FIC: Jack (PG-13, Gen)
Title: Jack
Author: ???
Prompt: #33
Pairing, or gen: General
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): Slightly irresponsible parenting.
Word count: 2,033
Summary/Excerpt: Dudley Dursley was sure his life couldn’t have been any better the day his son Jack was born. He and his wife Marlene were going to be excellent parents, and nothing was going to go wrong.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated characters and settings remain the intellectual property of JK Rowling and her associates. We are very grateful for permission to play with them.
Dudley Dursley was sure his life couldn’t have been any better the day his son Jack was born. He and his wife Marlene were going to be excellent parents, and nothing was going to go wrong. The pregnancy had been easy - it had practically flown by; the labour and delivery had been practically flawless, and then they were given their son to hold for the first time. He was pink, and sleepy-looking and wrinkly, but all in all: perfect. Then, Jack opened his eyes. They were bright green.
Dudley had blue eyes. Marlene’s eyes were brown. Everyone else in their family had one or the other. Except one person.
Wary of these eyes, Dudley tried to go about life as normal. He brought Jack to Surrey to visit his parents.
‘He’s certainly sleeping a lot, Dud,’ Vernon said, staring at his grandson who was literally passed out in his baby seat.
Dudley shifted guiltily, hoping he wasn’t giving himself away. The bottle of brandy was still hiding in the downstairs bathroom, stashed away after he’d poured an ounce of it into Jack’s bottle. He just couldn’t risk his mother seeing Jack’s eyes. She would panic worse than ever, and his father, already suffering from heart problems… Well, he’d rather not think of the consequences just yet.
When Jack woke up an hour later, Dudley jumped up and in his best booming voice, declared that it was time to go, and perhaps his mother and father would take the drive to their house next time. He dragged Marlene out of the house and into the car, and they were on the motorway before Jack had time to dimly realise in his own baby way that he was probably a little hungover.
Marlene stared at him. ‘What’s got into you, Dudley?’
‘Nothing,’ Dudley muttered. Or so he hoped. He had never told Marlene about his cousin Harry and what he was. He didn’t think she’d be bothered, really, but now that he had the awful feeling that his own son was one too, he was entering the realm of denial.
He should have known his parents would do the same.
‘Oh, Diddy, they’ll change colour soon enough, he’s only a baby,’ Petunia said when she eventually saw her grandson with his eyes open for the first time.
Vernon agreed, yet Dudley thought he looked rather grey upon seeing Jack clearly for the first time.
Over the years, Jack grew up strong and healthy, and was relatively a very good boy.
When Jack was three, Marlene had insisted that they take him to the zoo. They stayed away from the reptile house until Marlene, who was quite interested in herpetology, dragged them in with her. Privately having a panic attack, Dudley held his son’s hand as they moved from habitat to habitat. Jack paused outside the boa constrictor’s enclosure, and Dudley honestly thought he was going to faint. Forty agonising seconds later, Jack moved away to the next snake and Dudley, weak with relief, enjoyed the rest of his day with the family. Perhaps Jack’s green eyes were really just a coincidence.
Jack began kindergarten the following year. He was bright and happy, and made friends. He attended birthday parties, and participated in the school’s Christmas concert.
The morning of Jack’s seventh birthday, Dudley woke, feeling refreshed and happy. It was a Saturday, and he and Marlene were hosting a birthday party and all the children in Jack’s class were coming. It was a beautiful spring day and nothing was going to go wrong.
Famous last words.
By three o’ clock that afternoon, they had been visited by the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Jack was crying because all his friends had left in a great hurry and they hadn’t even cut the cake yet, and Marlene was hiding in the upstairs closet. The rest of the party guests had been blasted with magic to forget the remarkable dancing presents and the fact that Jack, upon hearing that the Bouncy Castle had finally been set up in the back yard, had disappeared from a rousing game of Pass the Parcel, and ended up happily bouncing away in the inflatable toy more than twenty metres away.
Dudley, having been exposed to magic for much of his life was calmly asked by the wizards that called themselves ‘Obliviators’ to keep the incident quiet, and to begin the explanation to his family that Jack was magical. They disappeared behind some bushes in the back yard and Dudley hoped he’d never have to see them again.
Taking a large deep breath, Dudley went inside the house to try his best to explain about his relation to the otherwise hidden magical world.
