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The car was unusually silent, all three children engrossed in their books, Ginny yawning lazily in the passenger seat, Harry driving and mentally preparing for the argument.
They hadn’t noticed on the motorway, but as the car began to slow and turn more frequently through the town centre, James tore his eyes from his book and glanced out of the window, frowning. ‘This isn’t Bristol…'
There was a loud click as Harry activated the locks.
'This is Surrey!’ Al spat accusingly. 'He’s taking us to Surrey!'
'Noooo!’ Lily moaned dramatically, gripping her hair with her hands. 'Dad!'
'I knew it! I knew it was weird we weren’t taking the Floo!’ cried James, furiously pulling on the door handle, apparently with the intention of leaping out onto the road and escaping over the roundabout.
'We’ll be there an hour, tops,’ Harry promised them, glancing into the rear-view mirror to see their despairing faces.
'That’s never true! We’re always there for ages!'
'Mum,’ said Al, leaning forward with desperate urgency in his voice. 'Mum, you can’t want to go either-’
'None of us want to go, Al,’ she said warily.
'Apparently Dad does!'
'They’ve had a baby, James, I’ve got to go and meet her.'
All three of the children groaned in such perfect unison that Harry spotted his wife hiding her smile behind her hand. 'I’m sick of babies,’ said James. 'Everyone’s having babies, and they’re all exactly the same.'
'You might have to go,’ said Al sourly. 'But I don’t see why we have to come.'
'We’re never there for only an hour,’ said Lily, who looked close to tears in her frustration.
'We’ve got a signal,’ said Ginny. 'When we’ve all had enough, I’m going to scratch my left cheek and then your dad will know it’s time to go.'
'He conveniently misses all the signals,’ muttered Al.
'Hey,’ said Harry sharply, frowning in the mirror at them. 'I’ve got a new family member, all right? It won’t kill you to just spend a couple of hours making polite conversation.'
'ONE hour!’
'Yes, Lily, that’s what I meant, one hour.'
The car pulled into the driveway; Dudley’s home was just streets away from Privet Drive, so the houses were much the same as Harry remembered from his childhood, all with their perfect neatness and uniformity, the roads a maze of bland crescents and dead-ends, an entire estate apparently created by a town planner over-using copy and paste.
'God, it is so boring here,’ said James sullenly. 'I hate your family.’
'I know,’ said Harry, pulling up the handbrake with a sigh. He twisted in his seat to look at his miserable family. 'Can you all please just behave? For me? Just for a little while? Please remember that Hyacinth doesn’t know about magic, please don’t make me call the Ministry, I don’t think Grandad can risk covering anything up for us again.'
'James,’ said Ginny, suddenly sharp. 'Take that out of your pocket.’ James scowled and removed the wet-start firework from his pocket, placing it into his mother’s outstretched hand.
His children looked like they were walking to the gallows, he thought with faint amusement as they collected on the doorstep. Dudley’s doorbell didn’t ring, or shrill, it played a jaunty little tune. Harry hated it. 'Do you have the-?’ he said suddenly, surprised to hear an edge of panic in his voice.
'Yes, I’ve got the present,’ said Ginny. 'Don’t worry.'
He nodded. Why did he always feel nervous coming here? He was fairly sure Dudley wouldn’t hit him anymore.
A shadowy figure appeared behind the frosted glass, and then there was his cousin, greeting them all with a broad smile, pulling Harry into an extremely uncomfortable hug, bumping cheeks clumsily against Ginny, ruffling the boys’ hair (both of him went rigid with irritation), and pinching Lily’s cheeks. 'Aren’t you just the prettiest thing,’ he said. 'How old are you now?'
'Seven,’ she said coldly.
