Chapter 2: Defensive Measures
About thirty minutes into hanging the signs I get approached from the right by a pretty brunette girl and a sandy haired boy.
"Hello. My name is Ivy, are you new around here?" the girl asks.
"Yes, my aunt just moved my cousin and I here. She's divorcing her husband, terrible fellow, big, kinda looks like a walrus." I say as I work.
"What do you mean by terrible?" the boy asks, "I'm Lucas, by the way, Ivy's brother."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Iris." I tell them. "As for what I meant...well Uncle Vernon loves to get angry and take that anger out on people who honestly did nothing wrong."
"How bad was it?" Lucas asks nervously.
"I am his favorite punching bag so he didn't punch my cousin or aunt, though he was definitely setting my cousin up for failure down the line." I grab the next sign from my bag and walk to the next post I'm going to be putting one on. As I work Ivy and her brother follow along. "My aunt managed to get us out of there last night. She had us pack all our stuff as her soon to be ex husband was sleeping."
"Are you hurt right now?" Ivy asks in a worried tone.
"Nothing I haven't been though before." I say in a slightly blank tone.
"Should you be doing that? Do you want us to do that?" Lucas asks, gesturing at the signs. "If you overwork yourself while your injured you might get infections or cause permanent damage."
"I'll be fine." I say as I continue, only to have the power tool taken from me by Ivy as Lucas grabs the rest of the signs and screws from my bag. "Hey!"
"You just tell us where to put them, we'll hang them for you." Ivy says, "No arguments."
"I can–" I start to say
"No arguments." Ivy repeats and I sigh before pointing at the next post. The signs get done an hour and a half later and I take the power tool before sighing a bit.
"Would you two like to come inside for something to eat or drink? I'm not sure what we have at the moment but its the least I can do for you helping me." I say and they smile.
"Sure." Ivy says and I lead them to the house. We arrive in the kitchen right as Aunt Petunia apparently gets done making some fresh lemonade.
"Ivy, Lucas, this is my Aunt Petunia." I say to the two I brought with me, "Aunt Petunia, this is Ivy and Lucas, they helped me hang the signs so I offered them something to drink."
"Of course dear. Lemonade?" she asks and the other two quickly agree to some. As she's pouring the cups she asks, "So what brought you two over?"
"Our mum saw your car in the driveway and sent us to greet the new neighbors." Lucas says.
"Well its nice to meet you both, thank you for helping Iris put up those signs." Aunt Petunia says with a smile as she hands us each a glass.
"It wasn't a problem." Ivy says.
"We were just helping out." Lucas adds before Dudley comes rushing in.
"Mum, dad just arrived." he says worriedly.
"Ok, call the cops, Dudley." Aunt Petunia says as I set my glass down on the counter and she turns to look at me, "Iris?" I look at her and she gives me a small smile, "There is an intruder on our property, please be ready to shoot."
I nod before rushing up the stairs and into my room. I pull out my favorite bow and a quiver of arrows as I hear Lucas and Ivy enter. I grab an arrow and get it ready as I walk over to stand next to the open window. I see Vernon storm up to Aunt Petunia in a rage, waving the divorce papers in the air and yelling, "You think you can just leave me like that?"
Aunt Petunia looks at him unflinchingly and calmly asks, "Did you sign the papers?"
"You can't leave me! I won't allow it!" he rages.
"Did you sign the papers?" she asks again and he raises a fist to hit her, I pull back the bow string and let my arrow fly, shooting next to his head, close enough to barely graze his hair and make him jump. He looks at the arrow, then where it came from as I get another arrow ready. Aunt Petunia crosses her arms and says, "You are on private property with signs posted on the fence warning that trespassers may be shot. Did you sign the papers?"
"Yes but you aren't leaving me!" he thunders to which Aunt Petunia responds by snatching the papers from his hands as he continues, "How dare you have the freak shoot at me!" I shoot another arrow, this one coming close enough to just barely graze his ear before getting a third arrow ready. "I'm gonna make you regret that later Freak!"
I hear someone enter the room and glance back, finding Dudley standing there, he walks over to stand next to me, out of the way and says, "The police will be here in a few moments. I kept on the phone until the ETA was roughly three minutes."
I nod and look back down at Vernon. He keeps ranting for the next three minutes until the police pull in. When he sees this Vernon freaks out and tries to grab Aunt Petunia. I shoot him in the arm and he screams as he pulls away from her. She backs away and I load another arrow as the police approach.
"Ma'am, my name is Officer Daniels, may I ask if you know who is shooting the arrows?" the head officer says, she's a short lady with black hair and blue eyes.
"Hello, Officer Daniels, my niece is the one shooting." Aunt Petunia says, "She fired two warning shots before shooting his arm. She's been winning minor league archery tournaments for seven years, she knows what she's doing and has a permit to shoot her bow. There are warning signs along the property line that state that trespassers may be shot. The man is now my ex husband, I have the divorce papers in my hand, that makes him a trespasser."
"I will need to meet your niece." the officer says as two others arrest Uncle Vernon.
"Alright." Aunt Petunia says before calling up to my window, "Iris, please come down here and speak to the officer."
