Not Oliver Twist
by BookwormDragon
Disclaimer: Neither the Harry Potter Universe nor any of the Characters in the Harry Potter Universe belong to me. No profit is made from this story on my part. No copyright infringement is intended.
Petunia swept up the shards of glass on the floor, and stared thoughtfully at the remaining knick-knacks. Funny how she had practically forgotten about them until the Boy had broken one while trying to get away from her little Dudley, who had only wanted to play with him a bit.
Even though she had yelled and sent the Boy to his cupboard without supper, she was secretly rather pleased. She had always hated the ugly things, but they had been a gift from her in-laws, and couldn't be thrown away without giving offense. She had no idea how she had managed to overlook them for so long, but now that one of the set was broken, perhaps she should just get rid of them all? Her mother-in-law had passed last year, and Vernon probably wouldn't notice if they were gone, anyway. If he did, she would just say that she had packed them away for safekeeping. Yes, that would work perfectly. The rest of the ugly things joined the broken one in the bin, and when the Boy took out the trash the next day, the house was unwittingly cleared of certain magics that had been left behind to insure that things went as they were meant to (1).
The next two weeks saw a gradual but marked change in the attitudes of the elder Dursleys toward both of the children living under their roof. Suddenly, Dudley's 'little tantrums' were no longer as cute as they had once been, and Petunia realized that neither Vernon nor Dudley were "big-boned", they were FAT! Portions re-sized themselves to something more reasonable, Dudley experienced a 'time-out', and Harry's life improved dramatically.
Dudley's toy room was cleaned out, any unused toys were given to charity, and a nice toddler bed was moved in. The cupboard under the stairs was once more used for its proper purpose: storing mops and cleaning supplies, and Harry gained his own bedroom, with a proper bed, soft bedding, and his own dresser full of properly fitting clothing. He still had chores to do, but they were now simple and age-appropriate, and Dudley was also expected to do his fair share.
Petunia had no idea what she had been thinking, keeping a child in a cupboard, practically starving him, working him like a slave! They were decent folk, not some sort of monsters out of Oliver Twist, for goodness' sake! Looking back at their behavior since her sister's death was horrifying. How had they turned into such monsters? And the worst part was the way they hadn't even noticed what was happening until recently!
Without Harry working himself into exhaustion everyday doing the housework, Petunia decided to hire a twice weekly maid service, since she also disliked housework. Fortunately, she was easily able to pay for it out of the household budget, using the money saved by eating smaller portions of healthier food and by not indulging Dudley's every whim. With the housework taken care of, she was able to spend more time doing things she enjoyed, like reading, cooking, sewing fashionable clothes, and playing with the children. She began to teach them both to read and write their letters, and was pleased and proud at how quickly they picked it up, especially Harry. She put a stop to Dudley's budding bullying, teaching both boys how to play nicely with each other. She also rejoined the New Mothers ladies group at her church - for some strange reason, she had left it shortly after Harry had been placed with her - and found her new friends to be most supportive of her efforts to be a better mother and person.
(1) Charms had been placed to encourage the Dursleys to believe what they wanted to believe, and to continuously strengthen the illusions that they all had about each other, especially if they were based on strong emotions. So, when Petunia or Vernon had had a passing frustrated thought that whatever small misfortune that had occurred in the course of the day was all Harry's fault, they began to really believe it, even against logic, morals, and reason. Likewise, a passing prideful thought that their son was wonderful grew into a true inability to see his faults. An apathy charm was also placed - negative feelings would not grow so deep that they would actively attempt to kill or grievously harm the perceived cause of their problems. They could still cause injury through inactivity and neglect, however. Finally, a notice-me-not/someone-else's-problem charm was placed with the figurines as the protected items. Each charm was attached to a specific Figurine. When Harry broke the Figurine, the notice-me-not charm that was attached to it broke as well. And, because he was magical himself, he was able to actually remove the figurines from the house since his magical aura overwhelmed the mild anchoring charm. Had Petunia taken out the trash, she would have found herself rescuing and replacing the Figurines, suddenly deciding that she wanted to keep them after all. Whether or not those who charmed the Figurines had any malicious intent is not clear: they could have simply been unaware of how the various charms would interact with each other and the environment in which they were placed.
Author's Note: This was a response to reading several stories in which Dumbledore or someone else cursed the Dursleys so that they would treat Harry badly. I thought - that's a little unrealistic. Why? Because if you're Dumbledore and you want to mold Harry a certain way, setting him up to be grossly mistreated is an iffy proposition - you run the risk of turning him into a sociopath instead. Better to let nature take it's course and deal with the end results as necessary. Besides, Dumbledore has spent most of his life in the Magical World, and, from his point of view, living without magic is a great enough hardship as it is. But what if he wanted to smooth the way? Not out of the goodness of his heart or anything, but simply to make his own life easier. So he casts spells that should make the Dursley household a calm and emotionally comfortable place for Harry to grow up in and to help the Dursleys accept Harry and deal comfortably with his bouts of accidental magic, but he forgets to consider how these spells might interact with each other, and how they might mis-function. Result - Evil!Dursleys. In reality, being as evil as the Dursleys are often portrayed takes real effort on their parts. I've always thought that a general apathy on their part would be more realistic.