Forced Normality
Disclaimer: Well, you know I'm not intending copyright infringement.
A/N: Just a one shot I always wondered about. Critique, please.
Petunia Evangeline Evans Dursley sat on a park bench on a Saturday morning in May. Dudley was five years old, and off playing in the sandbox. She beamed at her blonde bowling ball of a boy. Either she did not notice the crying children that Dudley had forcefully removed from his sandbox kingdom or she chose not to care. Or worse, she was proud of his managerial skills.
A nagging voice broke through her appreciation of her son, "Aunt Petunia? May I go on the swings?"
She laughed, or cackled if you please. "Of course not, you worthless little boy! Now sit there on the grass and try not to irritate anyone."
A dejected Harry Potter sank to the ground cross-legged. He was five-years-old and has yet to step foot on a playground. Reaching a scrawny arm, he picked up a withered white flower. It wiggled in his hand, opening and closing its petals, restoring itself to life. He dropped the flower at his aunt's gasp.
Petunia Dursley dropped to her knees and slapped the small boy hard across the face. "Never do that again, you hear me!"
Harry was shocked and scared, but he was defiant by nature, by birth. "It's not hurting you."
Yes, it hurt her very much, just not physically. That was something Lily never quite understood. "What you're doing is wrong, it's not normal. If it's not normal you can't do it."
Tears welled up in Harry's eyes, "Yes, Aunt Petunia, but, Aunt Petunia, what if I'm not normal? I could be… special."
Petunia grabbed his shoulders and shook him slightly, "There's nothing special about you! You're worthless, just like my sister and your bum of a father! They were killed in a car crash, leaving you behind because they didn't care about a worthless little boy. Your Uncle Vernon and I are saints to take you in, clothe you, feed you, and shelter you! You aren't special!"
Harry's face was covered in tears and his nose ran. "Yes, Aunt Petunia."
"Now sit there quietly and stop attracting attention. Be normal."
Harry sniffed and tried to shrink into himself as Petunia settled back on the bench. So, she thought. He's a wizard. He can do magic, just like Lily, and that James Potter, and that greasy boy from Spinner's End. Just like that man from the school who wrote me all those years ago. That school that didn't want me. Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
How is it that oddballs like my sister and that Snape boy could be welcomed with open arms, and I was turned away? How could a five-year-old boy who nobody loves possess the one thing I never could? What's so wrong with me?
A twisted smile came to her face. Nothing's wrong with me! I'm normal, and they're all freaks. Harry won't go to that school, and he won't know the world that I couldn't know. I'll squash that magic out of him.
"Mummy!" her son cried. "I want to go home! I want an ice cream! Give it to me now!"
"Of course, Duddikens! You're such a good boy. Perfectly exceptional! Perfectly normal!" She turned to the ground. "Get up, you worthless thing! Hurry up! And remember what I told you. Be normal!"
If I must to be normal, so do you.