Redemption (Dudley Dursley)

XVI. Moving On.

It really is crazy how a person's life can turn around. There really is no way to tell whether that change will be good or bad. Occasionally there isn't even a change to begin with. Although most of the time there are only ever two extremes. Either someone who had a dreadful upbringing becoming better or someone who had an incredible upbringing suddenly ending up in a horrible life. A single decision can ruin it all for anybody. For Dudley, it was easily the first option.

A lot of the time, people who were bullies when they were younger do manage to turn their lives around but very few manage to turn their lives around in the way he did. He was a spoiled brat and he had everything handed over to him on a golden platter all the way up until he was seventeen but then he got forced into something he had physically no control over. There really wasn't anything he could have done but to go into hiding with his parents despite not having a clue of the seriousness and the scale of everything going on around him.

Now that he had put all of that behind him, he had come out of the other end of the spectrum a million times better than he ever could have imagined. A loving wife, genuine friends, a successful business, and a rather large house just outside the centre of London. If he was asked four years before what he would have been doing with his life, he probably wouldn't have said anything or he would reply a personal trainer. That was really the only thing he could see himself becoming a few years' prior considering he had the build and the drive.

Thinking back on it though, he really wouldn't have enjoyed doing that. It can be a bit boring now though considering he does work in an office most of the time but he is rarely ever actually needed in. Most of the time he can just do his work at home. Dudley may have had an amazing upbringing himself but he feels guilty for it especially since Harry was treated horribly for all the years he spent living under the exact same roof. He may have managed to get over everything and stop blaming himself but there is still a part of him that feels responsible- it probably will always be there no matter how much he absolutely hates it.

That is what a lot of unjustified favouritism does to someone, usually the one who gets a better life bitterly regrets it later on whereas the one who didn't get the better life can just get over it even though it may take years to do so. Dudley was lucky that as a whole Harry was very forgiving and always tended to look at the larger picture whenever it came to these types of situations.

Currently though, a visible weight had really lifted from his shoulders as he stood in the street his childhood house was situated on. The house had now been sold to a young couple who wanted to be close to the capital city but still be close to their family elsewhere in the far south of the country. They had chosen the house since Petunia had put it on the market as the price herself and Vernon paid for it twenty-two years before. Prices had risen considerably since then but she didn't feel comfortable asking for more than what she actually paid for it.

Considering it was a five-bedroom house it was already very desirable and it was even more desirable that it was close to direct links to a lot of cities. It had only been on the market for a month in total which was practically unheard of with the housing rates now but the middle-aged couple purchased the place for them and all of their children. Petunia handed over the keys a couple of weeks back and luckily the new owners were very understanding that it would take her a while to pack up everything and get settled into her new place.

It was weird, standing there yet not in the way he used to. The amount of times he walked down Privet Drive and assumed himself nor his parents would ever leave the place yet now the last person who lived in the house was finishing up her packing whilst actually having a civil conversation with the new owners. This was something new for her, she had always essentially lived under Vernon's powerful nature and it was a bit strange for Dudley to see. He hadn't spoken to Vernon since that whole argument but he had heard that he was now living in Brighton which was quite a fair distance from where he lived and from where Petunia was now going to live.