A/N: Hello, lovely people! Welcome back to Harry Potter and Destiny's Last Chance! Thank you so much for all the love you've shown this story! It really means the world to me, especially now as I'm making my way through medication and therapy for my mental health issues, as well as continued medical issues. I'm working very hard at getting a full time job so I can get myself on a regular schedule and actually have some time to do fun things, like write new chapters more often than every 6 months -_- Siriusly, you guys are the coolest, and thanks for hanging in with me despite my wacky life and publishing schedule. Depression has been a constant thorn in my side, and it seems like it's been everything I can do to get out of bed and get through my day. Getting email notifications that people are still enjoying this story means so much to me and is a bright light to an otherwise dismal day. Thank you all so much, beautiful souls!

This chapter will reveal the identity of Harry's new ally. Since almost everyone guessed Draco Malfoy, I'm assuming that y'all will be nice and surprised by the big reveal. : )

Legal stuff:

-J.K. Rowling owns all canon Harry Potter items

-Yana Toboso owns all canon Black Butler items

-Reptilia28 owns the "Don't Fear the Reaper" challenge and its rules

-I own everything else

Chapter 13- And the Ally is…

The next few weeks were quite busy for Harry. Hermione was a constant visitor, arriving at least 3 times a week to do everything from working on homework with Harry to just hanging out. Both teens had been amused by Sirius's reactions to seeing the rest of the Star Wars movies, and Hermione had made it her personal mission to help Harry improve his basic swimming skills by asking her parents to take them to the public pool near her house. Harry had caught himself staring at Hermione in her bathing suit a few times, and the witch had blushed when she'd caught him looking in the process of doing some of her own checking out. Harry had insisted on wearing a swim shirt as well as trunks, too self-conscious to allow Hermione to see his scar-riddled body yet, but the outfit looked good on him, the curly haired girl had mused.

Today, the teens were on their way back from the cinema with Emily, Remus, and a wig-wearing bespectacled Sirius after seeing 2 films, The Lion King and The Shadow. Harry had never seen a Disney movie before, though he'd heard Hermione rave about them, and they'd both been intrigued by the trailer for The Shadow. The experience had been quite fun for the whole group as Harry and Hermione had gotten to spend time together, Harry had been able to experience another first that had long been denied him, and the adults had gotten to hang out again after so many years apart. Mariska, who was recuperating from a nasty bout of flu, had opted to stay home and sleep of the rest of her illness, but she was awake when the group had Apparated back in the middle of the living room.

"There's been a call for you, Harry," she told him.

"A phone call?" he repeated, perplexed. Hermione was the only person he could think of that would call him, and she was with him at the moment. Even though he'd given Neville and Ron the number for Emily's house, both boys had communicated only by owl post or Floo so far.

"Who called?" inquired Emily, brows furrowed suspiciously.

"Dudley Dursley."

"Huh?!" Harry was shocked. Even though Dudley had ended things with him on a positive note in his previous life, it had taken him saving his life from a Dementor to prompt that change, which certainly hadn't happened in this time.

"Did he say what he wanted?" asked Remus.

"He said that he was sorry and that he wanted to talk to Harry," said Mariska.

"Really?"

"Yes."

Harry and Hermione exchanged looks.

"Do you want to talk to him, Harry?" the witch asked.

"I don't know," Harry admitted. "If he's serious—"

"No, I'm Sirius," his godfather interjected with a playful smirk.

Harry chuckled before continuing, "If he really means what he says, then yes. I'm a little skeptical that he suddenly wants to talk to me, but he went to all the trouble of finding a way to contact me, so that counts for something, I suppose."

"If you did want to talk to him, Harry, he said he'd call back tomorrow around 4:30 when his parents wouldn't be home. He's smart enough to know that they wouldn't allow it if they knew he was talking to you," informed Mariska.

"You sure that was Dursley's son?" Sirius grunted. He was furious with the Dursley family and wasn't feeling particularly charitable towards them.

"I guess I'll find out tomorrow," said Harry.

"You're going to talk to him?" asked Hermione.

"Yes. He took the time to track me down and reach out to me. I'll at least hear him out."

True to his word, the phone rang at exactly 4:30 the next afternoon. Harry picked it up.

"Hello?"

"Harry?"

"Yeah, it's me."

