Walking through the gate, he stopped when seeing a kid leave the house next to theirs.
His parents had warned him repeatedly, that the men living next door were of a bad sort - which was confusing Dudley, since one of them was a policeman. That was why only rarely saw them, and that only from a distance. Nevertheless, since his parents said their neighbors were freaks, it had to be correct to his young mind.
The boy he saw now, however, he held little memory of. Boy, he looks so dorky!
The boy's hair looked like an untidy black mop and the glasses he was wearing made him look quite dumb to Dudley. He didn't care for details, however, as he just had found a convenient outlet for his bad mood, remembering his lessons from the playground. That, and even though he didn't realize it, to him the boy screamed 'ideal victim'.
His mind made up, he marched towards his target.
Harry for his part felt really proud when leaving the house of his uncles. When Veronica had shown him some letters of the alphabet some days ago as preparation for school, he'd complained they looked blurry. So they had his eyes checked out and, as it turned out, he was in need of glasses. They felt a bit alien to him, but he would surely get used to them quick enough. After getting the glasses today, he really wanted to show them to his Uncle Remus.
Granted, by now he knew they were not literally his uncles but very close friends of his parents. To Harry however that didn't matter, after all he'd known them for his whole life. Sirius of course wasn't home at this time, but Remus was, and Harry had shown him his new glasses, causing the man to comment there was a striking resemblance to his father, even at such a young age.
Harry didn't know what to make of this. After all, he still was too young to truly understand. He only knew that something horrible had happened to them, and they afterwards could no longer take care of him. His mind was incapable of thinking beyond that at the time. Nevertheless, deep inside he felt taking after his unknown father could be a good thing.
"Hey you!"
Looking to his right, Harry saw a fat boy approach. He vaguely recognized him as the kid of his uncles' neighbors. He'd only seen him from a distance, and never spoken to him at all. Harry did not like the look the fat boy gave him.
"Hello?" Harry asked.
Dudley got straight to the point. "I don't like you."
"Uh...?" Harry was thrown off by that statement.
"Are you stupid?" Dudley right then felt that this could be good. "Well, you do have that stupid thing on your nose."
"Take that back!" Harry gasped.
Dudley laughed cruelly. "I won't! You're an ugly dork wearing that stupid thing!"
Harry had never before in his life been exposed to such cruelty, so he was pretty much unprepared for it. He simply couldn't imagine that someone could be so mean to someone else. Sadly, this innocence was now getting seriously damaged by Dudley spotting him as an easy victim.
"No!" Dudley laughed, knowing he was the stronger one. "Let's see you without that ugly thing!"
Suddenly Dudley tried to slap Harry, and Harry, having not expected this, barely managed to dodge, falling in the process. He was starting to cry at how mean Dudley was, while the boy walked up to him, clearly for a second attempt. They boy's cruel laughter drove it home to Harry that not everyone was nice, thus destroying one illusion of young age.
"What do you think you are doing?!"
Harry saw to his relief that his Uncle Remus had left the house and now gave Dudley a harsh look. "Uncle Remus... he..." Harry stammered.
"Don't worry, Harry, I witnessed it through the window. Go inside, I'll take care of this," Remus told the young boy and Harry wasted no time to do so, feeling safe inside the house.
Dudley on the other hand now felt quite afraid when being confronted with this very displeased adult man. "You think it's funny to hurt others?" Remus asked Dudley. "You ever thought how it feels when it happens to you?"
"Keep away from my son!"
Of course Petunia kept eager watch at the window. I should have known, Remus thought without any surprise when seeing Petunia running to them, accompanied by a woman that looked like a female Vernon.
Remus however would not stand for that. "Well, if your son is in the habit of walking onto other people's property and bullying children, then I do see it fit to set him straight. Something you clearly neglected to do."
"My little Dudders would never do that." She of course said that despite having witnessed the entire thing. That was typical for her, even though she would deny it.
"What can you expect from such a lout without any class? Just look at the scars in his face and you know his character," the other woman - he was now sure she was one despite her sporting a mustache - said nastily.
"I agree fully, Marge. That's why I was watching them and good that I did so," Petunia said while checking on Dudley, despite him being the aggressor.
"Oh, that's rich," Remus snorted, his Marauder nature shining through. His scars were a sore point as well. "Lady, if I can even call you that, have you looked into the mirror? If there is any true low-class trash, you would embody it."
"You little cretin!" Marge cursed, waving her cane angrily, before realizing that she should cut her losses. "Come, Petunia, we don't have to listen to this reject of society!"
Watching them leave, he snorted. What a lovely family, he thought sarcastically.
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