I Solemnly Swear That I Am Up to No Good: Dudley

[alt_terry]

That kid, Dudders, has been watching me. I couldn't quite tell how old he was, because he ducked out of sight whenever I came anywhere near him. And his hair is long and tangled and filthy, so it was hard to see his face.

But last night I was taking the chamber pot down to empty because the git had sicked up in it again (the liquor shipment had just come in). And on my way round a corner, I suddenly came face to face with him unexpectedly, back behind the rubbish bins. I froze, and he flattened down warily like a cat at first, and then slowly straightened up a bit when he realised I'd spotted him.

We stared at each other for a long moment. 'You're the Master's tidbit,' he said finally, and I finally figured it out: he must be close to my age. His voice sounded creaky, like he doesn't use it much.

I frowned. 'You can call him the Master if you like. But I'm Terry.'

He straightened up more. 'Is that right? What do you call him?'

'I call him 'Master' to his face. And 'the git' behind his back.'

He liked that, I could tell, though he was trying not to smile, sort of. 'Yeah, he is a git.'

'I heard you're called Dudders.'

Now it was his turn to frown. 'Dudley.'

I'd wondered if he was a muggleborn, too, but he's a muggle. We sat down in the dirt, cautiously, and traded little bits of information about ourselves. He grew up in a town called Little Whinging, in Surrey, but he got separated from his parents in the panics when they were fleeing the fall of London. They'd been heading north, because they'd heard a rumour that there might be a hole in the wards past York. He thinks his dad got either killed or taken for a sleeper. He has no idea where his mum is. They put him in the camp at Lincoln and he just happened to be up on the duty roster when Master arrived and they got the order to staff the castle. And then he got stuck here when the fidelius charm went up.

I heard the git bellowing for me then so I had to leave. But I hope the next time I see him he won't be quite so quick to duck out of sight.

It's nice to have someone around who might become a friend.

Comments

[alt_ron]

Huh. That's well awful what happened to him.

So how many people are there in the castle with you? And they're all stuck there? I mean, the magic's keeping them in? Or are there other wizards besides Carrow?

How big is Lincoln castle? Is it like Hogwarts?

[alt_terry]

It's pretty big, although it's nothing like Hogwarts. It's mostly a huge medieval castle wall on two hills (they're called mottes), with a couple of towers. One of them, the Lucy tower, doesn't have a roof anymore. The other is the Cobb Hall, which is built into the wall. That stuff was built in the eleventh and twelfth century, some of it by William the Conqueror. Then there are some more modern buildings in the interior, built in the nineteenth century: the Crown Court, the Victorian Prison, and the Georgian Prison.

It was used as a prison and court for a long time. But there are only about a dozen people here to run things, all muggles, aside from the git and me. And the prisoners. The number of those fluctuates, but some of those have been here since we came. A mix of muggles and muggleborns. The git experiments on them. And ew, that part I don't want to talk about.

[alt_ron]

So if it's just Carrow, why do those muggles like that Dudders kid stay there and do stuff for Carrow? I mean, couldn't they just run away when he gets drunk? Has he put some sort of charm on them to keep them there? Or has he Imperiused them? Seems like they'd find a way to run away if there aren't any guards or enforcers or anything.

And, um. When you say the number fluctuates, you mean it's going down? Like he's killing them off? Has he killed any more since that one who came back as a ghost? He still there?

[alt_terry]

He hasn't killed any since he made that one a ghost. But new prisoners arrive occasionally. I think that they must use notes from the secret keeper, to enable new ones to arrive even though there is a fidelius spell in place.

There IS a castle wall here. With two gates that are guarded all the time. It isn't possible to just walk away.