He and Hestia had been engaged in this argument for the last twenty minutes and a small audience watched curiously. Fred and George, who had never seen these two interact before, were highly amused. They even found a few Chocolate Frogs and Pumpkin Pasties to snack on, as if at they were at the cinema. They offered some of the strange sweets to Dudley, who was excited to try wizard candy that didn’t make his tongue swell.
“We are not staying with some crazy old woman from East Lancashire! Northerners are bad enough, even when they don’t meddle with your lot!”
“Ms. Longbottom’s is one of the few places we will be safe. Her family has been fighting against You-Know-Who since the beginning.”
“That will just lead them to us sooner!” Vernon exclaimed. “We’d be better off staying with Aunt Marge; she isn’t involved in any of this crazy stuff!”
“I don’t know who the hell Aunt Marge is, but you will not be safer there. The Longbottom’s house has had charms and enchantments protecting it for over two decades, and the Death Eaters don’t know where it is to begin with. You three are lucky to be staying there; I’m surprised the Order isn’t hiding someone more important there.”
Vernon ignored Hestia’s comment; Dudley guessed that he didn’t care who she considered important. “I know what this is. Your lot is just trying to gang up on my family!” Vernon concluded wildly. “First, you try and get my son on your side…”
“Oi, we’re back to this?” Hestia murmured.
“…And now you’re bringing a third one from your lot!”
As the fight became more intense, Fred and George had taken bets on the outcome. Fred put ten Galleons on Vernon folding because Hestia scared him, while George thought that Hestia would eventually put him in a leg-locker curse and drag him to the Longbottom’s.
“Oh, will you deflate your head to a normal size?” Though Hestia was speaking metaphorically, Vernon’s head looked quite a bit larger than usual. “If we wanted to gang up on your family, it wouldn’t take three adult wizards and witches to do it. Any delinquent third year could take over all of Privet Drive if he wanted to.”
“So you admit it!”
“Admit what? Merlin, your skull is thick! This is not some plot to take over your family, corrupt your son, or whatever else your brain warps it into. We are protecting you!”
“But…you…” Vernon stammered angrily.
“We have had this fight at least a dozen times before; can we please just skip to the part where you give in and resort to grumbling about it for a few days?”
“Dad, can we just go? They’ve given us no reason not to trust them,” Dudley said. He was getting tired of his dad’s stubbornness. Missing breakfast and having to sit on cardboard boxes that folded under his weight was making him anxious to leave.
Vernon was silent for a moment, his face red with rage. He turned toward Dudley slowly, with an anger bubbling inside him that Dudley had never seen before, not even directed towards Harry or Hestia. “No reason?” he said finally. He approached Dudley menacingly, and Hestia fingered her wand. George noticed this and pointed it out to Fred, thinking he would win the bet. “They didn’t need to give us a reason! Their kind has been giving us more than enough reason for years!”
“That’s not true,” Dudley said stubbornly, rising from the boxes to meet his father’s eyes, surprised by his own courage. “When have they ever done anything to hurt us?”
“They’ve…they ran us out of our own house with letters, and then sent a dangerous man after us!”
“Only because you wouldn’t let Harry read them,” Dudley said. Or me, he thought bitterly.
“Harry blew up your Aunt Marge!”
“She deserved that! She wouldn’t stop speaking ill of his mum and dad, and you encouraged her! Anyhow, the Ministry of Magic solved it. They got her down and she doesn’t even remember it happened!”
“What about when they blew up our living room?” asked Vernon, motioning towards the twins, who stood up and each took a low bow. “And grew your tongue to ten times the size?”
“It was an accident,” Dudley said. “Well, the living room was, anyway. And have you forgotten that I blew up the living room with my toy rocket set two years ago? I didn’t even get in trouble for that!”
Vernon was utterly dumbfounded. “Are you really going to side with them?” he asked quietly.
“It’s not about sides, dad,” Dudley explained. “It’s not wizards versus Muggles. It’s the good wizards against the Dark wizards. Harry and Hestia and Dedalus and the Weasleys are protecting us; they’re some of the good wizards and you need to start trusting them.”
