Chapter 21

She really wasn't sure whether she was supposed to be happy or not about… about all of this. One thing was for certain though, Ginny Weasley knew she didn't want to be SEEN. Luckily, her current companion was very understanding about that. He hadn't commented on her keeping her hood up and had indeed kept his up as well in a show of solidarity.

Likewise, they were eating their ice cream from Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour outside of the shop rather than inside so it wouldn't look weird that they were keeping the hoods of their cloaks up in the first place. It was after all one of the colder days of Spring, allowing for an excuse even if it wasn't SO cold that ice cream was right out as a treat.

Indeed, the ice cream was delicious… even as it made her feel conflicted and guilty all over again, given it was her friend who had paid for it rather than her. He… he was her friend, wasn't he? Chancing a glance up, Ginny finds Dudley Dursley smiling at her when she meets his gaze, causing the freckled red head to go bright red and duck her head all over again.

Dudley… Dudley wasn't like all of the other boys in her life. For one, he was a Slytherin, and Ginny had grown up around nothing but Gryffindor men her whole adolescence. It was honestly rather strange, that her best friend at Hogwarts was a Slytherin. Or rather, her best male friend. Luna was still her best female friend, but because they'd ended up sorted into different Houses, they hadn't gotten to talk much since the start of the year.

Ginny hoped that Luna was doing okay. She'd started out as that quirky girl without a mom from down the road that Molly Weasley had forced Ginny to play with in order to make a bond develop between the two of them. To be fair, it had worked, proving that Ginny's mom really was good with kids. After seven of them, you'd think she had to be.

Still, Ginny definitely knew that Luna was an… acquired taste. Hopefully, she'd made some friends in her House. Hopefully, the Ravenclaws weren't… well, weren't being too mean to her. Ginny had honestly been too damn busy to find out. Her own position as the last in a long line of Weasleys making Gryffindor their home kept her constantly stressed out.

It didn't help that Ron was a prat, Fred and George were both overbearing and pranksters at the same time, and Percy was such a stick in the mud that his advice basically boiled down to keeping her head down and her grades up. No, on top of that, Ginny had to deal with House Politics, especially after befriending Dudley.

It had quickly become clear to Ginny that the House Pariah of Gryffindor was Hermione Granger thanks to just how much time the bookish brunette bookworm spent around the Slytherins. She'd apparently been the top of their class the previous year as well, blowing the usual frontrunners in Ravenclaw and Slytherin out of the water with her exemplary grades.

Rumor was, her grades weren't nearly as good this year. Oh sure, they were still phenomenal, but she was no longer making waves or garnering titles like 'Smartest Witch of their Generation'. She was no longer upsetting the status quo. Instead, there was a Ravenclaw at the top of the grading and a Slytherin right behind them, with Hermione all the way down at position six or seven from what Ginny had heard through the grapevine.

Ginny herself was just barely in the top ten of her year. It didn't feel like enough, even though it was better than even Fred and George were doing and beating out Ronald by a country mile. Percy was quietly proud of her, she was pretty sure, but her older brother was too much of a tight wad to actually say so.

Of course, any happiness and satisfaction Ginny had experienced this year felt like it could be tracked back to the boy sitting across from her. The boy she was ashamed to be seen with, the boy she was afraid people would notice her spending time around. Dudley Dursley wasn't a bad guy by any stretch of the imagination, but he was Slytherin, and she was Gryffindor.

Ron, after finding out that Ginny had spent the train ride with Dudley, had tried to tell her that he'd been Hermione's downfall, or some rot like that. Like it was Dudley's friendship to the brunette that had caused her entire house to shun her and sent her running into the arms of the likes of Crabbe and Goyle. Honestly, the whole story sounded as ridiculous as it clearly was.

Dudley had never been anything but a perfect gentleman to Ginny in the time that she'd known him. He was even very understanding of her need to publicly distance herself from him, while privately still being his friend. He was such a good friend, always there as a shoulder for her to lean on, and even helped her out with some much needed pocket money to shore up her poor status. All in exchange for the latest gossip on House Gryffindor!

Now here they were, out and about on Spring Break, enjoying the minor vacation from Hogwarts together. And Ginny… Ginny was still so damn afraid of being seen by someone that she couldn't bring herself to pull her hood down. It didn't help that her hair color was the most recognizable in the entire fucking wizarding world. Just a glance was enough for people to label her as 'yet another Weasley'.

Dudley had never done that though. He… he treated her like Ginny, rather than merely Weasley. It was nice, being able to be her own person around him. She just wished she wasn't so afraid of being seen with him…

"Hey. Do you wanna get out of here? Maybe go out into muggle London and I'll give you a tour?"

Jolting from her inner thoughts, Ginny looks up to see Dudley smiling at her even now, though with a knowing cant to his grin. She blushes and he glances down to her ice cream, which at this point has been completely demolished during her introspection.

"It's just, we've both been done with our ice cream for several minutes now, and you've been… quiet. If it's me just say so and I'll leave, but I thought maybe it was the area instead. So, what do ya say?"

Panicking a little, Ginny jerks in her seat and rapidly shakes her head.

"N-No! It's definitely not you. I… um, I-I actually think that's a great idea. S-Show me muggle London, yeah?"

Grinning, Dudley just nods and the two of them are soon on their way. The best part is, not only can they take off their cloaks upon leaving Diagon Alley, it's all but necessary. Underneath, Ginny had already been in a nice top and a comfy pair of jeans, and Dudley was wearing something similar, so they already fit in pretty well.

