A New Life - ch 2
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: wow just wow… I really don’t know what else to say guys, but thanks. So many people left reviews and/or put this on alert I just wow. I thank you all for your support and to those who love my spelling/grammer take a look back over the previous chapter. I acquired a beta after posting that and she has gone over that one and this one both and I say thanks to her as well. I do have one mini poll for everyone though if you wouldn’t mind. A small sub plunny with this was the possibility of Voldie being dead, no coming back, ever. Obviously if he was dead Harry still got his ability to talk to snakes -vague reference in the last chapter- but that and his scar would be all that he got. So what do you all think? Dead or not?
Betaed by: Christi again from Kamerreon's Y!Group Thanks much to her :D
While Vernon had anticipated some settling in, those first months were even beyond what he had considered. Though that unexpected element could potentially be because he hadn’t been as close to Harry or Dudley before this as he would have liked. He had of course been told about what he could potentially expect from one or both boys, but if he was honest with himself he would have to admit that he hadn’t properly listened to everything.
The first indication he had that something was wrong, was the day he got a rather rude awakening. He had gotten the boys into school a week after the start of the new term after winter holidays(,) trying to give them something stable and to give him time to get the house settled while still looking into a new job. It was about two weeks after that first day in their new school that he had been called down to the school and told that the boys had been fighting.
*Harry and Dudley sat across from each other, glaring as harshly at each other as a five year old could manage, which wasn’t too convincing. They might not have been to close before this all started that day Vernon had come home to find Harry in the room under the stairs, but they had been as close as they could be, considering Petunia’s attitude. She didn’t like them spending time together, especially when they were being friendly and both boys knew that too. They were still a bit young, especially with the way her tune changed so much when Vernon came home, for them to be at each other’s throats or anything of that sort though. Since the divorce had started, and they had been separated from Vernon and Petunia, things had grown strained between them, as Dudley blamed it all on Harry in the way a child, especially one too young to properly understand, was want to do. It had all finally come out that day at lunch, when Dudley had informed Harry of as much and Harry had retorted in kind only blaming it on Petunia for his part.
Needless to say, when Vernon heard the whole story from the principle he hadn’t been at all happy, with the boys or himself. Sure he wanted things to be perfect and normal again, but he was now a single father raising two boys without a mother and that right there made things less normal. Despite that though, he had somehow convinced himself that both boys were fine and wouldn’t need any help from any silly mind doctors. He was wrong. At least he might be. He would rather keep this from others if he could, but as he walked back out of the office and took in the boys, he wasn’t sure he would be able to deal with this on his own. He ushered both boys out of the building and back home where he promptly sent them to their rooms with a sharp word to not come out until he came to get them for dinner.
He spent the next couple of hours trying to get his own thoughts together on the matter and making a call to the psychiatrist that had originally interviewed the boys. He didn’t want to take either of them to see that psychiatrist, or a different one for that matter, but he would talk to that one if it meant helping his family. After a bit of talking and getting advice he, managed to calm down enough that he felt it would be ok to let the boys out and so he had. He had retrieved them from their respective rooms and led them to the small table in the kitchen where they were told to sit while he worked on preparing dinner. He had never been the best cook, but he had been working on it for a couple of months now and could manage some basics without burning them. As he settled into the cooking, he turned half his attention to the loudly whispering pair of boys at the table. “Boys.” He waited until they both were quite and looking at him before continuing. “We need to have a talk.”
“I didn’t do anything..” “…his fault he was the…” “..said it was my fault…” “..want mum back…” “…said she wasn’t a good mum.”
Vernon looked away from his cooking as the boys spoke over each other trying to be heard and forced himself to stay calm. He had to stay calm so he could get, and keep them calm and they could talk this through. He didn’t want to admit it and probably wouldn’t admit it aloud even under threat of death, but he really did have a great love of ‘normal’ and this wasn’t it, but he was going to do what he could to make it normal. He needed normal, and right now the boys did, too. At least according to the psychiatrist, and she had even said it had been a good move for him to get them back in school so quickly. “Calm down,” Vernon said with a frown. “I can’t hear you if you are both talking at the same time. Now Harry, apparently you threw the first punch, so why don’t you start. Why did you hit Dudley?”
