Redemption (Dudley Dursley)

XII. Dudley.

Once his mum had filed the divorce papers, Vernon had purchased another home in Brighton to get far away from his estranged wife. The beefy man had spat a lot of venom out at her and it was a little bit entertaining but it was still a sad situation. Divorces are messy affairs and nobody can deny it. It was going to be extremely stressful on Petunia but Dudley knew she would be alright. She was a strong woman even though the majority of people only saw her as lazy and far too nosey for her own good.

The train had soon come to another screeching halt causing Dudley to scrunch his face up at the evil sound before stepping onto the platform. Much to his surprise, it wasn't raining as heavily. It still was, but nowhere near as much as it was in London. There was still no point in attempting to avoid it because his clothes were still soaked through from the twenty seconds he was subjected to the torrential downpour at his own home. After checking the time, Dudley realised that Petunia had a meeting with her attorney. She had them once a week at a specific time to discuss what was going to go to who once the divorce had been finalised.

Understanding that he now had at least an hour before he could see his mum he decided to walk around the town he had grown up in but had also been very much restricted in. It was weird to walk around the streets he used to, occasional memories filling his mind. Although none of those memories were good and that was simply because he was not a good person. He completely zoned out for a few seconds and despite it being extremely cliché he found himself bumping into someone and hearing a short swear from the other person. He froze however because he recognised the voice and it wasn't exactly someone he wanted to quite literally bump into.

"Watch where you're... Dudley?"

Blonde hair, steel blue eyes and a similar height to himself but considerably skinnier due to malnourishment he guessed. Piers Polkiss. His old 'friend'. The younger of the pair looked him up and down, taking in his drastic weight loss and impressive muscle gain. At the same time Dudley was taking him in. He had numerous holes in his clothes, his jeans were far too big for him and there was a stale stench of alcohol and cigarette smoke coming from him. He wrinkled his nose a little in disgust because it definitely wasn't a pleasant sight. So this is what he might have been like had everything not kicked off. It made him shiver a little in disgust. He rapidly tried to think of an excuse to get away because he really didn't want to deal with this right now what with everything else going on. He couldn't think of one though, at least not one that would make sense so he was stuck there.

"You've changed."

Dudley could only nod even though it was very stiff, he really did not want to be here. Why had he chosen today to be the day in which he decided to speak with Petunia of all days? Why couldn't he have waited until tomorrow or even next week?

"So have you."

It came out a bit harsher than he intended but he really didn't have good thoughts about the boy standing in front of him currently. He had broken the actual law with him and it sickens Dudley now considering he is a well-respected businessman. Of course he was open about his childhood antics because there was no use lying about it when the proof was all there. The people he worked with didn't look down on him for it because a lot of teenagers go through a rebellious phase and do a lot of things that they severely regret a few years down the line. Technically, the other employees work for Dudley but he doesn't like the thought of that, he sees it as people working for each other and not for one person in particular.

It is just greedy saying that one person has many people working for them. It sounds selfish and conceited which Dudley is neither- well not anymore. He was very selfish as a kid but that was mostly down to his upbringing. He didn't know any different.

"What do you say, want to come back to my place and catch up?"

Dudley silently gulped, he really didn't want to go but something about him was that he could never say no to someone that he personally knew. Unfortunately, he did know Piers personally and Dudley annoyingly had free time but at the worst possible time right now. Knowing there was no way he could back out of this he nodded and followed Piers a few blocks down into the slightly more rundown part of Little Whinging. It really didn't surprise him since he knew that this other boy didn't have a job which meant that he had to be on the benefit system in one way or another. Piers led Dudley into possibly the most disturbed looking block of flats he had ever seen. That strange stench of alcohol once again filling his nostrils to the point that he was physically holding his breath.