Notes: Sorry this took so long to have posted! Honestly though, this chapter might never have been seen by any of you if it wasn't for my lovely Beta and Muse, Stardom. Her review really inspired me to want to continue this story, so round of applause to her! This might have been out sooner if it wasn't for that nasty hurricane cutting off my power for so many days, but oh well. Here's the official chapter one, and I really hope you all like it! Petunia was hard to write, but I think I managed to make her slightly humorous? Not as great as Sirius (because he's just bloody awesome), but I had to let ya'll know the reasoning for her antics concerning her new "daughter"... Oh my. Please let me know what you think :)

A Trick with a Terrible Treat

Written by Shadow Hunt
Beta Read by Stardom and Darkowand

Chapter One– Petunia's POV

For several years now I have been married to a very handsome and husky man. I have one son, who's perfect, and a house on number four Privet Drive with a wonderful view of the rest of the neighborhood and it's occupant's windows.

Vernon's a brilliantly hard-working husband, who had just been promoted to Director of Grunnings, much to the envy of the ladies down the lane. I heard them gossiping about it one morning when I was closely examining the inside of a bush. It was a dying bush, I decided, and shame on the owner for not keeping their yard as perfect as mine. Still, I waited until I could make a clean getaway before I tip-toed back into my house to gleefully tell my husband.

Vernon and I had long since decided that we only wanted one kid so that we could spoil them with the full amount of our love and not have to divide it evenly. We had both been on the forgotten side of our own parent's affections since both our sisters were deemed perfect beings since birth. Though Marge, Vernon's sister, was later found a few pounds short of transcendental status due to her failing grades. Though in other areas, I suppose she might be more than a few pounds over... I doubt she'll ever find a man with her looking like that. Last time I recommended a new diet to her, Marge had- Oh never mind. The bottom line is, I got a new kitchen table after that.

Anyways, with her empire toppled, normalcy was restored to Vernon's household and he was given the things he rightly deserved. He had said he hadn't minded it being the other way though, since he was a boy and it taught him to be tough skinned and career-focused due to his thinking he'd have to fend for himself. Made him make the right choices too, such as marrying me.

Normalcy never occurred in my own home. Lily was always hailed as the perfect daughter, and I was left alone to make a family out of dolls. Mr. Hobby Hippo and Count Pumpkin made excellent tea time conspirators.

While I have to agree with my husband that my situation made me make the right decisions (like marrying him), I think that, since I'm a girl, I never took it quite so well as he. To this day I wouldn't mind turning back the clock and somehow make it so my rotten sister was never born with such perfect eyes and just as pretty red hair. I'd make sure she wasn't a... a that, too.

And since I wasn't a... that, like my sister (thankfully), I cant actually turn back time like she probably could. I wouldn't put it past her that she had gone back in time once or twice just to make sure I had the worst possible home life. What I did instead was swear that if I ever had a daughter of my own I'd make sure she wasn't treated as I was. And boy did I want a daughter! Dress-up had always been one of my favorite pastimes as a young girl.

I was, however, blessed with an angelic son one June, and we named him Dudley.

And thus life was absolutely perfect.

At least it was until the day I opened my front door one foggy Wednesday morning and saw a baby in a basket giggling at my shocked face. A happy baby, with Lily's green eyes.

I screamed.

"Petunia!" Vernon clambered down the steps in a muddled fashion. His shirt was still unbuttoned, and his prim blond hair was a mess. In other moments, I might think about kissing him. In this moment, I desperately wished I could slam the door shut and never step outside again. "Petunia what's wrong!"

What's wrong? Everything! Our perfect life was over!

I had to remain calm. Breathe in... Breathe out. Vernon was not one to be trusted when it came to making decisions through anger. The last time he had done so we ended up in London with no shoes and ten dollars to our name. I dare not recall the reason behind that fiasco.

Breathe in...

"Vernon, dear..."

Breath out.

Be wise, I told myself, but how did I tell him Lily's only child was on our front step without him going bonkers? Even I wasn't sure I was on stable ground! We didn't need another boy in the house, especially not one with bad blood.

He peered around my shoulder and started sputtering, "What is that... that thing doing there?" I had no answer for his question.

"It's my sister's baby, Vernon." I crouched down and fingered the pink blanket it was wrapped around. Wait- pink? Out of all the daft things I could remember Lily doing- which wasn't much, in all honesty, but I wasn't in an honest mood- this was the stupidest. I would have thought even the small amount of doll-playing my sister joined in on as a kid would teach her the proper boy and girl colors, but I suppose not. Why Lily was praised as a genius, I might never know.

A soft 'smack' was heard as Vernon's palm slammed against the threshold. "I knew something was happening! Those rotten Potters, having a baby and deciding to leave it to us to take care of just because they want to continue about doing what they want to do without a kid to hinder them. Good for nothings, we always knew they were!"

I nodded my head in agreement before I paused and replayed my husband's words. "I knew something was happening!" And then I realized that I should have been more suspicious yesterday evening when Vernon had asked me about Lily. We never talked about my sister! In fact, we mostly pretended I was an only child- just the way I liked it.

"Er - Petunia, dear - you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"

It was the previous night and I had just handed Vernon his evening cup of tea as he had sat watching the telly. I nearly dropped my own cup at his question.

