A New Life - ch 1
Summery: Vernon knows nothing about magic and next to nothing about Lily. When he comes home one day to find Harry locked in the cupboard things will take a drastic turn from the life Dumbledore meant for him.
Disclaimer: I don’t own HP so I’m making jack from this.
Author’s Note: First this fic is dedicated to Nadine from Kamerreon’s Y!Group as she is the one gave me the Plunny for this. Second this will contain: Evil!Petunia, Nice!Vernon, Nice!Dudley/Magic!Dudley, Mentor!Severus, Minulative!Dumbledore, and probably a few other OOCs and probably Slash before everything is over.
For those who knew the family at number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging Surrey located in England, they would call them normal, perfectly normal and the perfect family and before the Halloween of 1981 they would have been right. It was that day that they gained a new and unexpected family member in the form of Petunia’s sister’s son, one Harry Potter. Sure it would mean more bills, more money, and another child to care for, but for one Vernon Dursley, that didn’t matter after he read the letter left with the boy he found on their stoop the next morning when he went to get the paper. The boy was his nephew and he had no other living family and while he could tell that Petunia didn’t seem quite as willing to take the boy in, she didn’t argue when he pointedly informed her: Family was Family and the boy was their family.
The young Vernon had never known why his wife wasn’t a fan of her sister and spoke her name as if it were the worst filth, but he had never thought much of it until four years after they took in his nephew. It had been a short day at the office for the man, but his boss had let him go early to spend the holiday with Dudley, Harry, and Petunia, for which he had been grateful as he had been late to Harry’s birthday a couple of month’s before and sadly missed the entire party, though his wife told him Harry and Dudley had had a good time which had been enough.
He had spent the entire trip home planning out the rest of the family’s evening. They would have a nice dinner, get the boys dressed in their costumes, and go out and get them both loads of candy. Vernon wasn’t sorry to admit that it had probably been his second favorite holiday as a child and it had showed too. But in an effort to set a good example for the boys he had been trying to be a better man and that included trying to make more time for them and to eat better.
He didn’t think much of not being greeted at the door by his wife and the boys thinking that maybe she had just taken them to the park or a last minute trip to the store for dinner things. But a shaky call of “Aunt Petunia?” from the area of the stairs had him stopping in his tracks and the grin fading in seconds.
Harry could hear the steps pick back up after a moment, and he pulled back from the door whimpering as he suddenly realized one important thing: that wasn’t his aunt it was his uncle. He pulled back onto the cot in the cupboard pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms about his legs staring at the door with wide eyes as the footsteps stopped in front of his room. He hunched his shoulders, his hair falling into his face, as he tried to hide from the fact that he was about to be hurt. His aunt had always promised to tell his uncle when he did ‘freaky’ things. He hadn’t been doing them long, but she had seemed very upset when she found him and Dudley in the backyard giggling over a snake. He hadn’t known it was bad! The snake had just been there and it had been so nice! “Sorry Uncle Vernon. Promise not ta do it again.” He promised as the door was swiftly pulled open “Be good boy. Promise.”
Vernon’s eyes widened at the sight of his nephew cowering from him. Without thought, he reached towards the boy, flinching when the boy cringed back from him. “Harry?” he questioned carefully. “What are you doing in here? Where are Petunia and Dudley? Did something happen to them?” The last question added in a suddenly panicked voice.
“Sorry. Be good boy, be good, promise. Dudley jus wanna see flower, jus wanna show Dudley flower.” Harry informed his uncle, unable to help the tears that were making tracks down his face.
“Harry what are you sorry for? Did something happen? Why don’t you come over here and tell me. I won’t be upset I promise.” Vernon assured the crying boy as he took a small step back before kneeling and offering his open arms to Harry. He could see the boy hesitate and offered him a reassuring smile, glad when Harry hesitantly made his way off the cot and into his open arms. He could feel the small body was tense in his arm and thin, too thin. How had he never realized how thin his nephew was? “Harry my boy, what is wrong with you. Aren’t you eating?” He questioned, only to be answered by the rather loud rumble of the young boy’s stomach, which was quickly followed by Harry breaking down into sobs.
