Chapter 10
The adults sat nervously at the table, hearing the children outside. The silence was growing.
Dudley looked practically grey and Molly was wringing her hands with worry, trying to find a subject to talk about.
“I’m sorry,” Dudley eventually forced out, almost sounding like a shout in the silent room, making everyone stare at him.
“You’re sorry?” Harry stated, a weird feeling in his stomach. He had dreamed of an apology for ages, or at least some kind of sign that made it feel like the Dursley’s actually knew that their actions had been wrong.
Now he finally heard one of his tormenters apologise and it didn’t make him feel any better than before.
“Yes, Harry. I’m sorry that I haven’t treated you better before,” he shifted awkwardly, making his chair squeak under his weight, “I’m sorry that I didn’t notice that it was wrong,”
“How could you not notice?” Harry said, more harshly then he had meant. Dudley shrugged at that, not knowing how to answer the question.
“I just didn’t,” he said, now defensive. He wasn’t good at apologizing at all, and he wasn’t good at taking verbal attacks either, and Harry was just gearing for another salvo.
“I know you were stup..” Harry started to say, his tone filled with hate and poison, but then Freddy stormed in, all in panic.
“Freddy, what’s wrong?” Dudley asked in concern, already up from his chair and crouching next to his kid.
“They don’t know what at TV is daddy,” Freddy said, his eyes wide in incomprehension, pity sounding in his voice. Livia was trying to smother her laughter at her TV-addicted son’s worry.
“Don’t they?” Dudley asked, glancing around the parlour and noticing that there indeed wasn’t a TV set in sight.
“They don’t. Dad, they don’t even know Pokémon,” Freddy almost started to cry, used to have almost everyone know about his favourite TV-show.
“Now Freddy, that’s no reason to cry. Perhaps you can tell them about it, I think we might have some cards in the car. Do you want to go get them? You have your Pokémon stuffy there at least, you can show that one?” Dudley asked, and Freddy perked up.
“Yes, let’s go get them,” he said and Dudley got up from where he was crouched with a groan, Freddy pulling at his hand.
“I’ll be right back,” he said, partially happy for an excuse to get away. He knew that Harry was about to call him stupid, and he couldn’t blame his cousin. Dudley was indeed not the smartest one around, but he hated being called stupid, and it was a sure way to get him angry, and he really didn’t want to be angry right now.
Harry watches his cousin walk out of the room, trying to rein in the hate he felt. It was weird that now that he had been away from the Dursleys for years, that it still felt that strongly. Just one encounter and it broke through the wall he had made for these memories.
“You know, he really has changed from the Dudley you knew,” Livia said when her husband had left the room, looking at Harry. He looked back at her, still surprised by her likeness to his own wife.
“That’s easy for you to say,” Harry muttered, still remembering every slight that Dudley had ever done to him.
“He went to a psychologist because of you,” Livia said, “or at least because of how his parents raised him and you,”
“What?” Harry said in surprise, knowing how the Dursley’s viewed people who needed a psychologist. They were up there in their list of people they didn’t like.
“He doesn’t even dare to say it to his parents, but he went to a psychologist for a year because of it. He never told me the details, saying that it made him feel bad. He was scared that he would do wrong for his children,”
“He really thinks it was wrong?” Harry asks in surprise and Livia nodded.
“I know you may hate him for what he has done when he was young, but don’t forget it were his parents that showed him how to behave. In a way he was a victim of their education as well,” Livia said, and Harry wanted to answer, but Dudley returned, just in time for the fire to roar to life.
Dudley nearly jumped out of his skin at the sudden change, and he tried not to gape when Ron stepped out with two kids.
“Hiya..” Ron started to say and then trailed off, frowning at Dudley.
“Harry, isn’t that your cousin?” he asked, his hand subtly lying on his wand, but not pulling it out yet.
“It is. Guess who your in-law is,” Harry said, his tone sarcastic, making Ron look at them in surprise. He glanced at Harry, but saw no hostility in his friend, and took his cue from there.
“Welcome in the family I guess,” he said, holding out his hand and Dudley took it hesitantly, barely remembering the red headed boy he had only glanced at ages before. He
“You recognized me?” he asked and Ron nodded.
“You don’t look much different from before, just a bit older,” people often called Ron stupid, but he had a surprisingly good memory. How else does one succeed in every subject in Hogwarts while barely taking the time to actually study.
“Well, now that everyone is here, why don’t we eat?” Molly said, glad that she was able to do something familiar and started to magic the food on the table while everyone went to collect the kids inside.
Georgie’s hair was windswept and his cheeks rosy, talking animatedly with the younger girl about how she did a looping and he wanted to learn more about flying. Her older brother was interjecting every now and then, but he was being distracted by Freddy, who kept on talking about Pokémon.
Then they noticed the other two children there. Rose and Hugo were soon introduced to the Dursley children and a friendly chaos ensued at the children’s end of the table, while the grown-ups kept up a civilized, neutral talk.
“So, what kind of work do you do Dudley?” Arthur asked the man, curious about what a muggle would do.
“I work at the docks. Loading and unloading,” he said, feeling slightly ashamed, but not trying to show it. Whenever his parents talked about his job, they tried to make it seem as if it was not manual labour but as if he were a manager or something. Livia put her hand on his leg, and he knew she never cared about it.
“That sounds good. Already a long time?”
“Yes, I’m with the company for a decade already,” he said.
“And you Livia?”
“I’m a secretary at a medical centre,” she said, “I work a lot with computers,”
“Computers?” Arthur asked, looking questioningly at his wife, who gave him a vague look saying that it was more his department then hers.
“Muggle machines,” she said, not knowing how to explain the workings of it to a wizard who never really had been in contact with even simple machinery.
“And you Harry, what do you do?” Dudley asked, curious about his cousin.
“I’m the head of magical law enforcement,” Harry said, “kind of like the head of police,”
“Wow. That seems like a big position Harry,” Dudley said, amazed at his cousin. Even with everything Dudley’s parents threw at him, he still managed to make something of himself. The conversation was halted when an exclamation came from the children’s table.
“I’m not going to a boarding school!” Georgie said angrily, “not even if it’s the best magic school in the fucking universe.”
“Georgy, language!” Livia said and Georgie looked at her, blushing.
“I’m sorry mom,” he said, apologizing.
“it’s not me you have to say sorry to,” she said, and he bowed his head.
“I’m sorry for using an ugly word. I won’t do it again,” he said aiming his words at Molly and Arthur, who were looking at the kid in awkward silence.