11 Dudley's New Goal

Dudley's POV:

Dinner was not bad, although mum's meals were the best, it was mostly quiet on our side. The only people who were talking at the dinner table was Petunia and Vernon. While they were talking, I was reflecting on my recent behavior, thinking about I was not practicing enough.

The wave from Harry was unexpected but I should have known better than that after all, accidental magic was just the opening of the magic core via emotional response. I also underestimated the one who the prophecy revolves around because I did not expect the wave to be that powerful causing me to lose a weeks worth of power.

Now that I think about it, the house we are living in answers somewhat to him because he is the source of it's magic. If I was not living here to offset some of the magic, the house would have been fully under his control without him knowing about it.

Though I am taking some of the magic ingrained in and around the house because of the protection spell, as expected, he has administrator access while I am a like measly hacker that gained access to an almost secure site using backdoor gateway. While I was pondering on these events, I unknowingly finished dinner.

After dinner, we went our separate ways. Mom to the kitchen, dad to do whatever he's doing, Harry to his room to brood about his loss and as for me, to my room to start thinking about this seriously.

I had grown used to the fact that with body magic, no one my age and above could defeat me since I could strengthen my body. The fact that I have rudimentary training in martial arts from my past life had also made me lazy and I wasn't even taking the training I was doing seriously.

If I plan to enjoy what this new world has to offer and not get struck down by obstacles later down the line, then I have to stop playing around. Harry Potter is not the main character. I AM. Though he could do the Voldemort thing by himself. I am not getting into that. I WILL BENEFIT FROM THAT.

Third Person POV:

With a resolute face, Dudley went up his room to face the night. He woke the next day refreshed, his mind clear on what he should be focused on and what he should do. His family could tell that something had changed about him since last night even though he still put on a jovial face when he was talking to them.

During a period of one month, Petunia especially noticed that the times he spent watching television and going to the park as well as having fun with his cousin and mates at school had decreased. He spent more time in his room and playing with his toy sword. She grew concerned as a mother would so she confronted him about it.

"Dudley dearey"

"Yes mother" she winced at that

"Why are you ca...calling me mo...mo...mother?" she questioned him with a crack in her voice

"Hahahaha, sorry mum, I was reading this book that said, mum was the full form of mother. In the book, an exercise within it told me to try calling you mother to see how you will react" Dudley says in a 'lovely' voice to his mother

With a sigh of relief Petunia thinks'I thought my baby Diddykins hates me.' as her face loosened up as she starts to laugh with her son.

After the laugh, Petunia says with a scary face and in an eerie voice "Don't you ever do that. You scared me. I thought you did not like me anymore."

'No matter where you are when a mother gives you that tone while she is talking to you, you will have nightmares for weeks' Dudley thought as he stared and listened to Petunia

"Sorry mum" Dudley says in a quiet voice

She nods satisfied that her words have gotten to him. She switches to her normal tone with a happy smile on her face and says,

"Honey, why are you playing less and less?"

'Bloody hell, I thought I have distracted her enough for her to forget about it and go back downstairs.'

"Hahaha, I don't know what you are talking about mum" Dudley answers nervously as his palms and face starts getting sweaty.

"Hmm" she hummed at her son whose face starts to sweat even more.

'Crap, why am I acting like this? Why am I acting like this is the first time I am being seriously questioned by an adult? Never mind, I should probably answer soon. I just don't get why I could handle the problem with Vernon easily but in this case I'm panicking. Is it related to my memories perhaps' Dudley thought of this as he avoids looking at his mother in the eyes.

Watching Dudley face, Petunia thought 'was I also this obvious when I was about to tell a lie as a kid. No wonder Ma and Pa always caught me on my lies. I wonder though why they left some of those lies go without questioning me.'

As she was thinking about her childhood, she hears a sigh from Dudley and thinks 'Oh boy, here it comes'

"*sigh* ok mum, I admit I have been spending less time playing around with Harry and stuff"

'Oh my, he admitted the truth. I thought he was gonna babble like he usually does when he does not want to talk about something' Petunia thinks with slight shock on her face.

As Dudley watches her mother's face, he thinks, 'score. Now I have to weave an awesome tale about adventure and how I want to grow up sooner and take care of them or something like that. But I have to keep it simple, no talking a lot.'

"Well ma, I know how hard you and da work so I want to grow sooner and take care of you guys. I" Dudley says with a smile on his face

Petunia walks up to Dudley bed and sits by his side and says "Oh deary, I know you wanna grow up sooner. God knows how old you act sometimes but, you have to take it slow sometimes. Now the other reason you are not telling." she spoke the last sentence in a stern voice.

Dudley scratches his cheeks nervously as his smile cracks and thinks 'Blimey, that didn't work. Luckily I have a backup plan.' Dudley turns towards her mum and says "fine mum" with a pouty face

"I saw a toon on the tele about exploring and I thought about how fun it is to explore the whole world. I read in a book that, to know how to explore, you have to exercise and read a lot. So, I plan on cutting my play time to exercise so that I can be strong and fast. Also, I want to read a lot of books so that I can be smart and knowledgeable about the place I am going to explore." Dudley ended in a low tone

Seeing that her Diddy stops talking, Petunia waits for a while then nods her head with a smile and finally says, "Alright, if that's what you want to do, I will talk to your Pa about it so that we can find someone to teach you"

"Really mum" Dudley says with shiny eyes. Petunia nodded. When Dudley saw Petunia's nod, he put his hands up in the air while shouting "YES!!!" to the entire world. He even went as far as to poke his head out of the windows in his room while shouting.

"Alright son, stop disturbing the neighborhood or I will not talk to your father about it." With Petunia's threat, Dudley finally stopped screaming.

'Aye, can't believe I forgot about the way the Dursley's adore their son and how much they spoil him i.e. me.'