Seven years later…
Dudley Dursley had never in his life seen his cousin look so menacing, or so large. Harry was sweeping along the corridor of Hogwarts wearing a set of magnificent scarlet robes, the scowl on his face a clear indicator of his fury. Even though he had come to terms with the fact that he would never, ever lead a normal, magic-free life, he had to resist the urge to cover his backside when faced with an angry wizard. Even Marlene, who had taken to the Wizarding world quite easily, caught her breath. Harry looked nothing like the caring father they usually saw seeing his children off at the train station on September first.
Harry stared threateningly at Dudley before turning to Professor Marchbanks.
‘What happened?’
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How we’d gotten caught, I still couldn’t figure out, but I was fairly sure it was that snitch of a cousin, Jack Dursley, who’d sold me out and then wound up in the Headmaster’s office himself for being out of bounds. Stupid Hufflepuff. I was going to kill Mum for insisting that we be nice to him.
‘… Complete disregard for your safety! Don’t you know why it’s called the Forbidden Forest? Because it’s FORBIDDEN!’
Jack sat next to me, his head hung in shame as Professor Marchbanks paced the room shouting at us. I’d heard his great grandmother had been a bit of a hardass too.
I really didn’t have time for this. I knew my friends would be waiting for me in the Shrieking Shack; Gryffindor had become famous for throwing legendary secret parties down in Hogsmeade. Rosie had figured out how to imbue the old Shack with a Silencing Charm, and we’d painted all the windows black. Put that together with Fred and Roxie’s uncanny knowledge of how to get into Honeydukes and we were laughing. It was the first time I’d invited Jack, and probably the last time either of us would ever see the outside of the castle again. I closed my eyes and covered them with my hand.
‘That’s right Miss Potter, you cry. Wait until your parents get here.’
I looked up, completely taken aback. Jack too looked shocked.
‘Our parents are coming? To Hogwarts?’ I gasped. You might as well have expelled me. I was never going to live this one down. My brothers had taken rule-breaking at Hogwarts to quite a different level, especially since Uncle George had developed those new Invisibility Cloaks. Nothing quite as good as Dad’s, but they certainly worked well enough to get you in and out of the castle. James and Albus were going to wet themselves laughing when they heard. No other Potter had ever been caught doing anything before, especially not Dad. He was going to be livid; James was forever accusing him of becoming crotchety in his old age.
‘You will both wait here while I go to meet them.’
The moment Professor Marchbanks closed the door to the office, I rounded on Jack.
‘What the hell is the matter with you?’
‘I’m sorry, Lily, I messed up. I left the castle to pick knotgrass, and totally lost track of time.’
‘Knotgrass? You risked my life for knotgrass?’ My hand was on my wand, ready to give that ridiculous Hufflepuff a new face.
‘I needed it for the Polyjuice Potion.’
‘What Polyjuice Potion?’
‘I made a bet with Derek Mitchell. It was supposed to be a party favour.’
‘Oh my God.’ A Gryffindor party where everyone looked like Hufflepuffs? Great.
‘I’m really sorry, Lily.’
I couldn’t even bear to look at him anymore. My life was over. I could hear the shouting coming from the staircase, and Dad’s voice was chief among them.
Seconds later, the door to Professor Marchbanks’ office burst open and the five adults walked in. Mum looked stern, very much like Gran, Dad, livid as expected, his eyes blazing, but they were trained on Jack and his parents, not me.
I’d only ever seen Jack’s parents when they dropped him off and picked him up from the Hogwarts Express. Dad merely nodded at them most of the time, and I knew Mum sent them a Christmas card every year, but that was all the contact we’d ever had. Dad didn’t talk much about his childhood before Hogwarts, but James had told us that Mr Dursley was a big part of why.
‘I refuse to believe my daughter had anything to do with this, and she will certainly not be suspended,’ Dad snapped.
Suspended? It was worse than I’d thought.
‘Maybe we should hear what they have to say, Harry,’ said Mr Dursley. ‘Jack, would you like to tell us what happened?’
Jack shifted guiltily in his chair again. ‘It was my fault, Dad. I was doing research for a Potions project near the Forbidden Forest and I lost track of time. Lily came to find me. We were supposed to meet in the library before curfew.’
