In a small flat in London in the summer of 1978, a thirty two year old Vernon Durlsey awoke feeling as if he was forgetting an important dream. It was morning. He dressed. He stopped and stared at his reflection in a mirror. He had the oddest feeling that his hair should have specks of grey. Vernon shook his head. He wasn't that old. He was only thirty two. He left the flat. He ate a hardy breakfast at a local dinner then drove to work.

All through out the day he kept get these weird feelings like he had been here before. It was as if he lived the day before. By mid-afternoon, Vernon had mostly shaken off such feelings.

After work he drove over to his fiancé Petunia's place for a planed double date. In front of the flat, there were two people. A man with messy black hair was standing next to a young woman with red hair and green eyes.

"I'm James Potter," the man said. He didn't look any older than eighteen. He had hazel eyes framed by round glasses. Vernon shook his hand feeling as if they had met before.

The woman Vernon knew only by sight. She was Lily Evans his fiancée's sister. The one who was part of some crazy witch cult. Vernon didn't know why but he decided to keep an open mind about her. A strange thought appeared in his mind that maybe magic was real. Lily and her boyfriend might be crazy but maybe it was best to humor them.

"Petunia love," Vernon said, as Petunia came out the front door of her flat. "You are an absolute vision of beauty."

Vernon led them to his car. He bragged about it. James did not look impressed.

"I have a nimbus 1001," James said, "it's old but it's fast. It was the top of the line when it was new. It's still an outstanding broomstick. One that's been made better by a little bit of tinkering on my part."

Vernon wanted to yell. Instead not knowing why, he humored James. "I'm sure it's nice. You'll have to show me sometime."

The whole night went like that. James spoke the impossible. He claimed to have a fortune in gold. He was Vernon barely kept his temper but he managed. At of the end of date he drove them back to Petunia's. He almost fainted when James and Lily disappeared into thin air.

"Disgraceful," Petunia said.

"M-Magic is real!" Vernon said.

"I told you she was a witch," Petunia said, "Most of the year she doesn't even wear proper clothes. Lily wears robes. She talks about this wizarding culture that she's a part like the rest of the world isn't good enough. But enough but about her. Let's talk of something else."

They did speak of other things but Vernon's mind was on the wizards. As they went in her flat and as they drunk coffee at Petunia little kitchen table, his mind was whirling. He felt he should have been repulsed. Vernon knew he should have been in deeper shock. It was like being told the world was round when you believed it flat. Instead of shock, he was fascinated and more than a little scared.

Vernon didn't see James and Lily again for three months. It was two days before his wedding to Petunia. He didn't know why he thought Petunia would refuse to have Lily as a bridesmaid. She didn't. Lily was right there at wedding rehearsal as one of Petunia's three bridesmaids. James Potter should not have been at the rehearsal. The young man had invited himself. Vernon was quick to ask James several questions.

Vernon and James were soon standing outside the hotel in the parking lot. Vernon had wanted to smoke. Petunia refused to let him do that anywhere indoors. She hated the stench. The hotel manger had been of the same opinion and politely asked Vernon to step outside. James had gotten a beer bottle, though from where Vernon did not know. They stood out there talking for several minutes.

"We have a ministry of magic," James said.

Vernon nodded, impressed that magic was all about rules and regulations just like everything else. When he suggested this, James made an awful face.

"You remind a bit of Orion and Walburga Black," James said, "That and an over curious muggleborn." James snorted. "Now there's a combination."

"The Blacks, who are they?" Vernon asked, "and what's a muggle or a muggleborn. You keep using those terms."

"Oh, the Blacks? They're my mate Sirius's parents," James said, "They believe holding up wizarding traditions. They think you should never marry outside your social circle. That a pureblood wizard should never marry a muggleborn. They are dreadful." James went on about it for a bit. He was rambling. He sounded increasingly drunk. The culture he was describing sounded positively medieval.

Vernon continued asking questions. Asking, "What's a squib?" got him an answer that horrified him. "What is a house elf?" resulted in an answer that was better but not by much. A whole string of questions the result of a long built up curiosity just poured out of Vernon. "Are Dragons real? Do you really fly on brooms? What's a wand for? Do you use wands to cast every spell? Can you use magic to make a instant fortune? How is the magical government different from the main one? Are there wizards in parliament?"

