Title: I'd Rather Drown, Thanks Though
Rated: T for language and heavy themes, subject to change
Theme: Family, Mystery
Pairings: To Be Determined
Author's Note:
This was written after a pretty big fight I had with pretty much my entire family. I wrote a 3-page poem thingy ( and I still needed to deal with the emotions so while listening to Set It Off's I'd Rather Drown, I got inspired for this.
Yay. I overshared. I guess I just wanted to give you an idea of my mindset when I wrote this.
Anyway, if you're confused at all at points of this, please note that I absolutely adore Agatha Christie, Nancy Drew, and Sherlock Holmes. Mystery is great as long as it's not obvious to the audience. There's just something about dangling something in front of a reader's face and then showing what it is. I can think of a few popular fanfics where this would have made the story that much better.
And without further ado, please enjoy this tribute to JK Rowling's breathtaking work.
Strangely, the first thing to be noticed was the hands. Small, pale, calloused. A circular burn, rather recent, on the right.
Child. Fantastic. Magic was pushed into the broken body, speeding up the healing process. A rib snapped back into place with a wince. A third-world European farm child maybe? Beaten obviously…That burn though...
A quick check down the pants revealed male bits. Great...Penis. By the scowl on the small face, the boy was not happy with this development.
He looked around the dark room curiously. A… closet? Despite his incredulousness, the flimsy door was unmistakable for anything else. He picked up the lone blanket and felt the quality. Definitely after industrial revo, but it's so thin. It was so threadbare.
His eyes fell on a pair of glasses that looked familiar. Black round frames and thick glass… "No…" Horror spurred the boy onto his feet. "No!" And he promptly fell down again with a yelp. Shit! Broken leg! That was not good at all. No movement meant no escape.
Vernon Dursley was a man of habits. He lived and worshiped the clock. He got up at sunrise and went to bed at sundown. (Not literally, but you understand what I'm getting at.) In other words, he had a very strict schedule and he expected everyone under his thumb to do the same.
He got up in the morning at 6 30, had a proper English breakfast served to him by his beautiful wife at 7, and left the house precisely at 7 30. He arrived at Grunnings at 8, had a packed lunch of either liverwurst and cheese or leftovers at 1, and left work at 5. He was at the bar with the men until 5 30. He drove up to his house in his Mini 1000 at 6, waving to Mrs. Figg as she watered her garden. Now that was a woman he could respect. He watched the news until 6 30, a 3-course meal courtesy of his lovely wife. He helped Dudley with his homework until 7 and, as a family, watched a movie. Dudley was sent up to bed at promptly 8 and Vernon and Petunia sat in the living room either talking, watching TV, or reading until 9. Petunia would then prepare food for the morrow and go to bed. Vernon would stay up until 10 and then go to bed, satisfied with his life.
So when a certain FREAK messed with his beloved schedule, Vernon was...irritated and dealt with it accordingly. Today had been...particularly trying in terms of the boy. The freak had completely failed at one of his simple chores! And when Vernon was nice enough to let him stay with them, gave him the food off their table! Letting him feed like a parasite off the sweat of his brow! All because his beautiful Petunia happened to have be related to the freak. (Not that old fogey had anything to do with it.) Then two- TWO separate cases of his ….freakishness. Well, after Vernon had properly dealt with that, he locked him into his room with no dinner. And that had been that...Or so he thought.
At 12 19, a bang woke the Dursley family. A bang that was soon followed by the smell of smoke.
"BOY!" Vernon shot… errr… rolled out of bed (as he was no longer as fit as he was in his youth) and thundered down the stairs. To his surprise, the freak's blackened door was hanging off its hinges. "Freak! What did you do?"
"Vernon! Your blood pressure!" Petunia warned. Dudley watched, eyes wide, from the landing above.
The man in question had a moment of affection toward his wife, so kind and caring. "Now's not the time! BOY!" He stomped into the kitchen, looking to the fridge first. Last time he found the boy walking around at night, he was gorging himself on the food his wife had taken such care to make. The glutton! And then he had the audacity to first tell him off, then claim no knowledge of getting up at all!
