Vendetta

Chapter 17 - Dudley's Trial, Day 2

Everyone was up bright and early and Apparated to the courtroom as a group, as they had been doing from the start. When they entered the courtroom, it was already bustling with activity; the judge was on the bench and Dudley already in the defendant's chair, his court-appointed lawyer at his side. Harry couldn't help thinking that if anything was a losing proposition, this was, if only because of the fact that his side virtually had them dead to rights. But the law stipulated that both sides had to be heard, so that's the only reason they were here at all.

Harry suppressed a wicked grin when he saw Vernon and Petunia enter and take their seats. Before this day was out, they would know well the wrath they had engendered by abusing him for so many years--and if he had anything to say about it, they would never forget that it was their own fault this day had ever come. If they had only treated him decently, like a true member of the family, he would never have even considered doing this ... but no, they had to be nasty and abusive, physically, verbally and emotionally, every chance they got.

He was convinced that they had enjoyed every minute of it too, as if by abusing him, they were somehow getting back at the absent James and Lily. The worst part of the whole thing, though, had been their punishing Harry for something he had had absolutely no control over. He frankly didn't think them capable of decency of any kind; if they were, there would have been indications of same well before now.

It was around a quarter after ten that the trial officially began; after the traditional opening statements by the judge, Dudley was given the injection of sodium pentothal and asked for his account of the day Ginny had been attacked.

"I'd just left the house when I saw this tall, thin blond chap coming up the walk; he'd said that he was lost and looking for my house, and that he'd been told it was on this street. I told him he'd found it and asked what he wanted us for. He then asked if I'd heard of Harry. I told him that Harry was--technically--my cousin, and couldn't help wondering if he wasn't a wizard too, because who else would know of my family's connection to him?

"He'd claimed he wasn't, simply that he'd heard of Harry and understood he was quite famous. That was when I told him how ... my family felt about having him in our house, that we had no idea how or why he'd ever ended up on our doorstep. My visitor said it was because of my mother's being the sister of his mother, plain and simple. Well, it wasn't plain and simple to me ... or us. All of us would have been a lot better off if he'd gone to an orphanage, another family or even the streets. Anywhere but with us.

"My visitor then asked if I was aware that Harry had a steady girlfriend. I said I wasn't, that none of us were--and had a pretty fair idea why he hadn't ever mentioned her. He then described her to me; she sounded like a very beautiful girl and I ... wanted to meet her." To put it mildly! Harry thought with a mixture of bitterness and pain at what he, Ginny and the entire Weasley family had gone through at Draco and Dudley's hands.

"I had no idea how this bloke could know so much about her, but vowed to find out why, whatever it took. I thought if I could have her, it would be a perfect way to flaunt what I'd done in Harry's face and enjoy his reaction, since I believed at the time there was nothing he could do to avenge her. It turned out that I was ... very wrong about him. Both me and my parents. But at this late date, I doubt he would ever forgive us for what we've done to him, how we've treated him ... and I couldn't blame him."

Damn bloody right! Harry thought again, bitterness and pain again stabbing through him. The only good thing about this was that Dudley would be punished for what he had done--and if he, Harry, had his way, his scumball cousin would be put in jail and the key thrown away. He'd not see freedom again for the rest of his natural life--and Harry frankly hoped that Dudley lived a long time with the memory of the monstrous thing he'd done to an innocent young girl whose only "crime" was a romantic connection to Harry.

But he also intended to strike a blow for all the other victims who could not be here and see that justice was done for them as well ... and for that, he would see to it that Dudley was put away for life, whatever he had to do to accomplish it. It wouldn't change what had happened to them, of course, but at least they and their families could rest easier, knowing that their attacker had received his just punishment.

Dudley was asked to continue and did so. "My co-conspirator then gave me a photo layout of Harry's girlfriend and her more obvious charms, claiming that Harry had a layout just like it. I never knew if he did or not, though." Harry thought of the cheesecake photo of Ginny in the brief, lacy teddy and smiled in spite of himself. His cousin had been right for once; it just wasn't precisely in the manner he'd been told.

"I didn't like having to knuckle under to this bloke and told him so. He shot back that he had the knowledge I needed and that if I wanted to have the girl, I'd do well not to argue with him. He then told me how we were to go about abducting her, but that I wasn't to tell my parents anything about it, that if they asked, I was to say I was going to meet some friends."

Harry shot a furtive glance in Vernon and Petunia's direction and was well satisfied at the mixture of shock and anger on their faces ... but for once, not directed at him. It was obvious that they'd never dreamed that their spoiled rotten hoodlum brat was even capable of betraying them and that it wasn't going to be easy (to put it mildly) for them to have to live with such knowledge. Just the same, Harry was frankly glad that they would. If Dudley could treat even his own parents so shabbily, no one was safe from his rottenness, that was for sure.

