Trigger warning for mild misgendering. IDK if it actually counts since Harriette hadn't even known at the time but I'm working on the safe side.
Trigger warning for horrible imagery, child abuse, neglect and really bad nightmares.
Petunia was still very young when Lily was born. She and Lily had been very close when they were younger. She loved Lily and Lily loved her. Their father was often away on business, and their mother was fairly social. Petunia and Lily didn't mind though, they had each other.
Petunia held Lily's hand on her first day of school, even though there hadn't been anyone to do so when she'd first gone. Lily consoled her when the other kids started to get meaner and would make fun of Petunia's appearance. Petunia and Lily would braid flowers in their hair and run around the park pretending to be fairy princesses. They built blanket forts that were castles to them, and strung lights in them and whispered stories for hours. They shared their favorite shows and books and toys and secrets.
Lily loved Petunia, and Petunia loved Lily. They made magic secrets that only they knew, and mixed moss and flowers and puddle or bath water pretending they were potions. They made shadow puppets, and marked the stars. Sharing tea and cocoa and wishes and candy and laughter like they would never grow up.
Lily loved Petunia, but one day she came to her making flowers bloom in her hands, and a dark haired boy with many secrets. And Petunia made grown up girl friends who laughed at the idea of princesses, and stars and string lights hung over chair backs and under blankets like stars. So Petunia kept her secrets, and Lily stopped sharing hers.
Lily loved Petunia, even as Petunia shot cold words and icy stares at her. Lily loved Petunia even as they grew apart. As their parents started doting on her, still ignoring Petunia, Lily tried to connect with her sister. She sent her letters from her new far away school. Tried to share her secrets and her world, but Petunia was resentful and angry and thought she hated Lily.
Petunia was still very young when she married Vernon. Lily wished her a happy marriage and a happy life at the wedding.
Lily was still very young when she married James. Sent Petunia an Invite to her wedding. Of course she did.
Lily loved Petunia until the day she died, Petunia only realized how much she loved Lily after she was already gone.
Lily and Petunia's sons were born a little over a month apart. Petunia sent Lily a Vase. It seemed a measly, childish thing now. Petunia thought staring down at the infant in front of her. The boy was only a month younger then her own. Small and fragile and with that scar. And Lily… Oh, Lily was gone. It seemed silly now. Holding onto anything resembling anger, resentment, or just anything negative at all. It had been how long since she'd seen Lily, it was just after Petunia's wedding. Lily, reaching out her hands; Petunia, pulling away. Still, Lily had smiled, tucked her hands against her.
"I wish you nothing but happiness," Lily said, smiling again tears coming out of her eyes and she turned to wipe them.
"I plan to have the happiest life," Petunia had said; sounding petulant now. Lily had nodded. Petunia had not wished her the same. If she had? What if she had? Would it be different? Would Lily be alive? Petunia felt moisture leaking out of her eyes, she wiped her face. What was she going to do with another baby. They couldn't share a crib. Did wizards even use cribs? Would anyone even answer if she tried to ask? That headmaster had when she'd sent him that letter all those years ago. She wiped another stream of tears from her eyes. The little boy had a scar on his forehead. It almost looked like lightning, no it looked exactly like lightning.
Petunia stood, dusted herself off. She had things to do tomorrow. There was so much to do. So many things to get done.
Trigger warning for horrible imagery, gruesome murder scenes.
Intrusive thoughts, nightmares and child neglect. It gets real bad in this one.
Blood, cooking people, nightmares.
Vernon got meaner, Petunia would be the first to say that Vernon wasn't a perfect man. Sometimes he wasn't a very nice man. The time he'd yelled at James and Lily till Lily was reduced to tears calling after Petunia as they left sprang to mind. But the more time Harry spent in his presents the worse he'd get. Dudley wouldn't stop crying when they'd tried to room them together. Petunia understood why the first night she'd tried to have the boy in with them. The nightmares, the ghoulish, horrendous, vile nightmares. Vernon hadn't had any but Petunia did, and only when Harriette shared a room with them. Lily never caused nightmares, not once, if anything Petunia's dreams were always better when she'd shared a room with Lily.