Vernon would never claim to be the best at comforting someone and it showed in the awkward look on his face and in his actions as held Harry close and moved into the living room holding the thin boy in his lap as he cried. He didn’t know how long he sat there, but by the time he heard the front door open, Harry had cried himself out and fallen asleep in his lap. The five year old’s hands were still clutching his shirt tightly in his sleep as if he thought Vernon might disappear or something which just made the man frown even more. He couldn’t entirely keep away the smile as a loud call of ‘Daddy’ was soon followed by Dudley tearing into the room and only /just/ stopping himself from jumping into Vernon’s lap.
Vernon removed one arm from Harry offering it to Dudley, mentally frowning at the slightly confused yet happy look on his son’s face at the sight of his cousin. It didn’t take long for his son to move into the one armed hug or for his wife to follow him into the living room, her face pale and her eyes wide. “Harry was tired and not feeling good. Dudley do you want to help Daddy look after him?” Vernon questioned when Dudley pulled back finally, still looking Harry over. He only just managed to hide the look of relief on his face when his son grinned widely and nodded eagerly. “Lets take Harry to bed then and you can sit with him and let me know when he wakes up, ok? When he does why don’t we all go out for some dinner before we go trick or treating. How’s that sound?” he asked, unable to help a chuckle at the eager look on Dudley’s face as he moved back enough to let his dad up.
After discovering the lack of a proper bed in what he had always been told was Harry’s room, he settled Harry in Dudley’s bed at his son’s insistence before making his way back downstairs. The rather cold look in his eyes as he met his wife’s gaze froze her in her place as she opened her mouth no doubt to try and explain. “I can’t believe you. I know you didn’t get on with your sister, but to do that to a child?” he offered, his voice as cold as his gaze.
Petunia frowned, not about to apologize for the way she treated the boy. “She and that Potter were freaks and he will be, too. I’ll not have it in my house. We took him in and he is alive, that is more then he deserved the freak. My sister went and got herself blown up and /we/ get the boy?” she spat, venom evident in her tone.
Vernon narrowed his gaze. He had heard her say before she didn’t like her sister or James, but this seemed to go beyond that and what was this about ‘blown up’? Hadn’t the letter said something about a car crash? Well whatever it was, he didn’t care. Harry was their family and like he had told her four years ago: Family was Family. “I don’t care how you felt about your sister. He is a boy Petunia, just a /boy/. You can dislike his mother and father all you want, but he is still family.” He growled “How long has this been happening? How long have you kept him under there?” he added, after a short pause. His mind suddenly started going though the last four years, the colour draining from his face the longer he thought about it. He suddenly remembered her insistence that he not say goodnight to the boys. How she always got up first. How she insisted that he didn’t use the room under the stairs anymore. How he always seemed to miss Harry’s parties. Detail after detail started to poke and prod at him, making him feel beyond sick. He knew he had been working too much, but surely… “Since we took the freak in. I won’t have him around my Dudley, him and his freakyness.” Petunia hissed.
Vernon sunk into one of the chairs in the living room. How could he have not seen it? How could he have missed the signs so horridly? Was he really at work that much that it was so easy for him to miss such things? He was vaguely aware that Petunia was still spitting venom about her sister, but eventually she left. He had no clue where she had gone, which he was grateful for. Once she was gone and he was able to calm down, he made his way back to Dudley’s room, glad to see Harry awake once more and talking with Dudley. It seemed whatever attitude that Petunia had towards her sister’s son hadn’t managed to corrupt their son, at least yet. He was going to have to do something about it. He didn’t know how his wife could do this to a child, her own blood, but he couldn’t let it continue. He told the boys to get into their costumes. They were going to go out for dinner, he just had a couple of calls to make first.