I tried not to show my surprise at this lie. Maybe Jack had a brain after all…
‘Lily, is that true?’ Mr Dursley asked.
I looked up at him, and for the first time, I could see the glint in his eye. He knew exactly what had happened, and he was trying to cover for us. I was sure we’d probably all be kicked out of school due to Dad’s temper. Mr Dursley knew this too.
‘Yes, sir. I know we shouldn’t have gone so close to the Forest at night, but I didn’t want Jack to get into trouble.’
‘A lack of foresight it seems,’ said Mr Dursley to Professor Marchbanks, who was scowling at his desk. ‘Were they actually in the Forest?’
‘No, they were found just on the edge, but that doesn’t mean they won’t plan another little excursion soon.’
‘I’m sure my daughter has no intention of going to the Forest unsupervised ever again, am I correct?’ Dad’s expression had softened slightly, but he still looked annoyed.
‘No, Dad.’
Professor Marchbanks seemed to battle with himself for a few moments before speaking. ‘Very well. You may go back to your dormitories. But if I ever catch you out of bed after hours again, you will both certainly face suspension.’
As Jack and I got up hugged our parents goodbye and left the headmaster’s office, I could hardly believe our luck. Jack’s dad had saved us. And, with a little luck and quick thinking, we were still going to make that party. I turned to Jack at the bottom of the stairs just before we went our separate ways to our respective common rooms.
I held up a strand of Mum’s long red hair. ‘So, about that Polyjuice Potion?’
Jack grinned and held up a thin blond strand of his Dad’s hair. ‘I’ll meet you in the Entrance Hall.’
We smiled at each other and hurried off. I would definitely have to ask Dad about Mr Dursley one of these good days. As a family, they seemed all right, really.
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The next morning, Dudley called his mother.
‘Jack and Harry’s daughter Lily almost got suspended last night.’
She squawked a bit on the other end and Dudley held the phone away from his hear until it was quiet again.
‘I smoothed the whole thing over in the end. I think they were just trying to have a little fun.’
‘Well of course, Jackie is so friendly. It’s those awful Gryffindor Potters getting him into trouble!’
Dudley laughed. Petunia would never change.
Author: ???
Prompt: #33
Pairing, or gen: General
Rating: PG-13
Warning(s): Slightly irresponsible parenting.
Word count: 2,033
Summary/Excerpt: Dudley Dursley was sure his life couldn’t have been any better the day his son Jack was born. He and his wife Marlene were going to be excellent parents, and nothing was going to go wrong.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter and all associated characters and settings remain the intellectual property of JK Rowling and her associates. We are very grateful for permission to play with them.
Dudley Dursley was sure his life couldn’t have been any better the day his son Jack was born. He and his wife Marlene were going to be excellent parents, and nothing was going to go wrong. The pregnancy had been easy - it had practically flown by; the labour and delivery had been practically flawless, and then they were given their son to hold for the first time. He was pink, and sleepy-looking and wrinkly, but all in all: perfect. Then, Jack opened his eyes. They were bright green.
Dudley had blue eyes. Marlene’s eyes were brown. Everyone else in their family had one or the other. Except one person.
Wary of these eyes, Dudley tried to go about life as normal. He brought Jack to Surrey to visit his parents.
‘He’s certainly sleeping a lot, Dud,’ Vernon said, staring at his grandson who was literally passed out in his baby seat.
Dudley shifted guiltily, hoping he wasn’t giving himself away. The bottle of brandy was still hiding in the downstairs bathroom, stashed away after he’d poured an ounce of it into Jack’s bottle. He just couldn’t risk his mother seeing Jack’s eyes. She would panic worse than ever, and his father, already suffering from heart problems… Well, he’d rather not think of the consequences just yet.
When Jack woke up an hour later, Dudley jumped up and in his best booming voice, declared that it was time to go, and perhaps his mother and father would take the drive to their house next time. He dragged Marlene out of the house and into the car, and they were on the motorway before Jack had time to dimly realise in his own baby way that he was probably a little hungover.
Marlene stared at him. ‘What’s got into you, Dudley?’
‘Nothing,’ Dudley muttered. Or so he hoped. He had never told Marlene about his cousin Harry and what he was. He didn’t think she’d be bothered, really, but now that he had the awful feeling that his own son was one too, he was entering the realm of denial.
