Chapter Four: Family Traditions
In addition to doing all the regular childcare items for all five children - feeding, helping to dress, diaper changing, bathing, potty training, disciplining - and doing them lovingly, Petunia and Vernon made an effort to introduce traditions.
Dinners together in the manor's dining room, but also tea-times every afternoon - with milk at the children's places at the table, tea for Vernon and Petunia. They read to the children as a big group before bedtime in the sitting room, took them out for ice cream in Surrey city in one of the long elegant cars with a driver, took them to the movies and the theme parks quite often, or sometimes out to a nice restaurant. They were quite strict on nice manners for all at the restaurants. They gave the children bike riding and swimming lessons, letting all five of them play around on bikes or in the indoor pool together.
Theater, ballet, and dinner parties were still a little out of a toddler's league, so for now they confined themselves to smaller family traditions. And of course holidays and birthdays were coming up, as was their first family vacation (to Spain), so more was on the way.
Then there was the childcare itself. Vernon and Petunia found it surprisingly easy to be tender with the girls during baby moments, even loving, and installed monitors in each little girl's bedroom. In their own quiet, dignified way, they began to care. They also found it surprisingly easy to be not spitting angry when it came to discipline. Disciplines usually consisted of timeouts and confinements to one's bedroom. And this began to apply not only to the little girls, but to Dudley.
The girls joined Dudley and Petunia on afternoons tending to the gardens around the estate - usually playing with Dudley, now much more freely and not violently, on the gazebo. Like Dudley, they began to joyfully greet Vernon when he got home, sit in his lap over weekend mornings with his newspaper and coffee, and watch him work out at the indoor gym. Petunia bought the girls lots of pretty dresses and introduced her children to French classical and ballet music, her hair pristine and her charm bracelets crinkling.
Dudley (large and sporty like Vernon, pink-faced and blond) was a naturally mischievous, rowdy boy, but under Petunia's increasingly strict and sharp, beady eye he confined himself to teasing, running around, and hair-pulling when playing with his sisters, who became quite indignant and ran right back over Dudley's laughter. He did grow to love exercise, running around and letting out pent-up energy, and he adored Saturday morning cartoons over sugary cereal.
Ophelia (black curls, green eyes) was a huffy, indignant, bossy sort of girl - strict on the rules, but also good at revenge. She was the one who would leave bugs and frogs on Dudley's head in retaliation for a slight or a fit of rule breaking. She did truly love story-time, and had such an excellent memory she was quickly quoting lines from her favorite storybooks right back at her surrogate parents. She was quite proud of this, and though Persephone and Morgana snickered and Dudley rolled his eyes (Io always seemed to be gazing daydreamily off into space), Petunia and Vernon strictly forbade anyone from ruining her pride over being intelligent.
Io (straight blonde hair, blue eyes) was a space cadet from the very beginning. She was very fond of relating fantastical daydreams, which she took great pains to show through drawing and (at Petunia's encouragement) painting and children's crafts. To her credit, she had genuinely interesting ideas and a fascinatingly vivid inner mindscape. So when she was staring off into space smiling to herself, it was sure to show up in her art later. She said the strangest and sometimes wisest child things with incredible matter of factness, and she enjoyed taking in hurt and sick animals - an act of compassion her surrogate parents encouraged despite their bewilderment with her artistic sensibilities and their hesitation at letting strange animals into their home.
Morgana (straight dark-red hair, hazel eyes) was the one most likely to have the fight instinct instead of flight - to roughhouse right back with Dudley, who was bigger than she was. She was a keen, underhanded little fighter, fierce and sometimes mocking in her egging someone on, provoking them, or in her humor. She had enormous spirit but also required strict discipline. Like Dudley, she loved playing outside. Her favorite thing became kicking around a football in one of the back gardens, and she was also a strong and keen swimmer.
Persephone (dark-red curls, blue eyes) did love clothes, but strange clothes. She and an exasperated Petunia were constantly arguing over her latest eccentric choice in outfit. Persephone could insist in furious fits of temper even as a little girl her right to wear anything she pleased, and could be loud and shrieking when she did not get her way. Petunia and Vernon had to put their foot down often on this note. But she did also love dancing and music, doing a strange, comical, and adorable version of a two-step every time she heard a beat. She loved classic rock which, according to Vernon and definitely not Petunia, simply meant "she had good taste."
They showed early signs of their abilities. Ophelia would often calmly and unexpectedly say what her aunt and uncle were thinking, sharp, quiet, and observant. Dudley and her sisters grew up used to this, but for Vernon and Petunia it was very discomfiting at first.
Io would sometimes stare blankly off into space with her mouth open - and then matter of factly announce something she had just seen was going to happen next Tuesday.
Morgana would sometimes ask her aunt and uncle unexpected, curious questions about the most emotional moments of their pasts, which could evoke a rather unpleasant surprise.
Persephone constantly and unexpectedly changed everything from her nose shape to her hair length and color, seeming to find it deeply and loudly funny when this startled someone in her family.
Petunia and Vernon didn't go against any of this, necessarily, but they made a cautious note. "You must control this and hide it from everyone else you know," Vernon told them all quite seriously one day, kneeling down to their level in the privacy of their manor. "No one else can know you do this. It's not bad, what you can do, but nobody would know what to think."
They nodded solemnly.
"So try to control how and when it happens - without getting rid of it," Petunia counseled and encouraged.
All five children grew up knowing there were no secrets in this household, but for Vernon and Petunia the whole thing took some getting used to. Still, the children were surprisingly quick to understand and became surprisingly good at keeping mum.
Slowly, the Potter girls began getting better at not showing their powers unless they were being contrary and they wanted to.
Petunia and Vernon watched in fond, amused exasperation as their now fully toddler children had tea-time one day. "You two, stop!" said Ophelia loudly, her eyes flashing, as Morgana and Dudley snickered and shoved each other at the table.
"I would duck if I were you two," said Io dreamily, and the two did just as Ophelia flung a wad of food at them.
"Hey!" said Morgana indignantly, scowling. Ophelia giggled.
"No, no, try like this," said Persephone, grinning, quickly and mischievously. She shifted her face, and all of a sudden it turned red like a devil's. The children shrieked and then laughed and clapped. Persephone turned back into herself, beaming.
Morgana suddenly turned to Vernon in surprise. "Memories of your sister?" she said curiously.
Vernon paused in faint surprise that she'd caught that.
"They're thinking about letting Aunt Marge come to visit us," said Ophelia matter of factly, looking between them thoughtfully. "Don't worry. What you're wondering about won't happen. We won't say anything about our powers."
"Yeah! Mum's the word!" Morgana insisted.
"Yup," said Persephone, bored, chin in her hand, half saluting lazily.
"I've already seen it. Everything will turn out fine," said Io, smiling serenely.
"Come on, Aunt Marge used to give the best presents!" Dudley moaned.
Vernon and Petunia looked at each other and smiled. "I think it might work," said Petunia.
"Well." Vernon sighed amicably. "Alright." He shrugged. "Let's give it a shot and see if we can't work a little family magic of our own."
The children cheered.
"Now, I'll say nice things about you," Vernon warned, "but you had all better be on your best behavior, or this won't work."
It was time to see just how independently Marge Dursley was capable of changing her mind about someone.
Author's Note: Someone left an anonymous review hoping for another chapter. I wasn't sure how to contact them to say don't worry, one is on the way. #AnonymousProblems.
