Redemption (Dudley Dursley)

XXV. Reminiscence.

Time was feeble. At times a single second could feel like years and other times years could feel like seconds. At this moment in time, it was the former. Ever since Harry had suggested asking Hermione for help, that was when it really struck a chord within Dudley. Deep down he knew that something bad was going to happen, there was simply no other way. It started with that prophecy that seemed to be centred around him, then Felicity was getting visions, then there was the mass breakout. In a way, everything seemed too orchestrated to be that of real life, almost like it was someone's fantasy.

However, fantasy was clearly not at play here. He couldn't deny it anymore to himself. Of course, it had to be just when he had gotten used to the magical world that all of this occurred. It was almost ironic really. The second he had accepted it wholly and had gotten really interested in this side of the world, only for the evil side to show itself. To come out from the shadows and grab a hold of him, dragging him into a standstill. A part of his head kept telling him to go back to his old loathing ways but he knew in his heart that he couldn't do that. He'd worked too hard to learn this and he wasn't going to throw any of that away because of a threat looming over them.

A part of him was furious with Felicity though. The fact that she had refused any help and that she wanted to stay here. The night prior they had gotten into an argument that was right on the borderline of being very serious. They rarely ever fought with one another but terror does things to people. Dudley simply couldn't understand that she didn't want any help on this. Felicity had a perfect response though that had shut him up. If she was on her own with no one to protect her she was only going to become an even bigger target than she already was. Whereas if she remained in London with Dudley, then she would always be close by someone who could help.

Even then, he refused to back down. Some traits about both of his parents that he had inherited. Never wanting to accept no for an answer. That night they had slept in different rooms but this didn't last for long because he had woken with her wavy blonde hair in his face. That was the thing about them, they could never remain mad at one another no matter what circumstances. A small smile played on his lips as the idea that it might be her mood swings kicking in that was causing her to react this way. It seemed like it had only been a matter of days since she had told him that she had a little baby inside of her, but she was now in her eighteenth week.

This tied in with the time thing for him. Parts of his life seemed to be going a lot faster than he wanted and others seemed to be taking forever and a day. Everyone knew that it was only a waiting game, it was the only thing that they could do. Rita had not returned yet and Harry was slowly beginning to get worried. Had it been a bad idea to send her into the thick of things to try and get information? Kyra seemed to always be multiple steps ahead of them and it made him question if there was someone pretending to be on their side but they really weren't.

Betrayal was a difficult thing for anyone to overcome. There are too many forms of that word for it to mean one thing. He had trust in the people he had assigned to help on the case and he himself was researching as much as he possibly could in his free time. Even Ginny was trying her best to help. There wasn't much that the fiery woman could do to help that would be beneficial however, and she had simply settled on spending multiple days with the blonde woman to keep her as occupied as possible. As much as she tried to tell people that she simply wanted to spend time with her friend, everyone knew this was only a minuscule part to it.

Felicity was beginning to feel suffocated in everything. She was always rather social and it didn't take much for her to become friends with someone. But she liked to have time to herself on occasion. She was beginning to consider Dudley's proposal to spend a few days at her parents away from everything but she was also someone who hated to admit defeat. It might have been petty but in turn it had made her a difficult shell to crack. It took a lot to break her. In fact, she'd never really reached a point like that in her life. Like everyone in the world, there had been times when she had received a knife in the back but instead of wondering where she went wrong she concentrated on growing a thick layer of skin around her, never letting words or actions hurt her much.