Chapter 2
~Four Years Later~
Petunia looked fondly at her Dudley, he was so cute playing in the sandbox. She had taken the two toddlers she was responsible for on a trip to the Park. Of course, Petunia had to hold back her sneer at the freak boy. He was attempting to play on swings and was horribly failing at actually getting the seat to go forwards and backwards. She was just about to get up and help the poor creature herself when she spotted something. All of a sudden, the scrunched up face turned to glee as he started to swing forwards and backwards all on his own. She looked at his feet and saw that they were just dangling as if someone was pushing the boy. But there was no one there helping him. It was just, like….
Magic.
As this realization came over her Petunia became outraged.
After a glance at Dudley to make sure he hadn't wandered off, and with a stern look on her face, she marched up to the swing set where little Harry was having the time of his life. He saw her approach and smiled even brighter if that was possible, until he saw her frown. His face took on a curious look and the swing gradually came to a stop. 'He's probably wondering what he did wrong,' Petunia thought bitterly. "Harry," she began.
"Yes Aunt Petunia?" he said in his adorable little voice.
"Stop playing, we're going home." She turned around and walked over to where Dudley was. "Dudders, get your things, we're going back home."
And once they were at home and she had put Dudley down for his afternoon nap, she finally dealt with Harry. Of course, she couldn't make it seem like she was punishing him, after all she had to keep this whole magic business a secret from Vernon. Luckily, she had thought ahead and already devised a suitable passive aggressive option for such an occasion. She led Harry over to the cupboard under the stairs and to dim that in a few days he would have to sleep here from now on. But she expressly explained to him that he would only sleep here when she herself was putting him to sleep. He was not allowed to tell anyone of this arrangement and if he did speak a word of it to anyone else besides her then he would be getting in serious trouble.
Lucky for her Harry was an eager to please boy who obeyed and in a few days had a home amongst the darkness and made friend with the spiders.
~Two Years Later~
Eventually it would happen, she knew. Vernon was bound to discover that Harry was sleeping in the cupboard instead of his room.
"Why on earth would you put him to sleep in there, Flower?" Vernon accused.
"Because no other punishment method would work dear." She lied. "Spending a night in the cupboard straightens him out real quick."
Eventually, Vernon had no choice but to accept such a punishment. And after a few weeks, Vernon himself implemented said punishment when he got a call from the boy's school about how Harry had allegedly pranked his teacher.
~Three years later~
Over the span of three years, the way the Dursley family treated Harry gradually became worse.
They scorned him for making better grades than Dudley, forced him to perform almost all he housework, and every time something unexplainable happened they would ground him for an entire day inside his cupboard without food. Thanks to Dudley's influence, Harry had no friends as well. For his ninth birthday, Harry Hunting had been created. Things only became worse as work for Vernon started to make him irritable and combined with alcohol, violent.
Poor Harry was positively miserable.
That is, until he received a visitor.