'My goodness, such a big girl now!’ said Dudley, apparently oblivious to Lily’s pained look up at Ginny. 'Please, all of you, come in, come in…'
As all the houses in Little Whinging had been built to more or less the same plans and Dudley had grown up with a similar taste to his parents, it was very much like stepping into Number 4, Privet Drive again. As always when he visited his cousin, for a brief second Harry was a teenager again, unhappily dragging his trunk across the threshold, wishing bitterly that he could have stayed at school, or gone straight to the Burrow, or that Sirius had been able to clear his name…
He half expected to see a bolt lock on the cupboard under the stairs, but instead it stayed innocently shut, perfectly ordinary, as Dudley led them through to the sitting room. They found themselves on the floral sofa, smiling politely as Hyacinth thanked them for the gift of baby clothes, accepting the cups of tea Dudley brought through on a tray and placed on the coffee table. At the end of the room was a moses basket, in which a small, pink blob of a baby was gurgling happily, her chubby arms waving.
'We’ve named her Marigold,’ said Dudley proudly. 'Thought I’d keep up the tradition of flower names what with mum and Hyacinth - I can see you thought the same,’ he said, winking at Lily.
'I’m named after Dad’s mum, not yours,’ said Lily bluntly, leaning heavily against her mother. Harry shot her a look.
'Oh, yes, of course,’ said Dudley. 'That’s what she was called, wasn’t it? It was Lily and…'
'James,’ said Harry.
'Right, yes - oh!’ he gestured at Harry’s eldest, who grimaced. 'Of course. And who are you named for?’ he asked Al kindly.
'Other dead people,’ said Al in a bored voice.
'Al,’ growled Harry, and he reached out a hand to pull his son up from his melodramatic slouching position. 'Sit up - come on.'
'She’s really beautiful,’ said Ginny quickly, peering into the basket. 'Look at those curls, such thick hair already.’
'She’s so good, barely gives us any trouble,’ said Hyacinth happily. 'Were yours the same?'
Ginny launched into polite chit-chat on sleeping schedules and colic, while Harry tried to prevent his children from lying down on Dudley’s sofa. 'Get off,’ he hissed at James, who looked close to climbing onto the arm. 'Just sit still-' James scratched his left cheek pointedly at Harry, who ignored him.
'You boys have both shot up since I last saw you,’ said Dudley brightly, stirring sugar into his tea. 'I bet you get up to all sorts of mischief, eh?’
'Oh, there’s plenty of that,’ said Harry lightly.
'Your father and I,’ Dudley began with a jovial air, nodding at James and Al, 'we were always getting into scraps growing up.'
Harry tried to smile, avoiding his sons’ glances. Then, in a reserved sort of voice, he asked Dudley how his parents were doing.
'Oh, very good, very good - delighted to be grandparents, of course, they’ve been on about it for years. And of course mum dotes on Maggie.'
'Of course,’ said Harry. Something tickled at his throat, and he coughed. He looked again at the baby, who was still kicking her chunky little legs. 'She really is very lovely.'
'Here,’ said Dudley, striding over to his daughter. He lifted her, and handed her to Harry. 'Meet her properly.’
Harry, now well practised in holding babies, took her easily, bouncing her slightly as he smiled down at her. 'Hello,’ he said. 'Aren’t you good?'
'Dad loves babies,’ Lily said, craning her neck to peer at Marigold.
'Of course I do,’ said Harry, tilting the baby so Lily could see. 'Look how sweet she is.'
'What is she to you?’ Dudley asked, frowning in concentration. 'Niece?'
'First cousin once removed,’ said Harry swiftly. He looked at his own children. 'She’s your second cousin.'
'Oh, good, we’re a bit short on cousins,’ said Al dryly.
'Don’t know how you know that,’ said Dudley. 'All that once removed stuff is so confusing. Family’s family, really, isn’t it?'
Harry winced. Dudley’s attempts at reconciliation were always so on the nose. Thankfully he was saved from responding by Hyacinth bringing out a lemon drizzle cake, which seemed to cheer the children up significantly, and he was able to hand Marigold back to her father.
'I’m still getting used to it,’ beamed Dudley, cradling her. 'Being a father, I mean. It took us ages, I was starting to think it would never happen, but here she is!'
'I’m very happy for you,’ said Harry, and he meant it.
They lingered for at least another hour, making awkward conversation and cooing over the baby. When Hyacinth took Maggie into another room to feed, Dudley asked the children if they were all going to the same school as Harry went to. 'You’re all so lucky,’ he told them. 'I was always so jealous of your dad. Do you remember, Harry, when you got that letter, and we were both trying to look through the key hole of the door to find out what was going on?’