"No," I had responded sharply. "Why?"

"Funny stuff on the news," Vernon mumbled. "Owls... shooting stars... and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today..."

"So?"

"Well, I just thought... maybe... it was something to do with... you know... her crowd."

Being reminded that my sister was one of those "funny-looking" people was not in accordance to usual small talk. My sister's family was our family secret, after all. Last time we had talked about them was right around Lily's wedding, when we were discussing what we should wear to stand out as the only normal ones at the event. To make everyone jealous, of course, that they weren't normal too. As it so happened, no one even tried to talk to us except for some gangly- and rather handsome- Mr. Black. They were all too green with envy to converse with us Dursleys, I was sure.

I sipped my tea through pursed lips.

"Their son – he'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't he?"

"I suppose so," said I stiffly. I idly wondered how I might be able to escape this conversation. Did my ickle little baby popkins need another lullaby? Maybe some milk?

Vernon looked pale. "What's his name again? Howard, isn't it?"

"Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me." Nothing like Dudley's. Vernon had heard the name use to be some royal knight's back in the day of old. It was the perfect name for my little Dudders. He would surely be very knightly when he got older.

"Oh, yes," said my husband with an odd, devastated sort of look. "Yes, I quite agree."

And that was the end of the talk before we went to bed, and now here I was, wrestling with Lily's son for the letter he held in his hand. The writing on the outside of the envelope looked as if it had been written with an old-fashion quill, more than that, by someone who had a lot of practice with said quill. I immediately wanted to burn it- I just knew that one of the funnies had written it- but Vernon made a good point when he said that it might tell us why Harry was left here.

Vernon crouched down next to me, and as we read, we came to realize quite a few things.

Lily was dead, as well as her husband James- murdered even. A friend had betrayed them to a dark man.

Harry, their son, was dead too. But here in my arms was Harry's twin sister Harley, who we were never told about because my sister had wanted at least one baby safely hidden to proceed them, if it came down to it. It explained the pink blanket at least, and made me think a little more highly of my sister, but only a little. Lily was still stupid for choosing murderers as friends- I swore I'd teach Harley better.

The girl had a lightning bolt mark on her forehead that she earned from killing the dark man who murdered her family, somehow. It was a rather gruesome looking scar since it was still so fresh. Perhaps some medicine might fix it up?

"We could give her to the local orphanage. Someone will buy that freak.", growled Vernon through clenched teeth.

And we tried, we really did. But every orphanage we went to would push us out as soon as we told them we wanted to rid ourselves of the abomination in our hands and showed our identifications to the front clerk. One, though, offered to adopt Harley herself, but the evil gleam in her eyes made me think something was terribly wrong with her. That was the only time we escorted ourselves out of the building.

About a day after our last try, we were sitting in the living room in horror thinking we'd have to take care of a little freak. My little Diddydums was all we needed- all we ever wanted!

Then I realized something quite suddenly.

"She might not be a freak, Vernon. Maybe Lily... Maybe she was too ashamed that her daughter wasn't a... that. Maybe that's why she didn't tell us about Harley. She could be normal..." It sounded so reasonable in my mind right then, like that was of course the real explanation.

Something in Vernon's eyes sparked and he took a closer look at the girl. "The neighbors would think we're kind people if they knew we took in your sister's kid. May say we're some sort of hero." Being the talk of the neighborhood always put more stride to our step, especially when it was praising gossip.

Like two thieves planning, we huddled together and started whispering of what do with Harley and how to go about showing her off.

"We got that cupboard under the stairs. All it does is collect dust. No one would know she slept there- wouldn't even take up space in our house!"

"I need to buy some dresses... and some tiny heels..."

"Teach her to clean when she gets older! Take the load off you, Petunia dear."

"Oh and a tiny purse! Everyone will be jealous of our Harley..."

"She can cook too. Eggs and bacon should be an easy thing for her! Maybe pancakes too?"

"I still have my old dolls. They're a bit ragtag though... I hear Toys-R-Us is having a good sale!"

Vernon blinked.

"Wait a minute now... I'm not buying her stuff!"

"I'm not sending a girl to daycare with torn dolls and old clothes, Vernon."

"Who said anything about daycare!"

"The neighbors would be suspicious if we only send our popkin!"

Vernon crossed his arms. I was right, and he knew it.

"This is starting to sound like an awful lot of money, dear."

"Just think, we'll be the talk of the neighborhood! Heroes, Vernon. Heroes!"

"Well I... I suppose it might be worth it..."

I smiled in victory.

When Vernon left for Grunnings that morning, I set to work on readying the cupboard for the newest member of the household. I would not have a little girl sleep in a dust infected space where diseases may be running amok! Girls were weaker against disease, and I certainly wasn't planning on paying for a hospital bill. I should have cleaned it years ago!

While humming, I completely forgot about Mrs. Next Door's blossoming affair with the babysitter, as well as Mr. Over There's new Ford. No, all that was on my mind was a certain little girl with big, big pigtails.


I'm super worried about how I did on this chapter... It's been so long since I wrote Harry Potter! Please review- even if it's just criticism, because that helps a lot more than you might think! :)