James raised up his hands. "Stop!" he yelled, "I take it back. You're worse than a first year muggleborn." James disappeared with a distinctive cracking sound filling the air. A minute later he reappeared with a book in one hand. The other hand was missing. From the left shoulder down there was no arm. Strangely he wasn't bleeding.

Vernon shrieked. "Your arm!"

James looked at his shoulder. "Oh damn. I splinched myself." James thrust the book he was holding into Vernon's hands. It was a thin leather bound volume. Vernon clenched the book tightly. He looked on at James in a complete state of fright.

James pulled a small mirror out one of his pockets. He spoke to mirror saying, "Sirius."

A voice came from the mirror, "James are you alright?"

"Not exactly," James said. He told the person who seemed to in the mirror his location. James then passed out.

Before Vernon could act, three men appeared in the same manner as James had. They were all about seventeen or eighteen. They were all wearing dress like garments. One had long black hair and grey eyes. Something about this young man seemed wild. At the same time as contradictory as it sounded he was somehow aristocratic. Vernon felt the moment he looked at this man that he had seen somewhere before. That he had seen his face many times. The word murderer appeared in Vernon's mind. Vernon told himself he was being ridiculous. He pushed the word out of his mind.

"James!" the man yelled. His voice was the one from the mirror. He rushed to James' side.

The other two men were utterly opposite in appearance. One had shoulder length brown hair. He was so thin he was nearly bony. His odd garments looked sort of shabby with patches in multiple places.

The other was short and fat. His weird clothes were plain but of good condition. His hair was short, blond, and oily. His face was marked by an extreme case of acne.

"You there, are you alright?" the man with the shabby clothes said.

Vernon's fear and shock was so great that for the first time in many years he was speechless. He was confused. He nodded his head then shook it.

"D-do you t-think he's confounded?" the short one stuttered.

"I don't know," the shabby man said. He looked at Vernon in a bewildered sort of manner. He put a hand on Vernon's shoulder. "If you can understand me I'm about to perform a side along-apparition to St. Mungo's."

Vernon felt as if he was being squeezed all over. Then he was standing someplace else. Vernon was in a waiting room of some sort. There were men and women moving in white dress like garments. Robes, they were robes. Petunia had talked about robes with a great deal of distain but Vernon had never them before tonight. The shabby young man was right beside Vernon. A second later the wild aristocratic one appeared carrying James. Then the short man arrived.

A man wearing white rushed to examine James. This man waved a wand and a floating stretcher came.

The shabby man's hand was still on Vernon. Vernon did not like it. "Hand off!" he shouted, "You kidnapped me! Where am I?"

"St. Mungo's Hospital," the man in white said, "I would ask you to be quiet. There are sick people here."

"There is no such place!" Vernon yelled. "Unless…Is this a wizard's hospital?"

"What other kind of hospital would a wizard go to?" the shabby man asked.

"I am not a wizard!" Vernon shouted.

"You brought a muggle here?" the man in white asked the shabby man. "You apperated with him! Are you mad?"

The shabby man went all defensive. "I didn't know he was a muggle! Why would James being hanging out with one? I didn't think he even knew any."

"Um," the aristocratic one said, "He is probably one of Lily's relatives. She is a muggleborn."

"Muggle!" Vernon was insulted. They spoke the term like he some kind of freak. "I am not the freak here! If any one is a freak it's you folk!" The word freak rolled off his tongue like he had said it hundreds of times but he knew he hadn't. belatedly Vernon realized that speaking that word was a mistake. Every single person in this room glared at him. If they were speaking true then this was a whole building filled with wizards and witches. He was the odd man out. From their perspective he probably was the freak. If they had a government system, and a hospital they probably had an entire society. Vernon was the freak here.

People, young and old came towards Vernon with wands raised threateningly. The man in white who was tending to James yelled at them, "Move along! There is nothing here to see. You will do nothing, unless you want to wind up in Azkaban!"

"Azkaban?" Vernon inquired.

The shabby man looked at him with pity. "The British wizarding prison."

These words told Vernon two things. The first, there were laws enforced by some sort of wizard's law enforcement. The second was that there were multiple nations of wizards. It was a quick leap from there to thinking that magic might well be like science. Reassured by the thought that magic could make sense he began to calm down.

