Disclaimer: i do not own any of the Harry Potter characters.
How did Harry get his reputation of being a criminal while he lived at Privet Drive? There were a lot of nosy neighbours on that street, so we chose to talk to the one closest to the Dursleys. This woman lived at Number 6, Privet Drive, and was asked to tell everything she had ever heard about the Dursleys.
Well, the Dursleys had been a perfectly normal family when they had first moved into privet drive as a newly married couple. I remember that they were very young when they had their son, but they were very friendly, and desperate to fit in with us, Mrs Dursley especially.
The Dursleys son, Dudley, was a little bit of a terror, but then children are at that age. I was always assured by them that he would soon grow out of it, although i was a little less convinced when i saw Dudley kicking Petunia whilst screaming for sweets! at one year old!
There was a really strange day that stands out in particular. I remember that there was a couple of gas explosions, owls were seen in broad daylight! I must admit I had never seen an owl at nighttime before then, and have only ever seen brief glimpses of an owl since. The day after, i was awoken by someone screaming next door, because apparently the Dursleys nephew had arrived, having just being left on the doorstep. Well you can imagine the kind of scandal it caused when Mrs Dursleys sister was killed because of drunken driving accident. It's no wonder she was so desperate to fit in with us if she had to put up with that sort of behaviour at home.
Their nephew, Harry Potter his name was, grew up to be a bit of a terror, despite where he was being raised. My Jessica-Ann used to come home with all sorts of stories about the types of things he had done at school, and there was always shouting coming from that house.
I remember one time, when Jess came home from school telling me about how he had somehow managed to turn his teachers hair blue. Of course I scolded her for making up such wild tales, but then I asked Mrs Dursley and she had told me that she didn't know how he had done it, and that it might have been some kind of cruel prank, but it was true.
Something that didn't quite add up, was that despite the fact that he was a rogue child, the Dursleys were not particularly nice to him. I went along to Dudleys 5th birthday party once, because Jess had received an invite. During a game of musical statues a rather large woman went and hit him across his legs with her walking stick, when he hadn't even done anything wrong. They always seemed to spoil Dudley a bit, every year loads of people got invited to Dudleys birthday party and always got loads of presents, but as far as I'm aware, Harry never got much, if anything at all.
Another time my Jessica-Ann had come home telling me that the boy had been found on the school roof, and the caretaker had to get the stepladders to get him back down. Again I told her off for telling silly stories, there was no possible way he would have been able to get up there. But then a friend from her class, Amy, told me that she had seen him too. Once again I asked Mrs Dursley and she had snapped at me that it was true as well. I didn't appreciate being snapped at, but then I realised that she was probably embarrassed about raising such an unfortunate child. Although her Dudley was no angel if the other stories about that family are true.
I also remember once, looking out of the kitchen window, and seeing the boy stuck up the tree in their garden. I thought he was some sort of peeping-tom trying to look into our house, so went closer to have a look. It appeared that he was actually stuck, and then I saw the Durselys, a large woman and dog in the garden. I just assumed that the boy had got up there to show off for the visitors, (probably to show off how he had climbed the school roof) and had either got himself stuck or was simply refusing to come down.
I don't blame them, I wouldn't have gone up that tree after him, and Mr Dursley didn't look in the right shape to do so.
Then I remember, it must have been a birthday or something because there were a lot of large parcels delivered to the house. The family went on an outing of some sort, which didn't usually happen I must add, but I remember them arriving home and the boys shouting about how some snake nearly attacked them. Indeed when I was watering my forget-me-nots I caught them in the Dursley back garden re-enacting it with loud voices and Dudley and his friend were pretending that the hosepipe was a snake, and one of them was pretending to be Harry and save each other from it. I must admit it did make me laugh.
Although the Dursley child was not all that pleasant of a boy as he grew up. I was crossing the road to visit the shop and he zoomed past me on that bike. Nearly hit me he did and I heard him shout at me to watch where I was going! I even witnessed him mow down old Mrs Figg as she crossed the road on her crutches, he didn't even stop to help her up. That was the summer I didn't see the potter boy for quite some time, and Jess told me that he hadn't been at school either.
I was told by petunia that the boy had had a serious bout of hay fever, and wasn't well enough to attend school. During the summer holidays, when he was around, I would often see him walking around by himself, I did feel a bit sorry for him, but tried not to pay too much attention because he was, apparently, a bit of a rogue child. Although Dudley was no better in his teenage years from what I can remember.