I put the arrow back in the quiver before climbing out of the window and down the side of the house, moving to stand next to Aunt Petunia as I say, "Hello Officer. My name is Iris Potter."
"Hello Miss Potter, can you confirm that it was you shooting the arrows?" the officer says politely.
"Yes ma'am. I fired the first warning shot when he went to punch her, it grazed his hair a bit and landed there." I point to the first arrow I fired. "I fired the second warning shot when I heard him call me a freak. I...react poorly to that word due to his treatment of me. It grazed his ear a bit and landed there." I point at the second arrow. "I shot him in the arm when he tried to grab my aunt. I saw that as a threat towards her and took action. I shot him in an area that should be rather easy to heal."
Officer Daniels writes down my description of the events before I walk over, pick up the arrows from the gravel driveway and inspect them as I return to the two females and the Officer says, "I am afraid that I'll be needing you to elaborate a bit on his treatment of you. How does he treat you?"
"He is severely abusive towards me to the point of me having several scars on several parts of myself." I tell her. "My face included." she gives me a confused look so I add, "I cover the scar on my face with makeup."
"Do you mind going in and removing the makeup so I can see please?" she asks and I nod before walking back into the house. I sigh slightly as I walk into the small powder room that's next to the kitchen's entrance. I close the door and remove the makeup that's hiding the scar on my face. I then cover it with my hand and walk back outside, lowering my hand and looking at the ground.
"Please look at me Miss Potter." Officer Daniels says and I look up at her slowly. She gasps at the jagged scar that runs from an inch above my right eye, across the eye, down my cheek and ends at my jaw. "Can you tell me how he gave you this?"
"He came home drunk one night and decided that it would be fun to take a razor blade to my face; he lives in Number 4 Privet Drive, in Surrey. The basement is...where he does most of my punishments and the smallest bedroom was mine, it still has blood from last nights punishment." I tell her before looking down again and asking Aunt Petunia, "Did you bring my makeup? I need to reapply it."
"Its in the bathroom attached to your room." she tells me and I walk into the house and up the stairs. I go into my bathroom, hearing Ivy and Lucas follow after me. I find my makeup and sigh before sitting on the counter and moving to cover the scar.
"Why cover it?" Ivy asks from the bathroom door. I glance back and she says, "Why cover the scar? Why do you feel the need to hide it?"
I hesitate before saying, "I was told to hide it."
"Who told you too?" Lucas asks.
I remain silent, turning back to the mirror and tilting my head, inspecting the scar before hesitantly saying, "You two don't have to act friendly. You can go if you want too."
"We aren't pretending. Something about you just...seems friendly." Lucas says.
"Seriously though, you have no reason to hide that around here. Many people will just take it as a sign that your tough." Ivy says, "Ditch the makeup for three days, you'll see what we mean."
I consider for a moment before nodding and saying, "Sure. Three days of no makeup."
"Cool, we should get home though, see you tomorrow?" Ivy asks and I nod in agreement before walking them to the door, where the police are just now pulling out of the driveway. They go home and I look at Aunt Petunia.
"We should get to work." Aunt Petunia says, "This place has a lot of work to get done. The fence needs mended a bit, the roof needs re-shingled, and some of the farm vehicles need fixed up."
"Alright, what would you like me to do?" I ask.
"Nothing dear, I told Rick that we needed his help already. You just take the day and rest." she says and I frown a bit, "You're injured and I don't want you straining yourself too much. Just rest for the day, you can work tomorrow."
"Alright." I say with a sigh before walking into the house and up to my room where I grab a book from my bag and lay on my bed, opening to the first page and beginning to read. By the time lunch rolls around I've finished reading my book. Aunt Petunia calls for me and I slowly make my way downstairs, finding that we are apparently eating with Rick and his family from last night.
Rick smiles at me before saying, "Hello Iris. This is my wife Serra and my daughter Anna."
"Nice to meet you three. I'm sorry about my attitude last night, I was in pain and exhausted." I say.
"And now?" Anna asks.
"Now I'm in pain and awake." I say as I take my seat.
We eat silently for a few minutes until Serra breaks it by saying, "I'm sorry if its a sore subject, but may I ask where you got the scar? It looks like you were fist fighting a bear."
"Vernon Dursley." I say simply as I as I take a bite of my sandwich.
"How often would he hurt you?" Anna asks in a concerned tone.
"As often as he wanted." I shrug, not wanting to continue this conversation.
Sensing this Aunt Petunia asks, "So, Iris, what would you like for dinner tonight?" I give her a confused look and she smiles a bit, "Its your birthday, you get to choose dinner."
"Oh, um...pizza?" I say and she nods a bit.
"Pizza it is, I'll run into town to get it later." she says, "Dudley, will you go with me when I do?"
"Sure mum." he says as I finish my sandwich. I get excused so I head upstairs and curl up on my bed, falling asleep quickly. I see that Petunia and Dudley will both agree to helping Loki and Anna already worships him so her parents will join out of loyalty to their daughter. I wake up to Aunt Petunia calling me down for dinner.