The man in white introduce himself as Healer Martin. He was apparently the wizard's equivalent of a doctor. Why didn't he just say doctor in the first place Vernon didn't know. Healer Martin led Vernon and the young men to a small room with an old fashioned hospital bed. James was placed on that bed. The shabby man was named Remus Lupin. The wild, aristocratic one was Siruis Black. The short one was Peter Pettigrew.

"You were the last one to see him before he splinched himself?" Healer Martin asked, "Do you know where he went?"

"Just that he gave me this book," Vernon said gruffly. Vernon looked at the book in his hand for the first time since he took from James. The book had the title, A Muggleborn's Guide to the Wizarding World.

Sirius snatched the book from Vernon's hands. Sirius then opened it. On the first page there was writing. "This is from Redthorn Hall, the Potter Mansion in Wales," Sirius said, "Dorea Potter did collect a lot of useless books." Sirius thrust the book back into Vernon's hands.

"Mansion?" Vernon asked, "You mean he was telling the truth about being wealthy?"

Sirius glared at him. "Yes. James is the last heir of the Potter estates which include many mansions. His family was once as big as the Prewetts though much wealthier. Now that I know where he went I can go there." A cracking noise like a whip filled the air as Sirius disappeared. Less than a minute later he reappeared with an severed arm in his hands.

Vernon backed away until his back touched a wall. Sirius laughed a harsh mocking laugh at Vernon, as he handed the arm to the healer. Healer Martin took the arm very carefully. The healer cut off the jacket and shirt sleeve off the arm. He laid the arm gently down on a table. Healer Martin cut the material of the jacket and shirt away from James' shoulder.

Vernon watched in awe as Healer Martin reattached James' left arm to James's shoulder. Magical healing was more impressive than medical science. It was better.

James woke up fifteen minutes later groaning. Vernon came to the conclusion that James was an idiot and foolish but no more so than most young men. Vernon spent time talking to James' friends. He didn't like Sirius Black, not at all. Remus was kind but clueless about muggles. Peter was someone that had he been older Vernon could easily have been good friends with. Ten minutes later, Vernon was guided by Sirius and Remus out of St. Mungo's. He soon found that they were standing on a busy street in London. Vernon knew this street.

"I must have past by this place many times," Vernon said, "How could I not see this before?"

"It's under a spell to make it unnoticed by muggles," Remus said.

"Why is there all this foolish secrecy?" Vernon asked.

"Young inexperienced wizards and witches were burned at the stake in the middle ages," Remus said, "Muggles have always had greater numbers."

"Most members of the Black family would present a different theory," Sirius said. His voice became sarcastic. "My dear old mum would say that it's because we're better than them. That we don't hide. We merely keep riff raff away."

Sirius's face took on a mischievous look. "Now, we have two choices on how to get you home. We could send you back by bus. I have plenty of money to take care of the bus fare if you want."

"Since when?" Remus asked.

Siruus gave Remus a sharp look. "That's what I was trying to tell you earlier before James called. My Uncle Alphard died just last week. He left his entire fortune to me."

Sirius's eyes took on the look of mischief again. "The other option is something Healer Martin would never approve of. Apparition."

"That's teleportation isn't it," Vernon said. "Is it safe?

Sirius nodded. "Very."

Vernon looked to Remus for confirmation. He didn't trust this Sirius Black fellow, not at all. Remus shrugged. "It's safe," Remus said, "unless the one doing it is drunk or otherwise unfocused."

"Then you are the one taking me back," Vernon said to Remus. Vernon did not fancy a four hour bus ride out to Cokeworth and the hotel. It was these young magical idiots that had brought him here. They could sure as hell take him back.

Vernon grabbed a hold of Remus's arm. He felt for the second time that squeezing sensation. Then he was no longer in on the street in London. He was back at the hotel parking lot.

"There you go," Remus said, "You're safe and sound, not a limb missing." Remus looked relieved

This worried Vernon. He checked to see that he did have all his limbs. When his eyes caught sight of his watch he realized that he had been gone for the better of an hour. Vernon never ran if he did not have to. This moment was no exception. He did however walk rather fast. Vernon heard the cracking sound of Remus teleporting away. He did not bother to look. Vernon placed the wizard book in his car. He then went ot

When Vernon reached the hotel lobby he found Petunia sitting in a chair waiting for him. She did not look happy. "Where have you been?" she asked, "You were not in the parking lot as you said you would be. You took off without so much as a word!"

