AN: I got a review from a 'Guest' who just said, "Horrible". To that guest if you're still reading this, you really need to work on that. You should say what you found so horrible. Was it the pacing? That I put the date the chapter is happening in? The short chapters? My K+ rating? That I have benevolent Dursleys? That I changed Harry's name? My grammar or mistakes since I know I did make some since I typed it up when I was tired and even professionals have typos. That I do time skips? That I haven't yet had Tony show up? That I made Dudley dyslexic? That I haven't really had anyone else from the magical world in there? You need to be more specific and elaborate. Otherwise how I can fix what is so horrible?

Story Title: RIPPLE EFFECT

Summary: rip·ple ef·fect

Noun

the continuing and spreading results of an event or action.

Chapter Rating: K+

"speech"

'thoughts'

Chapter Three (January – February 2003)

The New Year brought about change for the Dursley family. Edward was placed in kindergarten where he seemed to thrive and perk back up to chatter like Dudley had about how his day went. Dudley had at first been a bit put out and didn't know how to react without his cousin by his side, but adapted becoming closer to his friend Gordon bonding over their mutual love of Pokemon and the gaming device. It also brought about an opportunity for Petunia who found a part time job to help bring in some revenue. She became a semi-professional in clothing alterations. She had learned to let out the hems in the boys' pants as well as the waists of Vernon's trousers. Now that he didn't go from work to the television to bed only to repeat the process every day, he had lost a little bit of weight. Some her sewing circle friends had commented and found her some clothing to alter. Her work spoke for itself and soon she had a steady stream of reliable clients.

Once the winter break was over and the sports started up again, Edward was found to enjoy being placed as the goalie on his soccer team. While he didn't like he had to stay put, he liked that he got cheers when he didn't let the ball go into the net. Dudley hadn't wanted to rejoin the team after he'd been banned but had because of his father until Vernon's co-worker John Jenkins suggested an alternative. He said his boy Dennis did swimming and it was never too young to start learning. He suggested he take Dudley to one of the practice sessions and see how the boy liked it. Vernon had agreed and they found that Dudley preferred that to soccer. So each boy had his own sport and would go to their clubs. Divided as they were in class and out of it, they both ended up making their own friends only sharing those that they had made during holiday get togethers or when the Dursleys hosted or were gusts of their friends' families.

February brought the boys to their first weekend away from their home. While they were too young to understand why people liked the fourteenth so much, Vernon and Petunia had been looking forward to it. They hadn't celebrated the holiday in quite some time and when Vernon had told his wife that they were going away for a romantic getaway for the whole weekend, she was thrilled. The boys were to stay with Justin's family in Hampshire while the Durlseys had their Valentine's Day romantic weekend. Rather than have a frantic friday, Petunia had helped pack up the boys' clothing and a few toys and such to take with them on thursday night. Their bags were by the door friday morning so when they came home from school and work, they could quickly load up the car and be on their way after everyone had emptied their bladders.

While normally they weren't allowed to eat in the car, the Dursleys made an exception that friday and allowed the boys to eat their snack in their car seats. They weren't allowed any drinks since they weren't sure the boys would be able to hold it until they got to Justin's and hadn't wanted to be rude and have to sue the toilet as soon as they got there. Not wanting to get yelled at the boys tried to be careful not to drop their apple slices and celery sticks. Not used to being in the car so long, they were both asleep before they reached their destinations.

After thanking the Finch-Fletchleys, the Dursleys were off and the boys were being shown to Justin's room where they could put their bags. Both boys hadn't been over to Justin's house before except once for a Christmas party and neither one of them had gone to their friend's room as there had been plenty of children to play with. Mrs. Finch-Fletchley had Justin show their guests where the toilet was and soon the three had their heads bowed over a game. They had played connect four with the loser sitting out and cheering on the next person until they soon grew bored and swapped to something else. After a bit Justin's room looked like a hurricane had hit it. There were games, books, and toys pulled off shelves and out of bins and strewn upon the floor. The bed was disheveled as if they'd been jumping on it (which they had until Edward fell off and smacked his head against the bookshelf). They had been pretending they were on Mars after Edward and Dudley had told Justin about the episode they'd seen on Blue Peter about the planet.

Soon it had been Dudley's idea to slide down the banister as they'd seen it on the television and it had looked fun. Naturally the boys had to try it out and were having a lot of fun. That was until Justin had stuck his head through the banister support poles and got himself stuck. He cried when Dudley and Edward tried to pull him and they weren't too sure about trying to push him through. While Dudley and Justin were trying to figure out how not to get into trouble while freeing him, Edward ran to try and get Mrs. Finch-Fletchley. Suffice it to say Mrs. Finch-Fletchley was not a happy woman when she came to check on the children. She was miffed why she hadn't heard all the racket the children had made since she was sure she would have heard the commotion with the large mess that had been made. What she hadn't known was that Justin had been afraid at first that his mother would hear them. He had tried to get his friends to be quiet and they had tried their best, but hadn't succeeded with three rambunctious four year old boys. Unknown to them, Justin and Edward had both been wishing really hard for Mrs. Finch-Fletchley to not hear them and their magic had reacted to that desperate wish.

