You guys are amazing I've had such a good response to this chapter you've all inspired me to write in almost a frenzy, I actually finished writing the chapter the day after posting the last one but I had an exam to study for so didn't have time to type it up. But it's all done now so, here is another chapter. The Dursleys
When Harry and Severus arrived in Privet Drive, Harry took a deep steading breath and would have started walking but Severus stopped him.
"Before we go, I realised that although you know that I knew your mother, you might not know how."
"Your dad knew her name, so I figured you were friends." Harry shrugged, he had known Severus would tell him when he was ready.
"We met a few years before Hogwarts, she lived on the other side of the park from us. We were best friends until we had an argument in school and I called her a foul name, which I regretted as soon as I uttered it. But the damage was done, it drove a wedge between us. We we're beginning to reconcile before she died."
"She was your best friend?" Harry repeated. "Do you think she would have been happy for us?"
Severus smiled. "She would have been thrilled."
"Even though I'm married at seventeen?"
"Lily was married a few days before her eighteenth birthday, so she would have no room to object. Also, we are soul mates, which is so rare it is revered. Even your father would have been happy for us. No doubt Lily would have bullied us both into being nice to each other."
"Harry laughed. "That would have been fun to watch."
"James wasn't in anyway nice to me in school. But he was good to his friends and he loved Lily and you fiercely. I believe he grew up after he left school, being an Auror will do that. Perhaps in time we could have been friends. After all, I was as much of a shit to him as he was to me." Severus admitted.
That made Harry laugh again.
"However, there is something you have not considered. If I lived near Lily, then I lived near Petunia too. We did not get on, it is likely she will not be pleased to see me."
"That makes two of us. Thank you for telling me. Would you tell me about my mum sometime? Everyone talks about my dad, no one ever told me about mum."
"Of course I will."
"Great. And, I just thought of something else."
"Oh? And what would that be?" Severus asked.
"At some point, we have to contact Sirius and Remus. I don't think Albus ever contacted them about the swap."
"Joy of joys." Severus teased. "Shall we get this done and get back to our family?" He asked.
"When we get back to school will we be able to use our new names?"
"We'll have to talk to Albus."
Harry nodded, "That's fair."
The house was quite when they knocked. To Harry's surprise it was Dudley who opened the door.
"Hi Dudley."
Dudley smiled widely at them. "It's good to see you. Looking good there Harry."
Harry grinned back and gave Dudley a proper look over. "So are you. How much weight have you lost?"
"I just passed five stone or seventy-five pounds if you want me to be exact."
"Congratulations! Is this what you were doing last summer? I wondered why you didn't come home last holidays."
"Yeah, my girlfriend told me I either lost weight or I lost her."
"Good for you." Harry complemented. Dudley was still a bit over weight but looked so much better than he ever had before.
Dudley shrugged. "She left me anyway, but I got the better end of the deal. Did you both want to come in?"
"Please, sorry I should have introduced you. Severus, this is my cousin Dudley. Dudley this is my husband Severus."
"Nice to meet you, and congratulations. I know we haven't always got on Harry, but I thought you would have invited me to your wedding." Dudley sounded upset and disappointed although he tried not show it.
"We were married last night Dudley," Severus explained. "It was a spell that identified soul mates and bound them. It was unplanned yet not unwelcome."
"Well that's ok then." Dudley's smile was more genuine now.
A cry from the kitchen startled them. "We better go in." Dudley said with a sigh. "I'm only visiting for the day and mum keeps giving me food."
He led them inside and opened the kitchen door just as his mum was walking towards a small baby with what looked like a bottle of tea.
"Don't give her that mum. She only drinks milk and water." Dudley said firmly picking up the little girl from her carry chair.
"A bit of tea won't do her any harm. Babies like sweet tea." Petunia insisted trying to take the child from him. She hadn't seen the others in the doorway yet.
"It's really bad for them mum. I took a whole set of classes on nutrition for her."
Petunia snorted. "What do they know?"
"I don't know mum, what could a trained professional who specialises in babies' health and nutrition possibly know. Come in and sit down you tow, distract her while I make a proper bottle."
