A/N: Something wicked this way comes. Harry appears on the Dursleys' doorstep. Squib!Vernon.

Submission for:

AU Battle Competition: Round 3: Squib!AU. Prompt: yellow.

Within a few months, Vernon and Petunia married beneath the autumn leaves during a small affair attended by only their closest friends. Vernon had long ago abandoned his family and Petunia parents' had unfortuantely died a year prior, and her sister and recently-made husband invited nowhere near the church.

She fully moved into his house in Little Whinging and soon became pregnant. They decorated the nursery in varying shades of blue and yellow and nine months later, Dudley Dursley was welcomed into the world.

Vernon's life was normal, just like his family had called him but for the first time, he didn't mind. He loved his normal life, in this normal home with his normal family and to him it was just perfect.

But then things changed. Darkness was approaching, something sinister was in the air, and even he with his lack of magical core could sense it.

It was Halloween 1981. Dudley had been put to bed about an hour earlier as he and Petunia had been watching a horror movie on the tele, one of the many wonders of the Muggle world that he had learned to appreciate when they was a lone knock on the door.

Vernon checked the clock which hung upon the wall. "11 pm? I hope it isn't some teenager playing a trick."

Petunia rose from the couch and walked towards the door, her husband walking up behind her trying to ignore the heavy feeling in his chest.

"Aaaah!" his wife screamed, her hand moving to her mouth as she stared at something on the ground.

Vernon ran up behind her. "Petunia, what is it, dear?" he asked.

Petunia simply bent down and picked up the sleeping bundle wrapped in a thick pale yellow blanket. "It's a baby."

Vernon stared at the infant, the feeling of dread deepening as his eyes ran across the burning red scar on its forehead. This was the darkness, this was the evil. Even though he was just a baby, Vernon knew this meant something.

"We can't keep him," Vernon said as he stomped back into the house.

"What?" Petunia asked as she shut the door behind her and followed him. "What are we supposed to do with him? We can't just leave him-"

"We'll put him in an orphanage," Vernon said. "But we are not keeping him."

Petunia frowned down at the infant, who squirmed a bit in his sleep before quieting, but his movement caused her to notice something. She reached into the blanket and pulled out an envelope.

Vernon stiffened, recognizing the thickness of the paper as his wife pulled out the letter. Parchment. He was one of them.

"Petunia, we are-" he began but then Petunia looked over the top of the letter with hard eyes.

"We're keeping him," she said finally.

"No, we're not," Vernon said.

"Yes, we are. He's Lily's son and I am going to keep him," she said as she moved out of the room.

Vernon stood there looking down at his feet as he thought about the situation. Years he had gone without being even a hairs-breadth near to magic and now there was one of them in his home.

He let out a deep breath. Fine, the boy could stay, but they would raise him as a Muggle. He would keep his normal life and there would be no magic in this household.