The Muggle boy took an audible sigh of relief. "I'm glad you answered. There's so much to say!" He took a deep breath before going on. "I want to start by telling you how sorry I am, Harry. I know I was terrible to you. I beat you up, I made fun of you, and I rubbed all of the affection I got in your face. I know that just apologizing isn't good enough, but it'll have to do for now."

Harry was amazed by the conversation so far, but he was even more surprised by how naturally his reply came to him. "I forgive you, Dudley. We were just kids, and it's not like you were taught better or knew anything else. I have to admit, though: I'm not sure what brought this on."

"Well, that Emily woman at the train station, I couldn't get it out of my head how she said your parents would have treated me like a second son if I'd been the one orphaned, and I know that my parents certainly never treated you like a son. I tried to make sense of it. Why would they treat you so badly if your mum would've been so kind to me despite the relationship between her and my mum? I realized that I didn't know anything about your mum except that her name was Lily, and I only found that out when you did the day that giant came and told you that you're a wizard. I decided to try and get some information."

FLASHBACK-4 PRIVET DRIVE

"Mum?" Dudley prompted. Petunia had sat down with a cup of tea just a few minutes earlier, and Dudley had been sitting attempting to watch TV but not really focusing, his mind too distracted by the questions he wanted to ask.

"What is it, Dudley?" Petunia answered curiously, surprised to hear her son speaking while he had a television program on; this was one that he was normally completely engrossed in.

"Can you tell me about Aunt Lily? You never talk about her, and I was wondering what she was like. Did she look like you? How far apart are you-"

"Why the devil are you asking me about her?" Petunia hissed, spitting out the last word like it was poison. Dudley looked at his mother, shocked by her venomous reaction to his question.

"I want to know more about her. I don't know anything about her except her name, she's Harry's mum, and she's dead."

"Lily was a freak just like her husband and her son, and I don't want to talk about her! We're going to forget about this and not be discussing such drivel when your father comes home!" said Petunia stubbornly.

"But Mum-"Dudley protested.

"Enough of this, Dudley!" Petunia shrieked so fiercely that Dudley dared not argue back. Instead, he sighed and tried to turn his attention to the TV, but found he just wasn't interested.

Dudley had been working hard on improving himself since the beginning of the summer, and he was pleased with the results so far. His weight was down to a much healthier number, he had more energy, and he felt amazing! However, he still wasn't settled with what had happened with Harry. There were many nights that Dudley couldn't sleep as memories of punching Harry, breaking his glasses, and chasing him all over the place haunted him. He was also becoming painfully aware of just how abusive his parents had been to his cousin, and he couldn't get Emily's words out of his head about how his Aunt Lily would have treated him if she would have raised him instead. Since his mother refused to answer his questions and he knew that any mention of the Potter family in front of his father was the equivalent of poking a bear in the eye with a butter knife, he decided to look through the boxes of mementos from his Grandma and Grandpa Evans to see if they had any pictures or information about Lily in them. He saw his chance one night when his parents went out with a new business client of his father's and he was home by himself. Dudley began nosing through the attic and came across the boxes of his grandparents' things. When he bent to open the first box, he noticed another box shoved into the corner by itself. Curiously, the Muggle boy pulled the lonely box out and saw that it was simply labeled, "Lily". "Jackpot," he muttered as he quickly hoisted the lid off. Inside the box were photographs of two little girls, one brunette and one redhead. Recognizing the brunette as his mother, Dudley realized that the other girl had to be his Aunt Lily. There were several photographs of two smiling girls who looked like they were having the time of their lives. "This must be before Aunt Lily found out she was a witch," Dudley commented to himself. As he continued going through the box, he found a stack of letters written on parchment, which he recognized from seeing Harry's Hogwarts acceptance letter. Dudley was fascinated and began unfolding the first one to read. As he did so, another piece of paper fell out of it. Upon picking it up, Dudley discovered that it was a photograph, but he was surprised to see that the people in it were waving and moving around! "Must be magic," the youngest Dursley realized. Grinning at the opportunity to observe magic and noting to himself that nothing terrible had happened to him despite his parents' opinions on magic, Dudley began studying the photo. He instantly recognized his Aunt Lily, who was grinning brightly and waving enthusiastically. She was wearing a black robe with a red and gold lion badge on the right side. In the photograph with her was another girl in the black robe with a lion, but this girl had long black hair; she looked bizarrely familiar. Dudley frowned in confusion before his eyes scanned over the last figure in the picture, who looked uncomfortable but managed a small smile. While he was also wearing a black robe, the boy's had a green and silver snake on the pocket instead of the red and gold lion on Lily's and the other girl's, and the boy's hair was long and somewhat greasy. Dudley turned his attention back to the letter that accompanied the picture and began reading:

Dear Mum, Dad, and Tuney,

Hogwarts is AMAZING! I'm learning so much about myself and my powers. Severus says that this is the best school for magic in Europe, and from what I have experienced so far, I agree! I so wish you could be here at Hogwarts with me, but since we can't be here together, I'll tell you about it instead. Hogwarts is a huge castle, just like in our storybooks! There are four Houses here, which is the group that we live with and attend classes with. To determine which House we go into, we have to put the Sorting Hat on. It looks like a beat up old witch's hat, but he talks and reads our minds! It's really cool! I got sorted into Gryffindor, the House for those who have courage and heart, and is represented by a lion. Sev wasn't too happy about my Sorting, because we got separated; he was Sorted into Slytherin, the House of the cunning and ambitious, which is represented by a snake. We'll still have classes together though, and we can spend our free time together as well. I also made a new friend in Gryffindor: Emily Tarleton. Her father is a wizard, but her mother is non-magic. She's really nice and a big music lover, and since her mum is a Muggle, she knows about the music we listen to as well, and we've already talked about it a lot! Emily asked a boy in our House, Sirius Black, to take a picture of me with her and Severus so I could send you a photograph. I love magic photographs, and I hope you will, too! I'm grateful to Sirius for taking the photo, but he's pretty cocky, and his best friend, an arrogant toe rag named James Potter, is terribly rude to Severus. I don't like either one of them, but Emily seems to find Sirius amusing for some reason.

Our classes are really cool too! We've just started, of course, so we haven't done much, but I already feel like I'm learning a lot! Gryffindor has Potions with Slytherin, so I get to see Sev, and we work together a lot. My teacher, Professor Slughorn, really seems to like me, and he told me that he thinks I have a natural talent for brewing potions! Isn't that exciting? I'm really enjoying Charms as well. Our teacher, Professor Flitwick, is part Goblin, and he's really tiny but very powerful. He says that we'll learn how to make objects levitate before Halloween! Professor McGonagall teaches Transfiguration, and today we started learning the beginning theory of the subject. Once we've mastered that, we can begin practicing turning matches into needles! The only thing I don't like about Transfiguration is James Potter; the subject seems to come easy to him, and he's always boasting about his skills, which is already quite annoying. Tomorrow is going to be a lot of fun: we're going to have our first flying lesson! I can't wait to have my first ride on a broomstick!

I am really enjoying myself at Hogwarts; I fit right in with everyone else, and I feel right at home here. I just wish that you could all come and see it yourselves, too. Tuney, I hope that you can forgive me for leaving you. I didn't want to leave you behind, but I have to learn what I'm capable of and how to control my magic. I didn't choose to have powers, and I wish that you had them too so you could come with me. I hope you're not still mad at me; I really miss you and I'd love to hear from you. I love you, Mum, Dad, and Tuney, and I hope to hear from you soon! The owl that delivered the letter has been asked to wait for a reply, so you can send your letter back with him.

