"This is a work of fan fiction using characters from the Harry Potter world, which is trademarked by J. K. Rowling. The Harry Potter characters referenced in this story are created and owned by J.K. Rowling, and I do not claim any ownership over them or the world of Harry Potter. The story I tell here about Dudley and friends is my own invention, and it is not purported or believed to be part of J.K. Rowling's story canon. This story is for entertainment only and is not part of the official story line. I am not profiting financially from the creation and publication of this story. I am grateful to Ms. Rowling for her wonderful stories about Hogwarts, for without her books, my story would not exist."
A well known beginning and it's lesser known details.
"You did not do as I asked. You have never treated Harry as a son.
He has known nothing but neglect and often cruelty at your hands.
The best that can be said is that he has at least escaped the appalling
damage you have inflicted upon the unfortunate boy sitting between you."
At number four Privet Drive, lived a family who were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense. At least that is how the story was told. For a story is exactly what it was. In less civil circles it might also be called a lie. You couldn't say this out loud however, not if you wanted to be normal. Which is to say, loved.
The Boy Who Lived, who the Wizarding World would know to be the famous Harry Potter, grew up with this family. Harry was most decidedly not normal. Which is to say, he was most decidedly unloved. Should one look back upon the first eleven years of Harry's life, it could very well be called nothing short of miraculous that the small bespectacled boy had turned out so well. Relatively unselfish, certainly courageous, and possessed of a solid sense of justice Harry Potter had survived his life with the Dursleys and emerged as both a decent and functional human being. He never knew his real parents and was raised by his only living relations the Durselys. Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, who shouted at Harry when he did speak to the boy, and beat him regularly when he did not. . Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. Both were keen to remind Harry of his worthlessness, that he was a burden, that he amounted to nothing and was intrinsically an unlovable non-entity. They treated him as something to be ashamed of and to be suppressed and beaten down. Seeking to supress his 'unaturalness' they made every effort to crush him into subservient silence, and of course 'normality'.
Harry's story is well known to many in the Wizarding World. From the true story of his parent's murder by Lord Voldemort, to the final battle at Hogwarts where Harry finally defeated his parent's killer and delivered the Wizarding World from the Dark Lord's Tyranny, his stories have become things of legend in the minds of the many. What many of his admirers often fail to appreciate however are the hurdles Harry faced growing up in the Dursley household. Certainly many know that he was raised by Muggles and even some have heard that the Dursleys were 'Muggles of the very worst sort', most fail to grasp the depths of what such aspersions truly entailed. Most accounts of the Dursleys by Wizards and Witches who have met them first hand, invariably communicate a certain level of astonishment in the recounting. First hand witnesses recall their shock at the blatant neglect and disdain Harry's relatives regarded their nephew with. Interviews with Harry's friends have suggested Harry's childhood to have been a desperate struggle of privation and loneliness. Even these tales fail to fully convey an understanding of the abuse Harry endured since birth and yet somehow he came through it all to become the decent and brave boy that saved the world. To be sure Harry Potter was indeed "The Boy Who Lived".
There remains another tale that deserves to be told. A tale of a much less famous boy who also lived at Number 4 Privet Drive. A boy who also somehow survived his own story of abuse and neglect while holding onto a secret that set him apart. Dudley Dursley was known typically only for his role as Harry's constant tormentor and as the all around bullly of Harry's school and neighborhood. Spoiled beyond all restraint by Dursley's, Dudley was born into his role as the obese spoiled thug and dim witted butt of jokes in Harry's life. From the perspective of Harry's story Dudley becomes the perfect embodiment of what Harry is not and serves as an easy lightning rod for vicarious retribution in the story. What one must consider however, is that Dudley was not simply a animated bundle of mean-spirited caricatures. Dudley was also a person in his own right. He was certainly a bitter, cruel and spoiled person, but only the very heartless or shallow could completely blame Dudley for being this way. For if one was to be honestly objective, they would have to concede that Dudley was the boy his parents raised him to be. Spoiled by his mother and father, encouraged to be a glutton and indulged in his cruelty Dudley was raised to be a mean and unhappy boy. Like his cousin however, Dudley also survived his childhood despite the odds. This is his story.