Redemption (Dudley Dursley)

XII. Dudley.

Like he expected, by the time he was sitting on the cream coloured leather seat of his black Audi he was already shivering and his clothes were making a disgusting sucking sound every time he moved. The pets had been tended to already and Arnold was flying around somewhere- or probably sleeping in a tree since owls are nocturnal creatures. It was nice having pets, they didn't feel quite so lonely in their house. Not that they did a lot of the time anyway since their work occupied the pair a lot of the time but it did happen occasionally. It is only times like that when Dudley wishes that they moved somewhere in which they had a lot of friends nearby.

Then again, Dudley didn't exactly have friends- he never really had. He'd thought he had friends throughout his school years but he really only had accomplices to help him with his tormenting. He shivered at the thought now because there is no way he would even consider doing anything of the sort now. He could've very easily have ended up like Piers- with kids that he can't care for properly because he never stuck in at school and therefore couldn't get a job. He blinked a little and only now did he realise that he was outside the train station. All of the trains in central Fulham were cancelled including the underground so he had to make the journey to the opposite side of London.

He quickly ran inside the shelter once he had paid for his tickets since the train wasn't due to arrive for ten more minutes. It wasn't a long time but it felt like it was taking forever considering he was the only person waiting on a train on the platform. He had nothing to occupy him and now he wishes he had bought a newspaper or taken a book with him to catch his attention. He definitely wasn't an organised person no matter how much he tries to be but it can be amusing. There was one time a few months ago when Felicity had purposely moved a few things around in his messily organised office and she had found it extremely entertaining watching him freaking out looking for official documents he needed for the next day.

There was only one reason that he was getting the train though instead of just driving like everyone else would. There had been a bit of a pile up which was shown on the news this morning and it would have taken him a minimum of four hours to get there and he doesn't like long journeys. By catching the train his journey would only be a little over an hour in total.

Soon his mode of transport arrived and he winced a little at the very loud screeching noise it made when it was coming to a stop. It wasn't a nice noise; it was like nails being dragged slowly across a chalkboard. He was silently glad at noticing that someone had discarded a newspaper on a table. Dudley sat down and tried to get comfortable even though it wasn't exactly possible- train companies should really invest in some comfier seating arrangements. He was practically alone in the carriage apart from a couple of teenagers who appeared to be on a mission to skip school for the day. He tried to listen in but they were too far away for him to make out what they were actually saying.

It was something he often used to do. Himself and his 'gang' would skip school on a regular basis, but still maintained a high enough attendance in order to not be suspended or expelled. They would go into London and cause as much trouble as possible. It even got to the point that Piers had managed to steal a pair of a policeman's handcuffs from his belt and they thought it would be funny to handcuff two of their wrists together. Neither of the boy's parents had been pleased with them. At first it was stupid things like that but it did get worse and they occasionally dared each other to steal something from shops. It had cost Vernon a large sum of £300 to fix the damages to the shop in question and for the stolen item that Dudley can't even remember.

He would have ended up in a life of crime if he stuck to that. It never would have gotten to the point of violence or murder because he did have some morals. It would have been in and out of jail and most of all he wouldn't have met his fiancé. For the next hour Dudley read the newspaper and done a couple of the puzzles in it. Not much was done in order to occupy him completely with his extreme boredom but he wasn't going to let it get to him. He hadn't even told Petunia that he was travelling down to Surrey to visit her. At least he wouldn't run into Vernon.