Dudley/Piers

Dudley/Piers is a Harry Potter pairing involving Dudley Dursley and his best friend Piers Polkiss.
Although a relatively common pairing for both Dudley and Piers, Dudley/Piers is overall a rare ship in Harry Potter fandom and is the focus of relatively few fanworks. One reason for this is because Dudley and Piers are both Muggles, and thus the pairing does not easily lend itself to explorations of magic or the wizarding world, which is often the primary interest of Harry Potter fans.
==Canon Basis==
Dudley and Piers are childhood best friends, introduced as such in the second chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when the Dursleys take the two to the zoo to celebrate Dudley's eleventh birthday. Piers and Dudley attended them same primary school and then later the same the public school, Smeltings. (Smeltings students carry knobbly "Smelting sticks" as part of their uniforms—often interpreted by fans as phallic objects and thus sex toys and/or symbols of homoeroticism.)
Piers is described as one of the members of "Dudley's gang" who would bully Harry and other children when they were in primary school. (Piers was "usually the one who held people’s arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them".Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J.K. Rowling, Chapter 2: "The Vanishing Glass", published 26 June 1997.) Piers appears again briefly as part of Dudley's gang in Order of the Phoenix. He compliments Dudley on his "right hook" and calls him by the nickname "Big D".
Neither Dudley nor Piers are shown in canon to have a love interest, thus leaving open the possibility of Dudley/Piers. Although interview canon establishes that Dudley eventually has children, it is never explicitly stated that Dudley ever marries. (See Dudley Dursley §Post-Canon.)
==Ship History & Prevalence==
The Dudley/Piers SCUSA thread at FictionAlley Park was started July 2002 and named "S.S. Bully". LilyAyl wrote several cookies for the 'ship in July 2003. A ...cruisin'... thread for a Dudley/Piers fic listing was not created until October 2009.
Maya's Dancing Queen, published in early 2003, contains mentions of the pairing. Though the Dudley/Piers relationship is all off-screen and mostly limited to reports that the two had broken up and then gotten back together, the fic inspired interest in the ship. One fan in July 2003 commented on a FictionAlley Park cookie: "I've be[e]n in love with this ship ever since I read Dancing Queen by Maya, and finally somebody is writing fics about it! Yay!"Comment by t_maia on The Truth About Harry: (D/P) at FictionAlley Park, posted 12 July 2003. (Accessed 08 September 2016.)
As of 2016, Dudley/Piers content is still being created. For example, aroacehogwarts posted a headcanon about Dudley/Piers and proposing alternative sexualities for the two.
As of September 2016, there are 12 works tagged Dudley Dursley/Piers Polkiss on Archive of Our Own, out of over 100,000 Harry Potter works on the archive. It is the only pairing for Piers that has multiple works on AO3, and it is the third-most popular pairing for Dudley (next to Harry/Dudley with 32 works and Dudley/OC with 53 works). There are a handful of Dudley/Piers stories on FanFiction.Net, but only two are marked [Dudley D., Piers P.] as a pairing; several others can be found by filtering for Dudley D. and Piers P.. There is also a smattering of Dudley/Piers works elsewhere on the 'net, such as on LiveJournal, deviantArt, and smaller archives.
== Common Themes in Fanworks==
Despite Dudley, Piers, and their friends' general delinquency in the books, Dudley/Piers fanworks usually (though not universally) depict both characters as sympathetic. Fannish opinion divides on which of the two is the better/worse influence on the other.
As Piers's canonical scrawniness complements Dudley's canonical "vastness", Piers is often interpreted as more intellectual to counterpoint Dudley's physicality. Piers is often written as wiser than Dudley, and often accepts his own sexuality and/or realizes his feelings for Dudley before Dudley does.
"Big D" is often used as a pet name for Dudley by Piers. Piers canonically addresses Dudley with the nickname in Order of the Phoenix, and fanon is that the nickname was coined by Piers—and perhaps that Piers is the only one who uses it.
Dudley/Piers fanfiction is usually set when the two are school-aged (which usually means during canon), either at Smeltings or during summer holidays back in Little Whinging.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfiction===
* Romeo and Julian by LilyAyl (2003)—Piers helps Dudley with an essay for Literature class. A cookie posted at FictionAlley Park.
* Untitled "big drabble" by malecrit (2004)—Vignette of Dudley and Piers during the summer before Order of the Phoenix.
* Paninaro '95 by Harmonic Friction (2007)—Dudley and Piers during the summer holidays. Dudley accidentally watches gay porn and realizes he may not be straight.
* Muscle Worship by Dudley Demented (2007)—Piers admires Dudley's new physique after having taken up boxing, and Dudley notices. PWP.
* Big D by airagorncharda (2009)—The events surrounding the Dementor attack in Order of the Phoenix from Dudley's POV. Proposes that what affected Dudley so badly may have been visions of Piers being hurt and killed.
* Flowering and Deflowering. by wwmrsweasleydo (2010)—Fluff, set at Smeltings. Written for a hp_rarities prompt. Also on AO3.
* The Glorious 10th of May by vissy (2011)—Dudley's return after going into hiding during Deathly Hallows with Dudley/Piers established relationship. Written for hp_beholder. Also on AO3.
===Fanart===
* Hunting for luck by scarletscarlet, illustration of The Glorious 10th of May, NSFW (2011)archive.is copy of "Good!fic!" at hump_day_smut, archived 13 September 2016. The art was later used on a pimping banner for the dudley_redeemed fest.
* HP - Don't Say That by airagorncharda, illustration of Paninaro '95 (2011)
==Resources==
* Works tagged Dudley Dursley/Piers Polkiss at Archive of Our Own
* Dudley D./Piers P. and Dudley D. & Piers P. stories at FanFiction.Net
* Dudley/Piers Polkiss stories at Adult-FanFiction.org
* S.S. Bully: Dudley/Piers at FictionAlley Park's SCUSA forum
* Dudley Dursley/Piers Polkiss fic listing at FictionAlley Park's ...cruisin'... forum
==References==
Category:Harry Potter Relationships Category:Slash Pairings