It was in Justin's room that Edward found her, running around the corner to be scolded for running and he took it in stride being quite used to being reprimanded for running in the house when he wasn't supposed to. "Mrs. Justin's mum! Justin's stuck!"

"What?!" She dropped the blanket she had picked up to try and straighten on her son's bed and followed the dark haired child to the stairs. Edward stared blinking when he saw that Justin was no longer stuck but was dangling from the supports and Dudley was trying to talk him into climbing back through the bars. Of course his mother overreacted in the children's mind's as she panicked and told her son not to and to, "Hang on!"

After looking around, she told him to let go and she would catch him. Justin of course responded with, "You said not to!"

"Well, I'm telling you now, let go!"

"No!"

"Justin!"

"No! I'll fall!" He didn't want to get hurt. He really didn't like to fall and knew from experience how much it hurt. At school he'd taken a tumble from the top of the play toy and had scraped up his elbow. Justin was crying and his mother was trying to get him to let go assuring him that she would catch him while Dudley and Edward looked on. But you could only hold on for so long and sweaty hands made it more difficult. Soon he was dropping not of his own accord, but before he had time to scream or realize what had happened, Justin found himself clutched in his mother's arms. "Can't breathe!"

Of course after reassured herself that her son was alright she let into him about how dangerous it was and what was he thinking? Of course this led to tears all around and Dudley to guiltily admit it was his fault. After a time out with their noses against a wall, they sulkily cleaned up the mess they made while the woman remade her son's bed. She kept an eagle eye on them after that. Despite that, the boys had plenty of fun and were behaved enough that Mrs. Finch-Fletchley didn't ask that the boys not return when the Dursleys had come to pick them up on sunday.

That night though was a trial as Justin's mom didn't have the same routine as the Dursleys did when it came to bedtime procedure. While it was a bit of the same after dinner, while Dudley and Edward usually weren't allowed fluids, Justin wasn't so restricted. They had set up their sleeping bags earlier and both boys had brought along their night time training pants. Both boys were pretty much potty trained for the day unless they were on a long car ride in which case they would wear pull ups. Justin had plastic underneath his sheets. Another difference was after they were read a story to help them go to sleep, there was no being woke up to go to the toilet. Their morning routine was thrown off too. Dudley was a bit cranky as was Edward who didn't like waking up wet. Mrs. Finch-Fletchley hadn't known what to do about baths and rather than have three of them, she lumped them all into the tub at the same time. Something neither Edward or Dudley appreciated.

It wasn't that they were strangers to having baths together, but as of lately they had been bathing at different times depending on the day. While two in the tub could sometimes be fun when they played together with the toys in their allotted time before they told it was time to get out; three was a bit crowded. Or at least it seemed to be for the boys but they didn't say anything and Dudley liked the detached shower hose that the Finch-Fletchley's had. He'd gotten used to showers when he went swimming. The only downside to showers he didn't like was that he couldn't play with bubbles or toys. Edward wasn't quite sure what to make of it at first being rained on inside but decided it was okay since it meant he got cleaner faster and was able to get to playing quicker. Justin was thrilled to have playmates although he wasn't used to sharing his toys in the tub. When it got to the point where the boys were more nudging each other and kicking to try and get more space from crowding and sloshing water over the rim of the tub, it was time to get out.

Dudley had a temper tantrum as did Edward who protested and cried when Mrs. Finch-Fletchley tried to put pull ups on the boys for the day time. Both insisted they were big boys and "I can use th' potty!" The Finch-Fletchley's when accepting to take the boys for the weekend had forgotten to ask about them being potty trained and if they still needed pull ups or not. It had been obvious that they had needed them at night and Mrs. Finch-Fletchley had laid a plastic sheet under the sleeping bags 'just in case'. She hadn't wanted to have to clean and wash the boys if they had any daytime accidents or if they did and ran out of clothes. While the Dursleys had left the number to the hotel they were staying at to be contacted in case of emergencies, Mrs. Finch-Flethley didn't believe that asking about the boys' bathroom habits could be called such.

"Please, just for today?" She tried to reason with them.

