The Dursley's adopted son

Chapter 27

"Okay, honestly, that went about as well as I expected." Dudley and I both turned to look at Piers, who was now done fighting his urge to laugh at my sassiness, but still smiling a bit. Dudley sighed,

"I was hoping it would go better." I couldn't help but nod in agreement, and Piers winced slightly. We all looked back over at the two adults. Mr. Dursley seemed to have calmed down slightly, but his face was still rather red. Mrs. Dursley was looking around the hallway and smiling reassuringly at the few others who were sitting at the tables nearby. Not that anyone was actually paying any attention to what the two Dursleys were up to. Nonetheless, she was clearly stressed out about the possibility of others judging her and her husband. Dudley deflated a bit as he seemed to realize that his parents were not going to come back over on their own. After giving me a solid pat on the shoulder, Dud ambled on over.

His parents welcomed him into their little huddle, Mrs. Dursley giving him a short kiss on the forehead. Even though I hadn't really gotten a good impression of the Dursleys so far, it was clear that they really truly cared for their son, which was sweet. The moment of domestic-ness was broken as Mr. Dursley said something to Dudley that made him whip his head around and stare at me as though he was seeing me for the first time. He stared for a second and his mouth dropped open slightly, before frantically turning back to his parents and saying something that involved a lot of hand movements. I was bewildered by his behavior, and turned to Piers.

"Jeez. What was that about? Have I grown another head or something?"

Piers looked at me for a second, considering, and I started to wonder if maybe the 'second head' thing wasn't just a joke, but then Piers spoke slowly, almost sounding like he was debating how much he should say.

"If I had to guess, I would say you remind them too much of another orphan, one that they really dislike."

I cracked a bit of a smile, thinking that surely Piers was making a weird joke. But when he didn't meet my eyes, I realized that he wasn't joking. My eyebrows furrowed in bafflement. What kind of a statement is that? 'You remind them of an orphan that they don't like.' Are the Dursley's seriously going around having disagreements with random orphans? How many orphans do they even know for there to be one that reminds them of me?

I looked at Piers closely. Maybe he was just really committed to the bit, and would surely break any second. He was probably just distracting me from the whatever was going on with the Dursley's conversation. If that had been his goal, it worked. Now, instead of wondering what the Dursleys were saying about me, I was busy trying to decode Piers' bizarre statement.

I wasn't left with much time to ponder, though, because the Dursley's had finally seemed to reach some sort of tense agreement. Dudley beckoned me and Piers over, and then the five of us silently made our way over to one of the empty tables and sat. It didn't seem like anyone was going to break the painfully awkward and tense silence, so I decided to take one for the team.

"So..." I tried my best to ignore the way everyone was staring at me, and continued, "I don't think I've ever asked what your favorite color is, Piers. I know Duds like orange, but what about you? You seem like the kind of guy who would like a nice solid red, no?"

Piers blinked slowly at me for a moment before nodding.

"Uh yeah, red is nice, I guess."

I tried not to slam my head against the table at his strained reply, wishing he would have played along a bit more. Now we were back to square one: awkward silence.

Thankfully, I wasn't the one to break it this time. Instead, it was Mrs. Dursley.

"...And your favorite color, Percy?"