If the situation hadn't been so dire Severus would have started laughing.

The group that stood in front of him was one of the saddest sights he had seen in a while.

He knew the look of Petunia, so while her long drawn out horse like face was unpleasant, it wasn't necessarily surprising.

She was looking at him with such a deep look of disgust that he couldn't help but think of the muggle phrase "if you keep making that face it will stick that way", and the more he thought about it the more he wished that it would come true.

Not that it would have hurt her looks all that much, it would be hard for anything to make her more unattractive than she was naturally.

The man in front of her was therefore fitting. Big and bulky and red, he looked like an oversized baby in the middle of a horrible temper tantrum.

And then there was the boy.

The boy was who enraged him the most.

He was everything that he had expected Harry to be.

Big, and if not a good deal spoiled, otherwise, more than well provided for.

But there was a look in the boys eyes that made him stop for just a second. While the looks in the eyes of the Dursley adults in front of him showed anger and loathing, all the eyes of the boy in front of him showed were... fear, and perhaps...

A bit of concern?

He would start there. He could deal with the parents later, right now, he needed answers, and he was more than willing to stoop to the point of interrogating one child if it meant helping another.

With that he grabbed the boys sleeve, and over the very loud and obnoxious protests of the horse and the big baby, he dragged him over towards the kitchen and quickly placed a shielding charm over the door to prevent interruptions.

By the look of the boy, that was probably where he would be the most comfortable.

He was of course planning on using legilimency, but he also figured... Harry could use as many friends as he could get, and if the read of concern he had read on the boy Dursleys face was legitimate, and aimed more towards Harrys welfare instead of his own, then this might be a good chance for something decent for Harry.

So he would start with mere questions.

And so he starts off with an introduction.

"Mr. Dursley, I hope that you have surmised that I am here regarding your cousin Harry? I would like to ask you a few questions and I would implore you to provide me with detailed and complete answers."

The Dursley boy just looks at him with a look that he recognizes well as one he recieves from particularly confused students. He decides to modify the vocabularly he uses to fit, as he now recognizes, a frightened child. Those days of spying, of needing to know how to speak and get information out of a varied spectrum of indiciduals, he is greatful can now come in handy.

He tries again.

"I would like to ask you some questions about Harry. He is in trouble and I am trying to help him."

Some clarity comes into the boy Dursleys eyes at this. In a stuttering voice the boy starts answering.

"Harry is really weird. He says really weird things sometimes and sometimes... he scares me. He gets these periods where he stops eating and walks around the house looking like he is always wanting to cry, and one time..."

The boy stops.

Severus looks at him hoping he will continue on his own, but when he doesnt he decides to nudge him further.

"Continue Mr. Dursley"

The boy meets his eyes for a brief moment, and then seems to steel himself for what he is about to say next.

"Well mister... one time... one time he asked me... to kill him?"

The boy looks away. There is a long silence that fills up the whole room.

The boy at once starts talking again, really fast, as if to force himself to continue past his own discomfort and get through to what else he wants to say as quickly as possible.

"Sometimes... well. Mister... he can be a real spaz. The slightest thing can scare him and he... he does scary things. He scares EVERYONE, even me, and I dont even like him that much."

He looks away, getting red in the face, almost as if in shame and then continues again.

"Well. Its not that I hate him or anything. Not anymore. Its just. My parents. They don't like him at all. They think hes a freak. And I mean. They are kind of right"

The boy looks back at Severus, sees the look on the mans face and then blanches.

"I mean, no! I mean. He just does weird stuff all the time! Thats all! Im not trying to be mean when I say it, honest! I even feel bad for him because I dont even think he can help it. Its just. Its so..."

With this he forces himself to meet the mans eyes and a look of determination sets on his face...

"You... you say you can help him?"

Severus nods. And starts to speak.

"I think, Mr. Dursley, that there is a good chance that Harry can be helped. But if I am to help him I will need all the information I can gather, and he will potentially need significant support from people in his life that can care for him. At this time, I do not believe that your parents, from what I have gathered from- what you muggles might call- 'a mind read' can be those individuals. However, I do believe, that the support of a familiar peer Harry's own age, might be of some benefit."

He stops, realizing that he might have again gone over the head of the young boy in front of him.

He rewords.

"Yes. I think Harry can need help, but he needs all the friends he can get Mr. Dursley"

And with that- the boy looks up to him again, uncertainly at first, and then after a second he gives a determined grin.

"Well. Then its time I introduced myself- Hi. Im Dudley, Harry's cousin, and... Harry's friend."

And with that, the interrogation turned into a chat, and a little bit more light was cast on the subject.

And Severus realized, after being given so much more information, that this puzzle that was Harry Potter, was too complicated to be solved in any way quickly and easily.

Good thing Severus wasn't a man who gave up easily.