The crying wouldn't stop. In fact, it had been going on since Petunia had stepped outside to collect the milk bottles that morning and had nearly trodden on the small boy laying on her front doorstep, and that had been more than an hour ago. Petunia wished that Vernon were here, so that maybe they could find out someway how to deal with this, but he wouldn't miss his job, and so he had left not long after Petunia had discovered little Harry.
With her hands covering her ears, Petunia tried to block out the word that her nephew was saying over and over and over again. Amazingly, Dudley had not woken up throughout the entire commotion, and still lay sleeping in his crib bed. Still, Petunia didn't have time to linger at her awe at her son's sleeping abilities. She had to find someway to shut. This. Kid. Up.
Bracing herself for the wails that she knew she would soon be facing, Petunia uncovered her ears and grabbed the child in front of her. "Stop crying. Stop crying." Petunia said, her voice cracking a little bit.
But Harry didn't stop. If anything, it seemed that he had started to cry even harder now that Petunia had picked him up off of the floor. Petunia looked around desperately for something that could distract the child, but she found nothing in the room that would suffice. Of course, she could go into Dudley's room and take a single toy. . . No. She would not take something from her child to please another that wasn't even hers.
Petunia walked out of the living room, holding Harry as far as she could away from her. She didn't know what she expected to find in this small hallway. There was absolutely nothing that could solve her problem. Unless . . . Petunia looked at the door in front of her. So far, ever since they had bought this house three years ago, Petunia and Vernon had barely used the small room - if it could indeed be called that- at all. Sure, they had placed things that were of hardly any use to them anymore in there, but other than that, Petunia and Vernon didn't use it for anything.
Petunia bit her lip. It was undeniably cruel what she was about to do, but what else was she supposed to do? She could nearly feel herself going insane from Harry's constant crying and whimpering. She just couldn't take it anymore.
Taking a deep breath in, Petunia opened the cupboard door and placed her nephew down on the floor before slamming the door shut again. Petunia sighed in relief as the door seemed to block most of Harry's cries. Smiling, Petunia made her way back into the living room, thinking about what show she wanted to watch- and also desperately hoping that she would never have to here Harry cry, "Mama," ever again.
