Vernon eventually allowed Harry to leave his cupboard. Petunia thought the coming year might be good for both Harry and Dudley. Vernon had enrolled Dudley in his alma mater: Smelting's. Petunia suspected that the only reason they'd accepted Dudley was because Vernon's family had a long tradition at Smelting's. Harry, meanwhile, would be attending public school. Petunia had no doubt that this would make Harry's days easier.
One morning, as Petunia was preparing Dudley's awful hand me downs for Harry to use at school, things changed. Petunia had barely registered the bickering as the boys tried to get out of going for the mail. But, she could not ignore Dudley when his voice rang out.
"Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry's got something!"
It was an envelope. The envelope. Exactly like the envelope Lily had gotten all those years ago.
Vernon must have realized its importance because he lunged across the table, grabbing it out of Harry's hands. Vernon looked as though he was about to burst as he cried out for Petunia to come read the letter.
Petunia barely glanced at it, recognizing that yes, it was the same letter Lily had gotten.
Petunia remembered how happy Lily had been at that school and thought how just getting Harry out of the house for most of the year would probably make things better for her, but she knew she could not say this to Vernon.
Remembering how frightened Vernon had been at the idea that he'd been blackmailed into taking Harry, Petunia thought a bit of fear might help push Vernon in the right direction.
"Vernon," look at the address -- how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"
"Watching -- spying -- might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.
Ah! That was good. Now, how to get him to agree to let Harry go? Obviously, only Vernon could say those words first.
"But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want --"
Petunia bit her lip. Reminding Vernon that she knew how to write them back might or might not be helpful at the moment.
"No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer... Yes, that's best... we won't do anything...
Petunia was sure this wouldn't work and tried a meek objection.
"But --"
"I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"
Petunia hadn't sworn any such thing, however reminding Vernon of that was not going to help anyone. Instead, she decided that breakfast still needed to be served and chores still needed to be done. She hurried back into the kitchen and eventually—with Harry's help serving breakfast—got Vernon off to work, Harry started on the laundry and Dudley off to visit with his friends.
Vernon had obviously given the "watching us" idea some thought and concluded that Harry living in a cupboard might not look good. Maybe he thought that the offer was meant to get Harry out of his less than fortunate circumstances and would be withdrawn if "they" saw that Harry was really just one of the family. Everyone—most especially Dudley—was stunned when he came home from work and announced that Harry would be moving into what had been Dudley's second bedroom.
While Petunia was secretly happy that Harry was finally out of that wretched cupboard, she did not for one moment think this was going to put a stop to the letters. She remembered when Lily's had first arrived. Their parents had no idea what to do, whether to agree to this or call the police or if it was a joke or what. The very next day, another letter had arrived. Then another. Then another. Eventually they had stopped showing up in the mail slot and had, instead, been flown into the living room by a series of large owls. It had taken them a week to decide that this wasn't some kind of sick joke and that Lily—who had a history of odd things happening around her, much like Harry—might very well be a witch and perhaps she should go. When they finally made up their minds they had the bright idea to just speak to the owl, telling it to stay a moment while they got their response. Petunia remembered that it was that moment—when the owl appeared to listen and obey—that their father had finally seemed to believe it was really true.
Sadly for Petunia, being right didn't help her circumstances any. The very next day, when Dudley was sent to get the mail….
"There's
another one! 'Mr. H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive --'"
Petunia held herself back as Vernon and Harry engaged in a positive brawl for possession of the envelope. Petunia decided her place in this was simply going to be obey Vernon's orders. No more opinions, no more suggestions.
As the days ensued, Vernon's sanity seem to decline as the quantity and oddness of the envelopes increased. When Petunia cracked open an egg, fortuitously delivered just as she realized she was short the final egg in Dudley's 6 egg cheese omelet, only to find an envelope popping out like a butterfly out of a cocoon, she thought Vernon's head would explode.
That, however, paled in comparison to the Sunday morning appearance of seemingly hundreds of envelopes. Vernon got the idea they could run away. The family was pushed into the car and wildly driven out of town.
Petunia had a sick feeling this wasn't going to help. It was obvious that whoever sent the envelopes was keeping track of Harry's location. It seemed silly to think they would give up just because Vernon had a car. However, she wasn't ready to point this out just yet.
The family spent a moderately comfortable night in a modest hotel and Vernon seemed convinced he'd succeeded. He was looking very pleased with himself when the young woman from the front desk arrived to announce she had a hundred envelopes addressed to
Mr. H. Potter
Room 17
Railview Hotel
Cokeworth
At this point, Vernon seemed to lose any sanity he might have left. The family was once again piled into the car. This time Vernon didn't look as though he knew where he was going, he just looked as if he wasn't happy where he was. Even Dudley had caught on that his father was not behaving normally.
"Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked after Vernon had locked them all in the car and gone stomping off in the dark.
Petunia was quite sure he had, indeed, gone mad; but she didn't think saying it out loud was a good idea.
The next few hours could best be summed up as a nightmare. Starting with the cold boat ride out to the deserted, run down shack, followed by the awareness that they didn't have decent beds and the ceiling overhead couldn't be counted on to keep much more than a few of the many drops of water out, combined with the certainty that the storm was only going to get worse and culminating in the arrival of what could only be called a giant. A huge, frightening man had torn the door off its one remaining hinge and personally delivered an envelope to Harry. In the course of the evening, Vernon had been called names, threatened and talked down to (something that had likely never happened in his adult life) and Petunia—exhausted, frightened and angry—had let all her old grievances with Lily and everything magical come out as she finally told Harry the truth about his parents. When the giant finally came at Vernon with—of all things—a pink umbrella, waving it madly causing a pink pig's tail to appear on Dudley, Vernon had rushed Petunia and Dudley out, leaving Harry alone with the horrible giant.