Harry shifted his attention to his lap when both his uncle and cousin’s attention was settled on him, unable to help the uncomfortable feeling the attention gave him. He still wasn’t used to not being blamed for every little thing that happened every day, and while it had never been his uncle that did so, it was Vernon whom he spent more time with now, so he couldn’t help fearing it some. He glanced up at his uncle through his bangs to find that the older male was once more paying attention to the food, and not him or Dudley, which made it easier.
The still too thin brunette clenched his hands before forcing himself to speak again “I didn’t do anything. Dudley said it was my fault we had ta leave Aunt Petunia. I told him you said it was cause she wasn’t a good mum. Dudley said I was a liar, an she was a good mum. Dudley said it was my mum wasn’t a good mum because she left me an I hit him. Mum didn’t left, me she didn’t.” By the time he was through, Harry was crying. He just knew his mum couldn’t have been a bad mum, she /couldn’t/. Aunt Petunia just didn’t know her. That had to be it.
Vernon glanced at Harry from the corner of his eye. He wanted to stop and address this, but he was trying to ‘do this right,’ so he had to let Dudley have his say first. Rather than addressing Harry directly, he nodded, indicating that he had heard and understood the explanation. “The others said you were provoking him Dudley, so how about you explain to me why,” he offered, glad to hear how calm he still sounded.
Dudley offered Harry the glare that they had been practicing when Vernon had picked them up earlier in the day before crossing his arms over his chest with a huff. “Harry lied. Said that mum wasn’t good mum. That was why we left. He said /you/ said that to him, and I tells him he a liar. That him mum wasn't good mum. She not either. Mum said so. Then Harry got mad an hit me, so I hits him back. It’s /his/ fault we has to leave mum. We could be with mum, if Harry wasn’t here,” he informed his da, sounding just as sure of his point of view as Harry had.
Vernon sighed and turned the stove down. He wasn’t making much, just a simple stew, so it would hold. But he didn’t want to risk it burning while he tried to settle this. He made his way to the table, pulling out one of the two empty chairs. Settling in, he gave both five year olds a stern look. “Now boys, I want you both to listen to me and listen to me good,” he informed them, making sure he had the attention of both, focused solely on him. “Petunia was not a very good mother,” holding up his hand when Dudley started to speak. “She loved, or rather, loves you Dudley, but she was not a good mother. We took Harry in after his mother and father, your aunt and uncle Dudley, died in a car crash. Petunia didn’t really get along with her sister, Lily. I don’t know why. She never told me. I just know she didn’t get along with her. We took Harry in, though, when some people who knew about us because of Lily, brought Harry to us after they were killed by a man called Voldemort. Harry had been in the car when they were hit by him. That is where he got the scar on his forehead from, in fact,” he explained, pausing there to let the boys absorb that for a moment, before continuing.
“Lily and James, Harry’s parents, loved him as much as Petunia and myself love you Dudley. They just weren’t around to look after him anymore, so Lily’s friends thought we could. We had never met Harry before that night, but his parents were gone and he was as much family as you are to me so, I insisted we take him in. It is my fault that I didn’t notice sooner that Petunia wasn’t being a good mother. When we took Harry in, she ended up agreeing that we would look after him. That means she was supposed to be Harry’s mother as much as she was yours Dudley. In the end, she failed you both, not just Harry.” He shifted his gaze from one boy to the other, forcing them to meet his gaze. Trying to decide if he was managing to get though to either of them.
He wasn’t entirely sure they understood everything he was telling them, but they were listening and paying attention, which was a very good start as far as Vernon was concerned. “Your mother failed you, Dudley, in the exact opposite way she failed Harry. I love you, but you should not have gotten every little thing you wanted, especially while Harry got nothing. Not only was it not right, but it is not a good way to grow up. You can’t grow up thinking everything is just going to be given to you, or thinking that you don’t deserve anything. You both deserve to be little boys,” he paused once more, looking them both over, still trying to decide how much they understood, but he had a feeling he would have to have this talk again one day when they were older for them to properly understand.
