CHAPTER 2 – Age 4

It was Dudley birthday and he was playing in his playroom with his new toys. Petunia and Marie were also in the room. Petunia was taking pictures of her "darling dudleykins" opening his new toys. Marie sat in the corner of the room, jealously watching her cousin playing. She was at an age, where she was starting to realize the difference in treatment with Dudley and her.

Petunia heard the phone ring and she left the room. Marie continued to watch her cousin, but she was growing bored. "Dudley can I play?" she asked timidly.

Dudley started at his cousin and pondered for a minute. He too, was noticing the way his parents stayed away from Marie. He himself didn't know what was wrong with her. However, he was getting bored playing by himself and nodded.

Marie slowly walked towards Dudley and sat next to him. She took the blocks and started building a tall tower. Dudley, who was playing with something else, suddenly became interested in building a tower too. He stared at Marie's tall tower and became determined to build a taller one. After a few more blocks, he became frustrated and knocked down Marie's tower.

Marie, who was upset at Dudley, felt like yelling at him. However, she knew that she would get into trouble. So she simply went to other toy which was a jack-in-a-box. She sprung the coil and waited for the clown to appear. Dudley who lost interest in the blocks grabbed the box from Marie.

No matter what toy she played with, Dudley would come and take it from her. Tired of his behavior, she roughly grabbed the toy back. Dudley started wailing and Petunia came running in.

"How dare you?" Petunia shrieked. "How dare you steal Dudley's toys?" she grabbed Marie's hand and pulled her out of the room.

Dudley sat in shock, he knew that Marie didn't do anything wrong, yet she was scolded.

Later in the day, Dudley and his father and mother sat down to eat his cake. "Where is Marie?" he asked.

Petunia's face shriveled up, "Don't worry dear, she is being punished."

They next day, Marie was wiping down the windows and dusting around the house. Dudley sat in the front room playing with his toys. Marie stared longingly at his toys. Dudley saw this and ran up the stairs.

He looked into the depths of his toys bin and found an old stuffed rabbit. It was missing an eye and it became dirty. He stomped back down the stairs and threw the rabbit at her.

"I don't want it anymore." Dudley stated proudly.

Marie looked at stuffed rabbit and back to him. "Really? Can I have it?" she asked quietly.

"It's gross and old."

Marie smiled, this was the first toy she had ever received, "Thank you, Dudley." She ran up to him and gave him a quick hug. Then she ran to her cupboard and hid the rabbit away.

Dudley shrugged and went back to playing with his toys.

It became one of the few things she treasured from her childhood.