When Vernon didn’t respond, Hestia said, “I’ll make us a quick lunch and then we’ll be going.” Petunia followed her into the kitchen to help.
“That wasn’t the ending I was expecting,” said George, as if reviewing a movie.
“He folded, cough up the Galleons,” said Fred, holding his hand out greedily.
“He folded to Dudley; you said Hestia.”
“Fair enough,” Fred admitted, withdrawing his hand. “I always enjoy a surprise ending, though.”
“Glad to amuse you,” Dudley joked.
“You know, you’re not nearly as bad as Harry makes you sound,” said Fred.
“We were expecting a wizard-hating bully, to be honest,” said George.
“That doesn’t surprise me,” Dudley admitted. “This is sort of a new thing.”
“Well, it certainly seems like an improvement from a few years ago.”
“We had better be going now,” said George, shaking Dudley’s hand. “It was nice meeting you!”
“Good luck,” said Fred, also shaking Dudley’s hand. “Hopefully we’ll run into each other again!”
“I hope so,” said Dudley. “Thanks for all of the magic stuff!”
“I almost forgot,” said George, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a few colorfully wrapped candies. “Take some of these!”
Dudley looked at him questioningly, but took the candy.
“You never know when throwing up or coughing blood might come in handy!”
“Nice seeing you again, Mr. Dursley,” shouted Fred as they left.
“Likewise,” said George, “and good luck overcoming that paranoia problem!”
Vernon shot the twins one last angry look before they turned down the stairs.
They ate a quick lunch of peanut butter sandwiches, everyone crowded around the cluttered kitchen counter. It didn’t take long to prepare to leave, as none of them had their trunks. At two o’clock, they left Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes and Dudley prepared for their Side-Along Apparation.
They arrived on a sunny hillside, looking over a flowered valley. Dudley took his first breath of fresh air in months. He’d been stuck in the stuffy apartment in Paris for so long that he’d almost forgotten how the sun and the wind felt, and the cluttered Weasley flat was hardly better.
“Let’s go,” Dedalus whispered, “we should get inside.”
They followed Dedalus to the top of the hill, where a tall house looked out over the rolling valleys and distant mountains. It looked over two centuries and was at least four times as tall as it was wide. A short picket fence surrounded the house and garden and, as Dudley pushed the door open, he felt a sharp jolt of energy run through his body.
They filed quickly up the steep porch steps, where Dedalus stopped to read a note pinned to the door. Dudley read it over his shoulder.
Dedalus,
I am sorry I’m not here to greet you. I had to leave urgently, I’ll explain why later. Producing your Patronus will allow you into the house. It will re-seal after two wizards have passed, so get the Muggles in first.
Augusta Longbottom
Her name was signed at the bottom in big, loopy writing.
“I’m surprised she’s not here,” remarked Hestia. “I doubt the Order would have sent her to do something.”
“Two years ago, definitely not,” said Dedalus. “But we’re desperate.”
Dedalus drew his wand, pointed it toward the door, and said, “Expecto Patronum.”
From his wand leapt a silver Labrador. The puppy chased its tail playfully in the air before dancing through the keyhole. The lock clicked and the door swung open.
“You three go first,” Dedalus said, waving to the open doorway.
Dudley entered the dark foyer, followed warily by his parents. He felt along the wall for a light switch but couldn’t find one. After stumbling over what he thought was a large box, Dudley decided to let someone else find the lights.
Hestia walked into the house behind the Dursleys. Immediately after her, the door slammed shut, leaving them in pitch blackness.
“Bloody hell!” bellowed Vernon, surprised by the door slam and the sudden darkness.
A bright glow suddenly came from where Hestia had lit her wand. Dudley looked around the dimly lit room. His parents were standing close by him and Hestia was beside the door, but Dedalus was nowhere in sight.
“Where is Dedalus?” asked Dudley.
“Outside,” said Hestia, “the door closed after me.”
“But the note said after two””
“I know,” said Hestia. “It shouldn’t have closed so soon.”