"I was at St. Mungos," Vernon said. He tried to explain about the wizards.

"Not here!" Petunia whispered loudly. She guided him toward the ballroom they were renting for the wedding. There was no in there as they talked. Vernon spoke of the fact that St. Mungo's was

"Those freaks have a hospital as well a prison!" Petunia said.

"You knew about their prison?" Vernon asked, "Do you know more this other society, this wizarding world?"

"The wizard's prison is Azkaban," Petunia said, "I know about it only because of that dreadful boy."

"James?" Vernon asked. James was immature and annoying but Vernon would not call him dreadful.

Petunia shook her head. "No, Severus Snape. Lily was best friends with him until fifth or sixth year. I don't know what happened. I don't keep up with Lily's personal life much. I'm just glad she's not with that boy anymore. There was something about that Snape boy bothered me. It only got worse as he got older." Petunia visibly shuddered. Vernon was not a man prone to unnecessary physical affection. For the woman he loved he was willing to make an exception when he could see that she was so clearly in need of comfort. He wrapped his arms around her.

The embrace lasted for the better part of a minute before Petunia pulled away. Petuina put a hand on a hip. "I don't know much about the wizarding world and I don't care to. It's strange. It's exclusive like a high society club that not just anyone can be a part of. I saw their shops. I saw a place called Diagan Alley once. Once was enough. It was weird. It was not normal. I love Lily. I have to. She is my sister but we have grown apart. I'm glad I'm not part of the world she's mixed up in. I have no desire for it."

Vernon saw in the way Petunia spoke that she was extremely jealous. He knew very little about the wizarding world but he wanted to know more. He felt like he needed to know more. He felt as though his fiacnec was more important. If was a choice between learning about wizards or having Petunia in his life, there was no question. Petunia was everything to him.

Occasionally from time to time Vernon would get weird notions or a powerful feeling of familiarity. He had been this way for the past few months. Vernon had learned to dismiss it. One of those notions was popping up in his mind. The thought was that somehow there was a connection between his need to understand the wizard and Petunia. This was ridiculous. Vernon did his best to dismiss the notion. He nearly had when Lily walked into the room. The absurd idea flared up into more notions. Somehow Lily was important. The need to know about magic connected to her in someway. And to, to… James? Vernon could almost see the answers in his mind. It slipped from his grasp.

Vernon made his choice then and there, that Petunia was more important than anything. If the wizarding world bothered her, he would not talk to her about it. He would not sneak behind her back to learn about it either. He lived thirty-two years without knowing about the wizarding world. No matter how great his desire to know about it was, the fact was that he did not need to know.

Two days passed. The wedding went perfectly according to plan. The wedding reception was the last that Vernon saw James or Lily for a long time. During most of the first year of their marriage, Petunia and Vernon lived in a flat in London. Though they looked for a house they did not find the right one. Vernon encouraged Petunia as much as he dared to keep up a relationship with Lily. It was of his weird notions that led him to this. Vernon did not speak to anyone of these notions, not even Petunia. Following those notions, the less weird ones seemed to lead to good things. It was one those notions one of those feelings that led to success at work. He got a promotion several months sooner than he expected. Vernon was beginning to think of the notions as instincts. Sometimes it was to be ignored but other times it led to great things.

In the spring of 1979 Vernon and Petunia were invited to Lily and James' wedding. They accepted. It was an outdoor wedding. They were surrounded by wizards. Vernon was fascinated. Petunia was disgusted. There were so many people dressed in exotic and unusual clothing. The robes were too much like dresses for Vernon's taste but it was a different culture. The whole idea that this culture had been hidden right under the noses of the normal British folk was amazing. If some of the things these people said were true then there were Wizading nations inside the borders of almost every major nation on the planet. One of the wizarding folk here was an old nearly senile woman who kept trying to talk about someone called, 'You-Know-Who.' Other guests kept trying to shut her up.

Vernon's notions, his instincts flared up to the extreme when he heard the old woman. He absolutely had to know what it was she was speaking of. There was something important about this. What, he didn't know. As the bride Lily Evans walked down the aisle, Vernon was not at first looking at her. His thoughts were too much on his instincts. Intuition sounded like a better word for it but it made him think too much of the term Women's intuition. Petunia had to poke at him to get him to pay attention to the wedding.