'Yes, I think I lost that fight,’ said Harry, smiling vaguely.
When Hyacinth returned, they went back to their charade of Harry being in the police force. She asked him about some new change that some muggle politician had brought in, and he bluffed his way through it, hoping he wasn’t saying anything weird.
Harry could feel his family glancing at him - all of them seemed to have itchy faces and Ginny started mentioning traffic jams, even though with their car that would never be a problem. But Harry, as uncomfortable as it was, as much as he kept thinking back to being punched repeatedly in the stomach by Dudley’s fat fists, and the way his uncle had laughed, kept finding more questions to ask. How is work? Did your parents end up buying that holiday cottage? Do they still see the Masons? How’s Piers?
He wasn’t sure why he did it to himself. It certainly didn’t make him happy, and he knew for the next few days he would be surly and grumpy, that he would inevitably wish he’d said something more explicit, made his unhappiness clearer. But there was some part of him, some ashamed little boy desperate for approval and affection, secretly pleased if a little disconcerted that his cousin was talking to him, as though they had once been friends, as though it had all merely been rough and tumble.
'Where’s the loo?’ asked Al.
'Cupboard under the stairs, sweetie,’ said Hyacinth.
'That’s a good idea,’ said Ginny, as Al left the room. 'I think ours just grows wellies and coats, I never dare open the door.'
'Well, it’s a good little space, isn’t it?’ said Hyacinth. 'And if you stick a toilet and sink in there, all of a sudden you’ve added value to your house!'
Harry pulled Lily onto his lap, and she hugged him without question, tucking her head under his chin. 'Your parents must be pleased you’re just round the corner,’ he said to Dudley.
'Oh, yes, well, you know, the bank of mum and dad helped me out with the deposit, but obviously that meant that they had some say in where…’
But as Dudley was talking, they heard a key turn and the front door open. 'Hello?’ called a shrill voice. 'Whose car is that? I bought-’
'Mum?’ called Dudley, at her sudden silence.
Harry felt Ginny grasp his hand, and with a jolt he realised he had frozen. 'We’d best get going,’ he said quietly. Al slunk back into the room, glancing uneasily over his shoulder.
'Don’t go just because-’
'No, really, we should get ahead of the traffic. Kids, come on,’ he said. He was pleased it was a warm day so they didn’t have to go through the saga of putting on coats.
The most obedient they had been all day, James, Al and Lily all silently gathered around their father, ready to leave as he rushed his goodbyes, vaguely aware of Ginny doing the same thing. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Petunia in the hallway, her face stern and pale as she clutched a large biscuit tin. As he passed, he looked at her, but she turned her face away.
'Who was that?’ Al blurted, the moment they got into the car. 'She gave me the meanest look when she saw me, I thought she was going to throw something.'
'That was my aunt,’ said Harry quietly, twisting in his seat to look as he backed the car out of the drive.
'The one you lived with or the one you blew up?’ Lily asked.
'The one I lived with.'
'Didn’t you want to chat?'
'No.'
His children were all silent as they drove away. He wished they would bicker about something. 'Are you all right?’ Ginny whispered to him. He nodded.
He looked in the mirror at his children, his eyes resting on Al, who looked rather hurt. 'Sorry,’ he said to him. 'You probably gave her a bit of a shock. Downside of looking like me, I suppose.'
'One of the many downsides,’ said Al, and Harry grinned at him. 'Well, thank you all for not breaking the statute of secrecy. Shall we get some crap food on the way home?'
'McDonalds,’ said James immediately.
'Nooo!’ cried Lily desperately. 'No, not McDonalds - KFC!’
'Absolutely not, the chips are awful,’ said James. 'Dad - you agree, don’t you? The chips are bad.'
'They’re not great, Lils,’ Harry admitted.
'I could do with some chicken though,’ said Ginny, and she exchanged a smile at him as the children began to squabble. He sank into it, the noise, the unbridled emotion over things as inane as chips, all of them together.