CHAPTER TWELVE
–That's the way the whole thing started
Silly, but it's true
Thinking of a sweet romance
Beginning in a queue
Came the sun, the ice was melting
No more sheltering, now.â€
-Bus Stop (The Hollies)
Dudley was bedridden for a grand total of three days, though he felt he little needed it. Parvati, Hermione, and a little bat-eared, hysterically apologetic creature named Winky took it in turns bringing him infusions of something ominously called Phoenix tears while he lay convalescent in the spare bedroom of the Potter house. Once, to his confusion, Harry dropped in to offer him an enormous chocolate bar. Though Dudley had largely cut sweets from his diet in the last few years, he took the treat meekly, eager to accept any overtures of peace his cousin offered.
Parvati remained by his side each night long after the others had departed, telling him stories of her days at Hogwarts or speaking of her plans for their future in a soothing voice, or else simply singing to him. When even she took her leave, however, Dudley found his mind wandering to the scenes of panic after Greyback’s fall. It had taken Harry and his guests nearly five minutes to locate the potent Phoenix tears that could heal him, with the result that Dudley had been unconscious and barely hanging onto his life by the time they returned. After twenty-four hours he had awoken fully recovered, but Hermione had insisted that he needed rest to regain all his faculties, and Dudley had come to realize that others in the wizarding world took Hermione Granger’s word as gospel.
On the third morning of his stay at the Potter house Dudley awoke very suddenly and reached for the small glass orb Harry had placed on his bedside table, instructing him to give it a shake if he needed anything. Waving the orb vigorously through the air, he was amazed to see it turn a vivid, swirling violet before his eyes.
He would never grow accustomed to magic.
Harry burst into the room, followed closely by Parvati and a pretty, red haired woman with lively brown eyes.
–Are you all right?†Parvati asked at once, and Dudley felt, as he always did when she showed him sympathy, that he truly did not know what he had done to deserve her attention, let alone her forgiveness.
–Yeah, sorry,†Dudley said hurriedly. –Didn’t mean to worry you. I just... I’m sorry I didn’t think of it before now, but I wanted to ask what happened with the wedding. Was it ruined?â€
The red haired woman laughed. –Postpone our wedding for a little twerp like Greyback? Not likely.â€
–Dudley, this is my wife Ginny,†Harry introduced them. –And no, the wedding wasn’t ruined, thank you for asking. Believe me, Greyback was nothing compared to some of the things we’ve seen. He’s back in Azkaban now, and he’ll be force-fed Wolsfbane potion from now on to make sure he doesn’t escape again. Incidentally,†he added, addressing Parvati, –I spoke to Hermione about your concerns, and she thinks she has a connection in the Department of Mysteries who can help Michael Corner get better.â€
–Really? How?†Parvati asked eagerly, beaming.
–Well, no one knows, do they?†Harry replied with a laugh.
Though Dudley had no idea what they were on about, he joined in their laughter, his spirits lifted by the gratitude he felt at being accepted by these people whom he had wronged. Harry had waved away Dudley’s apologies when the latter had regained consciousness two days ago, saying that Rita Skeeter could have wrested a lie from a Flobberworm, whatever that meant. Moreover, Harry added, he had seldom seen anything that gave him more amusement than Dudley throwing a lemon meringue pie at Greyback and punching him in the face. As for Parvati, no words were necessary. Dudley knew that the bad faith between them had been erased when Dudley had returned to save the wedding, and when Michael Corner had flown away.
Presently she stepped forward and kissed Dudley before turning to Harry’s wife, who was watching the scene with amused disbelief.
–Listen, Ginny, can I have a word downstairs?†Parvati asked. –Barnabus Cuffe asked me to see if you’d be interested in becoming an occasional Quidditch correspondent for the Prophet, now that you’ve been transferred to the Harpies. I think he might be on the lookout for a well-known face to replace Rita, you know. Someone with a fresh take.â€
–Payback is sweet,†Harry’s wife smirked, leaving with Parvati.
Harry and Dudley looked at one another, bursting with a million things unsaid and yet unable to decide where to begin.
–Isn’t Hermione here?†Dudley settled on at last.
Harry grinned. –Believe it or not, she doesn’t live here, though she’s been in and out often enough this week. She and Ron live in London, in fact. But she’s at the Ministry at the moment. Always did work too hard.â€
–Oh.†Dudley wrung his hands together uncomfortably. –I suppose I wanted to... er... thank her. For, well...â€
–She’s been feeling badly, you know,†Harry told him, nodding. –For lying about healing you. She’ll be glad to hear you don’t hold it against her. But there’s something else, isn’t there?â€
Dudley frowned. –Is reading minds something your lot can all do?â€
–Not everyone.†Harry shrugged. –But my Legilimency’s improved since I joined the Auror Office. I’m not reading your mind now, though. It’s written all over your face that something’s worrying you. We grew up together, remember? I know all your faces- there are only about three of them, after all.â€
Dudley rolled his eyes but felt no resentment. He reckoned his cousin had earned the right to get in a few digs as payback for all the years of broken glasses and toys.