The bride and groom said their vows. Lily Evans became Lily Potter. Everyone moved over to a pavilion and the wedding reception commenced. The tables were round tables sitting six or seven peoples Petunia and Vernon sat at the same table as Remus. As the sun began to set, Vernon asked, "Who is this You Know Who, that old woman was talking about?"

Remus went sort of pale. Almost everyone at the table did. "Not here," Remus said, "Not on this day. That's a dark topic. It's not something to talk on a day like today."

"When else am going to find out about it?" Vernon asked. He didn't really want to know about this You Know Who but he felt needed to. If everyone here was looking so grave or spooked about it then the need seemed urgent. These people were wizards. They had powers. What could scare them?

"You really don't know anything about him?" Remus said. He shook his head. "No, you're a muggle. Most muggles don't know. You wouldn't happen to be connected to the floo system, would you?"

Vernon raised his brows. "The what?" Vernon asked as Petunia looked at him as if she wanted him to just shut up.

"The floo network," Remus said, "Some muggles with wizarding family do have a link to it. It's a system of magically connected fireplaces. We use something called floo powder. You have but to throw it in the fireplace and then speak the name of the place you're going and you will arrive stepping out of the other fireplace."

Petunia looked horrified. "How barbaric. All that soot!"

"No," Vernon said, "We don't have that."

"We're are not going to!" Petunia shouted, "I won't have anymore to do with magic. Normal people shouldn't have anything to do with magic!"

Sirius Black rose up from another table. He came stood behind Petunia. He bent down near her ear. "Lady," he said in an ominous tone that had Vernon worried, "From my perspective you're the one who is not normal."

"Step away from my wife!" Vernon roared.

"Or what?" Sirius said. His face came too close to Vernon. There was a smell of whiskey on the young man's breath. "You'll do what exactly?" Sirius pulled out a stick, his wand. He twirled it around in his fingers like a cheerleader with a baton. "You and your loud mouthed wife should just be glad I'm not like You-know-Who's followers. I may be from a dark family but I'm not like them. If you did try to fight me just what could you do? I'm the one with weapon here." Sirius pointed his wand at Vernon.

Vernon could feel the blood rushing to his face. He was getting both scared and livid.

"Just be calm, Mr. Dursley," Remus said, "You're in no danger, I think."

"You're drunk, boy," Vernon said to Sirius, "Go sleep it off." Vernon glared at the young man. The young man glared back.

A tall broad shouldered black man was sitting at the table a few seats over from Vernon. This man stood up and walked quick over to Sirius Black. This man pulled out his wand and put it at Sirius's back. "Drop it Black!" the man said.

Sirius's wand moved too close to Vernon's face. Vernon reacted without thinking. He reached out his hand and snatched the wand right out of Sirius's hand. There was a hushed silence. Everyone in the pavilion went quiet. Even the music stopped.

Sirius came at Vernon threateningly. Vernon made a fist. His fist hit Sirius's jaw sending him reeling backwards. Sirius landed on his back on the floor. His head only narrowly missed a table. He groaned but was otherwise still.

Vernon stood up. He looked down at Sirius Black. "You had it coming boy. Getting drunk and coming at me was a mistake." Vernon held the wand in his hands. "I don't why I shouldn't snap it. However you were supposed to be using it, you obviously were not doing it right." Vernon didn't know why but as he looked at Sirius, he thought the word, murderer. He had been doing that earlier. He now agreed with that instinct. This young idiot could be very dangerous in the right situation.

"I wouldn't do that," the tall black man said, "For a wizard a wand is important. The breaking of one could be perceived as gravest of insults."

"Kingsley is right about that Mr. Dursley," Remus said, "Sirius is acting like a worse idiot than usual. He'll probably admit that later. Even so he wouldn't be so quick to forgive you. He can hold a grudge for a long time."

Petunia hissed. "Vernon put th- that thing, put that thing down! Vernon sit down! Behave! You're making a spectacle out of yourself."

Vernon calmed down a bit. He let out a low nervous chuckle. "I've already done that love," he said. Vernon dropped the wand on top of the now unconscious Sirius Black.

