---
As the head of Slytherin House, Severus Snape was the first to arrive after the troll incident, but by then, Dudley had already sorted everything out. The poor fifth-year prefect who'd been attacked was given a calming potion, and since he'd had the good sense to cast a Shield Charm, he only ended up with a few broken bones instead of something worse. It was a strange sight to see the Slytherin students so obediently following Dudley's orders, but it seemed they were thoroughly spooked.
Snape took the troll's corpse away after Dudley had carefully collected all its bogeys. Later, Dudley heard from Malfoy that the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws had been attacked too, with a total of four trolls captured—one dead and three injured. He decided to lower Hogwarts' safety rating even more.
The next day, the first-year Slytherins gathered, and Pansy Parkinson took center stage. "The great Mr. Dursley risked exposing himself as a dark wizard just to save me!" she announced proudly. "He even gave me a potion himself." She was convinced Dudley's care for her was special, especially since he enjoyed the tea she brewed for him.
"Remember, everyone," Pansy said in a serious tone, "we can't tell any of the professors about this. Not even our Head of House!" She warned everyone that her family, the Malfoys, the Greengrasses, and others would make sure anyone who told on Dudley would regret it. The very boy they once looked down on was now their hero.
Little did Dudley know he was now the talk of Slytherin House. He was busy in the library with Hermione, who was reading a second-year charms textbook, while he was poring over a dusty notebook from Snape, soaking up new potion-making techniques. Harry was reading about Defence Against the Dark Arts, Neville was engrossed in a book on Herbology, and Ron was tackling Divination—all on Dudley's tailored study plan.
Their schedule was full. Weekends were for training in the mornings, studying in the afternoons, and practical lessons in the evenings. Life was quiet and productive.
A week after Halloween, Gryffindor noticed their house points had plummeted from second place to last. Normally, their points would slowly climb back up, but this time they kept dropping. They soon realized the reason: Hermione had stopped raising her hand to answer every question. The point-earning machine was on strike, on Dudley's advice. "Gryffindor doesn't need so many points," he told her. Hermione no longer cared about House points; she only cared about her small group of friends and Dudley.
Gryffindor students weren't too worried, though. They still had Quidditch. The first match was against Slytherin, and to everyone's surprise, Malfoy had bought the entire Slytherin team new brooms, securing his spot as Seeker. He quickly caught the Snitch, winning the game and earning more points for Slytherin House. Dudley, ever the pragmatic observer, noted two things in his personal notebook: the lack of standardized brooms was unfair, and the commentator was biased.
Time flew by, and soon it was December. As the end of the first term neared, Dudley still hadn't heard anything from Dumbledore about his proposed Disciplinary Committee.
One Saturday afternoon, Snape limped into the potions classroom. "Professor, you're hurt," Dudley observed immediately. He sniffed the air and recognized the scents of Dittany, liquorice, and fishwort. "You must have been bitten by something," he said, gently lifting Snape's trousers to reveal a large, canine-like tooth mark.