Upon returning downstairs, his first call was to the doctor. He was unable to help the new flair of anger when the pediatrician they took Dudley to, said he had never even heard of Harry. He kept himself calm enough to make an appointment for the boy and told him that he would do his best to explain tomorrow before phoning his boss. He was glad to find the older male still at work. And while he didn’t explain, the tone of his voice must have been enough, because the other agreed to give him a week off. He had personal time built up. After all, he had been there over five years now. With those settled for the moment, he returned to the boys ushering them to the car. He hadn’t had any plans for where they were going, he just knew he needed to get them away from there before he did something he would regret and hurt his wife.
The next week was a blur of visits to various people. Especially after their trip to the doctor. Sure he had realized that Harry felt thin, but he hadn’t realized just how bad off the boy was until the doctor started listing off things. He managed to convince the man to hold off filing papers with CPS for a couple days, promising that he would have more papers to file with it shortly and requested a copy for himself. While he didn’t want to let the boys out of his sight, one of his co-worker's had a wife and they had a child a little younger than Harry and Dudley. She agreed to watch them for a couple days after he explained what was going on.
His next trip was to a lawyer. While he didn’t like it, he knew what he had to do. He had been remiss in not noticing the signs this long. But after having them shoved so blatantly into his face, he couldn’t miss how abused both boys were. Poor Harry was starved, and appeared to have been hit or threatened several times, while Dudley was beyond spoiled. He had been trying so hard to set a good example for the pair, how had he missed the fact that his own son was going down the path he had? He couldn’t and wouldn’t, let it continue. So while it hurt to realize that his ‘perfect’ and ‘normal’ life had never been either, he was going to do his best to fix things. Even if it meant leaving his wife.
With papers from the doctor in hand, he went to a lawyer and presented his evidence. While the lawyer was sorely disappointed in him, Vernon was oddly glad when he agreed to help. He did warn that it would be a hard, uphill battle and that there would be a fifty-fifty chance of him getting the boys. He had been sorry to hear it, but he couldn’t entirely say he hadn’t seen it coming.
A visit from a child psychologist was scheduled for later in the week for both boys, which ended up making things slightly more in Vernon’s favor. Both had said it was just Petunia and what had happened. It was easy to tell it was all the wife. And while Vernon felt horrid for not noticing, his quick reaction when he did, got him a few more ‘points’ with all involved. By the time he made his way back to the doctor, explaining all that had happened, the doctor was more then ready to turn in his findings to CPS. While he still frowned at Vernon over letting it happen, it wasn’t quite as severe as it had been when he was checking Harry and Dudley over days before.
He could easily say he wasn’t ready to go back to work after his week was over. Especially considering his son and Harry had been taken pending judgment in the case which was being expedited as quickly as possible, given the state of Harry and the severity of the crimes. Needless to say, when the first of the month rolled around and Vernon was contacted and told to come into the local CPS office, he was beyond nervous. The cold look on his face when he was lead into a room where Petunia was already waiting didn’t really help things, but it didn’t hurt them either.
In the end, it was determined that custody would be taken from Petunia and given solely to Vernon, if only because he had filed for divorce with the lawyer back in September. When he realized just how deep Petunia’s hatred of her sister ran, he decided that it would be best for both his son and his nephew. It had been a heavy burden to him, but he just hadn’t been able to look at her the same way after her words that night when he found Harry in the room under the stairs.
That night he took the boys home and started packing their things. He liked his normal little house, but it held bad memories now and not just for him so he felt that they needed a fresh start. He had already been looking around before, but now that things were settled he wasn’t going to let them languish longer than they had to. It was the work of a couple days to get their things packed up. At least the things that couldn’t easily be replaced, beyond a few clothes to live on while Vernon worked out the last of his notice. He liked his job and had been there for years, but a fresh start was a fresh start. He had some money saved up. Enough to make a couple payments on the new house and keep them in the necessary things for a couple months while they settled in and he found a new job.
Vernon still wasn’t sure how he was going to make this work, but as he pulled into the drive of what was to be their new house he promised himself that he would find a way. He didn’t know what made Petunia hate Lily so, but Harry was his nephew and family was family. He wouldn’t let his family suffer for any sort of inane hatred on his former wife’s part.
