Chapter Three: The Hardest Part
Vernon's big therapeutic breakthrough and realization came first - in part, perhaps, because there wasn't as much past emotional baggage concerning magic holding him back.
"So your main issue with these girls and their magic is that they're not normal?" Ms Anthony confirmed.
"Exactly! Witches and imagination and magic aren't normal!" Vernon insisted.
"But Mr Dursley," said Ms Anthony, blinking, "on every level, that isn't true."
"... What?" said Vernon, staring.
"Every major human advancement that has ever been made even among Muggles, including in subjects like philosophy and science, stems back to imagination," said Ms Anthony, frowning. "And if there is a huge population of wizards and witches out there, obviously we are normal. You just had an incomplete awareness of what normal is. I mean… we're not a cult. We have whole complex international societies.
"Even the Muggle idea of witches has been around and widely spread since medieval times at least. It was just usually treated with hails of fire. That makes it despised, but not abnormal. The two are different things."
Vernon realized he had no idea what to say to this.
"Mr Dursley, I believe you are such a slave to what you think is normal… that it has blinded you to the truth," said Ms Anthony plainly. "These girls have a mutation allowing them to manipulate matter and they come from a foreign culture. That's it."
Vernon's mind strained back. That couldn't be it! But he realized in disbelief… that it was. All these weeks of talking and technique trying, watching the girls be quite normal small children from a distance, and in the end that was all he could come up with.
"They're just little girls. Small children," Ms Anthony emphasized.
"I… I really have become such a slave to normality that I didn't see that?" said Vernon quietly, frowning. "But - I still think of magic and I feel uncomfortable, nervous! Why?"
"You tell me," said Ms Anthony. "What have we discussed about you over these sessions together?"
"My need for control," said Vernon quietly. "My all-consuming need for control… right down to neatness. I was trying to control them," he realized quietly. "They make me nervous because I can't."
"But think of it this way," said Ms Anthony. "If your son Dudley, heaven forbid I'm sure, started smoking cigarettes as a teenager, would you really have full control over that either?
"... Well why should spurts of surprise, inconvenient magic be any different? It's true, they shouldn't suppress their magic and can't always control it. But if they misbehave with their magic, isn't that the same thing?"
There had to be something wrong with that argument - but Vernon reached back and found there wasn't. Ms Anthony was right. That was all that was different about these little girls - who might, after all, as he and Ms Anthony had discussed, grow up to be nothing like their parents.
"They're just daughters," he realized. He looked up. "They're my daughters," he said next, "they are now, and I haven't been treating them that way. I've been treating them like lepers, or extensions of their father."
"Quite ironic," said Ms Anthony. "Are you an extension of your father?"
"No," said Vernon firmly, and that was when he realized just how awfully he had been behaving. "I have to start treating them like they're really my daughters," he realized.
Ms Anthony smiled.
"That's the breakthrough I was hoping for," she admitted. "And as for your sister?"
"... Yes, that story has to change," Vernon admitted, feeling a little ashamed of himself. "I've been an ass.
"And, of course… more discipline for all five children is logical. We've talked about that, but you don't really have to convince me. I hate entitled people. How can I have been so stupid and blind?"
"We all make mistakes," said Ms Anthony softly. "Especially when loved and hurt. So you're okay with them being magical and imaginative, in a basic sense… it only makes sense when really examined… and as witches?"
"I suppose the gender roles could let up a little," Vernon muttered begrudgingly. "I do want people to grow to their abilities and desires and future. I guess I just… won't force them into either box. Feminine or not feminine. Magical or not magical."
Vernon saw this as a workable compromise. Ms Anthony decided not to enlighten him that it was what most feminists had been asking for all along.
Petunia's breakthrough was harder and more emotional, because it involved her childhood and her sister.
"I just can't let go of it. They'll grow up to be just like their mother. Just as beloved, and they'll abandon me and they'll go off to a life I can't reach, and -" Petunia's emotional voice was growing increasingly higher. "And what if I do grow to love them? What if Dudley feels pushed aside like I did?"