People around the pavilion began to whisper. Vernon's ears picked up some of it. "Ancient dark family...shame that…" someone said. Another said, "… a muggle took him down." Someone else voice was saying, "Unbelievable!"

Remus rushed to Sirius's side. He knelt to the ground. Peter Pettigrew came. The two of them tried to help their friend up. Neither was strong enough. A giant of a man whose head nearly the roof of the pavilion came and picked Sirius up as if he weighed nothing. The giant like man had thick black hair. His hands were enormous. Vernon felt strangely scared of this man. Other than his sheer size there was nothing frightening about this man. He looked like a friendly giant. An image of a pig's tail appeared in Vernon's mind. Vernon couldn't figure that out.

"I'll be taking him out of here," the giant said, "He may 'ave been the best man. Now he's a drunken idiot. We don't want him ruining things." The giant draped Sirius over his shoulder. The bride and groom, James and Lily Potter looked at him thankfully.

"Wh-where you ar-are taking him Hagrid?" Peter asked stuttering.

"Home, "the giant said. Vernon assumed the giant's name was Hagrid. The name seemed right. Hagrid went on speaking. "Taking him home so he can sleep it off. He do be needing to do that. His motorcycle is around someplace. I know I saw it. Been wanting to try it." Hagrid walked out of the pavilion speaking what he most likely meant to be a mutter. "Attacking a muggle, what was he thinking? Not right in the head that."

Petunia was scandalized and embarrassed. She was not the kind to take embarrassment well. When the reception was over and later when they were back in London, Petunia wanted nothing more to do with wizards or their world. Over the next several weeks she stopped even the limited communication that she had with her sister. Petunia stopped writing to Lily. Petunia even stopped using the word magic.

Vernon on the other hand was fascinated by the wizarding world. He could not stop thinking about it. He still that book James had given last year. He read the book for first time, then the second. He read it cover to cover. It was clearly meant for children but it did give him a basic understanding of some things. He knew that the name of the Wizarding bank was Gringotts. That the bank was run by goblins. He learned that most of the magical creatures from myth and legend were real.

There was also hints of prejudice in the book, thinly veiled and watered down. It was obvious if one read between the lines that not all was perfect in the wizarding world. There was hatred and fear of change. There was distrust of the non-magicals whom the wizards called muggles. The very word muggle was something Vernon found insulting. It was somehow degrading. It sounded like a bad joke to him. It did not sound like a respectable word to be used in common everyday speech.

It did not take a great leap of logic to think that were probably hate crimes. The more Vernon thought about this the more he was sure he was right. This only raised more questions. Every time he saw something weird being reported on the news, he began to wonder if a wizard did it. The amount of bizarre deaths was increasing. For a few months there were reports on the news almost nightly of strange killings and men found who were raving mad.

Vernon could not seek the answers to his questions. He did his best to push aside his curiosity. Life went on. In the fall Petunia became pregnant with their first child. Vernon was ecstatic. Somehow without knowing why, he was certain that the child was a boy. The Dursleys immediately began searching for a house. A small flat in London was no place to raise a family. Vernon and Petunia both agreed that the house needed to be at least four bedrooms maybe five. They wanted two or more kids someday. They need a guest bedroom for the times when Vernon's sister Marge came over.

The perfect house was found in Surrey. It was Number Four Privet Drive in Little Whinging. The moment Vernon stepped in the house he felt a sense of déjà vu. It was as if he had lived in the house for years. He knew exactly where everything was. It was downright eerie. His wife didn't seem to notice. Petunia was in love with the house. She wanted it.

"It's wonderful!" Petunia said, standing in the downstairs hallway.

"I don't know Tuney," Vernon said. He stood by the cupboard under the stairs. He had the strangest notion that a cot should be in there. He opened the door. Nothing was there. He closed his eyes. For a moment he saw a flash of images. The visions were too fast running through his mind. The images faded. All that was left was a memory of green eyes like those of Petunia's mother and sister. Vernon knew better than to speak of this to Petunia. It sounded too much like the m word. Grudgingly, Vernon gave in to Petunia's demands. He bought the house.

