Burnt

Chapter 4

Dudley felt strange, like something was missing. He felt guilty every time he saw the cupboard under the stairs, or his second bedroom he had insisted he didn't need while his parents bought the new house. Their old one was being rebuilt, but it was going to take a long time. Every time he passed the burnt rubble, then empty space that used to be their house he felt overwhelmed with guilt.

He would have expected feelings of sorrow, after all the building he had spent most of his childhood and many of the items that held memories were now gone forever, but he felt something different, a pain he couldn't quite describe.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, it feels like I've lost something important to me, but I have no idea what it could be." Dudley explained, his head in Luke's lap as they hid in the bushes that lined the park. He wasn't out to his parents yet, he didn't think he ever would.

"You haven't mentioned Harry since the fire, could it be about him?" Luke asked gently, Dudley had definitely been acting differently recently, not very differently, but a little, like he had forgotten all about magic.

"Who?" Dudley asked, the name seemed like he should know it, but whenever he thought about it, it was like static was playing in his mind.

"I know why you feel like that." Luke said with a sigh, looking slightly tired, he knew why it was done, but it was seriously annoying. "Your memories of Harry and the magical world have been erased. Thankfully they didn't check your memories and erase me, too."

"What? How could they erase my memories of someone?" Dudley asked, sitting up indignantly.

"Because they want to keep the wizarding world a secret and they don't consider you a part of it or Harry's life. I can return your memories to you, don't worry." Luke smiled to Dudley.

"Please do, I don't like the idea that I don't remember part of my own life." Dudley said, his eyes wide at the idea.

"I don't know how this will feel, I've never had it done on me before." Luke said anxiously, putting his hand on Dudley's head and letting his magic fix Dudley's memories.

Dudley was just old enough for his mother to allow him to visit other friends' houses, before then he had thought it was normal to treat one of the children the way the treated Harry, but when he went to his friends' houses nobody was treated like that, no matter how many children were there. In fact, most either had no cupboard under the stairs or it was filled with cleaning products.

"Mum, why are we the only people who treat Harry the way we do?" Dudley asked as Petunia tried to leave the room after kissing him goodnight.

"That brat isn't like us, or the other people who live around here. You only know about the differences you can see, but there's more wrong with him than his hair and skin. He needs it beaten out of him. Don't worry." Petunia said, her sweet voice while talking about such horrible things making Dudley feel sick.

She kissed him on the forehead and Dudley could hear Harry's screams and crying late into the night. What little sleep Dudley did get were all nightmares. Would his parents treat him that way if he tried to protect Harry? If he backed Harry up when he next told one of the teachers about what would happen behind closed doors?

Harry never told another soul after the previous year, when he had been beaten worse than normal for admitting to his teacher what was happening at the Dursleys.

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Dudley felt a sad relief when Harry went to Hogwarts, his parents wouldn't be able to touch him there. But he also felt guilty, he had no way of contacting Harry, and he had probably only made matters worse with the cake incident.