–All right, I’ll tell you,†he relented. –It’s nothing, really, I was just wondering if you could show me to the post office here in town. I guess I’m well enough to leave this room now, and I need to write to my work to explain my absence. With my luck I’ve already been sacked, with Jenkins running around telling tales about me all over the office.â€
–This Jenkins, he’s been giving you trouble?â€
Dudley grimaced. –It doesn’t matter.â€
–Well,†Harry replied, his eyes flashing, –Ginny and I don’t leave for our honeymoon until Friday, seeing as she has training to attend. So I’ve got the week off. What say we have a bit of fun?â€
***
It was early, and the Grunnings offices in central London were quiet, with sullen, bleary-eyed employees just beginning to make their appearance in their respective cubicles. No one noticed the appearance of two young men in a shadowy hallway on the administrative floor, despite their odd manner of dress or the fact that they were lugging along with them an enormous, bulky trunk from which were issuing strange rattling noises.
–I still don’t understand,†Dudley grumbled, panting as he helped his cousin drag the heavy trunk, –why you can’t just use your wand to make this thing fly along without help.â€
–I told you,†Harry replied, the cords in his neck standing out from the effort of pulling the trunk. –No magic in a building full of Muggles. Someone might see.â€
–But this thing-â€
–This thing is a Boggart, which means it’ll be easy to subdue once we’re done with it. Only your friend Jenkins will see it.â€
Dudley scowled. –He’s no friend of mine.â€
–Well, we’ll see how friendly he feels when we’re through with him,†Harry replied.
They had reached the end of the corridor and stood for a moment, catching their breaths in front of Jenkins’s cubicle, which faced them directly. Harry looked all around him carefully to ascertain that they were alone on the administrative floor before throwing a richly embroidered cloak over himself and the trunk. And suddenly, Dudley was standing alone in the corridor, stunned.
–Harry?†he breathed, squinting at the spot where his cousin had stood a moment ago.
–I’m still here,†came Harry’s voice, causing Dudley to jump back in alarm. –You just can’t see me.â€
–What the hell-?â€
But Dudley broke off, because someone was approaching, and turning around he found that it was the very person he wished to see.
–Morning, Jenkins!†Dudley called out, feigning politeness.
–Take him into your office,†Harry instructed in a whisper. –I’ll follow behind you.â€
Jenkins threw him a dark look, but Dudley was not deterred.
–Mind stepping into my office for a mo’?†he asked genially, gesturing towards his door which stood open across the corridor. –I’d like to have a quick word.â€
Jenkins accepted with poor grace and Dudley waved him into his office, straining to hear Harry drag the trunk in behind them. He heard the lock on the trunk click open, felt a rush of warm air, and suddenly an aged woman wearing a fluffy pink housecoat and carpet slippers had joined them in the room.
Jenkins, who had been examining Dudley’s desk chair, started when he turned around and took in her appearance, his eyes going wide as saucers.
–M- M- Mother?†he whimpered, slumping back against the chair in an almost comical show of horror.
The woman’s housecoat flapped and her curlers bounced as she stalked up to Jenkins with surprising agility and screeched, –Well, what is it? Don’t gape at me in that gormless way, you look feeble-minded! Why don’t you make yourself useful and do some work?â€
–What are you doing out of the house?†Jenkins asked, his face growing steadily paler, and Dudley could hardly contain the hysterical laughter bubbling up in his throat.
–I’ll go wherever I please and not have my own children questioning me, thank you very much,†the woman retorted sharply, waving a reproving finger at Jenkins, who cowered still lower against the chair.
–Go home, mother, this is where I work-â€
–What’s that, go home so I can sit in a house filled with your ridiculous porcelain unicorn figurines? How many times must I tell you to sell them, boy? You must have collected about five hundred at this late date...â€
–Mother,†Jenkins groaned, covering his face.
–It all started when he was a boy, only eight years old, you know,†the elderly Mrs. Jenkins prattled on, now addressing Dudley. –He wet the bed at that age, and did so until he was quite grown up, if you’ll believe it. Not a thing would comfort him but those blasted figurines, I tell you, and then-â€
Jenkins gave a desperate wail and simply sprinted out of the office, his face now flushed a deep crimson, while Dudley roared with laughter at him. As soon as he was gone Harry emerged from underneath the cloak, at which point the old-woman-creature, whatever it was, rounded on him. For a brief moment it transformed into an indistinct shadow which cast the horrific cold feeling of despair Dudley had encountered at fifteen, and he recoiled, finding it difficult to breathe. Then Harry had cast a spell to make it trip over its overlong robe, and another to force it back into the trunk.
