(A/N: Hello again, this is another story in the 'Changed Perspectives' universe which does feature Dumbledore and Ron bashing, and I guess you should be warned about that. I know that those are usually Harry/Draco friendship stories, but I wanted to show what Harry's life was like before Hogwarts, just to demonstrate how different my story world is. Also, I thought that he deserved a little bit of time with his family. I do not own Harry Potter, nor do I make any money from anything that I write here. This is Good!Dursleys featuring Loving!Petunia and Considerate!Vernon and much more. Harry and Dudley are friends and he has never slept in the cupboard under the stairs. Oh, Petunia and Vernon are both squibs, they remain mostly detached from the Wizarding world, no Dudley is not going to be a Wizard.)
Changed Perspectives 3: Life with the Dursleys: Part 1
Harry Potter was a normal, healthy, and happy three year old boy. He was full of energy and life, play time was always his favorite time of day. He could climb trees and run up the slides at the playground. He could make the swing move without Uncle Vernon pushing him, even though he still liked it when his Uncle alternated pushing him and Dudley so that both of them could see their feet touch the sky. Little Harry could brighten an entire room with one toothy smile and had never met an adult that he couldn't put a smile on. With Harry around, laughter was never far away, and when he was with his cousin Dudley, it was infectious.
The boys did everything together, they even shared a room. Of course it was either share a room or give up their carefully maintained hoard of toys in the play room next door. But both Petunia and Vernon knew that they wanted to share more than they cared about the toys. They knew this because they often had to prevent the boys from giving away a more favored toy to another child at the playground. Harry had come to them when he was 15 months old, and Petunia had mourned for her sister and brother-in-law for nearly a month, leaving the care of both children almost entirely to Vernon.
But Harry had been determined to make her feel better, unable to walk; he had talked to her over the baby monitor. She knew that he had been talking since around 9 months, but it healed her heart a little bit to know that he was talking to her. And when she finally felt like the grief was bearable, she found herself astounded that Dudley and Harry had bonded. Both boys seemed very aware of the fact that they were cousins and not brothers, but that didn't stop them from wanting to be together all the time.
Often, when there was nothing to do, the pair could be found playing in the yard under the ever watchful eye of Petunia. She knew that the boys tended to make a lot of noise and so she always had a cheery smile ready if one of their older neighbors saw fit to complain about them. Of course after a while she watched more carefully because Dudley loved wrestling, and Harry adored rugby and though they were similar in height and weight, neither boy had a good sense of their own strength. So she was never without a good stock of salve or bandages for the odd scraped knee, or skinned elbow, or even a scraped chin. The more creative the injury, the more the one wearing it would laugh at the puzzled look on Petunia's face.
Things didn't stay that way though. When Harry and Dudley were about four years old, things began to change. Dudley was suddenly ravenous and began to grow, larger, wider, and heavier while Harry could no longer eat lunch for fear of getting sick and began to shrink in size. This of course was cause for alarm to Petunia and Vernon as both boys had always been healthy and had never once done anything that the other didn't. Petunia took the children to the most highly recommended Doctors that she could find. Vernon soon grew so concerned that he took a month away from work to help his wife when the boys had separate appointments in two separate towns.
Both husband and wife were so worried and so anxious because of the turn of events that it began to take a toll on their health. Petunia lost so much weight that that she seemed to be nothing but skin and bones. Vernon reverted to his childhood habit of nervous eating and quickly gained twice what Petunia had lost. Before long each was a mirror of one of their suffering children and still the little family had no answers.
But when the doctors finally did call with the results of weeks and weeks of testing, the news was vague at best. Dudley had some type of thyroid condition that caused his body to continuously behave like it was expecting to be starved and thus hoarded calories and fats, yet Dudley's appetite was immense. Harry on the other hand, seemed to require three times the normal daily allowance of calories and vitamins just to grow properly, and with his reduced appetite, that was proving to be difficult.
"Vernon, I think that this might have something to do with You-Know-Who. I mean, someone tried to pay us to abuse Harry," Petunia said quietly as they were cleaning up dinner one night while the boys were busy in the next room playing with their new NES. They had only been allowed an hour and a half on the game system before bed and since it was a two player game, they weren't likely to eaves drop at the kitchen door.
"I suspected that it might. But we can't risk too many people knowing that he's here, or for that matter letting whoever it was, know that we care about him. Remember, we aren't supposed to love him, if they think that we do, then his entire account at Gringotts is at risk. As long as they are paying us then we know at least that the money is going back to Harry, even if it is in the Muggle world," Vernon said in reply, his mind still boiling with anger at the memory of the day when a hooded and cloaked figure had offered him money from Harry's own account to ensure that his nephew was done harm. He had accepted the offer and promptly set up a bank account in Harry's name into which every single weekly 600 quid payment had gone since.
He hoped that he had done it well enough so that no one knew that they weren't pocketing the money. No one in either the Muggle or Wizarding world needed to know that they hadn't touched a single shilling. As long as it looked like they were quietly accepting the money then no one else would show up to attempt to hurt Harry.
"I know, but it's not as if I don't go to Diagon Alley once in a while anyway. I just think that it couldn't hurt for me to pick up a few medical texts when I go to London next. I can go Christmas shopping as a cover. You can come with even. We can get the boys some sweets, maybe some kid's books, some of those exploding cracker toys that they liked so much. Then maybe, no one will notice if I pick up a copy of 'Magical Maladies' because Lilly's copy was from '73 and keeps telling me how out of date it is," Petunia said in a rush of air, turning on the tap and pulling on her dishwashing gloves.
The gloves were Dragon skin and had been a treat she picked up for herself when she went shopping for Harry's birthday. He had gotten a copy of 'Tales of Beedle the Bard' and a few children's school books or Potions and the History of Magic and a pile of candies. And she had gotten herself the gloves; they not only protected her hands, but conditioned her skin and left her nails freshly polished.
"We'll have to be careful dearest. Christmas is a few months off yet," Vernon advised, unsure if he and his wife should go on such a venture without protection.
"There's nothing for it. We will just have to talk to Tom. You know that he doesn't stand for people harassing Squibs. I know you don't like them, but we could just have him put a notice-me-not charm on us. He's gotten rather good at it, only shopkeepers can see you," Petunia said and Vernon gave a grudging nod. For some Squibs, having magic done near them caused a bit of physical irritation, Vernon's was represented by a ringing in his ears, Petunia was lucky enough to not have such an issue.
(A/N: That's the first chapter. I do plan on having at least two more, each of them following Harry as he grows up. Tell me what you thought of it. )