He should have known his parents would do the same.
‘Oh, Diddy, they’ll change colour soon enough, he’s only a baby,’ Petunia said when she eventually saw her grandson with his eyes open for the first time.
Vernon agreed, yet Dudley thought he looked rather grey upon seeing Jack clearly for the first time.
Over the years, Jack grew up strong and healthy, and was relatively a very good boy.
When Jack was three, Marlene had insisted that they take him to the zoo. They stayed away from the reptile house until Marlene, who was quite interested in herpetology, dragged them in with her. Privately having a panic attack, Dudley held his son’s hand as they moved from habitat to habitat. Jack paused outside the boa constrictor’s enclosure, and Dudley honestly thought he was going to faint. Forty agonising seconds later, Jack moved away to the next snake and Dudley, weak with relief, enjoyed the rest of his day with the family. Perhaps Jack’s green eyes were really just a coincidence.
Jack began kindergarten the following year. He was bright and happy, and made friends. He attended birthday parties, and participated in the school’s Christmas concert.
The morning of Jack’s seventh birthday, Dudley woke, feeling refreshed and happy. It was a Saturday, and he and Marlene were hosting a birthday party and all the children in Jack’s class were coming. It was a beautiful spring day and nothing was going to go wrong.
Famous last words.
By three o’ clock that afternoon, they had been visited by the Accidental Magic Reversal Squad, Jack was crying because all his friends had left in a great hurry and they hadn’t even cut the cake yet, and Marlene was hiding in the upstairs closet. The rest of the party guests had been blasted with magic to forget the remarkable dancing presents and the fact that Jack, upon hearing that the Bouncy Castle had finally been set up in the back yard, had disappeared from a rousing game of Pass the Parcel, and ended up happily bouncing away in the inflatable toy more than twenty metres away.
Dudley, having been exposed to magic for much of his life was calmly asked by the wizards that called themselves ‘Obliviators’ to keep the incident quiet, and to begin the explanation to his family that Jack was magical. They disappeared behind some bushes in the back yard and Dudley hoped he’d never have to see them again.
Taking a large deep breath, Dudley went inside the house to try his best to explain about his relation to the otherwise hidden magical world.
Seven years later…
Dudley Dursley had never in his life seen his cousin look so menacing, or so large. Harry was sweeping along the corridor of Hogwarts wearing a set of magnificent scarlet robes, the scowl on his face a clear indicator of his fury. Even though he had come to terms with the fact that he would never, ever lead a normal, magic-free life, he had to resist the urge to cover his backside when faced with an angry wizard. Even Marlene, who had taken to the Wizarding world quite easily, caught her breath. Harry looked nothing like the caring father they usually saw seeing his children off at the train station on September first.
Harry stared threateningly at Dudley before turning to Professor Marchbanks.
‘What happened?’
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How we’d gotten caught, I still couldn’t figure out, but I was fairly sure it was that snitch of a cousin, Jack Dursley, who’d sold me out and then wound up in the Headmaster’s office himself for being out of bounds. Stupid Hufflepuff. I was going to kill Mum for insisting that we be nice to him.
‘… Complete disregard for your safety! Don’t you know why it’s called the Forbidden Forest? Because it’s FORBIDDEN!’
Jack sat next to me, his head hung in shame as Professor Marchbanks paced the room shouting at us. I’d heard his great grandmother had been a bit of a hardass too.
I really didn’t have time for this. I knew my friends would be waiting for me in the Shrieking Shack; Gryffindor had become famous for throwing legendary secret parties down in Hogsmeade. Rosie had figured out how to imbue the old Shack with a Silencing Charm, and we’d painted all the windows black. Put that together with Fred and Roxie’s uncanny knowledge of how to get into Honeydukes and we were laughing. It was the first time I’d invited Jack, and probably the last time either of us would ever see the outside of the castle again. I closed my eyes and covered them with my hand.
‘That’s right Miss Potter, you cry. Wait until your parents get here.’
I looked up, completely taken aback. Jack too looked shocked.
‘Our parents are coming? To Hogwarts?’ I gasped. You might as well have expelled me. I was never going to live this one down. My brothers had taken rule-breaking at Hogwarts to quite a different level, especially since Uncle George had developed those new Invisibility Cloaks. Nothing quite as good as Dad’s, but they certainly worked well enough to get you in and out of the castle. James and Albus were going to wet themselves laughing when they heard. No other Potter had ever been caught doing anything before, especially not Dad. He was going to be livid; James was forever accusing him of becoming crotchety in his old age.