Author’s Note 2: Sorry this chapter was a bit rushed, but it was mainly just to get this started.
Disclaimer: I don’t own HP so I’m making jack from this.
Author’s Note: First this fic is dedicated to Nadine from Kamerreon’s Y!Group as she is the one gave me the Plunny for this. Second this will contain: Evil!Petunia, Nice!Vernon, Nice!Dudley/Magic!Dudley, Mentor!Severus, Minulative!Dumbledore, and probably a few other OOCs and probably Slash before everything is over.
For those who knew the family at number 4 Privet Drive in Little Whinging Surrey located in England, they would call them normal, perfectly normal and the perfect family and before the Halloween of 1981 they would have been right. It was that day that they gained a new and unexpected family member in the form of Petunia’s sister’s son, one Harry Potter. Sure it would mean more bills, more money, and another child to care for, but for one Vernon Dursley, that didn’t matter after he read the letter left with the boy he found on their stoop the next morning when he went to get the paper. The boy was his nephew and he had no other living family and while he could tell that Petunia didn’t seem quite as willing to take the boy in, she didn’t argue when he pointedly informed her: Family was Family and the boy was their family.
The young Vernon had never known why his wife wasn’t a fan of her sister and spoke her name as if it were the worst filth, but he had never thought much of it until four years after they took in his nephew. It had been a short day at the office for the man, but his boss had let him go early to spend the holiday with Dudley, Harry, and Petunia, for which he had been grateful as he had been late to Harry’s birthday a couple of month’s before and sadly missed the entire party, though his wife told him Harry and Dudley had had a good time which had been enough.
He had spent the entire trip home planning out the rest of the family’s evening. They would have a nice dinner, get the boys dressed in their costumes, and go out and get them both loads of candy. Vernon wasn’t sorry to admit that it had probably been his second favorite holiday as a child and it had showed too. But in an effort to set a good example for the boys he had been trying to be a better man and that included trying to make more time for them and to eat better.
He didn’t think much of not being greeted at the door by his wife and the boys thinking that maybe she had just taken them to the park or a last minute trip to the store for dinner things. But a shaky call of “Aunt Petunia?” from the area of the stairs had him stopping in his tracks and the grin fading in seconds.
Harry could hear the steps pick back up after a moment, and he pulled back from the door whimpering as he suddenly realized one important thing: that wasn’t his aunt it was his uncle. He pulled back onto the cot in the cupboard pulling his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms about his legs staring at the door with wide eyes as the footsteps stopped in front of his room. He hunched his shoulders, his hair falling into his face, as he tried to hide from the fact that he was about to be hurt. His aunt had always promised to tell his uncle when he did ‘freaky’ things. He hadn’t been doing them long, but she had seemed very upset when she found him and Dudley in the backyard giggling over a snake. He hadn’t known it was bad! The snake had just been there and it had been so nice! “Sorry Uncle Vernon. Promise not ta do it again.” He promised as the door was swiftly pulled open “Be good boy. Promise.”
Vernon’s eyes widened at the sight of his nephew cowering from him. Without thought, he reached towards the boy, flinching when the boy cringed back from him. “Harry?” he questioned carefully. “What are you doing in here? Where are Petunia and Dudley? Did something happen to them?” The last question added in a suddenly panicked voice.
“Sorry. Be good boy, be good, promise. Dudley jus wanna see flower, jus wanna show Dudley flower.” Harry informed his uncle, unable to help the tears that were making tracks down his face.
“Harry what are you sorry for? Did something happen? Why don’t you come over here and tell me. I won’t be upset I promise.” Vernon assured the crying boy as he took a small step back before kneeling and offering his open arms to Harry. He could see the boy hesitate and offered him a reassuring smile, glad when Harry hesitantly made his way off the cot and into his open arms. He could feel the small body was tense in his arm and thin, too thin. How had he never realized how thin his nephew was? “Harry my boy, what is wrong with you. Aren’t you eating?” He questioned, only to be answered by the rather loud rumble of the young boy’s stomach, which was quickly followed by Harry breaking down into sobs.