But, no. The freak was in the half bath, judging by the open door and light.
"You little freak!" Vernon roared, barreling into it. "You are lucky you didn't burn your room down again or-"
"Or what?" That cold voice stopped him right in his tracks. Those eyes! As cold and hard as if they were made of jewels.
But he was not to be deterred. "You know full what! While you are under my roof, you will obey my rules and that means no freakishness!"
Fiery indignation leaped in those eyes, becoming those of a wild animal. "You mean magic, Uncle?" That name came laden with such utter loathing and disgust that it took him aback. Momentarily.
"THERE IS NO SUCH THING!" Vernon blustered and made his fatal mistake, attempting to swing at him.
A flurry later and the Dursleys found themselves around the dining table, held hostage there by a tiny six year old boy. It would have been comical if it hadn't been so terrifying.
Petunia was no fool. She served her husband hand and foot not because she loved him but because she knew she had chosen the wrong husband a year in their marriage. She accepted her fate and adapted. So when her nephew looked at her with those wild eyes, that eerie grin, and those strange powers that Lily definitely never had, she knew that the next few moments would define her family's fate.
Those moments were postponed though as Harry rummaged through the fridge, devouring whatever he could get his hands on. But he took the time to take Vernon's lunch and eat it slowly in front of her purple husband.
Finally, the boy leaned back and wiped his mouth with his hand. "Sorry about that. Healing the wounds your husband caused is taking a lot out of me. It doesn't help that this body is so young and weak. If your nephew had been fed and clothed properly instead of having to rely on scraps and magic to hold this body together, I, number one, wouldn't be so pissed and have to pretty much constantly rejuvenate." All of this was said with an easy smile that did not help at all the terror his words had caused.
"YOU WILL LET US GO THIS MOMENT, YOU BRAT!" Vernon's voice shocked her. "You will be lucky to see any food this week! You dare-"
"SHUT UP! SHUT UP, YOU FOOL!" Petunia panted, then paled when she realized that had been her.
"Oo! This is the first time you've ever stood up to your husband, isn't it, Petunia?" Harry grinned, amusement dancing in his eyes. "Listen to your wife, Vernon. She's the brighter one."
"YOU DARE-"
"I DARE?!" Harry's eyes flashed wildly, shooting up. "You ABUSED a wizard child! What did you think's going to happen when the Wizarding World finds out? Did you think they'd take this treatment of a child, nonetheless someone as famous as me, lightly? No one will care that you are a muggle! It will be straight to Azkaban with you!"
Petunia gasped. How had Harry learned anything and so much about the Wizard World?
Harry barreled on, ignoring her outbreak thankfully. "You are rather lucky you insisted forcibly that there was no magic or I would have turned into an obscurial!" He apparently noted their blank expressions and ran his fingers through his hair. "Jeez. This is why the Ministry is crap." Petunia spotted what looked like runes carved into his arm before he dropped his arm. "An obscurial is a wizarding child that was attacked physically, emotionally, or verbally for doing magic and as a result, the magic is forced in on itself and develops a magic cancer called obscurus. The obscurus causes havoc and destruction, but tends to center on the abuser. Most obscurials die by ten. Obviously incredibly dangerous and the Ministry has no cure for it yet but hasn't bothered to try removing wizarding children from bad homes."
"Y-you-" Vernon stuttered out, eyes bulging.
Harry smirked. "I could have been a walking time bomb, if you had let me believe that magic was real? Yeah."
Suddenly, Petunia was thankful that she kept all knowledge of the Wizarding World from Harry if that was what he could have turned into.
Cool green eyes focused on her. Her soul felt bare to him. "Interesting. You knew about his nature but stayed with him… Ah. You were scared he'd come after you. Thanks for bothering to keep me alive, I suppose. Even if you should have stood up to him a long time ago." Harry stood up and stretched. "Well, I suppose I should get going. The sticking charm will last until dawn and I'll be long gone. Don't bother coming after me or I will kill you." An eerie grin twitched into place on his face. "And don't worry about Dumbledore. I've blocked this entire night from any sort of memory probing, not even Veritaserum. You obviously cannot speak about this."