Petunia decided that it might be best if Harry had a separate room till he was old enough to learn to control his pow-
Vernon had thrown a fit.
"I will not be having that free loading freak use the third bedroom as if it's a part of this family!" Vernon had bellowed. "Put it in a- ah, you can put the little demon under the stairs. Then we won't have to look at him." He'd said dismissively. After several nights without sleep Petunia was at her wits end.
Dudley had woken her up screaming, Harry had started crying quickly after. Petunia had taken Harry down stairs to sit in the play pin while she soothed Dudley back to sleep. Once Dudley was asleep Petunia worked on getting Harry to sleep. He was a less fussy baby, she wondered if that was just a witch and wizard thing or just because he was Lily's son. She got the boy to sleep, laid him once again in a less used drawer close to the ground, and settled into bed watching the boy watch her.
That's when she'd first heard it. The voice was low and hissing, it felt like cold day old cooking oil being poured over her skin. The whispering getting louder, Harry watching her worried and fussing. Swiping at something in the air. Something she couldn't see. He started crying again screaming, Dudley started crying. She stood up, she walked down stairs into the kitchen, turned the oven on, once it preheated to the temperature she wanted she went and got the boys, she put them inside them oven. They screamed louder, so loud Petunia was impressed they didn't wake Vernon. She watched as they kicked, squirmed, and eventually bubbled, they stopped screaming, they stopped moving. Good.
She carefully cut them up into fine slices, to marinate. Then she grabbed the hammer the one Vernon was so proud of. The one he never used. He never did anything around the house. Never did anything to help with the babies, or even just their son. She took the hammer upstairs. She raised it over her head, the little hooks with the gap, the one for nails facing downward. She aimed, she brought the hammer down. Again. Again. Again. There was so much blood. The sound of Vernon's bones crunching, the squelching of his meats and fluids. Once that was done, she went back downstairs to enjoy her meal. It was very goo-
Petunia sat up with a horrified start and whimpered. She whipped around in bed. Vernon snorted in his sleep. Her eyes traveled to the boy in the dresser drawer. He was watching her, big sad green eyes. Lily's eyes. Petunia sobbed, forced her tears back down, trapping them in her throat. She stood. She carefully picked up Harry, gingerly, holding him away from her. He felt like a thousand pound weight, he felt oily somehow. Cursed. That's they only thing Petunia could think of. But that was silly, there was no reason to do that. She walked down stairs, still holding Harry away from her body. Him still looking at her with those almost knowing eyes. Petunia was imagining it of course. He wasn't even two, he wasn't forming complex thoughts beyond his own needs. He was curious at best, but Petunia, Petunia felt Judge as she struggled to open the cupboard door. She shuffled this and that out of the way, emptied it. She felt judge as she laid him down in the cupboard, she felt judged all the way until she closed the door on those green eyes. She went upstairs and laid down, she slept perfectly the rest of that night.
Petunia caught Harry referring to herself as Harriette once when the girl thought no one else was home. She'd put the girl in the cupboard for some peace from the visions. She'd started cleaning for some reason, she was in the hallway by the stairs for some reason. She overheard Harry talking to herself in the cupboard, making voices the way Lily did whenever they'd played pretend with dolls, but Harry didn't have dolls or any toys for that matter. Vernon had absolutely forbidden it. Petunia wasn't entirely sure why. While Petunia did tend to spoil Dudley, in a way that she was half certain was a form of making up for her own parents neglect, and often got a weird feeling whenever she gave Harry anything that she didn't at least give Dudley she wasn't sure why he was against letting the boy have any form of entertainment.
"Oh, Lily you're so pretty, and our child is so very pretty too, she's just like you," Harry said in a very fake deep voice.
"Oh, I know, isn't she ever so pretty," in a higher voice. "We can't possibly call her Harry, Harry is a boys name and she's our precious baby girl."
"Yes, but what shall we call her," again in a fake deep voice.
