Harry Potter: from Legacy to Dursley

Harry sent him a letter, explaining his situation, the Dursleys losing their mind after the house elf ruined the dinner with the Masons and the Weasley family breaking him out. He apologised for his parents behaviour, of course. Harry was now staying with the Weasleys. Seems that professor Weasley's family was still going strong, with a big family. Garreth Weasley was a friend of his, the troublemaker roped him into his schemes quite a few times. Good times… good times.

He also told him about his status as a parselmouth and what that meant. Harry was surprised but shared that he too was a parselmouth, even if he wasn't comfortable with it, he didn't want to be associated with Slytherin. The slytherin reputation had soured over time as it turns out, especially with Voldemort and his death eaters being form Slytherin. Bullshit, he knew. Ominis was the least dark wizard you could find and he was a Slytherin. Sebastian was… a bad example but Anne was an angle.

On August 17th, Dudley was strolling past the shops in diagon alley, he found that there was a queue in front of Flourish and Blotts. Gilderoy Lockhart was signing his books. Dudley recognised that name, it was the author of those story books. Looking at the queue, he saw mostly middle aged witches with small children… was one of them their defense against the dark arts professor? He went inside, past the line. He didn't want his book autographed, so he didn't need to stay in the queue. Inside was packed with people but he spotted Harry relatively quickly, he was standing with Lockhart, being photographed. He looked deeply unhappy with the situation, a big frown on his face.

"My dear readers", Lockhart began, his teeth sparkling in a blinding smile, "Young Harry Potter came into this store today to buy my newest work, Magical me but what he didn't know was that he would walk out of here with my entire collection, free of charge. On top of that, I have an announcement to make! It is true, I will be starting as the defense against the dark arts professor this year and I look forward to imparting my wide array of knowledge to these thirsty minds"

He was eloquent, that was for sure but Dudley had a bad feeling, looking at him, something about that smile sent shivers down his spine. It wasn't malicious, at least he didn't think it was but there was still something about that smile… Anyways, Harry walked back to the weasley family, all redheads and handed the books over to the youngest, the only girl amongst them, "here, I'll buy my own"

She blushed, "t- thank you"

Dudley couldn't help but chuckle, that girl definitely was into Harry, ah, young love. Harry's gaze shifted to Dudley, "Is that you… Dudley? You look so different! I mean, I saw the picture you sent my aunt and uncle but seeing this! Wow, you aren't as… well-"

"Fat? You can say it, it's true, I was fat but now, I'm way better, a fat be gone potion was all it took", He chuckled, "and these are the weasleys you talked about? Nice to meet you"

"Yeah, you are a lot… nicer than Harry described you", The youngest boy, said, "I'm Ron, that is Percy, Ginny, there is mum and dad and the two putting cockroaches in Lockhart's pockets are Fred and George"

"Yeah, I changed. I'm not proud of the person I was before I learned about my own magic"

"Well, we'll see about that. Harry told me that you were a- well a", he whispered, "a parselmouth?"

"Yes, apparently my aunt, Harry's mother was one too"

"That is some pretty dark stuff but I believe you can overcome that"

"Thanks"

"Who do we have here? Red hair and hand me down robes? Must be weasleys", a blonde man said. He was standing there with a younger lookalike.

"Malfoy", Mr Weasley hissed, "what do you want here?"

"Why to buy my son his books of course. But back to the topic at hand, you have been working overtime for the last few months, I hope they pay you well for being a disgrace to wizarding kind, though, looking at this, it doesn't seem so", he picked a few books out of Ginny's cauldron, flipping through the second hand books.

"We two have very different Ideas of who the disgrace to wizarding kind is", mr Weasley clenched his jaw.

"Why the blood traitor is worse of course, being friends with some filthy mudbloods and-"

Mr Weasley punched Malfoy, "How dare you use that word!"

The two of them got into a fight. Harry asked Ron what a Mudblood was.

"It's a foul name for muggleborns, it means dirty blood. It is a taboo to even utter that word. It is a word mostly used by purebloods and-"

Dudley's focus shifted from the fight to Lockhart, who was telling the reporter, "mention this in the article, say that they were fighting over a copy of magical me"

Dudley sneered, the fool showed his true colors, fame hungry and greedy.

The fight was broken up soon after and Malfoy slipped the books back into Ginny's cauldron. He had several bruises and some blood was running from his nose, nothing a wiggenweld potion couldn't fix, "see what your muggle loving father can give you", he spat towards their feet and motioned his son to follow him.

"Wow, what a jerk", Dudley stated, matter of factly.

"You can say that again", Ron huffed, "Damn slytherins, always thinking they are better than the rest of us"

"I'm sure not all slytherins are that bad", Ominis came to mind again, he was such a pure soul.

"All wizards who went dark were Slytherins", Ron stubbornly insisted.

"So, you are staying with the Weasleys?"

