friend had her chuckling.
To her horror, Dudley was the one to answer after he chugged a good 3rd of the near-scalding liquid. “We kept debating possible spells and what kinds of stores they would have in the alley. Then we tried to come up with a plan on how to not stick out like neon flags if we were to ever go.”
“Yeah! Dudley said that apparently, all the wizards he’s met have worn either robes, nice suits, or really old time-y clothes. So we figure as long as we dress in styles from 50 years ago or in good quality suits that we'd be fine.”
“Huh, that's actually a great idea and a perfect segway into our plans for today.” She grinned at their confused looks before it dawned on her son what she meant.
“No way!” He smacked Dudley's arm in his excitement, “Dude, she’s going to take us to the Alley!”
“Oh shit! I mean shoot!” He panicked briefly looking at Marissa who just seemed amused. “Can we swing by my house so I can pick up different clothes and some money?”
“We’ll head over there after we finish breakfast. Let your parents know that we might be in London for a couple days this weekend. I hate to ask you to lie but if they ask, just say that me and Piers have been planning the trip for a while and we decided at the last minute we wanted to take you with us.”
“No, I understand,” He said sadly. “I don’t even want to think about how they would react to me willingly going into a magical place.” Dudley felt his stomach roll at the thought of seeing his parents. Everything they had done had been at the whims of a crazy old man all the while they collected checks from Harry's accounts. Logically he knows his parents love him but it's hard to truly believe that in the face of everything else.
Pulling his phone out, Dudley sends a message to his mom about the trip to London and lets her know he’ll be swinging by in the next hour. Finishing their food quickly, both boys left to pack up their bags for the weekend.
“Do you think you could help me with a couple outfits?” Piers asks. “I’m realizing now I have a lot of jeans and T-shirts…”
“Most likely it’ll be things in your closet you’ll need. Oh! These shoes would be great, I see them use a similar style in weird leather.” The shoes in question were a thin soled boot with sleek dark leather that ended just above the ankle.
“They wear boots?” Piers looked slightly incredulous then thoughtful. “That initially seems like a weird style to pair with robes, but in medieval times most people wore boots and they had robe-like clothes.”
“That's what I thought the first time I saw it, I think it's mostly the wealthier people who have them. Everyone else I’ve seen has some type of leather shoe. So you could probably bring a pair of loafers or your sleek black business shoes you wore on the last day of school.”
Dudley looked up to see his friend squinting at 3 different shirts. “Plain or patterned?”
“Maybe both? I’ve noticed it’s almost 50/50 if they’re fond of absolutely obscene color combinations and patterns. When the minister had come to our house looking for Harry after the incident with my aunt, he had been wearing an entire outfit that was Lime green with a bowler hat. If he hadn't introduced himself as a governmental official, I would have thought the man was a pimp.”
“I wish I could have seen that. What do you think of this outfit?” Piers laid out a pair of black dress pants, his dark blue paisley silk button-up, a simple black vest, and the pair of dark leather boots.
“Dude, that looks great! Do you have any dress pants that are brown or beige?”
“I have gray?”
“You should pair your green button-up with the gray pants and black shoes.” He watches Piers pull out the items and lay them down next to the other clothes.
“Hmm, yeah that's a good one. Do we need jewelry or watches?”
“Do you have any jewelry? I don’t think I’ve seen anyone have a wristwatch, but I've seen what I assume are pocket watch chains.”
“I have a gold bracelet that would look good with both outfits I think.”
“Might as well, I don't think it could go wrong. Do you still have that knee-length dark gray petticoat?”
“I do! I think I’ll wear blue today. I might need one more shirt if we’re there all weekend, but we could also see if we could go to a clothing store in the alley to see what they have.” Piers grabbed a bag from the closet and moved to his dresser to pull out a set of night clothes.
“I wonder what kind of shops there will be,” Dudley said as he lay back on the bed. “Do you think they'll have a pet store? I’m curious about what type of magical creatures you can have as pets.”
“Magical creatures?” Piers looks over at him from where he's getting changed.
“Harry has a book about them I had been able to peek at a couple years ago. I only skimmed a couple pages, but the ones I saw were super cool. We’ll definitely have to raid the bookstore while we’re there.”
“Oh totally, I want to learn more about the types of sports they have and their medical practices. Like do they have a cure for cancer that's purely magical?” Piers put on his coat and turned around with a flourish, “How do I look?”
“Almost like a proper wizard boy!” Dudley crows with a grin. “Come on, let's get you packed and head to my place.”
They fold the rest of the clothes into the bag and Piers heads to the bathroom to grab his toothbrush as Dudley walks back into the living room where Marissa was waiting. She had changed into a floor-length yellow sundress with an open-front silvery robe over the top. The robe was simple but made her look elegant where she stood in the morning light with her suitcase.
“Ooh, looking really nice Mom,” Pers said as he walked in behind Dudley. “I’m ready to go if you are.”
The ride to his house was filled with Piers attempting to sing along to ‘I Have Nothing’ while his mom hummed along. His mom had responded to his text to say she’d be out of the house while she went shopping, so he didn't have to worry about interacting with her quite yet. Even with the assurance, Dudley could feel his anxiety starting to mount. He tried to focus on his friend's off-key singing as the drive seemed to last longer than just the couple minutes it took to get there.
“Do you want either or both of us to go in with you?” Marissa asks as she pulls to a stop in the driveway.