"Oh, I know, we'll call her Harriette, that way she's still got Harry in her name," in the higher.
"Yes, Harriette, our daughter," the fake deep voice. "She'll be loved for sure. And no one will ever be angry with her or lock her in a cupboard." Harry's voice was going back to his own now. "And then years pass and Harriette got older."
"Thank you Mum and Dad, for giving me the name Harriette instead of Harry like you wanted," Harry said in his… Her? Own voice.
"Oh, no worries our darling daughter Harriette," the child continued. "We'll always love."
"And thanks for stopping your drinking and cleaning up your life and not dying in a car crash and leaving me all alone." This was said so very watery that Petunia almost couldn't make it out.
"Oh, of course we would, because we love you so, so, so much, that you were worth far more then whatever lifestyle got us killed."
"Oh, shoot, I messed that up," Harry said.
"Maybe that's why no buddy loves you," Said the fake deep voice. "You can't even pretend right, you daft, dreadful freak, you really think we'd love you."
"I'm sorry," Harriette said.
"Honestly, your uncle is right, your the thing that drove us to drink you terrible, awful little girl," the fake high voice said.
"That's not true, you were drinking before that," Harry said.
"Oh, and you don't think you drove us to drink more then do you," the fake deep voice said. Petunia wanted to intervene, but something kept her rooted.
"Your so ungrateful, you should be grateful we even bothered to give you a name, Harry," the fake deep voice said.
"Harriette!" the child's voice said. "My name is Harriette, and I don't care what you chose. I only picked a name with Harry in it to be nice, but I'm Harriette." Petunia heard a sniffle. "It's okay Ms. Spider." Harriette's voice was wet and wobbly. "I don't need them anyway." Something hit the wall then. "I'm fine without them. I have you. And I have food, clothes and a place to sleep. I'm not ungrateful. Its only the one thing I don't want. Do you think someday, Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon will call me that? Yeah, that's true, but it's okay if I'm the only one who ever, ever calls me that. I'm Harriette, and I'm a girl, and I know that much at least."
Trigger Warning: Child Abuse
Vernon was watching TV in the living room, Petunia was stitching up an outfit for Dudley from a pattern that she'd found online. She'd thought it was cute, and Dudley was still young enough to dress up with little effort. Harriette had been watching. Petunia made a concerted effort not to notice her. She wanted to do this for Dudley, maybe another day she'd make something for the girl. Petunia finished putting the outfit on Dudley, fawning over how cute he is. He was not happy about it, as two year olds often were. Petunia took a few photos, finishing off by sending a few to Vernon's phone. It buzzed on the stand next to her but she didn't care for it.
"Alright Duddykins, you can go pla-''
"YOU STUPID FREAK!" Vernon's voice burst from the living room. Petunia rushed downstairs and into the room to lay witness. There was a TV tray on the floor, Harriette curled up next to it sobbing. "You stupid hore's son!" Vernon kicked Harriette away sending the girl into one of the lamp tables. The thing crashing next to the girl. Petunia was nearly rooted in place, confusion and concern and other emotions warring. "You worthless, piece of shit!" Vernon grabbed Harriette's hair.
"Stoppit! Vernon whatever the child did it doesn'-"
"Shut up! Don't you know this is your faul-" Vernon's fist hit her in the face and she fell, hitting her head on something. She wasn't quite unconscious, but she wasn't quite aware. For moment the world took on a weird fuzzy sort of feeling, painful. Dudley's crying, Vernon yelling, Harriette's calls for her. Then Harriette's scream filled the air. Petunia struggled to her feet, woozy, dizzying the adrenaline only making it worse. Something hot and wet was on her clammy face, sticking to her hair as she fought her body, making it go toward the kitchen.
She turned the corner, and there she saw something that was burning into her memory. Harriette was on the ground, covered in blood and bruising, and … were those burns. Vernon standing over her with a pan. Was she out of it long enough to boil water, had she started a pot before? Harriette's broken sobs, filled her ears like an explosion. Harriette sat up.
