AN: In order to get a third chapter out to you this week as promised, I have split the growing up chapter into two slightly smaller chapters. I had to do this due to injuring myself in a way that means I am unable to use a computer for more than a few hours a day. Because of this I have no way of knowing how long it will take me to write the next chapter, but I hope to have it up relatively soon, although I am now entering the last couple of weeks of sixth form/college and so I have a lot of activities planned with my friends that will also take time away from writing.

This is the first chapter of the 'growing up' portion of the story featuring Isabella's time with the Dursley's from the first day up until she is four and due to start Primary School, from then until Dudley's eleventh birthday should be covered in the next chapter and will feature a change to the Dursley family you probably won't see coming.

Anyway, on with the first instalment of Isabella's life with the Dursley family and the secret to her early understanding of magic.

Chapter 2 – In The Beginning… (Part 1)

On the second of November Petunia Dursley woke up and after pulling on a dressing gown and popping into Dudley's room to find him still asleep in his crib, she smiled to herself and quietly slipped downstairs to make breakfast for Vernon and herself before her husband had to rush off for work. After starting the food she opened the front door to collect the morning milk delivery from the porch, and froze, her eyes widened as she took in the sight of a baby girl wrapped in a dark purple blanket with the name Isabella sewed on it.

The girl's cherubic face was framed by locks of jet black hair, a curious and fresh looking scar shaped like a bolt of lightning adorned her forehead, her eyes were closed so Petunia couldn't see what colour her eyes were but what she could see was the letter and package clutched in the babe's small hand.

She took the basket back into the kitchen, setting it on the table and took the letter in her hands and cracked open the ornate wax seal, pulling out the parchment within, a sense of dread filling her as she realised the materials that had been used and where – or rather who – they had probably come from. A wizard, other than her sister. After a moments pause Petunia, fingers shaking with a kind of unconscious realisation of what the letter signified, unfolded the parchment and began to read the words etched in simple black ink.

Dear Petunia Dursley,

You may remember me (Albus Dumbledore) as the headteacher at your sister's school.

An involuntary snort escaped Petunia's lips, of course she remembered the name of the old man, according to Lily he was quite the famous eccentric, but all Petunia would ever remember was the man who had so kindly and yet so firmly rejected her wish to study magic with Lily at Hogwarts. The man whose school and world had enticed Lily away from her and turned her parents focus to her prodigy of a sister. The beautiful one, the powerful one, her sister the witch.

It is with the greatest sadness that I write to you today, I regret to inform you that your dear sister Lily and her husband James Potter have perished at the hands of Lord Voldemort on Halloween night. Your sister died protecting her daughter.

Tears flowed freely from Petunia's eyes smudging the ink on the page almost making the words illegible and yet she would never be able to forget the words now burned into her mind. Her sister was dead. She felt no loss for James Potter, but Lily…

I know that you and your sister have been in contact and that you are aware of the war and that Lily and her family have been in hiding.

I am sorry to ask this of you, but I need you raise Isabella as your own. I must ask that you tell her all you know about the wizarding world. I ask that she does not visit the magical world before she is ready for school as she is already being lauded for the defeat of Voldemort and her fame will likely grow, because of this it is best that when she first returns to the wizarding world she is accompanied by someone who can protect her from magical harm. The people are quite taken with her and are calling her the 'girl who lived' so as you can imagine they would more than likely mob her if she returned on her own.

I have placed a powerful protective ward, a series of blood wards, over your home using the protection Lily cast on Isabella to protect your family from the darker aspects of the wizarding world. It had to be you who took Isabella in as a blood protection is the most powerful that can be forged and as you and your son are Lily's, and therefore Isabella's, last living blood relations meaning that I can protect both your family and Isabella in a way that cannot be penetrated by any who wish you harm.

As long as you and Isabella reside under this roof no magical who wishes you harm will be able to find you – although it comes at a cost, you cannot leave for more than three weeks at a time until Isabella is eleven. If for any reason your family is required to move residences I will need you to inform me by writing a letter and sealing it into the envelope this letter arrived in, so that I can come and transfer the protection to your new residence without Isabella on the property.