They returned after a few days, carrying some strange looking packages, and I could have sworn that I saw the Potter boy carry a caged owl into the house. This took me years back to when all those owls were seen flying around in broad daylight! It must just have been a trick of the light I think, because when I looked back neither owl nor boy were there. He did look much happier than I have ever seen him before though.
The next month was very quiet concerning number 4, although both Dudley and Harry were soon to be off at a boarding school for the year. Dudley was to attend a school called Smeltings, I think, and Harry was going to some sort of criminal school, St Brutus' or something. I thought it was a bit rash, the boy isn't a criminal, but then I thought that it was better to be safe than sorry, I don't know half of the stuff that the boy has gotten himself into. He could have done something really bad for all I know!
Dudley came back at both Christmas and Easter, but there was no sign of the Potter boy until the next summer.
As far as I am aware, his arrival was not particularly welcomed in the house. There was raised voices continually, I couldn't always hear what was being said, but one time I could swear he was talking about keeping something quiet, to stop secret messages being sent. Well I was completely baffled at that, not that it was my place to ask at all.
Also from what I heard, Harry had once tried to threaten Dudley, and that the Dursleys refused to tolerate some kind of abnormality. I thought to myself that this abnormality must be the reason he goes to that criminal school, I knew that there must have been some reason for sending the boy there.
I glanced through the back window once, and I saw the potter boy sat on the garden bench, facing the hedgerow. I watched Dudley walk out and try to talk to him, then he stumbled quickly back towards the house, screaming that he was "doing you know what." I watched Petunia come out the house and aim a heavy blow at Harry with a soapy frying pan, and his punishment was to work the garden. He was there all day, and I must say even though it was harsh, it was probably necessary, because I had not heard what he had said to Dudley. It must not have been very pleasant to earn such a punishment. A couple of hours later, an almighty crashing noise sounded from next door, followed by the sound of women screaming, and then a second woman ran from the house, screaming something about 'lunatics.'
The boy must have done something really terrible this time, because the next day Mr Dursley paid a man to fit prison bars upon what I would assume to be the boys bedroom window.
A few days later, after more shouting and yelling in the middle of the night, the bars on the window had disappeared, along with the boy. I asked about it and Petunia said that some of his criminal friends came in the middle of the night and sprung him out of there.
I didn't see the Potter boy again until the next summer.
The Dursleys are forever boasting about themselves, especially when that new company car arrived on their drive, but most people in this area are like that, so I can't really complain. They should have boasted about it a bit louder, I think there might have been some people a couple of streets away that didn't hear them that day. Petunia was recently complaining to me about the school the Dudley goes to, and how worried she gets about him, and wondering if he is getting along alright. I didn't tell her this, but I think Dudley gets along just fine. If he is at all bullied about his obvious and horrid weight problem, he and his friends will use their fists to sort it out no problem.
The Potter boy came home, and, once more, was greeted by lots of arguing and shouting. Apparently, one of his friends from that criminal school telephoned the house, and well I assume Mr Dursley was threatened or something when he refused to hand over the phone, I wouldn't be surprised considering the history of the Potter boy. I heard him shout that the person was not to come near his family, and that Harry was not to give the number out to anymore people like him.
Perhaps the biggest news of the summer was that escaped criminal; someone called 'Serious Black' or something or other. Although on the news he looked more deranged and unstable than serious, a dangerous combination in an armed man, and added to that fact that no-one seemed to know where he had escaped from, or how he had managed to get his hands on a gun. They never did find out what happened to him, I don't think he was ever caught.
I know that half of the women were worried that the potter boy might end up like that, Petunia had already told us that he was dangerous and went to a criminal school, so he was headed in that direction. Oh I would love to be the one to dial the hotline number; I can almost imagine it now.
A week later, there was an almighty commotion in the Dursley household, involving lots of shouting and screaming, followed by the slamming of the front door. The next thing I saw, well I say I saw it, but it really can't have been possible for a group of strangely clothed people to turn up on their doorstep within moments of all of this.
I say it wasn't possible, because there was at least 4 of them, and they couldn't have walked to get there on time, but there was no car or any kind of transport visible. I presume they were the police coming to take the potter boy away, because I didn't see him again until the next summer.
I never really got to the cause of all the commotion on that night, all I know is that they had an argument, that must have gotten violent at some point because I saw Mr Dursley limping around for a few days afterwards.
A/N: This was supposed to be a one shot, but the story was getting longer than i had originally thought, so i decided to split it in half. The second half should be up within the next couple of weeks :) let me know what you thought about it :)