(A/N: And I bring you yet another installment in the 'Changed Perspectives' series. Still with the Dursleys of course, but then I think you knew that. I haven't changed any of the warnings and if you haven't read the other two stories that go with this then I suggest that you do, I'll wait. Ok, good your back. I don't own Harry Potter and I never will. I hope that you all like this; I know that people sometimes can't fathom the Dursleys being good people, but for the sake of this story I want them to be. And if the Squib thing bothers you then you probably should have left already.)
Changed Perspectives 3: Life with the Dursleys: Part 2
"Come on Dudley, please?" Harry pleaded, his bony hands wrapped together in a little gesture of prayer as his large green eyes fixed on his cousin and best friend. They were both six years old and it was a warm but breezy day late in August, they would be starting their first official year of primary school in just a few days. They both knew their letters and could write simple words quite easily because of the kindergarten they had attended, Dudley still struggled with numbers sometimes, but that was due to number specific dyslexia—not that either boy knew what that was. But even so early in their school careers, both children had been the victims of bullying; Harry because he was frail and nearly as small as a four year old and Dudley because he was overweight and bigger than most nine year olds.
However, neither of them truly cared, because Harry had Dudley to protect him with sheer physical presence, and Harry could talk circles around anyone who would insult Dudley—they only ever used words with Dudley, he was far too big and strong to threaten. Their teachers and day care attendants knew that both boys had medical conditions and often chastised the other children for their behavior, but everything seemed to roll off of them like water off a duck's back anyway. Vernon and Petunia did not worry for either boy so long as the two were together.
"Harry we can't. Mum will have my hide if she knows that I let you burn up your energy. Let's just play Nintendo. You're finally growing, don't you want that?" Dudley said, his words deflating Harry at once, it was a speech that Dudley had learned from Petunia ages ago. They were always careful about letting Harry have too much playtime and he had already had the half hour that he was allowed earlier that morning. It was incredible that the tiny boy had any energy at all left over, but Dudley would stand his ground and protect his cousin, even from himself.
"Well then maybe you can just practice some of those wrestling moves and I can watch you? I can maybe tell you if you aren't doing it quite right?" Harry was desperate to stay outside in the fresh air and to not go back inside where he knew that Aunt Petunia had another potion waiting for him. It wasn't that he didn't want to get better, it was that his potions, Nutrient Potions, tasted like broth, and he hated broth. The ones that he had been taking lately were vegetable flavored and gave him 250 calories, whatever those were. He knew that Chicken was 500 calories and that if he needed Beef flavored that it was a full 1000 calories and something had gone very wrong that day. Once and only once he had been given Pork flavored potion a 2500 calorie dose and what a normal adult was supposed to eat in a day. He had been unable to stand up or open his eyes and couldn't move anything more than what was required to swallow the drink.
"That's fine. I can do that. Go sit on the garden bench," Dudley said with a relieved smile. He would get the extra exercise that he needed to burn away some of his unnecessary weight and Harry would sit still long enough to maybe gain some. For as long as he could remember, he had loved wrestling and once he had been able to play wrestling with Harry, but those days were over and so Harry had become his coach. Someday Dudley wanted to be part of a school wrestling team, but he didn't know if he could bring himself to apply when he knew that Harry would never get to participate in Rugby like he had always wanted.
Harry placed himself on the bench and glanced up at the kitchen window; Aunt Petunia was in the kitchen like always when they were out in the back garden to play. Today though, he knew that she was polishing the pewter cauldron that she had received from Harry's mother Lily when they had discovered that Petunia could still brew potions. She was decent at the art; Harry knew that she could never be an expert because she was a Squib, another word that Harry didn't fully understand. But she was able to make the Nutrient Potions that made sure that Harry was able to grow a little bit. No one had ever told him why they didn't just give him enough to make sure he would grow, but he understood that it was important that someone somewhere thought he was going to stay small.
Dudley was stretching out, his legs were actually quite long and though he was large, he made the movements of any exercise look almost graceful. It was true that when they were really young, neither of them could control their strength, but now that they had gotten bigger, or maybe because Dudley knew how fragile Harry could be, the blonde boy had become very gentle. On a number of occasions he had lightly picked Harry up and carried him into the house because exhaustion had struck in the middle of playtime. He handled Harry like a china doll and perhaps if anybody at school ever worked that out, they might think to challenge Dudley to a fight. But as Harry watched Dudley perform a perfect elbow drop on a cushion from a lawn chair, he knew that if needed, Dudley could stand against an army of bullies.
"Turn your left foot a little bit more to the right," Harry advised when he noticed that a lunge was upsetting Dudley's balance and making the move ineffective. It was meant to be a shoulder takedown, but Dudley didn't have anyone or anything to practice on so he just went through the forms. One day, when he was old enough—or maybe sooner give how much bigger he was than kids his age—Dudley would make a champion wrestler. But Harry knew that he was going to have to convince his cousin that Dudley's participation would be good enough for both of them.
After an hour of practice, with minor corrections from Harry now and again, Aunt Petunia called them into the kitchen for dinner. Harry sighed when he noted that the glass that had been placed next to his plate was full of the Chicken flavored 500 calorie potion. Dinner was veggie lasagna with a side of corn off the cob, a representation of the diet that Aunt Petunia had imposed on the family for Dudley and Vernon's sakes. Harry was allowed snacks and candy when he could stomach them, but otherwise made up the calories in potions and slightly larger portions.
They ate mostly in silence, the food was delicious and Harry had a second helping of the lasagna which put a big smile on Aunt Petunia's face. Dessert was apple wedges with blueberry yogurt sauce or peanut butter, and by the end of it Harry was quite full, though he could tell that Dudley and Vernon were still hungry. The diet would fail before long, no matter how delicious the food, if hunger started gnawing at them. But Harry kept his fingers crossed that maybe it would work and they would get everyone back to where they were supposed to be.
(A/N: I don't think that was a great ending to the chapter, but by no means is it an end to this particular story. I will most likely carry this one up to the start of his time at Hogwarts and there will probably be a separate, very long running story, time wise, not chapter wise, that will cover the summers between his Hogwarts years. There are going to be quite a few differences from the books, but hopefully the story I tell is satisfying enough to allow those differences to be accepted.)
