Boxing Clever

Ch1.

Harry sighed and shifted on his bed, stretching his left foot out to adjust the angle of Dudley's recently repaired spare fan. The hot and humid summer days had seemingly bleed into one another as Harry spent day after day lazing around, depressed and brooding about Sirius. Despite Remus' heartfelt explanation just before he left the station regarding the Orders sanctions on Owl Post, the absence of his regular summer correspondence with Hermione and Ron was making him feel forgotten, lonely and just a little bit paranoid, rather than safe and secure.

Harry's avoidance of the Dursley's was purely a matter of survival. Dudley easily stared down at him from a lofty six foot four, which combined with his recent weight loss and training regime left him looking more like an intimidating bouncer than a pig in a wig. Harry tried his hardest to ignore Vernon's overbearing intense pride in his son's boxing feats and Petunia's near constant squealing over Dudley's physical changes. He failed to react to the frequent snide remarks regarding his petite, feminine appearance, lack of growth spurts and general all round 'freakishness'. Still, despite Uncle Vernon's hardest attempts to get a reaction that would merit punishment, Harry's apathy left him not caring enough to even batter an eyelid, let alone get worked up about it. He was grateful that their abuse was only verbal, and not nearly as physical as it had been in the past. It seemed that the Dursley's had taken Mad Eye's threats to heart.

It was Dudley's radically changed behaviour which eventually snapped Harry out of his funk. All summer, Harry had been receiving strangely speculative, almost guilty glances from Dudley the few times he had enough appetite to eat in the kitchen. Then there was the repaired fan that he found dumped in the middle of his bedroom after his habitual stroll around the block one afternoon. Dudley had been eerily quiet, having abandoned his former favourite pastime, Harry Hunting, and had thrown barely an insult at him all summer. Vernon and Petunia naturally were oblivious to any changes in their son's behaviour, so Harry was alone in his observations of the puzzling pleasant Dudley.

It wasn't until a month had passed before Harry got his answer. While Vernon and Petunia were visiting an ill Aunt Marge, Dudley was left at the house with Harry in order to recover from the slight cold he had caught a few days earlier. Harry was startled out of his moping when he felt the end of his bed sink right down.

"Eh, Harry," Dudley had tentatively stammered, "can we talk. I have to tell you something." Harry merely sighed, pulled his knees up under his chin and leaned back against the head board.

"Go ahead."

Dudley nervously cleared his throat. "Um Harry, um, I…"

"Yes?" Harry posed. Dudley dropped his head down to gaze at his hands.

"I'm sorry," he burst out. Harry's mouth dropped in shock and brows shot up his forehead.

"I'm sorry for making the last 16 years of your life hell, for teasing you about your magic and your friends, for 'Harry Hunting'. I'm even sorry for being mean to you about that Cedric guy and your godfather, Sirius."

"What do you know about Sirius," Harry croaked, gaping at Dudley with a look of pure terror.

"I know that he means a lot to you, and that you blame yourself for his death. But it's not your fault really; it's all that Lord Whatsy-names. From what I've herd you yell when your asleep, he sure did do a number on you." Dudley reached over and placed one of his large hands over Harry's smaller ones. "It's all right Harry; it's not your fault."

"I know that," Harry stammered, "it's just sometimes… if I only I didn't…"

"Harry." Harry looked up into Dudley's sympathetic brown eyes.

"Why? Why all this? Why now?"

"It's funny how things can just come out of the blue and change your life. I suppose that you can relate to that. I wised up to a couple of harsh truths during the year. You know those jerks that I used to hang out with?"

"Piers and that?"

"Yeah, well, I overheard them talking. They said that they only ever had hang out with me because of my 'bodyguard' potential, and more recently to score chicks from my status as a boxer. They never thought I was cool or smart, like they had told me. After hearing that, I realised that I never want anything to do with them again." Dudley let in a deep, shuddering breath, and then looked up from his hands briefly into Harry's eyes. "So, I re-evaluated my life. I realised what an immature prick I had been to everyone, but especially to you. I started to take pride in my school work." He smiled bleakly "I can only make a career out of boxing for so long, you know. My grades aren't perfect or anything, but they are gradually improving. This all happened right before summer holidays. I've made new friends since, nice ones, real friends you know. I even told them a little about you. Said I had a cousin in boarding school and that we unfortunately had never really got along. That I wanted to change that." Dudley dropped his head back down again. "Please don't get angry, but I told them that your godfather recently passed on. I was really worried about you; you weren't eating or even talking. You were a shadow of your former self. They advised me to approach you, to talk to you; I just couldn't seem to …."

"Dudley. I – I don't know what to say. I'm honestly touched. As for the rest, I've been thinking over the holidays. I believe we should start over."

"I'm… you're forgiving me?"

"Yes, Dudley. I've forgiven you."

Dudley pulled Harry into a bone crushing hug, sobbing thank you over and over into his ear. Dudley released him, wiping a stray tear away just as Harry felt his arms begin to tingle from the pressure exerted on them.

"Um Harry, there is one more thing. You know how I'm not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed, some how, well, um…"

"What is it Dudley?" Harry said, gently squeezing his cousin's large hand to encourage him to continue.

"Well, I seem to have gotten myself into a bit of a fix. My new friends have invited both of us to a party in a fortnight's time, just before school starts back. It'd be rude to miss to this one, especially since I've missed the last two all ready. It's for my mate Vinnie. You see, I met Vin at the gym where I do my boxing training. He is a natural at boxing, but strangely," Dudley frowned, "doesn't seem to have that many friends at school."

"I don't see what the problem is?" Harry asked confusedly, looking at the ceiling.

"They've invited you too, but the catch is Vin thinks you're a girl."

"What?" Harry yelped, jumping two foot of the bed in shock. "Why on earth would he think something like that?"

"Well, you see, I remember mum complaining about you a being 'famous freak', or something like that, so I kinda decided to call you 'Har'. Vin's not exactly the brightest either, and came to this conclusion by him self. I think he might have misunderstood me or something." Dudley, frowning slightly, pulled a slightly crumpled invitation out of his jeans pocket. Harry read the fine silver writing on the black paper;

Dudley and Harmony are invited to Vincent's 17th Birthday Celebration!

Sighing deeply, Harry lightly stepped off his bed and walked over to the bathroom, where Dudley found him peering intensely at himself in the mirror, clenching his glasses in his right hand.

"You'll owe me big time after this is over, you realise," Harry muttered to the large, blurry form over his shoulder

"You mean, you'll do it?" Dudley queried, gazing in absolute shock at Harry, "but why? Har, I could have sworn that you'd have bitten my head off for even suggesting it. Why are you willing to do it?" Deciding to ignore the abbreviation of his name, Harry turned grinning to face Dudley.

"What can I say? I'm curious to meet these new friends of yours and I'm curious to see if I can meet the challenge and pull this off, not to mention this is excellent black mail material I may obtain by doing this. You only live once, my dear Didkins." Dudley emitted a deep, throaty laugh, cringing slightly at Harry's use of Aunt Petunia's old nick-name for him. "And also, it's not like I'll be me or anything. For once, I'll have complete anonymity. I'll be Harmony." Harry grinned once again at the reflection over his shoulder. Dudley had just given him the perfect chance to be a completely normal, regular person for a change. Well, mostly normal anyway. Plus it sounded like fun. "But how ever are we going to get past Vernon and Petunia?"