Forever Gone
Privet Drive was not unlike most streets in the town of Little Whinging. Near identical houses were lined up adjacent to neatly cut lawns, with close attention paid to weeds and rogue blades of grass, which threatened to invade the concrete driveways. Anything out of the ordinary was frowned upon, or anyone. Many on the Drive considered one's house to be a reflection of their person, and Vernon Dursley was no exception. The big, thickset man was standing on the front step of 4 Privet Drive, his face rigid as he surveyed his street. Vernon jerked his thick neck skyward at the splash of water on his badly parted hair. His great ham of a face screwed up and his bushy moustache was drawn nearly up to his nose when he saw that the weather once again ruined the chance of a normal day.
The usually bright sky of Little Whinging was blanketed with cloud. Vernon heard the sound of thunderclap in the distance. Furious, he swore all the way down the drive, flung his briefcase in his company car and sped off to work. Soon after, the sky made a tumultuous rumbling sound like it was swallowing the sun, something the diminishing light seemed to support. The single drop multiplied into many in the wake of the speeding car, and it started to pour with rain. The near deafening patter easily tore through the newspapers held over the heads of businessmen and women running to their cars for work. The early morning was nearly as dark as night in no time at all. This scene was an all to familiar one to Vernon Dursley since the start of the holidays.
Petunia's face was suggestive of a person who had just tasted something foul as she peered out the kitchen window at the hammering rain. She manoeuvred her long bony neck to peer behind her up the stairs at the shut door of the smallest bedroom in the house. Her thoughts were interrupted by a flash of lighting and simultaneous thunderclap that shook the foundation of the house. She turned her horse like face to the attention of her 16-year-old son, Dudley, who had jumped suddenly at the loud thunderous noise and was currently sitting frightened under the kitchen table.
Petunia jumped up with a look of frightful concern on her face and crouched down with him under the table.
"Did the loud noise scare my little Duddikins," Petunia said soothingly as she comforted her son. "Mummy's here now."
There was nothing at all little about Dudley Dursley, except perhaps his brain. Dudley was simply enormous, something which countless diets and exercise programs failed to fix, partly because Petunia kept offering him cakes as a reward. Dudley was as stupid as he was big and twice as mean, though no boy or girl on Privet Drive was fool enough to point it out. No one went against what Dudley said, not if they liked where their teeth were. But Petunia and Vernon could see none of his faults, just a perfectly normal child.
Dudley looked upstairs with tears of frustration and anger in his large pale face. "It's him...He has something to with it," Dudley choked to his doting mother.
Petunia brushed the blond hair out of Dudley's fat face and wiped the streaming tears from his eyes with her hand. His face was now buried on her shoulder. She slowly turned her head to the top of the stairs, her expression impossible to read.