Vernon would never claim to be the best at comforting someone and it showed in the awkward look on his face and in his actions as held Harry close and moved into the living room holding the thin boy in his lap as he cried. He didn’t know how long he sat there, but by the time he heard the front door open, Harry had cried himself out and fallen asleep in his lap. The five year old’s hands were still clutching his shirt tightly in his sleep as if he thought Vernon might disappear or something which just made the man frown even more. He couldn’t entirely keep away the smile as a loud call of ‘Daddy’ was soon followed by Dudley tearing into the room and only /just/ stopping himself from jumping into Vernon’s lap.
Vernon removed one arm from Harry offering it to Dudley, mentally frowning at the slightly confused yet happy look on his son’s face at the sight of his cousin. It didn’t take long for his son to move into the one armed hug or for his wife to follow him into the living room, her face pale and her eyes wide. “Harry was tired and not feeling good. Dudley do you want to help Daddy look after him?” Vernon questioned when Dudley pulled back finally, still looking Harry over. He only just managed to hide the look of relief on his face when his son grinned widely and nodded eagerly. “Lets take Harry to bed then and you can sit with him and let me know when he wakes up, ok? When he does why don’t we all go out for some dinner before we go trick or treating. How’s that sound?” he asked, unable to help a chuckle at the eager look on Dudley’s face as he moved back enough to let his dad up.
After discovering the lack of a proper bed in what he had always been told was Harry’s room, he settled Harry in Dudley’s bed at his son’s insistence before making his way back downstairs. The rather cold look in his eyes as he met his wife’s gaze froze her in her place as she opened her mouth no doubt to try and explain. “I can’t believe you. I know you didn’t get on with your sister, but to do that to a child?” he offered, his voice as cold as his gaze.
Petunia frowned, not about to apologize for the way she treated the boy. “She and that Potter were freaks and he will be, too. I’ll not have it in my house. We took him in and he is alive, that is more then he deserved the freak. My sister went and got herself blown up and /we/ get the boy?” she spat, venom evident in her tone.
Vernon narrowed his gaze. He had heard her say before she didn’t like her sister or James, but this seemed to go beyond that and what was this about ‘blown up’? Hadn’t the letter said something about a car crash? Well whatever it was, he didn’t care. Harry was their family and like he had told her four years ago: Family was Family. “I don’t care how you felt about your sister. He is a boy Petunia, just a /boy/. You can dislike his mother and father all you want, but he is still family.” He growled “How long has this been happening? How long have you kept him under there?” he added, after a short pause. His mind suddenly started going though the last four years, the colour draining from his face the longer he thought about it. He suddenly remembered her insistence that he not say goodnight to the boys. How she always got up first. How she insisted that he didn’t use the room under the stairs anymore. How he always seemed to miss Harry’s parties. Detail after detail started to poke and prod at him, making him feel beyond sick. He knew he had been working too much, but surely… “Since we took the freak in. I won’t have him around my Dudley, him and his freakyness.” Petunia hissed.
Vernon sunk into one of the chairs in the living room. How could he have not seen it? How could he have missed the signs so horridly? Was he really at work that much that it was so easy for him to miss such things? He was vaguely aware that Petunia was still spitting venom about her sister, but eventually she left. He had no clue where she had gone, which he was grateful for. Once she was gone and he was able to calm down, he made his way back to Dudley’s room, glad to see Harry awake once more and talking with Dudley. It seemed whatever attitude that Petunia had towards her sister’s son hadn’t managed to corrupt their son, at least yet. He was going to have to do something about it. He didn’t know how his wife could do this to a child, her own blood, but he couldn’t let it continue. He told the boys to get into their costumes. They were going to go out for dinner, he just had a couple of calls to make first.
