This is the first chapter of the new Sanguine Ignis story. It will feature a competent Harry, and a downright Godlike Daniel Potter (his brother). Daniel will however have a separate storyline, separating from that of Harry almost immediately.
Events from the books will be followed where convenient, but I will gladly disregard events, rules and details Rowling put in the books when they are not useful for me.
This first chapter is a prologue, and also a trial chapter to see how the small number of followers I have reacts to my new writing style. Please Enjoy.
Vernon Dursley was a man of two things: work and family.
Ever since he was little, his father had taught him that family always comes first, no matter what. Family was the most precious treasure, nothing could be put above it.
Which was why, when he had become engaged to Petunia Evans, and had met her sister boyfriend, he took their being magical in stride. They were family, or would soon be anyway, and family was more important than one's ability to shoot strange spells out of a wand. Petunia didn't think so, but they never discussed it until it was way too late.
In the time it took Lily and her boyfriend James Potter to become engaged and then married, Petunia had grown angry and bitter at her sister, and Vernon had come to realize that his wife wasn't afraid of magic, she was jealous of her sister. More than once the man had been forced to listen to his wife rant about how Lily had gotten everything while deserving none of it. Vernon worked hard at his job, getting a promotion and becoming director, but all Petunia could talk about was how Lily had a rich husband. They had a wonderful son, but all Petunia would talk about was how they had had a son before her sister and her husband. Even more than that, Petunia started to spoil their son Dudley rotten. Vernon was worried about how the boy would turn out one day with how much his mother was spoiling him, but Petunia wouldn't hear a thing about it, claiming that her Duddikins deserved it all because he was the best baby boy in the world. Even their son had just become another measuring stick for Petunia in her crazed war against her sister.
It all came to a head one morning, the day after Halloween. Vernon had had to pull an all nighter at work, so he had come home around dawn. When he entered, he had gone up to the bedroom he shared with his wife, only to hear the water running in the bathroom. When he went to investigate, he found his wife Petunia about to put a baby in the tub filled with water, while another baby was asleep in a basket at her feet. The woman had a crazed glint in her eyes and a delighted expression on her face.
"What are you doing woman?" thundered Vernon, scaring the sleeping child and causing him to start crying.
"I'm ridding the house of a couple of pests" replied Petunia.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, not wanting to believe his wife was actually about to do what he thought she was about to do.
"My whore of a sister and her good for nothing husband went and got themselves killed" she said, her face breaking into a delighted smile, just to go back into a frown with her next sentence "However, their two bastard children survived, and that crazy freak, Dumbledore, left them in front of our door. I'm merely sending them back to their useless parents"
"You will do no such thing" yelled Vernon, unable to conceive how his wife had become so crazily obsessed with her sister as to do something like that.
Before Petunia could do anything, the man grabbed the infant from her arms and the one still crying in the crib and quickly brought them to the bedroom, crib and all.
Once inside he locked the door behind him. He went back to the bed where he had put the babies and sat down, rubbing his face in an exasperated manner, trying to figure out the crazy situation he suddenly found himself in.
As one of the babies was still crying, he automatically reached for him and started rocking him gently in his arms, a gesture that had become a habit during many sleepless nights with Dudley. As he did so, he noticed an envelope tucked away in the covers, and took it. Tacking the letter inside of it out, he read it, his eyebrows raising a little more with each sentence.
"Mr. and Mrs Dursley,
It is my unenviable duty to inform you of the demise of James and Lily Potter at the hands of the Dark lord Voldemort, who himself died as a consequence, on the night of October the 31rst of this year.
Their twin sons, Harry James and Daniel Anthony Potter, managed by some miracle to come out of this horrible ordeal unharmed except for a scar on young Harry's head. This however raises the problem of where the children should go.
In their last will and testament, James and Lily left a list of names of people that should take care of the children in case the worst was to come to pass. However, in the chaos of the war, all the specified people are currently incapable of taking up this duty. Also to consider is the fact that, because of his scar and the indiscretions of a few people, young Harry is being celebrated across magical Britain as the child who survived an attack by Voldemort, and is considered the reason of his downfall. Be that true or false, I fear that raising Harry in the magical world would bring one of two possible consequences: that the remaining servants of Voldemort will try to kill the child, or that he grows up with an inflated ego because of all the attention and fame he would be getting from magical people.
For all the reason I listed, I felt more prudent to leave the children with your family, as you are their relatives and are almost completely unknown to the magical community simply because you are not magical.
I of course understand that I can't simply drop such a heavy burden of your family, especially when accompanied by such grave news, and expect you to accept it. Should your family be incapable or unwilling to care for the infants, I will take them back and find another solution. Should you decide however to welcome them in your home, there are magical protections that can be put on your house in order to make it even harder for anyone with magic to find and/or harm you.
Next Monday, I will be in Gringotts bank, at the end of Diagon Alley. I hope you will agree to meet with me there, so that I may know your answer and discuss with you a few more important details should you decide to keep the children.
Sincerely,
Albus Dumbledore.
Work and Family.
It was the Dursley family motto.
Give your best to your work and your family, and they shall give their best to you.
It was a sentiment Vernon had done his best to live his life by. And now he was being tested.
The children were almost sure to be magical. Even to a non magical like him, Lily and James abilities appeared extraordinary. Their sons would surely take after them in that regard.
But it didn't matter.
Family needed him. Vernon would not turn his back on it.
Work and family.
It was time to have a stern talk with Petunia.