I have included a small package containing photos of Lily and James that I hope you will pass on to Isabella.

I wish you the best.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster of Hogwarts, Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards

As she looked down at her niece in the basket, tears continued to fall down her face and silent sobs wracked her body. A soft cry brought her attention down to the baby below her and at that moment Isabella opened her eyes revealing the brightest emerald green orbs so reminiscent of his mothers that Petunia almost lost herself in her memories, taking the girl up into her arms as she stood there crying silently.

A short while later Vernon Dursley stumbled into the kitchen puffing and grunting when he realised he couldn't smell breakfast cooking.

"Petunia? What on earth is going – what the hell – who is that?" the man asked wondering who the baby in his wife's arms was. Even before he came close enough to see the baby in her arms Vernon knew that it couldn't be Dudley, after all the little tyke had been sleeping softly in his room when Vernon had poked his head in.

"Oh, Vernon, my sister and her husband are-are d-dead… t-t-they were murdered, by a terrorist." She whispered, "but their daughter, Isabella, survived." She gestured to the basket and the letter not trusting herself to speak much more for the minute. While she may not have gotten along with Lily like she had before Hogwarts and magic, but she was still her sister.

Never one to be good at comforting people Vernon awkwardly reached out to hug his wife and spoke up nervously.

"Hey, hey, it's all right, look take a deep breath and let's talk about this." He took the letter from Petunia, reading it his face turning purple by the second. Petunia pushed away from Vernon and began to comfort her niece, who had just cried out for her parents.

"How dare they… practically threatening us! If we don't keep this brat here, they won't stop those terrorists from coming after us! They're trying to confine us to this house without even asking if we want to take in a child, a literal freak of nature." Vernon ranted spittle flying in all directions as his anger built.

Grimacing Petunia swung around, baby in arms, to face her husband shock momentarily scarring her face at his candid attitude in the face of her only family's death.

"Vernon, please…" she began her tone steadying as her confidence returned, she knew how to work her husband.

"You'll wake Dudley!" she pleaded, well aware that her husband was about as likely to shout and scream at her as anyone else when he was worked up, but if he thought for a moment he'd disturb his precious son, well, he was far less likely to continue. It seemed to work, Vernon took a few deep breaths and the purple started to leave his face, although he was in no way calm Petunia could tell he would now be able to hold a conversation.

"Yes. Yes, your right, don't want to wake Dudder's…" Vernon muttered, "We'll keep her then, for Dudley's protection if nothing else."

Petunia nodded, her resolve building, if all they had to do to keep Dudley safe from the freaks of the world was keep her niece… well it was all she could do for the girl, she owed it to Lily after all to not toss her daughter out on the streets.

"Agreed, it's only until they come to take her back and… maybe, just maybe she'll turn out normal and I can have some link to my family -" Petunia held her hand up when Vernon went to interrupt his face screwed up in anger, "don't get me wrong Love, I know it's unlikely but… if I can save any part of her… it'd be worth it. I want to give her a chance."

The decision made, Vernon ate and left for work leaving Petunia to sort out a babysitter for the day while she went to file paperwork and buy baby things for their new little girl. For Petunia a chance at redeeming her niece was more than enough, even if nothing would come of it; and of course it wouldn't.

Minerva McGonagall was back at Privet Drive peering through the living room window from the patio table, appearing to all the world simply as a cat taking a nap. And yet she never once took her eyes off the newest baby being looked after by the young muggle woman Petunia had welcomed into the house earlier that day, until she had to leave and return to Hogwarts finally pacified that her favourite students daughter would be looked after.