They moved in quickly. At Vernon's insistence over two months after she found out, Petunia wrote her first letter to Lily in months. It turned out that Lily was pregnant too. The correspondence between the sisters continued. Then in the middle of winter the news came by telephone call that Petunia's parents had died in a car accident. It was a cold snowing afternoon the day Evans' were buried in the ground. The two sisters cried together and most of their problems were resolved between them. A image appeared in Vernon's mind of them arguing instead. He squished this idea as soon as it appeared. The notions in his mind were becoming stronger and more like memories. He didn't think it was magic. Vernon was sure it wasn't. He didn't know what it else it could be. He didn't trust anyone about this. He dared not tell for anyone for fear of being thought insane.

The Potters were never seen at the Dursleys' house, but the letters continued. Petunia still didn't talk about magic or the wizarding world. If Vernon so much as said one word about it, it started an argument. Vernon tried his best to pretend that the world was a normal non-magical place.

On June 23, 1980, Vernon's son was born. He stood there in the hospital looking at the newborn in his wife's arms. He knew instantly that the baby's name should be Dudley.

Over a month later the Dursleys were at home in their kitchen. Petunia was sitting at the table with little Dudley and a baby bottle. A owl banged against the back door. Petunia hissed when she saw it. "I told Lily to send the mail the normal way," she said.

Vernon looked at the owl amused. He opened the door. The owl flew in and landed on a kitchen counter. It had a letter tied one its feet. The handwriting was not Lily's. "That annoying James," Vernon said, "He's the one who sent it, not Lily. If you're going to get mad at anyone it's him."

"What if some saw it?" Petunia asked.

"Who would believe it?" Vernon asked back.

Vernon handed the envelope to Petunia. It was a letter announcing that a baby boy had been born to the Potters on the 31st of July. Even before Petunia could finish reading the letter aloud, Vernon knew that the boy's first name was Harry. This spooked Vernon. He knew then that the notions were more than instincts. There was something else, but what? Vernon had gotten in the habit of telling no one about this strangeness. This habit remained.

Time moved on. In the spring of the next year 1981, Petunia mentioned once that Lily had stopped writing to her. This only mildly worrisome to Petunia. Vernon was more worried but he wasn't sure why.

It was the first of November of that year that things changed again. It was early morning at Number 4 Privet Drive. Vernon was upstairs when he heard his wife scream. He moved down the stairs as fast he could. Petunia was standing in the doorway with a small baby in her arms. She was looking bewildered. The baby was wrapped up in a blanket. There was a envelope pinned to the blanket. Vernon moved closer. He could see that the baby was awake. It was looking inquisitively around. The baby's eyes were green.

At that moment images flooded Vernon's mind. He saw a teenage boy who looked a lot like Petunia, with the same blond hair and similar facial features. He remembered talking to this boy. All at once he remembered watching his life as if he was an outsider. Yet he could not remember living most of the events he had witnessed.

"Vernon, sweetie" Petunia said, "are you alright? Vernon answer me!"

Vernon's attention snapped back into reality. He stared at the baby. This was Harry James Potter. This child was important. Without him, Vernon's family and all others without magic were in trouble. "We're keeping him," Vernon said.

"We don't even know that it is a him!" Petunia yelled, "Someone just left this baby here!"

"Read the note," Vernon said.

Petunia did so. Her face went as pale as a sheet. "Lily-s-she's dead," Petunia stuttered in shock. "This is my nephew. This is Harry Potter!"

"No," Vernon said, "We're going to raise him. We're going to be parents to him. This is Harry James Dursley." In his mind, Vernon made a personal vow. He didn't understand how he was able to remember that other life. That other Vernon did not seem like him. Unlike the other Vernon, he did not fear magic. He had a temper but he had never gotten that mad in his entire life. He did not hate magic. He could see now though that he was not and could be involved with that world. Harry had to be kept apart from the wizarding world until he was older. The fate of the non-magical world depended upon Harry. Vernon was going to raise the boy. He would make certain that the boy was ready to lead. That he was sympathetic towards non-magicals. That he was ready to save the world when the time came.

Vernon closed the front door. He guided Petunia toward the kitchen. Already he was thinking up plans for the boy was older. Harry would need to learn survival skills. He would need to know about politics. He would need to know military strategy. The last one at least, could be trained through chess and other board games. There was so much the boy would need to know, and all before he turned eleven. Vernon stared at the baby in his wife's arms and planned for the future.