"Now let's unpack this," said Ms Anthony. "You've done well at the anger and spoiling suppression techniques, and you're doing much better with Dudley when realizing your previous behavior was bad for him."
"Of course. I love my son and I want him to be healthy and happy," said Petunia earnestly. "If that means more discipline, not a problem. And of course, those girls. I'm never spoiling them. Not like Lily was." Her face twisted. "They have absolutely no need of it," she declared.
"That's fine," said Ms Anthony. "So you're saying they'll grow up to be perfect like their mother. Statement one. First, you don't know that. They could grow up with plenty of flaws. Second… was your sister really perfect? After all, you didn't like her. She must have made mistakes."
Petunia opened her mouth - and closed it again. "But my parents -!" she said at last.
"Yes, there is that. But, I would like to point out… you probably won't ignore Dudley if you're determined from the beginning not to," said Ms Anthony. "It's the people worried about being good parents who usually don't have to worry, especially with your recent improvements. It doesn't mean you have to hate his surrogate sisters. Make sure they all know they're valued.
"In fact, make sure Lily's daughters don't turn into you. I realize on a vindictive level it would be satisfying, but think of how you felt. Do you want Dudley's sisters to feel that way about him? Or themselves?"
Petunia paused in surprise.
"Dudley should have a good relationship with the girls he grows up with," said Ms Anthony bracingly. "It would be good for him and for them. Make sure they love each other, instead of fight. You of all people should know how emotionally painful that can be. And make sure they are disciplined but loved.
"Which leads me to your final assertion. That the girls will abandon you and go to a place you can't reach."
Petunia swallowed and looked down, angry tears in her eyes.
"As a sister, this was difficult," Ms Anthony admitted. "But as a mother… wouldn't it be different? Isn't a mother supposed to be an important part of a child's growth and life?"
Petunia looked up, her eyes wide.
"You may not get to be a talented witch… but how about nurturing and helping to create four?" said Ms Anthony, smiling. "Four very different and powerful witches with incredible careers?"
Petunia looked like she was giving this genuine surprised, uncertain thought. "I did always want a daughter…" she admitted slowly. "Someone to be girly and classy with… I love being girly and classy in the same way I love gardening… And it would be nice, raising four witches with so much more than what I had…"
"Looked at in that way - are they really dirty? Really so terrible?" Ms Anthony asked searchingly.
This was difficult to admit even now. "... No," Petunia admitted with difficulty, swallowing. "No, I just - I was just angry. Because I was jealous," she forced out in fury.
And then once she'd said it, it was like something inside her had melted away. She breathed easier; a weight had been lifted off her chest. She'd admitted it, and something inside her had lifted.
"I was just angry and jealous," she breathed again, smiling and breathing deeply, feeling lighter than she had in years. She looked up.
"Now try thinking of them again," said Ms Anthony. "The girls."
"... Some of the pain is still there," Petunia admitted. "But the anger is gone. I… I realize this could be an opportunity and I need to see them more as my daughters."
"That's all I ask," said Ms Anthony with a small smile. "No motherly love forms overnight, contrary to popular belief. From here, you can get to know them without undue prejudices and grow to love them over time.
"The hardest part is over. You're even doing quite well with your new money, staying level headed, keeping busy. Now is when I would encourage the whole family starting to come together - sometimes with Marge, sometimes not - and maybe a lot less of the nanny."
"Yes. If I'm really going to raise them well alongside Dudley… servants may be needed but a nanny should not be," Petunia admitted.
It was a huge step forward. The family would be coming together at last.
Author's Note: Now is when the Potter girls, Dudley, and Marge get more involved. Lots of yummy family interactions on the way, and our first real glimpse of the Potter girls. Fun things together with increased funds to come. Everything has now been set up.
I have a strange emotional relationship with posting right now. Updates will happen but be weird and sporadic; chapter lengths may vary wildly.
