AN: When I was writing this, I tried to think of how someone who was consitantly near the bottom of the class in primary school, so much so that Harry was punished for cheating when he got higher marks. On top of that he is also overweight, but strong.

Now in my opinion someone like that would probably have avoided bullying by being the bully, but Vernon wouldn't have been able to avoid the questions about his poor grades. When I was in school at around the same time, I had certain problems in class that meant that I was classified as "slow", because of that I was put into a special class where we were taught different ways of approaching problems and how to use a phonetic dictionary. Years later I can look back and realise that my problems at school were probably more down to depression caused by Gender Dysphoria, but that's not what they knew at the time.

So you have this underachieving boy who's coping by eating and being the bully, and suddenly they get the news that their father has run away after putting their mother in hospital. They end up spending time talking to the School Counsellor about it, but the brief period between getting the news and his equibrilium back he quicly goes from the bully to the bullied. From observation and reading once a bully is in this position it's very difficult to become the bully again until there is someone new to bully.

Fast forward to Christmas and you could see the result that I outlined below.

Now in Canon, with Vernon there, his low grades probably just prompted Vernon to open his wallet, and any bullying problems would have been met with tough love.

Petunia woke up feeling rested the next morning in her new bed, she tried to remember when she came to bed, but was drawing a blank. The comfortable feeling of someone lying on her chest made her pause. Looking down she saw Karens hair fanned out over her chest while her hand gently cupped one of her breasts.

"Ceeley" she called softly

A soft pop, "Yes mistress."

"Did we fall asleep while meditating?"

"Yes mistress."

"Did you put us to bed?"

"Yes mistress."

"Why did you put us in the same bed?"

"Mistress said that Karen could move in tonight last night, and muggle TV says that when people say that they're moving in together they mean sleeping in the same bed."

"Thank you Ceeley, would you make both of us a cup of coffee?"

"Yes mistress" and there was a soft pop.

Petunia gently shook Karen, who mumbled "Just five more minutes mum."

"Karen, I need to get up."

"Mmmph, in a minute."

"Karen, please, I'm trying not to freak out here."

"Ok, Ok, I'm moving." Then she rolled over.

Petunia scrambled out of bed and perched on a chair, her arms around her knees as she tried to examine feelings.

As Karen rolled over, she opened her eyes languidly and then felt the bed on the other side of her move. She thought back to last night, nope they had nothing to drink, she hadn't gone out, she had spotted Petunia while she meditated, but being invited to move in last night was the last thing she remembered. Realising that waking up with another woman might not be on the top 10 list of things Petunia wanted to do this morning, she turned over and groggily sat up on the bed.

"Are you ok?"

"I'm… I'm not sure."

"Look, I didn't mean to end up in bed with you."

"It's ok, we both fell asleep while meditating and Ceeley put us to bed."

"Huh!" Karen intelligently uttered as her brain tried to reboot.

Ceeley popped in and handed both of them a mug of coffee.

"I didn't think you drank coffee."

"I don't typically, but it's something I used to do if Vernon had a bad night and I was up early the next morning. It allowed me to get through till everyone had gone before I had a nap."

"Look, I'm sorry, I understand if you didn't want me to move in anymore…"

"No, it's not that, I just don't know what to think. When I woke up I was comfortable, you were lying on me, and you just fit there. I don't remember the last time I woke up feeling comfortable when there was someone else in bed with me, and it's confusing me."

Ceeley pops in "Mistresses is silly, the heart knows what the heart knows, and you's magic now, so your magic knows what your heart knows. You's thinking big thoughts when the heart is all about small thoughts. Mistress will also need to be bathing soon otherwise mistress will be late for drive. Ceeley have breakfast ready when you come downstairs."

Karen breaks the silence, "She's not wrong. If there's one thing I've learnt while teaching her to read, they're not stupid. Simple maybe, but not stupid. When I was doing my degree, well one of them anyway, I met a lot of children like that, they understand a lot, but they struggle with abstract ideas. It's fascinating, as it allows them to get a very clear picture of some things, but then they just don't get the complexities of other situations that we take for granted. Wherever they developed, they probably didn't have the need to be able to do long term planning or it was selected against due to environmental factors. If they were human I'd probably put them on the Autistic spectrum somewhere."