They looked at one another then, the wizard and the Muggle, and laughed unabashedly until their sides hurt and their eyes streamed with tears.
***
Jenkins resigned the next day after having delivered a brief letter to the Administrative Supervisor in charge of their floor retracting all previous allegations made against Dudley’s conduct. Dudley could almost have felt sorry for the poor man had he not remembered the insufferable smug look Jenkins had worn every time he had done him a bad turn. Dudley was promoted once again soon thereafter, placing him in a position to afford his own flat for the first time in his life.
A pleasant and uneventful three months of courting preceded Parvati’s moving into Dudley’s flat. Some might have said that they were rushing into things, except that they were so obviously mad about one another than even the most avid gossip-mongers held their tongues. Though Dudley kept his job at Grunnings and remained ostensibly Muggle-like in all his endeavors, he often came home to find Parvati waving her wand over some delicious smelling pot on the stove, and the sight caused him no twinge of fear, no discomfort. When he met Parvati outside her office at the Daily Prophet and met her robe-wearing, owl-toting colleagues, he made a particular effort at friendliness and did not even flinch if any of them vanished in mid-air.
He initiated a slow reconciliation with his parents some weeks later, to which his mother was rather more receptive than his father. At length, however, Dudley was invited back into their house for tea, and began to visit his mother regularly, though he was always careful not to mention his association with Harry or any of the others. He wondered how his family would take meeting Parvati someday, but he supposed that if he could punch a werewolf in the face his father could stand to have a pretty, unassuming witch in the house for five minutes.
The day Dudley asked Parvati to marry him was a day like any other. He met Parvati at five o’clock at their flat for dinner, feeling nervous and perfectly calm all at once.
–Here,†Parvati said, pulling a small crystal bottle from the kitchen cabinet. –You have to drink this today, remember? Hermione said you should continue to take small doses of the infusion of Phoenix tears every five months for at least two years. You had a really close call.â€
Dudley gulped the mixture down, grimacing a little at the taste, and said, –What is a Phoenix, anyway?â€
–They’re great big birds that burst into flames when they’ve gotten too old and are reborn from the ashes. They’re quite beautiful, and really rare. Professor Dumbledore had one. Imagine being able to start completely fresh, to just be born again...â€
–I think I sort of was,†Dudley told her pensively. –I mean, when I was fifteen, with the Dementors. My life before then is completely unconnected to my life now.â€
Parvati laughed. –You’re quite poetic when you want to be, aren’t you? There’s this old wizarding proverb, how does it go? Oh, yes... ‘Which came first, the Phoenix or the flame?’ So which is it? Did the Dementors come along first and change you? Or were you always this Dudley on the inside and the Dementors just let him out?â€
–You’re too smart for me,†Dudley chuckled, –and now my head hurts. Would you look in the sitting room and see if I left my water bottle there?â€
Parvati shrugged and disappeared into the other room. Dudley waited, fidgeting with the creases in his jeans, and waited, and waited...
–Oh!â€
Parvati’s cry carried clearly through the wall, and Dudley bolted to his feet, scrambling into the sitting room at once. She was standing at the center of a circle of twittering golden birds, her eyes wide and glowing brightly.
–The pie was just sitting on the coffee table,†she explained, and Dudley suppressed a smile. –Blueberry is my favourite... I thought you’d gotten it for me as a surprise. I took a bite and it- it just turned into these!â€
–Weasley’s Wizarding Wheezes,†Dudley told her, grinning. –Harry got it for me, actually. Look, that one seems to like you.â€
One of the tiny, fluttering birds was indeed zooming nearer and nearer to Parvati’s face. She reached out and allowed it to land in her hand, where it deposited a delicate diamond ring.
–Oh!†Parvati repeated, her eyes bulging.
–You let me out, not the Dementors,†Dudley told her, –and I’ll never be able to show you enough what you mean to me. But I’d like to try, and I’d like to start by marrying you, if you’ll have me.â€
Parvati’s eyes filled with tears. –Yes, of course! Yes!†She threw her arms around him. –I love you!â€
Though he had grown up in the same house as a real live wizard, Dudley had never, until then, fully appreciated or believed in magic.
The Phoenix Or The Flame by GinnyRULES
Chapter Notes: Last chapter guys! After this is just the epilogue left. And since I haven't written it yet feel free to leave me some suggestions about what you'd like to see. I want to thank you all for sticking with this story for so long. I've really enjoyed reading all your reviews and I'll miss posting this fic. (Shameless plug: If you want to read more of my work I do have another fic on the go called Requirement). This chapter is a bit sappy but what can I say, I got tired of torturing these characters... Cheers!