"It was shortly after that that I'd had an idea, to ... capture Harry and tie him down so that he would have to watch as my co-conspirator and I had our way with the girl he loved. I'd even considered having him stripped so we could note how aroused he got at what we did." This time there was a shocked silence which reverberated throughout the entire courtroom and it wasn't lifted for several minutes.

This was definitely the time that Harry was hard-pressed to control himself. If he'd had his wand, he'd likely have killed Dudley right then and there. That was about as low as one could go! Ginny sensed his pain and anger and gave him a loving hug and kiss; only her ministrations kept him from jumping up and physically attacking Dudley. He had to allow the law to punish his erstwhile cousin; there was no point in his ending up in jail as well. As he had been told time and again, neither Draco nor Dudley was worth it. Harry had much better things to do with his life than waste it sitting in prison.

"Fortunately for Harry, my co-conspirator vetoed my idea. He said we couldn't afford to have too many people involved in our scheme, because the more that knew, the more likely it would leak to both my parents and ... the law."

One of the few even marginally decent things Draco's ever done, Harry thought wryly. Even at that, I have no doubt that if he'd realised this at the time, he'd have gone ahead with it. Which made Harry devoutly thankful that Draco hadn't realised it ... not until it was too late to back out, anyway.

"Just the same, I tried to convince him to go along with it ... yet he emphatically refused, and warned me that if I tried to implicate him in any way, he'd sue my family for everything we had--for defamation of character, at the very least. He claimed his family had a lot of money and that we could not possibly have won against them."

That was another thing Dudley was right about, Harry had to admit. The Malfoy fortune had gotten both Draco and Lucius out of countless scrapes with the law before, but this time no amount of money or influence had been sufficient to keep Draco out of jail. For once the justice system had worked as it was supposed to, and the guilty parties were finally going to be punished as they deserved.

"I demanded to know just who he was; he said that we'd get along fine as long as I did what he said. Otherwise he'd destroy me and enjoy doing it. I think it was then that I realised the bloke couldn't be any ordinary person, that he had to be a ... wizard, like Harry." Again, shock and anger showed on Vernon and Petunia's faces at the knowledge that their precious baby boy had ever lowered himself to associate with one of those lowlife freaks. It was bad enough to be related to one without that.

Harry frankly was enjoying every moment of this trial, surprised that Dudley had managed to figure out that Draco was a wizard at all, much less so soon. He was brought back to reality by Dudley's continuing his account of the June day twenty months ago when he and Draco had managed to turn not only Harry and Ginny's lives upside down, but those of her entire family by their attack on her.

"We then ... transported to where he said Harry's girlfriend was and abducted her. I don't think I'll ever forget the squeezing sensation; it was like being pushed through a narrow tube."

Harry and company exchanged glances; sounded like Draco had used Apparition to transport himself and Dudley onto the Hogwarts grounds; in spite of himself he was impressed at his adversary's skill in planning the abduction for the one day in June that the inability to Apparate would be lifted in order that the students of the proper age who wished to practice Apparition could do so. By a strange coincidence, it had also been the day that Quidditch practice had been scheduled and therefore ensured that Harry and his friends would be busy, so they would be unable to stop Draco and Dudley until it was too late.

Neither was it hard for Harry to imagine how Draco had managed to get an Apparition License so soon, since his seventeenth birthday had only been roughly two weeks before the incident. It would have had to have been a combination of Draco's studying ahead and Lucius's greasing palms with his blood money for him to have managed it.

"I don't know what he did, but he somehow rendered her unconscious, then tied her up and we transported out again. I ... marveled at how beautiful she was and well understood how Harry could have fallen for her."

This prompted Harry to turn his head and smile tenderly at Ginny, as well as tighten his grip on her hand. In spite of himself he had to admire his cousin's taste in women--one of the few good things about him. He just wished Dudley could have left Ginny in peace, but that was obviously too much to ask ... the prospect of driving Harry crazy simply too tempting.

"My companion then took us to an opulent mansion and sealed us in a room, then tied down the girl and ... had his way with her. After stripping her and blindfolding her, of course. Not to mention hypnotic suggestion." That was another thing Harry was frankly surprised that Dudley even knew about, much less knew the term for. "He made me watch for so long that I nearly went mental. It was around six o'clock that he finally motioned me over."

Harry recalled upon closing his eyes in pain that that had been only a few minutes before his arrival, and didn't want to imagine the dark fantasies that Dudley must have acted out, much less Draco. The damage to Ginny's body--the sweet body he loved so much--had showed the results of same all too graphically, and he doubted he would ever forget the sight as long as he lived.