"Yo-our okay?" She said, voice broken, blood slip through the broken crack of under her lip as she smiled. "Y-you're okay aunt-" The pot hit the ground next to Harriette causing her to flinch away, he grabbed her arm which Petunia was sure looked wrong. Harriette shrieked. Petunia tried to do something, she wasn't sure what she thought she would do, but she moved forward. She didn't make it far before she collapsed on the floor.
"Vernon," she struggled.
"This is for you!" He shouted, throwing Harriette to the ground. "Have you forgotten what that slag did to you? How your parents prioritized that Freak over you? I can't stand it anymore! I won't stand it anymore!" He dragged Harriette out of the room. Petunia tried for a few moments to orient herself, to make her way to the hallway. She heard the door of the cupboard slam shut. "I don't want to see you out wandering the house, acting like you own it! A freak like you ought to be locked up! That's where you belong!" He was storming away as Petunia got into the hallway. The room was bubbling, turning, she wanted to puke. She tried shaking it off but it actually made it worse. She grabbed Harriette from the cupboard.
"Dudley!" her shout shot through her head like steel pike. "Dud-" He was next to her. Looking up at her in fear and confusion. "C'mon we've got to- '' breathing seemed to take a conscious effort. "We've got to go." She said, grabbing Dudley's hand.
She ran, down the street, down the block, down the- away. She wasn't entirely sure where exactly she was heading. Someone stopped her.
"Ma'am what's going o- oh lord, father in heaven what happened?" The woman gasped.
"He-help," Petunia whimpered. Petunia didn't remember the trip to hospital, remembered getting into a car, she remembered trying to adjust Harriette without hurting her, remembered her head spinning and then the world bubbling under her feet. She remembered shouting, but she didn't remember the woman starting the car, walking into the building, talking to whoever was manning the desk, or even walking to the room they were now in. She kind of remembers some of her own examinations. She'd been separated from Harriette, Harriette needed a lot of different treatments and probably a surgery and other things. Petunia needed her head scanned for the obvious concussion she was suffering from.
Now she was settled into a room, half sat half laid in a hospital bed. She'd been given stitches and after the spinning and confusion stopped something to occupy her time. Dudley was resting against her side, napping. Someone had helped get him to sleep after a quick examination and some questioning revealed he was not hurt. Petunia ran a hand through her son's hair, mind wandered to her niece. She'd been given an update on Harriette's condition a little while ago. Harriette was in the ICU or recovery or was it surgery. She was being treated, that's what was important, though Petunia couldn't help but worry. They'd promised to bring Petunia to her or her to Petunia. Petunia's mind was still a little fuzzy. She'd see her once the hospital was no longer worried about her life. Petunia wasn't going back to Vernon. He'd always been temperamental but this, this was completely unacceptable. She couldn't let him get away with this, and she certainly couldn't go back to him. She sniffled, she hadn't realized she'd started crying. She wiped her eyes, and nose and waited.
What felt like an eternity later Petunia was brought to the room where Harriette was settled. She was even smaller now with all the tubes and wires sticking out of her. The bruises and bandages made Petunia want to sob. She couldn't stand it, she hated that she'd let things get like this. She wouldn't let it happen again. No matter what.
Petunia had expected a lot more questions. She expected someone to come take her away, take Harriette and Dudley away. Maybe a police officer to come and take a statement to arrested Vernon. Petunia felt guilty about that. She'd loved Vernon, she still did, and no amount of wanting to stop him from hurting Harriette again would take away that love.
It was like cutting away a piece of herself, and while she was willing to do it to survive and protect the little ones in her care, it still hurt a lot. So, she tried not to think about it. She focused on holding Harriette's hand and cuddling Dudley and sometimes pacing the room desperately trying not to think about it.
"Petunia," A vaguely familiar voice said from the doorway. She turned expecting a doctor or nurse or someone like that, maybe a police officer or social worker. Instead she saw him, she vaguely recognized him from one of her sister's yearbooks, she reconized his voice from a congragitorial Howler. That was probably five to seven years ago now. Petunia stood, seeing who was behind him. "I must speak to you about this…" He paused, Vernon shifting uncomfortably just behind him. "Unfortunate situation."