Suddenly, the silver Labrador leaped into the room and spoke in Dedalus’ cheery voice. “Something must have gone wrong with the enchantment. I won’t be able to get in until Augusta returns. Send me a message so I know everything is okay inside.”
Hestia said, “Expecto Patronum,” and a silver, spotted Raven burst from her wand and flew through the solid wall. “This is great,” she sighed.
“I knew we shouldn’t have come here,” said Vernon. “We’re barely in the door and already something’s gone wrong.”
“Well, at least you got your wish,” Hestia retorted sarcastically. “Now, it’s three of you against only one of me!”
“Where are the light switches?” asked Dudley, now scanning the walls.
“Light switches?” asked Hestia curiously. “Oh, you mean those funny buttons in the apartment? Those are Muggle things. You won’t find any of those in a witch or wizard’s house, especially not one belonging to an old Wizarding family like the Longbottoms.”
Vernon grunted his disapproval.
Hestia lit two lanterns in the foyer and then opened the windows in the sitting room, allowing light to flood into the room. Dudley saw that the large box he’d tripped over was actually his own trunk. All five trunks that had been left at the apartment in Paris were piled in the foyer.
“How did our trunks get here?” asked Dudley.
“The Order recovered them from the apartment when they went there to investigate and sent them here,” said Hestia.
“Great,” said Dudley, looking forward to changing his clothes. He had been wearing these for two days, and they still had bits of drywall on them from when the ceiling collapsed.
Now that he could see, Dudley looked at the house. It was much larger than it seemed from the outside. The foyer had a door on each of its four walls. The door on the right led into the sitting room and the dining room was through the door on the left. Behind them was the front door and, ahead of them, there was a short hallway which had a staircase on the left and a door to the kitchen. There was also a back door with a small window looking onto the garden behind the house.
The furniture was all very old”in fact, some of it looked as old as the house. It was very well cared for, though. Though the hardwood floors were worn, they were free of dirt or grime. The cushions on the couches and chairs, however faded, had no marks, stains, or rips.
Dudley wondered if she entertained often, because the small sitting room was packed with more couches and chairs of all different sizes, shapes, and colors than it was meant to hold. The dining room held a large table surrounded by chairs whose cushions matched the largest couch.
The walls of both rooms and the small hallway were covered with various paintings and photos, in old, chipped frames, from famous old witches and wizards to family photographs. A small round-faced boy stared out of many of the photographs, at Blackpool Pier, in front of a scarlet steam engine, and holding a”was that a toad? There were also strange sculptures pinned to the wall and set on the many end tables around the couches and chairs. There didn’t seem to be much of a theme, except possibly chaos.
“Dudders, we’re going upstairs to unpack our things,” said Petunia from the foot of the stairs. Hestia and his father were gone, and so were the trunks.
Dudley barely fit through the narrow stairway. He followed his mum up the first flight, where two doors led off from a short hallway. One of the doors had a note pinned to it that said, ‘Dedalus,’ and his trunk was set outside of it. They walked up one more flight, to another hallway with two doors, but both of these were open.
Hestia walked down from, yet another, flight of stairs. “Your rooms in the attic, Dudley,” she said, pointing at the ceiling. “I left your trunk up there. Petunia, you and Vernon are right here.” She indicated the open door on the left.
As Dudley climbed the third flight of stairs, he was out of breath. His trunk sat outside of the only door on this floor; a note pinned to the door said, in large, loopy letters, ‘The Boy’.
He grabbed his trunk and pushed on the door, but it didn’t move. He shook the handle and pushed a little harder, and harder, then harder still, until he was heaving all of his weight, which was a lot, into the door.
“How the bloody hell am I supposed to get inside?” Dudley asked aloud. He suddenly realized how much he longed to take a short nap on a real bed”the cot from the previous night had left an annoying knot in Dudley’s back.
“Abra Kadabra!” he shouted stupidly. “Open Sesame!” Of course, this didn’t work.
“Please, let me inside,” Dudley pleaded, recognizing how ridiculous it was to be talking to a doorknob. He banged on the door several times, hoping it would magically open. He considered asking Hestia but was too embarrassed.