As any normal child would Isabella missed her parents and made it known to the Dursleys many times within her first few months with them, which didn't help to endear her to her Aunt and definitely not to her Uncle. For the first few weeks Petunia had found her very easy to handle, it appeared that fighting off the killing curse had drained her to the point that she was very docile and spent much of the time sleeping and recuperating. Eventually once her magic had returned to normal, she was back to being a highly energetic child who was almost as difficult to handle as Dudley. But for very different reasons. While Dudley was a spoiled and whiny child, Isabella was a curious and adventurous girl who was very active to the point that the already tried and tested Petunia was on the end of her – admittedly short – tether with the girl.

For the first few months Isabella managed to avoid powerful bouts of magic, only minor things like disappearing dummy's and summoning toys, which Petunia tolerated uncomfortably. Even as babies Isabella and Dudley had a strained relationship with the two often competing over Dudley's toys as Vernon and Petunia refused to stretch to buying their niece anything beyond the necessaries of clothes and food.

After seven months however, Isabella started to experience more powerful accidental magic to the point where the Dursleys could no longer ignore it.

For Petunia the displays of magic brought up painful memories and years of spite and made it clear that her niece was already beyond saving, while to Vernon any act of magic served to remind him that a mere babe held more power than he would ever gain, and that there were forces out there he couldn't even begin to understand.

In short they considered it hell.

Dudley of course noticed none of this and was simply entranced by the beautiful colours his cousin brought into existence to play with, only further serving to aggravate his parents and then Isabella herself when he tried to play with her lights and yet wouldn't share his toys with her.

To begin with the lack of magical outbursts had seen the Dursley's treat her fairly well. She had a bedroom to herself and all the necessities for a baby such as herself other than toys, but once she started to showcase her magic it changed quickly. Petunia removed the regular copies of the magical photographs of Isabella's parents and allowed Vernon to move the child into the cupboard under the stairs. After all if the child was going to follow her parents in being different then they certainly weren't going to enable her freakish tendencies.

Up until the age of four when she started school, Vernon and Petunia ensured that Isabella Potter never knew her true name referring to her only as Girl, Freak, Missy and many other variations, while dragging her up to cook, clean and look after the house in as great a capacity as a child not yet four could manage never once showing her affection or love.

No matter how great the magic she showed Vernon never went further than being verbally cruel during those first few years, albeit far worse than his wife. Dudley on the other hand was encouraged to treat his cousin poorly and engage in roughhousing with her, learning quickly that she'd give as good as she got. Not that it deterred him. In fact he made it a habit to get her in trouble as often as possible.

To every other family in Little Whinging the Dursley family were the epitome of a normal family, mother, father and son with a high ranking job and a nice middle class life, just as the Dursleys wanted. Unfortunately the family of number four were burdened by the child of Petunia's sister who had been dumped on them after her no good parents died in a drunken car wreck, or so the story the Dursleys perpetuated led everyone to believe.

One of the neighbouring roads to Privet Drive housed the squib woman Arabella Figg who on Dumbledore's orders kept her ear to the ground for any news about the girl who lived, and yet as she came off to all those around her as a completely crazy old woman with a strange sense of dress and thirty or so too many cats, she never heard the stories told of the Potter family and in turn never came close to discovering the truth of how Isabella Potter was treated.

Life on Privet Drive was hardly ideal for any member of the Dursley family, yet they all muddled through each wanting for their lives to change and yet none of them truly willing to put in any effort to make the changes they wanted in life.

Vernon wanted nothing more than for his family to go back to its perfect state before the arrival of Isabella and yet he made no effort to include her in the family and instead alienated her even more, making his homelife even less ordinary - not that he really understood that.

Petunia wanted nothing more than for her family to be content without any conflict between them and yet she also wanted for her son to be protected and so allowed her only other blood relative to stay in her home and made no effort in her plan to reconcile her family, simply allowing the jarred family life she experienced to continue whether it could be sustained or not.

And of course spoiled little Dudley wished to have everything in the world and to never have to want for anything again in his life like any other child his age should.

And forgotten was Isabella Potter – or Girl – who wished for nothing more than a long lost relative to come and rescue her from her life.

AN: hi all sorry about this false update. I just reread the chapter and realised that I had left in a sentence at the end by accident, which I have now removed.