"I see you are packed and ready. Excellent! The plan, as Harry and Aurora have told you, is a simple one," said Dedalus, "We shall be leaving before they do. We will drive for ten miles so their magic won't be detected, and then we'll apparated to the safe house! Do you know how to drive?"

"Of course I do!" Uncle Vernon spluttered.

"Very clever of you, sir, very clever,"

"You will both wait for your guard, there's been a change of plans—"

"I thought Mad-Eye and Kingsley were coming to side-apparate us?" I frowned.

"Can't do it," said Hestia tersely, "Mad-Eye will explain."

"We're operating to a very tight schedule," said Dedalus nodding at his watch and tucking it back into his coat. He turned to the Dursleys, "Well, are we all packed and ready to go?"

None of them answered him.

"Perhaps we should wait outside in the hall, Dedalus," murmured Hestia.

I felt awkward, as she probably expected us to have a teary farewell with hugs and useless promises and frowns.

"Well, this is good-bye then boy." He held out his hand to Harry, but at the last moment didn't shake it. He looked me up and down. "You weren't as much of as nuisance, goodbye to you, girl.

"Ready, Duddy?" asked Petunia, fussily checking the clasp of her handbag so as to avoid looking at us.

"I don't understand." Dudley muttered.

"What don't you understand?" Aunt Petunia asked.

Dudley raised a large, hamlike hand to point at us.

"Why aren't they coming with us?"

Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia froze when they stood staring at Dudley as though he had just expressed a desire to become a ballerina.

"Well, they don't want to," said Uncle Vernon, turning to glare at us and adding, "You don't want to, do you?"

"Not in the slightest," said Harry.

I raised my hands in defence. "Hey, I only met you two years ago, you guys are practically strangers."

"There you are," Uncle Vernon told Dudley. "Now come on we're off."

He marched out of the room. They heard the front door open, but Dudley did not move. Our Uncle reappeared. "What now?"

It seemed that Dudley was struggling internally, but said, "But where are they going to go?"

Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon looked at each other. It was clear that Dudley was frightening them. Hestia broke the silence.

"But... surely you know where your nephew and niece are going?" she asked looking bewildered.

"Certainly we know," said Vernon Dursley. "They're off with some of your lot. Right, Dudley, let's get in the car, we're in a hurry."

Again, Dudley did not follow. I wondered if he was going to complain about me only drinking half of the tea he made me.

"Off with some of our lot?" Hestia said, shocked.

"They think I'm a waste of space, actually but I'm used to it—"

"I don't think you're a waste of space." Dudley blurted out.

I blinked a few times, did that actually happen? Harry turned red. "Well... er, thanks, Dudley..."

Again, Dudley seemed to struggle to make words, but told Harry, "You saved my life,"

"Not really," said Harry. "It was your soul the dementor would have taken..."

"And you..." Dudley trailed off, staring at me. "You're pretty cool... Well at least, your music taste is."

A smile twitched onto my face, being complimented on music taste was always something that made me happy. "Work on your tea making skills and we might have a nice chat about Nirvana next time we met, Dudley."

We'd barely spoken in the three summers I'd spent here, but now I was wondering if Dudley was changing for the better, taking the time to figure our what music I kept playing on my mix tape.

After opening his mouth once or twice more, Dudley subsided into scarlet-faced silence.

Aunt Petunia burst into tears. Hestia Jones gave her an approving look that changed to outrage as Aunt Petunia ran forward and embraced Dudley rather than Harry. "S-so sweet, Dudders..." she sobbed into his massive chest.  "S-such a lovely b-boy... s-saying thank you..."

"But he hasn't said thank you at all!" said Hestia indignantly.

"Yea but coming from Dudley that's like 'I love you,'" said Harry, looking as if he was about to laugh.

"Are we going or not?" roared Uncle Vernon, reappearing yet again at the living room door. "I thought we were on a tight schedule!"

"Yes, yes, we are," said Dedalus Diggle, who had been watching these exchanged with an air of bemusement and now seemed to pull himself together. "We really must be off."

He tripped forward and shook our hands furiously. "Good luck. I hope we meet again. The hopes of the Wizarding world rest upon your shoulders."

"Oh," said Harry, "right. Thanks."

"We'll try our best."

"Farwell, Harry, Aurora," said Hestia also clasping our hands. "Our thoughts go with you."

"I hope everything's okay," said Harry with a glance toward Aunt Petunia and Dudley.

"Oh I'm sure we shall end up the best of chums," said Diggle slightly, waving his hat as he left the room. Hestia followed him.

Dudley gently released himself from his mother's clutches and walked towards Harry, holding out a pink hand.

"Blimey, Dudley," said Harry over Aunt Petunia's renewed sobs, "did the dementors blow a different personality into you?"

"Dunno," muttered Dudley, "See you, Harry." He awkwardly patted my shoulder as if I was an angry cat. "See you around, Aurora.

"Yea ..." said Harry, raking Dudley's hand and shaking it. "Maybe. Take care, Big D."

Dudley almost smiled as he left the room. "Big D?" I questioned to Harry. "What does that... OH. Right, didn't need to know that."

Aunt Petunia whose face had been buried in her handkerchief looked around at the sound of the door slamming. She did not seem to have expected to find herself alone with us.

Hastily stowing her wet handkerchief into her pocket, she said, "Well good-bye," and marched towards the door without looking at him.

"Good-bye" said Harry.

"Thanks for not kicking me out onto the streets." I said lamely.

She stopped and looked back. For a moment Harry had the strangest feeling that she wanted to say something to us; She gave us an odd look before shaking her head and leaving us, the next part of our mission ready to begin.

-          - -  - - - - - - - -

A/N  Sorry this is short but my neck was killing me, and I gave myself a night off revision, so here we go, another chapter up!

Thanks for the 3K reads and all the comments, you guys are amazing as always :)

 Note: As I write this, it's exactly 3 weeks until my exams finish on the 22nd May. That is when I will start to write again, please don't bug me to update, because I physically can't find the time.

The next chapter will be more interesting, don't worry. Any predications on what will happen next?

Also, because the new Wattpad update is honestly extremely shit, I'm not going to attempt to post the others covers on the side yet until I figure out how to dedicate chapters and post pictures without them vanishing.

See you after May 22nd. All the love,

Emily x

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