The Adventure of Dudley Dursley

Chapter Four: Questions and Answers and a Quest

After Dudley had uttered the words, "Harry Potter," Hannah's jaw had dropped. She stared at him for several seconds before her head flew back and she started laughing hysterically. "Yea, right, and I'm the great great great niece of Helga Hufflepuff!" In between gasps of laughter, she managed to choke, "But... you can't be related to Harry, I know him and he's never mentioned you."

Dudley was surprised that this girl knew his cousin (but then again realized that if he was as famous as Hestia and Dedalus had said, it wasn't really a shock). He wasn't at all shocked to find out that people didn't know who he was. So, he went through a short version of the story, about how his mother was Lily Potter's sister, and how Harry had grown up living in his house.

At this point, Hannah had interjected, "Wait, wait. All I ever heard about Harry's upbringing was that he lived with Muggles and that he was treated really horribly and hated living there."

Dudley hung his head in shame, and with a forlorn look at Hannah told her that this was the truth. He confessed to her how horrible his parents had treated him, about how he had always made Harry's life a living hell, how whatever would make Harry happy, Dudley had tried to take it away. As he finished his sad story, Hannah looked shocked at the dichotomy that seemed to sit before her. Here was a young man who had by his own admission been a brute to, if not a close friend, then at least a friend and fellow D.A. member. By all accounts, this boy was exhibit A for why some Wizards hated Muggles. However, Dudley had saved her from Azkaban or death at the hands of the Death Eaters, or who knows what else. She clearly was at a loss for what to think.

Dudley could see the internal struggle that existed inside of Hannah. So before she could pass judgment upon him, he started again, and told her about how Harry had saved his life, even though he was risking his own to do it, and all of the conclusions this had led Dudley to in the time since then. He talked about wanting to help others, and his hope if he could only get in contact with Harry, he could finally apologize for all of the things that he had done, and start afresh. Dudley finished, "So that's the whole story. Now that you know, I wouldn't be surprised if you wanted to modify my memory like you did with those people who were attacking you, but can you please keep it so that at least I don't turn back into the old me?"

Hannah, instead of casting the charm, pocketed her wand, and instead said, "I'm not going to remove your memories. You willingly risked your life to save me, and you actually seem to have changed. I never knew the old Dudley, but the new one has always been polite, and helpful. Plus, now that you know that I'm a witch, I can finally stop hiding it from someone around here. But that doesn't mean that I'm going to fully trust you yet. All you've given me is Harry Potter's name, and how do I know that you're not a plant from the Death Eaters or something?"

Dudley looked at the girl, who clearly wanted a friend, yet also knew that she was in terrible danger if she trusted someone. "Hannah, listen, I don't know how to prove to you that I am who I say that I am. All I can tell you is the truth. My name is Dudley Dursley, and my mother's maiden name is Petunia Evans. She was Lily Evans' sister, and therefore Harry is my cousin. I know that at that school you go to, he hangs out with someone named Ron, because he called our house once and yelled through the phone so loudly that I thought the neighbors would hear."

Dudley looked like he was going to keep speaking, but Hannah cut him off with a laugh, saying, "Yea, that sounds like Ron Weasley all right. Alright, I suppose I can trust you."

Hannah then began to tell Dudley how she had been forced to return to Muggle schools, where she was woefully behind. Of course, being a former Hufflepuff, she was "unafraid of toil" and worked even harder to get caught back up. She told Dudley about how she had been raised by both her mother and father, and how he mother had been born in the midst of a Muggle family, and thus was considered by pure-bloods to be a mud-blood. Dudley was able to comprehend that this was a very insulting term. In any event, Hannah had been raised in a regular village, where her Muggle father had worked as a mechanic. His mother had worked for the Ministry. During her sixth year at Hogwarts, Hannah's mother had disappeared, and she had been terribly afraid. The apprehension and fear of what would come was much worse then the exam pains that she had felt in her fourth year, when she had wanted to leave school because she thought she would fail all of her exams.

When news finally reached Hannah that her mother's body had been found on a deserted moor, Hannah had returned home to her grief-stricken father. They had taken it upon themselves to hid, as there was no way of knowing if Hannah herself would be targeted in the near future. Initially they had stayed in their original neighborhood, but with the death of Dumbledore the previous year, Hannah had believed that it was only a matter of time before someone came looking for her. So, she and her father had moved to Goodmanham, based on two different ideas.

Firstly, Hannah had suggested it because she knew the name from her History of Magic courses. She knew that it once had been a magical community, but no longer was inhabited by anyone but Muggles. She felt that being able to live in a place where magic had once flourished, even if it was vacant now, would allow her some small respite from the pain she felt being separated from her friends and the grief she felt about her mother's death. There also were rumors that there were magical objects that existed in the village, lost for centuries that had strange powers. However, very few knew of their existence, and no one seemed to be interested, especially given the current situation in the magical world. But Hannah, as a Hufflepuff, was determined to spend her time in exile well, and hoped to find these objects, so that when Harry Potter succeeded, as she had no doubt that he would, she would be able to reenter the magical world having accomplished something.

So Hannah and her father Jon had moved to Goodmanham. They took the last name Smith, and Hannah took the name Susan, which she took in honor of her friend Susan Bones, who had been one of her closest friends at Hogwarts. She had begun classes at the local school, while her father worked as a local mechanic. He had taken the name Jon Smith, and worked both fixing local cars as well as doing other odd tasks. He also was in a horrible state of grief over the loss of his wife, and only managed to keep moving forward by thinking of his daughter Hannah.

Hannah then told Dudley about how she had managed to uncover several ancient documents which listed clues and hints about the location of the objects she was seeking. She managed to discover that the legends of magical objects could be traced back in time to the time of King Edwin, and the war ax which had been used by the high priest Coifi to first attack the temple in the village. It seemed that this had been no ordinary weapon, but had been made in conjunction between wizards and goblins. Goblins had crafted the actual weapon with their mystical metalworking techniques, but at the time of the metalworking, an unknown but powerful wizard had cast a series of charms on the ax which granted it special abilities.

In using this ax at the temple, Coifi ensured its destruction. He believed that in casting the ax into the destroyed temple, which collapsed in upon itself that he was destroying the ax as well. However, the spells which had been used to create the temple and which could not prevent its destruction managed to protect the ax. It was believed to lie hidden by those spells somewhere in the village, but would only reveal itself to the next worthy possessor. Countless people had since sought the ax, but none had succeeded in finding it.

Hannah concluded that she was determined to piece together all of the information to discover the hiding place of the sword. When Dudley pointed out that she might not be the "chosen possessor" she brushed him off, stating that she believed that by finding it, she would be worthy.

As she finished her long talk, Dudley stared at her in awe for a moment. Here was the apparent answer to what he had been seeking. He was seeking a manner to help others, and had managed to do that with Hannah. He was seeking to learn more about the magical world, and nowhere did it appear that he could do this better then in helping Hannah delve deeper into the mystery of the Goodmanham War Ax. And finally, he would be helping a friend of Harry, as well as a new friend of his own, and to him it appeared to be one step in the right direction towards making things right with Harry in the future. He smiled at her before extending his hand and said, "How can I help?"