"It's all right, luv. It's ... all behind us now," Ginny tried to soothe him, gently stroking the back of his neck to make him look at her, then leaning over to kiss him warmly even as her fingers laced with his even more tightly than usual.

"I know; I just wish it hadn't had to happen."

"Well, it did, and there's nothing we can do to change it now," she pointed out. "What matters is that the nutters who did it are going to be punished as they deserve. We'll have to be content with that."

He moved to caress her nearest cheek with his free hand and smiled. "I love you."

"And I love you," she whispered, then they returned their attention to Dudley's account of June 18, 1997.

They were unaware (nor would it have mattered if they had been) but Vernon and Petunia had looked in Harry and Ginny's direction. "Look at that," Petunia sniffed when she noted them exchanging a kiss. "Disgusting. Kissing in public! But then that's no more than we should expect of their kind." Obviously they were unable to recognize love when they saw it, even now, conveniently forgetting all the Muggles who did the same thing. That was beside the point; to someone with Vernon and Petunia's attitude, anything a magical person did was deemed "disgusting" or "nasty".

By this time he had reached the part where Draco had come in and ordered him off Ginny so that he could return her to those who had come for her--Harry, Ron and Hermione. Just the same, Harry was stunned, if not utterly shocked, however, when Dudley said, "In spite of what we had done to her, I ... couldn't help feeling sorry for what the knowledge was going to do to those closest to her and believed that Draco should have at least ... dressed her again before taking her back to them."

Since when would Dudley give a damn about that? Was he actually sprouting a conscience at this late date? Stranger things had happened, admittedly, but Harry never thought he would ever see the day that Dudley actually cared about the feelings of anyone besides himself. Unfortunately he had reformed far too late to effectively redeem himself--and not only in Harry's eyes, but the eyes of the law.

Not long afterward Dudley's account concluded and the judge said, "Is that all you have to say?"

"Yes, ma'am," Dudley said more meekly than Harry would have imagined him capable of, but considering that they were in a court of law and this woman held his fate in her hands, he must have deemed it logical to assume a meek demeanour, if only to attempt to sway her.

Unfortunately for him, the woman saw through him and was not moved in the slightest. "Very well. Would either of young Dursley's parents care to make a statement in their son's behalf?" she asked. When both tried to get up, the judge firmly stated, "Only one parent, please."

Petunia moved up to stand beside her son, giving a triumphant look in Harry and company's direction. "I shall be glad to, your honour." With that, she began her diatribe of how Harry had supposedly humiliated and belittled Dudley, conveniently forgetting all the times she, Vernon and Dudley together had done the same to Harry, sometimes even ganging up on him. One time they beat him so severely that it had taken him several days in a healing sleep at St. Mungo's to recover enough to recuperate at the Burrow under Molly and Ginny's care--and this only after Lupin and Tonks had managed to rescue him, having become concerned when Harry did not contact them as promised.

They temporarily froze the Muggles with Body-Bind spells, although after seeing what they had done to poor Harry, were tempted to Petrify them so they could never hurt him again. They had vowed to have hard words with Dumbledore, intending to do all they could to see that Harry was taken away from those beasts. They weren't relatives, they were monsters! The bond of blood obviously meant nothing to them, so why should Harry continue to be subjected to their abuse? Anywhere would be better for him than there!

Harry was unable to take more than half an hour of his aunt's two-faced hypocrisy before feeling obliged to speak up.

"I can't believe your bloody audacity, Mrs. Dursley. Never again will I call you 'Aunt' because you are no relation to me whatsoever, despite the fact that my mum was your sister. How she could ever have turned out as well as she did in such a family as yours, I'll never know. You're just lucky that all I'm after is justice for my fiancée rather than prosecuting you, although if the whole truth was known, the penal system would be likely be locking you up right next to your hoodlum son!

"I'll tell this entire court the real story right now. You locked me in a broom closet for ten years. Physically, verbally and emotionally abused me at every opportunity--and what's more, allowed Dudley to do so. Denied me food and material things, not to mention love and attention. But come to think of it, I wouldn't want anything from you anyway! If Mum and Dad could know what you've done, they'd likely join me in hexing you into the middle of the next century just before suing you for felony child abuse!

"It's not my fault my parents died so young and I had to be left with you. What's worse, you took your hatred of them out on me, punished me for something I had absolutely no control over. Frankly, if I'd had a choice, I'd have preferred an orphanage. And one thing's for sure ... after this, if anyone asks, I'll tell them I have no family. At least none by blood that gives a damn about me. In fact, the happiest day of my life was when I left your house of Hell for good! If I never see any of you again after this trial, it'll be too bloody soon!"

However, it was as if Petunia had gone temporarily deaf, because her reply was as follows: "How could you possibly have a fiancée?"