Upon returning downstairs, his first call was to the doctor. He was unable to help the new flair of anger when the pediatrician they took Dudley to, said he had never even heard of Harry. He kept himself calm enough to make an appointment for the boy and told him that he would do his best to explain tomorrow before phoning his boss. He was glad to find the older male still at work. And while he didn’t explain, the tone of his voice must have been enough, because the other agreed to give him a week off. He had personal time built up. After all, he had been there over five years now. With those settled for the moment, he returned to the boys ushering them to the car. He hadn’t had any plans for where they were going, he just knew he needed to get them away from there before he did something he would regret and hurt his wife.
The next week was a blur of visits to various people. Especially after their trip to the doctor. Sure he had realized that Harry felt thin, but he hadn’t realized just how bad off the boy was until the doctor started listing off things. He managed to convince the man to hold off filing papers with CPS for a couple days, promising that he would have more papers to file with it shortly and requested a copy for himself. While he didn’t want to let the boys out of his sight, one of his co-worker's had a wife and they had a child a little younger than Harry and Dudley. She agreed to watch them for a couple days after he explained what was going on.
His next trip was to a lawyer. While he didn’t like it, he knew what he had to do. He had been remiss in not noticing the signs this long. But after having them shoved so blatantly into his face, he couldn’t miss how abused both boys were. Poor Harry was starved, and appeared to have been hit or threatened several times, while Dudley was beyond spoiled. He had been trying so hard to set a good example for the pair, how had he missed the fact that his own son was going down the path he had? He couldn’t and wouldn’t, let it continue. So while it hurt to realize that his ‘perfect’ and ‘normal’ life had never been either, he was going to do his best to fix things. Even if it meant leaving his wife.
With papers from the doctor in hand, he went to a lawyer and presented his evidence. While the lawyer was sorely disappointed in him, Vernon was oddly glad when he agreed to help. He did warn that it would be a hard, uphill battle and that there would be a fifty-fifty chance of him getting the boys. He had been sorry to hear it, but he couldn’t entirely say he hadn’t seen it coming.
A visit from a child psychologist was scheduled for later in the week for both boys, which ended up making things slightly more in Vernon’s favor. Both had said it was just Petunia and what had happened. It was easy to tell it was all the wife. And while Vernon felt horrid for not noticing, his quick reaction when he did, got him a few more ‘points’ with all involved. By the time he made his way back to the doctor, explaining all that had happened, the doctor was more then ready to turn in his findings to CPS. While he still frowned at Vernon over letting it happen, it wasn’t quite as severe as it had been when he was checking Harry and Dudley over days before.
He could easily say he wasn’t ready to go back to work after his week was over. Especially considering his son and Harry had been taken pending judgment in the case which was being expedited as quickly as possible, given the state of Harry and the severity of the crimes. Needless to say, when the first of the month rolled around and Vernon was contacted and told to come into the local CPS office, he was beyond nervous. The cold look on his face when he was lead into a room where Petunia was already waiting didn’t really help things, but it didn’t hurt them either.
In the end, it was determined that custody would be taken from Petunia and given solely to Vernon, if only because he had filed for divorce with the lawyer back in September. When he realized just how deep Petunia’s hatred of her sister ran, he decided that it would be best for both his son and his nephew. It had been a heavy burden to him, but he just hadn’t been able to look at her the same way after her words that night when he found Harry in the room under the stairs.
That night he took the boys home and started packing their things. He liked his normal little house, but it held bad memories now and not just for him so he felt that they needed a fresh start. He had already been looking around before, but now that things were settled he wasn’t going to let them languish longer than they had to. It was the work of a couple days to get their things packed up. At least the things that couldn’t easily be replaced, beyond a few clothes to live on while Vernon worked out the last of his notice. He liked his job and had been there for years, but a fresh start was a fresh start. He had some money saved up. Enough to make a couple payments on the new house and keep them in the necessary things for a couple months while they settled in and he found a new job.
Vernon still wasn’t sure how he was going to make this work, but as he pulled into the drive of what was to be their new house he promised himself that he would find a way. He didn’t know what made Petunia hate Lily so, but Harry was his nephew and family was family. He wouldn’t let his family suffer for any sort of inane hatred on his former wife’s part.
Author’s Note 2: Sorry this chapter was a bit rushed, but it was mainly just to get this started.