"No!" Was Dudley's response while Edward still had tears in his eyes. Then in child logic of she can't make me if she can't find me, they ran and hid from her. Justin thought it was a game and had joined in not realizing that it would cause his mother frustration. Mr. Finch-Fletchley was both annoyed as well as amused. Something every parent could relate to, having to fight off the smile when they were trying to lecture their child and not show how funny they found their behavior. In the end they finally found two of the three boys when Mr. Finch-Fletchley had told them if they didn't come out by the count of 10 they would be in trouble. Justin had been the first to make a beeline for his father knowing that tone of his father's voice. Edward was the second to appear around the five count mark and Dudley had been the last only coming out just as Mr. Finch-Fletchley said, "10," in a dangerous voice.

"What is the problem?" Holding up a hand when there was three young voices going at once, he cut in going, "Eh ah! Justin?" He asked his son knowing the boy would know better than to lie to him, not quite sure how the other two would react to someone else of authority.

Edward played with the hem of his shirt and looked down not meeting the man's eyes while Dudley had his arms crossed stubbornly over his chest with a sulky glare. Justin fidgeted but dutifully replied, "Ned and Dudley don't wanna wear pull ups. Mummy says they have to."

Turning to the other two who were half dressed since they each had been pulling on their own t-shirts while Justin had been getting helped with his buttons when they were informed of what their undergarments would be. They had already put on their underpants and had rebelled at having to take them off to wear something else they only wore at night.

"Dudley? Edward?"

"Don't want to!" Dudley petulantly stated once again without elaboration.

The man sighed and looked to the last boy who looked near tears again as he softly stated, "'M a big boy. I can use th' potty."

He'd already been teased a little while his classmates got used to him and him peeing his pants had been one of the things they would taunt him about. Edward hadn't had an accident but that didn't stop them. They had stopped when they realized that he knew when he had to use the toilet by himself. The only thing he had needed help on was using scissors in class. Then it eased even more when some of the children had even decided they liked Edward and became friends with him bonding over soccer and Blue Peter.

"So is Justin, he can use the toilet too. This is just in case. Don't your parents have you put one on sometimes?"

Both boys nodded reluctantly. It was Edward who replied, "When we drive in the car." Or when they were taking public transport when they went to London. Wiping his eyes he asked, "We going for a ride?"

It seemed that yes, they were. Mrs. Finch-Fletchley thought it would be best if they took the boys out rather than keeping them cooped up. She didn't want to imagine what they could get up to with the whole house as their playground for the whole day. The boys were still a bit reticent about having to put on pull ups but eventually capitulated. It became forgotten in the excitement of going somewhere despite the cold weather. The boys had fun at the park they were taken to and had played with some of the other children there. Soon they were roped into a game of pirates, then robbers, and soon it was time for lunch and a potty break. They ate lunch at a cafe which was another wonder to both Dudley and Edward who were used to eating take away and restaurants as treats for special occasions.

After they ate they played some more then went home. The boys watched a little bit of television but the adults limited that and had shooed them off to Justin's room. There weren't any more altercations until it was time for their bath and they finally caved and allowed the boys to have them separately. Sunday morning there had been no fits nor had Mrs. Finch-Fletchley try to force the boys into pull ups. Unsure when the Dursleys would come, they stuck close to home and made sure that their things were packed by lunch. It was around afternoon tea that they had come and apologized for being late hoping the boys hadn't been a handful. The Finch-Fletchley's assured them they were fine and Justin had a grand time having his friends over.

When asked how their weekend was, both Dudley and Edward excitedly chattered away to them as they were being led to the car. The boys were soon asleep almost as soon as they were placed in their car seats for home. They'd had a very eventful weekend for their first time away from their family for so long. The Dursley's had wanted to extend their mini-vacation as long as they could without being rude so had left during the afternoon.

They had enjoyed having the weekend without two four year olds or worrying about making sure that Edward did his homework or that Dudley was doing his reading practices. No temper tantrums or making sure the boys were in bed and not playing with their toys or sneaking down for a snack. No having to make sure the boys were bathed in the morning if they wet the bed and rousing them at night for a trip to the potty. It had also been about five years since they'd had any sort of privacy and not had to worry about little ears about. Nor had they had to contend with the boys popping up unexpectedly when they shouldn't be or wanting to know what they were always doing. It was very refreshing for Vernon and Petunia. Later when they spoke to their friends (separately of course) about it, both parties had told the Dursleys that perhaps they should endeavor to make it a habitual thing every so often or even once a year. They didn't have to go anywhere either, just a staycation where they stayed at home but sent the boys off for a weekend. It had its merits and the Dursleys discussed doing such a thing as the boys hadn't been the worse for ware and had enjoyed sleeping over at a friend's house.

AN: Sorry the chapter is short. Next one will be longer. There has just been lots of stuff going on at home and its been stressful. In short I feel like a chicken with its head cut off. As always, thank you for reading and apologies for any mistakes. Creative criticism welcomed ^_^