"Well, I do--and we'll be married within the year, which is more than you'll be able to say for your jailbird son, for now and years to come! I'm also happy to say that even though Dudley did everything he could to destroy us, he failed ... so I plan to enjoy every moment of my marriage to the girl I love while he sits rotting in jail for the rest of his life--which is no more than he deserves! Incidentally, I no more care for anyone to know I'm related to you any more than you care for anyone to know you're related to me, so we're even. And after this, how is it going to look to your highbrow friends for you to have a son who's a convicted rapist?"

"You ... you ... freeloading, good-for-nothing, filthy, stinking freak! You're nothing without your effing wand!" Petunia spat back venomously.

"Want to bet? I know wandless magic now--not to mention nonverbal spells."

"Well, it's nothing more than one might expect from one of your kind. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if you'd paid people to plant evidence and so-called witnesses to say what you wanted them to say against Dudley!"

"I could have, yes," Harry admitted. "But I didn't. There was no need to. The evidence was already there, if you'd had brains enough to admit it--something you and your husband are sorely lacking the ability to do, especially where your precious son is concerned! I've already beaten one of 'my kind,' as you put it, so what makes you think I won't do the same to you and then some?"

Petunia was momentarily stunned and shocked, but that was all that Harry needed. "Be thankful I'm only here to see Dudley punished, not to prove that you knew about everything he's done, including accosting those other poor girls, yet covering it up ... although I could easily do so if I chose to. If you don't back off, Mrs. Dursley"--Harry made sure to say this in a manner which conveyed all his bottled-up hatred and contempt for her--"and right now, one word from me in the ears of the right people in this town and you'll be lucky not to be run out of town on a rail, if not tarred and feathered! So before you say another word, I strongly suggest that you not give me any more reason to prosecute you than I already have ... because if you do, I swear you won't know what hit you by the time I get through with you."

Harry's tone was calm, yet deadly effective--so much so that it penetrated even Petunia's thick skull and she closed her mouth with a snap, turning on her heel and heading back to the seat next to her husband.

"Is all the testimony concluded?" The defence lawyer reluctantly nodded at a hard look from Petunia when the judge asked. "Very well. I shall deliver the verdict once the jury has had a chance to deliberate ... although I don't expect it to take very long." She looked pointedly at Dudley, then at his parents, before her eyes came to rest on Harry and his tender solictude toward Ginny.

What could have made these people abuse a gentle, sensitive, orphaned boy so terribly, turn him so against them that he would disown them completely and declare that he would gladly kill them, given the chance? She wasn't sure she wanted to know, now or ever. What mattered in this instance was that justice was done, and she intended to do everything in her power to see that young Dursley was punished as his crimes against both his cousin and his fiancée warranted.

Barely half an hour later, the jury foreperson came back and handed a slip of paper to the judge; she said, "Dudley Philip Dursley, please rise."

Dudley reluctantly did so.

"The jury has just delivered its verdict. You have been found guilty of twelve counts of sexual battery against various female victims, not the least of which is your cousin's fiancée, one Ginevra Weasley, punishable by life in prison. Sentence will commence as soon as transport can be found to take you, and upon your arrival at the HMP Latchmere House Prison located on Church Road, Ham Common, Richmond, Surrey, the nearest one to your home. However, I suggest you not attempt to escape, because our officers, both here and at the prison itself, are trained to kill if they deem it necessary. Take him away." Two uniformed officers came up on either side of Dudley and took hold of an arm.

Petunia screamed, "No! No! He's innocent! He's innocent!" but no one heeded her. In fact, Vernon was actually trying to calm his wife, but she would not be calmed. Finally it was deemed necessary to have her sedated; they then left the courtroom, Petunia now quiet but still sobbing softly. Harry refused to feel any sympathy for her; none of the Dursleys held any further meaning for him.

All that was important to him was the fact that Dudley was being led away to prison--to a life sentence without the possibility of parole for many years. By the time he was (if the prison authorities decided to grant it, that is), it was likely that both Vernon and Petunia would have died. And by that time, Harry would likely have forgotten about all of them; he would be too busy living his life, too busy loving Ginny and whatever children she gave him.

* * * * *

Upon leaving the courtroom, all decided to go out to celebrate, and Harry gladly picked up the tab for everyone in his future family by marriage. All the attached couples, including Harry and Ginny, had romantic dinners and dances at the fanciest wizarding restaurant his Gringotts gold could buy. The rest he gave leave to do as they wished, even return home, although none did.

They had too much to celebrate for that and intended to do so for as long as they wished, especially Fred and George. Harry and Ginny's personal plans also included a passionate night of shagging each other silly upon their return home. For the time being, though, all that mattered was that justice had been done and they could at last begin to put the last twenty nightmarish months behind them.

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