Jenny Albot was a perfectly average woman . She was never a trendsetter . She had always just stuck with the crowd . There was nothing abnormal about her house . It was just like every other house at Privet drive . The garden had neat normal flower beds , even the paint was plain . Jenny Albots family were perfectly normal too . Her husband worked at a local drill firm called Grunnings and she had two daughters . Her eldest daughter Marie was sixteen and her younger daughter Emma who was six .
One Wednesday morning in July she was driving Emma too a birthday party . "Now do you have Rebbecca's present ?" she asked as she clicked Emma's seatbelt into place . "Yes Mummy ." she said and she tapped the present on her lap . "All right off we go then ." Mrs Albot drove off through Privet Drive . "Mummy do you believe in magic ?" asked Emma . "Why do ask ?" said Mrs Albot . "I saw this man the other day and one minute he was there and the next he was gone ." she said . "Well what did they look like ?" asked Mrs Albot . She was sure her daughter was imagining things but she might as well humor her . "Well he had red hair and they were wearing funny clothes ." she said . Funny clothes ? that sounded familiar . She herself saw people around the street lately in "funny" clothes as Emma said . "So where did you see this man ?" wondered Mrs Albot . "Just across the street , near number four."
Number four ? No that couldn't be right . Mr and Mrs Dursley lived at number four . They were the last people in the world you would expect to be involved with people the least bit strange . They didn't even dress up at Halloween . Mrs Albot remembered when they first moved into the neighbourhood . They were very desperate to fit in . Mrs Albot had never really liked them . Mrs Dursley was probably one of the nosiest people she had ever met and Mr Dursley was just down right ghastly . They had a boy Marie's age and she had never met a boy more awful . The boy had always been a terror . Marie had come home with such storys about him . Dudley ,that was his name , had always been a bully . And according to Marie his favourite punch bag had been his cousin . The Potter boy .
The Potter boy had always been a bit strange . The Dursleys had always insisted on keeping him at home instead of going to partys , or to the zoo ,or going anywhere really .
"Here we are sweety ." said Mrs Albot when they had arrived at the house . Emma hopped out of the car "Thanks Mum " she said shouted behind her sholdour . "Bye sweetheart ." Mrs Albot called after her . "I'll pick you up at seven !" Emma waved behind her to show she had heared . She smiled at her daughter and drove away .
On the way back to her house she couldn't get what Emma said out of her head . She also kept remembering other strange things that had happened at number four . There was always a lot of yelling coming from there house . Mrs Albot was sure she heared some odd phrases like the "M- word ." what could the "M-Word" possibly mean ? A few years back there had been a lot of owls over there . Even now Mrs Albot could swear she could hear screeching coming from over at Number Four .
Not to mention all the storys Marie used to come back to her with . Once Marie came home from school and told her that the Potter boy had turned the teachers wig blue . Another time she had said that the Potter boy had managed to climb onto the roof . Mrs Albot hadn't believed her of coarse that was simply impossible but then the parents called in to a parent teacher meeting where they had told them about the matter . Come to think of it she had not seen the Potter boy in years . He had dissapeared from school when he was eleven according to Marie . Perhaps he had gone to that boarding school the Dursleys had sent their boy to . What was it called Smellers ? Shelltings ? something with an "S" .
For the rest of the day she just couldn't keep her thoughts far from number four . By six o' clock Mrs Albots curiosity got the better of her . She decided to do something she had never done before she decided to take a visit to Number 4 . When she arrived at the door she wasn't really sure what she was doing there . But she took a deep breath and knocked on the door . A few minutes later Mrs Dursley pulled open the door .