For the next part, Vernon shifted gears a bit, hoping to try and soften this next part as much as he could. “Dudley, when your mum told me she was pregnant with you, I was so overjoyed. I was going to be a father. As the months passed though I couldn’t help stepping back to look at my life. I had not exactly been the best man and I decided that I wanted to be better so that I could be a good example for you. I know you don’t remember, but I used to be much bigger than I am now,” he informed both boys. “When I found out about you though, Dudley, I decided I wanted to change. I knew the looks I got, and the cruel words. I didn’t want you to have to deal with them. I spent plenty of time after that losing some of the weight I had put on and tried to start eating better. I started working out. It was a lot of hard work. It still is. But I wanted to be a good example for you. Both of you. Even once Harry joined us. Dudley, the way your mum has done you and Harry isn’t good for either of you. Not giving Harry enough food was very, very wrong. It was just as wrong to let you have so many sweets all the time. We are going to work on both of you, though. Harry is going to be eating his meals like he is supposed to and Dudley you are going to cut back on the sweets,” he told them. A bit sad when he saw the mixed look of pain and annoyance that crossed Dudley’s face, resisting the urge to cringe when he told himself that he had forgotten how mean kids could be since he stopped being one.
The next day, Vernon took Harry and Dudley to school himself, making sure to get there early so he had time to talk with their teacher for a short moment and explain, for the most part, what was going on. Once she knew what was happening, she had been happy to agree to fill out a short journal every day, for a little while for him on both boys so he could keep up with what they were doing. So for the next couple of weeks, he made time to take them to school and pick them up, to better keep an eye on them. He still wasn’t sure how much they had understood of his words, but things did seem to be getting better between them. Things weren’t perfect, but there were no more physical fights and he had caught them sitting together a couple of times watching the telly. In short, things were looking better, so maybe even if they were a bit young to understand everything, they understood enough.
Author’s Note 2: Ok for those who may wonder about the ‘Voldemort Story’ it will be better explained later, but for now just remember that Venon knows /nothing/ about Magic. The note Dumbles left said Voldemort killed Lily and James, but where it was going to Petunia he didn’t explain more so for the purpose of this fic the ‘Car Crash Story’ came from Petunia. While I know Vernon thinks about the note last chapter and thinks it mentioned the car crash it did just mention Voldie… also yes this means the boys will grow up calling him ‘Voldemort’ who wants to see people twitch ;)
Disclaimer: I don’t own HP so I’m making jack from this.
Author’s Note: wow just wow… I really don’t know what else to say guys, but thanks. So many people left reviews and/or put this on alert I just wow. I thank you all for your support and to those who love my spelling/grammer take a look back over the previous chapter. I acquired a beta after posting that and she has gone over that one and this one both and I say thanks to her as well. I do have one mini poll for everyone though if you wouldn’t mind. A small sub plunny with this was the possibility of Voldie being dead, no coming back, ever. Obviously if he was dead Harry still got his ability to talk to snakes -vague reference in the last chapter- but that and his scar would be all that he got. So what do you all think? Dead or not?
Betaed by: Christi again from Kamerreon's Y!Group Thanks much to her :D
While Vernon had anticipated some settling in, those first months were even beyond what he had considered. Though that unexpected element could potentially be because he hadn’t been as close to Harry or Dudley before this as he would have liked. He had of course been told about what he could potentially expect from one or both boys, but if he was honest with himself he would have to admit that he hadn’t properly listened to everything.
The first indication he had that something was wrong, was the day he got a rather rude awakening. He had gotten the boys into school a week after the start of the new term after winter holidays(,) trying to give them something stable and to give him time to get the house settled while still looking into a new job. It was about two weeks after that first day in their new school that he had been called down to the school and told that the boys had been fighting.
*Harry and Dudley sat across from each other, glaring as harshly at each other as a five year old could manage, which wasn’t too convincing. They might not have been to close before this all started that day Vernon had come home to find Harry in the room under the stairs, but they had been as close as they could be, considering Petunia’s attitude. She didn’t like them spending time together, especially when they were being friendly and both boys knew that too. They were still a bit young, especially with the way her tune changed so much when Vernon came home, for them to be at each other’s throats or anything of that sort though. Since the divorce had started, and they had been separated from Vernon and Petunia, things had grown strained between them, as Dudley blamed it all on Harry in the way a child, especially one too young to properly understand, was want to do. It had all finally come out that day at lunch, when Dudley had informed Harry of as much and Harry had retorted in kind only blaming it on Petunia for his part.
