The five just stood there, Percy, Harry, Dudley, Helick, and Faigt, waiting for the other to make the next move. Harry held his breath, his emerald green eyes darting around. He had his fingers grasping his wand which was hidden in his pocket.

No one moved. The unconscious boys began to stir, groaning and moaning softly, but the group paid no attention to them. Their eyes were fixed on each other, menacingly, threateningly, as if they were hungry lions watching their prey.

Except for Percy. Harry noticed he was the most relaxed in the group, and although his shoulders were tense, and his shattered, swirling sea-green eyes serious, he emitted this feeling of casualness. Unlike Percy, the rest were all tensed up in a way where one would have thought they were in a life-and-death situation. Especially Helick - he looked as if he would fight to the death.

Harry watched as Percy's leg muscles tensed, and he looked ready to pounce on Helick when -

"YA!" Faigt's high-pitched scream broke the tense silence as he dove straight at Harry. Harry barely had time to react as Faigt's fist went flying close to his nose and suddenly everything was fuzzy and blurry. His glasses had fallen off.

And that was when chaos happened.

Harry had not a lot of muscles but he had extremely good reflexes, thanks to Quidditch. He ducked as a second fist went flying to his face and punched Faigt in the stomach.

Faigt doubled over, his sickly orange hair covering his eyes as he did so. As Faigt took a second to brush his hair away from his eyes, Harry took the advantage and tripped him over with a swipe of his feet. "Oof!" Faigt toppled over, but he managed to punch Harry on his stomach as he did so. "Ow!" Harry groaned as he recoiled. Faigt took this advantage, and, wincing, he landed a blow on Harry's right eye. Harry yelped in pain and connected his elbow with his face. Faigt toppled right over and banged his head on a nearby tree.

Ouch.That must have hurt.

His eye throbbing painfully, Harry glanced around, and, squinting, saw Percy fighting the two 'main' thugs. "Percy!"

Percy glanced around, but he shouldn't have. Helick managed to punch him on the shoulder while the older boy had his attention on Harry.

Harry winced and expected Percy to collapse in pain, but Percy merely grimaced and whipped his head back to Helick. In one swift blow, he had knocked Helick out cold.

Dudley launched himself at Percy. Percy looked reluctant to fight the bully - probably because he was one of Percy's hosts, Harry thought. That seemed to be the case as Percy went mostly on defence. Before, he had landed many attacks on his opponents, but this time he just blocked and avoided Dudley's attacks.

Harry stepped forward. He had a plan, and if luck chose his side, Percy didn't need to attack Dudley to knock him out. Harry didn't either - Dudley just had to be more idiotic than usual.

Harry quickly made his way behind Percy as the two were too busy fighting. No - scratch that - Dudley was busy fighting. Percy was just blocking, blocking, blocking.

Harry popped out from behind Percy and yelled, "Surprise!" and Dudley fainted. And the two boys went happily back to the Dursley's place.

And uh... nope. That did not happen.

Harry tried popping out from behind Percy - keyword, tried, - but he stumbled on a random rock which his fuzzy eyesight had refused to acknowledge and fell with a thump on the ground. Luckily, Percy and Dudley were too occupied to notice.

Harry stood up next to Percy, trying not to wince. "Hey! Hey, Big D!"

Dudley grunted and began kicking and punching both of them. Apparently, he had forgotten about the whole 'Harry's-wand-magic' thing.

Harry did his best to dodge Dudley's attacks, but that didn't mean that he didn't get punched in the stomach or face once in a while.

The two boys - one older, one younger used defence over and over. Harry slowly led them all to the tree Faigt had hit his head on. "Come on," he muttered. "A bit closer..."

Harry, then, hoping this would work, screamed at the top of his lungs, "You're so fat, Dudley, how are you not a pig yet? OH, NEVER MIND, I GET IT - YOU ARE ONE ALREADY!"

Dudley yelled in frustration and launched himself at Harry, who was standing directly in front of the tree. At the last second, Harry flung himself to the left.

Dudley hit the tree with a sickening crack! and slid down to the ground, out cold.

Harry panted, his hands cold and clammy. After checking his wand was safe, he searched around on the ground for his glasses and finally retrieved it. Its left lens was cracked.

He returned to where he had left Percy. Percy had slid down the tree, wheezing.

Oh no.

"Percy!" said Harry. "Are you okay?"

Percy didn't respond because he was too busy... laughing?

Harry took a moment to shake his head as he approached the older boy, almost an adult. "Percy?"

"Oh, my, gods," Percy laughed, clutching his stomach. "Did you actually say that?"

"What?"

"You're so fat Dudley, how are you not a pig yet - oh never mind, you are one!" Percy was practically rolling around on the floor. "Oh gods..."

Harry shook his head, bewildered.

"Percy, I think there might be something wrong with your brain."

"So I've heard."

-oOo-

Harry and Percy trudged up to the Dursley's lawn. Before Percy could go inside the house, Harry stopped him.

"What?"

"What are we going to tell them?"

"Tell who?"

Was Percy always this oblivious? "Your mum and my uncle and aunt, I mean."

"Oh. Um..." Percy definitely acted younger than his appearance.

The two boys glanced at each other. They were extremely tattered and dirty. Harry's right eye was swelling up, and his over-sized t-shirt had several rips in it. Percy's hair looked messier than before and his clothes were covered in mud and dirt.

"Let's sneak in?" Percy said, or rather asked, as they thought.

"Uh, no, no, and no. Uncle Vernon has the ears of a cat."

-oOo-

And so, they were sneaking in the living room towards the stairs.

They hurriedly tiptoed past the dining room when they heard the voices of adults talking and eventually made it to the stairs. Harry expertly jumped over the first one and climbed up, but Percy -

Creak.

Oh man.

The two glanced at each other in alarm as the voices stopped talking. "What was that?" Harry heard Sally's voice.

"Dudley might be back after his little tea time with his friends. Oh, he has so many friends and they always have these nice times at each other's houses."

Uh-huh. As if.

The adults resumed talking as if they had forgotten all about the sound, and Percy and Harry fled upstairs. They made it to the room Percy was going to use and immediately burst into a fit of laughter as soon as they closed the door.

"That was really close, though." Harry said as soon as they had gained control of themselves.

"I know!" Percy said, grinning.

"We should clean up."

"Sure."

"Now that's settled, what do we tell them about Dudley?"

-O-O-O-O-

Hello all!

I hope you all enjoyed this (as usual, I say that).

Yay, I'm finally updating as it is... (drumroll) the start of December! Or more specifically, December 1st (maybe its November the 30th where some of you live).

I am super busy, so I won't be updating often, which is sad, but my break for this story is over! I'm still on hold for other stories, though. One at a time, but I'll be starting the others soon enough!

Also, Oh. My. GODS! Thank you all for your continuous support and 200-ish followers.

Also, if you have any questions you want to be answered as quickly as possible, such as how often are you going to update? or what happens in the next chapter?, please send me a PM. I do read through all the reviews (of course) but I won't be able to make a comment or reply about the review as quickly. If you don't want to PM me, then just waiting until, like, a few chapters is your only option, I guess.

Thank you all for everything.

Grab onto your wands or swords (or daggers or spheres or hammers or bows and arrows or... well, you get what I mean) and I'll see you all next time!

Laugh Live Love Dogs