Vernon hadn't even begun to calm down until they reached the car. There, he sort of seemed to feel at least a little comfortable and the rasping, irrational sounds he'd been making had been reduced to the occasional swear word.
By the time they got home to Privet Drive Vernon seemed to feel he'd done quite well considering the circumstances. The dratted boy was gone after all. Who could feel bad about that? Dudley's tail was a bit of a problem, but Vernon had friends who had friends. He was quite sure he could find someone to take care of that without asking questions.
As Vernon poured himself a drink and thought more about how everything had worked out very nicely due to his keen handling of the situation, Petunia steeled herself to ask a question.
"What about Harry?"
"What? What do you mean, "What about Harry?"…
"Well, we, um….left him with that horrible huge man."
"Bloody right we did, woman! They were gettin' on quite nicely it seemed to me. He's clearly more that sort anyway. They'll be right happy together they will."
"mmm…Maybe"
"What do you mean MAYBE?" Vernon glared dangerously.
Petunia picked up the pace, returning to the ever reliable "fear" aspect.
"Well, I was just thinking about that first letter, you remember, don't you? The one that said we'd be safe as long as this was Harry's home?"
"Well, they've taken him, haven't they? They can't blackmail us anymore if they've taken him!"
Petunia could see this was going to be more difficult than she'd hoped.
"Well, you know, the student's don't live at the school all year."
"What? What are you talking about! They can't expect us to take him back now, can they?"
"Well, do you think we should ask?"
"ASK??" Vernon slammed his drink down and roared. "Who the hell are we supposed to ask??"
"Umm…that man, you know, the one that left the letter with Harry?"
"Just what exactly do you propose we ask him!" Petunia was glad to see Vernon was calming down a bit. Apparently he, too, was seeing that it might not be as simple as abandoning the boy on a rocky island with a giant.
"I suggest we ask him if Harry will be able to stay at the school during the breaks or if he is expected to return home…um, here, I mean… to us…and, I suggest we ask him if the protection he spoke of will stop if Harry, in fact, does not return here.
Vernon poured himself another drink and pondered the problem. Petunia wracked her brains for some way to make this sound like it was Vernon's idea.
"I mean, dear, if you're right and he's gone for good, we want to know as soon as possible don't we? I'm sure Dudley would be wanting that room back. It would be good to find out soon, don't you think?"
"hmmm…Yes, yes. I do want to know. Are you sure you remember how it's done?"
"Yes, I…we had to send many things to Lily every year, Vernon, it's not something one is likely to forget..um…I mean, yes, I remember how it's done."
"Alright then, go ahead, find out when we can redo that room!"
Petunia wasn't sure whether to be relieved or frightened. She was reasonably sure the response from the school would be that Harry was not only expected to spend every summer with the Dursley's but every winter and spring break as well. Lily had always come home for breaks.
"Vernon?" Petunia hated to ask, but knew she had to "Will you be wanting me to write the letter then? Or…"
"I most certainly am not going to be writing any letters to any witches or wizards! The very idea is ridiculous!"
"Alright. I'll just take care of it then."
Petunia scurried off into the kitchen, grabbing a pen and pad of paper from the hall secretary as she passed.
Pulling out her recipe file she flipped back to Z and pulled out the letter that had been with Harry when she found him.
Taking care to get the name exactly right, Petunia composed her letter:
Dear Mr. Dumbledore,
As you may know, Harry is in the company of your man now. Mr. Dursley and I are wondering if you would be so kind as to explain the living arrangements at your school. Would Harry be required to return to our home at any point in the school year, or will provisions be made to care for him there?
If you don't mind, we are also curious how the "protection" you mentioned in your first letter will be working with Harry living at school.
Thank you for your kind attention,
Petunia Dursley.
There, that was fine. Petunia was quite proud of the tone she had managed to convey. Clearly there was a belief that Harry would be staying at school, but she had not made it sound like he was unwelcome if it was necessary for him to return.
Very well. She toyed with the idea of asking Vernon if he wanted to read it but thought that this was something best gotten over with quickly.
She folded and rolled the paper up just as she used to do her letters to that awful Snape person. For the first time in many years Petunia let herself think about Snape, about the horrible thing he'd done to her. She wondered what had happened to him. She was sure he had become someone powerful and important. He was obviously too skilled not to. But, he was cruel as well. Whatever might happen to Harry at that school, she was at least glad that Severus Snape was long gone. Lily couldn't imagine a person Snape would hate more than the son Lily had with another man.
Cutting off a bit of cooking twine, she stepped outside to performed the ritual, just as Lily had shown her that first break. Putting herself next to a convenient rail for the owl to land on, she tapped the paper to the rail 3 times then held it up as high as she could and softly whispered "A message for Hogwarts". Not a minute had gone by before a small grey owl landed with a plop on the rail, nearly tumbling to the porch. It looked up at her proudly as it offered her its left leg. Petunia quickly tied the twine securely around the small leg, gave the bird a pat on the head (Lily had told her to always pat the owls, it showed them you were grateful) and said clearly "Please take this to Albus Dumbledore". The owl gave a cheerful "hoot" and took off.
Now, she just had to wait.