Eventually, he reverted back to pleading with the doorknob. For fifteen minutes, he said things like, “Please open,” and “I really just want to take a nap.” Then, when he thought the doorknob might be some Magical Anti-Theft System, he promised he wouldn’t steal anything.
Finally, he started to get mad at it. “Stupid doorknob!” he shouted. “What makes you think you can keep me out!” He gripped the knob tightly and said, “I’m much stronger than some dumb piece of metal!” And before he’d even begun to push, the door gave way.
“It’s about time,” Dudley said to himself.
Based on the way the rest of the house was decorated, this room was not what Dudley expected. It was tall in the center, with a sloping roof that came very close to the floor on one side. The walls were painted a dark scarlet shade and gold curtains adorned a large window on the tallest wall, which looked out over the valley they had Apparated into.
The furniture looked new, as did the bedspread, which was also scarlet. Next to the door was a tall bookshelf, piled with books of all sizes, shapes, and conditions, with titles like Magical Plants of Eastern Britain and The Healing Power of Herbs. In fact, as Dudley scanned the books, he saw that four full shelves were dedicated to books dealing with plants. The two bottommost shelves covered many different subjects, from A Beginner’s Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch to Voyages with Vampires by Gilderoy Lockhart to Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard. Dudley was interested in the Defense books and, surprising even himself, decided to have a look at those later.
The scarlet paint was barely visible on the largest wall. It had been completely covered by various newspaper clippings, notes, pictures, and even random junk like gum wrappers. Dudley read the first newspaper article that caught his eye, titled Sirius Black is Innocent. The name sounded familiar, but the picture of a young black-haired boy laughing was much different from the video Dudley had seen years ago on the news, of a pale, thin man, laughing maniacally in front of the camera.
Sirius Black, previously charged with the murder of Peter Pettigrew and many Muggles, has been declared innocent. New evidence that surfaced three months after Black’s death proving that Pettigrew is in fact still alive and framed Black for the Muggles’ deaths. There is also substantial evidence that Pettigrew is in league with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, and the Ministry is launching a full investigation into Pettigrew’s whereabouts.
Sirius Black was murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange, his cousin and convicted Death Eater, on the night the Department of Mysteries was broken into. Involved parties, including Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, and auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt, who was previously in charge of the search for Black, will not comment on what happened at the Department of Mysteries that night. They will only tell us that Black was fighting against He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and was protecting Harry Potter and several other Hogwarts students.
Dudley’s mind was swimming with questions, about Harry, Sirius Black, Voldemort, and whatever the Department of Mysteries was. He was curious to learn more and began reading many of the articles on the wall, his plan to take a nap completely forgotten.
He read Mass Break Out From Azkaban and What the Ministry Should Have Told Us. He soon realized that these were merely confusing him. The articles were placed on the wall in no particular order and Dudley thought they would make more sense in chronological order.
He rummaged through several drawers of the desk, until he had a roll of parchment, ink, and a quill. He’d never used a quill before, so the first few lines were illegible, even to him. He quickly got the hang of it and took notes of the articles, writing the date in the left column and the title on the right.
An hour later, he had used over four feet of parchment and put everything in chronological order. He turned back to the wall and began reading, starting with the very first article, Bellatrix Lestrange sent to Azkaban. He tried to recall who Bellatrix Lestrange was, knowing he’d read about her, but all of the names seemed jumbled inside his head. The picture that accompanied the article had been covered by a photograph, so Dudley lifted edge of the photograph, to see a pale, black-haired woman, smirking at the camera. She gave Dudley the chills and he quickly covered her up again.
The article said that she was sentenced to life in Azkaban prison for the torture of aurors, Frank and Alice Longbottom. Dudley racked his brain again”Longbottom, he knew he had heard that name somewhere, too. However, like the Lestrange, he couldn’t place it.