“Probably Piers since we’ll mostly be in my room.” The two of them hopped out and made for the door. He could see his friend looking up at the bars that were still over Harry's window.
“Is he home?” Piers asks quietly, pointing up to the open window.
“Oh…” He stops for a moment to look up at the window himself. “He must have been out of the house yesterday when I was taking pictures. I was pretty tunnel-visioned and I didn't think about it.”
They both hurried into the house when they saw the curtains shift to avoid being caught staring. Passing by the locked door into his own room, they both crashed onto Dudley's bed. “Is it fucked up I never noticed the cat door before?”
“No, since it has the slider over it, it’s not very noticeable unless you're looking.” Dudley sat up quickly at a realization, “I don't think he’s eaten today and if he has it wouldn't have been much, should I make him a sandwich or something?”
“That's not a bad idea, but he might find it strange to suddenly receive food from you, he probably won't trust it. Possibly write a note to go with it?” Piers offered trying to be helpful.
“Good idea, Do you think you could go through my closet and pick out a couple things? You know what looks better on me than I do.” Dudley reached out to his school bag that he hadn’t touched since the last day of school and fetched out a notebook to rip a paper from. Suddenly staring at the paper, his brain went totally blank at what to write.
“How about I go down and make something for him while you write so we can both focus on clothes at the same time?” Piers offered as he moved toward the door.
Dudley thought about it for a second before conceding that it would probably be for the best. He is self-aware enough to know he’s really not the best cook even if the task is simply layering ingredients between bread.
Turning back to the paper, he decided to just start by saying sorry, and hopefully, the rest will come naturally.
Harry, I know a sandwich isn't an apology, but I hope it can be taken as a token of gratitude or thanks for saving my life from those shadowy things… Dudley had to stop for a moment and berate himself because a sandwich shouldn’t be a show of gratitude either, but really it was the best thing he could do at the moment. Deciding that he’d take too long if he rewrote everything, Dudley kept it as it was.
(I hope you don't mind that Piers made it, we both know I shouldn't be allowed around kitchen equipment. He also wants to say sorry for his role in our treatment of you over the years.) Don’t worry there won't be anything weird in it! Hopefully, at least, Piers is a decent cook but has a unique pallet… Oh god he was rambling, maybe he should rewrite it all when he was done.
Noone, especially you, deserves the pain and suffering you’ve been forced to endure under this roof. So, I guess a sandwich is my way of saying that almost getting your soul sucked out by a demon does a lot to put life into perspective. I just want you to know that I’m grateful to be able to claim to the world that you are my cousin. And I promise that I will do absolutely everything in my ability to make sure you never end up locked in this room again after this summer.
Your cousin, who's trying to be less of a dick,
Dudley
Hmm yeah that was okay enough to get his point across and he could hear his friend putting things back into the fridge. He ripped off the frilled edge and moved to meet Piers in the hall. Piers had what looked like a thick pastrami sandwich wrapped in paper towels. He chuckled as he read the note that Dudley handed him before he gave it back.
They both just stood before the door awkwardly before Piers knocked and lifted the slide in front of the cat flap. Wrapping the note under the bundle, Dudley slid it through the door and the two booked it back to his room. “Why did pushing food through the door feel so intense?!” Piers groaned.
“I know what you mean,” Dudley flopped onto his bed. “Maybe it was like a universal turning moment or something. It felt important, I should have rewrote that note.” He joined his friend in groaning.
Piers laughed, “Naw that letter was good and felt more genuine than if you spent a long time on it.” Hopping up, he moved to Duds' closet. “Okay, let's get you some clothes and head to London! Don't wanna keep mom waiting too long.”
Appreciating his friends' never wavering energy, Dudley hauls himself up. “In the back of the closet is the new Steven Land suit I got at the beginning of summer, I think that will work well for going to the bank.”
Piers pulled out the transparent bag and laid it on the bed before moving back to the closet to pull out a summer blue button-up and an easter yellow sweater that rarely leaves his room. The combination makes him wrinkle his nose but his friend just laughs at his expression. “They're both great summer colors and they work well with your skin and eyes so don't worry you’ll look awesome!” The second thing he grabbed was more aligned with what Dudley preferred to wear out. It was a sleek black short sleeve button-up. Out of the dresser, he grabbed a brown and a black pair of pants and sleep clothes.
“Oh shit, dude, should we have given Harry some water?” Piers asked.
Dudley looked up from where he was packing the folded clothes into his bag. “Yeah, we should have. In the bottom of my closet are a couple old water bottles that my parents won’t question him about since I used to have a habit of throwing my old stuff into his room.”
“Huh, I wonder how much that habit of yours helped him out over the years,” Piers said as he scrounged around the bottom before pulling back up with a faded Nike sports bottle. “This is perfect. I’ll go fill it up and slide it to him while you finish up here.”
His first comment had Dudley stopped in his tracks as his friend raced out of the room. Why did he keep throwing all his old stuff in there after he turned 11? He had always hated the idea of sharing anything with Harry, so why would he do something that was essentially giving him things? Uhg that was making his brain hurt, he’d think about it later.
Shoving that black shirt on top, Dudley zipped up the pack, straightened his room, picked up his suit, and made his way down the hall to the stairs. He heard a muffled sound through the locked door and it wasn't till he was halfway down the stairs that his brain registered it as a softly spoken thank you. Oh no, he could feel himself about to cry again. Blinking rapidly, he made his way down the rest of the stairs and out to the car where Piers was already buckled into the front seat.