"What is he doing here?" Petunia said trying to position herself between Harriette and Vernon. "Surely you know what he did?" Petunia's voice shook with anger, fear, and a few other less recognizable emotions.
"Mrs. Dursley, mistakes happen, surely you can forgive him a moment's indiscretion."
"Indiscretion!" Both Petunia and Vernon said at the same time. Vernon hadn't met her eye in all the time he'd been there, and shame-faced looked even further away.
"What I did was unforgivable," he muttered. Dumbledor pretended not to hear him, or maybe he actually hadn't, Petunia had only understood because she'd been facing him.
"This is a complicated situation," Dumbledor said. "But the two of you I'm sure can work it out." He looked pointedly at Vernon then, the large man that Petunia always thought was fairly strong flinched under the gaze. "I'm sure I won't be hearing of any further…" He paused. "Incidents." He'd put more emphasis on the hearing part then the incident part. The way Vernon flinched at the word made Petunia sure it was an important part.
Then he was gone. Disappearing as if he'd never been. Vernon stayed away from them, walking only enough to get out of the doorway, and then slid to the floor.
"I don't know what came over me," Vernon said. "I know I've always had a temper, but not like that. Never like- Petunia you know I've never." Petunia nodded. She did know. This was the first time she'd ever seen him actually hit someone. Was he easily angered, or for sure, but he usually removed himself from situation before he could escalate them. She sat herself down.
"What did he do?" She asked.
"He made them all forget, just like that, he threatened me Petunia, and when that didn't work he threatened you, and when that didn't work he- he." He voice broke eyes flickering to the soft pink and green lump on the bed where Dudley's little arms wrapped around a green blanket. Petunia's gasp was audible, tears slid down her face. "I couldn't- I couldn't let him- I couldn't let him hur-" He broke down into sobs. "I don't even know why I acted like that, I don't even remember what he'd done to- I don't feel like myself when he's." He sobbed. "I feel like somethings pulling up all the worst in me and I just- I can't fight it." He sobbed. Petunia sunk further into her seat. Vernon felt it too, that thing- whatever it was that tugged out all the worst of her.
"I feel it too," Petunia said, tears leaking. He looked at her shock, horror and a million other emotions waring on his face. "I felt it too, it's why I'd started, I'd started with the cupboard thing." She'd said.
"What is it?" Vernon asked, voice weak.
"A curse," Petunia said. "I remember reading about some from one of my sister's books. They can take lots of different shapes, and forms and do all kinds of nasty evil things." she looked to Harriette. "He cursed he-him. He put something in there to make this happen." She was growing more certain about it every moment. "He wanted us to do this."
"Why?" Vernon asked, voice wavering.
"I don't know, but I know it's true," She said, a little sniffle interrupting her.
"What are we going to do about it? What are we going to do about-" He gestured at Harriette. "He won't let us give him up for adoption, and even if we could-" Petunia didn't need him to finish. She took a watery breath through her nose.
"I don't know, but we'll figure it out," Petunia said. "We'll start by limiting contact with-with it." Petunia started.
"Will that work," Vernon asked.
"We have to hope," Petunia said, voice soft and weak.. "We have to try." Vernon nodded, another sniffle coming from his nose.
"What else?" Vernon said.
"We'll, we'll lessen our reasons to resent the- we have to figure out a way to make-" Petunia covered her face in her hands.
"We can't starve the child," Vernon said.
"Well, we can just-" Petunia sighed. "We'll teach them to cook and clean, that way they'll be less reason for us to be annoyed."
"Will any of this even work?" Vernon's head hit the wall behind him.
"It has too," Petunia begged, who she was begging she wasn't entirely sure, but she recognised the feeling.
Vernon couldn't fight it for long, and the older Harriette got the deeper the mire that sucked him under got. He lost himself, all that was good in him buried under the curse laid over the witch girl, which only deepened his hatred of her more and more.