Needless to say, when Vernon heard the whole story from the principle he hadn’t been at all happy, with the boys or himself. Sure he wanted things to be perfect and normal again, but he was now a single father raising two boys without a mother and that right there made things less normal. Despite that though, he had somehow convinced himself that both boys were fine and wouldn’t need any help from any silly mind doctors. He was wrong. At least he might be. He would rather keep this from others if he could, but as he walked back out of the office and took in the boys, he wasn’t sure he would be able to deal with this on his own. He ushered both boys out of the building and back home where he promptly sent them to their rooms with a sharp word to not come out until he came to get them for dinner.
He spent the next couple of hours trying to get his own thoughts together on the matter and making a call to the psychiatrist that had originally interviewed the boys. He didn’t want to take either of them to see that psychiatrist, or a different one for that matter, but he would talk to that one if it meant helping his family. After a bit of talking and getting advice he, managed to calm down enough that he felt it would be ok to let the boys out and so he had. He had retrieved them from their respective rooms and led them to the small table in the kitchen where they were told to sit while he worked on preparing dinner. He had never been the best cook, but he had been working on it for a couple of months now and could manage some basics without burning them. As he settled into the cooking, he turned half his attention to the loudly whispering pair of boys at the table. “Boys.” He waited until they both were quite and looking at him before continuing. “We need to have a talk.”
“I didn’t do anything..” “…his fault he was the…” “..said it was my fault…” “..want mum back…” “…said she wasn’t a good mum.”
Vernon looked away from his cooking as the boys spoke over each other trying to be heard and forced himself to stay calm. He had to stay calm so he could get, and keep them calm and they could talk this through. He didn’t want to admit it and probably wouldn’t admit it aloud even under threat of death, but he really did have a great love of ‘normal’ and this wasn’t it, but he was going to do what he could to make it normal. He needed normal, and right now the boys did, too. At least according to the psychiatrist, and she had even said it had been a good move for him to get them back in school so quickly. “Calm down,” Vernon said with a frown. “I can’t hear you if you are both talking at the same time. Now Harry, apparently you threw the first punch, so why don’t you start. Why did you hit Dudley?”
Harry shifted his attention to his lap when both his uncle and cousin’s attention was settled on him, unable to help the uncomfortable feeling the attention gave him. He still wasn’t used to not being blamed for every little thing that happened every day, and while it had never been his uncle that did so, it was Vernon whom he spent more time with now, so he couldn’t help fearing it some. He glanced up at his uncle through his bangs to find that the older male was once more paying attention to the food, and not him or Dudley, which made it easier.
The still too thin brunette clenched his hands before forcing himself to speak again “I didn’t do anything. Dudley said it was my fault we had ta leave Aunt Petunia. I told him you said it was cause she wasn’t a good mum. Dudley said I was a liar, an she was a good mum. Dudley said it was my mum wasn’t a good mum because she left me an I hit him. Mum didn’t left, me she didn’t.” By the time he was through, Harry was crying. He just knew his mum couldn’t have been a bad mum, she /couldn’t/. Aunt Petunia just didn’t know her. That had to be it.
Vernon glanced at Harry from the corner of his eye. He wanted to stop and address this, but he was trying to ‘do this right,’ so he had to let Dudley have his say first. Rather than addressing Harry directly, he nodded, indicating that he had heard and understood the explanation. “The others said you were provoking him Dudley, so how about you explain to me why,” he offered, glad to hear how calm he still sounded.
Dudley offered Harry the glare that they had been practicing when Vernon had picked them up earlier in the day before crossing his arms over his chest with a huff. “Harry lied. Said that mum wasn’t good mum. That was why we left. He said /you/ said that to him, and I tells him he a liar. That him mum wasn't good mum. She not either. Mum said so. Then Harry got mad an hit me, so I hits him back. It’s /his/ fault we has to leave mum. We could be with mum, if Harry wasn’t here,” he informed his da, sounding just as sure of his point of view as Harry had.