With that, Harry promptly left the kitchen. Petunia waited to hear him go out the door, but he instead went upstairs. "Harry!"
Silence. Then "Yeah?"
At that moment, Petunia decided to try to make up for all of the horribleness Harry had suffered under Vernon's roof. "Under the bed in the box to the far right!" Footsteps faded into the master bedroom.
"Tuney?" Vernon hissed. At least he got that memo. "What are you doing?"
Petunia glared at him. "Protecting myself and Dudley!"
He sputtered wildly. "And what of myself?"
"You are already doomed! He's going to come back with officials and they WILL cart you away!"
"I am your HUSBAND!"
"YOU ARE MY MEAL TICKET!" She screeched. At his dumbfounded expression, she barreled on, figuring that if he tried to hurt her in the morning, she could have an excuse ready for the wizard cops. "I needed to marry to survive and you were the most normal option!" If only she hadn't been so cruel to Lily's friends! That handsome Black was too above her anyhow, but perhaps the quiet Lupin would have been a much better choice. "The one I could throw in Lily's face and show her how much better my life was than hers!" And now her sister was gone, murdered by that monster.
Petunia could only sob hysterically while her husband and son stared at her.
"Fuuuuuuuuuck." He banged his head against the wall a few more times. How was he supposed to leave them now? Vernon would cook like a kettle then probably kill Petunia in the morning. He had planned on just gathering anything that could be sold and leaving to live on the streets. But dammit! Sometimes being human absolutely sucked ass.
Harry blew a raspberry in frustration then packed away the album back in the box. He managed to pick up the box with some trouble, promising himself to start exercises as soon as he could, before going back to Ground Zero.
FUUUCK. She's crying! I can't deal with crying! Nonetheless, Harry dropped the box and brought over tissues from the next room before releasing Petunia from the charm. He awkwardly held the box while she dealt with her mess. "Do you… Do you and Dudley want to… you know… come with?"
Petunia gave a hoarse laugh. "How are we supposed to survive? I am a woman and with two boys!" Shit, she was going hysterical again.
"Uhm…" Harry's mind blanked.
"I have no skills! I can't use a typewriter!" She sobbed. "I'm not young and pretty anymore!"
"COOKING!" That stopped her in her tracks. "Uh…You're a pretty good cook and it's the 80s. Women's roles are expanding past secretary and nurse work. I can access my vault and take out enough galleons to buy a building in another country and start a restaurant. If we can get one in a wizarding city, Vernon can't get in there and we'll be surrounded by wizards who aren't going to randomly approaching me."
"But the finances! I can't do that!" Petunia sniffed, stopping to blow her nose.
"And you'll learn! And I and Dudley will help you! I'll be the cute kid taking people to their seats and Duds can wash and clean, 'cuz let's face it, you're not that pretty." Harry grinned at the affronted boy.
"Oi!" Dudley glared at him. "Rude!"
"You're not getting me to say sorry!" He giggled. Petunia finally began looking hopeful. "So whaddya say, Auntie? Do we have a deal?"
Author's Note:
That's… That was a wild ride. That's also not how I expected it to turn out. I thought Harry would torture them a bit before booking it and ending up under the care of a matron of an Irish girls' home. But instead we've got Petunia being redeemed and they're going to start a new life together. I think I like this a lot better. I'm not even sure where the bit about Vernon being a meal ticket came from, but I do remember that women often had to marry just to survive.
Due to the sudden plot change, I have to refigure my plot. Probably not by much, but due to this and my depression mucking things up, I don't think I'll be posting chapters on a regular basis.
I'll think I'll do a year a chapter when we get to the Hogwarts years. IDK in the meantime. I WAS just going to jump to year 1 after the intro, but again. Refiguring plot.
Let me know what you think of my style and any criticisms and thoughts are welcomed. All flames will be sorted through and then fed to my pet dragon.
THANKS FOR READING!
Update: Just changing some wording to better fit some changes I had made to the characters.