11 years later

"Come on, Dad, I don't want to be late, I've got to be able to sit with James on the train!"

"Easy for you to say," puffed Dudley, "you're not dragging these…"

The trunks banged and clattered against his shins, but he still felt like he'd got the better end of the deal: Cho was carrying the enormous cage with Cedric's new owl in. She was getting the bulk of the attention from curious muggle passers-by. Dudley shook his head, remembering how Cedric had insisted on naming the owl Thor, for reasons utterly opaque to both of his parents. It was probably something from those muggle movies he watched with James's grandad, Dudley thought. Even his attempts to point out that Thor was, in fact, a girl owl, hadn't made any difference - Ced had insisted from the moment they'd got her that this was Thor.

The Changs (Dudley had changed his name as soon as they'd married) made an unlikely procession picking their way through the crowds, but if what Harry said was true, they were going to be far from the only people bringing odd animals through King's Cross today – and at least they knew how to dress. Dudley had been to King's Cross often enough on September first to know that there were going to be plenty of people arriving in full robes and pointy hats: an owl wasn't going to be the most unusual thing any muggle saw at the station.

"Where's Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny?" asked Cedric, who had somehow got away with only carrying a backpack.

"They said they'd meet us at the platform," said Dudley. "You ready for the barrier?"

"Of course I am," said Cedric, and Dudley had to use his one free hand to hold him back.

"No, look, not yet, let that group of muggle tourists go past first…" said Dudley. Ced might be ready for the barrier, but he wasn't sure he was. However many times he'd done it, running headfirst into a ticket barrier always made him nervous. And today, those nerves were amplified by the thought of Cedric being hundreds of miles away…

"Come on, Ced," said Cho, slipping through with a practiced ease and dodging Thor's latest attempt to peck at her; the owl had developed an unfortunate taste for nipping at human fingers in the few weeks since they'd brought her back from Diagon Alley.

"Now!" His wife and son vanished from view, and Dudley took a deep breath and stepped through to Platform 9 and ¾s.

The smoke was incredibly thick – really, they were still using steam engines? – but through the haze of white mist, Dudley caught sight of the Potters, outlined against the scarlet train. Harry and Ginny were fussing over James, who was relishing the attention; Albus was still a couple of years too young to go and was sulking, and Lily, younger still, was clutching Ginny's leg, nervous at the size of the crowds.

Cedric had already zoomed at lightning speed over to James, and before Dudley knew it, the two of them were talking each other's ears off about… he realized that he had no idea or comprehension what they were talking about, no matter how many times Cedric had explained. Such, he supposed, were the joys of fatherhood.

"Big D!" Harry greeted Dudley enthusiastically – Dudley was, by now, resigned to the nickname, though he had tried in vain to insist that Harry use it out of earshot of Cedric. Harry, Ginny, Dudley, and Cho went through a complicated ritual where everyone hugged everyone else, made more complicated by the fact that little Lily was wrapped around Harry's leg. "Hey," said Dudley. "Work okay?"

Harry shrugged. "Quiet," he said. "No late nights."

"Not sure what else you can ask for," said Dudley.

"No need to ask you about work, Gin," said Cho, with only a hint of a frown – "after that performance you put in last week, I don't think we've got a shot at the top four anymore. Not unless in the Kestrels match next week-"

"Sorry," said Ginny, managing to somehow express not one iota of sympathy, "just doing my job." She looked at Cho seriously. "Believe me, it brought me no pleasure."

Cho laughed, and they were off on the same long Quidditch play by play that made up the first fifteen minutes of every conversation they had. "How's everything going at the foundation?" Harry asked Dudley. Dudley had joined the Foundation for the Integration of Muggleborn Youth almost as soon as it was founded a few years ago: they worked with muggleborn children starting at Hogwarts. He answered questions, took families to Diagon Alley, escorted people to King's Cross, and did a lot of very careful explaining to parents. He also, with the help of a few muggle social services contacts, made sure that every child coming to Hogwarts from a muggle family was safe at home, with people who cared for them, and that no one was sleeping in a cupboard under the stairs.