Vernon sighed and turned the stove down. He wasn’t making much, just a simple stew, so it would hold. But he didn’t want to risk it burning while he tried to settle this. He made his way to the table, pulling out one of the two empty chairs. Settling in, he gave both five year olds a stern look. “Now boys, I want you both to listen to me and listen to me good,” he informed them, making sure he had the attention of both, focused solely on him. “Petunia was not a very good mother,” holding up his hand when Dudley started to speak. “She loved, or rather, loves you Dudley, but she was not a good mother. We took Harry in after his mother and father, your aunt and uncle Dudley, died in a car crash. Petunia didn’t really get along with her sister, Lily. I don’t know why. She never told me. I just know she didn’t get along with her. We took Harry in, though, when some people who knew about us because of Lily, brought Harry to us after they were killed by a man called Voldemort. Harry had been in the car when they were hit by him. That is where he got the scar on his forehead from, in fact,” he explained, pausing there to let the boys absorb that for a moment, before continuing.
“Lily and James, Harry’s parents, loved him as much as Petunia and myself love you Dudley. They just weren’t around to look after him anymore, so Lily’s friends thought we could. We had never met Harry before that night, but his parents were gone and he was as much family as you are to me so, I insisted we take him in. It is my fault that I didn’t notice sooner that Petunia wasn’t being a good mother. When we took Harry in, she ended up agreeing that we would look after him. That means she was supposed to be Harry’s mother as much as she was yours Dudley. In the end, she failed you both, not just Harry.” He shifted his gaze from one boy to the other, forcing them to meet his gaze. Trying to decide if he was managing to get though to either of them.
He wasn’t entirely sure they understood everything he was telling them, but they were listening and paying attention, which was a very good start as far as Vernon was concerned. “Your mother failed you, Dudley, in the exact opposite way she failed Harry. I love you, but you should not have gotten every little thing you wanted, especially while Harry got nothing. Not only was it not right, but it is not a good way to grow up. You can’t grow up thinking everything is just going to be given to you, or thinking that you don’t deserve anything. You both deserve to be little boys,” he paused once more, looking them both over, still trying to decide how much they understood, but he had a feeling he would have to have this talk again one day when they were older for them to properly understand.
For the next part, Vernon shifted gears a bit, hoping to try and soften this next part as much as he could. “Dudley, when your mum told me she was pregnant with you, I was so overjoyed. I was going to be a father. As the months passed though I couldn’t help stepping back to look at my life. I had not exactly been the best man and I decided that I wanted to be better so that I could be a good example for you. I know you don’t remember, but I used to be much bigger than I am now,” he informed both boys. “When I found out about you though, Dudley, I decided I wanted to change. I knew the looks I got, and the cruel words. I didn’t want you to have to deal with them. I spent plenty of time after that losing some of the weight I had put on and tried to start eating better. I started working out. It was a lot of hard work. It still is. But I wanted to be a good example for you. Both of you. Even once Harry joined us. Dudley, the way your mum has done you and Harry isn’t good for either of you. Not giving Harry enough food was very, very wrong. It was just as wrong to let you have so many sweets all the time. We are going to work on both of you, though. Harry is going to be eating his meals like he is supposed to and Dudley you are going to cut back on the sweets,” he told them. A bit sad when he saw the mixed look of pain and annoyance that crossed Dudley’s face, resisting the urge to cringe when he told himself that he had forgotten how mean kids could be since he stopped being one.
The next day, Vernon took Harry and Dudley to school himself, making sure to get there early so he had time to talk with their teacher for a short moment and explain, for the most part, what was going on. Once she knew what was happening, she had been happy to agree to fill out a short journal every day, for a little while for him on both boys so he could keep up with what they were doing. So for the next couple of weeks, he made time to take them to school and pick them up, to better keep an eye on them. He still wasn’t sure how much they had understood of his words, but things did seem to be getting better between them. Things weren’t perfect, but there were no more physical fights and he had caught them sitting together a couple of times watching the telly. In short, things were looking better, so maybe even if they were a bit young to understand everything, they understood enough.
Author’s Note 2: Ok for those who may wonder about the ‘Voldemort Story’ it will be better explained later, but for now just remember that Venon knows /nothing/ about Magic. The note Dumbles left said Voldemort killed Lily and James, but where it was going to Petunia he didn’t explain more so for the purpose of this fic the ‘Car Crash Story’ came from Petunia. While I know Vernon thinks about the note last chapter and thinks it mentioned the car crash it did just mention Voldie… also yes this means the boys will grow up calling him ‘Voldemort’ who wants to see people twitch ;)