He read Harry Potter Attends Hogwarts, from September 1991, which said that Harry had just started the school, after being raised by Muggles. Dumbledore taken out of post as Hogwarts Headmaster, dated 1992, said that, in light of the recent attacks on school students after the rumoured opening of the Chamber of Secrets, Dumbledore had been taken away. The writer, however, thought that it was a terrible idea, writing ‘now that Dumbledore is away, the attacks will double’. Dudley didn’t know what this meant, and an article from later in the year only confused him more. It said that Dumbledore had returned to the school and the perpetrator of the crimes had been caught. The Chamber of Secrets had been discovered by none other than Harry Potter, and the monster was killed.
Dudley wondered what the Chamber of Secrets was, and made a note of it on his roll of parchment. That, along with Bellatrix Lestrange and the Longbottoms, were things he meant to ask Dedalus when he returned.
Dudley read through the years; the 93-94 school year was consumed with articles about Sirius Black. These held pictures of the screaming man Dudley remembered and a lot more information than he knew back then. The Muggle television, of course, hadn’t gone into details or mentioned that he was a wizard. Dudley read that Sirius Black had been secretly working for Voldemort, passing him information about his friends. The newspapers speculated that he had escaped to go after Harry, for revenge on his fallen master.
One article, titled Dementors at Hogwarts caught Dudley’s attention. It said that Hogwarts was being guarded by the dementors of Azkaban, in search of Black. Dudley shuddered, and thought that would have been a miserable year.
The first article of late 1994 was about the Triwizard Tournament. Somehow four wizards had been chosen, both Cedric Diggory and Harry Potter from Hogwarts, though each school only gets one champion. A quote from Barty Crouch claimed, ‘There is nothing we can do. The rules are final, and once the champions are chosen, it cannot be changed.’ The article told about the Triwizard Tournament, giving all the gruesome details of past challenges, making Dudley question why anyone would willingly join the competition.
There were reports of Harry’s success in the first leg of the competition, getting past a dragon using his broomstick. The next article said that they had to search underwater for their loved ones during the second competition. Though he was only the third to finish, he was given second place, because he acted nobly, saving both his friend and another champion’s sister.
Triwizard Tragedy was the next article. As Dudley read about an accident during the last challenge, which resulted in Cedric Diggory’s death, an awful memory flashed into his mind, making him feel sick. As he and Harry were walking home one summer night, he mocked Harry about his nightmares. ”Don’t kill Cedric! Who’s Cedric, your boyfriend?” Scribbled in the margin of the paper, was a note that said, “MURDER!”
Dudley could tell that the following year had been hard for Harry. Most of the articles called him an attention-seeking liar. They claimed that Voldemort had not returned, and, of course, Dudley knew that was not true. There were articles about a toad-faced woman named Dolores Umbridge, who had been named Hogwarts High Inquisitor. She replaced Dumbledore when the Ministry tried to arrest him and he ran.
The most interesting article so far was not from The Daily Prophet, like the rest. It was from a magazine called The Quibbler and was titledHarry Potter Speaks Out at Last: The Truth About He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and The Night I saw Him Return. Dedalus and Hestia had grazed over the story of Voldemort’s return, but this was a very detailed, first-hand account of what had happened.
There were several articles relating to a break-in at the Ministry. The first was titled He Who Must Not Be Named Returns and was an awkward speech given by the Minister of Magic, Cornelius Fudge. The second article was titled Break-In at the Ministry and featured a picture of a damaged gold statue of a Wizard.
Amidst inquiries about a break-in at the Department of Mysteries, the Ministry declared that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is back. Though Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter have been saying for over a year that he’s returned, the Ministry has finally recognized that they are telling the truth. He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named fled the premises of the Ministry just as Fudge and several aurors arrived.
No one will say exactly what happened at the Department of Mysteries, or why the break-in occurred, but we know that Harry Potter, Albus Dumbledore, auror, Kingsley Shacklebolt, former Hogwarts professor, Remus Lupin, ex-auror, Alastor Moody, and several others were present, fighting He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named and his Death Eaters.
Several Death Eaters, including Lucius Malfoy, escaped Death Eaters, Antonin Dolohov, and Augustus Rookwood, and former Ministry employee, Walden Macnair, were arrested and await trial. Bellatrix Lestrange reportedly escaped with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.
