Title: The Stop
Author: Luce Red
Fandom: Harry Potter
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of J.K. Rowling.
Type/Notes: General, future
Summary: In the end, Harry goes to the one place he can bear.

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It is to Dudley's house that he goes, after the end, when he is covered in blood and sweat and burnt bits of flesh and goodness knows what else.  He is not aware of having Apparated--only of suddenly catching sight of a pudgy figure, tall and distant, standing in the doorway and staring at him.  Dudley, who has started working at the local supermarket, living alone in a house two hours away from Little Whinging, Surrey, and is starting to find his own life after moving out of Aunt Marge's home.  Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon died five years ago, when the war started and Voldemort decided to blow up the house at 4 Privet Drive.

It is Dudley's room that he stumbles into, barely able to cast the cleaning spells that remove the blood and gore but leave the death that clings to his skin.  He has been smelling it for years.  It is Dudley's bed he falls into, and it is on Dudley's yellowed sheets that he lies unmoving for the days that follow, knowing only that he was--not safe, but unremarkable and forgettable.

Dudley tiptoes around him, sleeping on the living room couch, and sneaking into the bedroom only in the morning to grab a change of clothes.  Once, after Dudley left, he found a tray of bread and water on the bedside table, and the sight of his childhood provisions made him laugh until he cried, soundless, into the sheets.

On the fifth day they finally come looking.

Dudley, who never even made a sound when Harry appeared at his doorstep, squealed in distress at their entrance, sounding much like the time he was eleven and had found a pig's tail sticking out from his backside.  Harry finds himself standing, wand at the ready, and he is in the living room before he realizes it.  They swarm around him instead.

"Harry, we've been looking for you!  We looked in Hogwarts..."

Where Dumbledore died.

"... and Sirius Black's place..."

Where Remus died.

"... even the Burrow..."

Where Ron died.

"The Ministry needs you, Harry!  Everything's in shambles, and we're tracking down the remaining Death Eaters..."

He turns to Dudley, who is backing into a wall, his eyes large as he stares at the wands brandished in front of him. 

"I'm going now," he says.

Dudley makes a pitiful attempt at straightening.  "Get out, you... you freak," he said.

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Luce (redacanthus@yahoo.com)
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