It was two weeks after that the weather began to slightly turn around for the better. Of course it wasn't good because ninety percent of the time there is no such thing as a 'good day' weather wise whenever it comes to any part of England. Today was one of the very rare days in which the weather was better because the snow had finally melted as well as some of the ice off the streets, but there were still horrific amounts of rain which seemed to be a never ending waterfall. It was a good thing that Dudley and Felicity both lived on a hill so therefore they were not subjected to the Fulham main street's current mild flood problem.
It doesn't really surprise him though, this happened almost every year in a lot of places. The majority of the population is prepared for it at all times. It really is no wonder that a lot of people say there is only one season in the country- that season being the rainy season. It was a bit of a juvenile way to put it but it was also the only way to put it.
Felicity had already left for the day since she had appointments that needed to be seen to, so it was only Dudley in the house. The night before there was a mass power cut so there really was no use in him going into work today since there was still electricians working to ensure that electrical equipment would be safe to use in this seemingly never ending torrent of water which was falling from the sky. It wasn't even that annoying drizzle that soaks a person through directly to the bone, it was borderline hailstones and it was actually a bit painful. At least it wasn't actually hailstones though because those things were nasty.
Since all of his paperwork and emails had been sorted out already, he didn't have much to do at all. Felicity was not due to be home for another eight hours and he knew he would need to occupy himself. First he began by organising his office because it was a huge mess- well to Felicity anyway. To Dudley it was organised mess. He knew where everything was so why bother messing it all up? However, since he was bored to extremes he knew he had to do something.
Unfortunately, it only took him a measly twenty minutes to tidy his office and the rest of the housework had already been done. Since there was flood warnings all around the main streets of the London suburb there was no use going into town. It was only then that it struck him that he hadn't spoken to his mum about how the divorce was going. It was the week after the fight that she filed the papers and Vernon kicked up an even bigger storm when she mailed him the papers because she couldn't stand the idea of looking at her husband whom she didn't even know anymore. A horrible feeling set in the twenty-one-year-olds stomach but it wasn't that he didn't care because he did. It's just that he's recently had an awful lot on his plate with repairing his relationship with Harry, trying to gain Ginny's trust and on top of that finishing last minute preparations for his wedding.
All of the important things were solved as in venue, reception, cake and guests. It was just decorations really and since Dudley wasn't the best when it came to organising things in a neat way all that had been left to Felicity. At first she didn't mind because she loved interior design but only ever saw it as a hobby of some sorts and wouldn't pursue it. She'd always wanted to be a dentist but she still kept up all her old hobbies. However, now it was only three weeks until she would be walking down the aisle and the stress of work and preparations was beginning to get to her. Hence why Dudley had asked her to take the weekend off so she could rest because he didn't want her to get agitated since she had a vicious temper when angered enough.
That and the fact that she had a black belt in karate and Dudley didn't really want to see that combination ever in his life.
He quickly checked the trains and sighed in relief at seeing the ones which were heading to the interchange stop he needed to get to were still running despite the horrid weather. He quickly pulled a coat on and braced himself for the imminent drenching the second he stepped out of the door. It's times like this that Dudley wishes he didn't insist on turning the garage into an office because then he wouldn't get soaked to the bone in the short distance.
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.
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.
The pair had soon arrived on the sixth floor and their legs ached since the lift had broken a few days before and nobody had been able to fix it yet. It really shouldn't have surprised Dudley when he saw exactly where his old childhood buddy now lived but somehow he recoiled back in shock. It wasn't even a flat, it was a bedsit. There was one very large bed in the centre of the room and it looked as though the quilt had been chewed by moths. There was a small room near the back which is where the bathroom was- or so he hoped anyway. There was only an oven, a fridge/freezer, a microwave, and a sink to make up what should be a kitchen.
So this is what he might have ended up like had he not changed.
His eyes were still scanning the tiny space almost as if he was thinking this was a joke of some sort. How could anyone live like this? There were empty takeaway boxes strewn all over the floor all ranging from pizza to curries and the rotten smell that came from them was vile.
"It really isn't much but it's cheap rent which means I have some money left over to give to the kids."
At that, Dudley nodded. At least he had his priorities straight despite knowing that Piers was never even with the mother of his twins. He had heard from other people over the last year or so that they only ever hooked up but they had never made it an exclusive relationship. That was something Dudley didn't agree with, he just didn't understand the need for casual sex. Then again everyone thinks differently it was just something he personally didn't see the point in. Piers scratched the back of his neck a little before flopping down onto the large bed which more or less took up the entire room and Dudley followed.
The contrast between the two was shocking now that he thought about it. Piers was barely getting by yet Dudley almost had a seven-figure sum in his bank account. The blonde boy across from him was living in a room pretty much whereas he had a four-bedroom home just west of London. If both of them chose different paths they could very easily have reversed the roles. If Piers perhaps didn't slack off so much he might have landed himself a decent job and if Dudley continued to slack off, he could easily be the one living in a bedsit.
"I take it that you moved then? Haven't seen you here for a few years."
Dudley nodded a bit;
"Dad got an extended break at work and we went to a tiny village near the Welsh border, met a girl and I now live in Fulham with her."
Piers nodded a bit and looked down at the moth destroyed sheets on his bed. Dudley didn't want to read too much into his facial expressions but he could see a bit of jealousy on his features. He could guess why that was though. Dudley managed to get his life on track and had a stable relationship and his ex-friend just didn't have either of these. He didn't really know what to expect and at the same time he wasn't sure why he was sticking around considering Petunia would be finished with her attorney meeting now. The only logical explanation he could come up with was that there had always been a niggling thought in the back of his head- what might have happened if a war in Harry's world didn't break out.
It didn't even feel wrong to tell Piers the very much rehearsed lie because he couldn't exactly say that Harry is a wizard and he was in the centre of a war.
So for a couple of hours he sat there talking to his old childhood friend and despite the sad side to Piers considering his children and whatnot- even he had changed. The single fact that he was willingly living in such cramped conditions so that he had some extra to go towards his kids confirmed this. Fortunately, the mother understood that he was struggling so she wasn't getting on his back about not paying child support. The boy that Dudley had grown up with wouldn't have been so selfless like he is right now. People can change if they are willing to make the change.
By the time that Dudley was back outside and was making his way to Privet Drive another noticeable weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He now understands why he didn't want to see Piers before. It was because he was scared to be forced into seeing himself as the person he used to be- a bully. There isn't even any nice word to describe his horrible actions when he was young and he also can't defend his actions. What's done has been done and now he had some kind of closure to everything.
Petunia had been shocked when Dudley knocked on the door and again he wasn't sure what to expect. He was kind of assuming in a sense that she would be quite drained because divorces are messy affairs and can get very ugly. If his parents' divorce was affecting her- she wasn't showing it. She was still very skinny but that was practically in her genetics because she ate similarly to Vernon- just nowhere near as much. Her eyes seemed to glint and her smile looked real. Dudley hadn't ever really saw a proper smile on his mums face in years.
It was then that he knew everything was going to be ok. Their lives had already been turned upside down too many times to count and if the tables turned again it wouldn't affect them. They've been in dangerous situations before on the side yet somehow came out the other end perfectly alright. Like he had with his childhood friend, he stayed for a couple of hours before running to catch the train in an attempt to not be soaked through to the bone again. Luckily he did avoid a lot of the downpour and it was that night when he was in bed with Felicity curled into his side that he began reading one of the books he had purchased in Diagon Alley.