Love,

Lily

Dudley was overwhelmed by what he'd learned. His mother had been bitter towards his aunt since they were children, and obviously that hadn't changed. Dudley also received clarity that the girl in the picture was the same Emily that had taken Harry in. He'd also learned quite a bit about the world his aunt and cousin belonged to, the world his parents so despised but that he found himself fascinated with. It was also strange to hear Lily talk so negatively about James Potter when Dudley knew that she would end up marrying him and having Harry with him. He also recognized the name Sirius Black from both Emily having mentioned him at King's Cross Station and from the news program saying that he was a mass murderer with a weapon. This had Dudley curious about this supposedly dangerous man, but he decided to mull that issue over later. He turned his attention back to the photograph, the three eleven-year-olds still smiling and waving. "Well Aunt Lily, Mum may not like magic photos, but I do!" Dudley glanced at his watch and realized that he'd been in the attic for a while, so he put the letter and photograph back in the box and replaced the lid. Noting that the box of Lily's belongings had been shoved into a dark corner of the room where it wouldn't be noticed, the young Muggle decided to take the box with him to his room so he could see what else was inside of it without fear of being discovered by his parents. After all, he reasoned, he would be able to hear the car pull up in the driveway, and he could hide the box in his closet when it did so his parents wouldn't find out. Dudley discovered that the rest of the letters in the box were correspondences back and forth between his Aunt Lily and his grandparents, all of which asked about his mother's well-being and expressed a longing for the sisterly bond they'd once shared. There were also several letters addressed to his mother in his aunt's handwriting that we're still sealed and therefore his mother had never read. Dudley hesitated only for a moment before breaking the seal on each one and reading them. Despite the large number of them, each letter was basically the same in format: Lily would tell Petunia about what was happening to her, then she would apologize for the rift between them and would beg for Petunia to forgive her and begin communicating with her once again. These letters ranged from Lily's first year at Hogwarts to her last year, each one more and more desperate for an answer from its recipient. There were also a number of photographs of Lily with Severus and Emily, as well as other witches and wizards. Dudley lifted another picture out of the box and almost dropped it back into it in surprise when he saw what appeared to be his cousin in the photo. After a few seconds though, Dudley shook his head and realized that the boy in the picture had to be James Potter. "Harry really does look like Uncle James," he murmured. He was somewhat surprised at how easy it was to call Harry's parents "aunt" and "uncle" when he had never met them and had been told all of his life about what "terrible people" they were. However, Dudley had realized that his mother and father were very bitter, nasty people and that their opinions of people were totally wrong, and he resented them for it. After all, such attitudes had caused him to be an aggressive bully who believed he could do whatever he wanted and had robbed his cousin of good memories of his parents and a of a positive relationship with him. Sighing, Dudley returned his attention to the contents of the box. Inside were Christmas and birthday cards for Petunia and their parents, as well as an invitation to Lily and James's wedding, an invitation to Lily's baby shower from Emily, and a letter informing Petunia that Lily had had a baby. This last letter included a photograph of Lily and James with a newborn Harry. Dudley smiled as he looked at the picture. "Harry would love to have this," he said to himself. Suddenly, he had an idea. "I need to talk to Harry! How, though? I don't have an owl, nor do I have Harry's address." A minute later, Dudley slapped his forehead. "Oy! I can call him! Where's the phonebook?" Dedicated to his new mission, Dudley double-checked Lily's first letter for Emily's name, quickly replaced the box's contents and put it in his closet, and ran downstairs to find a phonebook. Once it was located, Dudley skimmed through to the "T" section. "Tarleton, Tarleton...there's only one Tarleton in here, and she is in the country, like Emily said, but this is for Mariska Tarleton. Well, it's worth trying, anyway."

END FLASHBACK

"So, I've been going through the box of Aunt Lily's things so I could try to learn more about her. There's hundreds of letters here addressed to Mum and to Grandma and Grandpa Evans. None of the ones to Mum were opened, but I've start going through them. There are tons of photographs as well, including one of you as a baby with your parents. I thought you'd want it."

Harry's mind was reeling. "Wow…this is actually incredible, Dudley! Yes, I'd definitely like to see that photograph. I'd like to see what else is in the box. I'd really like to tell you what I know about Mum and let you see some of our world."

"I'd really like that, but I'd have to come up with a good cover story. You know Mum and Dad would never willingly let me come to you."

"No, definitely not." He paused for a minute before adding, "Let me check with Hermione. Her parents are Muggles, and they're dentists. Maybe they can help us come up with something."

"Ok, yeah!" It was Dudley's turn to pause before saying, "I really am so sorry, Harry. I hope that I can see you in person soon!"

"I forgive you, Dud. Really. Don't worry: we'll figure it out so we can meet up!"

Harry was smiling as he said goodbye and hung up the phone. His happy smile turned to a smirk when he heard muffled shuffling from the other side of the door. "You lot can come in, now."

Sirius, Remus, Emily, and Mariska guiltily shuffled into the room.

"Sorry, pup," said Sirius. "We were just concerned."

"I know, and I really appreciate it. So, any ideas for how to sneak Dudley over here under Uncle Vernon's purple nose?"

"I think you were on to something with asking Jacob and Charlotte for help," said Emily.

"They might be able to pull something with their practice, like an apprenticeship or something similar," Remus mused.

"Well, no matter what we have to do, we're going to get that boy over here!" Mariska promised.

Harry smiled and enjoyed the feeling of having his family around him showing him their love and support. He was happily surprised that he could now include Dudley in that category and really hoped that Hermione's parents could help him see his cousin again soon.