Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter and will not be making any money off this.
A/N: Written for theHDProject on tumblr. Hints at drarry. Just hints.

~0x0x0~

It's awkward sitting there across from one another and they both feel it. It's been a while since they last met, the first time since the War ended. Harry certainly did not expect to be here, now, in this situation, ever. He grips his water glass a little, bringing it up for a sip, before returning it back to the table top. Neither says a word, and he suspects it's because neither knows what to say. He remembers their last conversation, probably also their only decent conversation, in front of the house he never really thought of as home but was anyway for a majority of his life. He has no fond memories of the place, largely due to the man sitting across from him. This isn't really his idea, and yet Harry was still the one to ring up his childhood tormentor.

He feels the waitress walk past a third time glancing impatiently at them. They haven't ordered anything yet, and to be honest, Harry doesn't really feel up to eating. Or drinking anything that isn't water. So he sits there uncomfortable, sipping away.

Dudley's pudgy hands reach for the menu just then. Harry watches as he flips through page after page before waving the impatient waitress over and rattling off an order. There isn't as much food as Harry expects. But then again, he had expected Dudley to order half the items on the menu. It is the first thing either of them has said the whole twenty-or-so minutes they've been there and, somehow, it breaks the ice between them.

"So…err…how are you?" Harry asks uncertainly. It's ridiculous that he, defeater of the Dark Lord and Savior of the Wizarding World, can't even hold one decent conversation with any of his relations. Or so Draco tells him. He knows he should be worried when he starts taking familial relations advice from Draco Malfoy which is how he ended up here sat across the bane of his childhood existence. Then again, he had quite similar thoughts about Draco and look at them now?

"Fine," Dudley returns, "how…how are you?"

Awkwardness all around. They shouldn't do this to themselves. He shouldn't have listened to Draco. He never thought Dudley would say yes. There they both were, though.

"Fine," Harry says. Silence falls between them again.

When the food arrives, Harry is surprised to see a plate placed in front of him. Dudley shrugs, "You're too thin," he simply says. Compared to Dudley, a great many people can be considered too thin, and he says as much. He expects a quick punch or even a jibe. Dudley laughs, to Harry's utter astonishment.

"I get that a lot," Dudley explains, "from my girlfriend."

Harry isn't sure which is more astonishing: that Dudley has a girlfriend or that Dudley lets her say things like that to him.

He feels a slight twitch on his lips and gives Dudley a small half-smile. It's a start.

"Brave girl," Harry says.

"The best," Dudley replies. "And you?"

"No," Harry says, "no girlfriend." But he can't stop the image of Draco drifting in his mind's eye or the blush that creeps unbidden with it.

Dudley raises an eyebrow, at least it's what it looks like to Harry, but does not press the issue, on which Harry is glad.

Near the end of their lunch, Dudley finally asks, "What made you call?"

Harry pauses, not quite sure how to answer, and settles for saying, "Someone important told me I should."

"You should thank this person, then."

Harry nods. "I will."