‘You will both wait here while I go to meet them.’
The moment Professor Marchbanks closed the door to the office, I rounded on Jack.
‘What the hell is the matter with you?’
‘I’m sorry, Lily, I messed up. I left the castle to pick knotgrass, and totally lost track of time.’
‘Knotgrass? You risked my life for knotgrass?’ My hand was on my wand, ready to give that ridiculous Hufflepuff a new face.
‘I needed it for the Polyjuice Potion.’
‘What Polyjuice Potion?’
‘I made a bet with Derek Mitchell. It was supposed to be a party favour.’
‘Oh my God.’ A Gryffindor party where everyone looked like Hufflepuffs? Great.
‘I’m really sorry, Lily.’
I couldn’t even bear to look at him anymore. My life was over. I could hear the shouting coming from the staircase, and Dad’s voice was chief among them.
Seconds later, the door to Professor Marchbanks’ office burst open and the five adults walked in. Mum looked stern, very much like Gran, Dad, livid as expected, his eyes blazing, but they were trained on Jack and his parents, not me.
I’d only ever seen Jack’s parents when they dropped him off and picked him up from the Hogwarts Express. Dad merely nodded at them most of the time, and I knew Mum sent them a Christmas card every year, but that was all the contact we’d ever had. Dad didn’t talk much about his childhood before Hogwarts, but James had told us that Mr Dursley was a big part of why.
‘I refuse to believe my daughter had anything to do with this, and she will certainly not be suspended,’ Dad snapped.
Suspended? It was worse than I’d thought.
‘Maybe we should hear what they have to say, Harry,’ said Mr Dursley. ‘Jack, would you like to tell us what happened?’
Jack shifted guiltily in his chair again. ‘It was my fault, Dad. I was doing research for a Potions project near the Forbidden Forest and I lost track of time. Lily came to find me. We were supposed to meet in the library before curfew.’
I tried not to show my surprise at this lie. Maybe Jack had a brain after all…
‘Lily, is that true?’ Mr Dursley asked.
I looked up at him, and for the first time, I could see the glint in his eye. He knew exactly what had happened, and he was trying to cover for us. I was sure we’d probably all be kicked out of school due to Dad’s temper. Mr Dursley knew this too.
‘Yes, sir. I know we shouldn’t have gone so close to the Forest at night, but I didn’t want Jack to get into trouble.’
‘A lack of foresight it seems,’ said Mr Dursley to Professor Marchbanks, who was scowling at his desk. ‘Were they actually in the Forest?’
‘No, they were found just on the edge, but that doesn’t mean they won’t plan another little excursion soon.’
‘I’m sure my daughter has no intention of going to the Forest unsupervised ever again, am I correct?’ Dad’s expression had softened slightly, but he still looked annoyed.
‘No, Dad.’
Professor Marchbanks seemed to battle with himself for a few moments before speaking. ‘Very well. You may go back to your dormitories. But if I ever catch you out of bed after hours again, you will both certainly face suspension.’
As Jack and I got up hugged our parents goodbye and left the headmaster’s office, I could hardly believe our luck. Jack’s dad had saved us. And, with a little luck and quick thinking, we were still going to make that party. I turned to Jack at the bottom of the stairs just before we went our separate ways to our respective common rooms.
I held up a strand of Mum’s long red hair. ‘So, about that Polyjuice Potion?’
Jack grinned and held up a thin blond strand of his Dad’s hair. ‘I’ll meet you in the Entrance Hall.’
We smiled at each other and hurried off. I would definitely have to ask Dad about Mr Dursley one of these good days. As a family, they seemed all right, really.
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The next morning, Dudley called his mother.
‘Jack and Harry’s daughter Lily almost got suspended last night.’
She squawked a bit on the other end and Dudley held the phone away from his hear until it was quiet again.
‘I smoothed the whole thing over in the end. I think they were just trying to have a little fun.’
‘Well of course, Jackie is so friendly. It’s those awful Gryffindor Potters getting him into trouble!’
Dudley laughed. Petunia would never change.