Though it is not clear what part they played in the break-in, five other Hogwarts students, Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ginny Weasley, and Luna Lovegood, were involved. None of the involved parties will tell what happened or why they were at the Department of Mysteries that night. When Ginny Weasley, a fourth-year whose ankle was broken in the fray, was asked for a comment, she replied, “You dunderheads should have listened to Harry a year ago!”
The Ministry is making plans to prevent another attack such as this one. They are also making plans for the capture of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, now that he has come out into the open.
Dudley finished the article, which didn’t answer any of his questions but brought about many more. The next article was one he had already read, about Sirius Black being proven innocent; Dudley realized this is where he had heard Bellatrix Lestrange’s name.
There were a lot of depressing articles; reports of deaths and missing people, terrorist attacks and break-ins. Dudley learned that several highly-publicized attacks on Muggles were actually the work of Voldemort. There were many inquiries as to whether Harry was ‘The Chosen One’. The last article Dudley read was a report that Professor Albus Dumbledore had died, at the hands of one of the Hogwarts professors.
After finishing this article, Dudley stood back, more confused than he was before. The war was much more confusing than he’d realized, and he felt that Hestia and Dedalus were holding back some information from him.
He glanced at his list of things to ask Dedalus about when he returned. It had forty-three items on it, from who Bellatrix Lestrange and Cornelius Fudge were, to the what the Department of Mysteries and aurors were.
Wishing there were more articles that might explain some of his questions, Dudley instead started looking at the other items pinned to the wall. There were many photos of the same round-faced boy that was in the photographs downstairs. He was young in some”wearing new robes, boarding a train with a toad under his arm, and in a picture with four other boys. When Dudley looked closely, he realized one of the other boys was Harry, and a third was a redhead, no doubt Fred and George’s younger brother. Dudley found it strange to see Harry laughing with friends; the only other time he had seen Harry so happy was when Hagrid told him he was a wizard.
The round-faced boy looked older in other photographs. In one, he was standing with a squat woman, each of them holding an odd-looking plant. He was dressed up in another photograph, standing with his arm awkwardly around a very pretty redhead. A small wallet-sized photo showed the boy and with a blonde girl with big eyes; Dudley might have imagined it, but he looked a little intimidated by her. It took Dudley a minute to pick Neville out of a group picture, in which he also saw Harry, Fred, George, both of the other redheads, and the blonde girl.
Dudley read a small ripped piece of parchment which had been taped to the wall. It said, It takes great courage to stand up to our enemies, but an even greater deal of courage to stand up to our friends. Dudley didn’t understand the sentiment, as he had never found any trouble standing up to friends, and ignored it.
There was a short letter on the wall, written in cute, curvy script on blue parchment.
Neville,
How has your summer been? Mine is going extremely well. Father and I have captured many Freshwater Plimpies down by the creek and have been making very good soup. He is writing an article in the Quibbler about their healing properties. I will send you a copy when it is out. I do miss DA practice, don’t you?
Hope to hear from you soon,
Luna
Neville, thought Dudley. Where had he heard that name? He looked back at his list of things to ask Dedalus and found the name, Neville Longbottom, and an arrow to Frank and Alice Longbottom. Racking his brain, he remembered that Neville Longbottom was one of the students at the Department of Mysteries with Harry, and Frank and Alice were the aurors”whatever those are”that were tortured by…someone. He couldn’t remember the name at the moment.
And then he remembered Arthur Weasley’s Patronus, saying that they would be staying with Augusta Longbottom. Several things clicked in his mind, and he realized that he was staying in Neville’s room, one of Harry’s friends. Neville’s parents, or possibly Aunt and Uncle, were involved somehow in the first war, which is why they were tortured. Augusta Longbottom, Dudley assumed, was Neville’s grandmother, remembering that Fred and George had called her old.
“Dudders! Dinner is ready!” His mother’s high-pitched scream snapped Dudley back to the real world. He had no idea how long he’d spent reading that wall and trying to place the pieces together but when he looked outside, it was very dark.
“Coming, mum,” said Dudley, leaving the room. This could be an interesting stay, he thought as he made his way downstairs.