Redemption (Dudley Dursley)

XIX. Meet The Family.

Fear is the greatest emotion, and it is the most difficult to overcome. Dudley had heard this saying for years but not once did he ever take it seriously except on one prior occasion. Even then though he had managed to get over it. Yes, it did take him two whole months with fighting numerous horrible thoughts in his mind after that day when himself and Harry were attacked by dementors but it could have taken an awful lot longer. This time though, his fear was a lot stronger because at least to an extent he knew what was going on the last time he had felt so scared but this time he didn't know a single thing.

Then again, he didn't even know if he should feel scared or not. It could possibly be a false alarm despite this scenario being very unlikely or it might not even be anything bad at all. It is horrible knowing that something is most likely going to occur that is going to turn his life upside down once again but having not a single clue of when it is going to happen. Just a weird feeling in the pit of his stomach similar to how people feel when they are sick. He wasn't sick though and he knew the real reason why he was so scared of whatever was going to be thrown in his direction. There were two main reasons really for it. The first being that there was no way he was going to be able to defend himself if something bad happened considering he possesses zero magical blood in him (in that way), and the second being he doesn't want his loved ones to be targeted in order to get to him.

Despite Harry warning him that he needs to tell people of this new and potentially dangerous knowledge, he didn't want to worry anyone about it. Felicity to an extent knows just how bad things have gotten in the past but Petunia always tended to block things out and just pretend that nothing at all was happening in the first place. As each day passed, it was getting less awkward between his mother and cousin. Considering Harry had essentially forgiven her and she had forgiven herself it wasn't difficult for them to just get over everything and move on with their lives. Dudley was having a much harder time in forgiving himself.

It had taken Petunia over twenty years to do so, would it take him just as long? Dudley sure hoped not because he didn't want to be wracked with this amount of guilt for a long time. He just simply had no idea how to go about getting over everything that had happened between the two of them. This was why he didn't want to bring other people into the whole mess and he tells himself that this is his reasoning as to why he has not told Petunia or Felicity about this whole prophecy thing. He knows deep down though that this isn't the case at all and he is really just trying to put off everything and just let it all play out.

Felicity was worried for him; he hadn't failed to notice. Considering they lived together and over the time they have been a couple for she had learned each and every little quirk to Dudley. She knew that he was nervous over something and it was slowly driving her insane at his persistent excuses that things were fine. For one, he was going to the gym more often than he used to on his own. He very rarely did that- maybe once every month so that set her on edge. Secondly, he wasn't being as careful with his food choices and was willingly eating really unhealthily. He has been very self-conscious over his body and was desperate to keep in topmost shape ever since he lost all of his childhood fat. Thirdly, he was spending a lot more time at work than normal. Whenever he could stay out of office he always did and relied simply on his laptop and sending emails.

So yes, Felicity definitely knew something was up with Dudley and she wanted to know what it was. He was obviously not planning on telling her anytime soon and she knew that Harry wasn't going to tell her anything considering he would just tell her to let Dudley let her know on his own terms. She didn't know anyone else apart from one person who may know what is going on and this was why she had sneakily tied a letter to Arnold's claw when letting him out for his nightly rendezvous behind her husband's back. She got her reply around 4P.M. the next day and right now she was waiting near King's Cross train station waiting on a familiar redhead to appear.