"You've mentioned your degree before, and now you said you have more than one. How many do you have?"

"Three, the first was in Librarianship, and then I landed a job at the Little Whinging library, when it became clear that I had no chance of moving to a better library due to the rampant sexism in place, I did a degree in mythology. Finally, I completed a degree in child psychology last year, which I had hoped would allow me to move to a better position again. But it didn't help, and I don't think I'd take the position now if one was offered.

"Anyway we better be getting up otherwise we're going to be late, I also need to get home to get…"

Ceeley popped in with some clean clothes of Karen's "Ceeley has brought Missy Books some clean clothes for today."

"Ceeley"

"Yes, Missy Books."

"Just because I'm moving in doesn't mean that you can forget your lessons."

"Yes Missy Books… I… understand."

"Well done, it will get easier the more you do it."

"If she's Missy Books, what's your name for me?" Petunia enquired

"Missy Magic" Ceeley said in a tone that suggested that it was the most obvious thing in the world.

4 hours later she was in the outskirts of Canterbury following the local signs for Smeltings.

"Ceeley, do you want to give me Nixie back so that you can use your glamour?"

"Yes mistress"

"We're going to be in public, so you need to try and remember how to refer to me in public."

"Yes Mis… Aunt Petunia."

"When we get to the school, do you think you could check if we're close enough to home that you think you could pop there safely. Only if you think you can, could you see if there's somewhere discrete that we could apparate back to and then walk to the school from?"

"… I think I understand, mis… Aunt Petunia, you want to find a place where we can appear to have driven to?"

"Well done, that's it exactly."

"Ceeley… I think I can do that."

"Just do your best, don't worry if it's a mile or so away, it looks like it's getting congested here so I can probably say that I didn't want the problems with traffic."

Half an hour later she'd finally found a parking space nearly half a mile away from the school. As she got out of the car she commented to Ceeley, "I think you may end up being on the 'or so' end of that distance."

As she walked to the school Ceeley disappeared from the car in search of a discrete place to return to.

When she got to the school she went to the reception rather than waiting with the other parents. After showing her magically updated driving licence, the receptionist directed her to take a seat while she looked up Dudley's file, then made a phone call.

A short while later a middle aged man with slowly greying hair came through a door.

"Mrs Dursley?"

"Ms please."

"Certainly, sorry about that. You look younger than I expected."

"I get that a lot, it's part of what caused… problems… with Vernon."

"Ah, yes, sorry about that. Would you follow me, we have a few things to talk about before you see Dudley."

She is lead to a comfortable reception area deeper in the school.

"Ms Dursley, I'll be frank. I don't think that Dudley is a good fit in a school like this. His grades are subpar and the according to his file the only reason he got a place is that his father was an Alumni of the school. He has also been bullied quite badly about his weight since November. Now we could put him in special needs and give him the attention that he needs to bring him up to standard, this would cost an extra £600 per half year. I also fear that he has taken to eating in order to cope with the problems, both at school and with the news that came in November. My professional recommendation as the school counsellor would be to look around for alternative schools where his lack of ability can be more easily catered for.

"Now obviously, I feel that if he is given the special classes, and he can regain his equilibrium he could well thrive in the environment here. Graduating from Smeltings would also help him later in life as we are one of the top 10 schools in the country. I'm sure that as a parent you want the best for your child, and we can be that for him."

"Thank you for letting me know Mr…"

"I'm sorry, your beauty made me forget my manners, I'm Mr Chedworth, the school counsellor."

"Again, thank you for letting me know Mr Chedworth, we will have a frank discussion over Christmas and see what happens in the new year. I believe that we're paid up for the year, so I'm afraid that you'll need to enjoy his presence for the rest of the year regardless."

"Very well, if you follow me I'll take you to where he's waiting."

He then leads her to the entrance hall where Dudley is sitting with a scuffed satchel beside him, evidence of tears on his cheeks.

"Dudleykins." Petunia calls.

"Mum!" Dudley looks up at her voice and thunders over to her enfolding her with a hug.

"You came!"

"I did sweetie, I did, and as long as I'm able I always will."

"I thought you were going to disappear like they said dad did."

"I know honey, I know, let's get you home and we can talk about it in the car. If you're lucky we'll stop off to get something to eat."

With that she led him off to where the car is parked.