New Beginnings

Harry reread the letter one last time and shook his head in disbelief as he looked up at Dadelus Diggle. "He wrote this?"

"He did," replied Dadelus. "You seem surprised."

"Well, I am," said Harry. "Dudley never was one for reading, much less writing."

"He's changed Harry," said Hestia Jones as she joined Harry in Dudley's empty bedroom. "The last year, he did a lot of reading and studying on his own. I think it might have been his way of escaping from what was happening and perhaps...." Hestia paused for a moment as she thought of something. "Perhaps he was trying to find out what was happening to him."

Harry looked around the room and noticed that it was oddly clean...cleaned up by Aunt Petunia no doubt to restore some sense of normalcy. However, he did notice a couple old books on one shelf that seemed out of place with the others...that was when he recognized them as a couple of History of Magic textbooks from his fourth and fifth years.

"He swiped some of my old textbooks," said Harry. "Why? Did he think he could teach himself magic?"

Dadelus shook his head. "I don't think so, Harry. Dudley knew he wasn't a wizard, but I don't think he was exactly a muggle either. We confronted him about the books when we caught him reading them and learned that he had stolen them from you. But we couldn't exactly contact you and try to return them."

Harry didn't bother hiding his smile. "Yeah, you're probably right, especially with Voldemort trying to kill me and his minions terrorizing the world." Then his smile faded. "What exactly was he doing then?"

"He was looking up historical accounts of Dementors and various dark wizards," said Dadelus. "But there was something else, Harry...your cousin...he believed the Dementor attack did something to him. At first I thought it was rubbish, but he sensed them coming along with the small group of Death Eaters long before the wards had been tripped."

Harry could tell from the way both Hestia and Dadelus nervously glanced at each other that they were holding something back. "Okay, what are you NOT telling me."

"I'm not sure if we should tell you this, Harry," said Hestia after a couple moments of silence. "But you'll probably learn about this from some of the Death Eaters imprisoned in Azkaban. When we were attacked the first time, they managed to get into the safehouse. One of them tried to use cruciatus curse on Dudley."

Harry shuddered at the mention of the Cruciatus curse. He had been on the receiving end a couple times and he still felt tendrils of pain when he thought of the time Voldemort used the curse on him. For a Muggle like Dudley to be hit with it...Harry actually felt sorry for his one time tormentor. "What happened? How badly hurt was he?"

"That's just it, Harry...I don't think it affected him the way it was supposed to. Sure, it caused him pain and brought him down to one knee...but that's all that happened." Dadelus suddenly fell silent and the expression on his face became grim. "It was the Death Eater called Wilkes, Harry. He managed to injure Hestia, and stunned me. Dudley tried to run to my defense when Wilkes used the cruciatus. Dudley stumbled and dropped to one knee...then got up and kept going, even when Wilkes hit him again with the curse."

"He what!?!" Harry couldn't believe what he was hearing. "You're saying Wilkes hit him with the Cruciatus curse twice?"

"Yeah, and he would have done it a third time if Dudley hadn't grabbed him and then...it was the damndest thing, Harry. Never saw anything like it."

"What did you see?"

Dadelus shook his head again before he continued. "Dudley grabbed him by the throat and it was as if the Cruciatus curse flowed out of Dudley's body and back into Wilkes. Wilkes was screaming in agony before Dudley snapped his neck."

"Dudley did what!?!" Harry sat down on the bed in shock. Dudley had actually killed someone. Harry had often wondered in the past how long it would be before Dudley had beaten someone to death, but this was not what he expected. Dudley, his magic-fearing, hateful, and bullying cousin, had killed a Death Eater with his bare hands and stood up to one of the dark curses. "How did he do that?"

"We're not sure, Harry," said Hestia. "Though we suspect that the Dementor attack might have triggered something magical inside your cousin...something that we weren't able to identify. If the Ministry wasn't in shambles, I would have suggested having members of the Department of Mysteries check him out. There were other things as well."

"Like what?"

"Well, we found out later that he could sense things that were magically concealed. He wasn't able to identify them, but he could sense that they were there. He could also sense the magical wards and protection spells that were in place." The witch allowed herself a small chuckle. "In a way, it was ironic...the magic-hating muggle turned out to be more than we thought. Unfortunately, your aunt and uncle viewed him as a freak even though he helped save our lives. When we brought them back here to Privet Drive, it was obvious that something was going to happen."

"Yeah," said Harry. "Dudders grew a backbone and put Uncle Vernon in the hospital. Why didn't you contact me about this?"

"He didn't want you to know, Harry," said Dadelus. "He said that he had to figure this out on his own and that you had been through enough. He agreed to let us tell you after he had left and to give you the letter here."

"Where are Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon?"

"Majorca. We thought it was best to get them out of the house before you came back."

"Probably a good idea, though I doubt Vernon would do anything to me now," said Harry. "Did Dudley say where he was going?"

Hestia shook her head. "No, and don't bother trying to locate him...you can't."

"Why not? Don't tell me you put a Fidelius charm on him."

"No...it's because we can't track him magically."

"WHAT!?!"