Whoever Mrs Dursley had expected to be on the other side it had not been Mrs Albot . "Hello Mrs Albot ." she said in a voice that poorly concealed shock . "Hello er – Petunia" Mrs Albot hoped she had gotten her name right . "Oh Please call me Jenny ." she said . Why had she come here ? What was she going to say ? "I was just ummnm wondering if you would like to come over to my house for dinner ?" Where had that come from . If Petunia looked shocked before it was nothing to how she looked now . "I um that would be lovely ." said Mrs Dursley smiling nervous but happy smile . "I uh – when ?" "Saturday maybe ? You bring the whole family ,Vernon and the two boys ." "t-t-t-two boys ?" she sounded alarmed . "Yes Dudley and Harry ." "But why ." Petunia seemed to catch herself and clapped her hand over her mouth . "Id just love to catch up ." "I er- umm okay ." "Ill see you then ."
...
Marie was sitting on her bed reading when she heared her mother calling her . "Marie Sweetheart , could you come down here for a moment ." Marie heaved herself out of bed and walked leisurely downstairs . "Yes ?" "Sweet heart , do you remember the Dursleys ?" "Er- no ." "Dont you remember , Dudley and Harry were in your primary school class ." Marie nodded slowly wondering where her mother was going with this . "Yes well Ive invited them over for dinner ." "But why ." said Marie horrified .She vividly remembered Dudley . He had been the bigest bully she had ever met . Hanging people upside down punching them in the face . Marie had not seen Dudley properlly since last Summer . He had been even worse last year leering over her . It was sickning . He would beat up people half his age , smoke and drink . He was also abou the size of killer whale . But then near the end of the Summer something had changed . Dudley had just stop being Dudley . Some people said that his cousin had done something to him . Nobody knew exactly what his cousin had done . Considering Dudley was twice maybe three times his size . But the rumor was Dudley and Harry had walked home together and for the next month Dudley was pale and jumpy . Of coarse nobody had seen Harry Potter do anything , nobody had seen Harry Potter properlly in years people only ever caught glimpes .
There were rumors about where he had disapeared to . Apparently his realatives had shipped him off to a boarding school . "I am inviting them to dinner because they are our neighbours . " "Thats no reason why don't we invite Mrs Fig over !" "Because I already invited them over ." "So un-invite them !" Marie pleaded "Come on Marie , don't you want to reminise about your primary school days ?" "No" "Marie the Dursleys are coming over here and thats final ." Marie scowled and stormed upstairs . She flung the door to her room open throwing herself down on her bed . She was not looking forward to an evening of talking to a piggy little bully and his cousin . She stood up and walked over to the bookcase . She pulled out a very old very crinkled scrapbook . Marie hadn't looked at this book in five years . She flipped through it and found her primary school class pichture . She soon found what she was looking for . There was her class from five years ago smiling up at her . She saw her own eleven year old fae smiling up at her . Her brown curly hair was put up in a very high pony tail and her teeth still had that gap before her braces . She looked through all her old classmates .
There was Dudley giving a piggy grin at the camera surrounded by his gang . Harry was standing off to the sides . Unlike Dudley ,who's clothes always looked as if they were one size too small no matter how big they were , Harrys clothes looked several sizes too big for him . Infact he was wearing a massive belt to hold up his pants . His glasses were being held up by alot of sellotape . Marie felt a stab of guilt hit her . Harry had no friends in school . Not because he wasn't nice because Dudley and his gang hated Potter . Nobody disagreed with Dudley and his gang .
The boy had been downright harrassed by that gang beaten and teased . It wasn't just the gang the whole class soon caught on to teasing Harry . They used to sing a little chant about him.
Wee Weee Potty ,In his baggy clothes . He is snotty I bet he picks his nose Skinny scrawny wee wee boy No new friends and not a single toy Broken glasses and sellotape I think his hair makes him look like an ape !
Another wave of guilt washed over Marie .She really should have tried to make friends with him . Maybe she should apologise , but what would she say ?
Hi Harry havent seen you in what six years ? Listen sorry for tormeting you with the rest of your class . So how have you been ?
Marie shook her head . No that wouldn't work . She looked back down at the picture and sighed this was really going to be an awkuard dinner ...