"Yeah, don't have much of a choice. It was either that or be locked away", Harry shuddered, "I thought things would be better with you a wizard but your parents are just as bad as before"

"Yeah, they can be a handful"

They talked some more, catching up until the weasleys had to leave. Harry invited for him to stay with them but Dudley declined, "No thanks, the room is already paid for, it would be wasteful to abandon it"

"Suit yourself",shrugged Harry.

It wasn't long before september 1st came around and Dudley apparated to the train station, where the red locomotive was already waiting. Dudley combed through his hair as he boarded the train, his trunk was no problem at all, he had enchanted it himself. He was early, so most cabins were still free. He chose one at the end of the train, close to the prefects cabins. 

As time ticked by, more and more students arrived at the platform. The weasleys were quite late but still well in time. Hermione -who he had met in diagon alley that day- boarded the train and sat in the same compartment as Dudley, "Hi, Dudley was it? Can I sit here?"

"Sure", he smiled at the bookworm, who had a book in hand, magical me.

Ron and Harry never arrived in their cabin, must be in some other cabin, he thought, probably catching up with some of their other friends.

"So, are you excited for your first year at Hogwarts? You start in second year, right?" Hermione asked whilst still reading.

"Nervous, I didn't even know I was a wizard before the summer holidays" Dudley smiled nervously, he didn't have any friends at Hogwarts. All his friends were either dead or over a hundred years old.

"I know the feeling, I am muggleborn too. Well, you had someone to catch you up, right? If you ever need any help, don't be shy to ask me, Harry and Ron ask me for help quite often", Hermione offered, extending her hand, which Dudley took.

"Does this mean we are… friends?"

"I guess so, yeah"

They chatted about the school and favorite subjects a bit. Hermione liked every subject, or so she said and Dudley had to agree, most subjects were fascinating. It was magic after all, though his least favorite had always been astronomy.

As the time marched on, they balanced out to a nice silence, where neither of them talked. Hermione read her books and Dudley looked out the window, feeling nostalgic. It was evening time when the train arrived at the station.

They left their trunks in the cabins and walked out, "Firs' years to me, Firs' years to me", shouted a giant of a man, whom he recognised as Hagrid, he had transfigured a pig's tail on Dudley a year ago. He deserved it.

Dudley walked up to him and asked, "Hagrid, sir, do I go with the first years or do I take the carriages? I am starting in the second year"

"Right… I 'member you. Professor Dumbledore said to take you with me in the boats", Hagrid nodded. Soon after, they walked towards the boats and sailed across the black lake, where they could see Hogwarts for the first time. It was just as amazing as it had been the first time around, the winding towers standing proud and tall as the sun slowly set behind it, the orange rays bathing the lake in a warm light.

The group walked up the stairs until they were in front of the main hall, where professor McGonagall was waiting for them, "Welcome to Hogwarts, you are about to be sorted into your houses. Whilst you are here, your house is your family and your friends. You will earn house points by exceptional performance and will lose points by breaking the rules. The house with the most points at the end of the year will receive the house cup, now, follow me", she walked with them into the great hall, where the students were sitting, there were fewer students than in his first time around, probably because of the war with Voldemort. He didn't spot Harry nor Ron at the Gryffindor table.

"I will read your names from the list and when you are called up, you will have the sorting hat placed on you, which will determine what house you belong to, First, Celine Angee"

"Hufflepuff"

He tuned out the other sortings, halfway through the happening, a dark haired professor stood up and walked out through one of the doors behind the teacher's table. Not even a minute later, Dudley saw Harry, Ron and the professor standing outside the glass windows, in the dark, strange, why were they-

"And now, a second year student, yes, I know it is strange, starting in your second your but all welcome, Dudley Dursley!"

He walked up to the sorting hat and it was placed on his head, "Curious, haven't I sorted you already? I think I did, didn't I?"

"Please don't blow my cover", Dudley pleaded in his head.

"Don't worry, the sorting hat keeps the secrets entrusted to it. My stance on where I sorted you last time still stands though, so, it better be", he shouted the last word, "Gryffindor!"

Dudley smiled, walking over to his table, sitting next to Hermione. Professor Dumbledore did a quick speech and let them eat afterwards, then, Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall walked off to where the dark haired professor had gone to.

The food was excellent and soon, the three professors returned too. Rumors were quickly spreading, rumors that Ron and Harry had crashed a flying car into a whomping willow and maybe even got expelled. They only reconveined with the two when they were in the Gryffindor common room, "What happened, it is being said that you crashed a car into the whomping willow and got expelled?!" Hermione screeched.

"Well, we weren't expelled", joked Ron.

The whole gryffindor common room was full and celebrating their 'cool entrance', all except Hermione and Percy. Dudley went to sleep earlier than the others, his bed was already made by the house elves and he fell asleep fast, oh so very fast, lost in the realm of sleep after his long day.