It was only then she noticed Harry and Severus hovering by the doorway.
"What are you doing here? You're not welcome here for Christmas." She snapped nastily.
"Don't worry, I'm spending Christmas with my family. I only came to introduce you to my husband. Well, re-introduce you. I believe you already know Severus."
"You can't be married, you're too young and I haven't signed anything to give permission, and I won't. It's unnatural."
"Well according to you the rest of me is unnatural too, so what's new." Harry shrugged uncaring.
"Hello Tunny, I'm afraid there is nothing you can do about our marriage. Magic itself has consecrated our union."
"You should have been put down at birth, both of you."
"And what if Rose ends up being magical?" Dudley asked, his voice low and dangerous.
"That's not going to happen, our family is normal."
Dudley had been feeding baby Rose while he listened to his mother rant. Now he put her on his shoulder to wind her.
"That's not how magic works Tunny, you should know that. Your own sister had magic and you did not. You always hated her for that, would you have killed your own sister?"
"Well I didn't need to, did I?" Petunia snarled. "Someone did it for me."
"So if Rose ended up magical, you'd rather her dead?" Dudley asked again.
"Yes!" she snapped turning to look at her son, faltering, whatever she had been going to say dying on her lips.
Dudley looked furious. "I won't have Rose in an environment where she has to be afraid of being disowned or worse for being who she is. She deserves better. I won't have that kind of discrimination and bitterness in her life. You were a horrible parent and I refuse to let you do to her, what you did to me. And God forbid what you did to Harry."
"I always gave you what you wanted." Petunia defended.
"Exactly, you gave a child what it wanted, all the time, when you should have been giving it what it needed. It's taken me a year to start undoing the harm you've done, and I still have a long way to go."
Petunia was gobsmacked, her mouth flapping like a fish out of water.
Dudley turned to Harry. "Did you need to stay any longer or shall we go together? We could go for dinner and catch up properly."
Harry grinned, proud of his cousin and how much he'd grown up. "I've done what I came to do. Aunt Petunia, thank you for the house space, such as it was. I'm sure you can tell Uncle Vernon I came by to let you know I'll never come back."
"And where will you go? What will you live on? Beg I suppose."
"Tunny, didn't you know, the Potter family is extremely rich and so is my family on my mother's side. Harry will never want for anything. And neither will anyone he cares for," Severus said looking meaningfully at Dudley and Rose. "Shall we go love?"
Harry took the offered hand. "Sure, but how safe if apparition for the baby?"
"Good point, Dobby?"
"Yes Mr Princely Sir." Dobby said from behind them.
Only years of practice stopped Severus from jumping. "Are you able to take Dudley and little Rose to the Leakey safely?" He asked.
"As safe as eggs is eggs."
Harry laughed at the exuberant little creature. "Do you have everything Dudley?"
"Ready when you are." He said bravely.
"Hold on to Dobby's hand and we'll see you in a second."
"Alright little man, Lead on." Dudley said holding out a hand.
A moment later they were gone.
"Are you ok to go back, I'll follow you in a sec." Harry asked not taking his eyes off his aunt.
"If you're sure." Severus gave Harry a quick kiss and was soon gone too.
"Why did you stay?" Petunia asked confused. "Going to kill me before you go, or gloat."
"Not at all. I will encourage Dudley to stay in touch with you. But I recommend you take a good long look at yourself and the way you treat people different to yourself. I think you need some counselling, I can find you someone you can talk to about magic without worrying. Harry offered.
"Why would you help me?" She asked in a small voice.
"Because I know what it's like to not have a mother or any parents at all. I should have at least had a mother figure, but you never wanted me. I get that having a kid literally dumped on your doorstep is a shock, but a kid is still a kid. I hope you can better yourself and be a decent grandmother to Rose, even if she does have magic. Either way, she'll have her uncle Harry and a whole host of family to support her, and Dudley for that matter. If you want to send me a letter, call for Dobby. I promise I'll answer any questions."
When Petunia didn't answer, Harry aperated away, back to his family.
If anyone would like to buy me a coffee that would be awesome :D. /mrscake