"It's okay," said Dudley, watching Albus, James and Cedric tearing off up and down the platform. "They – hang on, CED, SLOW DOWN, YOU COULD HAVE HIT THAT LADY – they wanted me here today, but I said no obviously…"

"ALBUS, JAMES, GET BACK HERE," shouted Harry, before replying to Dudley, not skipping a beat, "yeah, there's other years for that. The first time a kid gets on that train…" he looked a little misty-eyed, and Dudley did his best not to think about Harry coming here, years ago. He seemed to remember they'd just driven off in the car, laughing, expecting him to get lost somewhere in the station.

Just then, the clock struck eleven, and the Chang-Potter horde managed to rampage their way back to their parents for last goodbyes.

"Be good," said Cho, giving Cedric a kiss on the forehead that he wriggled away from with embarrassment, "and write with Thor at least once a week, okay?"

"I will, Mum!" he said, extracting himself away from a second kiss, but not being quite as lucky with avoiding Dudley's hug.

"Got your wand? Both trunks? Thor?"

"Yes, Dad, honestly-"

"Okay, kid. You go with James before all the good compartments are gone. Love you."

"I love you too," said Cedric, somehow managing to sprint away with all his burdens at great speed. "See you at Christmas!"

Harry, fresh from his own farewells, turned to Dudley, who was trying his best to hide a tear. "Gryffindor," he said – was Dudley imagining his voice being a little choked up? "All over."

"Ten galleons on it," said Ginny. Dudley laughed, eager to see the fight about to break out despite not having a stake in it.

"Oh, I don't know," said Cho, "James is definitely a Gryffindor, I'll give you him being a lost cause…"

"Oh, of course," said Ginny, "we raised him right-"

"But I think," Cho continued, "I could make the hat a good case for Ced being in Ravenclaw." She rolled her eyes at the looks of offence on Ginny and Harry's faces. "You Gryffindors think the whole world is about you."

The train was starting to move now, slowly at first, and everyone waved, despite Cedric and James not having made their way to a window yet.

"Dad?" said Albus, tugging on Harry's sleeve. He'd gone very quiet since James had got on the train, and looked a lot smaller, now.

"Yes, Alb?" Dudley watched as Harry crouched to get on eye level with him.

"When I go in a couple of years, what if… what if I end up in Slytherin?"

Ginny mouthed 'this again' to Dudley, who gave her a half-smile, but Harry looked seriously at the boy.

"Albus Dudley Potter," he said. "You were named after two of the most important men in my life. And if both of them taught me anything, it's that people can be full of surprises."

"So you mean," said Albus, increasingly agitated, "that you think I will-"

"I mean," said Harry, "that it's easy to think you know everything about someone, and not to make judgements too early. So what about what one stupid old hat says about you when you're eleven? It doesn't really matter. And if I'd decided to write you off, just because you got sorted into Slytherin?" Harry ruffled his hair. "Then that'd be entirely my loss. Mum and I might joke about it, but there's plenty of witches and wizards who've come out of Slytherin and gone on to do great things, and I'm sure you'd be one of them."

Dudley, feeling like he was overhearing something not meant for him, turned away. Cho was at his side, not teary-eyed exactly, but looking about as fragile as he felt.

"Think he'll be okay?" He asked her.

"Ced'll be fine," she said soothingly.

"You weren't," he said, a hint of some of the worries he'd been trying to suppress seeping out.

Cho squeezed his hand. "We made it fine," she said, watching the train retreat into the distance, "eventually. We did our best. But that was a long time ago. Everything's a lot safer since then. A lot's changed."

A lot has, thought Dudley, watching his son slowly make his way to Hogwarts. He felt full of emotion – not negative emotion, exactly, just a lot of emotion, entirely too much to hold at any one time – that heady combination of love, excitement, fondness, worry, and deep, heart-rending happiness that had first entered his life with Cho around twelve years ago now. He took a deep breath, watching the train grow smaller.

All was well.