Unlike most wizards and witches, Ginny had grown up around muggle technology all her life. Admittedly, in the frame of reference of her dear old dad constantly messing around with said muggle technology. But that did mean she wasn't going to stand there gawping at a car for ten minutes the first time she saw one in motion… she'd already done so, basically.

Still, it's incredibly amazing to see so MANY motor vehicles moving back and forth down the roads. The Wizarding World was so very small, and with the numerous faster and better methods of travel, you didn't really see anyone traveling by horse or carriage, at least not in a place like Diagon Alley. It was all on foot because the alley itself was small enough that everything was in walking distance.

But muggle London by comparison was massive, and when Dudley offered Ginny his hand mere minutes into their adventure, no doubt detecting her getting overwhelmed, she was so grateful that she immediately took it. Of course, she went bright red mere moments afterwards upon realizing what they were doing, but Dudley's grip was firm… and truth be told, Ginny didn't want to pull her hand away anyways.

Besides the handholding though, Dudley was as much a perfect gentleman as he'd ever been, and more than that, he seemed like the perfect person to show her the wonders that muggle London had to offer. Their first stop was Harrods, and Ginny… Ginny thought she just might have died and gone to heaven. One might suspect a girl like her to not have much of a thing for fashion, but one would be wrong.

Growing up among six brothers in a perpetually poor household, Ginny was at least aware of the concept of expensive clothes, and the fact that she'd never gotten to so much as touch them herself only made the girl long for them more. Harrods though… Harrods was insane. Dudley called it 'The World's Leading Luxury Department Store' in his explanation of its purpose, and while Ginny didn't understand all of those words, she still couldn't help but agree.

It was definitely the World's Leader in something. Had to be, with how magnificent and massive it was. The place was as big as Diagon Alley, but all enclosed and filled to the brim with clothes of all styles, all shapes, all sizes. Ginny can't help but break away from Dudley at a certain point to run up and stare unabashedly at some of the displays.

Dudley just follows along after her, decidedly amused, and the two of them explore the huge store until eventually a worker comes around and stops them, asking if they're actually going to buy anything. Needless to say, Ginny goes red with embarrassment… only to blink in surprise when Dudley flashes a whole lot of paper that, intellectually, she knows to be muggle money.

The worker is a lot nicer after that, and they end up walking out of Harrods hand in hand with a small bag that has a new purchase for Ginny in it. She's almost mortified to have let Dudley by her something that just had to be expensive, but she hadn't been able to bring herself to say no. Instead… instead she'd let him purchase it without a single moment of fuss.

After Harrods was an Arcade. Now THERE was an experience. Ginny was a multi-faceted girl after all, and as much as she longed to be fashionable, she HAD still grown up with six brothers who had effectively bashed her jagged edges into something approaching a tomboy by force. The Arcade… the Arcade was a heavenly place too, in its own way.

Dudley showed her how to make the controls work, and how to play the games. The technologies that muggles came up with due to their lack of magic continued to astound Ginny and boggle the mind. It wasn't long before she was thoroughly enjoying moving her character across the screen in front of her however, kicking butt alongside Dudley as they played some sort of cooperative venture that allowed them to fight numerous waves of enemies, all the way up to what Dudley called 'the boss'.

It took quite a lot of muggle coins, but they beat the game in the end, and it only took them about an hour. Leaving the Arcade after that, Ginny couldn't help but feel exhilarated and accomplished… and that was when Dudley introduced her to the concept of a muggle movie theater.

They ended up watching a film called 'Batman Returns', which according to Dudley was already a years-old old movie, but so popular that the theater was rerunning it or something. Once again, most of that went right over Ginny's head… as did a lot of the movie itself. But it was still very enjoyable and very silly, and Ginny found herself laughing right alongside Dudley at all of the over the top and ridiculous things that happened in the movie, from the dialogue to the action sequences as he called them.

They were still laughing at the silliness of the film when they finally left the movie theater, only for the pair of them to catch sight of some familiar faces that made Ginny instinctively shrink back and hide to avoid being seen, even before she fully registered who they were. Luckily, none of the trio of familiar Hogwarts Students ever seemed to notice her and Dudley. Rather, Hermione Granger seemed all too busy being groped between Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle as the two big Slytherin boys hugged the Gryffindor girl between them.

Her lipstick being smudged sealed the deal for what they'd been doing though, given that Ginny herself had noted, somewhat embarrassingly, what sort of other activities besides just watching a movie that a boy and girl could get up to in the darkness of the theater. Or, as it would seem in Hermione's case, a girl and two boys.

Flushing a bit, filled with embarrassment on Granger's behalf but also righteous indignation because the dumb bitch was proving her brother right with this sort of shit, Ginny can't help herself. The words slip out of her mouth before she can so much as second guess them, bypassing the filter that would normally keep them in her head.

"Ugh, she really IS a mudblood whore…"

Of course, a moment later she's mortified by what she's said, realizing that Dudley is still standing right beside her and heard every word. As she goes pale and blanches at her own slip up however, Dudley… just laughs, causing her to look at him with wide eyes as he grins at her impishly.

"You're not wrong, love."

For a moment, Ginny just gapes at Dudley for agreeing with her. Then, she finds herself slowly starting to smile back, and this time its her who slips her hand into his as she feels a warmth suffusing her. Basking in his approval and agreement, Ginny lets Dudley continue their tour once the threesome are finally out of sight.

She's so glad that she met Dudley Dursley. No matter what anyone says, she knows him as a really great guy and her best friend in the whole wide world…

-x-X-x-

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